Verbum

Blogworks™

2007-02-07T18:25:00.000-08:00

Visit my new blog here

Farmers and blogs

2007-02-07T18:21:00.000-08:00

Farmers and blogs...

Read story here.

Read Story: You Tube plans to pay users

2007-02-07T18:17:00.000-08:00

You Tube has announced that it plans to pay users who produce and upload content on it's site.

Read story here...

Guru Yoga

2007-01-28T09:43:00.000-08:00

Guru Yoga: Read the post here.

Mission Possible

2007-01-25T09:45:00.000-08:00

Mission Possible: Read here

Invitation

2007-01-24T09:47:00.000-08:00

Invitation: Read here.

Read : Overheard 1

2007-01-22T08:12:00.000-08:00

Is it a case of dumbing down of news or dumb news? Or both? The media has been working overtime since Ms. A and Mr. A of the B Family announced their plans to marry and I am told...

Continue reading "Overheard 1" »

Credibility & others...

2007-01-18T07:58:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I wrote a concerted post and though I really want to sit and write, I think that will only happen next week. Meanwhile...

A text message from a friend Sunday evening prompted me to switch on 'We the People' on NDTV. Blogs & Social Media were being discussed and while I only caught bits, I think most of the conversation revolved around what's already been said/ written on other fora: blogs & social media can be misused/ freedom of speech/ who is liable and so on. Barkha Dutt had also written on this subject in HT earlier. Some of this perhaps originates from personal slander and abuse that many amongst the media fraternity have been victims of, on an anonymous blog (now dormant)...

Continue reading at www.blogworks.in/blog:

Read at BlogWorks.in : Time 2.0

2007-01-10T21:34:00.000-08:00

Time(s) surely (are) is changing. Time.com moved to a new Web 2.0 format this week...

Acknowledging the new role that media is expected to play, Time.com has embraced news created by blogs and other major newspapers from across the world to feature 'THE AG - What's the news today!'

Continue reading...

India Online - 2007

2007-01-06T01:32:00.000-08:00

It has been a busy start to the year and even as the 'Cool List of 2006' post remains pending still, I have been thinking about what possible trends/ consolidation to expect online/ on the Indian blogosphere this year:

1. Year before last a client of mine was disapproving of my team's effort to get her brand visibility online. She thought it was 'easy' to get featured online and therefore didn’t count for much. I was quite amused by the reaction, as my own online experience had assured me of the medium’s power - my online writings have always been seen by more people; commented upon by more people; they stay around longer; can be linked; emailed... I can carry on. Coupled with the 'ease' of web 2.0, where I can do anything myself; put up anything on You Tube or Digg the power multiples, making the world truly flat. You are as good, as you really are! I think the online medium has arrived and will gain ground rapidly.

2. When we launched BlogWorks.in last week with the Blog the Talk series, IMPACT weekly agreed to carry the content in a 2 part series. We were able to reach an entirely different community of readers through the exercise and the talk was read by a much larger audience, in addition to those who were already online . I like this marriage of mainstream with blogs. As blogs produce more and more compelling content, the trend is going to gain ground.

Continue reading this post...

Navy Adventure at South Pole!!

2006-12-29T03:19:00.000-08:00

The Indian Navy Adventure Team is at it again. Did you know that the Navy's Adventure Teams also climbs mountains, goes trekking and conquers the skies... among other things? I didn’t! Not until a few years ago! Read on..

It is not for nothing that they call themselves Mavericks. Led by Cdr. Satyabrata Dam, a three member team from the Indian Navy – Vikas Kumar and Rakesh Kumar being the other two - successfully completed their ski traverse to the Geographic South Pole yesterday, making them the first team to have done so and also among those very few who have done two of the three poles. Cheers!

It was in 2004 that I first got exposed to the Indian Navy’s Adventure Cell -actually- Directorate of Adventure, Physical and Sports Activities (DAPSA)-, which under the stewardship of Commodore Bajwa (now retired) then summited Mt. Everest. I and my team were leading the communication initiative for the project along with Captain Sameer, who was managing the project cell. It was undoubtedly among the most memorable assignments that I have handled.

And the joys of technology – the last time around we had we had one of the team member’s speak with the media from the base camp. This time I got the news from a friend whom Satya called from the Pole yesterday, to inform her of the successful culmination.

Obviously it wasn’t easy – it took the team 2 weeks to traverse the 250 kms distanc(starting from 88º South), battling difficult weather conditions, to finally reach the Amundsen-Scott Base located on 90º South). The Indian flag is flying high!

