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A PROJECT REPORT
ON
Embarking m-VAS Journey for India times Greeting
Portal mGreet (Product Management & Direct to
Consumer marketing)
FOR
TIMES INTERNET LTD.UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF
Shalini Kapur & Aditi Verma
(Chief Managers Product & Marketing: Interactive Media On Mobile)
TOWARDS PARTIAL FILFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF
MASTER IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION IN TELECOM MANAGEMENT
SUBMITTED BY
DEEPAK ARORA
&
ANKUR BHALLA
Symbiosis Institute of Telecom Management
Pune 411042
MBA (TM) Batch 2011-13
Systems & Finance
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INSTITUTE CERTIFICATE
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CERTIFICATE FROM THE COMPANY
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2. Abstract
There is a card for every occasion and an occasion for every card.
But
Greeting cards are losing charm.
Al though
Consumers are becoming more acceptable towards the new greeting card occasions.Being low-cost options- SMS, MMS and digital greetings are catching up.
The current competitive business environment has lead to a growing demand for
mobility, and for 24/7 access to information and services. Organizations which capitalize
on this demand will be leaders in the Internet market of the future.
Greetings Industry in India has seen a transformation from paper only tradition greetings
to digital greetings & gifting portals. Emerging services within mobile VAS also include
social networking, instant messaging and micro-blogging. Times Internet on the basis of
this upcoming trend is trying to harness the potential in Indian Greeting Industry by
promoting greetings as a VAS in the form of their mobile greeting portal m-Greet.
At present, the Indian e-card market is estimated to have around 100-million users and
is growing by 12-15% every year. In terms of growth, Asia-Pacific is portended to
register fastest growth exhibiting a CAGR of more than 4.0%.Global Greeting Cards
Market to Exceed US$30.4 Billion by 2015, according to a New Report by Global
Industry Analysts, Inc.
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As a part of our project, we analyzed the customer behavior on the basis of their
feedback and trend analysis, did competition study for m-Greet, developed a product
roadmap, took care of product alliances and did direct to consumer marketing for m-
Greet, perform all necessary tasks for doing a campaign in Lucknow colleges.
The following tasks were performed during the course of the project:
Survey on mobile greetings from potential customers.
Customer profiling and analytics.
Suggesting improvements in product on the basis of customer analytics,
Competitive products study, customer feedback etc.
Designing a product feature matrix.
Product & Marketing Alliances management.
Evaluating content providers & android mobile app developers for product.
Creating themes for marketing campaigns.
Identifying colleges & preparing presentations for pitching colleges.
Tie-ups with news channel for coverage of campaigns.Selection of event management agency to do on ground activity
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Contents1. Acknowledgment................................................................................................................................ 4
2. Abstract ............................................................................................................................................... 5
3. List of Figures ..................................................................................................................................... 9
4. Data Tables ...................................................................................................................................... 10
5. Nomenclature & Abbreviations....................................................................................................... 11
6. Title of the Project ............................................................................................................................ 127. Project Objectives ............................................................................................................................ 13
8. Executive Summary......................................................................................................................... 14
8.1 Objectives ...........................................................................................................14
8.2 Methodology .......................................................................................................15
8.3 Findings ..............................................................................................................15
8.4 Conclusions ............................................................................................................16
9. Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 17
9.1 Company Profile .................................................................................................18
9.2. Product Profile .......................................................................................................22
10. Mobile Greetings Potential In India............................................................................................ 29
10.1 Data Sources: .......................................................................................................29
10.2 Research Approach: .............................................................................................29
10.3 Research Instrument:............................................................................................30
10.4 Sampling Plan:......................................................................................................34
10.5 Contact Method: ...................................................................................................35
10.6 Data Analysis, Interpretation and Findings: ...........................................................3510.7 Secondary Research ............................................................................................42
10.8 Competition Study ................................................................................................46
11. Product Management .................................................................................................................. 50
11.1 Features: ..............................................................................................................51
11.1.1 Speed Dial .........................................................................................................51
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11.1.2 Video Greetings .................................................................................................51
11.1.3 Speech Recognition ...........................................................................................52
11.1.4 Play with music ..................................................................................................52
11.1.5 Calendar maintenance & events reminder .........................................................53
11.1.6 Invite Friends to Update Contact Details ............................................................53
11.1.7 Refer to Win .......................................................................................................54
11.1.8 Search Engine Optimization ...............................................................................55
11.2 Product Alliances ..................................................................................................56
11.2.1 Corporate ...........................................................................................................56
11.2.2 Floral .................................................................................................................56
11.2.3 Misc ...................................................................................................................56
12. Direct to Consumer Marketing ......................................................................................................... 58
12.1 Direct Marketing ....................................................................................................59
12.2. Why D2C for M-VAS company .............................................................................68
12.3. mGreet Lucknow campaign .................................................................................72
13. Limitation of project ........................................................................................................................... 75
14. Conclusion & Recommendations .................................................................................................... 76
15. SWOT Analysis ................................................................................................................................. 78
16. References......................................................................................................................................... 79
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3. List of Figures
Figure Number Figure Description Page Number
1 Company Structure 18
2 Times Internet Portfolio 20
3 mGreet Features 23
4 Facebook Connect 25
5 Research Approach 29
6 GSM Revenue Composition 42
7 VAS Categories &Classficiation
43
8 VAS Value Chain 67
9 Campaign Poster 71
10 SWOT Analysis 77
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4. Data Tables
Table Number Table Description Page number
1 Feature Matrix 48
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5. Nomenclature & Abbreviations
S.NO Abbreviation Description
1 m-VAS Mobile Value Added Services
2 D2C Direct to Consumer
3 TIL Times Internet Ltd.
4 USSD Unstructured Supplementary ServiceData
5 CAGR Compounded Annual Growth Rate
6 QA Quality Assurance
7 IVR Interactive Voice Response
8 WAP Wireless Application Protocol
9 SMS Short Messaging Service
10 MOU Minutes of Usage
11 IPL Indian Premier League
12 OBD Outbound Dialing
13 P2A Peer to Application
14 A2P Application to Peer15 P2P Peer to Peer
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6. Title of the Project
Embarking m-VAS Journey for India times
Greeting Portal: m-Greet
(Product Management & Direct to Consumermarketing)
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7. Project Objectives
Exploring market potential for mobile Greetings in India
Mobile VAS Next source of revenue for operators
Existing mGreet Customer Survey.
Potential Customers Mobility Profiling & greeting preferences.
Customer Analytics
Market Competition Study.
mGreet: Product Management
Study existing features across different mGreet Platforms.
Support the Design & QA team.
Suggest new features.
Develop Product Roadmap.
Identify product alliances for mGreet.
mGreet: Direct to Consumer Marketing
Increase usage of mGreet.
Increase awareness about the mGreet.
Viral marketing of mGreet.
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8. Executive Summary
8.1 Objectives
Exploring market potential for mobile Greetings in India:
This phase included primary as well as secondary research. Primary research
was carried out by taking feedback from existing customers and circulating a
questionnaire to the potential customers for mGreet. Secondary research
included competition study in terms of features and business models.
mGreet: Product Management:
This phase included suggesting new features across different platforms including
Website, IVR, WAP, USSD and mobile App. There was a strong need for
coordination with the engineering and QA team to understand the core product. It
also included vendor evaluation & product alliance management.
mGreet: Direct to Consumer Marketing
This phase included study of relevance of D2C marketing for success of a m-VAS
product. Various colleges were identified & pitched for conducting marketing
campaigns to promote the mGreet brand to the target market segment. Marketing
alliances with news channels were made for the coverage of these campaigns.
