Key Speakers: Mr. Bryan Yeager (Senior Analyst, e-Marketer) & Wendy Tai (Product Manager, Aurasma)

This write-up discusses the various points learnt during the webinar on Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR).  It will discuss the various points where the two converge as well as curcial distinctions.

Premise

A critical mass of people is nowadays talking about Augmented Reality. This is due to the rage that the game Pokémon Go has proven to be across numerous generations of gamers. Virtual Reality as a concept sounds similar but some crucial differences exist. Gaming platforms are using both these forms to hook users.

Virtual Reality (VR) v/s Augmented Reality (AR)

VR is that technology by which the user completely immerses in the virtual world or experience. AR on the other hand plants virtual objects and digital information on top of real world physical objects or places. A third concept known as Mixed Reality (MR) is where virtual as well as real world objects exist interchangeably. Even physical bots and software to use AR and VR are quite different. VR requires dedicated tools while normal smartphones may be used effectively to conduct AR. Google Daydream is one such software to enable VR and Microsoft Holo Lens is an object used for AR. Both these forms of technology have existed surprisingly for decades.

It is important to note however that their impacts on marketing are quite the opposite. VR experiences target top of the funnel marketing but AR has proven to be an ideal tool for middle and bottom funnel.

Corporate Investment on Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

Corporate IT giants- Facebook, Google and Apple- are all betting huge on these technologies. All three have made corporate acquisitions accordingly. VR and AR are wedded into the corporate strategy of these firms. Facebook is leading the pack with a ten year outline for AR glasses. Google has added support to its video sharing platform YouTube. This convergence will enable digital marketing of Google’s own AR and VR products using YouTube. Apple for its part has filed patents on AR and VR. The total investment by these companies exceeds US$ 2.5 billion.

While these 3 major aggregators are bullish about the upcoming prospects in this industry, they are taking it all with a note of caution. That is because several industries to whom they will potentially be vendors in the future, are themselves unsure about its uses in the coming times. Besides gaming, it is the world of education that is using these technologies so much. Gamification is a major tool being used in Executive MBAs in order to create more effective online learning systems. Similarly firms are also using up such technology for creating 3D simulation, imaging and recognition tools. Major VR players at present include IT giants such as Facebook, Apple and Google plus specialized applications such as Oculus, Steam and air push.

Technology Improvements

Smartphones have leveraged existing technology to take AR to a new level altogether. Now it is handy and scalable for people to use. Improved visuals have made gaming using AR or VR more attractive to the casual players. A consistent data supply however is needed to continue the support of AR in particular as it often involves leaving the domestic space. Data consuming locations tags are then used.

Majority of users in the USA are still not sure of the future of such technologies. This presents the IT giants with a huge opportunity to tap in the near future. These firms are tracking AR or VR related conversations on social media in order to capture vital business intelligence.  The existing curiosity can best be exploited by these firms if they provide the requisite content to hook this inquisitive crowd. In order to get more people interested, activities such as live events or in store placements have been integrated into the system. Google Tango can now direct the AR users accurately to the spot where the next game pit-stop is.

The Business of AR & VR

As per marketing research conducted by Trend Force, the size of the market for this industry will be worth US$ 70 billion by the year 2020. Interestingly, mobile users will substantially outnumber desktop users during this period. This trend already exists but will fortify over the next couple of years. A specialized VR devices have improved in terms of quality, expensive VR desktop sets’ demand has reduced. Gaming platforms may also see a likewise decline in business numbers over the next few years, due to the onslaught of smartphones. Reliable data however does not exist to differentiate between the numbers of AR and VR as the users are often common and data was collected simultaneously.

Costs of implementing an AR system also vary depending on the specific requirement. A good way of recovering the costs could be on-world placement of virtual advertisements. A lot of AR traffic is being diverted specifically to partner stores. This is inducing a buying behaviour among users of Augmented Reality (AR).

