"socially effective" movements are now in forefront of company's "image building" tasks

unlike "save our tiger" fake movement (one cant actually save the tigers in facebook / online but in "FOREST" !) by Aircel "ek jodi kapda" (one set of clothing for all) is working on ground.
good for all

Online Users in India and Their User Behavior- a report by India-Reports

India has witnessed an increase in the number of internet users. The behavior pattern of internet users can be ascertained with respect to different parameters, which include: users in metros, cities and rural areas, age group of population accessing internet, and purposes of accessing internet.
The surge in internet usage in small towns and rural India has been more than that in big cities and metros. In India, the youth drive internet usage. School and college going students along with young men contribute to 72% of internet activity. (Source IAMA Report – 2008-2009)
People use internet for various purposes, which include: email, information search, academic information search, music/video on internet, chatting, online job search, gaming, financial information search, booking railway tickets, online news, internet telephony/video chat/voice chat, and online banking.
Top ten sites viewed by Indians during 2009 include:
google.co.in
google.com
yahoo.com
facebook.com
blogger.com
youtube.com
orkut.co.in
rediff.com
wikipedia.org
orkut.com
Indians, being cautious buyers start online shopping with the purchase of railway or airline tickets. This is perceived as a safe bet due to uniformity of services to the buyers.
Reasons for Growth in Online Users in India.

It is predicted that by year 2015, around 65% of Indian population will be in the age group of 15-35 years. Since youth is an early adaptor of all technology, this seems to be a positive factor for the Indian eCommerce market.

Reasons for Growth in Online Users in India:

It is predicted that by year 2015, around 65% of Indian population will be in the age group of 15-35 years. Since youth is an early adaptor of all technology, this seems to be a positive factor for the Indian eCommerce market.
India has an added advantage of lowest broadband prices in the world, which is $4-$5 per month. This enhances the potential of online transactions.
Indian population has better adopted mobile phones as compared to internet. Thus, there is a huge potential of mCommerce in India. Mobile phones provide flexibility to users to connect to internet without having to find a place to plug in into the internet. The mobile penetration in India is expected to become 1 billion by 2014, which will further enhance the opportunities of mCommerce. Currently, there are about 440 million subscribers for mobile phones, which covers around 40% of the country’s population.
India has already started the efforts to provide biometric identity to all its citizens. This is equivalent to Social Security Number in the West. Having this unique identity in place, online financial transactions would become much safer as they can be easily tracked and subject to law.

Source: http://india-reports.in/uncategorized/analysis-of-the-online-user-behavior-in-india/

Youth Readership survey - A brief overview

Source: business today (http://www.businesstoday.in/) October 17,2010

Survey results, reported in the Financial Express, are:

1. India’s youth population grew at over 2% to 459 million in 2009 from 390 million in the 2001 census, while the literate youth population grew at a more rapid 2.5% to 333 million from 273 million. Growth was faster in urban India (3.15% a year) than in rural India (2.11%)

2. Of the country’s total youth population of 459 million, literate youth constitute around three-fourths, numbering 333 million. Literate youth in rural India number 207 million (62.1% of the total) and 126 million (or, 37.9%) in urban areas. A large proportion, over 41%, is in the older 25-35 age group, followed by teenagers (36.7%), with the rest in the 20-24 age bracket (22.1%).

3. Almost three-fourths (73%) of literate youth in the country are from schedule castes (22.7%), schedule tribes (9.8%) and other backward classes (40.3%), according to the survey. Currently, caste-based reservation in educational institutes stands at 15% for SCs, 7.5% for STs and 27% for OBCs.

4. Awareness of government flagship social schemes like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is higher among rural youth compared to city dwellers.

5. Television emerges as the biggest media, with over 77% of the 333 million literate, or 259 million, youth exposed to it. Newspapers too are able to maintain their dominance, with over half (53%) of all literate youth, or 177 million, exposed to them. But in terms of preferred media for news & current affairs, newspapers win hands down, with around two-thirds (63.4%) selecting them compared with just a third (22.2%) for television.

6. Book readers (non-syllabus) number around 83 million (25% of literate youth), of which 39 million are in urban areas and 44 million in rural India.

7. Television emerges the biggest engager, with average time spent a day at over 97 minutes. Radio (61 minutes), magazines (44 minutes) and newspapers (32 minutes) lag far behind. Though the Internet reaches fewer than 4% of all youth (8% in urban areas), time spent with the medium is proportionately higher at over an hour a day (70 minutes), reflecting the medium’s stickiness.