Want to know more? Here you go: www.nausenaadventures.com

Meanwhile, I still await Sameer keeping his promise of inviting me for the Sky Jump -next time we meet, he'd said!

Blog the Talk - Impact of blogs and social on business & marketing in India!

2006-12-25T20:44:00.000-08:00

The launch of www.blogworks.in is a significant milestone in the ‘blogs for business’ journey that I embarked upon a couple of years ago – thanks to Prema ,Kishore and Guru (who has also designed blogworks.in and the blogworks blog). I wanted the launch of Blog\Works™ to reflect the collaborative power that the Internet, and more significantly blogs - as the new flag-bearers of the Internet - empower us with. Blog\Works™ - Blog the Talk discussion series was thus conceived and will feature the best of learning from the blogosphere and otherwise, through panel discussions, talks and one-on-ones – mostly conducted online.

Edition 1 discusses the Impact of blogging and social media on Indian business and marketing. It was remarkable that each participant, from the heavy-weight (figuratively speaking) panel, confirmed within an ‘Aye’, within hours of my writing to them. Thanks all. The entire discussion happened over an internet messenger – apt, wouldn’t you agree? – both, the message and the method. Our panelists -in no order of preference! :) -

Toby Bloomberg: "A real live blogger", "Business blog evangelist" that's what people have called Toby. Toby is president of a strategic and social media consultancy based in the U.S. She has been a real live blogger since the spring of 2004 when she launched Diva Marketing Blog. As one of the most recognised consultants in this space, Toby's passion now is helping organizations navigate the blogosphere and developing social media/blog strategies that support their business goals. Toby is based out of Atlanta, USA

Govindraj Ethiraj: Journalist-writer, a keen watcher of the social media and technology space, Govind is the New Media Editor for Business-Standard. A keen blogger, he writes a popular blog at Dateline Bombay. Govind is based out of Mumbai, INDIA

Anurag Batra: A dear friend, Anurag is the Editor in Chief & Managing Director of the exchange4media Group - a special interest publishing company which publishes five titles including three titles in advertising, marketing and media domain- Exchange4Media.com , PITCH , Impact and two consumer titles Franchise Plus and Realty Plus . Anurag is based out of New Delhi, INDIA

Yours truly moderated the discussion. I too am based out of New Delhi, INDIA.

Without any further ado, edition 1 of Blog the Talk. Cheers!

Cool Tools 2006 - Slideshare

2006-12-20T05:12:00.000-08:00

As 2006 nears closure the mandatory countdowns and 'best of' have already begun - I too would like to remember the 'best of', but I don't want to think of macro events, I would like to think of tools, books, activities that made a difference to my life this year.

Let's begin with a 'tool':

"You Tube for powerpoint" - for me, the beauty of Slideshare is in its simplicity. After years of struggle to reach across presentations in ppt, acrobat and whatever formats, this one enabled me to, by allowing me to simply 'upload and share' - simple as that. Once can also embed in your blog or share a link etc.

There are that they could do better, of course, but I can see that they are working on them - they are fairly small and therefore reachable - you leave a message on their site, they bring about change.

To me, as an executive, the value of this tool even surpasses that of You Tube (not to be confused with the much larger impact that You Tube indeed has. ). It's amazing to see the different uses it is being put to. Sample this:

This shouldn't be very difficult - go ahead, do it!

2006-12-19T08:20:00.000-08:00

I normally don't write about 'issues' as I don't understand the intricacies well enough, but I got this on a forward from Rohini and decided to put it here:

Dear friends,

Urmila died.. and you are still holding your old woolens, blankets & shawls in your Almirah?

Don't ask me who was Urmila ? Thousands of Urmilas die every year because of cold. VASTRADAAN, our nationwide movement is primarily about making this basic need of clothing a matter of concern. Go to the best development sector websites or pick up any funding agencies brochures and you will find a range of issues right from domestic violence to global warming.Unfortunately clothing is never there in this list. Thus our task is to first draw attention to this issue.As a part of VASTRADAAN, we have been highlighting winters as an annual disaster for countless people who do not have enough to cover themselves. We are motivating people for our annual campaign RAHAT-WINTERS.

Please contribute as much as you can..

Tagged!

2006-12-16T03:00:00.000-08:00

It's Friday Fun at Toby's Diva Marketing Blog and she's tagged me to join in. The theme being "What 5 Things You Don't Know About Me."