Content

Top notch content is very much needed to make AR or VR succeed. Also it must communicate the right intended message. Magazine ads, direct mail, catalogs, brochures and circulars are effective ways to conduct such processes. Korean auto giant Hyundai has developed great content to use AR to help drivers negotiate their cars. Some of the driving functions are now being finalized using this cutting edge piece of technology. Similarly, beauty and wellness market leader Sephora has inculcated AR to enable customers to try the lipstick before buying. Only thing being, here the trying is virtual. Even Snapchat has used AR based content to engage with users during video chats.

Conclusion

Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality can both be massive industries in themselves in the coming years. The coming together of the two is termed as immersive media. This is being used in some ways by various industries notably gaming, navigation and education. Nothing explains the potential of these fields as much as the enormous success of Pokémon Go does. The game has seen record downloads till date with no signs of taking a break.

Forum:    https://www.emarketer.com/

Key Speaker: Dr. Pooja Jaisingh (Senior e-Learning Evangelist- Adobe)

This write-up will summarize the contents discussed during the said Webinar. It first explains the concept of Gamification before going into details about how it can best be used in the field of learning and development.

Premise

Gamification is the use of game mechanics and thinking in everyday situations in order to best derive solutions for certain problems and increase overall productivity. The concept of gamification when applied to management training programmes can thoroughly increase learning capacities of trainees. The said trainees get gaming level stimulation while also learning new aspects through its educational components.

Note of Caution

The word gamification is often used in wrong contexts. It is not a gimmick that trivializes important points. Some traditional trainers even feel that the badges, points and rewards so added are simply feel-good factors and do not serve the purpose. It is not true and nor can one assume that gamification is easy to create.

Some important points need to be considered when designing a gamification platform. Number of users must be relatively small as the end purpose is to create a sense of mutual cooperation. Competition is most effective in small groups competing in game like scenarios.

Points System

Badges, points and rewards are wedded into the system to promote a sense of confidence among the users. The points system however must be designed in such a way that it is not that easy to get them nor really difficult. Rewards must be limited but well defined with set of parameters to win them. Participants must be made to understand that failure can take place but isn’t permanent. They mustn’t get disheartened as this is a simulated environment.

Some points need to be kept in mind while devising the rewards system. They are as follows:

• Leader-boards must be developed for micro groups.
• Points system must be easy for all to understand so scoring methodology may be transparent.
• Winners at each stage must be proclaimed and rewarded accordingly using token gestures.
• Badges are best suited to reward sudden spurts of achievements, which do not fall in line with overall leader-board.
• The final scores can be used as a powerful talent management tool as employee traits and characteristics will strongly reflect on the scoreboard.

Storylines

Stories must be developed to go with the game. The characters of the story must match the real personalities involved in the corporate training sessions. The story must be detailed and properly structured with a beginning, middle passage and a conclusion. The ending must always be on positive note, the implication being that the training delivered ends with improved productivity.

Types of Gamification

Two types of Gamification exist which are- content and structural.

Content Gamification

This is the form of Gamification where game elements are specially created to stimulate a learning environment. It is multi-faceted starting form very simple to the most complex types. Mystery and challenge are added to stimulate the trainees’ interest best. Modeled on popular games, content Gamification is an extremely common platform used for quizzing. A static GK quiz works extremely well under this format.

Structural Gamification

This is more widely used as it can be used for training as well as general purposes. Corporate strategy can be brainstormed using this format.  LMSs very frequently use this as well. As this is a longer duration activity, thus points, badges and rewards need to be more generously included. A inter-corporate challenge involving not only quizzing but other talent contests can be a very good use of the structural Gamification application.

Conclusion

Thus we see that Gamification has several uses in the field of training and development. That is why Adobe has worked extensively on the art and investing further. Results have been successfully tested and thus Gamification will further be applied to gauge regular business solutions.

Event: IITM Travel & Tourism Exhibition

Venue: Apparel House, Gurgaon

Date: 4th September, 2015

Attendee: Faculty

This write-up will explore the various facets which were observed at the IITM Travel and Tourism Exhibition as held on September 4th. Number of exhibitors were present ranging from state boards to private organizations, tourism aggregators and individuals hotels or chains.

