Below are some of the questions asked by the audience after session 3 and panel’s answer for the same…

Akshay: Using classified ads is a good way to get leads. What are the way to make these ads more effective?
Quality of content, constant updates, contact information, credibility…
Q: Pls give more examples on Guerrilla marketing
A: depends on business to business.

Q: Are we making contents for search engines or for consumers? What about quality of content on classified sites
A: Both are done with an ultimate objective of ensuring that right content reaches right consumer…

Q: (Mr Sehgal) How to use social media for a B2B segment.
A: We run bridge.com People start groups around their area of expertise. This way one can target their target customers.

Q: How does lead dynamics work in Social Media, particularly in connection with shiksha
A:Shiksha itself is becoming a social media site by bringing together experts and students. Its task is to enroll more and more students, institutions and experts.

Q: What are all to keep in mind while hiring SEO agencies?
Objectives and deliverables are to be defined. Also its important to understand basics of SEO oneself.

This post outlines some of the questions asked by the audience at the end of Session 1 of Free for SME’s Conference

Praveen Sharma- Where can we find about Govt schemes?
A: (msme.gov.in)

Sandeep Gandhi- I would like to know if govt has extended any schemes for cluster of education institutions
A: Skill development- 30-60rs per person per hour for skill development (depending on rural/urban) Those who wish to get trained will get vochures with which they can redeem in partner institutions and get trained.
Second is to develop entrepreneur development institutions- subsidies are given upto 3 crores (50-60%)
60 lakh per institutions to set up incubation centres
A call centre will be established for SMEs

Dr PK Varma- Helping 200 clusters-what are the areas covered?
A: Industrial clusters

Deepak Kumar-Do technology consulting companies are eligible for SME subsicidies?
A: Local partners of technology providers are eligible for this.

Q: Any subsidy for printing and publishing industry
Govt of India schemes are for micro players. For an investment of 25lakhs in plant and machinery, goi can give subsidy of upto 30%. For investment

Mohit: Does govt has schemes for mentorships?
A: Rajiv Gandhi Udyami Mitr Yojana is a customized scheme for mentoring entrepreneurs. Mentors and identified and they are paid to mentor entrepreneurs.

Shok Arya: More than subsidies, what SMEs need is a level playing field. There’re limits in terms of turn overs etc. Govt policies are favoring foreign players.
Under new MSME development act 2006, 20% of any goods procured from MSMEs. There’s no price preference. Turnover limitations, if unreasonable, will be taken up by the cell and will be dealt on case to case basis.
New corporation called skill development corporation has been set up. They encourage skill development programs
Questions were answered by Mr Dinesh Rai, Secretary, Ministry of MSMEs

Audience of yesterday’s marketing conclave, close to 300 of them, were highly interactive. Though time for Q&A sessions were limited, audience made the best use of it and asked several interesting questions, which panel answered efficiently…

Here’re some photos of the esteemed participants..

For complete coverage of Marketing Conclave, Click here

Notes from the session 2 Q&A:

To Mr. Sundeep Malhotra, Chief Executive Officer, HomeShop18

Q. What percentage of Homeshop18 customers come from Tie2&3 cities vis-a-vis Tier1? Also, for Tier2&3 cities, is the lack of choice in these cities instrumental for Homeshop18′s sales?

A. 30% of Homeshop18′s sales come from the top15-20 cities; For Tier2&3 cities, lack of choice of products is definitely a big driver; Homeshop18 provides brands and products an alternative distribution platform in these cities; In big cities, convenience of not having to go to the malls through heavy traffic, pay parking fees, etc helps Homeshop18′s sales

To Mr. T Gangadhar, Managing Director, MEC India 

Q.Since DTH providers offer customization and interactive services, how do you see mobile phones and Internet competing and differentiating themselves?

A. There are instances and will always be when you cannot view TV. This is where mobile and Internet sites like youtube cash in. Also, the viewership numbers are much more accurately  measurable for mobile and Internet users. TV numbers don’t really consider the viewership outside homes like in office and market, restaurants, etc. Greater measure-ability is better for advertisers and content developers

To Mr. Vikram Kaushik, Managing Director & CEO, Tata Sky

Q.1 What is so different in the growth in the number of DTH companies vis-a-vis companies in other industries like telecom,  etc? Those companies also entered the market first using their capital power and got regulated later?

A.1 There’s a lot of fragmentation in the industry and one of the major reasons for that is the irresponsible behavior of the financial institutions who consider the brand name of the companies wanting to enter DTH industry rather than look at their expertise and foundations. This needs to stop if we want only serious players and better regulation.

Q.2 Do you see a big scope for VAS in India?

A.2 There’s definitely a role and relevance for VAS in India. There’s a spectrum of sophistication that exists. There’s a huge number of people willing to pay for premium products.

