SP Report Deepak

7/28/2019 SP Report Deepak

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Times Internet Ltd. Summer Project Batch 2011-13

1

A PROJECT REPORT

ON

Embarking m-VAS Journey for India times Greeting

Portal mGreet (Product Management & Direct to

Consumer marketing)

FOR

TIMES INTERNET LTD.UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

Shalini Kapur & Aditi Verma

(Chief Managers Product & Marketing: Interactive Media On Mobile)

TOWARDS PARTIAL FILFILLMENT OF

THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF

MASTER IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION IN TELECOM MANAGEMENT

SUBMITTED BY

DEEPAK ARORA

&

ANKUR BHALLA

Symbiosis Institute of Telecom Management

Pune 411042

MBA (TM) Batch 2011-13

Systems & Finance


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INSTITUTE CERTIFICATE


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CERTIFICATE FROM THE COMPANY


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2. Abstract

There is a card for every occasion and an occasion for every card.

But

Greeting cards are losing charm.

Al though

Consumers are becoming more acceptable towards the new greeting card occasions.Being low-cost options- SMS, MMS and digital greetings are catching up.

The current competitive business environment has lead to a growing demand for

mobility, and for 24/7 access to information and services. Organizations which capitalize

on this demand will be leaders in the Internet market of the future.

Greetings Industry in India has seen a transformation from paper only tradition greetings

to digital greetings & gifting portals. Emerging services within mobile VAS also include

social networking, instant messaging and micro-blogging. Times Internet on the basis of

this upcoming trend is trying to harness the potential in Indian Greeting Industry by

promoting greetings as a VAS in the form of their mobile greeting portal m-Greet.

At present, the Indian e-card market is estimated to have around 100-million users and

is growing by 12-15% every year. In terms of growth, Asia-Pacific is portended to

register fastest growth exhibiting a CAGR of more than 4.0%.Global Greeting Cards

Market to Exceed US$30.4 Billion by 2015, according to a New Report by Global

Industry Analysts, Inc.


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As a part of our project, we analyzed the customer behavior on the basis of their

feedback and trend analysis, did competition study for m-Greet, developed a product

roadmap, took care of product alliances and did direct to consumer marketing for m-

Greet, perform all necessary tasks for doing a campaign in Lucknow colleges.

The following tasks were performed during the course of the project:

Survey on mobile greetings from potential customers.

Customer profiling and analytics.

Suggesting improvements in product on the basis of customer analytics,

Competitive products study, customer feedback etc.

Designing a product feature matrix.

Product & Marketing Alliances management.

Evaluating content providers & android mobile app developers for product.

Creating themes for marketing campaigns.

Identifying colleges & preparing presentations for pitching colleges.

Tie-ups with news channel for coverage of campaigns.Selection of event management agency to do on ground activity


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Contents1. Acknowledgment................................................................................................................................ 4

2. Abstract ............................................................................................................................................... 5

3. List of Figures ..................................................................................................................................... 9

4. Data Tables ...................................................................................................................................... 10

5. Nomenclature & Abbreviations....................................................................................................... 11

6. Title of the Project ............................................................................................................................ 127. Project Objectives ............................................................................................................................ 13

8. Executive Summary......................................................................................................................... 14

8.1 Objectives ...........................................................................................................14

8.2 Methodology .......................................................................................................15

8.3 Findings ..............................................................................................................15

8.4 Conclusions ............................................................................................................16

9. Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 17

9.1 Company Profile .................................................................................................18

9.2. Product Profile .......................................................................................................22

10. Mobile Greetings Potential In India............................................................................................ 29

10.1 Data Sources: .......................................................................................................29

10.2 Research Approach: .............................................................................................29

10.3 Research Instrument:............................................................................................30

10.4 Sampling Plan:......................................................................................................34

10.5 Contact Method: ...................................................................................................35

10.6 Data Analysis, Interpretation and Findings: ...........................................................3510.7 Secondary Research ............................................................................................42

10.8 Competition Study ................................................................................................46

11. Product Management .................................................................................................................. 50

11.1 Features: ..............................................................................................................51

11.1.1 Speed Dial .........................................................................................................51


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11.1.2 Video Greetings .................................................................................................51

11.1.3 Speech Recognition ...........................................................................................52

11.1.4 Play with music ..................................................................................................52

11.1.5 Calendar maintenance & events reminder .........................................................53

11.1.6 Invite Friends to Update Contact Details ............................................................53

11.1.7 Refer to Win .......................................................................................................54

11.1.8 Search Engine Optimization ...............................................................................55

11.2 Product Alliances ..................................................................................................56

11.2.1 Corporate ...........................................................................................................56

11.2.2 Floral .................................................................................................................56

11.2.3 Misc ...................................................................................................................56

12. Direct to Consumer Marketing ......................................................................................................... 58

12.1 Direct Marketing ....................................................................................................59

12.2. Why D2C for M-VAS company .............................................................................68

12.3. mGreet Lucknow campaign .................................................................................72

13. Limitation of project ........................................................................................................................... 75

14. Conclusion & Recommendations .................................................................................................... 76

15. SWOT Analysis ................................................................................................................................. 78

16. References......................................................................................................................................... 79


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3. List of Figures

Figure Number Figure Description Page Number

1 Company Structure 18

2 Times Internet Portfolio 20

3 mGreet Features 23

4 Facebook Connect 25

5 Research Approach 29

6 GSM Revenue Composition 42

7 VAS Categories &Classficiation

43

8 VAS Value Chain 67

9 Campaign Poster 71

10 SWOT Analysis 77


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4. Data Tables

Table Number Table Description Page number

1 Feature Matrix 48


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5. Nomenclature & Abbreviations

S.NO Abbreviation Description

1 m-VAS Mobile Value Added Services

2 D2C Direct to Consumer

3 TIL Times Internet Ltd.

4 USSD Unstructured Supplementary ServiceData

5 CAGR Compounded Annual Growth Rate

6 QA Quality Assurance

7 IVR Interactive Voice Response

8 WAP Wireless Application Protocol

9 SMS Short Messaging Service

10 MOU Minutes of Usage

11 IPL Indian Premier League

12 OBD Outbound Dialing

13 P2A Peer to Application

14 A2P Application to Peer15 P2P Peer to Peer


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6. Title of the Project

Embarking m-VAS Journey for India times

Greeting Portal: m-Greet

(Product Management & Direct to Consumermarketing)


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7. Project Objectives

Exploring market potential for mobile Greetings in India

Mobile VAS Next source of revenue for operators

Existing mGreet Customer Survey.

Potential Customers Mobility Profiling & greeting preferences.

Customer Analytics

Market Competition Study.

mGreet: Product Management

Study existing features across different mGreet Platforms.

Support the Design & QA team.

Suggest new features.

Develop Product Roadmap.

Identify product alliances for mGreet.

mGreet: Direct to Consumer Marketing

Increase usage of mGreet.

Increase awareness about the mGreet.

Viral marketing of mGreet.


