Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Digital Consumer Engagement

Prior to the advent of Digital era, marketing was done through Traditional Media (TV, Radio, Print Media, and Out of Home) with focus on one way communication, where Brands broadcast their messages to consumers with not much quantifiable insights in return.

In this Digital era, we see that Brands are embracing all online resources to market their products & services. All brands want to rank higher in the evoked set of consumers. So, they use various social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter etc. These channels helps brand to create a buzz about their product, promote themselves, and also get some insights about visitor, no. of likes/followers etc.

But that’s not enough and few key questions that brands need to answer are:

1.       Are they creating a deeper meaningful relationship with consumers by engaging with them regularly without making consumers feel overwhelmed with plethora of information?

Does Brand involve consumers when they build any product? Do they take feedback from their customers about their products/services? Does Brand incorporate these feedback and inform customers about the same to make him/her opinion feel valued? Does a Brand know threshold level when consumers start ignoring their messages, just because Brands have started dumping loads of information to consumers? Do they know the optimum frequency to engage with consumers?

Brands should use channels which can help them have two way communication with consumers, so that they can interact and have meaningful conversations rather than just broadcast messages.

2.       Are they using channels which could maximize “Brand Influence”?

“Brand Influence” is mainly about two things. Firstly, “Intensity”, which signifies how involved an audience is when they interact with Brands. Secondly, “Proximity”, which tells how much consumers trust the channel through which they receive Brand messages. There could be various channels through which Brand can reach out to consumers, e.g. Blog posts, online videos, Free Product Samples, Online suggestion from Peers, TV/Magazine Ads, Email, Inviting consumers for a house party etc.

Research has suggested that consumers are mostly influenced when they feel involved with the Brand & trust the channel which convey Brand messages. So, when consumers receive free product samples, participate in a house party sponsored by the Brand, or get feedback from their friends/peers about the brand, they get more influenced by the Brand.

So, if a Brand wants to have stronger influence, they should engage with consumers using these type of engagements rather than just Traditional Media Ads.

3.       Are they able to identify and reward “Brand Advocates” to make them feel valued?
      
      Is a Brand aware that how many people would vouch for their brand if something negative is told about them in the market? A Brand would definitely want a community of these “Brand Advocates”, which they don’t have access to now. They might have access to “Influencers”, which is arrived by knowing no. of friends/followers, reach, and volume of interactions of a person on various social networks.
     
      An influencer can help Brand in creating social chatter, whose impact is often short term. Brands will have to reward influencers enough to do various activities. While “Brand Advocates” are highly satisfied customers who are very likely to recommend the brand to their friends. They have genuine passion for the brand and can even promote brands without any incentives.
     
      So, in long term it will help Brands to know their Advocates whom they can use as sustainable extended Marketing Arm.

Going forward, every Brand who want to win hearts and pocket share of consumers will have to answer these questions and the answers to above questions should definitely be a “YES” J

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Card Protection Services in India:Competiton will bring out the best


In my last blog, I wrote about Card protection services in India. You read that there could be an interesting competition between CPP Card services & One Assist in future. In this blog, I am going to write about what I have monitored within few days. But first, let me give a brief about these companies.

CPP India is a part of CPP Group Plc, which is headquartered in UK. CPP India started in 2008 to cater assistance services to Indian consumers. This company is spread across entire world. Below is their revenue & operating income across various regions:

 
North America
Southern Europe & Latin America
Northern Europe
Asia Pacific
Revenue (in million pounds)
45.8
44.4
249.5
6.5
Operating Profit (Loss) (in million pounds)
6.9
10.6
33.6
(2.2)

 
From above table, you could see that CPP is currently having losses in Asia Pacific Region. This region covers countries like India, Singapore, Malaysia, and China.

One Assist has been started by two Indians, who saw an opportunity in assistance services market in India. It is funded by Sequoia Capital India & Lightspeed Venture, who invested $3.5 M.

The question is why these companies think that India could be a profitable destination. First reason is that India is a developing country, which is in process of becoming a developed nation. In this process, people of this country might start relying heavily on plastic cards for payment as it is the case with people of developed nations. In India, it is still not the dominant means of payment, people of this country have just started relying on plastic cards. So, it is expected that there could be modest growth in demand of financial cards in India.

Secondly, this market is still in very nascent stage and a there is huge potential, provided Indian consumers are made aware of these services.

Now, here comes the interesting story of what I have noticed in past few days.
You would agree that face of any company is its website.
When I wrote my last article, I went through websites of both these companies and found out that while there is a provision to purchase products online in One Assist portal, but the same provision was not available in CPP India website. Also, the website of CPP didn’t look very promising. However, CPP Malaysia had option to purchase products online. I thought if CPP wants to do good business in Indian Market, then online purchase option needs to be given to consumers. To my surprise, when I saw CPP India website few days later on, it was given a complete face lift. There was an option to purchase their products online. They were also showcasing their tie ups with various banks. This was a great improvement in their website that I liked. But still there is a scope of improvement in their wbesite.

