Deepak Panigrahy
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Category Archives: Sales

Welcome Back

Posted on by Posted in Life, Management, Marketing, People Management, Personal, Pre-Sales, Product Management, Product Marketing, Sales, Technology Leave a comment

It has been a long time. My sincere apologies for staying out for such a long time. Life has been hectic both on professional and personal front.

On personal front, I got married to a beautiful lady. After knowing her for some time, I felt we understood each other well enough to take that extra step in our lives. We, finally, tied the knot in January. Therefore, January became a landmark month in my life – my month of birth and marriage.

On professional front, it was a very hectic yet a huge learning experience. The transition from Oracle to Nevales was very satisfying yet full of learning. August was full of roller coaster. After a brief introduction to the product, I was thrown into the wild sea with no one to assist and let me know how to sail through. I prepared the Product Functional Specification in a span of 10-15 days. Due to busy schedule of the then CTO, I was thrown into a sea of dangerous tides. I had my first OEM partnership negotiations without anyone in the meeting. Though my initial interaction with my CEO helped me to position myself and Nevales, Honestly speaking, I was sweating before those call. At the end of these calls, I became confident as these meetings and discussions went ahead. These meetings and interactions made me very confident in pitching things. Later in September, the CTO of the company got fired and things fell back on to us. With lot of deliverables and huge responsibility falling back, it was crucial. I hired one of my very close friend from Bangalore and we started working towards making the impossible.

So, lets try to understand the prior scenario. There was only Johan, one of my great friends today, working in the technical team. Two finance persons, 4 support, 4 sales and 1 pre-sales. Customer base was about 40 then. Let us try how Nevales happened. Nevales started by acquiring Syntensia and what I could not understand till date was how can a product company run without technical team.

There had been absolutely no major development activity in the product since the acquisition. I took over and tried to re-architecture the product. I, successfully, convinced the management and re-designed the model. After hardship and late nights, the product was re-launched in its new avataar – Device + Cloud Architecture. For the first time ever, Cloud concept was leveraged to manage and administer UTMs. With the new concept, we were able to launch the product in January.

What was different? In addition to some new features such as HTTPS Blocking, DDNS Support, 3G Dongle Support in the form of Reliance NetConnect and Tata Photon+, the cloud concept was a big differentiation. We were able to remove the redundancy of extra Centralized Management and Reporting like appliances from our competitors by taking the services and manageability to the cloud. The concept was new and was very well appreciated by the SMB. SMEs and SMBs loved the concept when we launched it with the “Pay as You” go model. At the very outset, I have no hesitation to accept that the current technology of UTM product is still that of the early 2000 but the cloud concept makes it a very attractive solution to very naive SMBs. UI took a bog leap in user experience and look and feel.

Even after the launch, the kick-off was not smooth. Sales dipped and pre-sales did not accept the model easily. Post Sales Support team showed heavy opposition. But then I pitched in with the development team. Meanwhile, the technical team grew from 2 to 5 in India and I started taking active role in product marketing and sales and pre-sales activity. Last month, technical team did all the demonstration and PoCs. I, personally, traveled to Chennai, Bangalore and Pune in addition to handling PoCs in Mumbai.

Last month, I, also chased down successfully the biggest order in the history of company with Brand Marketing India. BMI is the premium retail dealer of Calvin Klein and French Connections in India. Thanks to our star Sales person, Ranjit Bhatti, who has become a very dear friend here. Th year ended with a biggest month is the history of our company and I felt very good to be part of this deal from day 1 till the closure. I will describe the Pre-Sales, Sales and Negotiations and People Management in separate posts.

In the meanwhile, I traveled various cities presenting the product and company at Chennai, Bangalore, Pune and Mumbai. It was wonderful experience interacting with Partners and prospective customers.

I promise to update my blog regularly and keep you all updated with my learnings and experiences.

~ DP

Facebook Deals: What does it mean?

Posted on by Posted in Advertisement, Business, Entrepreneurship, Events, Facebook, Fun, Google, India, Inspiration, Management, Marketing, Sales, Social Networking, Success, Technology, Twitter, US Economy, USA, Views Leave a comment

Did you hear? Facebook declared its royal entry today with Facebook Deals. What does it mean? At the very outset, it sent warning signals to all heavyweight champion startups like groupon, deals2buy, buy, snapdeals and many more. Lets try to understand why I feel Facebook has a huge potential to grab the market from its competitors. Facebook Deals was not new to me and I was aware of its arrival 2-3 months back when I first received notification from Facebook directly. Somehow, either Facebook likes my blog or has been kind enough to let me know of its deal arrival. I take this opportunity to thank Facebook for it.

