With the pundits, government and people believing that the economy is on an upswing, there are some learning’s that the past year or so has provided.

1) Stay the course - It is extremely relevant to continue on the same course, adopted in the past year such as control of costs, evaluate each project, product before taking a plunge, in short not to get swayed by the hubris of good times.

2) Capitalize on the spurt of business opportunities - The idea is to explore different business opportunities that have come up or grown with things looking better.

3) Capitalize on market place opportunities - The past couple of years have shown a trend that besides the metros, different niches & markets have sprung up, which would only grow in the years and it’s important to capitalize before it becomes to expensive.

4) Focus on consistent awareness - A key area, be consistent in creating awareness of your brand, product, merchandise through the bad & good times.

5) Acknowledge potential increase in consumer’s knowledge & changes in shopping behavior - The past year or two has shown a consumer who is intelligent, gathering knowledge from multiple sources & looking for value and as a brand it is critical that this is kept in mind.

6) Emphasize authenticity, optimism & connection - Piggy back on the optimism wave connecting to your consumers, sharing the authenticity of your brand and value provided to them.

7) Maintain constant and consistent dialog with loyal consumers - These are the people who have carried you through the turbulent times and it is important to keep in touch with them, talk to them continuously and consistently.

Focus on developed brands - Do not get gungho about launching a slew of brands, focus on the developed brands for the immediate two quarters before introducing new ones.

The word luxury bandied around these days is a clear misnomer. What was Luxury then is a part of a good life now.

In fact the sooner brands clear the gross misconception that

- Luxury is only for the rich & famous older population
- Luxury must be unaffordable to be appealing
- My rich & famous will always love me & only my brand.

the faster they would grow and this is extremely valid in India. What was thought of as luxury is now Lifestyle & more importantly the numbers have undergone a meteoric rise in this segment.

I had earlier written about Dell here.

Exactly a year later, it stopped working a couple of days back 4th May 2010 to be precise. Since my wife has been using it for basic surfing, chatting, skype, I thought it strange; however the problem was diagnosed as the adapter not charging the battery correctly; the plug being lose; some issue with the motherboard on the 5th May 2010.

She lodged a complaint on 6th May 2010 at around 2 pm. They verified everything and assured her that it would be sorted out in the next 24 - 48 hours.

They walked in at 2.30 pm on 7th May 2010 and replaced the motherboard once again; changed the socket in the computer and gave a new adapter & walked away at 3.30 pm

I know, I know some people told me that with some brands you would not have this problem etc. etc. however my reasoning is simple:

1) For an additional 4000/- I got an onsite warranty in which the total changes would have ordinarily cost me 40,000/-
2) The time saving & customer service commitment which leads to peace of mind is worth it.
3) Having used other brands in the past & even currently, I still think DELL is VFM for product & service particularly for hard usage.

AND hence I see no reason to say that I would have no hesitation to recommend it all over again.

I have in the past written about Vodafone and my experiences here, here & here

It has been nearly a year after that, in the meantime I changed my handset twice over, finally settling for a BlackBerry Bold 9700, which entailed my going to the store, paying a year in advance, following up for nearly 48 hours and getting it activated.

During this time, Vodafone also made its presence on Twitter, where for nearly a month it got hammered for the EDGE services, since they had not intimated its customers about some hardware & systems upgrade.

In the past 4 months, I have had the experience of prompt service from them on the following aspects:

1) EDGE not being activated, had tweeted about it & in turn substantial people also joined in. Received a call from a young lady, who explained the problem and assured that it would be done by a time line which surprisingly they adhered to.

2) Once EDGE was activated, within a couple of days it stopped working, again tweeted about it, promptly someone from BlackBerry services replied with the problem & got Vodafone to call me. The same young lady provided an explanation and also assured me that I would not be charged for that month so effectively for my package now would be allowed 13 months. (I am yet to verify this, however, I have no complaints about such issues in the past & have found that they keep their word)

3) One month later, received a whopping bill, which charged me double, so back I tweeted about it, promptly the call came with reassurances that it would not happen and I could pay the correct amount; however a week later my ECS withdrew the entire amount & on tweeting the problem, the young lady called back with reassurances of my account being credited in the coming month’s bill etc.

Traveling, busy with work, I have decided to wait for the next month and verify this.

A lot of people have asked me why do I continue with Vodafone? Also told me that soon number portability shall come & then I can teach them a lesson.