Later I called call center of both these companies to enquire about their products. I was greeted very politely by customer executives of both these companies. Both of these companies explained & offered me assistance services for cards. CPP said that they could get my PAN Card reissued (in case of loss/theft) without any extra charge, while they said they couldn’t provide replacement of driving license though. However, One Assist went one step ahead and said that they could provide DL & PAN card reissued (in case of loss/theft) without any extra charge. Also, they said One Assist could provide assistance services for smart phones too.
When I asked if I wish to purchase their products how I would be able to purchase it, below is the response from their Customer representatives:

CPP Call center executive:  We can help you with your purchase process and you will be able to complete your purchase on call itself. They asked me my credit card details & I said I don’t use credit cards; however I have a debit card. To this they said, we cannot process your debit cards on call. You will have to connect to your bank. I wondered whether they are aware of recently introduced debit card payment processing on their portal or not.

One Assist Call center executive: We can help you with your purchase process, but it can be done online. Here, they didn’t have any purchase process on call. When I asked I would like to do this purchase on call itself as I am not very comfortable with online payment. To this they replied, we have Cash or Cheque pick up service too. If you wish, I can help you with that.

Overall I felt that One Assist Call center executive was more aware of various processes and was able to influence me to purchase its product. CPP executive was also polite, but if he says that please contact your bank if you want to purchase through debit card, then of course they have lost one potential customer or they have not succeeded in promoting their company identity.

At this point in time, it is very important for these companies to enlighten Indian consumers about these services. The next important thing is to have as many payment channels available for consumers to complete their purchase process. Last but the most important point is to have an excellent service.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Card Protection Services India


India has been one of the world’s fastest growing economies with banking & financial services companies experiencing significant growth both in size & profitability. The number of credit cards in India has declined over few years and that of debit cards has grown. As of end March 2012, there were 17.65 million credit cards and 268 million debit cards in Indian market.

With these changes in card market size, there has been lot of pitfalls as incidents of fraud, card lost, and card stolen. Currently, the total industry lost, stolen & counterfeit card fraud is Rs. 13 crore.

From Sushmita Sen, Shriya Sharan to aam aadmi, there have been all sorts of victims. Everyday lot of people loses their wallet, debit card, credit card, pan card, loyalty cards, mobile, driving license etc. These cards could go in wrong hands and leave the owner distressed.

There has been lot of companies in developed economies which provide card protection services to people. All card protection companies help consumers block their cards by giving free call to customer service team.

 In India, banks started providing these services to consumers since end of 2008 using CPP Assistance Services,India.CPP has 30 years of experience in assistance services and is headquartered in United Kingdom.

Recently, Sequoia Capital India & Lightspeed Venture invested $3.5 M into Mumbai based OneAssist Consumer Solutions Pvt. Ltd. This company offers personalized mobile & financial security services via its various products Wallet Assist, Mobile Assist, Everyday assist and Trip Assist.

This market seems to be still in its early stage in India and mostly consumers from upper middle class & above will avail these services.

Success of these companies in Indian market will depend on how well they price their product, how many features they offer in their product, how well they educate consumers about these products, how easy they make purchase of their products and how well they service their customers. Moreover, it will also depend on the growth of plastic in the wallets of consumers.

CPP already have tied-up with most of the banks such as ICICI, HSBC, Citi Bank, SBI, Axis Bank etc. for various card protection memberships (Classic, Premium, and Platinum). Rates at which these banks & CPP provide these services:


CPP
HSBC
ICICI
Citi Bank
SBI
Axis
Classic






Single
1145
1287

1287
1145
1145
Joint
1745
1961

1961
1745
1745
Premium






Single
1495
1680
1495
1680
1495
1495
Joint
2245
2522
2245
2522
2245
2245
Platinum






Single
1745
1961

1961
1745
1745
Joint
2645
2972

2972
2645
2645


One Assist not only provides card protection service, but also others too as mentioned below:


Wallet Assist Power
Wallet Assist
Privilege
Mobile Assist
Power
Mobile Assist
Privilege
Everyday Assist Power
Trip Assist Power

Single
Joint
Single
Joint
Single
Joint
Single
Joint
Single
Joint
Single
Joint
One Assist
1099
1699
1599
2499
1099
N/A
1499
2499
2199
3299
599
899


It will be interesting to watch how these companies perform in Indian market.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Identity Theft : One of the fastest growing crimes of the century

Identity theft is a type of fraud in which someone else uses your personal identification details such as your name, credit/debit card no, pan card no., driving license no, or social security number. It is not something very new, but of course it is one of the fastest growing crimes of this century.
According to The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Identity theft topped the list of fraud complaints in 2011 in US. 70% of 1.8 million complaints filed were frauds related to Identity theft. But the actual incident could be more than 10 million.
According to Javelin Strategy, in 2011, identity theft increased by 13% with 11.6 million adults becoming victim of this. Moreover, increasing ubiquity of social media sites and smart phones has increased user risk. Consumers share a significant amount of personal information, which is required for identity authentication, over these websites. As far as mobiles are concerned, 32% save their login information on it, 62% don’t use a password on their screen, enabling others to access their information if the phone is lost.
According to Norton Cybercrime Report 2011 , globally 431 million adults experienced cybercrime in 2011 and more than 1 million plus adults became victims every day.
In India, recently there was a news regarding display of PAN card numbers on reservation charts. Passengers apprehended that these numbers could be misused by anyone “for benami transactions” after the implementation of Finance Act 2012.
In India, identity theft cases are rising with increasing adoption of the Internet. and smartphones. Identity theft is very easy in India and ignorance is the major cause. The question is “Can one completely prevent identity theft from occurring?” The answer is NO, especially if someone is determined to commit the crime. But one can minimize the risk of being ripped off by managing personal information with a greater awareness and with heightened sensitivity.