Social Media Marketing Does Not Work In India

 

I have come across Marketing Managers stating that Social Media does not help at all. That customers do not make marketing decisions on the basis of information on Social Media.

Some arguments that are thrown in favour of this statement are :

1. Social Media is not used by Indians

People in India do not use Social Media but are on the internet and visit the various company sites or research or review sites

One only needs to have a look at some statistics on Facebook usage at http://www.facebakers.com/countries-with-facebook/IN/

Number of Users : 9.5 Million and growing

Male Users : 6.5 M and Female Users : 2.9M

User Growth – Facebook India

Penetration of Social Media is 0.84% against an online penetration of 11.8%

However this needs to be weighed in against the fact that Facebook User Base in India has doubled from 4.7M to 9.5M in last six months!!!

This data point itself brings us to a conclusion that this is the fastest growing medium.

2. My Target Customers Are Not on Social Media

We should ask the customer to qualify who their Target Customers are

If it is men, 6.5M of them are on Facebook and there are 2.9M women using Facebook in India.

And both the genders have had 100% growth in the last six months.

User Age Distribution – Facebook India

78% of the Facebook Users are in the Age segment of 18-34 years. If one were to add the 35-44 years group to this we would get to 86% of 9.5M.

This age group is largest buyer for most products and services.  

And for those targeting the young ones, we would suggest them to look at the statistics for age groups 13-15 and 16-17 which account for 9% of the total users.

Point to be noted here is that these two are the fastest growing Age segments on Facebook.

Choice is very clear, you want to be where your current customer is and where your next base of customers is going to be.

3. Social Media is Not Useful in Impacting buyer behaviour

Customers do not make purchasing decisions basis of Social Media or Social Network but after going through company and product information in Advertisments (print/television/billboards, Reviews,or Online Banner Ads).

Guess what collectively ONLY 30% of the respondents to a Nielson Online Survey in 2009 said they TRUSTED COMPLETELY” these sources.

And an overwhelming 34% Trust the recommendations of people they know and add to that Consumer opinions posted online as a trust source at 13%. Individually both of them seem to fare better than the Editorial content such as newspaper article which is at 10% and is supposed to be from an informed source.

4. What, allow for users to write negative about me ???

Should I be giving a ready made platform to disgruntled users to write against me? All the negative comments they have will be in the public eye? My company would be ruined ?

Fact is platform exists and people are using it to pass judgments. You are either gaining or loosing customers by no action. Would you rather be a blind mice or play the game ?

If a complaint is raised publicly, it gives you an opportunity to address it publicly thus setting an example of customer care and responsiveness to the audience.  Even if the customer is a trouble maker, you still have made a positive impact on others by your effort.

At times your satisfied customer who comes to your defence and what is better testimonial then that ?

5. Social Media is Hard, Tough and Slow

I want results and I want them now, this quarter? My management is not interested in something that will take ages to and anyways is doubtful as I can not measure the impact.

If one were to follow the guidance of international marketers, discussion about the impact of Social Media is off the table. Yes, it does not subscribe to the traditional methods of measurements and new skills need to be learned by the Marketing Manager.

Simplest would be the traffic driven to your website from Social Media Sites and the behaviour pattern of these users.

We are not stating that replace Traditional Media with Social Media, we are saying ADD this to your existing arsenal. BY all means use the standard medium for short term goals.

Use this medium to build a community and to interact with them. Results are generated over longer term BUT are sustained and not flashes in the pane. Keep in mind that It is tougher to make a marriage work then a one night stand.

Services Pricing

 

Had an interesting discussion this week end with the Service Representative of a house cleaning service – Ashiana Home Care.

Ashiana is a service company which offers thorough house cleaning for a fee. They have priced themselves for a stand alone single service and also an annual contract for 4 services.

We were approached by their telemarketing team around a year back. We enrolled into the service contract for a year (4 services). We were by and large satisfied with the service of the company. Staff they sent for service was always well trained and worked at a quick pace while not being intrusive.

With all the positive experience we had, we thought of renewing the contract for the next one year. Service Executive was duly called and discussed the pricing with us. Net import of the discussion was –

1. It does not matter whether I am renewing a contract or signing a new one, the pricing remains the same.

2. Contract period is 12 months from the DAY I sign the contract and not from the day I get my first service done.

3. Net net if I do not get the 4 services done within 12 months from DAY I sign the contract I forfeit the amount.

I tried to reason with the person from Ashiana that this sounds illogical as I have got the service done TODAY and would only avail of the next service (or the first service of next year contract) around September and hence I would in fact be made to either miss one service or get four services done in a time frame of Nine months.

Also, the fact that I am a return or a renewal customer who should get advantage of continuance and thus should get a discount.

We also pointed out that it was us who told them about the expiry and were proactively asking for renewal. Response to that was – I have eight sites running on any given day and anyways it is for the customer to renew and not our responsibility. Tone, tenor and the body language of the Ashiana executive was reminiscent of the Government Employees of yonder, who used to treat citizen as a problem rather then a customer

In the process Ashiana

1. Lost a sale in a home account.

2. Lost the opportunity to book revenue ahead of delivery of service.

3. Have lost an active reference

4. has given us a chance to explore options and give them an entry into our condominium of 300 Apartments.

I sincerely hope that this is merely an oversight on the part of  the owner/manager of Ashiana. However the problem is compounded by the attitude of the Representative for whom the company’s policy is a gospel.

She could not even attempt to comprehend what a customer was stating. Her approach was either you give me a check or you don’t.

Since then we have evaluated options and we understand that we could get the same job done at around half of the cost of Ashiana. We have also told the person to build it as a service offering and proactively initiate engagement with residents of our condominium.

What happens to the Early Innovator – Ashiana, who introduced this service in Gurgaon, India – frankly dear, I don’t give a damn….