Price Comparison
Today, the intermediaries are getting to take on larger than life proportions themselves. In India, aggregators in the Travel & tourism space have got to be larger than expected – makemytrip, cleartrip, travelguru are examples. This may be seen as a harbinger of things to come in other categories as well in the coming future.
Rest assured, the fancy retail outlet that you have set up for your luxury brand at the vantage location on the High Street or at that latest Happening Mall downtown is going to have a new crop of consumers. No,, one is not saying that the consumer demographics have been mapped wrong. You are going to come across consumers who believe in the adage:
See Offline-Test Offline- Feel Offline- Compare Online-Buy Online or Offline.

What will this behavior leave your Store Manager or Franchisee to manage?

The new consumer spends hours online ( apart from doing it offline) hunting down the lowest fare for her Delhi-Montreal-Delhi trip, the best price for that new LG LCD television, the cheapest copy of Jeffrey Archer’s Prisoner of Birth or even the ticket to the Friday release of Hollywood.
The Shopzillas, Pricegrabbers,Shopping.coms Kelkoos, Froogles, Bechnas, and Roboshoppers of this world will instantly find consumers what has become known by terrified retailers as the ‘Internet Price’.

Brands will have to handle this scenario and come up with the Guarantees in the new world.

Best Price Guarantee

Price Comparison & Niche

When there’s mass, there’s going to be niche. Expect plenty of dedicated, one-category only price comparison sites, adding to full transparency.

Check out:
findstrollers.com and findbabyseats.com (baby strollers and seats)
gasbuddy.com (gasoline)
healthpricer.com and vimo.com (health)
lensprice.com and findcontactlenses.com (contact lenses)

Price Comparison & Forecasting

In today’s times of promotions and competition, consumers increasingly expect brands to pamper them with valuable offers, so as to be one up on other brands. This only helps promote services like forecasting!
It is fair to expect forecasting services like www.Farecast.com to pop-up. Billing itself as the first airfare prediction website, Farecast offers airfare predictions from over 75 US departure cities to top domestic destinations. Users can check if fares are rising or dropping,
and are provided with recommendations on when to buy.

In an amazingly transparent world, it is unlikely for a consumer to settle for anything substandard – unless by choice. It will not be by accident or lack of information, as in the past.
Changes in consumer behavior and technology all point toward an even more transparent
marketplace in the near future. Not to mention a more transparent society.

So ditch ‘discussions’ on whether this will impact your business or not, and get going.

Handling Negative Reviews – Some thoughts and tips:

• Start by analyzing the sales contribution already influenced by consumer reviews and recommendations. Is your business coming in from referrals primarily. How? Well… Ask your customers! Conduct Research. Do it Online if you do not have deep pockets for U&A research. If this percentage is high, this will give you good ammunition to convince Senior Management to come up with a Marketng Action Plan Pronto..

• Action points should be aimed at reducing the negative statements and increasing the positives. Simple as Saying Cheese. Negative reviews will disappear if you as a brand perform better, and, if something does go wrong, deal with it immediately. Most ‘bad’ reviews have to do with customers not being able to reach you or not getting problems addressed well and soon.
Positive reviews are most welcome. They would grow in volume more plentifully if you
i) are seen as doing better in response to negative reviews sent earlier , and
ii)provide pleased customers the means and platform to share their experiences. This platform can be your own site, or possibly through through syndication with third party review sites (like some independent hotels have started doing with TripAdvisor). There is nothing more pleasing to customers than being appreciates for their feedback. If consumers are going to post about their experiences anyway, there’s definitely merit in presenting these reviews (all of them!) on your own site.
At least this will give you a chance to immediately react, displaying your reaction (and how you solved an issue) for all to see.

• As regards Price Comparison, there is not way you can avoid this. The best solution to price comparison and Me-Too products is to differentiate your service or product uniquely. So Uniquely that you cannot be compared!!

A B2B company in the IT Remote Management services would willingly and callisthenically bend backward to reach out to the CIOs of those Fortune 50 customer base who has been elusive all along.

The Real Estate company wanting to market that luxury condominium in the city of Honolulu or Tashkent or Kiev or Madagascar or even Bhopal would aspire to market to those deep pocketed Investment Bankers looking for that quick deal ( no pun intended )

The Tourism Board of any Country would want to market its country, locales and cultural beauty to the prospects across the globe – with the sole desire and intention of garnering those big tourism dollars.

