Product Pad

Product Pad has been shifted to http://productpad.in

My fixed line connection and internet conked in the Bangalore rains yesterday.

Called up Airtel Customer Care at 11:20 AM and they came and repaired it at 11:30 AM.

So Soon!

Have you experienced the past?

When the telephone connections in India was controlled by Govt and there was a monopoly.

Those were the days of endless queues for

- applying for a new connection
- getting the instrument
- submitting a telephone bill
- getting a telephone connection repaired

Compare it with the present

No Queues for any of the things above. and there are providers like Airtel who will repair within 10 minutes after making complaints.

Thank god as customers we have numerous choices for telephone services in India and when you have numerous choices then all all our choices will try to delight us in every possible way.

When there are lot of choices, then the winning products will be those products which are trying to delight customer in each and every possible interaction with a customer.

All brands vie for attention of consumers. One of the simplest and engaging ways to get attention is by forging connections to events that consumers are following avidly, which can be sports events like world cup or elections or festivals.

I liked the way in which Idea Cellular has connected itself with 26/11 using this advertisment of Abhishek Bachan.





26/11 is a very sensitive brand touch point. If a brand is being preceived as "milking 26/11 tragedy", may be it is the end of that brand life cycle.Idea has done it well. Why?

# They are going to donate a part of their revenue to Mumbai Police which seems to be a nice patriotic action

# They have integrated in some mice brand touch points in social media from a website, facebook group to Rediff Message boards

Idea is not the only brand that is trying to be associated with 26/11. However Idea seems to be the most effective one.

Pringoo - A popular website for ordering personalised T Shirt also had an innovative way to connect with customers using 26/11 as a touch point.

How it helped IKEA in Sweden ? Check it out

Good Products are all about creating Great Customer experiences while solving a consumer need.Good product organizations understand that their responsibility is to provide the consumers with something that is worth usable. It can be done at any point where a consumer interact with a product. Any successful product influence people through engaging, authentic experiences that render value. A ‘customer experience’ is then every unique point of interaction that a product makes with its customers, through every transaction, dialogue and visit. In Old Doordarshan days the only customer experience that I remember was a screen which said "Rukhavat Ke Liye Khed Hein" or "Sorry for the Interruption".

Consumers are not looking for any product that will satisfy their need in any possible manner, they are looking for a product that will satisfy their need in the best possible manner . A product manager should ensure that the product offers the best possible solution at least to one set of customers for their pain point . Especially in industries where product differentiation is low, a great customer experience can make all the difference in a sale situation.Good Customer experience will reflect directly on customer satisfaction, and ultimately, create a loyal group of customers who love your product.

How can you offer a good experience for a product that is in the coding factory instead of displaying a plan vanila under construction page?. There may be some customers who are visiting your site after getting to know about it through some source and you can always try to catch them and engage with the like how foostor has done it on their under construction homepage.

• Bluedart - Tells a customer that the delivery will be reliable and prompt
• Visa - Tell a customer that the payment is trusted and secure
• Careers - Click on the career page , gives an overview of a friendly team which looks inviting
• Customer Service - Promises that it will be friendly and if this website is the way to go by then the customer service may be rally friendly

and my favorite "Bole To, Apun ko Tumne Mamoo banaya" - Makes an instant connection with Indians.

Sometimes when I sit in discussions with people who have championed marketing in other industries I have found that it is difficult to make them understand the marketing strategy and tactics in new media. In most cases the marketing goal will be accurate, appropriate strategy will be defined but the execution and the tactics used goes horribly wrong since so many of them does not understand that new media is about interactive individualised marketing like this to create customer engagement and not about mass marketing that existed in the times of lalitaji and Vicco Vajdradanti.Marketing has become two-way, where you communicate something and then listen to customers and marketers these days interact with, and not interrupt, their customers.I found this diagramme at alterian website and I can't help but agree with most of the differences between the old and new marketerer.