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8. Executive Summary

8.1 Objectives

Exploring market potential for mobile Greetings in India:

This phase included primary as well as secondary research. Primary research

was carried out by taking feedback from existing customers and circulating a

questionnaire to the potential customers for mGreet. Secondary research

included competition study in terms of features and business models.

mGreet: Product Management:

This phase included suggesting new features across different platforms including

Website, IVR, WAP, USSD and mobile App. There was a strong need for

coordination with the engineering and QA team to understand the core product. It

also included vendor evaluation & product alliance management.

mGreet: Direct to Consumer Marketing

This phase included study of relevance of D2C marketing for success of a m-VAS

product. Various colleges were identified & pitched for conducting marketing

campaigns to promote the mGreet brand to the target market segment. Marketing

alliances with news channels were made for the coverage of these campaigns.


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8.2 Methodology

To identify the potential for mobile greetings in India, feedback was taken from

customers by telephonic interviews and online questionnaires. It was necessary to

understand the business models of competitor products for base lining their success

stories. Customers taste was evaluated for various VAS services such as

Entertainment, Information, E-Commerce etc. As mobile greetings come under Social

VAS, we had to think of product enhancements so as to leverage the power of social

media.

8.3 Findings

Few parameters were identified for customer satisfaction while taking feedback. It

was visible from the feedback that customers wanted something extra apart from just

a greeting portal. They wanted a greeting plus gifting portal. Apart from this since

90% of the customer base was IVR based with 95% revenue coming from monthly

subscription, we realized that for the organic growth of product we need to bring a

strong alliance network so as to offer this to the target market segment i.e. Students,

Service sector people.


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8.4 Conclusions

To increase the customer base and meet the target segment demands, there is a

strong need of technological up-gradation in terms of 3G supported features & also

selective marketing like use of media management platforms, search Engine

Optimization & radio promotions needs to be done in addition to bulk SMS and news

paper based promotions to increase the probability of customer conversions. For

assured greeting revenue sources, we need to tie-up with big retail chains and

corporate who would like to send timely greetings on special occasions to theiremployees and customers.


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9. Introduction


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9.1 Company Profile

The Times Group is Indias largest media conglomerate with its flagship Bennett,

Coleman and Company Limited (BCCL) being the largest publishing company in India

and South-Asia. Starting off with The Times of India which is now the largest English

publication in the world, BCCL and its subsidiaries (called The Times of India Group),

are present in every existing media platform Newspapers, Magazines, Books, TV,

Radio, Internet, Event Management, Outdoor Display, Music, Movies and more. With a

turnover exceeding a billion dollars, the group has the support of over 25,000advertisers, 11,000 employees and an audience spanning across all continents

Key Businesses:

Publishing

Largest publishing co in India: 13 newspapers, 18 magazines, 11

publishing centers, 26 printing centers.

Largest English newspaper in India by circulation (and the world).

Largest Business newspaper in India by circulation (2nd largest English

Business daily in the world, behind WSJ).

Largest NonEnglish newspapers in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore by

circulation (Indias three largest cities).

Television

Largest English News TV Channel, No. 2 English Business News TV

Channel.

Largest Bollywood News and Lifestyle TV Channel, No. 2 English

Movies TV Channel.


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Digital

Largest Indian network based on traffic and revenue (behind Google,

Facebook, Yahoo).

Operates 30+ digital businesses, most of which are Top 3 in their

competitive segment.

Most popular B2C mobile shortcode in India, across SMS, voice, WAP,

and USSD Radio.

Largest radio network in India by revenue and listenership, with 32

stations.Operates the largest rock radio station in the UK.

Figure 1: Company Structure


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Times Internet Ltd.

Times Internet Limited, (TIL), is the internet & mobile venture of India's

largest media house - the Times Group. TIL websites are among the fastest

growing web-based networks worldwide. TIL has led the internet revolution

in India and has emerged as India's foremost web entity, running diverse

portals and niche websites.

Indiatimes.com, India's state-of the art internet portal encompasses

telecom, e-commerce, online advertisement solutions, communities, events.

It is India's preferred online & mobile value-added services destination for

millions of surfers & subscribers looking for a rich and diverse digital

content. Indiatimes.com commands more than 1 billion page views per

month.

The other key properties in the TIL portfolio are timesofindia.com Worlds

no.1 news site in terms of page views, and, economictimes.com - India's

No.1 business news website.

Times Internet Mobile VAS Overview:

In the mobile space, Indiatimes pioneered the extremely popular and

successful mobile short code - 58888. 58888 is the largest direct-to-consumer

SMS and IVR short code, accessed by over 3mn consumers every month

across all telecom operators in India, with offerings across the entire gamut ofplatforms, i.e., IVR/SMS/WAP.


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Times mobile limited, from the Times Group, is the most popular mobile value-added

services destination for the global Indian. Times Mobile Limited continues to be the

market driver in value-added services (VAS) for mobile phones and landlines. Setting

up the first VAS messaging service, Times Mobile Limited 8888 quickly scoped out to

include multimedia messaging, dating, chatting and email on mobile. 58888 is available

with all service operators across India on both CDMA and GPRS phones, making it

Indias largest operator-agnostic mobile short-code.

Figure 2- Times Internet Portfolio


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9.2. Product Profile

m-Greet: A Unique mobile Greeting Platform

About mGreet:

mGreet is a unique greetings service from Times Mobile Limited which gives users a

different way of expressing themselves. Users can browse through our wide range of

greetings, select greetings they like and send to their friends and family. Be it greetings

for specific occasions like Birthdays or anniversaries or for special events like

Valentines Day or Diwali orevery day, mGreet has it all.

mGreet is an integrated product with primary objective of voice greetings.However, it

offers SMS greetings as well along with other features like uploading contacts through

Web etc. Web and WAP is primarily an add on and free feature.mGreet sign up and

activations can be done through any mode including IVR, Web and WAP. mGreet is

currently available on 58888155 short-code for Airtel, Tata Docomo, Reliance, Uninor

and Loop.

A one of a kind service for satiating not only the conventional need of greetings, via

WEB,WAP &IVR but also to stay connected to network of friends by sending greetings.

mGreet fulfils the need of users to wish/ greet their loved ones on special occasions

Real time sharing of personalized greetings in the form of audio and text. Now user can

access mGreet website and wapsite also by visitingwww.mgreet.in.

mGreet had a customer base of 351072 & revenue of Rs. 1383100 on 31st March 2012.

Mgreet is available in regional Languages also.

Language Available- Hindi, English, Kannada,assamese,bengali,tamil, Marathi & Telugu.
http://www.mgreet.in/http://www.mgreet.in/http://www.mgreet.in/http://www.mgreet.in/


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mGreet:Works on Multiple Platform

On IVR:

58888155 to subscribe and access this service.

On Web:

User logs on to www.mgreet.in to view and browse content. Users will

have to subscribe to the service by filling in and submitting the user

registration form, in order to send greetings.

On WAP:

User logs on to mgreet.in from their GPRS enabled handsets to access the

service. Subscription can by done by filling in and submitting the user

registration form.

mGreet Key Features:

Personalization- Users can personalize the existing pre-recorded voice

greetings by recording a message in their own voice. Recipients will

receive the personalized greetings as an OBD where the personal

message will be played first, followed by the pre-recorded greeting.

Figure 3: mGreet Features

Your friend receives

the greeting as an

OBD

Call and select

a Greeting

Record your

message to

personalize


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Sending to multiple numbers at one go- Users can send selected

greetings to multiple friends at one go. This feature is especially useful for

sending generic event based greetings like New Years, Christmas etc.