Firstly, Facebook today boosts of one of the biggest user base in the world. There is no doubt about it. This is definitely a big advantage for facebook. Personally, I don’t have such a huge network on any other social networking platform that I have ever used. moreover, I can trust my facebook friends because I don’t connect with anyone I don’t know or I did not have proper introduction. So, in terms of deals, it is win-win for both facebook and its users.

Secondly, have you ever noticed the power of facebook? People who have never done so, I would recommend them to put an eye on Facebook Stories. Why? Just a quick glance can give you enough hints of what I am trying to say. These are the personal stories of people how Facebook has assisted them to remain or find close friends and/or relatives. Such stories have give strong personal and emotional attachment to the huge success of Facebook (Don’t foregt after all, we are all humans and we are emotional beings who can think and act).

Thirdly, we have seen how Facebook positioned itself in terms of advertising space. I believe if I am not wrong, Facebook has one of the costly advertisement pricing policy over Internet today but still they manage to make money out of it. Facebook Credits have been extremely successful and I have observed a lot of startups being built on those aspects. Facebook Credits in itself has created ahuge market for advertising in itself.

Clearly, the above three strong reasons makes Facebook one of the strongest brand of the world today. So, why groupon like companies will struggle?

Before we try to throw a light on the above question, I must say that I feel the timing of Groupon IPO has been perfect. If it would have been delayed further, it would have lost a lot due to this step of Facebook. So, Groupon’s entry and its decision to go for IPO could not have been better. Companies like Groupon, snap deals will struggle now. I believe that with such a huge user space, more companies will trust Facebook blindly and it will depend on little bot of effort from facebook to get the things going and if it could trigger the deal sales, it will grow like a wild fire.

So, where are we heading up to? I see the competition to get more fierce in coming times. I would not be surprised if Amazon, Google, InMobi like players join the war. I, also, see a lot of acquisitions happening in this space. What does it mean to the customers or people like us? Shop in  Group or with friends and get the maximum value of each penny spent. A Big Win-Win for billions of people around the world. The World is really going flatter, as predicted.

The one space that I feel needs that real can be explored is the location and real-time price comparison of products in a certain area. Foursquare is closely following on this road but there is still of work to be done there. But the pace that we are seeing today, it won’t be too late before we see this voidness also vanish in no time.

Google & InMobi

Posted on by Posted in Advertisement, Africa, Apple, Bay Area, Business, China, Entrepreneurship, Events, General, Google, IIT, India, Indian Economy, Inspiration, iPhone, IPL, ISB, Management, Marketing, Sales, Success, US Economy, USA, Views Leave a comment

Today, as I was reading through the article about InMobi, an Indian startup that has been consistently getting rave reviews in the market. I have been always been a huge fan of Young Turks and that is one thing which has always inspired and motivated me through thick and thin lines of my career and I am sure it will continue to do so. I take this opportunity to thank CNBC TV18 for such an amazing program. But this article is not about CNBC TV18, it is about InMobi.

Till early this year, I don’t know why but I never heard about this startup at all. But with this article, I was refreshed about my memory of InMobi when I first heard about it in January. As I browsed through their website today, it was a great feeling. Time is changing and so does the tides have started to flow from the reverse direction. Gone were those days when the market was driven from developed countries like USA. I was not fortunate to be in the Silicon Valley because I still pity on those people who go for monotonous jobs in the Silicon Valley but I can definitely fortunate to be at a place where markets are being driven today and I see that happening more often from hereon. This whole thing is exciting and being an aspiring Entrepreneur, I do look forward to jumping into this sea sometime soon. InMobi is a classic example of what I am talking about, Naveen Tiwari – an IIT graduate going for his MBA at Harvard Business School and then returning back after a brief stint to drive a business from India.

Let us take a look at the Mobile Advertising industry and InMobi today in this post.