List of Major Exibitors

This can further be divided into categories:

·         State tourism boards

·         Private organizations

·         Service providers

·         Tour operators

·         Hotel chains

State Tourism Boards

·         West Bengal (title sponsor)

·         Andhra Pradesh

·         Madhya Pradesh

·         Karnataka

·         Maharashtra

·         Goa

·         Jharkhand

·         Chhattisgarh

·         Kerala

·         Gujarat

Private Organizations / industry Aggregators

·         Oyo Rooms

·         Woo Stays

Service Providers

·         Europe Incoming

·         Puma Software

·         Lalit Art Media

·         Kidzania

Tour Operators

·         Tibet Tours & Travels

·         Cox & Kings

·         Udaan

·         Mego Travels

Hotel Chains

·         Atithi Palace

·         The Grand

Major Talking Points

Such exhibitions are mainly held with a view to provide tourism consulting to the visitors as they seek information. Such events also help in networking between different ends of the industry spectrum. Following are some of the key points which emerged out of the exhibition:

·         

·      West Bengal was the major sponsor of the exhibition with the biggest and central stall

·     A number of states’ pavilions were designed different from other years; instead of the personnel representing the state, the arena simply provided an aggregation for different tour operators representing their individual niches.

·         Madhya Pradesh was one state which went with the conventional form where the personnel were representing the state per se; the others simply had different round tables within the stalls, and each of these round tables was anchored by individual tour operators or hoteliers.

·      The earthquake ravaged country of Nepal was represented by a tour operator and it was heartening to hear them tell about the recovery of tourism in that country.

 ·      Oyo Rooms was among the prominent private organizations represented; Woo Stays is a similar organization except that they cater to more high end properties; in this way both Oyo and Woo have developed this business innovation which has disrupted the marketplace for traditional hotel chains.

·      Specific tourism service providers were also present; Puma software provides accounting software tailor made for the requirements of the tourism industry; Lalit art media provides design and graphics support thus generating numerous tourism jobs.

Venue: PHD Chamber , New Delhi

Speakers: Mr Subhash Talekar & Mr Arvind Talekar

Attended by : Our Student

The Mumbai Dabbawaala’s are a common sight in Mumbai as they cater to more than 2 lakhs people all over Mumbai delivering  lunch box to their offices from their home. The average education of these Dabbawaala’s is just 8^th Class and it’s amazing that these people were awarded the prestigious “Six Sigma” certificate.

The Dabbawaalas go back to 100 years when they started delivering lunch to all the babus & English men at that point of time. The legacy has been continued till now.

•      Strength of Dabbawaala’s: 4500-5000 people.
• Customers: 2 Lakhs daily
•       Area Coverage: 70-80 kms in 3 hours.
•       Turnover: Over USD 10 million/ year
•       Error: 1 in a million transactions
• Average income: 12-14K

Ask them what they do in their spare time, they will tell you that they lecture MBA students & give interviews to media. Harvard Business School have studied their case and they are also recorded in Guinness Books of World Records.

Discipline & hard work are their prime values of Dabbawaala’s and over the period of 100 years, not a single compliant has been registered against the Dabbawaala’s. After the terror attacks in Mumbai, they have begun to carry an ID card which is again a very effective line of thought.

How they work:

1. Fixed time is given to the household for tiffin pickup. The dabbawaala arrives at the locality & picks up the tiffin. The dabbawaala, after collecting all the tiffins, goes to the nearest local station . All the tiffin has certain colour and codes indicating the station name, office name & locality and floor number of the office.
2. At the railway station, they travel in their fixed local and deliver it to the station.
3. The dabbas are dispatched according to the colour coding from various station to the delivery point station.
4. From the delivery point station, another dabbawaala carries it to the Office & delivers it to the responsible person before noon.
5. The empty tiffin is picked up from the office at 2 pm and deliver the same to the house before 5 p.m.