My take is very simple:

a) At the end it’s a % game, losing customers is built in the business.
b) Who amongst all others is ready to guarantee that they shall provide better service?
c) I have been hearing Number Portability for the past 3 years & do not see it happening for maybe another year or so.

Yes, I have had problems & suppose would continue having them, but over the past couple of months their reaction albeit via twitter has been impressive & as far as I’m concerned as long as that continues I am happy with a known devil:)

CRM - Customer Relationship Management as it is called, though I prefer calling it Customer Retention Management.

It is the core component of effective brand visibility as well as resultant sales. Whilst, everyone jumps on the band wagon of CRM, they forget that concept needs to be tailored to their industry, brand, people which involves a fair amount of Personalization, Training and some Trend forecasting which should add some unique value to the brand.

The customer with variety of options has become quite fickle & loyalty is now at a premium.

It is quite interesting to see what companies have done in the recent past and how CRM is actually evolving rather than the same vanilla offering of card, points etc.

Shoppers Stop arguably has one of the best programs which they have invested a lot over the 10+ years.

Personally, I like the Future Group - Green Card - which offers instant gratification - 5 - 15% off on immediate purchase, no worries about collation of points etc. And mind you they offer this discount during their Sale time also.

Tata, Westside, Landmark et all offer the vanilla card calling it CRM but which is of no real use. You collect points and encash at their outlets, which is fine, but 1 point for Rs. 50/100 means spending a Lakh or more to get something worthwhile, but yes there are people who keep collecting these cards and then of course need a bigger wallet to carry all of them & then get a back ache because it digs into their rump.

However, there are some good samples of how some brands are changing rules of engagement; some of them

Brioni believes in intensive direct marketing & ensuring sale conversion in a consumer’s own space.

Ferragamo/Kenzo/Cavalli/Paul Smith/Canali all hold Trunk shows in different cities where they don’t have a retail presence. This enables luxury brands to increase not only their sales, but also customer brand awareness, before they finally take the plunge to enter the location.

Emporio Mall in Delhi introduced the concept of Personal Shoppers probably the first time in India where an experienced stylist finds clothes & accessories that fit your tastes, size & budget thereby increasing probability of a sale at relatively low cost and it worked well, but I do not know if it still continues.

Some brands inc liquor brands began referral programs, which were a bit different than the Pyramid scheme or member get member scheme, but these eventually die out, having finished its cycle.

Then of course there are those extended distress sales; SMS marketing; New Brand Ambassadors but is this really aggressive marketing or retailers fear a spillover effect of brand equity dilution.

But in this broad spectrum of generation, catchment, geography that one needs to address in India the only ones that shall succeed would be those who would be able to communicate across multiple channels, quickly, crisply and answer the consumer’s basic question “What is in it for me”?

Disclaimer: This comparison is from purely a customer perspective & neither airline or any other airline paid for my tickets.

After a long time, I had an opportunity to fly on SpiceJet & IndiGo thanks to the organization who had invited me & booked the tickets.

I flew IndiGo Bombay - Goa whilst Goa - Bombay - Chennai was by SpiceJet whereas Chennai - Bombay was by IndiGo.

The parameters on which I evaluated both of them were Baggage Handling, Check in, Transport, Seats, Service, Food, Flight

Baggage Handling - Both airlines were good, given the fact that space & other restrictions

Check In - SpiceJet was good in Goa, whereas in Bombay was not energetic enough. Allotted seat was different from the one asked for & confirmed. Information about Flight Delay was not forthcoming at both places. And the refrain was “Due to incoming flight coming late”
IndiGo was Perfect from both Bombay & Chennai, polite, seat allocation was perfect & Flight on time both ways.

Transport - The IndiGo buses were new, better, height of step perfect, a great help for those with knee trouble & old people. Another excellent aspect was the stairs to the aircraft, they actually had a ramp instead of stairs - very easy & convenient. SpiceJet buses were nice, but wonder if they were expecting floods everyday, since the height was very much, though in Goa there was a additional wooden step kept that helped. But the stairs, I presume were rental from Airport were horrible.

Seat & Service - Seats were equally good in both, as was inflight service. IndiGo offers water from a Jug in a glass, whilst SpiceJet offers a bottle & though having heard about water being refused a second time, this was not the case at all.

Food - The quality of food was good on both airlines, however IndiGo offered more variety, whilst SpiceJet offered discount if booked along with the ticket, which was a good idea

Flight - This was good on both airlines, with competent crew, aircrafts and all.