InMobi:

  • InMobi started as Mkhoj. I remember using it occasionally earlier but I rarely used Internet on mobile phones those days. What amazed me with InMobi was not only they were smart to tap into an opportunity but also re-built their whole business from scratch even after Mkhoj. I have always believed that Entrepreneurs should always be smart to tap opportunities in the market and should not resist change and that is what defines leadership. Leaders don’t talk about existing systems and processes but they talk about how the system can be challenged for the good. Resisting change is not the sign of growth and prosperity. In my view, InMobi led this aspect by a perfect example.
  • The 60:40 revenue model is very exciting. Basically, InMobi connects the advertisers and publisher. Naveen mentioned in his interview that if $100 comes from the advertiser, InMobi gives $60 to the publisher, keeping $40 within itself. According to me, before hearing to this numbers, I never believed that a high share as much as 40% could be made this way. There are lot of players who are into advertising domains and the most common of them are the ones who divert traffic to certain blogs. But honestly speaking, I never heard of anyone mentioning as high percentage of share as 40% earlier. Kudos to the InMobi team for pulling this through.
  • The Management team of InMobi comes from varied backgrounds like MBAs, BTechs from top class schools like IITs, ISB, XLRI, HBS and XLRI to name a few. This makes the team very strong. I am not surprised why such a team should not get funded and especialy when they are doing so good.
  • InMobi has given companies like Google run for its money. InMobi is in over 140 countries in the world today serving ads to over 200 million users uniquely every month across the globe. In Japan and Europe, it is number 2. In United States where we have entered about 7-8 months ago, it is number 3 or number 4 in the market.  Isn’t it really interesting? Yes it is.
  • Naveen already talked about acquisitions and according to him, InMobi will be acquiring its first company in 3-4 months. Amazing work and my prediction is that they might either buy someone in the US or China/Korea. Why US? Because by buying in US, InMobi can give the open war with Google and Apple in the market. With Google buying AdMob and Apple buying Quattro Wireless, it will be a very good competition to watch for when an Indian company declaring big on the US shores. Why China/Korea? Because InMobi has expansion plans in these areas because of obvious big user space. Acquiring a company in China/Korea can give InMobi quick access to its vast market.
  • For people interested in this space, I would strongly recommend to go through some of the case studies of InMobi. Some of the case studies are quite appealing. I have a personal experience of their presence with Reebok T-Shirt ad during IPL and I quite enjoyed it. Going through the other case studies could give very nice perspectives.

Lets now come to the Mobile Advertising space, in general. I know that there is a lot of buzz in the air for mobile startups. With official launch of 3G in India, the whole VC industry and Entrepreneurs are going ga-ga over it. Even one of my own initiatives, might go that way in future but as of now, I am closely watching this space. One more addition to this space, would be tablets. Android and Apple are going to have an awesome time of their life. The curiosity to explore this space has made me to buy a 3G phone and have also, recently ordered iPad 2 for my own person experiments. More on the personal front, sometime later but lets try to put some interesting facts that I collected while reading through the consumer and market trend reports of InMobi. Kindly remember these facts are directly taken from the reports of InMobi website and I hold no guarantee of correctness of data.

  • Informa Telecoms & Media estimates that the global mobile data services market , including mobile advertising, was worth
    U.S. $224 billion in 2010. Over the next four years the market will increase to U.S. $340 billion in 2014.
  • 15 emerging countries – China, India, Indonesia, South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Russia, Poland and Ukraine – offer substantial investment opportunities for the telecom and advertising industries due to the sheer volume of mobile subscriptions in these markets, and continuing mobile penetration. It is not surprising to note that 30% of mobile data services revenues were generated by these 15 countries in 2010. So, what do you feel is driving these revenues in these countries? Obviously, the low cost feature-rich mobile phones. Visit India and watch any person, to day there might be more mobile phones in India than the toilets.
  • According to Informa, the mobile phone subscriber market of India and China alone will be around 734 million in 2014 from 334 million in 2010.
  • Informa also quotes that the global mobile advertising revenues will rise from $3.5 Bn in 2010 to $24 Bn by 2015, with Asia Pacific contributing to 31% of the share, led by India and China.
  • InMobi research gives very impressive signals on usage of mobile advertisements by consumers when they get free apps or 10% discount on their phone bill. A significant number of consumers might also be attracted to personalized ads. At the same time, consumers have been found to have less attention to free and useful ads.
  • Comfort level of consumers with the mobile advertisements is one of the biggest strong findings in the InMobi research. People seem to be very comfortable rather being apprehensive.
  • InMobi grew by 21% from December, 2010 to March, 2011 giving strong signals of global rise in mobile advertising industry.
  • The Key driver of markets now is the smartphones, which in itself grew by 34%.
  • Android took over as the most used OS over iPone OS. Nokia OS still continues to lead the market share but Android and iPhone are closing on it. The recent Nokia-Microsoft Partnership is a clear example of worries of Nokia losing its mobile platform share rapidly.
  • Android and Apple are clear favorites in the OS platform in both Europe and US while Apple is the largest manufacturer of mobile phones in both US and Europe. The market of US is primarily driven by smartphones where the growth is as high as 50% in the 90 days with Apple growing the most due to its tie-up with Verizon.