Now, let me think:

My best soccer kick came in a classroom (just before Mexico '86). I was in class 11 - the whole school heard the window pane shatter
I like imperfect noses (on women :) )
As a child (6 years old perhaps), I wouldn't drink water until I had ascertained that the water was 'chilled' to my satisfaction and I would do this by putting the tumbler to my cheek (emulating the little boy on the Kwality ice-cream packs/ ads, who did the same with an ice lolly). Very often, the tumbler would be returned many times before I was satisfied with the results, driving my mom and uncles mad - wouldn't dare try with my dad then :).
My favourite non-commercial fragrance is simple sandalwood oil - dab on a little to get your very own 'unique' signature
I haven't read ANY of the classics that EVERYONE is expected to read.

Toby, this is fun. Thanks.

Tagged are you: Amita; Rekha; Nikhil; Aishwarya; Govind; Rajaram

Of customers-unhappy ( and happy?)

2006-12-11T21:34:00.000-08:00

Earlier this morning, I was reading this article by Govind, most likely inspired by an experience that he had recently, and decided to punch in a post, mostly as a 'notes to myself' reminder, about very logical behaviour by consumers (including myself), the understanding of which marketers (including myself again) perhaps find so elusive that we spend a considerable amount of time, effort, money on paid research, rather than just closely observe ourselves and our surroundings:

Customer expectations are Dynamic

One of the young executives in my previous office was disappointed that his client score on the service quality index was stagnant for the last 2 quarters, where the team had consistently delivered better results. Smiling, my CEO explained to him that having delivered excellent service in the past, the team will now need to surpass that as the client expectations too had kept pace - the existing high service having become just STANDARD
Sometimes, the score can actually go retrograde for seemingly vague reasons - I found the customer relations team of my credit card company to be consistently exceeding my expectations, this continued for about a year or so. One day, delighted, I decided to speak with the floor manager and asked him who I could write to/ speak with, to communicate my feedback and congratulate? Obviously happy (how many happy customers actually call?), he asked me to be on the phone for a minute and managed to get the head of customer service to speak with me. The gentleman too was very pleased to learn that his team had done well and gave me his email id, upon asking. I told him that I would write the team a letter of praise - I did. I never got a reply or an acknowledgment from him. From a score of 10:10, I brought them down to 9:10.

Right now of course, they have earned my huge displeasure, for some other reasons.

As you gain height, the climb become Steeper

In one of my previous assignments we found that real journey had just begun, as we touched guest satisfaction of 90% - moving from 80% to 85% was a breeze; the jump from 85%- 90% took twice as long. To wow a customer is not that easy...

Unhappy customers need to be recovered Quickly

Will Govind fly the same airline again, by choice? That would also depend on what Jet did to control damage

At my aforementioned place of work, in hospitality, based on a daily audit of customer feedback forms, the head of quality would personally call up all cases of critically dissatisfied guests, the very next morning and offer apologies and corrective measures taken by the organisation. Remaining complaints would be mailed a letter, within 24 hours of feedback received, informing guests corrective measures taken
I rarely mention brands by name, but I think I need to mention my experience with Airtel and how I think they managed to retain me as a customer - this was a few years ago- I was 'furious' with the atrocious quality of connectivity, and handling customer care executives that Airtel offered. The list of complaints just kept piling. One day, simply livid, I somehow managed to get the head of customer care on the phone - we spoke for about an hour. Not just did she listen to me patiently, she made notes, thanked me for the feedback, gave me her personal hand-phone number, in case required for any future assistance and THEN, in about two weeks time, went on to actually execute many of the suggestions I had offered (a significant one, to protect user interest, was my request to display 98 100 98100 (instead of private/ blank/ etc) when a call actually emerged from their network (I had just had an experience, at that time, of someone trying to derive personal information, using a number that proved to be unreachable upon trying to call back). I called the lady on the handphone number she had given me, expressed my thanks, but she thanked me again in turn. I continue to be with Airtel - the general service of course is much better and so is the quality of customer care executives (though I wish they would quit reading the entire 1 minute goodbye spiel: "Thanks for calling customer care. Is there anything else I call help you with? I hope you have a pleasant evening!" even as I am saying...I have gotta ruuunnnn.

Social Media Press Release Templates

2006-12-09T09:19:00.000-08:00

The world has moved on. From just a checklist that needed a communication to be evaluated on whether it covered '5 Ws and the H', the very dynamics of crafting a media release have changed in the last few years. Not just is it pertinent to create specific media messages for specific audience, emergent media has brought about the need for new formats in which we need to deliver media material, say the press release. The importance and value of Hyperlinks, Tags, Social Bookmarking, User Vo te on Content, for online content to be found through search and otherwise, has been understood.