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8.2 Methodology
To identify the potential for mobile greetings in India, feedback was taken from
customers by telephonic interviews and online questionnaires. It was necessary to
understand the business models of competitor products for base lining their success
stories. Customers taste was evaluated for various VAS services such as
Entertainment, Information, E-Commerce etc. As mobile greetings come under Social
VAS, we had to think of product enhancements so as to leverage the power of social
media.
8.3 Findings
Few parameters were identified for customer satisfaction while taking feedback. It
was visible from the feedback that customers wanted something extra apart from just
a greeting portal. They wanted a greeting plus gifting portal. Apart from this since
90% of the customer base was IVR based with 95% revenue coming from monthly
subscription, we realized that for the organic growth of product we need to bring a
strong alliance network so as to offer this to the target market segment i.e. Students,
Service sector people.
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8.4 Conclusions
To increase the customer base and meet the target segment demands, there is a
strong need of technological up-gradation in terms of 3G supported features & also
selective marketing like use of media management platforms, search Engine
Optimization & radio promotions needs to be done in addition to bulk SMS and news
paper based promotions to increase the probability of customer conversions. For
assured greeting revenue sources, we need to tie-up with big retail chains and
corporate who would like to send timely greetings on special occasions to theiremployees and customers.
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9. Introduction
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9.1 Company Profile
The Times Group is Indias largest media conglomerate with its flagship Bennett,
Coleman and Company Limited (BCCL) being the largest publishing company in India
and South-Asia. Starting off with The Times of India which is now the largest English
publication in the world, BCCL and its subsidiaries (called The Times of India Group),
are present in every existing media platform Newspapers, Magazines, Books, TV,
Radio, Internet, Event Management, Outdoor Display, Music, Movies and more. With a
turnover exceeding a billion dollars, the group has the support of over 25,000advertisers, 11,000 employees and an audience spanning across all continents
Key Businesses:
Publishing
Largest publishing co in India: 13 newspapers, 18 magazines, 11
publishing centers, 26 printing centers.
Largest English newspaper in India by circulation (and the world).
Largest Business newspaper in India by circulation (2nd largest English
Business daily in the world, behind WSJ).
Largest NonEnglish newspapers in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore by
circulation (Indias three largest cities).
Television
Largest English News TV Channel, No. 2 English Business News TV
Channel.
Largest Bollywood News and Lifestyle TV Channel, No. 2 English
Movies TV Channel.
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Digital
Largest Indian network based on traffic and revenue (behind Google,
Facebook, Yahoo).
Operates 30+ digital businesses, most of which are Top 3 in their
competitive segment.
Most popular B2C mobile shortcode in India, across SMS, voice, WAP,
and USSD Radio.
Largest radio network in India by revenue and listenership, with 32
stations.Operates the largest rock radio station in the UK.
Figure 1: Company Structure
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Times Internet Ltd.
Times Internet Limited, (TIL), is the internet & mobile venture of India's
largest media house - the Times Group. TIL websites are among the fastest
growing web-based networks worldwide. TIL has led the internet revolution
in India and has emerged as India's foremost web entity, running diverse
portals and niche websites.
Indiatimes.com, India's state-of the art internet portal encompasses
telecom, e-commerce, online advertisement solutions, communities, events.
It is India's preferred online & mobile value-added services destination for
millions of surfers & subscribers looking for a rich and diverse digital
content. Indiatimes.com commands more than 1 billion page views per
month.
The other key properties in the TIL portfolio are timesofindia.com Worlds
no.1 news site in terms of page views, and, economictimes.com - India's
No.1 business news website.
Times Internet Mobile VAS Overview:
In the mobile space, Indiatimes pioneered the extremely popular and
successful mobile short code - 58888. 58888 is the largest direct-to-consumer
SMS and IVR short code, accessed by over 3mn consumers every month
across all telecom operators in India, with offerings across the entire gamut ofplatforms, i.e., IVR/SMS/WAP.
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Times mobile limited, from the Times Group, is the most popular mobile value-added
services destination for the global Indian. Times Mobile Limited continues to be the
market driver in value-added services (VAS) for mobile phones and landlines. Setting
up the first VAS messaging service, Times Mobile Limited 8888 quickly scoped out to
include multimedia messaging, dating, chatting and email on mobile. 58888 is available
with all service operators across India on both CDMA and GPRS phones, making it
Indias largest operator-agnostic mobile short-code.
Figure 2- Times Internet Portfolio
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9.2. Product Profile
m-Greet: A Unique mobile Greeting Platform
About mGreet:
mGreet is a unique greetings service from Times Mobile Limited which gives users a
different way of expressing themselves. Users can browse through our wide range of
greetings, select greetings they like and send to their friends and family. Be it greetings
for specific occasions like Birthdays or anniversaries or for special events like
Valentines Day or Diwali orevery day, mGreet has it all.
mGreet is an integrated product with primary objective of voice greetings.However, it
offers SMS greetings as well along with other features like uploading contacts through
Web etc. Web and WAP is primarily an add on and free feature.mGreet sign up and
activations can be done through any mode including IVR, Web and WAP. mGreet is
currently available on 58888155 short-code for Airtel, Tata Docomo, Reliance, Uninor
and Loop.
A one of a kind service for satiating not only the conventional need of greetings, via
WEB,WAP &IVR but also to stay connected to network of friends by sending greetings.
mGreet fulfils the need of users to wish/ greet their loved ones on special occasions
Real time sharing of personalized greetings in the form of audio and text. Now user can
access mGreet website and wapsite also by visitingwww.mgreet.in.
mGreet had a customer base of 351072 & revenue of Rs. 1383100 on 31st March 2012.
Mgreet is available in regional Languages also.
Language Available- Hindi, English, Kannada,assamese,bengali,tamil, Marathi & Telugu.
http://www.mgreet.in/http://www.mgreet.in/http://www.mgreet.in/http://www.mgreet.in/ -
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mGreet:Works on Multiple Platform
On IVR:
58888155 to subscribe and access this service.
On Web:
User logs on to www.mgreet.in to view and browse content. Users will
have to subscribe to the service by filling in and submitting the user
registration form, in order to send greetings.
On WAP:
User logs on to mgreet.in from their GPRS enabled handsets to access the
service. Subscription can by done by filling in and submitting the user
registration form.
mGreet Key Features:
Personalization- Users can personalize the existing pre-recorded voice
greetings by recording a message in their own voice. Recipients will
receive the personalized greetings as an OBD where the personal
message will be played first, followed by the pre-recorded greeting.
Figure 3: mGreet Features
Your friend receives
the greeting as an
OBD
Call and select
a Greeting
Record your
message to
personalize
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Sending to multiple numbers at one go- Users can send selected
greetings to multiple friends at one go. This feature is especially useful for
sending generic event based greetings like New Years, Christmas etc.
My zone- In this section, users can access their profile, their recent
activities, favorites and also do activities like adding friends to a list, sorting
friends according to different groups etc.
