Book Review - Big Billion Startup (Flipkart Story)

Finished this book on audible recently - Big Billion Startup by Mihir Dalal. Its actually is like an action packed thriller!

If you are interested in indian startup space and want to go down memory lane on how 2 young IITians built this behemoth, its a must read. And it has lot of learnings to pick from.

Listing some of my key takeaways -

1. Never trash a sounding unrealistic idea (because its against conventional wisdom) - When one of the senior folks at Flipkart floated the idea of exclusivity (as a marketplace); it was laughed at. But later it became a mega trend with Motorola and Xiaomis where phones got sold in lakhs in minutes!

2. Self-belief and confidence of positive feedback from customers can give immense power to founders in this case to not exit early! Bansals were given cheap exit offers (though good prices) but they stuck thier guns.

3. Vision enables you to take bold bets. Due to Sachin's vision and trend spotting in data (that bulk of shopping will move to app) led him to declare an app only strategy which was ridiculed at that time.

4. Having one day as a non-operations day where thinktank just debates future is a plus. Else, most days and nights in a startup goes in firefighting.

and many more. 

I thoroughly loved it.Recommend!

#flipkart #ecommerce #book

Book Review - No Limits by Mukesh Bansal

No Limits – A book on performance optimization of our lives with tools & maintenance manual for the billion dollar body – body, mind & soul.

If you are always intrigued about how to pack a lot more productivity in your days and are tired of tracking & testing hacks that listicles & gurus keep sharing; this is your encyclopedia.

Mukesh Bansal, founder behind Myntra & Cure.fit; at least packs 25+ good book learnings into this one in a bid to decode a manual to draw max out of life.

And its not just around health & fitness (diet, habit building); it also addresses mind & soul with mindfulness, meditation, creativity & purpose search. A simple read with at least 50 productivity hacks peppered across text for people who want to skim through.

Here are some gems from the book –

Ø Thoughts around plasticity of brain & body – Humans have spent 90% time on earth as hunter gathers & 10% working in agricultural fields; thus to believe you are too old to pick up a musical instrument at 40 is naïve. Your mind is plastic to learn at any age.

Ø What's needed to max performance – Deliberate Practice, Ignition, master coach, mindset (growth), will power, creativity & meaningful purpose.

Ø In life, in every sphere you can apply Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey – aspiration, odds, evil, effort, coach, right path, victory.

Ø Deliberate practice is all about those 10,000 hrs narrative to master anything.

Ø Ignition triggers our practice – inspiration from an idol, environment, parents etc.

Ø A master coach often shortens your journey with correction/feedback on practice.

Ø Strong mind & body together work to boost your muscle you flex most (to make it stronger).

Ø Sleep is a key maintenance process to boost performance.

Ø Meditation helps us to attain higher freq of brain activity associated with bliss.

Ø Mindset decides whether we work on ourselves to grow Vs believe its all about innate talent and stay stale.

Ø Will power keeps you going despite distractions during deliberate practice. It is cultivated with 3 drivers of sleep, fitness & food.

Ø One needs to taste, read & experience different things/fields to boost creativity.

Ø By understanding and channeling all the power of your mind and body into your true purpose, you can make magical things happen in your life.

New Email Marketing 101 - courtesy Zomato

In today's times of social media's organic reach diminishing day by day; its important that brands work on their email marketing and website which are true Owned channels for securing future. Zomato has been upping its Email Marketing Game with superb content marketing as its lever.

Stories which are engaging and relevant to its audience - either around the category, target audience's life or topical trends. And while telling stories on the above themes, it keeps a razor sharp focus on the soul of the story - brand essence. The content creator thinks - "how would the funny savior of hungry/bored souls - brand Zomato" would interpret a particular trend/event? And that's where the tone of voice, the quips, the wits, follows! This is super evident in its creatives across channels - social, email, digital etc. This is the power of Content Marketing done right from a Brand. 