What is common to all the above scenarios?

Each of the concerned brand owners or company managers listed above would certainly try the tested waters over and over.
The Maxim being followed – If it aint broke, why fix it?
Hence, rest assured there would be the Front Page adverts, the Billboards on the Highway, the TV spots in the midst of the prime time clutter and of late, some enterprising daredevils would also venture into the brave new world of the web.
Depending on the thousands or millions of currency budgeted for marketing spends, the qauntum .and magnitude of the largesse varies.

There is another wave that has been rising over the virtual waters – on the blogsphere. Brands are being discussed, promoted and pilloried among this cult following.
Blog Postings are normally followed avidly among a close set of Blog followers.

Examples are galore in the web gallery that highlight the power of the Blogspace.

For instance, Guy Kawasaki was in Mumbai recently. The Emerging India Story has been written and talked about on all kinds of platforms and bourses over the last few years.

Be that as it may, images and perceptions are built and changed by influencers among their close circuit of followers. Guy Kawasaki only had to make a simple posting of his Mumbai Visit - to start a torrent of discussions on the City, its culture, its religion, its facilities, its roads, its marketing, its Dhobi Ghat.

Brands, organizations and even countries need to take a cue from this – to plan to manage and monitor their online reputations appropriately.

For those new to the blogosphere, here’s a good place to start …

Circa 1972
Bollywood has given us many scientific discoveries and hypotheses.
Good old fiery villain, Ajit, arguably had some amazing patent pending TORTURE TECHNIQUES up his villainous sleeve:

“JAAAANI – Voltage Badaaao-Currrrent Badaaao..Uska Resistance Kum Ho Jaayega”….
Even better technique:
“Usko Liquid Oxygen mein bundh kardo…..Liquid usko Jeeene Naheen Dega; Oxygen Usko marne Naheen Dega”

Circa 2008
In the light of this amazing history , the embracing of the new wave technologies by Bollywood is not surprising.
The active blogging by Big B and Small A are known to all.
The current activities being executed before the launch of a Bollywood film “PHOONK” by RGV is another fantastic case in point…..
This can be a case study of how to build the curiosity and community cascading effect for a brand.
Small but sure steps taken by RGV:

• Writing in his own blog for the rationale to make such a film – ( a scary spooky film)
• The Film Website ( www.phoonk.in) – designed and ready on the websphere well before the launch of the film
• The Website has teasers, picture galleries, videos of the film in the making.
• Smartly, the website also has features for trade enquiries like distribution, music rights etc
• Groups have been set up on Facebook and Orkut.. Highly active members are already building the buzz thru these groups.
• The website also has links to the Groups prominently placed on the homepage too. Fantastic idea to drive membership and awareness for the new groups.

RGV has even posted a challenge – asking anyone to watch the film alone in an empty theatre. Even before the launch of the film, a buzz has been created for the challenge- with many among the bold and beautiful coming forward to watch the film alone !!

I am no diehard fan of RGV – but would surely doff my hat to him for the smart manner of embracing the web medium to reach the audiences smartly.

Notwithstanding what FRIDAY has instore at the box office, RGV sure does pack a few spooky punches.

The website is truly interactive, simple and easy to navigate. It is transparent and straightforward with a minimum of navigation for the user. This site is in response to many NRIs requests and their search for a means that would emotionally connect them to loved ones in India.

The site with the suggestive tag, ‘Dil Se’ – allows NRIs to gift a Maruti car of their choice (be it model, colour or variant) to a person in India. The site allows the purchaser to pay for the gift on line and in three different modes’ Credit Card, Swift Money Transfer or instalments through Citibank.

The whole process is open and transparent to the buyer. From getting a quote, choosing the car, ordering a car, paying for the purchase to keeping track of their order. iridium Interactive ensured that integration of the website with that of credit card companies and the bank’s payment systems are completely hassle-free for the purchaser.

‘Besides providing a service and giving the affluent and well-intentioned NRI an outlet to demonstrate his affection for a loved one back in India, the Maruti website has increased customer loyalty and expanded the company’s branding efforts’, said Mr Manish Kumar, Delhi Practice Head, iridium Interactive. ‘The site has also created a brand new revenue stream for Maruti Udyog’, he added.