Enabling the public relations professional now, are the 'social media press release' templates, which make the task of crafting messages for the online, and particularly social, media. I discovered about a couple of the new options, here.

Check these out:

PRX Builder
(Free to use - go register)

Edelman has its Story Crafter, but presumably only for its client - differentiator when there are free versions available? But then I haven't obviously used the service to be able to comment. This is what you see:

Go craft your release.

Compelling - Community!

2006-12-04T04:30:00.000-08:00

I was with a client yesterday, sharing the idea of a community concept on the blogosphere, and we were discussing pros and cons about a marketer's participation in a 'community' concept, over limiting the presence to just a blog 'owned' by the marketer.

There are, in my opinion, a couple of compelling reasons, favouring the community logic:

The first, is the simple concept of 'you scratch my back, I will scratch yours' - media is becoming prohibitively expensive and as against spending precious dollars promoting just your property, marketers stand to gain from a collaborative effort - everyone benefits, more.

Second, the community usually sees bigger participation of/from users, than what an individual brand may be able to garner, as it caters to many different needs, tastes etc.

Third, analytics - this is the decisive reason in my opinion - consider this...

I write about FM/ Radio quite often on my blog and at this moment 8 of the 9 FM stations, except Fever 104 (and that got mentioned just now, so all 9) feature on my blog. Given that I sometimes feature high on FM related searches, many of these queries land on my blog.

Now using simple tools, I can tell you which one among these is the most searched radio channel; where are these searches originating from and much more. This is valuable information for a marketer. Possible because ALL stations are mentioned on my blog. The same rule applies to a community blog - you can learn much more about your competitors, by being in a community. Simple!

Listening? Not yet!

2006-11-30T10:57:00.000-08:00

It would seem that most Indian marketers choose to simply hide behind the reasoning that "Volumes don't justify," for not acting on customer feedback:

After years of leaving feedback after feedback, I still cannot get a shirt with sleeves in length that fits me
After years of leaving feedback after feedback, I still cannot get trousers in waist size 33"
Last winter, I couldn't find a pullover in ANY Indian brand that was less wide at the wais t, than at the chest - they seem to only be designing for the unfit male - I had to finally settle for a foreign label that cost me a bomb. Shame I think.

This one beats me:

After years of feedback, I still cannot get a coffee bar to serve me soup (even a pour hot water in cup, over a sachet 'maggie' variety, sold at a premium over listed price?) as they are a 'coffee bar', then why serve tea and assortment of other drinks? Simple logic that every time a guest wants to have something liquid, it doesn't necessarily have to be 'sweet' doesn't seem to cut ice.

To be continued???

2006-11-28T20:52:00.000-08:00

You see I am no bar star, and it turned out to be a bad idea to have hit the pub Sunday. It was a bad case of weekend lag when I woke up - I was going to be late - quickly showered and rushed out - there wasn't even time to stuff breakfast. R was to be collected at 10, but the gramps champ ahead of me had other plans, it seemed. He was driving at 20 miles/ hour, obviously uninterested in the Monday morning chaos around him.

R, a compulsive shopper, and otherwise a definitive catch and release (2) artiste, had decided to catch the doorbuster sale early and I was to play driver. So there I was, attempting to drive from my downtown apartment to her rather yupscale neighborhood, in what was certainly a CLM, but refusing R is not an option, really.

As R got busy Poppin' Hundies, I headed to the food court. I hadn't eaten in 15 hours and behaved like a true tryptophanatic - luckily I wearing my Thanksgiving pants. I took out the crackberry from my pocket - a guy's got to check his mail - yelled at the Ringtone DJ sitting on the table across, asking him to shut-up. There were over a hundred mails waiting a reply - trying to be a Super Mario means you pay the price - can't even have breakfast in peace anymore.

To be continued...???

So, what's come over me today? Well, a couple of months ago I discovered www.urbandictionary.com - the site is, as you can tell, a dictionary of 'slang' - created by users themselves. I get a daily word in my inbox, usually quite amusing and I find the creative usage of words quite fascinating. The piece above has just been weaved together using words from the daily pop-ins', pretty much in the same sequence as they appeared in my mail, in a reverse chronological manner.

So, it’s not really a story but I will continue, if you like. Let me know.

Go see some breathtaking work!

2006-11-25T20:48:00.000-08:00

(click pic to enlarge)

This panorama print ( 6.0' x 1.0' approx), which greets guests home, was gifted to me by my friend Amit Pasricha a few years ago, and has always been a conversation piece.