Here i am putting 4 Great examples of unexpected pieces of content in Emails from Zomato -

1. Slice of Customer Life X Zomato

Subject - Leaked! Zomato WhatsApp Chat
Creative - This long chat inside.
Content - Topical & Customer Life X Zomato

What i loved was that email didn't even talk about food/food delivery (category) in this long chat. It hits the topical mark and is full of brand attitude even without talking about what brand is or does! Its funny and enables a great connect with "working audience" which is the TG. This audience goes through such life dramas daily in work groups, brought beautifully in this creative by Zomato.

2. Bollywood X Zomato

Subject - Agar tumne aaj order nahin kiya toh...
Creative - Red & White + Dialogue + Code
Content - Bollywood X Zomato

Inspired by Bollywood dialogues, Zomato has sent many emails with a quirky subject line forcing a bollywood fan to open the email. And within email, lies the complete story + incentive. A great way to push open rates and also to drive traffic with coupon codes; a new way to help businesses get rid of those transactional coupon code emailers.

3. Music X Zomato

Subject - Tere bin nahin lagda 

Creative - Red & White + Food image + Code 
Content - Music X Zomato

Here using Music as another lever; Zomato flips uninteresting "Miss You" Emailers into interesting ways to connect with consumers.

4. Fun X Zomato 

Subject - Our copywriter is on leave this week

Creative - Red & White + Story completion + Code
Content - Music X Bollywood

These are genuine ways to tell funny stories. Why would a consumer expect such an email from a brand. And that pushes the curiosity to open the email.

I have just selected 4 of such emailers that i keep receiving from Zomato; but most of the times, they ensure that i try to open the email. Opening emails from them definitely brings a chuckle, whether i order or not. But many a times when i order, i open Zomato by default. Such is the connection, a brand can establish with focused efforts to push a metric; here for example is Open Rates. And the levers used are - Content Marketing anchored in Brand essence and yet always being relevant to target audience. 

Conversely, you receive umpteen emailers on festivals, New Years written exactly the same way by many brands across categories - "This (Festival Name), celebrate with (Brand Name) & get (Offer)". I have also been a culprit in initial years of my career, there :)

- Please note that its not a paid partnership :). I am a Zomato Pro/Gold member for years and this is an honest confession by a customer/marketer.

-Nitin

Marketing Books read in 2020 - #1 "Hooked" - Key Takeaways

2020 had been another great year where I read more books rather than just buying them. Read some insightful books on business and Marketing. 

Here are quick takeaways from "Hooked" - by Nir Eyal; a superb book on understanding what is needed to be coded in products to make them habit forming for consumers resulting in high LTVs and high loyalty. Must read for folks in #Marketing or #Product Management.

The habit loop has been covered in many books earlier, but the investment leg in the loop is something worth noting as to why with time an app or product becomes more sticky!

Loved Nir's earlier book as well 'Indistractable' which was on how to keep urself focused and not distracted by habit forming products.

Key Takeaways -

Which Marketing/Business book you recommend?

#books #marketing #brands #consumer #psychology #productmanagment 

Why Kelloggs Upma or Maggi's Poha make perfect sense?

#Kelloggs Upma or #Maggi's Poha make perfect sense!

The brand known for being no 1 Breakfast brand with its cold breakfast offerings - corn flakes, muesli; launched Upma recently in India. This drove a huge wave of Indian-proud #memes that the #brand which wanted to change how Indians have hot breakfast had to change itself :)

 But thinking 1 level deep, for a brand like Kellogg's or say Nestle's Maggi who has established good #DISTRIBUTION over decades of existence, known for international standards of #QUALITY & nutrition as well as #EQUITY for its brands; does it not make sense to enter new adjacent category? For Kellogg's, its still its own breakfast category!

 If the choice is between lesser known brands like Mom, Mother's and popular ones like MTR, Kellogg, Maggi in a supermarket; chances would be that one would pick the more familiar one! Power of first 3 factors mentioned above.

Kellogg's also would score high #brandequity on 'Fit & healthy' - the same elements that a consumer is looking for, when he is looking for Upma apart from AUTHENTIC #TASTE which brands have to really pass test on.