Personally, overall, I feel mobile advertising space is going to be a very interesting space to look forward to. I feel more and more Indian companies are going to give US companies a run for its money in future. Its the time for India and we are stepping into a golden era. More companies like InMobi are going to start from emerging markets to penetrate later into developed markets of US, Japan and Europe. I see a brand new Silicon Valley being built but this time, we will be in the driver seat. I would love to see the next “Black Swan” of this world happening from India and I hope to be part of this amazing event.

References:

  1. CNBC TV18 Naveen’s Interview on Young Turks – http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/check-out-who-is-giving-googlerun-for-its-money_537155.html
  2. InMobi Company – http://www.inmobi.com/
  3. InMobi Research – http://www.inmobi.com/research/
  4. InMobi Company – http://www.inmobi.com/company/
  5. InMobi Blog – http://www.inmobi.com/inmobiblog/

Forget NBA, NFL: IPL is Future?

Posted on by Posted in Bolloywood, Business, Films, India, IPL, Marketing, Sales, Sports, Success, Twitter, Views Leave a comment

For people who don’t know IPL, IPL is today’s money making machine in the sports arena. IPL aka Indian Premier League is the largest sports (cricket) entertainment in terms of money and entertainment. Now, the idea of IPL is not new. It exists in various forms of other games like basketball (NBA), soccer, football (NFA) and many more. So, what makes IPL the most popular game.

  • Cricket: Cricket is one of the craziest games of many countries especially in Asia. Go to any nook and corner of the countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and you will find kids and people playing cricket with a bat and ball. Very few them make it to the playing 11 of the team but to be 11, is like a dream come true for anyone. In India, cricketers and film stars are like demi-gods. If one legend dies, the whole country goes down in no time. If India gives one bad performance in a cricket match, the effigies are burnt. One would be surprise to know that we have temples to worship cricketers and film stars. Moreover, IPL paved the way for shortest version of cricket games: 20-over bringing the excitement right onto the audience
  • Entertainment: Cheer-leading has never been a profession earlier in India but it is one now. How can someone forget the Knight Riders’ team Cheer-leading Reality Show. Additionally, not to forget the eminent filmstars associated with IPL: Preity Zinta, Shilpa Shetty and many more. Not to forget how dozens more flock around during the matches to promote themselves and their movies.

The marriage of above two fields. Cricket and Entertainment was deadly and that drove the whole nation crazy. Of course, one might say the business model is not new. There is nothing innovative. Of course, yes. I do agree but then no one introduced the concept better than IPL. And let us accept the fact: almost all our business models are the borrowed concepts from abroad: well tested and proven because we, Indians,  (most of us) are not risk-takers by nature.

Today, IPL has emerged as the biggest and largest money spinner in its genre in the sports domain surpassing all NBA and NFL. Last year, its brand value was estimated to be $4.13 Bn and with the addition of two new franchisees, it is going to be more this year. Let us look at the some of the auction highlights of this year:

  • A total of 127 players were sold in the two-day auction at the ITC Gardenia hotel in Bangalore, while 12 players were originally retained by the franchises ahead of the auction.
  • Deccan Chargers have 14 players, spending $6,875,000 and keeping $2,125,000 still to spend. Dale Steyn ($1.2 mn) and Cameron White ($1.1 mn) were the costliest players for the team.
  • Kolkata Knight Riders have 12 players, spending $8,575,000 and keeping $425, 000 still to spend. Gautam Gambhir ($2.4 mn) and Yusuf Pathan ($2.1 mn) were star cricketers.
  • Royal Challengers Bangalore have 16 players, spending $8,640, 000 and keeping $360,000 still to spend. Saurabh Tiwary ($1.6 mn) and AB de Villiers ($1.1 mn) were top fetchers.
  • Mumbai Indians have 12 players, spending $8,520,000 and keeping $480,000 still to spend. Rohit Sharma ($2 mn) and Andrew Symonds ($850,000) rocked the table for Mumbai Indians.
  • Sahara Pune Warriors, the new franchise, have 14 players, spending $8,070,000 and keeping $930,000 still to spend. Robin Utthappa ($2.1 mn) and Yuvraj Singh ($1.8 mn) were their prized possessions.
  • Team Kochi, another new franchise, have 17 players, spending $8,640,000 and keeping $360,000 still to spend. Mahela Jayawardhane ($1.5 mn) and Muttiah Muralitharan ($1.1 mn) were the costliest players.
  • Delhi Daredevils have 17 players, spending $8,250,000 and keeping $750,00 still to spend. Irphan Pathan ($1.9 mn), David Warner ($750,000) and Umesh Yadav ($750,000) were star cricketers bought.
  • Chennai Super Kings have 18 players, spending $8,615,000 and keeping $385,000 in pocket. R Ashwin ($850,000) and S Badrinath ($800,000) were top fetchers.
  • Rajasthan Royals have 8 players, spending $6,195,000 and keeping $805,000 in pocket. Ross Taylor ($ 1 mn) and Johan Botha ($950,000) emptied their suitcase.
  • Kings XI Punjab have 11 players, spending $6, 945, 000 and keeping $2,005,000 in pocket. David Hussey ($1.4 mn), Adam Gilchrist ($900,000), Piyush Chawla ($900,000), Dinesh Karthik ($900,000) were their prized possessions.
  • Rajasthan Royals were allotted budget of $7 million because of Bombay High court order.
  • Koklkata Knight Riders were constantly on the news: for picking up Gautam Gambhir for a record money and then not taking the star player of the region and former Indian Cricket team Captain, Saurav Ganguly.
  • Saurav Ganguly, Brian Lara and Chris Gayle went unsold. More than Brian Lara, this IPL auction put a BIG DOT on the cricketing career of one of the most successful Indian Cricket team Captain, Saurav Ganguly. Media left no time to make a fuss about the situation and broke hell on Dada. Most surprisingly, can Kolkata Knight Rider play without Saurav Ganguly in the player’s hometown itself? I guess yes, because this is India and lets be honest, we take few seconds to make a star and few seconds to bring someone to ashes.
  • The another aspect of auction side of KKR is: If I am not wrong, they are the only team to have broke even and into the profits. Don’t forget that they have never qualified for the semi-finals and have been one of the worst performers in the league. The credit goes to the King Khan of Bollywood, their franchise owner, Shahrukh Khan. Personally, I don’t like him or his acting but I love his presence of mind and his sheer attitude and marketing skills inspire me a lot. Remember, those xxx energy drink or the cheer-leading Reality show, SRK rocked the IPL with his own presence. SO, why KKR needs to play when both franchise owners and players are happy earning money without winning matches.
  • Personally, I feel Team Kochi made intelligent buys and did not put in money anywhere where the stake was too high. A lesson well learned from the Deccan Chargers from the past.
  • Anil Kimble made a smart move by opting himself out of the auction at the right time. Prestige and honor kept intact and he also got to mentor the Bangalore Royal Challengers.
  • Rahul Dravid, another star player of Indian Cricket team, just escaped the fate of Saurav Ganguly when he was picked up but it is a YELLOW light for Dravid. Be careful for the next auction.
  • Youngsters from India and abroad made the most out of this auction. A lot of unknown names got picked up over well known names: a very good positive sign. I am a strong believer in the power of fresh blood and Ia m sure some of them are going to make their dream run this IPL. Best of Luck to all of them!!!
  • Last year, IPL debuted on youtube, live streaming all matches. I expect this year they should live tweet also :-)
  • IPL3 also debuted on movie theaters, showing the IPL matches live in the multiplexes. So, I guess you can grab your popcorn this year too.

IPL4 is going to have more matches and it is going to get bigger and better. I have always been a strong fan of Mumbai Indians and I am going to stick to my team this year too. Who will win IPL4? What do you think?