IndiGo gets my vote & edges SpiceJet due to On Time flight, small extras such as the bus, ramp which is welcome.

I had been hearing about Startup Saturday from Netra for a while, when one fine day in October, whilst cruising past on the Rajeev Gandhi Sea Link or #bwsl as made popular by b50 I received a call from Annkur asking me if I could attend the interactive session the following week.

In my enthusiasm, I said Yes, and had second thoughts when I received his email “Referring your talk at Startup Saturday, it would be great if you can share your experience with the psyche of Indian consumer in creating international brands out of what has always been a commodity.”

But it was too late, because by then Jeev Daya Netra Prabha had swung into action.

I reached there on the designated Date & Time, entered the room & saw some 35-40 people sitting there listening raptly to the previous speaker. I was hurriedly introduced to the Originator of the idea Aditya Mishra and waited for my turn. (Felt just like waiting before an exam)

Soon enough it was my turn & we started it off. Quite an interactive session it turned out to be, with a lot of questions flying back & forth, before it ended.

I managed to acquit myself reasonably well, I think & for those of you who had asked for a copy of the presentation startupsat10thoct09.

After a lot of discussions, debates, advice I had opted for a custom DELL XPS M1330 in March 2008.

Except for a couple of small glitches (more to do with my being a technical retard) the order placement, delivery etc. was all seamless.

I loved working on it (though at times I did miss the finish of my Sony VAIO) but you cannot have everything.

In June 2009, I had done some editing for my daughter’s presentation, but before I could copy it for her, the screen went black:( And the next day we had to leave for Pune with it.

In desperation called DELL, quoted all the numbers etc. was assured that by 12 noon the next day, a technician would be there to ensure that it would work soon.

So whilst the old copy was there & started work on it again, hoping against hope that DELL would deliver. Mind it! They did - promptly at 11.45 am their technical support came with a large box & upon enquiry was told that “Sir, you had opted for 3 yr on site warranty, so I need to change the panel, including the motherboard” Wheee, it took him an hour & half but the complete new DELL was ready & raring to go!

Now only if they work out a super NETBOOK, I do not have to opt for Lenovo or Asus!

I have been a staunch Nokia loyalist from the advent of cell phones in India.

This has more to do with simplicity, choice, upsell, trade in value & their constant WOW service factor.

For my daughter’s birthday in February 2009 we got her a 5800 Xpress phone, which she loved & used it regularly & thoroughly over the past 10 months.

A couple of weeks ago, the screen display went off (a common complaint, I believe). Promptly like the kid’s of today she came with a proposal (albeit with her mother’s approval) that she should trade in this phone etc. etc.

Having complete faith in Nokia, I asked why was it not shown to Nokia care since it was still under warranty. She said they said it would cost 4,500, which is when I realized it is the Priority dealer; so giving her the address sent her to Nokia care in Andheri.

She came back happy that it would be done free of cost. Promptly 2 weeks later, yesterday she has got the phone back with complete panel changed, looking better than before.

Now you know why I still opt for a Nokia (though iPhone & Blackberry do come a close second).

Some months ago, I had encashed my I-mint points for a Phillips home theatre system; not because I like phillips (on the contrary) but was afraid of points lapsing.

It was delivered, installed, worked fine; till one day last week just stopped! Fair enough, I do not have a climate controlled house etc. etc. & phillips is finicky but?

Found the hotline number & my wife called them up on 5th November, received a promise that someone would come in 24 hours. Nope NO sign at all, called up at 5 pm, was assured that “Our engineers work till 8pm, so you can expect him to come” & they left closing the office at 6 pm

The next day it took 11 calls to the service center/hotline/engineer himself before he turned up at 8.30 pm thereby wasting the entire day, since we could not step out also. This was Day 3 - 7th November. Came & gave a cursory glance & Einstein said, will tell the service centre, because some part would have to be changed, they will give you a call back.

No news till 10th November when they called, said it would have to be taken to the service centre, sent a person who carried it away & that’s the last we have seen of it.

Today is the 14th November & they are still investigating what is wrong with it, no calls, nothing. BTW approximate cost if part is available would be 4000/- if it is out of warranty!

Hello! I do not have a bill, since it is a so called gift - No problem sir, we will check in our records!

This is the 2nd time in my life I have allowed my wife to coerce me into a stupid useless Brand called Phillips! AND it is the last.