Maggi we swear by, or Bata we believe as Desh ka Joota are both foreign brands. Only time will tell.

#Marketing #Consumer #Foods #India

Follow #therunningmarketer for my updates

What you achieve in life depends on how you treat your TEA!

What you achieve in #Life depends on how you treat your #TEA

Time. Energy. Attention

#Time - How do u spend your daily 24 hrs have a direct impact on what results you get. Do u spend large chunks of time getting sucked on your phone watching photos on fb/reading watsapp chat? Spending much time on your couch vs a workout/book; then blaming OTT? 

👍Tip - Keep track of your time that it goes where u want. Guard ur time and time block ur schedule.

#Energy - In the finite time we have everyday, we can get more done if we have higher velocity enabled by loads of energy.

👍Tip - Add an active life element (choose a physical workout - gym, run, yoga etc) + better food habits and stick to timely food. It will work wonders to your energy while u crack ur tasks.

#Attention - Attention is precious for you to focus on whats at hand. The precious zone of flow, that u enter when working on something u enjoy. But sadly, this attention goes for a toss due to calls, notifications on ur phone, mind that opens chat or opens email again and again.

👍Tip - Block all notifications on phone. Practise mindfulness. Are u experiencing what u r doing or just losing time? Enjoy what u r doing. Be present.

Do u have more #tips to boost ur #productivity? Share. #work #wfh 

#therunningmarketer

Rural India is the new oasis for internet businesses!

#Rural  or #Bharat will drive internet businesses faster than Urban. Why & How?

👍There are more rural internet users are there (227 mn vs 205 mn urban - 2019 stat) and growing faster.

👍More young internet enabled audience is in rural than urban which would drive growth. (Between 12-30 yrs of age, rural % is higher).

👍 As bulk of this internet enablement is via #mobile broadband; learning is to keep devices/#smart tech dependent on mobile broadband vs fixed ones as of today. This will enable higher penetration vs just wired broadband homes which is miniscule. 

👍The Rural opportunity brings in avenues of #content being '#local' and in 'local language'. For eg, #OTT players would churn more such content to expand the market. 

👍 Internet enabling devices (mobile/#PC/tablets) need to offer affordable solutions for viewing content (big screens, lower computing may be). Laptops to evolve against smartphones or else not capture this market.

👍 #IoT currently is in a frivolous space, it needs to become 'necessary' rather than 'good to have' in consumer's lives. From a voice enabled music player to an enabler of education(kids) or of necessacity (older folks).

Have u seen more such opportunities? 

#consumer #tech #internet #Marketing #smart #therunningmarketer

Surprising Brand Collectibles - From a car branded tequila to pizza blanket!

Surprising Brand Collectibles!

Brand love can make brands to come up with unthinkable limited edition merchandise not even adjacent to the categories they operate in or want to extend thier brand in.

But still consumers love such surprises from brands - be it Tesla Tequilla in a signature bottle making an april fool joke come alive or now an Orginal Pan Pizza Blanket made by Pizza hut in association with Gravity Blankets!

Tesla Tequila has been sold out ($250) and is in great demand as per online articles. The Pan Pizza blanket has been launched recently selling at $150.

Which brands come to your mind where they have done the unthinkable and taken consumers by sweet surprise?

 #brand #marketing #pizzahut #tesla #tequila #blanket 

 #therunningmarketer

Your Product is a Vitamin or a Painkiller - Is it habit forming one?

Recently finished Hooked - How to build habit forming products by Nir Eyal. Have earlier read multiple books on habits, but first time on habit forming products. Its also a must read book for tech product managers. I loved it and recommend to marketers as well, here is a concept of product being a vitamin or a painkiller.

Products are seen as either pain killers (solves a problem u are facing and hence a must-have for target audience - If u have a headache, you require a painkiller; solving a functional need) or vitamins (enables u to become stronger to not face problems later and hence not important to use/acquire immediately). Companies love to have their products become painkillers because then they have a quantifiable market to capture.