Many celebrities have come to visit the dabbawaalas like Richard Branson, Price Charles of Britain and many other celebs. Also, many documentaries and movies have been created by BBC and other TV channels appreciating their supply chain management and time management skills.

Successes of the Dabbawaala’s are a result of hard work, commitment, dignity & time management.

rities have come to visit the dabbawaalas like Richard Branson, Price Charles of Britain and many other celebs. Also, many documentaries and movies have been created by BBC and other TV channels appreciating their supply chain management and time management skills.

Forum:  http://www.marketingprofs.com/

Attendee: Faculty

Date: 11^th August, 2015

Key Speakers: Ms. Teya Flick (VP- Marketing, Wheroware)

This write-up will explore the various facets discussed during the webinar and key conclusions that emerged. The objective of this webinar was to discuss the journey undertaken by industrial customers and how the process can be streamlined to increase efficiency.

Changing B2B Expectations

Expectations of B2B clients has undergone a drastic makeover. B2B clients now prefer B2C kind of dealings based on lesser paperwork and greater transparency and simplicity. In fact as per market research, 49% of today’s professionals prefer using same websites for official purchases as they do for their personal needs. Thus a Flipkart devotee will continue promoting the brand at his / her workplace. This provides massive business opportunity to industrial sellers as they can leverage their vast list of individual buyers and promote their office related purchases to this list.

Major requirements of B2B customers these days are as follows:

·         Three-fifths of those polled want their website to experience increased search-ability.

·         Nearly the same figure want ratings and reviews to reflect on their home pages.

·         About half the respondents desire customized product / service.

·         Also about two-fifths of those polled in the marketing research desire better alignment with back-end processes.

·         Almost the same figure also wants the merchandize to boost related products / services.

Like individual buyers, even industrial level large scale buyers are making the transition for product discovery from offline to online or mobile settings. That is where digital marketing is playing a massive role in attracting customers and converting leads.

B2B Customer Journey

Business consulting provided by the speaker’s firm, tells us that best rated industrial sellers are twice more likely to mark objectives to the customer lifecycle. Certain advantages have been observed when customer journey is properly mapped. They are as follows:

$1·        Corporate strategy of the company turns customer centric.

$1·         Helps rectify gaps between departments, instruments and channels.

$1·         Product differentiation tactics can then be recognized.

$1·         Provides information on how brand engages customers.

The industrial buying process in thus no longer linear but as dynamic as the B2C one.

6 Steps

Business research has suggested six steps to improve the B2B customer journey. They are as follows:

$1·         Develop user personas

$1·         Identify your goals

$1·         Talk to customers

$1·         Create and engage teams across functions

$1·         Design the journey

$1·         Measure and adjust

Develop User Personas

A user persona is a fictitious representation of significant sections of customers. Ideally, a firm must create 3-5 such personas. Such personas may be developed using following methodologies:

$1·         Quantitative data and qualitative business analysis.

$1·         Recognize these personas from across platforms.

$1·         The details must be sketched out using data eked out.

Identify your Goals

This includes having clear goals and identifying each type of industrial lead to one of the buyer personas developed.

Customer Engagement

This involves interaction with B2B client using certain parameters. Set questions have been developed for this which must include the following:

$1·         Organization discovery process

$1·         How did client transition from discovery to consideration phase; from lead to customer; from purchaser to loyalist?

$1·         What are obstacles still prevalent in the service delivery?

Create and Engage Teams across Functional Areas

Teams must be created and further nurtured which will involve members from different departments, verticals and functional areas.

Design the Journey

This is the process where customization really comes to the fore. The process can be better understood using the following illustration:

Measure and Adjust

At this stage, the firm measures the effect of the efforts made thus far. Data analytics must be used for the same. In case any part of the initial strategy does not seem to be working, immediate corrective action must be taken to enhance customer satisfaction.