My zone- In this section, users can access their profile, their recent

activities, favorites and also do activities like adding friends to a list, sorting

friends according to different groups etc.

Groups- When user adds a friend to his friend list, he also assigns a group

to each friend from the list of pre-defined groups. Users can send a

selected greeting to a particular group from the list. Only groups which

have at least one member will be available for sending the greeting to.

Scheduling- Greetings can be sent immediately or scheduled for a later

date and time. Users can schedule a greeting upto 1 year in advance by

entering the date and time of delivery of the greeting. However, the

greeting will only be delivered if the sender is subscribed to the service at

the time when the greeting is to be delivered.Save greeting- Recipients can access the received greetings by calling a

number which will be sent to them as SMS before the greeting is delivered

to them. Recipients can access these greetings for upto 2 days from the

time of delivery.

Celebrity Greeting- This section of the portal has pre recorded greetings

in the voice of famous celebrities like Chitrangada Singh, Neil Nitin

Mukesh, Kangna Ranaut, Rituparna Sengupta etc.The user can select the

celebrity greetings and send it to their friends. Users can also wish their

favorite celebrities by sending greetings from the list of available greetings

and

Receive a thank you OBD call from the Celebrities whom they have sent

the greetings to.


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Facebook Connect-

Apart from an easy login process every time, User can also do lots of fun

activities by using Facebook Connect on mGreet. Some of the things you can

do are mentioned below:

Import all your Facebook contacts on to the mGreet website.

Add Contact numbers of the friends you want to add to your mGreet

groups- you can then send voice & text greetings to these friends or to

entire groups.

Send greetings to the facebook friends whom you have added in your

Groups.

Publish the greetings you send on your wall.

Publish the greetings on your friends wall- if it is a voice greeting, your

friend will not only receive the voice greeting on their phone but they can

also listen to the greeting on their wall.

Figure 4: Facebook Connect

Publish it on urwall & Friends

FB Wall

SendGreetings to

FB Friends

ImportContacts &

Add contact


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Default Language:

A default language has been set depending on the Circle of the User.

For example, the default language for Karnataka is Kannada.

Users can, at any time, change their language by going to the Help

section of the portal.

Users can go to the Help section by pressing 9.

Category Listing

The categories will be listed on the basis of Popularity and favorite

sections.

The category listing will be dynamic. It will be based on the language

selected by the customer. For example if a customer selects English as

a language the Love category will come on the top.

The portal will have the following categories:

Birthday Greetings

Anniversary Greetings

Love Greetings

Friendship Greetings

Seasonal Greetings

Every day greeting like Miss you, Good morning etc

Festive Greetings

Celebrity Greetings

Music Greetings

Get well soon Greetings

Event Based: Makar Sankrati, Ayyappa, Pongal , Republic Day,

Valentines day etc


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Upcoming Events:

This section of the portal will focus on the upcoming events of the year.

The user will have the information about the upcoming events based on

all the categories.

The user will receive customized/dynamic events information on the basis

of the language selected by him. For example a user who has opted for

Telugu as his default language will get the information of the events of the

south region first.The user will be given the option of scheduling the greetings as well.

The personalized greeting can be delivered both in the form of SMS and

voice with the help of OBD.

Every category will have a default greeting. This default greeting will be

used in case the user is not able to select any greeting.

Delivery of Greetings:

If the user sends the greeting as a voice greeting, it will be delivered in

the form of an OBD to the recipient.

If the user chooses to send the greeting as text, the greeting will be

delivered to the recipient as a SMS message.

The recipient will be informed by SMS about the voice greeting that he

will be receiving from a particular number.

The sender will also be informed once the greeting gets delivered to the

recipient.

User Engagement:


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The user engagement is very important for a service as it ensures the

stickiness of the user towards the service. The user engagement will be

achieved by the following methods:

Alerts via SMS if a new category is added.

Sending reminders for specific occasions.

Friends Birthday reminder via SMS.

Charges:

The charges for mGreet are as follows:

Subscription Charge- Rs.10/30 Days.

Browsing Charge- Re1/min.

Greeting Charge- Re.1/greeting, Rs.5 for celebrity greetings.


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10. Mobile Greetings Potential In India

10.1 Data Sources:

Primary data

Feedback was taken from existing mGreet Customers as well as online survey was

circulated to target segment for mGreet. i.e. Youth and Corporate.

Secondary data-

Data was extracted from the company MIS mPulse and study for VAS & greeting

industry trends and statistics was done through various portals such as Voice anddata, Medianama and TRAI website.

10.2 Research Approach:

Define the research problem

Determining the data requirement

Prepare the questionaire

Finding out the concern people to fill thequestionanire

Acquiring Information

Compilation & Processing of Data Collected

Interpretation of Result

Preparation of Result


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Figure 5: Research Approach

10.3 Research Instrument:

Below questionnaire was used for telephonic & online customer feedback:

Questionnaire

1. Name

2. Mobile Number

3. Gender *

Male

Female

4. Age Group *Select

5. City,State

6. Occupation *Others

7. Mobile Handset Manufacturer *


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8. Do you use Internet on Mobile Phone? *

Yes

No

9. Mobile Operator *

10. Mobile Connection Type (Select any one)

Default

Operator

Plan

Student

Plan

Corporate

Plan

Special

Tariff

Plan

Prepaid

Postpaid

11. Approx. Monthly Mobile Usage/Bill in Indian Rupees *

12. Do you use Mobile Value Added Services (MVAS)? If Yes, please select most

used service(s)

Entertainment (Ring tones, Wallpapers,Screen Savers,,Music, Games, Contests,

Greetings etc)

Information (News, Stock, Weather updates etc)


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m-Commerce (Mobile Banking, Bill Pay etc)

13. Under Entertainment VAS, please indicate your usage preference for each of

these services

Least

Preferred

Somewhat

PreferredNeutral

Moderately

Preferred

Most

Preferred

Greetings

Ringtones

Wallpapers

Music

Games

14. How much does mobile VAS usage account towards your monthly mobile

bill/spending (Approx Usage)?

15. Do you wish your friends, family and colleagues on their birthdays or other

occasions? Please indicate your preference level for each of the greetings types

Least

Preferred

Somewhat

PreferredNeutral

Moderately

Preferred

Most

Preferred


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Least

Preferred

Somewhat

PreferredNeutral

Moderately

Preferred

Most

Preferred

Paper

Greetings

Mobile (m-

Greetings)

VAS

Internet (e-Greetings)

Personal

SMS/Call

16. Are you aware of any greeting services which lets you send customized

voice/text/animated greetings to your colleague's mobile? If Yes, Please name it

17. If asked to use a Mobile Greeting Service (VAS), to what extent these factors will

influence your decision?

Least

Influences

Somewhat

InfluencesNeutral

Moderately

Influences

Most

Influences

Pricing

Features


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Least

Influences

Somewhat

InfluencesNeutral

Moderately

Influences

Most

Influences

Ease of

Use

(Usability)

18. What billing model will you prefer for using such Mobile Greeting Service which

offers you to send customized greetings to your friends?

