Content is present, Dynamic Content, the future

I have been questioned many time in terms of how social media and web crawlers make life different in the business growth of a firm. The answer is simple. If somebody needs something, they go looking for it. Now, if somebody has that something, it has to be made available all the time. It is a question of 'search and find', that is availability of supply of a product or service, when somebody needs ( demand) it.

Now this concept of 'web search' and 'social media' have evolved into SEO and SMM - that is use of the right words, to create awareness about your presence, your product and your availability. Now that is an 'as-is, where-is' approach - that is show what you have, then the web and Social Media pick them up for a possible customer to look for.

Now, that addresses the place and the time element. What is missing is anticipation. Now, if I have a product that is still finding its market, or I have an idea which is ahead of its time, or I am niche, I would have to play the 'content' card carefully. Because, creating awareness is one thing, anticipative revenue out of it is different.

Dynamic content is the future

Consider this situation - there are so many product companies evolving now in India. Each product addresses a specific challenge, and this challenge itself is not known to people. I have put my website, I have the SEO champs grind words across, but what is key is that - whether people know about challenge itself to buy the product. And if you dig deep, we will actually discover that a 'content road map' emerges.

A content road map is to understand where the customer / industry / market lies presently and how progressively the market can be moved to create interest in the challenges, and therefore the benefits a product evolves. This can be done through dynamic content - through an organized content strategy.
The key design objective of dynamic content is the feedback from the audience - or people who we are looking to engage. This audience group will also shift, expand and change over a period of time. Hence the content road map, addresses both dynamism of both content and audience.
The future of anticipative, proactive marketing will be dynamic content.

For more on dynamic content strategies - please write to ashok@cherunathury.com

(C) Cherunathury Tech Ventures  2014
www.cherunathury.com 

E-commerce: The Middle Man and the Contractor

This year, 2014, will be the turn around for retail in India.  More than 10% of Indians now shop online.   Now online is basically a program of the 

E-commerce: New ways in the market place

We are experiencing it real time.  The big change is happening, this year, in India.  India's prime minister Modi announced that there is a huge investment for Digital India.  

Few of the customers I have work with have come with a very simple phenomenon - there is a need - typically a demand, and there is a supply, and let us connect both.  In short,  a market place concept holds the modus-operandi for any idea going online.

The major factor in a market place idea is that you are connecting supply and demand, and this essentially means that you are not holding any inventory or rendering any actual service,but only enabling the transaction.  The idea of market place has evolved from our typical 'Santhe' concept, as it is called in Kannada.  In South India, we have this concept where every weekend, the vegetable sellers, hawkers come together in a flea market type of arrangement, typically an open ground, and the buyers go shopping. 

E commerce have challenges of service and cannot always replace
a smell-and-touch experience of real shopping

The idea has matured now - you can shop from home, and the shopped items are delivered at your door step.  How convenient?  Online market place models have become inconvenient to the extent of reducing commute, parking problems, avoiding the curious shopping steward who walks behind you, and more importantly, saving time.  

From a customer point of view, there are two major issues that need to be resolved.  One is how would service be rendered for an online purchased item?  For example, when I go to a dealer's show room I get all information about how the product would be installed and all the petty questions.  I would miss that in a purchase from flipkart or snapdeal.  The 'crib quotient' and the ' bargain quotient' misses from the bucket, as I fondly remember. 

Another factor, is the tactile and olfactory feeling is missed.  The visual and aural ( the look and the sound of it all) is achieved by stronger techniques, but the real purchase satisfaction of the world economy - touching a fabric, and olfactory - the smell, if you are buying a perfume, will be missed.   I don't see any technology in the horizon to resolve this issue. 

My online experience started with paying bills, and really indeed saved time in the queue.  Then I ordered few items of the shopping cart, and it did go well.  No complaints.   

More on some of the experiences later.  But how did you start to shop online?  Do you miss the old fashioned touch and smell purchase?  And shop for that little discount, at the end, for the heck of it. 

 Share your feedback. 

HAPPY DIWALI  FOLKS!  HAPPY SHOPPING - ONLINE and OTHERWISE!

- Ashok Subramanian

(c) Cherunathury Tech Ventures 2014