Improving Convenience for Desis' - Opportunity for SMEs
By: Amit Bhushan Date: 7th May 2015
Communications is most successful when 'noise' level in the environment is low. Since it is then possible to reach out to recipient in an uncluttered environment and convey the idea in an undiluted form. The businesses and communicators know this for a fact. However, still not many strides have taken on 'internet' to reach the audience in 'their own language' to kind of build bridges. The availability of information about most products and services used by a large class of people is not available on the internet in their own language even though it is the cheapest mode of communication.
It presents a huge opportunity for Small and Medium Enterprises keen to build their Brand image amongst a large swathe of customer and also support them with information to make the rightly appealing queries during the quest of their search for the right widgets and services. This is because as one scans through the web, one finds very limited information available in vernacular. While there might be a little bit better situation for Bengali or Hindi, there is a considerable draught of information available in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Marathi, Punjabi etc. This is even as we know that some of these places have a robust IT industry of their own and also that a large swathe of the population speaking the language is uncomfortable in English. For Example: take families of Malayalee technicians who may have migrated to Gulf, quite a few of them would have purchasing power but not language skills. So if some emerging entrepreneur approaches them in language of their convenience... Well there can be a business case of almost all the languages primarily because for SMEs to build their brands in a cluttered market is very expensive because their competitors, some of whom have deep pockets are already entrenched and are likely to fight back. However, these very competitors have been reluctant to reach out to consumers in their local language as their net based activity is primarily designed to support their mass media activities and carries the same message or support justifications/service offerings towards the same.
The SMEs have so far followed the leaders and struck to mimicking them and have generated their money by cutting corners or cost of operations which often indicates a compromise in quality or at least allows such a perception to be formed. Venturing into something new has not really been the forte for most of the SMEs in India as it was always perceived to be High end Research & Development driven activity. Segmenting market to reach out in different manner and thus increasing 'convenience' for the customer has almost never been thought of as a value added activity by marketing department of most enterprises. Some of benefits are listed below:
1. Ability to lead 'perception' game amongst select segments and support them to perceive market/requirement or to evaluate needs in the same manner as perceived by the product manager. Like most 'Branded goods Sales Person' are unable to articulate the superior functions/comfort of their brands to the satisfaction of a questioning customer.
2. Gains in ability to 'innovate further' as well as 'innovate differently' by connecting with the users directly rather than through a channel/translator acting as sales agent.
3. Become more market oriented due to increased in 'data' and actual user insights.
4. New opportunities for SMEs to reach out/connect to 'influencers' and 'decision makers' in a language they are more comfortable.
5. Improvements in mutual understanding across value chain as 'all' participants gain ability to reach out to each other due to language barrier being removed. This may need some what higher management commitment to ensure such support rather than just building local language website.
6. Better coordination across entire value chain participants such as wholesalers, resellers, influencers, decision makers, service provider & their staff etc. This again may need some what higher management commitment to ensure such support rather than just building local language website.
7. Quite a few competitors may not be able to respond quickly and hence the nimble footed gains most out being first mover.
By: Amit Bhushan Date: 7th May 2015
Communications is most successful when 'noise' level in the environment is low. Since it is then possible to reach out to recipient in an uncluttered environment and convey the idea in an undiluted form. The businesses and communicators know this for a fact. However, still not many strides have taken on 'internet' to reach the audience in 'their own language' to kind of build bridges. The availability of information about most products and services used by a large class of people is not available on the internet in their own language even though it is the cheapest mode of communication.
It presents a huge opportunity for Small and Medium Enterprises keen to build their Brand image amongst a large swathe of customer and also support them with information to make the rightly appealing queries during the quest of their search for the right widgets and services. This is because as one scans through the web, one finds very limited information available in vernacular. While there might be a little bit better situation for Bengali or Hindi, there is a considerable draught of information available in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Marathi, Punjabi etc. This is even as we know that some of these places have a robust IT industry of their own and also that a large swathe of the population speaking the language is uncomfortable in English. For Example: take families of Malayalee technicians who may have migrated to Gulf, quite a few of them would have purchasing power but not language skills. So if some emerging entrepreneur approaches them in language of their convenience... Well there can be a business case of almost all the languages primarily because for SMEs to build their brands in a cluttered market is very expensive because their competitors, some of whom have deep pockets are already entrenched and are likely to fight back. However, these very competitors have been reluctant to reach out to consumers in their local language as their net based activity is primarily designed to support their mass media activities and carries the same message or support justifications/service offerings towards the same.
The SMEs have so far followed the leaders and struck to mimicking them and have generated their money by cutting corners or cost of operations which often indicates a compromise in quality or at least allows such a perception to be formed. Venturing into something new has not really been the forte for most of the SMEs in India as it was always perceived to be High end Research & Development driven activity. Segmenting market to reach out in different manner and thus increasing 'convenience' for the customer has almost never been thought of as a value added activity by marketing department of most enterprises. Some of benefits are listed below:
1. Ability to lead 'perception' game amongst select segments and support them to perceive market/requirement or to evaluate needs in the same manner as perceived by the product manager. Like most 'Branded goods Sales Person' are unable to articulate the superior functions/comfort of their brands to the satisfaction of a questioning customer.
2. Gains in ability to 'innovate further' as well as 'innovate differently' by connecting with the users directly rather than through a channel/translator acting as sales agent.
3. Become more market oriented due to increased in 'data' and actual user insights.
4. New opportunities for SMEs to reach out/connect to 'influencers' and 'decision makers' in a language they are more comfortable.
5. Improvements in mutual understanding across value chain as 'all' participants gain ability to reach out to each other due to language barrier being removed. This may need some what higher management commitment to ensure such support rather than just building local language website.
6. Better coordination across entire value chain participants such as wholesalers, resellers, influencers, decision makers, service provider & their staff etc. This again may need some what higher management commitment to ensure such support rather than just building local language website.
7. Quite a few competitors may not be able to respond quickly and hence the nimble footed gains most out being first mover.