Least

Preferred

Somewhat

PreferredNeutral

Moderately

Preferred

Most

Preferred

Pay per sent

greeting

Subscription

(Rs

10/month)

Subscription

(Rs1/day)

10.4 Sampling Plan:

Since most of the existing m-Greet customer base is IVR based, random selection

was done on MSISDNs for different circles including Delhi NCR, Karnataka, Andhra

Pradesh, West Bengal, Kolkata, Assam, Jammu & Kashmir, Mumbai, Maharashtra ,

U.P (East) & Rajasthan. Apart from it online questionnaire was also circulated to the


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target market segment to know customer mobile VAS preferences. Sample size of 50

included 35 from telephonic interviews and 15 from online survey.

10.5 Contact Method:

Since exploring the potential of mobile greetings included capturing of existing

customers mobility profile and potential customers greeting preferences, so two

methods were adopted for contacting:

Telephonic customer feedback for existing customers Online survey for potential customers- chosen market segment.

10.6 Data Analysis, Interpretation and Findings:

Sample Size: 50

Research Instrument :1) Telephonic Feedback from existing customer

2) Online survey for target segment customers

A) Sample Description:

Age Group wise distribution

15-25

26-35

36-4545-55


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Mobile Connection wise distribution

Occupation wise distribution

Tariff Plan wise distribution

Prepaid

Postpaid

Business

Service Sector- Private

Service Sector- Public

Student

Self Employed

Default Operator Plan

Corporate Plan

Special Tariff Plan


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Handset Manufacturer wise distribution

Age Group wise Internet usage on Mobile

Sample distribution by average monthly bill

0

10

20

30

Handsets

Handsets

15-25

26-35

36-45

0-300

301-500

501-700

701-1000

Above 1000


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Marketing Mode Effectiveness for mGreet

Customer Satisfaction Rating on different parameters

Customer Billing Model Preference

0

10

20

30

Marketing Mode Effectiveness

Marketing Mode

Effectiveness

0 1 2 3 4

Simplicity

Pricing

Features

Content

Customer Satisfaction

Customer Satisfaction

Rs 10/month

Rs 1/day

Pay Per Greeting


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Customer Greeting Preferences

Most Liked Features

Improvements Suggested by customers

0

20

40

Voice Text

Greetings Sent

Greetings Sent

Send to multile friends

Scheduled Greetings

Customized Greetings

Upcoming Events Alerts

Multi-Platform Access

0 1 2 3

Edit/Delete Schedule

Image/Animated/Video

Automated Greetings

Customized Text Greetings

Improvement Suggested

Improvement Suggested


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Other Greeting Portals Awareness

Misc Customer Feedback

VAS Usage Pattern

123greetings

365greetings

LimeGreetings

Airtel Landline

0

5

10

15

Number Portability

Issues Greeting delivery

issues Price Optimization

Information

Entertainment


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Entertainment VAS usage pattern

VAS contribution to monthly mobile expenses

Customer Greeting Preferences

0 1 2 3 4 5

Wallpapers

Ringtones

Greeting

Music

Games

VAS Type Preference

VAS Type Preference

Below 10%

11-20%

21-30%

0

1

2

3

4

5

Paper

Greetings

E-Greetings Mobile

Greetings

Personal

Call/SMS

Greeting Preferences

Greeting Preferences


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10.7 Secondary Research

Indian Telecom Market continues to grow with the launch of 3G, MNP and pipelined 4G

& LTE. The growth of mobile subscribers in India remains steady in last few months

According to the report released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), India

saw addition of 8 million new mobile subscribers in March 2012 taking the total tally of

mobile subscribers in India to 919.17 million.

India currently has 596 million Urban compared to 323 million rural mobile subscribers.

Rural subscriber base grew by close to 2% and now accounts for 35.2% of all mobile

subscribers. Out of all mobile subscribers, 683 million were active in March 2012.

According to a study done by global consultancy firm Deloitte Value Added Services

(VAS) will provide a huge fillip to the mobile industry in India which is expected to be Rs

48200 crores. The study says that 87 per cent respondents having smartphone access

internet through their Smartphone, while 62 per cent respondents are ready to pay a

premium for connecting devices.

With 3G services, the Indian telecom industry is set for a second telecom revolution in

wireless space. It will also benefit those sectors in which these services will be offered,

by providing better infrastructure and services.

Non-voice revenues currently constitute about 10% of revenues of Indian telecom

operators. A comparison with other countries indicates an average of 23%, providing

large scope for growth of MVAS in India.


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Figure 6: GSM Revenue Composition - Source TRAI

Indias VAS market estimates show aggressive growth and decreasing relative

importance of text based offerings. The vast offerings across VAS services are still

delivered predominantly using 3 platforms of SMS, IVR and WAP portals.

Mobile Greetings fall under Social VAS. Social media domain is flourishing currently

worldwide due to veterans like Facebook, LinkedIn, Hi5 on the internet and VAS like

chat platforms, Voice SMS on the mobile


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Figure 7: VAS Categories & Classification

In India, greeting market has seen a much shift of customer preferences with the

penetration of Internet and mobile across untapped areas. The trend of paper greetings

is not anymore the talk of the town. Now, even the veterans of greeting cards in India

like ITC, Hallmark, Archies etc have gone under a major change in their business

models.


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Now their core business is not just limited to Greeting Cards, however they have

adopted to Greeting & Gifting offerings in their portfolio. Old players have also adopted

to digital revolution i.e. by introducing musical and video greeting cards in India.

Also, there has been a significant increase in niches like handmade cards, dry flower

cards, customized wishes card. All the major greeting players are no more shop driven,

they have adopted technology i.e. they have used the power of Internet and mobiles to

expand their business.

Orders are being taken on web and over mobile phones. In last few years TelecomOperators have introduced different greeting VAS on their VAS portfolio.

For example Airtel first tried it in Tamil Nadu in 2007 with its portal 747. Bubble Motion

and Virtusa have their own Voice SMS platforms. Airtel Landline still offers to send

customized voice greetings. BSNL has leveraged the power of 3G by introducing video

greetings. VAS companies like Onmobile, Times Internet, One97 etc caters to upcoming

demand for VAS services from the Indian user.

These services are designed after exhaustive research on customer profile & needs. In

India, VAS companies generally follow models:

On Deck: are VAS companies that provide white labeled vendor services to the

carrier/telecom operator using his infrastructure, branding and promotions. These

include the likes of OnMobile Global, Bharti Telesoft, Cellebrum, One97, ValueFirst and

others.

Off Deck (or Direct to Consumer): are VAS companies that use carrier infrastructure

and billing for their products and services, but the marketing and branding is

independent of the mobile operators. For example Indiatimes 58888, Netcores

MyToday, Webaroos SMS GupShup.


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When we talk of the potential of mobile greetings, one aspect deals with the organic

demand from customers and other is the inorganic one driven by customer pushed

greetings by means of Campaigns, Contests etc which also part of the marketing

strategy of the product.

10.8 Competition Study

Greetings on mobile VAS has not picked up very much in Indian market as compared to

e-greetings, however there are many online portals which provide to send greetings to

friends email id and mobile phones.

