Go shopping with friends, even on the Intenet- Shopcon.in

Well this the face for the new shopping web site shopcorn.in. Its quite interesting to see how a shopping website is trying to relate itself with an a brand ambassador which is a good looking young lady. This reminds me of the character from Ask.com. This kind a strategy has worked for a lot of businesses and has helped them to connect with people in an efficient manner. The best thing is that you are not dependent on someone like a celebrity or, some1 in real. Its a character which is immortal and thats what it does to the brand as well.

But, once you have established the reach of the character it becomes really important that you keep people's interest in the character. One needs to constantly evolve and need to bring changes around the character.
Ideally for this kind of a scenario the shopping website should have new images every week which makes the visitor absorbed by the character.

If I were the site owner, I would introduce another thing- Sophie's Mood.
As the character is young and interesting, she should be doing stuff. She could promote things with her mood swings. Some thing like "Today Sophie is in a mood to dance", so the character is shown in a fantastic mood and she is all pepped up to hit the party. She will be endorsing party gears like shoes,cloths, make-up etc.
This will create a good amount of curiosity in the visitor to check back what Sophie's mood today and will also get him aware of the product line gradually. This will basically encourage revisits to the website and will help in getting more popularity. Basically making shopping on shopcorn an experience.

Any which way I like the whole concept of Social Shopping Community being introduced . I wish all the best to the people promoting it. I hope that they remain Peppy just like their character "Sophie" and hope to see Sirindia as the next merchant on board too :).

P.S. I also got introduced to the Photon and seriously 3.1 Mbs on your data card. Phew!

New look for Rediff

Just happen to come across the new international Rediff. I must that i really like the way they have shown the transformation and also liked the music- its pretty subtle and it becomes very relaxing watching the whole thing take shape.



I hope you enjoy it too.

I need a Channel Sales Account Manager for Tell-a-Friend

The Channel Sales Account manager will be responsible for building and growing all aspects of channel relationships related to the Tell-a-Friend, including selection and recruitment of channel partners, training and enablement, account planning, day to day management, revenue and product forecasting, and related responsibilities. This position has direct revenue responsibility and the qualified candidate must possess a track record. The overarching goal is to expand and extend our organization’s channel to deliver world-class solutions to our mutual clients. The selected candidate will need to proactively work with partners to create a leadership position for our company as the biggest Word Of Mouth Marketing enabler. This is a visible and key position who needs to contribute tactically and strategically.
Key Responsibilities:-
• Identify and close key channel partners (interactive agencies, media houses, designing firms) in target markets.
• Develop winning strategies with each partner that results in new opportunities, sales execution, and incremental revenue.
• Collaborate internally with marketing, business development, product management and other organizations to ensure success with partners in the field.
• Bring Consultative approach to uncovering and expanding partner and customer business issues.
• Execute and support the company go-to-market strategy.
• Ability to comprehend Tell-a-Friend’s product line and associate each product line with the appropriate channel partner(s).
• Domain expertise in the digital agency interaction.
• Hands-on approach to building a business around commercial channel partners.
Qualifications:
• Bachelors of Arts / Bachelors of Science (or equivalent)
• MBA would be an advantage.
• Positive attitude, self managed, decisive, and accountable.
• 2 - 3+ years experience building profitable partner networks
• Proven track record of over achieving product revenue quota.

Interested candidates can bug my HR Manager at Sriidhar@Pramati.com

Sanjay(s) makes everyones jaw drop!

Continuation to my last post...

As the title suggests, I am sure you can anticipate what coming in the next few lines :). Sanjay finally makes up his mind and takes up Microsoft Corporation, where he would be heading the portal MSN and would be reporting to Microsoft MD Hemant Sachdev(via e4m).

There have been a lot of other movements as well in this week. An other important movement- Sanjay Modi appointed as managing director Monster for India, Middle East and South-East Asia. Prior to this assignment, Modi was head of sales at Monster India.

So all in all both the Sanjays get the greener pasture :)

I wish all the best to both the top guns in their fields to excel in their new positions.

Sanjay Trehan quits NDTV Convergence

A move that not many of us would have anticipated.
It was just yesterday Sanjay put his papers. In his 2 years stint Sanjay changed a lot of things about the company and even while leaving he managed to give NDTV a new look- which is being talked about. He also launched Tubaah.com and the hindi portal Ndtvkhabar.com.

This news has been covered at a lot of places and I notice a people making comments left right and center. I am just wondering "Is it the Indian mentality to of criticizing or, is it some thing else". Sanjay has done a lot for the company in terms of starting things from complete scratch to establishing itself as a prominent Internet player of the country.

Anyway thats just my opinion. I would just like to say "Best of Luck Sanjay, there are a lot of people who are proud of you and wish the very best for your future ventures".

Cheers!

Rock Star Writer for Product Marketing- Socialtwist

This position is responsible for the quality and timely delivery of product marketing deliverables including data sheets, presentations, brochures, website content, product go-to-market collaterals and managing these deliverables to ensure that they deliver a single unified value proposition.