Groups- When user adds a friend to his friend list, he also assigns a group
to each friend from the list of pre-defined groups. Users can send a
selected greeting to a particular group from the list. Only groups which
have at least one member will be available for sending the greeting to.
Scheduling- Greetings can be sent immediately or scheduled for a later
date and time. Users can schedule a greeting upto 1 year in advance by
entering the date and time of delivery of the greeting. However, the
greeting will only be delivered if the sender is subscribed to the service at
the time when the greeting is to be delivered.Save greeting- Recipients can access the received greetings by calling a
number which will be sent to them as SMS before the greeting is delivered
to them. Recipients can access these greetings for upto 2 days from the
time of delivery.
Celebrity Greeting- This section of the portal has pre recorded greetings
in the voice of famous celebrities like Chitrangada Singh, Neil Nitin
Mukesh, Kangna Ranaut, Rituparna Sengupta etc.The user can select the
celebrity greetings and send it to their friends. Users can also wish their
favorite celebrities by sending greetings from the list of available greetings
and
Receive a thank you OBD call from the Celebrities whom they have sent
the greetings to.
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Facebook Connect-
Apart from an easy login process every time, User can also do lots of fun
activities by using Facebook Connect on mGreet. Some of the things you can
do are mentioned below:
Import all your Facebook contacts on to the mGreet website.
Add Contact numbers of the friends you want to add to your mGreet
groups- you can then send voice & text greetings to these friends or to
entire groups.
Send greetings to the facebook friends whom you have added in your
Groups.
Publish the greetings you send on your wall.
Publish the greetings on your friends wall- if it is a voice greeting, your
friend will not only receive the voice greeting on their phone but they can
also listen to the greeting on their wall.
Figure 4: Facebook Connect
Publish it on urwall & Friends
FB Wall
SendGreetings to
FB Friends
ImportContacts &
Add contact
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Default Language:
A default language has been set depending on the Circle of the User.
For example, the default language for Karnataka is Kannada.
Users can, at any time, change their language by going to the Help
section of the portal.
Users can go to the Help section by pressing 9.
Category Listing
The categories will be listed on the basis of Popularity and favorite
sections.
The category listing will be dynamic. It will be based on the language
selected by the customer. For example if a customer selects English as
a language the Love category will come on the top.
The portal will have the following categories:
Birthday Greetings
Anniversary Greetings
Love Greetings
Friendship Greetings
Seasonal Greetings
Every day greeting like Miss you, Good morning etc
Festive Greetings
Celebrity Greetings
Music Greetings
Get well soon Greetings
Event Based: Makar Sankrati, Ayyappa, Pongal , Republic Day,
Valentines day etc
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Upcoming Events:
This section of the portal will focus on the upcoming events of the year.
The user will have the information about the upcoming events based on
all the categories.
The user will receive customized/dynamic events information on the basis
of the language selected by him. For example a user who has opted for
Telugu as his default language will get the information of the events of the
south region first.The user will be given the option of scheduling the greetings as well.
The personalized greeting can be delivered both in the form of SMS and
voice with the help of OBD.
Every category will have a default greeting. This default greeting will be
used in case the user is not able to select any greeting.
Delivery of Greetings:
If the user sends the greeting as a voice greeting, it will be delivered in
the form of an OBD to the recipient.
If the user chooses to send the greeting as text, the greeting will be
delivered to the recipient as a SMS message.
The recipient will be informed by SMS about the voice greeting that he
will be receiving from a particular number.
The sender will also be informed once the greeting gets delivered to the
recipient.
User Engagement:
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The user engagement is very important for a service as it ensures the
stickiness of the user towards the service. The user engagement will be
achieved by the following methods:
Alerts via SMS if a new category is added.
Sending reminders for specific occasions.
Friends Birthday reminder via SMS.
Charges:
The charges for mGreet are as follows:
Subscription Charge- Rs.10/30 Days.
Browsing Charge- Re1/min.
Greeting Charge- Re.1/greeting, Rs.5 for celebrity greetings.
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10. Mobile Greetings Potential In India
10.1 Data Sources:
Primary data
Feedback was taken from existing mGreet Customers as well as online survey was
circulated to target segment for mGreet. i.e. Youth and Corporate.
Secondary data-
Data was extracted from the company MIS mPulse and study for VAS & greeting
industry trends and statistics was done through various portals such as Voice anddata, Medianama and TRAI website.
10.2 Research Approach:
Define the research problem
Determining the data requirement
Prepare the questionaire
Finding out the concern people to fill thequestionanire
Acquiring Information
Compilation & Processing of Data Collected
Interpretation of Result
Preparation of Result
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Figure 5: Research Approach
10.3 Research Instrument:
Below questionnaire was used for telephonic & online customer feedback:
Questionnaire
1. Name
2. Mobile Number
3. Gender *
Male
Female
4. Age Group *Select
5. City,State
6. Occupation *Others
7. Mobile Handset Manufacturer *
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8. Do you use Internet on Mobile Phone? *
Yes
No
9. Mobile Operator *
10. Mobile Connection Type (Select any one)
Default
Operator
Plan
Student
Plan
Corporate
Plan
Special
Tariff
Plan
Prepaid
Postpaid
11. Approx. Monthly Mobile Usage/Bill in Indian Rupees *
12. Do you use Mobile Value Added Services (MVAS)? If Yes, please select most
used service(s)
Entertainment (Ring tones, Wallpapers,Screen Savers,,Music, Games, Contests,
Greetings etc)
Information (News, Stock, Weather updates etc)
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m-Commerce (Mobile Banking, Bill Pay etc)
13. Under Entertainment VAS, please indicate your usage preference for each of
these services
Least
Preferred
Somewhat
PreferredNeutral
Moderately
Preferred
Most
Preferred
Greetings
Ringtones
Wallpapers
Music
Games
14. How much does mobile VAS usage account towards your monthly mobile
bill/spending (Approx Usage)?
15. Do you wish your friends, family and colleagues on their birthdays or other
occasions? Please indicate your preference level for each of the greetings types
Least
Preferred
Somewhat
PreferredNeutral
Moderately
Preferred
Most
Preferred
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Least
Preferred
Somewhat
PreferredNeutral
Moderately
Preferred
Most
Preferred
Paper
Greetings
Mobile (m-
Greetings)
VAS
Internet (e-Greetings)
Personal
SMS/Call
16. Are you aware of any greeting services which lets you send customized
voice/text/animated greetings to your colleague's mobile? If Yes, Please name it
17. If asked to use a Mobile Greeting Service (VAS), to what extent these factors will
influence your decision?
Least
Influences
Somewhat
InfluencesNeutral
Moderately
Influences
Most
Influences
Pricing
Features
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Least
Influences
Somewhat
InfluencesNeutral
Moderately
Influences
Most
Influences
Ease of
Use
(Usability)
18. What billing model will you prefer for using such Mobile Greeting Service which
offers you to send customized greetings to your friends?
Least
Preferred
Somewhat
PreferredNeutral
Moderately
Preferred
Most
Preferred
Pay per sent
greeting
Subscription
(Rs
10/month)
Subscription
(Rs1/day)
10.4 Sampling Plan:
Since most of the existing m-Greet customer base is IVR based, random selection
was done on MSISDNs for different circles including Delhi NCR, Karnataka, Andhra
Pradesh, West Bengal, Kolkata, Assam, Jammu & Kashmir, Mumbai, Maharashtra ,
U.P (East) & Rajasthan. Apart from it online questionnaire was also circulated to the
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target market segment to know customer mobile VAS preferences. Sample size of 50
included 35 from telephonic interviews and 15 from online survey.