Some Mobile based portals supporting greetings in India:

BSNL 3G Video Greeting Portal

Airtel Birthday Greetings

Web Based Greeting & Gifting portals:

123Greetings:www.123greetings.com

365Greetings:www.365greetings.com

Archies:www.archiesonline.com - Retail as well

Mocolife: http://www.mocolife.com/

Atm Greetings:www.atmgreetings.com

iFeelClub:www.ifeelclub.com

LimeGreetings:http://www.limeall.com/

Other Competitors: Voice SMS

Bubble Motion

KirUsa
http://www.123greetings.com/http://www.123greetings.com/http://www.123greetings.com/http://www.365greetings.com/http://www.365greetings.com/http://www.365greetings.com/http://www.archiesonline.com/http://www.archiesonline.com/http://www.archiesonline.com/http://www.mocolife.com/http://www.mocolife.com/http://www.atmgreetings.com/http://www.atmgreetings.com/http://www.atmgreetings.com/http://www.ifeelclub.com/http://www.ifeelclub.com/http://www.ifeelclub.com/http://www.limeall.com/http://www.limeall.com/http://www.limeall.com/http://www.limeall.com/http://www.ifeelclub.com/http://www.atmgreetings.com/http://www.mocolife.com/http://www.archiesonline.com/http://www.365greetings.com/http://www.123greetings.com/


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Greeting portals have become greeting plus gifting portals and they offer sending pre-

defined, customized greetings (voice, text, video, animated) to friends mob ile phones &

email addresses along with the option to schedule messages, send event based &

regional greetings. These also provide customer to send gifts at discounted prices.

Business Model of 123greetings:

Operational Details

123Greetings Store, the companys online gifting e-commerce business

shipped a total of 32,345 orders during the quarter, a decline compared to

57,042 orders during the last quarter, from an active base of 205 vendors.

123Greetings Connect saw the total number of registered users at 1,732,253

as on March 31, 2011.

123Greetings Invites saw 745 new events being created and 7972 invites

being sent out in the quarter.

123Greetings Studio grew to 15,461 registered artists through the quarter,

recording a 11% growth from its previous quarter.

123Greetings Facebook application saw 225,192 users sending 771,068

ecards to their friends and family. The app has a registered user base of

1,037,650 users as of March 31st, 2011.


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Competitive Feature Matrix

Symbols Used Exists Doesnt Exist In RoadMap

Not

Appli

cable

S.No

Product mGreet 123greetings 365greetings LimeGreetingsiFeelClub

Features IVR Web WAP Web/Wap Web/Wap Web/WapWeb/

Wap

1Category

Greetings

2 Languages

3

Voice

Greeting

4Text

Greeting

5Video

Greeting

6Animated

Greeting

7 Invi tat ions

8

Send

Greetings to

many

9Scheduled

Greetings

10USSD

Suppor t

11 MyZone

12 PhoneBook

13

Social

Network/Oth

er

Integration

14 Help Section

15 My Prof i le

16

Refer a

Friend

17Voice

Recogni t ion

18

User Act iv i ty

Feed Sharing

wi th m Greet

Fr iends

19 RSS

Blogg ing


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20

(Voice/Other

s )

21

Upcoming

Festivals

Alerts

22

Upcoming

Event Aler ts

(Bi r thdays

etc)

23Musica l

A lbum

24Name

Greetings

25

Quick

Send/Popular Categories

26

Play with

Music/Music

al Ecards

27Floral

Opt ions

28

Reginonal

Cards/e-

cards

29 Tagging

30Customer

Feedback

31 Widgets

32Calendar

Managemet

33Automated

Greetings

34Corporate

Al l iances

35

Printable E-

Cards

(Celebs/Cust

om)

36Speech

Reogni t ion

Table 1: Feature Matrix


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11. Product Management


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After doing intensive study of products existing features, competitive products feature

analysis, market segment needs and customer feedback analysis, following features

have been proposed for mGreet:

11.1 Features:

11.1.1 Speed Dial

Portals Impacted: IVR

Brief: The purpose of this feature is to facilitate customer for easily sending

greetings to best friends & colleagues on a key stroke.

Existing Flow: Customer has to manually enter mobile number of the recipient

which is tiresome.

Pros: Flexibility to customer for sending greeting to closest friends & relatives

just by pressing the speed dial keysave i t once and use anyt ime

11.1.2 Video Greetings

Portals Impacted: Website, WAP

Brief: mGreet customers will be able to send pre-defined Video greetings with

customized wishes to their colleagues. These can be in the form of MMS or

compressed videos downloadable from WAP links.

Pros:User Experience Enhancement


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11.1.3 Speech Recognition

Portals Impacted: IVR

Brief: With this feature customers will be able to do hassle free browsing of

mGreet IVR Menu by speaking out the options & even voice tag their contacts to

maintain phonebook.

Existing Flow: Customer has to manually enter the options for IVR menubrowsing which takes lot of time & no provision of Maintaining phonebook on IVR.

Pros: Enhanced User Engagement

11.1.4 Play with music

Portals Impacted: IVR, Website, WAP

Brief: Now customers can just do anything with their favorite music by searchingit on mGreet and:

Devoting music as greetings to friends.

Recording song in Karaoke style & sending customized songs.

Waking up to a devotional song or any song of their choice.

Order a customized musical card with self recorded greeting.

Pros: Keep user engaged on IVR Increase MoU.


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11.1.5 Calendar maintenance & events reminder

Portals Impacted: IVR, Website

Brief: Customer can forget friends birthdays but our calendar & events reminder

wont forget to send automated greetings, if customer has maintained calendar &

activated automated greetings. In case they are not activated, mGreet will send

event alerts to customer via sms. To maintain calendar customer will be provided

with IVR submenu to add important dates for his phonebook contacts either

manually or by sending OBD invites to his friends for updating his mGreet

Calendar.

Existing Flow: Customer receives birthday alerts via SMS/Web but has to visit

portal again to send/schedule a greeting.

Pros: User Experience Enhancement & guaranteed greetings revenue.

11.1.6 Invite Friends to Update Contact Details

Portals Impacted: IVR, Website

Brief: It will be great ifthe customer is relieved of updating friends birthdays and

anniversaries in his phone book why not ask his friends by sending them a

mGreeting (IVR) and a web link. On IVR input can be taken from recipient as a

response to OBD or as a text message.


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Existing Flow: On IVR, there is no provision to add phonebook and on website

customer has to manually enter all details or import from facebook.

Pros: User Experience Enhancement & scope for revenue in the form of sent

mGreetings.

11.1.7 Refer to Win

Arvind Kajaria Managing Director (123greetings.com) says 123greetings is the

largest e-greeting website in India, and the second most visited e-greetings

website world-wide in terms of unique visitors. This growth has been largely

based on viral marketing and the companys SEO prowess.

Refer a Friend on mGreet: (Viral Marketing )

User can refer 10 friends numbers in a month for free.

Additional referral @ Re 1 per referral.

Referral goes in form of customized/Predefined m-Greeting.

For every successful conversion within a month, customer

gets 20 mGreet points added to his mVallet.

For every 100 points

1 month subscription off

OR

10 greetings free of cost

Customer with highest monthly referral conversion rate gets gift hamper

from Indiatimes. (Mobile Phones etc)


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11.1.8 Search Engine Optimization

Portals Impacted: Website

Business Case:

With introduction of Video Greetings & More Alliances, our website traffic is

expected to increase.