Conclusion

Thus, as we have seen during the write-up, some sort of analysis must be made at all stages. The concept of analysis paralysis where only study is made but no corrective action is taken, is a trap Industrial marketers must not fall into. B2Bmarketing now represents a graph not very different in functioning from the B2C segment.

Forum:  http://www.marketingprofs.com/

Date: 4^th August, 2015

Key Speakers: Mr. Kevin Miller (VP- Solution Strategy & B2B Marketing Automation Expert, Salesfusion)

This write-up will explore the various facets discussed during the webinar and key conclusions that emerged. The objective of this webinar was to discuss the various ways in which email can be optimized better as a means of marketing.

Premise

Email has emerged as the component of digital marketing with the best derived ROI. Marketing research has also suggested that emails are opened most frequently by target audience and thus chances of conversion from leads to customers increases substantially. Enormous amount of useful data is also generated using this medium.

Trends

Certain key trends have emerged in the world of email marketing which are as follows:

$1·         Focus towards nurturing target audience rather than mass mailing towards huge quantity of data.

$1·         Customers’ behavior is tracked and engaged with content customized for the respective personas.

$1·         Quality of mailing list focused on rather than mere size.

$1·         Usage of mobile phones for campaigns and conversions has increased.

$1·         Sales representatives are now drafting personalized emails to key targets.

$1·         A funnel view approach is being taken towards data which is generating intensive business analysis.

8 ways to Improve

$1·         Email preference management

$1·         Proper list segmentation

$1·         Subject line best practices

$1·         Nurture marketing tips and tricks

$1·         Mobile- friendly versus responsive

$1·         Creation of newsletter

$1·         Recommendations for email delivery to inbox

$1·         HTML versus text-only emails

Email Preference Management

$1·         3 Ws need to be answered here- What, Where and Why.

$1·         What answers the kind of content that needs to be inserted within the email for marketing purposes.

$1·         It also seeks to determine the type or frequency of emails that will be delivered.

$1·         Where looks into the forms or landing pages to be associated with the promotions or website in general.

$1·         Why seeks to understand the reasons for the unsubscribe list and methods this can be rectified.

Recommendations

$1·         Preferences must be added to all web forms discretely as part of campaign.

$1·         Categories targeted must be broad but limited up to four.

$1·         Categorical emails must always start with introduction titled- “you are receiving this email because….”

$1·         Once form is completed, a thank you salutation mail is compulsory to acknowledge the receipt.

Proper List Segmentation

$1·         Must be based on demographics and behavior.

$1·         The corporate strategy of doing this is to align email content with buyer persona.

$1·         Customer behavior must be tracked ion following bases:

$1o   Periodicity & content of website visits

$1o   Responses to events and email campaigns

$1o   Percentage of data forms’ completion

Subject Line Best Practices

$1·         Words/ phrases such as ‘free’ must be avoided as they trigger spam filters.

$1·         Email content must be personalized.

$1·         Complete information must be provided to target audience.

$1·         Promotional emails must be minimized in frequency.

$1·         A/B testing is a proven method of conducting first hand business research.

Nurture Marketing Tips & Tricks

Concept of Nurture Marketing

$1·         Includes a series of automated communications over time frame decided

$1·         Mails decided upon behavior exhibited during campaign

$1·         Marketing and sales alignment in same campaign

Recommendations

$1·         Increased usage of preference management to tailor campaigns

$1·         Nurtures must not extend a maximum of six weeks before a performance review

$1·         Sales personnel must be included with brand ones to optimize this

Mobile Friendly v/s Responsive

There a four stages of having mobile responsive campaigns. The first is most basic and the fourth most advanced. The following illustration will better explain the same:

Creation of Newsletter

$1·         Email must act as sole field for signing up.

$1·         Use of external expertise of business consulting for newsletter content optimization.

$1·         Product promotion must remain subtle.

$1·         It will be useful to quote statistics or benchmarks of the respective industry.

$1·         Newsletter content must be short and precise.

$1·         Not more than one news letter must be dispatched in two weeks.

$1·         Open webinars must be promoted.