10.5 Contact Method:
Since exploring the potential of mobile greetings included capturing of existing
customers mobility profile and potential customers greeting preferences, so two
methods were adopted for contacting:
Telephonic customer feedback for existing customers Online survey for potential customers- chosen market segment.
10.6 Data Analysis, Interpretation and Findings:
Sample Size: 50
Research Instrument :1) Telephonic Feedback from existing customer
2) Online survey for target segment customers
A) Sample Description:
Age Group wise distribution
15-25
26-35
36-4545-55
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Mobile Connection wise distribution
Occupation wise distribution
Tariff Plan wise distribution
Prepaid
Postpaid
Business
Service Sector- Private
Service Sector- Public
Student
Self Employed
Default Operator Plan
Corporate Plan
Special Tariff Plan
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Handset Manufacturer wise distribution
Age Group wise Internet usage on Mobile
Sample distribution by average monthly bill
0
10
20
30
Handsets
Handsets
15-25
26-35
36-45
0-300
301-500
501-700
701-1000
Above 1000
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Marketing Mode Effectiveness for mGreet
Customer Satisfaction Rating on different parameters
Customer Billing Model Preference
0
10
20
30
Marketing Mode Effectiveness
Marketing Mode
Effectiveness
0 1 2 3 4
Simplicity
Pricing
Features
Content
Customer Satisfaction
Customer Satisfaction
Rs 10/month
Rs 1/day
Pay Per Greeting
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Customer Greeting Preferences
Most Liked Features
Improvements Suggested by customers
0
20
40
Voice Text
Greetings Sent
Greetings Sent
Send to multile friends
Scheduled Greetings
Customized Greetings
Upcoming Events Alerts
Multi-Platform Access
0 1 2 3
Edit/Delete Schedule
Image/Animated/Video
Automated Greetings
Customized Text Greetings
Improvement Suggested
Improvement Suggested
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Other Greeting Portals Awareness
Misc Customer Feedback
VAS Usage Pattern
123greetings
365greetings
LimeGreetings
Airtel Landline
0
5
10
15
Number Portability
Issues Greeting delivery
issues Price Optimization
Information
Entertainment
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Entertainment VAS usage pattern
VAS contribution to monthly mobile expenses
Customer Greeting Preferences
0 1 2 3 4 5
Wallpapers
Ringtones
Greeting
Music
Games
VAS Type Preference
VAS Type Preference
Below 10%
11-20%
21-30%
0
1
2
3
4
5
Paper
Greetings
E-Greetings Mobile
Greetings
Personal
Call/SMS
Greeting Preferences
Greeting Preferences
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10.7 Secondary Research
Indian Telecom Market continues to grow with the launch of 3G, MNP and pipelined 4G
& LTE. The growth of mobile subscribers in India remains steady in last few months
According to the report released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), India
saw addition of 8 million new mobile subscribers in March 2012 taking the total tally of
mobile subscribers in India to 919.17 million.
India currently has 596 million Urban compared to 323 million rural mobile subscribers.
Rural subscriber base grew by close to 2% and now accounts for 35.2% of all mobile
subscribers. Out of all mobile subscribers, 683 million were active in March 2012.
According to a study done by global consultancy firm Deloitte Value Added Services
(VAS) will provide a huge fillip to the mobile industry in India which is expected to be Rs
48200 crores. The study says that 87 per cent respondents having smartphone access
internet through their Smartphone, while 62 per cent respondents are ready to pay a
premium for connecting devices.
With 3G services, the Indian telecom industry is set for a second telecom revolution in
wireless space. It will also benefit those sectors in which these services will be offered,
by providing better infrastructure and services.
Non-voice revenues currently constitute about 10% of revenues of Indian telecom
operators. A comparison with other countries indicates an average of 23%, providing
large scope for growth of MVAS in India.
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Figure 6: GSM Revenue Composition - Source TRAI
Indias VAS market estimates show aggressive growth and decreasing relative
importance of text based offerings. The vast offerings across VAS services are still
delivered predominantly using 3 platforms of SMS, IVR and WAP portals.
Mobile Greetings fall under Social VAS. Social media domain is flourishing currently
worldwide due to veterans like Facebook, LinkedIn, Hi5 on the internet and VAS like
chat platforms, Voice SMS on the mobile
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Figure 7: VAS Categories & Classification
In India, greeting market has seen a much shift of customer preferences with the
penetration of Internet and mobile across untapped areas. The trend of paper greetings
is not anymore the talk of the town. Now, even the veterans of greeting cards in India
like ITC, Hallmark, Archies etc have gone under a major change in their business
models.
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Now their core business is not just limited to Greeting Cards, however they have
adopted to Greeting & Gifting offerings in their portfolio. Old players have also adopted
to digital revolution i.e. by introducing musical and video greeting cards in India.
Also, there has been a significant increase in niches like handmade cards, dry flower
cards, customized wishes card. All the major greeting players are no more shop driven,
they have adopted technology i.e. they have used the power of Internet and mobiles to
expand their business.
Orders are being taken on web and over mobile phones. In last few years TelecomOperators have introduced different greeting VAS on their VAS portfolio.
For example Airtel first tried it in Tamil Nadu in 2007 with its portal 747. Bubble Motion
and Virtusa have their own Voice SMS platforms. Airtel Landline still offers to send
customized voice greetings. BSNL has leveraged the power of 3G by introducing video
greetings. VAS companies like Onmobile, Times Internet, One97 etc caters to upcoming
demand for VAS services from the Indian user.
These services are designed after exhaustive research on customer profile & needs. In
India, VAS companies generally follow models:
On Deck: are VAS companies that provide white labeled vendor services to the
carrier/telecom operator using his infrastructure, branding and promotions. These
include the likes of OnMobile Global, Bharti Telesoft, Cellebrum, One97, ValueFirst and
others.
Off Deck (or Direct to Consumer): are VAS companies that use carrier infrastructure
and billing for their products and services, but the marketing and branding is
independent of the mobile operators. For example Indiatimes 58888, Netcores
MyToday, Webaroos SMS GupShup.
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When we talk of the potential of mobile greetings, one aspect deals with the organic
demand from customers and other is the inorganic one driven by customer pushed
greetings by means of Campaigns, Contests etc which also part of the marketing
strategy of the product.
10.8 Competition Study
Greetings on mobile VAS has not picked up very much in Indian market as compared to
e-greetings, however there are many online portals which provide to send greetings to
friends email id and mobile phones.
