ValueMax

Just came back from a Mahindra showroom here in NOIDA. Its a mess out there with the much hyped launch of XUV 500. There were almost 6 guys trying to check out each of the 3 pieces of this new toy that Mahindra claims will put them in a truely global league.

And looking at how things were being managed there, I was thinking about all the debates that keep happening about spends on Digital media Vs traditional ones. Unfortunately, even my friends from the digital world are more concerned about spends on advertising, not on making the customer experience superior. No one is managing the moment-of-truth.

Here’s what happened:

• We could barely manage to see the interiors of one version of the vehicle
• The staff was overwhelmed with the customers within the showroom, they just couldnt give you enough time to answer your queries
• One bloke had an Acer tab on and was happy to show us the features, when we asked for a brochure. They also had a wall mounted touch-screen display operated my another chap
• Test drives had a queue and one had to leave his/her number at the dealer to get a chance behind the wheels
• No idea/clue on delivery dates. I really appreciated the frankness with which the customer expectation on this critical parameter was managed
• Booking amount was very clearly communicated. Its Rs 40K, but you could do a token Rs10K and deposit the other 30K in 2-3 days. Smart move looking at the popular response.

I saw a huge missed opportunity here, esp in terms of leveraging the digital channels to stay connected with the customers.

1. If only the chap with the tablet had asked for my email id and at the click of a button sent me a ebrochure. I might even have liked the Facebook page button on it
2. They could have checked with me on test drive and done the same. Many like me didnt leave the mobile number. Its only SMS that TRAI has managed to stop as of now
3. If I was on their email list, so many more things could have happened- sending me updates on delivery dates, early positive responses from customers etc etc.

I feel that in a dealer led model, the parent brand/company needs to bring the digital tools right at the dealers showroom and manage the conversation from there on. Its only then that we would have leveraged the true power of customized communication. Other wise its just ads and Facebook pages that will keep happening.

I hope some of the ad agencies are listening to this and would build this in, in their next pitch.

I have been looking at the countless ads & “LikeUs” banners that keep popping up on my Facebook account and I am tempted to feel that all this jubilant rejoice about the advertising/branding power of social networks might just be a temporary phenomenon. I feel that there would be a fatigue soon & think there are multiple sources for that to creep in.

1. Almost every big brand & local business seems to have its own page on Facebook. This means that the number of brands competing for your attention online, in all probability include all the brands you live with. This would make the CPC/CPM rates go high. Bidding and ad placement is not contextual- its only demographic targeted. Local and small businesses will not be able to participate for long, they can just hope to do a small time campaign to get few “fans” on their pages.
2. Little or No Context. The fact that Google ads grew so fast was that they could figure out what you were searching/reading/browsing & hence target brands/products/services relevant to that. I think Facebook has a serious limitation here. Most users, I suspect use it to track what friends are thinking/doing and in a smaller # of cases they would be looking at pages relevant to hobbies or for information about places/brands etc. Facebook would have to change this behaviour the other way round to build sustainable advertising revenues.
3. Advertising OverLoad. I think with most brands embracing Facebook, an average user might now be following five times as many businesses & brands as she did last year. But I can safely assume that her time on Facebook & specifically on brand pages has not increased proportionately. Are you really spending so much time tracking all the brands you follow on Facebook? Not just the time & attention, there is a genuine problem of discovery also- the same issue that most mobile app stores face once they grow too big. How do you keep track of  all the updates from all the brands.
4. No proxies for customer profile. When we advertise on the net, chances are we can do some sane assumptions about who would see the ad. E.g. if I look at MoneyControl, I can be confident that many of these customers would be active investors in the Equity market & hence probably a good target for a broking firm. There is no such proxy on the social network giant. How do I get similar info on Facebook – Say income bracket etc. I have seen college kids subscribe to luxury brands and it must be a big worry for the marketing manager there to understand how the clicks he pays for are done by relevant people only.
5. Decreasing value of ThumbsUp. There was a time when I would have noticed/opened/read most of the likes done my some of my friends on Facebook. With the new flood of likes, I have my own sense of distrust and feel that any of us like too many things/updates. If this is Facebook’s entrypass for brands into each user’s network, the value is fast decreasing. Most users would not honor the “Likes” of their friends as they used to before.

Well I have nothing against Mark or the biggest virtual country that has been created, but I sincerely hope some of these issues are being addressed by those smart boys back in the Valley. I would really want to see FaceBook become and stay a stable advertising medium.