$1·         Widgets must always be included with blogs.

Recommendations for Email Delivery to Inbox

$1·         Attempt must be made to organically develop subscriber base

$1·         Avoid mailing more than once a week to list

$1·         Target audience must be given adequate information

$1·         Educational content must be mailed frequently including- white papers, webinars and blogs.

$1·         Avoid large images as mail headers

$1·         Also important text must not be put on some image as the audience cannot distinguish between spam or important material

$1·         Do not violate anti-spam laws

$1·         The file names of images must be contextually related to email subjects

HTML v/s Text-only Emails

Conclusion

Thus we have seen how emails can be used even more effectively as a tool for marketing.

Date: 23^rd July, 2015

Key Speaker: Mr. Bryan Yeager (Analyst, Oracle Cloud Marketing)

This write-up will explore the various facets discussed during the webinar and key conclusions that emerged. The objective of this webinar was to discuss the important trends which have been identified by business research that are revolutionizing the marketing technology being used by brands and agencies.

Premise

Due to the changing business trends, marketers are evolving and especially pushing for integration with technology. Business innovation has seen marketers try new solutions for greater customer engagement especially using digital media.

9 Trends

Marketing Technology is Evolving from Specialty Practice to Strategic Competency

$1·         As per marketing research conducted, 62% of marketers wanted to improve customer service and satisfaction

$1·         Also, 52.7% of them wanted more relevant communication with the customer

$1·         Increasing number of marketers want team to be technology oriented in addition to usual operations

$1·         Marketing Technology is now getting used across the organization

$1·         The ‘Marketing Stack’ has been developed which includes the following illustration

Marketing Technology Landscape is Vast and Growing

$1·         Software vendors getting greater grip on marketing agencies

$1·         From just a 100 ‘mar-tech’ companies just four years back, the segment has risen to include 1876 ones in 2015

$1·         61% of marketers surveyed feel marketing technology is rapidly evolving

$1·         Only 6% believe it is not growing fast enough

$1·         Change managers specifically employed to manage this transition

$1·         Business analysis is making greater use now of data analytics, business intelligence and mobile location software.

Marketers are becoming Smarter Tech Buyers & Implementers

While most firms these days include 5-10, 12% of marketers surveyed have more than 20 toolsets to aid their efforts.

Agility & Integration drawing Marketers to the Cloud

$1·         Infrastructure, time to market and experimentation & scalability are factors pulling marketers to the cloud.

$1·         Key indicators for new tech evaluations are- integration with technology, data protection and efficient change management.

$1·          Criteria for better usage of data identified are- integration of functioning tools, experienced practitioners formulating corporate strategy and improved information sharing process.

CMOs partnering with CIOs for better Outcomes

The IT department is now working hand-in-hand with the marketing team.

Data Related Tech Investments Targeted for 2015

$1·         Priority areas for B2B marketers identified are- content optimization, social media engagement and personalized targeting tools.

$1·         Tactics set to receive greater investments are- marketing analytics, social media marketing and mobile technology marketing.

Marketers are Attracted to the “Marketing Cloud” Vision

Best part about the cloud is that all marketing operations can be streamlined within one platform.

Different Schools of Thought on Tech Acquisition and Integration

$1·         Some marketers and agencies want integration tools, others want stand-alone solutions.

$1·         Third party ‘app stores’ to rise in terms of usage.

Brands turn to Agencies for Tech driven Solutions

$1·         It has been understood that outsourcing of critical technological operations to third party vendors is a desirable option.

$1·         Nearly three-fourths of B2B marketers reiterate that marketing agencies are key in driving business outcomes.

$1·         Especially for digital marketing, most senior managers are dependent on agencies for execution.

Conclusion

A large percentage of CMOs feel that cross-channel consistency is missing in brands’ campaigns. This is due to the lack of a centralized hub to ensure customer engagement. Even content needs to be managed for the entire lifecycle. Thus palling for marketing is getting difficult and there is a need for a new vision.