Some Mobile based portals supporting greetings in India:
BSNL 3G Video Greeting Portal
Airtel Birthday Greetings
Web Based Greeting & Gifting portals:
123Greetings:www.123greetings.com
365Greetings:www.365greetings.com
Archies:www.archiesonline.com - Retail as well
Mocolife: http://www.mocolife.com/
Atm Greetings:www.atmgreetings.com
iFeelClub:www.ifeelclub.com
LimeGreetings:http://www.limeall.com/
Other Competitors: Voice SMS
Bubble Motion
KirUsa
http://www.123greetings.com/http://www.123greetings.com/http://www.123greetings.com/http://www.365greetings.com/http://www.365greetings.com/http://www.365greetings.com/http://www.archiesonline.com/http://www.archiesonline.com/http://www.archiesonline.com/http://www.mocolife.com/http://www.mocolife.com/http://www.atmgreetings.com/http://www.atmgreetings.com/http://www.atmgreetings.com/http://www.ifeelclub.com/http://www.ifeelclub.com/http://www.ifeelclub.com/http://www.limeall.com/http://www.limeall.com/http://www.limeall.com/http://www.limeall.com/http://www.ifeelclub.com/http://www.atmgreetings.com/http://www.mocolife.com/http://www.archiesonline.com/http://www.365greetings.com/http://www.123greetings.com/ -
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Greeting portals have become greeting plus gifting portals and they offer sending pre-
defined, customized greetings (voice, text, video, animated) to friends mob ile phones &
email addresses along with the option to schedule messages, send event based &
regional greetings. These also provide customer to send gifts at discounted prices.
Business Model of 123greetings:
Operational Details
123Greetings Store, the companys online gifting e-commerce business
shipped a total of 32,345 orders during the quarter, a decline compared to
57,042 orders during the last quarter, from an active base of 205 vendors.
123Greetings Connect saw the total number of registered users at 1,732,253
as on March 31, 2011.
123Greetings Invites saw 745 new events being created and 7972 invites
being sent out in the quarter.
123Greetings Studio grew to 15,461 registered artists through the quarter,
recording a 11% growth from its previous quarter.
123Greetings Facebook application saw 225,192 users sending 771,068
ecards to their friends and family. The app has a registered user base of
1,037,650 users as of March 31st, 2011.
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Competitive Feature Matrix
Symbols Used Exists Doesnt Exist In RoadMap
Not
Appli
cable
S.No
Product mGreet 123greetings 365greetings LimeGreetingsiFeelClub
Features IVR Web WAP Web/Wap Web/Wap Web/WapWeb/
Wap
1Category
Greetings
2 Languages
3
Voice
Greeting
4Text
Greeting
5Video
Greeting
6Animated
Greeting
7 Invi tat ions
8
Send
Greetings to
many
9Scheduled
Greetings
10USSD
Suppor t
11 MyZone
12 PhoneBook
13
Social
Network/Oth
er
Integration
14 Help Section
15 My Prof i le
16
Refer a
Friend
17Voice
Recogni t ion
18
User Act iv i ty
Feed Sharing
wi th m Greet
Fr iends
19 RSS
Blogg ing
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20
(Voice/Other
s )
21
Upcoming
Festivals
Alerts
22
Upcoming
Event Aler ts
(Bi r thdays
etc)
23Musica l
A lbum
24Name
Greetings
25
Quick
Send/Popular Categories
26
Play with
Music/Music
al Ecards
27Floral
Opt ions
28
Reginonal
Cards/e-
cards
29 Tagging
30Customer
Feedback
31 Widgets
32Calendar
Managemet
33Automated
Greetings
34Corporate
Al l iances
35
Printable E-
Cards
(Celebs/Cust
om)
36Speech
Reogni t ion
Table 1: Feature Matrix
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11. Product Management
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After doing intensive study of products existing features, competitive products feature
analysis, market segment needs and customer feedback analysis, following features
have been proposed for mGreet:
11.1 Features:
11.1.1 Speed Dial
Portals Impacted: IVR
Brief: The purpose of this feature is to facilitate customer for easily sending
greetings to best friends & colleagues on a key stroke.
Existing Flow: Customer has to manually enter mobile number of the recipient
which is tiresome.
Pros: Flexibility to customer for sending greeting to closest friends & relatives
just by pressing the speed dial keysave i t once and use anyt ime
11.1.2 Video Greetings
Portals Impacted: Website, WAP
Brief: mGreet customers will be able to send pre-defined Video greetings with
customized wishes to their colleagues. These can be in the form of MMS or
compressed videos downloadable from WAP links.
Pros:User Experience Enhancement
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11.1.3 Speech Recognition
Portals Impacted: IVR
Brief: With this feature customers will be able to do hassle free browsing of
mGreet IVR Menu by speaking out the options & even voice tag their contacts to
maintain phonebook.
Existing Flow: Customer has to manually enter the options for IVR menubrowsing which takes lot of time & no provision of Maintaining phonebook on IVR.
Pros: Enhanced User Engagement
11.1.4 Play with music
Portals Impacted: IVR, Website, WAP
Brief: Now customers can just do anything with their favorite music by searchingit on mGreet and:
Devoting music as greetings to friends.
Recording song in Karaoke style & sending customized songs.
Waking up to a devotional song or any song of their choice.
Order a customized musical card with self recorded greeting.
Pros: Keep user engaged on IVR Increase MoU.
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11.1.5 Calendar maintenance & events reminder
Portals Impacted: IVR, Website
Brief: Customer can forget friends birthdays but our calendar & events reminder
wont forget to send automated greetings, if customer has maintained calendar &
activated automated greetings. In case they are not activated, mGreet will send
event alerts to customer via sms. To maintain calendar customer will be provided
with IVR submenu to add important dates for his phonebook contacts either
manually or by sending OBD invites to his friends for updating his mGreet
Calendar.
Existing Flow: Customer receives birthday alerts via SMS/Web but has to visit
portal again to send/schedule a greeting.
Pros: User Experience Enhancement & guaranteed greetings revenue.
11.1.6 Invite Friends to Update Contact Details
Portals Impacted: IVR, Website
Brief: It will be great ifthe customer is relieved of updating friends birthdays and
anniversaries in his phone book why not ask his friends by sending them a
mGreeting (IVR) and a web link. On IVR input can be taken from recipient as a
response to OBD or as a text message.
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Existing Flow: On IVR, there is no provision to add phonebook and on website
customer has to manually enter all details or import from facebook.
Pros: User Experience Enhancement & scope for revenue in the form of sent
mGreetings.
11.1.7 Refer to Win
Arvind Kajaria Managing Director (123greetings.com) says 123greetings is the
largest e-greeting website in India, and the second most visited e-greetings
website world-wide in terms of unique visitors. This growth has been largely
based on viral marketing and the companys SEO prowess.
Refer a Friend on mGreet: (Viral Marketing )
User can refer 10 friends numbers in a month for free.
Additional referral @ Re 1 per referral.
Referral goes in form of customized/Predefined m-Greeting.
For every successful conversion within a month, customer
gets 20 mGreet points added to his mVallet.
For every 100 points
1 month subscription off
OR
10 greetings free of cost
Customer with highest monthly referral conversion rate gets gift hamper
from Indiatimes. (Mobile Phones etc)
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11.1.8 Search Engine Optimization
Portals Impacted: Website
Business Case:
With introduction of Video Greetings & More Alliances, our website traffic is
expected to increase.
Internet Users search for greeting & gifting options on Popular Search
Engines- Yahoo, Google, Bing, Reddif etc.
mGreet not in top 30 search records for mobile greeting & gifting portals in
India.