To make your product a habit forming one, it needs to be both pain killer and vitamin. Eg. Facebook is a pain killer or vitamin? One can live without it, but provides a good benefit to stay connected with friends. (Vitamin). But after having connected with most friends and pages, it now provides me real time updates, pics and videos that it now has become my boredom killer (painkiller, pain being boredom or even feeling of missing out). So most social media platforms aspire to be in this space of being both a vitamin and a painkiller.

Lets see some other product category -shopping apps? Painkiller or Vitamin? Its a painkiller when I have an itch to buy something i need; on other days its forgotten. It doesn't have that vitamin promise to use everyday (like Facebook). Then, what should shopping apps do to make users visit more often with a habit? Send more notifications to tell about more styles to shop, or deals which are ending by the night? No, that would work only a few times and then u will loose these levers if used rampantly. Then?

Become more emotional than transactional. How? Here are few of my thoughts -

1. Become an Enabler; a Guru imparting wisdom they need - If yours is a fashion category, put up educational content on fashion - styling tips, mixing and matching, current trends, look-books. Get even influencers on the platform to impart this category wisdom; a Rajeev Makhani reviewing products on the platform will add to stickiness. Great Content on a shopping app - Firstcry.com becomes your go to place on baby related queries.

2. Become a Friend; who understands 'the consumer' - Personalize the solve your consumer is looking for. Telling me when i need something the most - Suggestions of gifts for my anniversary (7 days before so that I don't miss it), telling me about the new CSK T-shirt or memorabilia that has come (watch history on partner app/shopping history) or book recommendations from my favorite author (from my shopping history/Wishlist) and so on. Not lame personalization like the Diwali catalogue on Diwali.

3. Become a Community; standing for a common cause in the category/audience and solving consumer pain points. A brand who patiently listens to consumer's trials/tribulations in the category. You might get to know some problems which haven't been solved and can open a niche not served yet. You can even co-create with your users to solve and even empowering them. Consumers come forward to contribute to a cause that they relate to. Further, adding to the stickiness of your app. Some of the strongest community apps/brands take part in your journey to become better - Nike+, Redbull.

Pitfalls - 

1. Point system building Loyalty - Common knowledge tells that points system is a big driver of stickiness or building habits to the app. But that might be history. Consumer today is more fickle for a brand she can trust than loyal to 25 paisa points. Brands today build benefits in their offerings that alleviates the pain faster - Amazon's faster shipping as part of Prime program is that. Even Prime Video alleviates the pain of boredom; bundled in the program.

2. More things added on the platform to build frequency - Another pitfall in my opinion is adding too many functionalities on the app to make consumer come back for one thing or other; might not be right strategy. This can lead to confusion on the interface vs simplicity that alleviates consumer pain of finding a solve sooner. 

What do you think are more drivers of making your app/product both a vitamin and a painkiller? Share your thoughts.

#product #marketing #habits #vitamin #painkiller #growth #book

From ATMs to Wallets to UPI - Structural changes Vs Cashbacks

#UPI beats wallets/card transaction and even ATM withdrawals for the first time and logs 2 bn transactions in a month!

We need to bring in structural changes vs temporary cashbacks.

#Demonetization moved us from ATMs/Cash to Wallets. Irrespective of difficult interfaces.

#Coronavirus moved us to UPI. Now u don't carry ur cash to ur everyday store. Phone is enough. Small retailers helped us in adapting to this change - they changed for us to pay without ill effects of touching cash/card.

#Cashbacks/incentives don't change our habits permanently. Sometimes, we may use one app over another basis offers but in long run it would be dependent on ease of use once macro environment has enabled the need.

Ease of use will determine long term usage. How frustration free is the journey of paying on the app and in least no of clicks to completion. Not the colour of app, or celeb promoting it; but #consumerexperience. The communication helps in making you reach more users who would try to use it once, but it better meet the test of #easeofuse first else the brand might loose me forever.

I wrote earlier on this blog about how digital transactions are helping consumers as well as retailers to offer better products and better personalized experiences Vs cash. Read about it - here

#product #marketing #fintech