However, greedy me is now eyeing some of his new work which has evolved into something truly unique...(click pic to enlarge)

(click pic to enlarge)

People; landscapes; movement: breathtaking!

Go see!

Loyal Customer?

2006-11-24T18:22:00.000-08:00

I find it funny…

How can the marketer 'own' the customer? Why should the customer be referred to as 'loyal'? "You are our loyal customer, you deserve to be rewarded," we say. Isn’t it derogatory to the customer? Shouldn’t the marketer be loyal instead, and hopefully the customer would reward by buying or if are really lucky, continue to buy and endorse to others.

This large multi-national bank that held my salary account, had extended me a huge overdraft facility, but then, I moved out of my job - the f & f settlement was in process and the cheque was expected any moment. In the interim, I decided to use the overdraft facility and a crucial Service Tax cheque, with last date for payment due, was in the queue.

Calling to enquire about receipt of my f & f cheque, I was informed that I was short of funds and the pending cheque would be rejected. The overdraft had been reduced by half. It took half-a-day of requests, follow-ups etc. to get the bank to just HOLD the cheque for another day. My expected f & f cheque arrived the same day, bringing a pile of money and the cheque was cleared.

Of course, it is the bank’s money and they don’t owe me anything to be so generous as to clear the cheque with no funds in the bank, but I think they owed it to me that someone wrote to me/ spoke with me just to keep me informed that they had reduced my overdraft limit.

I settled my account with the bank, the same day, and moved the remainder of my money to another bank. I am not likely to bank with them again – too tiny to matter? Of course, but it is those small-subtle things that make a customer stay.

I don’t know if he would agree that this episode could be called breach of loyalty at all, but to still borrow his words - Ashwani may have said something like this “The cup was great, but the coffee was cold”. Doesn’t help.

The hospitality business has great learnings to offer I think:

You are as good as my last experience with you – you may have served me a agreat meal yesterday, but today the soup sucks and I think you are no good. Consistency matters.
Wow, the food is great but why is the AC so cold (it could also be “Why is it so warm?”
Wow, perfect food, perfect service… but hey, there’s no soap in the loo?
Great view from the room, nice bed and room service is great, but hey, why must I suffer the noise if the gentleman next door has a bad case of a Delhi Belly?

The hospitality business appreciates a smile from a guest - they know that they must have done something right to earn it.

I also think they understand the value of surprise:

When I go to a restaurant, I expect great food; great service; great ambience – that’s what I have paid for. Then one day, the chef walks out of the kitchen, surprises me by greeting me by name and offers to prepare anything special – doesn’t matter if it is not in the menu. Ummm - the meal was just perfect; dessert and coffee follow (the coffee has been specially brewed by her). The cheque doesn’t cover dessert and coffee – “You have our guest many times, the dessert is on the house today. Hope you enjoyed your meal”.

Accumulated reward points, to be redeemed at milestones (only to find that the item you received costs half the ascribed value) are not a patch.

excited

2006-11-23T10:07:00.000-08:00

As blogworks.in gets ready to go up (hopefully 1st week of Dec), I am naturally excited by the new possibilities that it brings along. Last 2 days have been terribly exciting as we -just- concluded the first in the series of many panel discussions that I hope to feature on my new business blog.

1st episode of 'Blog the Talk' features one of best recognised blogging consultant from the US, a very senior journalist - a keen watcher of the new media space, a very dear media publisher friend of mine and yours truly moderating.

Wait a while to read the 'very insightful' talk, but I would like to share the 'series logo' with you.

Tell me if you like it, I do! :)

The King is Dead. Long live the King.

2006-11-19T19:14:00.000-08:00

I quite like Pierce Brosnan - enjoyed him as Bond and otherwise- but yesterday, watching Casino Royale, I didn't miss him one bit: Daniel Craig fills the slot quite neatly - may I dare say, perhaps even better than Brosnan.

Bond itself is changing, like a friend put it, "He is much more real, more vulnerable. When he gets hit, he gets cuts on his face".

Anyway, it is non-stop action, stunning special effects et al, but my take-away from the movie was this chase sequence towards the beginning...

Who is this guy? I have not seen anything like this, in a long time!

See trailer here! Doesn't do justice to the movie though.

Official blog.

Needlessly...

2006-11-16T18:56:00.000-08:00

I think I was needlessly worried when I wrote this post about Second Life. It just amuses me now - read this AdRants post, linking us to this :).