Solution:
We need to improve our website visibility by Search Engine Optimization:
Possible Ways:
o Organic: By adding search strings like Voice Greetings, Video
greetings, Mobile Greetings, Campaign related-"IPL","9XM" on our
website pages & some other tweaks.
o Inorganic: By adding our website domain to various web-directories &
also by paying to search engine vendors - Google, Bing,Yahoo etc
Supporting Facts:
90% of all searchers coming onto Google look and click through on listings
from organic area listings
Expected Business Benefits:
More visibility to mGreet when anonymous internet users search for greeting,
gifting etc options on Web search engines.
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Reduced marketing cost on our off-deck VAS model.
Leveraging the power of Customer Analytics.
11.2 Product Alliances
11.2.1 Corporate
We can sell mGreet as a service to corporate with employee friendly
policies wherein the employees would be greeted using automated
birthday, anniversary, festival greetings & even gifts/cards/bouquets/cakescan be ordered via mGreet
Companies can even send customized greetings & gifts using mGreet to
their client base to maintain healthy relationship.
We can target companies with employee base >5000 in Metros
11.2.2 Floral
Customers can record customized voice greetings for their friends on
mGreet and send customized musical cards to them for giving a personal
touch- Tangibilize the Intangible
mGreet Customers can also send customized wishes on greeting
cards/cakes. All they have to do is send a customized text message to us
& order for a greeting card /cakes on IVR.
Customer care executive will ask for the payment details & delivery details
or customers can do it from payment gateway on mGreeet website.
11.2.3 Misc
Cash is often given as a token of love in India on special occasions like
Birthdays, anniversaries & festivals.
Customers can order prepaid gift cash cards on mGreet. Few Card
Providers- HDFC , Kotak offers such cards, Greetingcards India
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mGreet customer care executive will take such orders on IVR or customers
can do it from payment gateway on mGreet website.
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12. Direct to Consumer Marketing
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12.1 Direct Marketing
Direct marketing is a channel-agnostic form ofadvertising that allows businesses and
nonprofits to communicate straight to the customer, with advertising techniques such
as mobile messaging, email, interactive consumer websites, online display ads, fliers,
catalog distribution, promotional letters, and outdoor advertising.
Direct marketing messages emphasize a focus on the customer, data, and
accountability. Characteristics that distinguish direct marketing are:
1. Marketing messages are addressed directly to customers. Direct marketing relies
on being able to address the members of a target market. Addressability comes in
a variety of forms including email addresses, mobile phone numbers, Web
browser cookies, fax numbers and United States and international postal
addresses.
2. Direct marketing seeks to drive a specific "call to action." For example, an
advertisement may ask the prospect to call a free phone number or click on a link
to a website.
3. Direct marketing emphasizes trackable, measurable responses from customers
regardless of medium.
Direct marketing is practiced by businesses of all sizes from the smallest start-up
to the leaders on the Fortune 500. A well-executed direct advertising campaign can
prove a positive return on investment by showing how many potential customers
responded to a clear call-to-action. General advertising eschews calls-for-action in
favor of messages that try to build prospects emotional awareness or engagement
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with a brand. Even well-designed general advertisements rarely can prove their
impact on the organizations bottom line.
Popularity of Direct Advertising
A recent study by the Direct Marketing Association reports that in 2010, marketers
commercial and nonprofit spent $153.3 billion on direct marketing, which accountedfor 54.2% of all ad expenditures in the United States. Measured against total US
sales, these advertising expenditures generated approximately $1.798 trillion in
incremental sales. In 2010, direct marketing accounted for 8.3% of total US gross
domestic product. Also in 2010, there were 1.4 million direct marketing employees in
the US. Their collective sales efforts directly supported 8.4 million other jobs,
accounting for a total of 9.8 million US jobs.
Benefits
Direct marketing is attractive to many marketers because its positive results can be
measured directly. For example, if a marketer sends out 1,000 solicitations by mail
and 100 respond to the promotion, the marketer can say with confidence that
campaign led directly to 10% direct responses. This metric is known as the 'response
rate,' and it is one of many clearly quantifiable success metrics employed by direct
marketers. In contrast, general advertising uses indirect measurements, such as
awareness or engagement, since there is no direct response from a consumer.
Measurement of results is a fundamental element in successful direct marketing. The
Internet has made it easier for marketing managers to measure the results of a
campaign. This is often achieved by using a specific website landing page directly
relating to the promotional material. A call to action will ask the customer to visit the
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Marketing_Association_(USA)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Response_ratehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Response_ratehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertisinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertisinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Response_ratehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Response_ratehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Marketing_Association_(USA) -
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landing page, and the effectiveness of the campaign can be measured by taking the
number of promotional messages distributed (e.g., 1,000) and dividing it by the
number of responses (people visiting the unique website page). Another way to
measure the results is to compare the projected sales or generated leads for a given
term with the actual sales or leads after a direct advertising campaign.
Challenges and Solutions
While many marketers recognize the financial benefits of increasing targeted
awareness, some direct marketing efforts using particular media have been criticized
for generating poor quality leads, either due to poor message strategy or because of
poorly compiled demographic databases. This poses a problem for marketers and
consumers alike, as advertisers do not wish to waste money on communicating with
consumers not interested in their products.
Some of these concerns have been addressed by direct marketers by the use of
individual "opt-out" lists, variable printing, and better-targeted list practices.
Additionally, in order to avoid unwanted mailings, members of the marketing industry
have established preference services that give customers more control over the
marketing communications they receive in the mail.
The term "junk mail," referring to unsolicited commercial ads delivered via post office
or directly deposited in consumers' mail boxes, can be traced back to 1954. The term
"spam," meaning "unsolicited commercial e-mail," can be traced back to March 31,
1993, although in its first few months it merely referred to inadvertently posting a
message so many times on UseNet that the repetitions effectively drowned out the
normal flow of conversation.
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To address the concerns of unwanted emails orspam, in 2003, Congress enacted
the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-
SPAM) Act to curb unwanted email messages. Can-Spam gives recipients the ability
to stop unwanted emails, and set out tough penalties for violations. Additionally, ISPs
and email service providers have developed increasingly effective Email Filtering
programs. These filters can interfere with the delivery of email marketing campaigns,
even if the person has subscribed to receive them, as legitimate email marketing can
possess the same hallmarks as spam. There are a range of email service providers
that provide services for legitimate opt-in emailers to avoid being classified as spam.
Consumers have expressed concerns about the privacy and environmental
implications of direct marketing. In response to consumer demand and increasing
business pressure to increase the effectiveness of reaching the right customer with
direct marketing, companies specialize in targeted direct advertising to great effect,
reducing advertising budget waste and increasing the effectiveness of delivering a
marketing message with better geo-demography information, delivering the
advertising message to only the customers interested in the product, service, or
event on offer. Additionally, members of the advertising industry have been working
to adopt stricter codes regarding online targeted advertising.
Direct Marketing Channels
Any medium that can be used to deliver a communication to a customer can be
employed in direct marketing, including:
a). Email Marketing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_(electronic)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAMhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAMhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAMhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAMhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_(electronic) -
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Sending marketing messages through email orEmail marketing is one of the most
widely used direct-marketing methods. One reason for email marketing's popularity is
that it is relatively inexpensive to design, test, and send an email message. It also
allows marketers to deliver messages around the clock, and to accurately measure
responses.
b). Online Tools
With the expansion of digital technology and tools, direct marketing is increasingly
taking place through online channels. Most online advertising is delivered to afocused group of customers and has a trackable response.
