Category Archives: Trendspotting

The Unthinkable Future of Marketing

Saturday, June 21st, 2008

Quick Summary: Read my list of the ten unthinkable futures of marketing, scenarios that seem too far-fetched to be true today, but may seem obvious in retrospect tomorrow.

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Yes you read it right. This is not a post about the future of marketing. This is a post about the ten unthinkable futures of marketing.

Unthinkable futures are probabilities we tend to dismiss without thinking, scenarios that seem too far-fetched to be true today, but may seem obvious in retrospect tomorrow.

Inspired by the unthinkable futures game between Kevin Kelly and Brian Eno from fifteen years back, here’s my own list of the ten unthinkable futures of marketing —

1. No products will have price tags anymore. People will pick up products from the mall, or order them online and have them delivered home, and pay only what they want to pay.

(Update: I was aware of the numerous examples of authors and musicians giving away their books and music for free, but I discovered two examples of restaurants giving away food for free, and allowing the patrons to decide what they want to pay for it.)

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The Social Web is Not Flat (Part 2): The Social Technographics Profile of Metro India

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008

Quick Summary: I use data from various sources to estimate the social technographics profile for Metro India and compare it to Forrester Research’s social technographics profiles for Metro China.

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In my previous post, I had compared the social technographics profiles for USA/ Europe with Japan/ Metro China to kick off my series on why the social web is not flat.

The Forrester Research Social Technographics Ladder classifies consumers into six overlapping levels based on their of participation in social media –

Basically, Creators create the user generated content, Critics and Collectors help disseminate it and Spectators consume it. Joiners are a special species, specific to social networking sites, who play all the other four roles in that context.

I ended the post by wishing that this data was also available for India, or at least Metro India –

However, given the low penetration of internet, even in Metro India, I suspect that the Creators will be in low single digits, Critics/ Collectors in high single digits, and Joiners/ Spectators in low double digits.

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The Social Web is Not Flat (Part I): Forrester Research Social Technographics Profiles

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008

Quick Summary: I use data from Forrester Research to compare the social technographics profiles for USA/ Europe with Japan/ Metro China to kick off my series on how the social web is not flat.

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Forrester Research analysts Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff have played an important role in increasing our understanding of the social media space over the last year, both through their book Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies (website) and their Social Technographics Study.

The Forrester Research Social Technographics Study classifies consumers into a ladder with six overlapping levels based on their of participation in social media. The six levels in the Social Technographics Ladder are –

1. Creators, who publish blogs, maintain websites, or upload self-created photos, podcasts or videos on social sites (like Flickr or YouTube).

2. Critics, who post ratings and reviews of products and services on user review sites (like Amazon), comment on someone else’s blogs or contribute to online forums or wikis (like Wikipedia).

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The World is Not Flat and Neither is the Social Web

Saturday, May 10th, 2008

Quick Summary: I’m starting a new series on why the social web is not flat and why it’s a good thing.

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It has been fashionable for a while now to describe the world as ‘globalized’. Ever since Thomas Friedman’s ode to globalization, ‘The World is Flat’, became a runaway bestseller in 2005, it has also become fashionable to describe the world as ‘flat’. Indians, in particular, have a special fondness for Friedman’s book because Friedman is enamored with the Indian IT industry and the title was derived from a statement by Nandan Nilekani, the former CEO of Infosys.

While the ‘world is flat’ metaphor has been much abused over the last three years, even Friedman’s original argument (that historical, regional and geographical divisions have become irrelevant in a global marketplace where all companies and countries have a level playing field) is quite exaggerated.

In a series of posts written over the next few weeks, I’ll establish that the world is not truly globalized, but ’semi-globalized’ (as Pankaj Ghemawat describes it in ‘Redefining Global Strategy’) or ‘rough-correlated’ (a term used by Eric Beinhocker in ‘The Origin of Wealth’).

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The Best of Indian Business Blogs: A Weekly Digest by Business Bloggers You Trust (Week Four)

Monday, April 14th, 2008

Quick Summary: Check out the fourth edition of ‘The Best of Indian Business Blogs’, a weekly digest by business bloggers you trust.

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The Best of Indian Business Blogs: A Weekly Digest by Business Bloggers You Trust

The Idea

The basic idea is simple: we form a network of five to ten influential Indian business bloggers to promote link-worthy posts from other Indian business bloggers in the form of a weekly digest published on our respective blogs.

The People

The present members in our network are (in alphabetical order):-

- Gaurav Mishra, that is, yours truly, is a marketer and a social media enthusiast (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Gautam Ghosh is an HR professional and a veteran business blogger (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Kiruba Shankar is India’s original A-list blogger and podcaster and a regular speaker at technology conferences (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Palin Ningthoujam is a public relations professional and the founder of India PR Blog (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Rajesh Lalwani is the founder of social media agency Blogworks (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Ranjan Varma is the writer of personal finance online weekly Personal Finance 2.01 (e-Book, Blog, Facebook and Twitter).