8. Newspapers and the Internet share a high out-of-home exposure. Around half of all youth get to read a newspaper outside their homes, with shops/cafes/restaurants and neighbors as chief access points. Around two-thirds accessed the internet at cyber cafes and/or the workplace.

Interesting observation is the hour of engagement in internet (70 minutes) though the penetration is very slow (4%).

More informations at : http://ideasmarkit.blogspot.com/

National Readership Survey is available here: http://contentsutra.com/article/419-indian-readership-survey-r1-2009-some-highlights/

"petomania" is spreading into social activities

"I love animals" is spreading...and youth are mostly into loving street dogs and kittens...this trend is moving towards various social activities as mentioned below :

Source : The Hindu


Photo by Tanushree via FB

cycling is getting cooler

As I have mentioned earlier, cycling is becoming "cool" among the youth in India. A reference note:

Source: The Hindu

read more about cycling at : http://getahead.rediff.com/report/2010/jun/09/bicycling-a-new-lifestyle-choice-for-young-successful-indians.htm

"we are the blackberry boys": Blackberry is trying to go mass..in India

Blackberry is trying to become "everybody" phone in India (see this ad : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPZH4OysGZI&feature=related)...

“The blackberry boys” are an omnipresent phenomenon of “lucrative mass market greed” which is to dilute the value of this brand and to define its future (in India). A downfall from being elite to mass…as per my theory of adopted differentiation, even before blackberry gets the status of mass brand (blackberry farmers, blackberry autowalas…) the “elite class” will drop their bb in recycle bean and move to the next great phone (ie iphone or whatever comes as next big thing for elite)…BB is in India cause it already lost the status of elite phone in west (even Mr. Obama stated that he is NOT using BB anymore) due to its mass-greed and soon their fate will be same as Nokia( in India)...due to aggressive invasion of Samsung, Macromax and other brands in mass segment Nokia is almost dead in grassroots…and elite is not using Nokia cause their subordinates/ drivers/ maids use it...BB will follow this path…one can see BB mirrors/ clones are already available under various other brands (read this article)…
A product can’t cater to class and mass (other than staple foods and politics) in India and anyway BB wont be able to cater the grassroot needs.

at anencyafqs Pramil commented against the post : Drop your suits, sing and dance- The 'BlackBerry Boys' are the new craze in town "...as the brand grows there is always that temptation to make some more bucks by repositioning your brand and targeting the unconventional prospects. Many brands fall prey to it and most of them fail, because one thing in a human brain can occupy one association at a time, in most of the cases. Going against this basic law about how humans percieve and then act and react leads to so many failures in re-positioning attempts by brand managers across the globe.A very idealistic attempt that comes to my mind is the brand Lexus. After failing miserably to promote itself as a luxury car maker in the North American market, Toyota decided to create an anonymous brand, Lexus, which nowhere told anyone that it belongs to Toyota. It required sincere efforts in every aspect of the marketing function to create a brand that was no where connected to Toyota.Blackberry is trying to do something very "cheap" in terms of re-positioning a brand; just a communication facade and wrap up to enforce the Boy thing. It might give them some more boys and girls singing to their tune but more importantly and more likely, it can take away that loyal class of Executives which build the brand Blackberry.This is not at all an impressive move by the strategists and brand people at RIM."...in this article Rajiv Rao, national creative director, Ogilvy India (they created the ad), tells afaqs!, "I remember the look on the faces of the top executives in suits, sitting in business class age, having to share their seat with a young guy like me in a crumpled T-shirt and torn jeans. It was this feeling that was very similar to the BlackBerry phenomenon a few years ago - when getting a BB was like a big perk in the organisation."
"Today, besides the top executives, a lot of youngsters are using BlackBerry for various reasons. Inspired by this insight, we thought - how about getting these typical BB users singing a song about BB and themselves - and then letting a bunch of youngsters completely take over what was meant to be their stage, since they are the new users," Rao adds...
unfortunately, "a big perk in the organization @ BB is what RIM is....as a micro trend the product might become hot-cake among all the segments in India, but in long run BB will be dead within 5-6 years unless they really creep in their earlier status, which actually is impossible once the "downfall" happens...the best example is Reliance, who is perceived as "cheap" mass brand and they will never be able to become an elite...