Display Ads are interactive ads that appear on the Web next to content on Web
pages or Web services. Formats include static banners, pop ups, videos, and
floating units. Customers can click on the ad to respond directly to the message
or to find more detailed information. According to research by eMarketer,
expenditures on online display ads rose 24.5% between 2010 and 2011.
Search: 49% of US spending on Internet ads goes to search, in which advertisers
pay for prominent placement among listings in search engines whenever a
potential customer enters a relevant search term, allowing ads to be delivered to
customers based upon their already-indicated search criteria. This paid
placement industry generates more than $10 billion dollars for search companies.
Marketers also use search engine optimization to drive traffic to their sites.
Social Media Sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, also provide opportunities for
direct marketers to communicate directly with customers by creating content to
which customers can respond.
c). Mobile
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Through mobile marketing, marketers engage with prospective customers and
donors in an interactive manner through a mobile device or network, such as a
cellphone, smartphone, or tablet. Types of mobile marketing messages
include: SMS: (short message service) marketing communications are sent in the
form of text messages, also known as texting. MMS: (multi-media message service)
these messages use elements such as images, video, and audio; Mobile
Applications: Smartphone-based mobile apps contain several types of
messages. Push Notifications are direct messages sent to a user either automatically
or as part of a campaign. They include transactional, marketing, geo-based, andmore. Rich Push Notifications are full HTML Push Notifications. Mobile apps also
contain Interactive ads that appear inside the mobile application or app; Location-
Based Marketing: marketing messages delivered directly to a mobile device based
on the user's location; QR Codes (quick-response barcodes): This is a type of 2D
barcode with an encoded link that can be accessed from a smartphone. This
technology is increasingly being used for everything from special offers to product
information. Mobile Banner Ads: Like standard banner ads for desktop Web pages
but smaller to fit on mobile screens and run on the mobile content network
d). Direct Mail
The term "direct mail" is used to refer to communications sent to potential customers
or donors via the postal service and other delivery services. Direct mail is sent to
customers based on criteria such as age, income, location, profession, buying
pattern, etc.
Direct mail includes advertising circulars, catalogs, free-trial CDs, pre-approved credit
card applications, and other unsolicited merchandising invitations delivered by
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Push_Notifications&action=edit&redlink=1http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rich_Push_Notifications&action=edit&redlink=1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_mailhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchandisinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchandisinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_mailhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rich_Push_Notifications&action=edit&redlink=1http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Push_Notifications&action=edit&redlink=1 -
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mail to homes and businesses. Bulk mailings are a particularly popular method of
promotion for businesses operating in the financial services, home computer, and
travel and tourism industries.
In many developed countries, direct mail represents such a significant amount of the
total volume of mail that special rate classes have been established. In the United
States and United Kingdom, for example, there are bulk mail rates that enable
marketers to send mail at rates that are substantially lower than regular first-class
rates. In order to qualify for these rates, marketers must format and sort the mail in
particular ways which reduces the handling (and therefore costs) required by the
postal service. In the US, marketers send over 90 billion pieces of direct mail per
year.
Advertisers often refine direct mail practices into targeted mailing, in which mail is
sent out following database analysis to select recipients considered most likely to
respond positively. For example, a person who has demonstrated an interest
in golfmay receive direct mail for golf-related products or perhaps for goods and
services that are appropriate for golfers. This use of database analysis is a type of
database marketing. The United States Postal Service calls this form of mail
"advertising mail" (ad mail for short).
e). Telemarketing
Another common form of direct marketing is telemarketing, in which marketers
contact customers by phone. The primary benefit to businesses is increased lead
generation, which helps businesses increase sales volume and customer base. The
most successful telemarketing service providers focus on generating more "qualified"
leads that have a higher probability of getting converted into actual sales.
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The National Do Not Call Registry was created in 2003 to offer consumers a choice
whether to receive telemarketing calls at home. The FTC created the National Do
Not Call Registry after a comprehensive review of the Telemarketing Sales Rule
(TSR). The do-not-call provisions of the TSR cover any plan, program, or campaign
to sell goods or services through interstate phone calls. The provisions do not cover
calls from political organizations, charities, telephone surveyors, or companies with
which a customer has an existing business relationship.
Canada has its own National Do Not Call List (DNCL). In other countries it isvoluntary, such as the New Zealand Name Removal Service.
f). Voicemail Marketing
Voicemail marketing emerged out of the market prevalence of personal voice
mailboxes, and business voicemail systems. Voicemail marketing presented a cost
effective means by which to reach people directly, by voice. Abuse of consumer
marketing applications of voicemail marketing resulted in an abundance of "voice-
spam," and prompted many jurisdictions to pass laws regulating consumer voicemail
marketing. More recently, businesses have utilized guided voicemail (an application
where pre-recorded voicemails are guided by live callers) to accomplish personalized
business-to-business marketing formerly reserved for telemarketing. Because guided
voicemail is used to contact only businesses, it is exempt from Do Not Call
regulations in place for other forms of voicemail marketing. Voicemail courier is a
similar form of voicemail marketing with both business-to-business and business-to-
consumer applications.
g). Couponing
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Couponing is used in print and digital media to elicit a response from the reader. An
example is a coupon which the reader receives through the mail and takes to a
store's check-out counter to receive a discount.
Digital Coupons: Manufacturers and retailers make coupons available online for
electronic orders that can be downloaded and printed. Digital coupons are available
on company websites, social media outlets, texts, and email alerts. There are an
increasing number of mobile phone applications offering digital coupons for direct
use.
Daily Deal Sites offer local and online deals each day, and are becoming increasingly
popular. Customers sign up to receive notice of discounts and offers, which are sent
daily by email. Purchases are often made using a special coupon code or
promotional code. The largest of these sites, Groupon, has over 83 million
subscribers.
h). Direct Response TV
Direct marketing via television (commonly referred to as DRTV) has two basic forms:
long form (usually half-hour or hour-long segments that explain a product in detail
and are commonly referred to as infomercials) and short form, which refers to typical
30-second or 60-second commercials that ask viewers for an immediate response
(typically to call a phone number on screen or go to a website). TV-response
marketing i.e. infomercials can be considered a form of direct marketing, since
responses are in the form of calls to telephone numbers given on-air. This allows
marketers to reasonably conclude that the calls are due to a particular campaign, and
enables them to obtain customers' phone numbers as targets for telemarketing. One
of the most famous DRTV commercials was forGinsu Knives by Ginsu Products,
Inc. of RI. Several aspects of ad, such as its use of adding items to the
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offer and the guarantee of satisfaction were much copied, and came to be
considered part of the formula for success with short-form direct-response TV ads
(DRTV)
12.2. Why D2C for M-VAS company
Figure 8: VAS Value Chain
The main stakeholders involved in the VAS value chain are
Content copyright owners: At the first level of the MVAS value chain are the
content copyright owners, which develop original copyright content. Examples
include music production houses (SaReGaMa, Sony), Bollywood production houses
(Yash Raj Films), and media houses (Sony, Star, Zee, etc.)
Content portals/aggregators: These are individuals/ organizations that gather web
content and in some cases distribute content to suit customer needs. Examples
include Indiatimes and Hungama Mobile.