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The Best of Indian Business Blogs: A Weekly Digest by Business Bloggers You Trust (Week Three)

Monday, April 7th, 2008

Quick Summary: Check out the third edition of ‘The Best of Indian Business Blogs’, a weekly digest by business bloggers you trust.

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The Best of Indian Business Blogs: A Weekly Digest by Business Bloggers You Trust

The Idea

The basic idea is simple: we form a network of five to ten influential Indian business bloggers to promote link-worthy posts from other Indian business bloggers in the form of a weekly digest published on our respective blogs.

The People

The present members in our network are (in alphabetical order):-

- Gaurav Mishra, that is, yours truly, is a marketer and a social media enthusiast (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Gautam Ghosh is an HR professional and a veteran business blogger (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Kiruba Shankar is India’s original A-list blogger and podcaster and a regular speaker at technology conferences (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Palin Ningthoujam is a public relations professional and the founder of India PR Blog (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Rajesh Lalwani is the founder of social media agency Blogworks (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Ranjan Varma is the writer of personal finance online weekly Personal Finance 2.01 (e-Book, Blog, Facebook and Twitter).

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Interview With Rohit Bhargava, Author of ‘Personality Not Included’

Sunday, March 30th, 2008

Quick Summary: Read my interview with Rohit Bhargava, author of the new marketing book ‘Personality Not Included’.

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Personality Not Included Personality Not Included Personality Not Included

I had earlier promised you that I’ll post an interview with Rohit Bhargava, author of the new marketing book ‘Personality Not Included’.

The interview is part of Rohit’s innovative blogger interview program to promote the book –

If you send me five questions that you want to know about the book or personality, I’ll write you a response on Friday that you can publish on your blog. I will link to all the posted interviews on Friday.

On Monday, I’ll be running a competition on my blog to let readers vote on the Best Interview. The winner will get a signed copy of my book and a gift certificate for $100 from Amazon.

Rohit has spent the last two days doing 57 virtual blogger interviews; that’s 285 questions!

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Update: April 1, 2008

I’m in Rohit’s shortlist of twelve best interviews; now I need your help in the voting.

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Check It Out: Rohit Bhargava’s New Book ‘Personality Not Included’

Friday, March 28th, 2008

Quick Summary: Check out ‘Personality Not Included’ a new book by one of my favorite marketing bloggers Rohit Bhargava.

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Personality Not Included

I just finished reading the introduction (download PDF here) of Rohit Bhargava’s new book ‘Personality Not Included’ and it totally rocks!

The basic premise of Rohit’s book is that personality is the key element defining what a brand stands for and the story it tells to its customers.

Personality is the unique, authentic, and talkable soul of your brand that people can get passionate about.

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Personality is not just about what you stand for, but how you choose to communicate it. It is also the way to reconnect your customers, partners, employees, and influencers to the soul of your brand in the new social media era.

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Personality is the macro trend. The three hottest topics in business today are how to do more with social media, using word-of-mouth marketing, and interacting more authentically with customers. Personality is the theme that incorporates all of these topics.

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Check It Out: The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption

Tuesday, March 25th, 2008

Quick Summary: Check out my new book-as-a-blog ‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’, a year-long experiment in why we choose to consume, or not.

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The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption

Why would a twenty-something, single, eligible, IIM-educated, upwardly mobile marketer on the corporate fast-track in India’s business capital decide to go ‘off consumption’ for a year?

Will a year off consumption (no eating out, no going out for movies or music or plays, no television or newspapers, no shopping except for necessities) leave him ill-equipped to handle life and work in Mumbai?

Or, will it leave him with invaluable insights into what drives us to consume, or not, into the nature of consumption, into human nature itself?

‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’ is a blog in which I document my year off consumption. It is also a book-in-progress, in search of a publisher with a multi-million dollar advance.

Do spend an hour reading it, do subscribe to it, and don’t forget to tell me that you absolutely adore it. :-)

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Check It Out: My First Podcast on Why Startups Need Workaholics and Why Mobile Will Drive Web 2.0 Usage in India

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008

Quick Summary: Check out my first podcast on Indicast where Aditya Mhatre, Aditya Mishra, VeerChand Bothra and I discuss why startups need workaholics and why mobile will drive web 2.0 usage in India.

My First Podcast on Indicast

I had a great time last Sunday recording my first podcast with Aditya Mhatre, Aditya Mishra, VeerChand Bothra (tweet) on why startups need workaholics and why mobile will drive web 2.0 usage in India (tweet).

All three of them have extremely rich backgrounds, resulting in an extremely vibrant discussion —

- Aditya Mhatre is India’s leading podcaster at Indicast (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- VeerChand Bothra is at the center of India’s mobile boom, as MobilePundit, as organizer of Mumbai Mobile Mondays and as VP at NetCore Solutions (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Aditya Mishra is deeply involved in the startup ecosystem in India through his work (he has the fancy title of Entrepreneur-in-Residence at TCS) and his role as the organizer of BarCamp and Kickstart (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

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