Internet Users search for greeting & gifting options on Popular Search

Engines- Yahoo, Google, Bing, Reddif etc.

mGreet not in top 30 search records for mobile greeting & gifting portals in

India.

Solution:

We need to improve our website visibility by Search Engine Optimization:

Possible Ways:

o Organic: By adding search strings like Voice Greetings, Video

greetings, Mobile Greetings, Campaign related-"IPL","9XM" on our

website pages & some other tweaks.

o Inorganic: By adding our website domain to various web-directories &

also by paying to search engine vendors - Google, Bing,Yahoo etc

Supporting Facts:

90% of all searchers coming onto Google look and click through on listings

from organic area listings

Expected Business Benefits:

More visibility to mGreet when anonymous internet users search for greeting,

gifting etc options on Web search engines.


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Reduced marketing cost on our off-deck VAS model.

Leveraging the power of Customer Analytics.

11.2 Product Alliances

11.2.1 Corporate

We can sell mGreet as a service to corporate with employee friendly

policies wherein the employees would be greeted using automated

birthday, anniversary, festival greetings & even gifts/cards/bouquets/cakescan be ordered via mGreet

Companies can even send customized greetings & gifts using mGreet to

their client base to maintain healthy relationship.

We can target companies with employee base >5000 in Metros

11.2.2 Floral

Customers can record customized voice greetings for their friends on

mGreet and send customized musical cards to them for giving a personal

touch- Tangibilize the Intangible

mGreet Customers can also send customized wishes on greeting

cards/cakes. All they have to do is send a customized text message to us

& order for a greeting card /cakes on IVR.

Customer care executive will ask for the payment details & delivery details

or customers can do it from payment gateway on mGreeet website.

11.2.3 Misc

Cash is often given as a token of love in India on special occasions like

Birthdays, anniversaries & festivals.

Customers can order prepaid gift cash cards on mGreet. Few Card

Providers- HDFC , Kotak offers such cards, Greetingcards India


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mGreet customer care executive will take such orders on IVR or customers

can do it from payment gateway on mGreet website.


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12. Direct to Consumer Marketing


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12.1 Direct Marketing

Direct marketing is a channel-agnostic form ofadvertising that allows businesses and

nonprofits to communicate straight to the customer, with advertising techniques such

as mobile messaging, email, interactive consumer websites, online display ads, fliers,

catalog distribution, promotional letters, and outdoor advertising.

Direct marketing messages emphasize a focus on the customer, data, and

accountability. Characteristics that distinguish direct marketing are:

1. Marketing messages are addressed directly to customers. Direct marketing relies

on being able to address the members of a target market. Addressability comes in

a variety of forms including email addresses, mobile phone numbers, Web

browser cookies, fax numbers and United States and international postal

addresses.

2. Direct marketing seeks to drive a specific "call to action." For example, an

advertisement may ask the prospect to call a free phone number or click on a link

to a website.

3. Direct marketing emphasizes trackable, measurable responses from customers

regardless of medium.

Direct marketing is practiced by businesses of all sizes from the smallest start-up

to the leaders on the Fortune 500. A well-executed direct advertising campaign can

prove a positive return on investment by showing how many potential customers

responded to a clear call-to-action. General advertising eschews calls-for-action in

favor of messages that try to build prospects emotional awareness or engagement
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with a brand. Even well-designed general advertisements rarely can prove their

impact on the organizations bottom line.

Popularity of Direct Advertising

A recent study by the Direct Marketing Association reports that in 2010, marketers

commercial and nonprofit spent $153.3 billion on direct marketing, which accountedfor 54.2% of all ad expenditures in the United States. Measured against total US

sales, these advertising expenditures generated approximately $1.798 trillion in

incremental sales. In 2010, direct marketing accounted for 8.3% of total US gross

domestic product. Also in 2010, there were 1.4 million direct marketing employees in

the US. Their collective sales efforts directly supported 8.4 million other jobs,

accounting for a total of 9.8 million US jobs.

Benefits

Direct marketing is attractive to many marketers because its positive results can be

measured directly. For example, if a marketer sends out 1,000 solicitations by mail

and 100 respond to the promotion, the marketer can say with confidence that

campaign led directly to 10% direct responses. This metric is known as the 'response

rate,' and it is one of many clearly quantifiable success metrics employed by direct

marketers. In contrast, general advertising uses indirect measurements, such as

awareness or engagement, since there is no direct response from a consumer.

Measurement of results is a fundamental element in successful direct marketing. The

Internet has made it easier for marketing managers to measure the results of a

campaign. This is often achieved by using a specific website landing page directly

relating to the promotional material. A call to action will ask the customer to visit the
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landing page, and the effectiveness of the campaign can be measured by taking the

number of promotional messages distributed (e.g., 1,000) and dividing it by the

number of responses (people visiting the unique website page). Another way to

measure the results is to compare the projected sales or generated leads for a given

term with the actual sales or leads after a direct advertising campaign.

Challenges and Solutions

While many marketers recognize the financial benefits of increasing targeted

awareness, some direct marketing efforts using particular media have been criticized

for generating poor quality leads, either due to poor message strategy or because of

poorly compiled demographic databases. This poses a problem for marketers and

consumers alike, as advertisers do not wish to waste money on communicating with

consumers not interested in their products.

Some of these concerns have been addressed by direct marketers by the use of

individual "opt-out" lists, variable printing, and better-targeted list practices.

Additionally, in order to avoid unwanted mailings, members of the marketing industry

have established preference services that give customers more control over the

marketing communications they receive in the mail.

The term "junk mail," referring to unsolicited commercial ads delivered via post office

or directly deposited in consumers' mail boxes, can be traced back to 1954. The term

"spam," meaning "unsolicited commercial e-mail," can be traced back to March 31,

1993, although in its first few months it merely referred to inadvertently posting a

message so many times on UseNet that the repetitions effectively drowned out the

normal flow of conversation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UseNethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UseNet


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To address the concerns of unwanted emails orspam, in 2003, Congress enacted

the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-

SPAM) Act to curb unwanted email messages. Can-Spam gives recipients the ability

to stop unwanted emails, and set out tough penalties for violations. Additionally, ISPs

and email service providers have developed increasingly effective Email Filtering

programs. These filters can interfere with the delivery of email marketing campaigns,

even if the person has subscribed to receive them, as legitimate email marketing can

possess the same hallmarks as spam. There are a range of email service providers

that provide services for legitimate opt-in emailers to avoid being classified as spam.

Consumers have expressed concerns about the privacy and environmental

implications of direct marketing. In response to consumer demand and increasing

business pressure to increase the effectiveness of reaching the right customer with

direct marketing, companies specialize in targeted direct advertising to great effect,

reducing advertising budget waste and increasing the effectiveness of delivering a

marketing message with better geo-demography information, delivering the

advertising message to only the customers interested in the product, service, or

event on offer. Additionally, members of the advertising industry have been working

to adopt stricter codes regarding online targeted advertising.

Direct Marketing Channels

Any medium that can be used to deliver a communication to a customer can be

employed in direct marketing, including:

a). Email Marketing
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Sending marketing messages through email orEmail marketing is one of the most

widely used direct-marketing methods. One reason for email marketing's popularity is

that it is relatively inexpensive to design, test, and send an email message. It also

allows marketers to deliver messages around the clock, and to accurately measure

responses.

b). Online Tools

With the expansion of digital technology and tools, direct marketing is increasingly

taking place through online channels. Most online advertising is delivered to afocused group of customers and has a trackable response.