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Mobile operators: They provide transport and support mechanisms for delivery of
mobile content. Examples include Airtel, Reliance, BSNL, MTNL, Hutch, Idea
Cellular, etc.
Technology enablers: On the other end of the value chain are technology enablers.
These provide technology platforms that enable access to MVAS. Players include
OnMobile, Bharti Telesoft, Webaroo, etc.
Handset manufacturers: Mobile handset manufacturers have also started playing
an important role, through their interaction with all other stakeholders across thevalue chain. Their activities include embedding software links in their handsets,
allowing direct access to content portals, creating services customized to the need of
certain regions, etc. Key players in the Indian market include Nokia, Motorola, and
Samsung. According to above value chain Times Internet Ltd. Is content aggregator,
which provide M-VAS to operators or to handset manufacturers, but not directly to
end consumer, but still there is a need for direct to consumer marketing because of
following reasons:
Off Deck services: These services are carry the brand name of the service
developer. Usually, these do not have a presence on the Mobile screen and are
marketed directly by the third-party service provider. Examples of these services are
portals offered by providers such as Indiatimes, Television channels, newspapers,
and magazines. The service provider uses only operator infrastructure and billing
mechanism. Times Internet portal 58888 follows Off-deck model.
Mobile Operators and their representative bodies the COAI, AUSPI and others
mentioned repeatedly that the issue of VAS is an internal agreement with a vendor,
and TRAI should not get involved in commercial agreements or
negotiations. Reliance Communications dismissed it as well, saying that
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Negotiation is our right. However, the IAMAI and Atanu Mandal (President, ACL
Wireless), said that On-Deck and Off-deck services should be looked at differently.
On Deck services form a vendor agreement, but Off Deck has the has the branding
of the service provider.
Need for an Interconnect agreement and transparent costing:Ajay Vaishnavi,
Director Telecom for Times Internet (58888) said that there needs to be
transparency for an interconnect agreement between offdeck VAS companies and
the service providers. Operators should define a fixed cost Every operator prices
the same service differently to the consumer, so this confuses the consumer. The
costing should be transparent. (I think he was also hinting at cumbersome
negotiations for interconnect agreements).
Change in business model: Operators and MVAS companies hand-in-hand
discovered the quickest way to grow their revenues was not by trying to market
services that consumers actually wanted, but rather to play the dirty game of steal,
conceal and deny with mobile subscribers. It was way so much easier and faster
way to grow MVAS revenues for Operators and their partner MVAS companies.
Simply put, dip your hand (charging engine) and just take from the consumers wallet
(pre-paid balance).
The favorite services for activation without consent were subscription based
services. Operators and MVAS companies just loved them. Activate once, and then
sit back and watch the cash roll in month after month as it gets swiped from the
hapless subscriber. By the time the subscriber figured out theyd been robbed, then
they had an almost mission impossible to stop the theft never mind actually catch
the thief. By the time subscriber managed to get one service stopped another would
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appear like a virus you just couldnt kill off.
But then in 2011 as was inevitable subscriber growth slowed and that too quite
abruptly. There were hardly any new subscribers to target. At the same time existing
subscribers had wised up and were no longer such easy pickings.
Eventually, in 2011 things changed as TRAI started to crack the whip to find ways to
ensure consumers only got charged for services they asked for, and could easily
turn off the ones they didnt want. At the same time Operators finally realized there
were huge costs being incurred at their call centers just to deal with customer
complaints for incorrect charging of MVAS services. At the same time they realized
that it was no longer possible to grow MVAS revenue simply by riding on the growth
of new nave subscribers.So we moved to MVAS 2.0 in somewhere in latter part of
2011. The biggest impact of this shift has been its become much tougher to achieve
the same MVAS revenues as in the days of MVAS 1.0. In the world of MVAS 2.0,
MVAS companies are finding that an ever increasing amount of marketing resource
is needed to get even a modest level of consumer sign up to MVAS services.
High competition: There are more than hundred of companies which are offering
same type of services to the consumer so to differentiate themselves from the
crowd, intensive marketing is required.
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12.3. mGreet Lucknow campaign
Figure 9:Campaign Poster
Project assigned: To arrange a campaign at Lucknow
Theme of campaign: Mr & Ms Fresh
The campaign will be held in the top three colleges of Lucknow, in this student will
send a fresh thought/idea/prank to his/her friend through a mobile based greeting
platform m-Greet(a product by TIL).This campaign will be a week long which give
student chance to show their creativity skills, talent and sense of humor, help to
interact and make new friends in college and also give chance to win exciting and
cool gifts like mobile phone.
The freshest greeting will get a title ofMr. & Ms Fresh for one year.
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Steps considered in developing effective campaign
Identification of target audience: Determine who your target audience consists
of. Who is it that you want to reach with this campaign? What do you want
your key message to be? These are important question need to address
before planning a campaign. Here as per our product as well as the feedback
from customers, we identified youth from age 15 to 25 as a user of our
product, so we target colleges of lucknow for a campaign.
Determining the objective: The goal of campaign must be determine for
increasing its effectiveness, objective for our campaign are:
1) Increase awareness of m-Greet
2) Increase the usage of m-Greet
3) Create a buzz to create a viral marketing
Designing campaign: Develop your plan of attack. What communication
vehicles will you use to get your message to the public? Examples mayinclude:
o Press releases
o Articles
o Customer Success Stories
o Letters to the Editor
o Press Conferences, Interview, or Media Tours
o Radio, Television, or Press Interviews
o Seminars or Speaking Engagements
Time for campaign: Develop a schedule for your campaigns. Create
synergy by coinciding your campaign plan with other marketing and sales
efforts.
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Measuring result: After completion of campaign the result from campaign must
be compared with the objective of the campaigns.
List of major tasks performed for campaign:
Created theme for campaign
Prepared presentations to pitch colleges
Selecting colleges for campaign
Done tie-up with news channel for coverage of campaign
Selected event management agency to do on ground activity
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13. Limitation of project
The most accurate potential of a particular VAS product can be measured in terms
of ratios of circle wise P2A and A2P messaging data. However, since this data is
not freely available, therefore we adopted a secondary approach to capture
customers digital greeting preferences & their mobility profile by taking online and
telephonic feedback
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14. Conclusion & Recommendations
On the basis of greeting market, product & target market study combined with
customeranalytics some recommendations can be derived which are listed below:
Features:
1- We need to integrate the product to social media so as to harness its full potential.
Right now only mGreet website enables us to do so, however we must do this for
IVR as well.
Note: Feature Prioritization can be done on the basis of Feature Matrix in Table 1
Alliances:
1- mGreet is one of its kind mobile VAS product in India, however considering the
greeting preferences of Indian customers we need to develop a robust alliance
network for gifting alliances like Ferns & Petals, Archies, HallMark as well as we
need to cross-sell other VAS services related to greetings which might be of
interest to consumer.
2- Gifting alliances with third-parties for greeting cards, gifts, pre-paid cash cards will
help us to target the corporate sector through which we can earn guaranteed
revenue.
Technology:
1- Considering the era of 3G and pipelined 4G, we should consider enhancing our
technological framework so as to enable customers to send customized video
greetings.
2- Use of Location based services can be instrumental in alliances with Big Retail
chains like Pantaloons etc in India who have a huge customer base, with which
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