Q3. When do you expect consolidation in the Indian DTH industry?

A3. Probably in 2-3 years. There are a lot of big people involved and consolidation for some  means admittance of failure. So, it would take time

Q4. Is India ready for 3D?

A4. Are you ready for HD. One brand tried to sell HD Tvs in India during IPL and struggled hard to sell even 100 of them. Also, there’s evidence that 3D negatively affects your body.

Q5. There are a lot of brands active on TATA SKY? What attracts them to TATA SKY?

   A5. Statistics show that out of the avg. TV viewing of a household at 180 mins, 34 mins are spent using the interactive services. So, a lot of people are engaging more and brands want to be a part of it. Brands seem to be realizing that micro-marketing is more focused and better than traditional generic ads

Key points:

Chirag Jain: The brand needs to keep the consumer as much as possible. Mobile offers an immediate touchpoint to that medium.

Q1: There are certain projects that attempt to conceal the identity of the consumer.(eg: SMS gupshup) Do you think a time will come when it is possible to completely mask the consumer?

If you are going to take away the identity, you’re taking over the key benefit of the medim itself. I dont think there will be such things will happen unless ther eis enough debate – Chirag Jain, Webaroo

A media channel can help you reach an audience you desire. They dont claim to own the consumer. When they claim ownership, they talk of loyalty. I own loyalty for my platform thast provides group messaging services. (Manoj Dawane, Mauj)

Mobile2Win, Mr. Hiranandani: Who owns the consumers content?

If the operator is willing to pay me a certain fee for the UGC, isnt the content owned by the consumer?

Webaroo: Its like a tolltax you pay when you drive a highway. It just means that you just get back to a certain amount from the toll tax

Mauj: if you are running a service because the operator manages the service, the operator owns it

Stratoshear: Even the hardware providers create content, information, etc, where do they fit in?

Mauj: Nokia’s Ovi, Apples App store, 20% of the handsets last year, were from chinese made handphones. The Nokia, Apple iPhone has just 2-3% market share.The device vendor also is trying to get into the business of contentThe consumer will not be owned by any entity. Operator only provides a way to reach the customer, thats all. The consumer is king.

Q: Because you create the content, do you own the customer?

The operator allows the customer to have the content. There is no one owner. There is a lifecycle that can have different owners at different points in time.

Q1:  Anurag from OnMobile, Marketing division- The holy grail seems to be profiling. What do you think we should go about this?

Pradeep S: Idea- Its a question of creating an ecosystem. Some may like to take early posession. As this becomes a more structured envt. As the pieces fall together, people will be more interested in coming together. We require advertisers, tech partners,etc. Would it be led by operators? Yes, I would like to think so.

Q2: In mobile ads, what is the panels thinking about privacy and the regulations regarding reach and interoperability?

One97: I think we need to mature as a whole ecosystem. One way is to give users the choice through “Opt-ins”. While you make a call, you can hear a short 10sec abt what the latest score is. If elections are on, u can get a short update on party position. You could get adversiting. You could skip it, and its an opt in service.
These are the things that are being done- you have to give value, but you need to give people the choice. We need to see how the audience takes it.

2ergo group: How do you get service providers to stop being intrusive? One on hand, we need to be responsible. But apart from that, this is an open market. If there is a quick buck to be made, some will go to lengths to do so. A penalty structure is required. There is a strong role for the regulatror here.

Q from Unilever representative : There are too many technologies. There is too much fragmentation. As an advertiser, does it make sense to even advertise?

Idea Cellular: This is a challenge for all media. As an ad, you have to deal with each entity indivisually. At the experimental stage, you have to go with the one who has best revenue stream. You can talk in a personalized level to the user. Tomorrow, the rates are very different.

Idea-Last IPL season, we ran a campaign that delivered 45 lakh calls back to us. We havent been able to build a case study. But will be happy to share. There are successful models running,but we haven’t yet been able to pitch it to an advertiser.

IMI Mobile- There should be a common interface for all advertisers and platforms where advertisers can check rates, and the potential target audience.

2ergo: How can we make it simpler for brands?  We need to take the complexity away from mobile advertising. We need a common industry body to help us do this.

Idea cellular- You neeed to experiment with 5% of your budget and see how it works.

Q: The link is the ad agency. Unless there is a way of creating awareness in the ad agencies, we need to inform the brands.

Brands are shaky because the advertising agencies are shaky.Its our role to show how. We need an adversiting monitoring agency for mobile.
Google: Yes, agencies are the critical group . There are epxert groups – viable and growing, till the time that mainstream agencies are able to catch on and can buy them out, they will retain the industry speciality. Google is trying to hire and build a trained team to train agencies about mobile advertising.