The candidate will require having a broad range of product marketing, customer engagement and product positioning experience in a dynamic on-line business. Key to success would be superior interpersonal and relationship building skills to deep analytical and critical thinking skills. Strong quantitative, writing and presentation skills are a must. The candidate should be self-motivated, persistent and comfortable working in a fast-paced, changing environment as well as being a good team player. The job requires working closely with sales, senior management, product management, development team leads, and user experience specialists.

Responsibilities:

• Clearly understand and define the target audience, value proposition, and competitive positioning.
• Assist in defining “go to market” strategy and market positioning by continually researching market and technology trends.
• Drive messaging strategies that positively influence the product(s) positioning and sales within the market. Produce collateral, web page and blog content.
• Responsible for updating all key marketing collateral for product upgrades and ensure delivery to customers through website updates, blogs, and email. Collect relevant data, and come up with starting ideas for layout/visuals for collaterals.
• Work with Product Management to maintain and deliver on an as-needed basis, relevant competitor information
• Supports sales with research & messaging, sales presentations, collateral, and competitive intelligence.

Eligibility:

• Atleast 5+ years experience in an online product company or, product oriented digital marketing/advertising agency with deep understanding or responsibility covering business aspects of the organization
• Exposure to communicating with US clients or employees or having lived in the US
• Proven communication skills
• MBA would be a plus

Please email Mr. Vivek Lakshman - vivekl@pramati.com

Star Player parks on Startv.in

From Saurav's Album

This post is the follow up on the story that I had written some time back.
Finally Startv parked this fantastic piece of work on Startv.in, however seems like a live testing phase for the website. The domain is short and very easy to remember and trust me the website is really addictive- yesterday I started with one episode of Sarabhai vs Sarabhai and ended up watching 4 of them :).

• The best part is that its very optimised and the videos load extremely fast.
• The second feature I like is the "Watching now", its really very cute how you can easily navigate through the 3d tag cloud.
• Though they have not included a lot of programs, but as they keep on adding new content(daily updates are happening it seems) it will become more and more interesting.
• I did a tiny survey on my facebook account and it seems it was not just me but a lot of other people who were there who liked it.

Full marks to the development team and full marks to the creative minds behind the new Startv.in.

And oh yes how can I forget, they are using my product ;) for their WOMM- Some implementation improvements are required, so hopefully they contact me soon and I can assist them to get it perfect.

BC Webwise to focus on their new "Movie marketing division"

BCWEBWWISE announce their new division -focusing on just movie marketing.

In this time of recessions when everyone is confused about how and what needs to be done about the market condition, my Ex Boss makes a very smart move by announcing the new division.

Today when every digital agency is fighting for every kind of business they can lay their hands, and ending up as a perfect lost identity case. They are just making it more difficult for themselves to be chosen by any of their prospective clients.
Today the client wants a perfect strategy, a perfect execution and they are not ready to give any margins for error ie; its looking for specialists.

At this time "productisation" plays a very important role in deciding the future of any kind of a business - both product and services.
With this move, BC clearly states its competency in the movie business and demands attention from every Indian movie marketer.
Every one one likes exclusivity, and right now BC Webwise is open to do that if you are making a movie and you intend to market it online.

Keep it up Chaya!!

X-Files(Maybe....)

Few days back I attended the HYSEA Awards held in Hyderabad. A lot of startups and established players from Hyderabad showcased their products and services- Socialtwist was also there.

But there was this booth which is quite different from every one else.They call themselves the TruthLabs( First of its kind in India)


The services is divided into the following divisions:

1. Questioned Document Division
2. Fingerprint Division
3. Computer Crime Analysis Division
4. Psychological Evaluation Division
5. Failure Analysis Division

Few Salient Features:

Reports in 24 hours, in all deserving cases Free service in case of poor and underprivileged people. Examination of questioned documents in English, Hindi or any Indian Languages. Professional Forensic advice, consultancy and re-examination for confirmatory opinions by professional experts having life time experience. Personalized attention by trained and qualified experts in each and every case. Exclusive facilities to deal with Finger Prints, Questioned Documents, Computer Crime, Psychological Evaluation and Failure Analysis.(picked from the website) Great, is not it? Though I would wonder how do they plan to market their proposition? I saw them in a Technology event - I don't know how fruitful that would have been, it was so not the TG for it. On the website, I was looking for their partners- expecting law firms for such a services. I did not find any. I am sure they would be in a process to revamp their website completely as its really not up to the mark. Looked for case studies- again did not find any. Though found a couple on a Google search which talked about "How Truthlabs helped a rich family to confirm the chastity of their newly wedded son's wife"( I don know if thats the kind of publicity they are looking for. ) Few of my colleagues were really impressed with the 24 hrs turn around proposition from them, but in case if they get them selves in to trouble would they be going to Truthlabs? There are a lot of things that I could suggest, but think I will put it one by one in the comments section- Every one else is also welcome to put their 2 cents on this.

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