Display Ads are interactive ads that appear on the Web next to content on Web

pages or Web services. Formats include static banners, pop ups, videos, and

floating units. Customers can click on the ad to respond directly to the message

or to find more detailed information. According to research by eMarketer,

expenditures on online display ads rose 24.5% between 2010 and 2011.

Search: 49% of US spending on Internet ads goes to search, in which advertisers

pay for prominent placement among listings in search engines whenever a

potential customer enters a relevant search term, allowing ads to be delivered to

customers based upon their already-indicated search criteria. This paid

placement industry generates more than $10 billion dollars for search companies.

Marketers also use search engine optimization to drive traffic to their sites.

Social Media Sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, also provide opportunities for

direct marketers to communicate directly with customers by creating content to

which customers can respond.

c). Mobile
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Through mobile marketing, marketers engage with prospective customers and

donors in an interactive manner through a mobile device or network, such as a

cellphone, smartphone, or tablet. Types of mobile marketing messages

include: SMS: (short message service) marketing communications are sent in the

form of text messages, also known as texting. MMS: (multi-media message service)

these messages use elements such as images, video, and audio; Mobile

Applications: Smartphone-based mobile apps contain several types of

messages. Push Notifications are direct messages sent to a user either automatically

or as part of a campaign. They include transactional, marketing, geo-based, andmore. Rich Push Notifications are full HTML Push Notifications. Mobile apps also

contain Interactive ads that appear inside the mobile application or app; Location-

Based Marketing: marketing messages delivered directly to a mobile device based

on the user's location; QR Codes (quick-response barcodes): This is a type of 2D

barcode with an encoded link that can be accessed from a smartphone. This

technology is increasingly being used for everything from special offers to product

information. Mobile Banner Ads: Like standard banner ads for desktop Web pages

but smaller to fit on mobile screens and run on the mobile content network

d). Direct Mail

The term "direct mail" is used to refer to communications sent to potential customers

or donors via the postal service and other delivery services. Direct mail is sent to

customers based on criteria such as age, income, location, profession, buying

pattern, etc.

Direct mail includes advertising circulars, catalogs, free-trial CDs, pre-approved credit

card applications, and other unsolicited merchandising invitations delivered by
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mail to homes and businesses. Bulk mailings are a particularly popular method of

promotion for businesses operating in the financial services, home computer, and

travel and tourism industries.

In many developed countries, direct mail represents such a significant amount of the

total volume of mail that special rate classes have been established. In the United

States and United Kingdom, for example, there are bulk mail rates that enable

marketers to send mail at rates that are substantially lower than regular first-class

rates. In order to qualify for these rates, marketers must format and sort the mail in

particular ways which reduces the handling (and therefore costs) required by the

postal service. In the US, marketers send over 90 billion pieces of direct mail per

year.

Advertisers often refine direct mail practices into targeted mailing, in which mail is

sent out following database analysis to select recipients considered most likely to

respond positively. For example, a person who has demonstrated an interest

in golfmay receive direct mail for golf-related products or perhaps for goods and

services that are appropriate for golfers. This use of database analysis is a type of

database marketing. The United States Postal Service calls this form of mail

"advertising mail" (ad mail for short).

e). Telemarketing

Another common form of direct marketing is telemarketing, in which marketers

contact customers by phone. The primary benefit to businesses is increased lead

generation, which helps businesses increase sales volume and customer base. The

most successful telemarketing service providers focus on generating more "qualified"

leads that have a higher probability of getting converted into actual sales.
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The National Do Not Call Registry was created in 2003 to offer consumers a choice

whether to receive telemarketing calls at home. The FTC created the National Do

Not Call Registry after a comprehensive review of the Telemarketing Sales Rule

(TSR). The do-not-call provisions of the TSR cover any plan, program, or campaign

to sell goods or services through interstate phone calls. The provisions do not cover

calls from political organizations, charities, telephone surveyors, or companies with

which a customer has an existing business relationship.

Canada has its own National Do Not Call List (DNCL). In other countries it isvoluntary, such as the New Zealand Name Removal Service.

f). Voicemail Marketing

Voicemail marketing emerged out of the market prevalence of personal voice

mailboxes, and business voicemail systems. Voicemail marketing presented a cost

effective means by which to reach people directly, by voice. Abuse of consumer

marketing applications of voicemail marketing resulted in an abundance of "voice-

spam," and prompted many jurisdictions to pass laws regulating consumer voicemail

marketing. More recently, businesses have utilized guided voicemail (an application

where pre-recorded voicemails are guided by live callers) to accomplish personalized

business-to-business marketing formerly reserved for telemarketing. Because guided

voicemail is used to contact only businesses, it is exempt from Do Not Call

regulations in place for other forms of voicemail marketing. Voicemail courier is a

similar form of voicemail marketing with both business-to-business and business-to-

consumer applications.

g). Couponing
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Couponing is used in print and digital media to elicit a response from the reader. An

example is a coupon which the reader receives through the mail and takes to a

store's check-out counter to receive a discount.

Digital Coupons: Manufacturers and retailers make coupons available online for

electronic orders that can be downloaded and printed. Digital coupons are available

on company websites, social media outlets, texts, and email alerts. There are an

increasing number of mobile phone applications offering digital coupons for direct

use.

Daily Deal Sites offer local and online deals each day, and are becoming increasingly

popular. Customers sign up to receive notice of discounts and offers, which are sent

daily by email. Purchases are often made using a special coupon code or

promotional code. The largest of these sites, Groupon, has over 83 million

subscribers.

h). Direct Response TV

Direct marketing via television (commonly referred to as DRTV) has two basic forms:

long form (usually half-hour or hour-long segments that explain a product in detail

and are commonly referred to as infomercials) and short form, which refers to typical

30-second or 60-second commercials that ask viewers for an immediate response

(typically to call a phone number on screen or go to a website). TV-response

marketing i.e. infomercials can be considered a form of direct marketing, since

responses are in the form of calls to telephone numbers given on-air. This allows

marketers to reasonably conclude that the calls are due to a particular campaign, and

enables them to obtain customers' phone numbers as targets for telemarketing. One

of the most famous DRTV commercials was forGinsu Knives by Ginsu Products,

Inc. of RI. Several aspects of ad, such as its use of adding items to the
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offer and the guarantee of satisfaction were much copied, and came to be

considered part of the formula for success with short-form direct-response TV ads

(DRTV)

12.2. Why D2C for M-VAS company

Figure 8: VAS Value Chain

The main stakeholders involved in the VAS value chain are

Content copyright owners: At the first level of the MVAS value chain are the

content copyright owners, which develop original copyright content. Examples

include music production houses (SaReGaMa, Sony), Bollywood production houses

(Yash Raj Films), and media houses (Sony, Star, Zee, etc.)

Content portals/aggregators: These are individuals/ organizations that gather web

content and in some cases distribute content to suit customer needs. Examples

include Indiatimes and Hungama Mobile.