Just sit back, relax, get your popcorn and enjoy!!! For me, I am more interested in knowing the facts and success of both IPL4 and Cricket World Cup and we will try to bring you a post-tournament report. I am curious to co a sided-by-side analysis of the two biggest cricketing events of the year. Are you anxious? Do check back that time…

Learnings from Micromax

Posted on by Posted in Apple, Business, Cell Phones, Dreams, Electronics, Entrepreneurship, India, iPhone, Motorola, Sales, Success, Technology, Views Leave a comment

Ohh yes guys, the IPO of Micromax might hit the Indian market soon. Do you know Micromax? Honestly, I was not aware of this brand unless some of my friends and colleagues bought the mobiles of Micromax. Very few people know and in fact, even I was surprised to know that Micromax is the largest selling mobile handset in India. And the most amazing story of its success is: it has done so in a very short period of 3 years. Today, it is valued at $1 Bn. As far as I have heard about the Micromax from my friends, they say one prefers Micromax because it provided dual SIM support, qwerty interface at an amazingly low cost. Yes, low cost was its selling point and as I have discussed earlier on this blog, no matter what technology you provide and what features you give, we, Indians have just one first question: What is the price? And here is where I feel Micromax is a winner. I was not surprised to know that Micromax has gained its popularity in such a short period of time and captured 5% of the Indian mobile market, as reports suggest.

So, what does it mean to us?

  • Don’t stop dreaming and dreaming big. Remember 3 years back Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and few others were household names. Introducing itself at that time and emerging as the leading player is one of the greatest example of living a life of dreams for Micromax. kudos to all the whole team.
  • Entrepreneurs don’t fear. The believe in themselves more than anyone does. And Micromax proved it with its valuation.
  • Hard work, Focus and Determination are the key to success. Its the combination of all these factors that today Micromax is going for an IPO.
  • Ideas with customers in mind matter the most. I believe what clicked for Micromax is their approach to the Indian market. They just combined the idea of iPhone, cost factor plus the Indian attitude of shifting telecom providers to suit to the cheapest calling rates at that instant of time. Apple did not lunch iPhone in India and when it did, the cost was too high that it could even be anywhere near to success. Blackberry was not in market. And Micromax launched itself at just the right time with the correct attitude.

So, guys keep dreaming and believe in them. You never know when your Idea could be the IPO of the Indian Economy!!!

Sources: http://trak.in/tags/business/2011/01/10/micromax-ipo-stock-markets/

http://micromaxinfo.com/

Record Holiday Online Sales

Posted on by Posted in Business, Electronics, Entrepreneurship, Facebook, Google, India, Marketing, Sales, Twitter, US Economy, USA, Views Leave a comment

US Holidays recorded a record sales in the holidays: a whooping $32.6 bn. It is a great news especially when the economy has been struggling a lot. So, it’s definitely a great news for the business.

I visited US in 2207 just after Thanksgiving and during the New Year. I must tell that the deals during Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year were definitely very appealing. So, I almost returned from US in a bankrupt state. but I need to blame myself and that time. First I was fairly new in my job and had hardly any savings. But what is defining the sales today is ONLINE and that is what is more exciting than anything else. Consumers don’t fear to spend money online and trust the products deliver online. There are definitely few benefits of online buying: we save a lot of money by not driving to and fro to the store, we save a lot of time by not going on a shopping. Rather I feel it takes less time to buy something online. Moreover, it is easy to view the feedbacks and reviews of products online, which is easily searchable. So, with a right kind of research, one can almost snatch a great deal of his own and no other time can beat the price than the holiday season.

On the contrast, I feel that Indian consumers are yet to embrace the online buying system. There is still so much resistance among people to buy online. I don’t have the data but if anyone can start looking for it, I am quite confident that it would not much different. Why? First, Indian consumers don’t trust the online shopping. secondly, we are too emotional people that we believe that we do better deals when we are in front of another person. And by dealing I mean the power of bargaining. I will not be surprised if any survey could affirm this. We believe in relationships more. Third and most important thing, we believe in buying things at the cheapest price possible. I would really hope that some consultancy or some MBA students could do this study. Bring a same product (lets say a car) and show it to people in different countries. I cannot comment on the psychology of people of other countries but I can definitely say that the first question that an Indian might ask is: how much it would cost me? So, it is not surprising that why small cars are so popular in India. Basically, it is not that Indians are environment friendly, it is just that we are way too price-conscious. Therefore, one can see all products having small variants available in India: shampoo and soaps to cars and houses.

I believe that the future is going to belong to the online sales. There is no denying that companies like Google and Facebook (don’t forget speculations on recent Facebook’s valuation of $50 bn) are generating such huge revenues from online advertising only. But the question would be to build credibility and confidence in the minds of the consumer. And I also believe that there could not be any better medium to do so than social networking sites like twitter and Quora. Secondly, understanding the psychology of the consumer would go a long way in the pricing and positioning the product in the a country’s market.

Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/07/BUQS1H5C84.DTL