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Mobile operators: They provide transport and support mechanisms for delivery of

mobile content. Examples include Airtel, Reliance, BSNL, MTNL, Hutch, Idea

Cellular, etc.

Technology enablers: On the other end of the value chain are technology enablers.

These provide technology platforms that enable access to MVAS. Players include

OnMobile, Bharti Telesoft, Webaroo, etc.

Handset manufacturers: Mobile handset manufacturers have also started playing

an important role, through their interaction with all other stakeholders across thevalue chain. Their activities include embedding software links in their handsets,

allowing direct access to content portals, creating services customized to the need of

certain regions, etc. Key players in the Indian market include Nokia, Motorola, and

Samsung. According to above value chain Times Internet Ltd. Is content aggregator,

which provide M-VAS to operators or to handset manufacturers, but not directly to

end consumer, but still there is a need for direct to consumer marketing because of

following reasons:

Off Deck services: These services are carry the brand name of the service

developer. Usually, these do not have a presence on the Mobile screen and are

marketed directly by the third-party service provider. Examples of these services are

portals offered by providers such as Indiatimes, Television channels, newspapers,

and magazines. The service provider uses only operator infrastructure and billing

mechanism. Times Internet portal 58888 follows Off-deck model.

Mobile Operators and their representative bodies the COAI, AUSPI and others

mentioned repeatedly that the issue of VAS is an internal agreement with a vendor,

and TRAI should not get involved in commercial agreements or

negotiations. Reliance Communications dismissed it as well, saying that


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Negotiation is our right. However, the IAMAI and Atanu Mandal (President, ACL

Wireless), said that On-Deck and Off-deck services should be looked at differently.

On Deck services form a vendor agreement, but Off Deck has the has the branding

of the service provider.

Need for an Interconnect agreement and transparent costing:Ajay Vaishnavi,

Director Telecom for Times Internet (58888) said that there needs to be

transparency for an interconnect agreement between offdeck VAS companies and

the service providers. Operators should define a fixed cost Every operator prices

the same service differently to the consumer, so this confuses the consumer. The

costing should be transparent. (I think he was also hinting at cumbersome

negotiations for interconnect agreements).

Change in business model: Operators and MVAS companies hand-in-hand

discovered the quickest way to grow their revenues was not by trying to market

services that consumers actually wanted, but rather to play the dirty game of steal,

conceal and deny with mobile subscribers. It was way so much easier and faster

way to grow MVAS revenues for Operators and their partner MVAS companies.

Simply put, dip your hand (charging engine) and just take from the consumers wallet

(pre-paid balance).

The favorite services for activation without consent were subscription based

services. Operators and MVAS companies just loved them. Activate once, and then

sit back and watch the cash roll in month after month as it gets swiped from the

hapless subscriber. By the time the subscriber figured out theyd been robbed, then

they had an almost mission impossible to stop the theft never mind actually catch

the thief. By the time subscriber managed to get one service stopped another would


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appear like a virus you just couldnt kill off.

But then in 2011 as was inevitable subscriber growth slowed and that too quite

abruptly. There were hardly any new subscribers to target. At the same time existing

subscribers had wised up and were no longer such easy pickings.

Eventually, in 2011 things changed as TRAI started to crack the whip to find ways to

ensure consumers only got charged for services they asked for, and could easily

turn off the ones they didnt want. At the same time Operators finally realized there

were huge costs being incurred at their call centers just to deal with customer

complaints for incorrect charging of MVAS services. At the same time they realized

that it was no longer possible to grow MVAS revenue simply by riding on the growth

of new nave subscribers.So we moved to MVAS 2.0 in somewhere in latter part of

2011. The biggest impact of this shift has been its become much tougher to achieve

the same MVAS revenues as in the days of MVAS 1.0. In the world of MVAS 2.0,

MVAS companies are finding that an ever increasing amount of marketing resource

is needed to get even a modest level of consumer sign up to MVAS services.

High competition: There are more than hundred of companies which are offering

same type of services to the consumer so to differentiate themselves from the

crowd, intensive marketing is required.


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12.3. mGreet Lucknow campaign

Figure 9:Campaign Poster

Project assigned: To arrange a campaign at Lucknow

Theme of campaign: Mr & Ms Fresh

The campaign will be held in the top three colleges of Lucknow, in this student will

send a fresh thought/idea/prank to his/her friend through a mobile based greeting

platform m-Greet(a product by TIL).This campaign will be a week long which give

student chance to show their creativity skills, talent and sense of humor, help to

interact and make new friends in college and also give chance to win exciting and

cool gifts like mobile phone.

The freshest greeting will get a title ofMr. & Ms Fresh for one year.


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Steps considered in developing effective campaign

Identification of target audience: Determine who your target audience consists

of. Who is it that you want to reach with this campaign? What do you want

your key message to be? These are important question need to address

before planning a campaign. Here as per our product as well as the feedback

from customers, we identified youth from age 15 to 25 as a user of our

product, so we target colleges of lucknow for a campaign.

Determining the objective: The goal of campaign must be determine for

increasing its effectiveness, objective for our campaign are:

1) Increase awareness of m-Greet

2) Increase the usage of m-Greet

3) Create a buzz to create a viral marketing

Designing campaign: Develop your plan of attack. What communication

vehicles will you use to get your message to the public? Examples mayinclude:

o Press releases

o Articles

o Customer Success Stories

o Letters to the Editor

o Press Conferences, Interview, or Media Tours

o Radio, Television, or Press Interviews

o Seminars or Speaking Engagements

Time for campaign: Develop a schedule for your campaigns. Create

synergy by coinciding your campaign plan with other marketing and sales

efforts.


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Measuring result: After completion of campaign the result from campaign must

be compared with the objective of the campaigns.

List of major tasks performed for campaign:

Created theme for campaign

Prepared presentations to pitch colleges

Selecting colleges for campaign

Done tie-up with news channel for coverage of campaign

Selected event management agency to do on ground activity


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13. Limitation of project

The most accurate potential of a particular VAS product can be measured in terms

of ratios of circle wise P2A and A2P messaging data. However, since this data is

not freely available, therefore we adopted a secondary approach to capture

customers digital greeting preferences & their mobility profile by taking online and

telephonic feedback


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14. Conclusion & Recommendations

On the basis of greeting market, product & target market study combined with

customeranalytics some recommendations can be derived which are listed below:

Features:

1- We need to integrate the product to social media so as to harness its full potential.

Right now only mGreet website enables us to do so, however we must do this for

IVR as well.

Note: Feature Prioritization can be done on the basis of Feature Matrix in Table 1

Alliances:

1- mGreet is one of its kind mobile VAS product in India, however considering the

greeting preferences of Indian customers we need to develop a robust alliance

network for gifting alliances like Ferns & Petals, Archies, HallMark as well as we

need to cross-sell other VAS services related to greetings which might be of

interest to consumer.

2- Gifting alliances with third-parties for greeting cards, gifts, pre-paid cash cards will

help us to target the corporate sector through which we can earn guaranteed

revenue.

Technology:

1- Considering the era of 3G and pipelined 4G, we should consider enhancing our

technological framework so as to enable customers to send customized video

greetings.

2- Use of Location based services can be instrumental in alliances with Big Retail

chains like Pantaloons etc in India who have a huge customer base, with which


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SP Report Deepak

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