VAS Startup Hygiene, Just some thoughts…

This post is just an off-shoot to the main line of my blog. I am no entrepreneur but have worked closely with a couple and have been a part of One97 for some time now if not the early days. I was just talking to a few people who were looking forward to starting up in the VAS domain and we realized a few things that have worked for the late starter in the industry.

It seems really easy to be a part of the growing VAS market and get stuck there with little or no results. I don’t profess to be the best in the business but I work with one of the better ones in the business (read One97). People think that it’s a cake walk to be a part of the growing industry and make a few bucks by merely being a me-too. But incidentally, this is far from the truth. The cut throat competition in the market place and the squeezed up margins as a VAS provider add insult to agony if you are not unique and well planned. Even the biggest and the best in the VAS industry across the globe are looking forward to differentiate themselves in this ever getting cluttered market place.

In this dynamic market there are no fail-safe formulas but here are the few things that I have seen to have succeeded in the Indian sub-continent.

1. Have a Roadmap: A roadmap if not for next 5 year but for next 18 months would take you a long way. This must be based on the facts collected by due diligence and not only from the published reports. I don’t have anything against the reports and am not trying to question their credibility but did anyone ever predicted 5 years back that India would be looking to achieve 500 million subs by 2010?

2. Application Development is important But so is Sales: Many of the startups have focused too much on R&D and product development but still have failed to see the real light of the day. The biggest common factor that I could find by talking to people related to those startups was they were overtly focusing on the product and not so much on selling the product across to the operators. In today’s market what can be conceptualized can be developed as well… So focus on selling the concept is a must in addition to the product being a shade better than the rest.

3. Offer an irresistible value to the subscriber: Subscribers are looking for value addition to the services provided by an operator. They are no more content with voice calls made by them since their mobile handsets are capable of a lot more. This is the best way to create your potential customer list. The value may be in the form of exclusive content or the quality of service. Consumer in this era is smart and getting smarter by the day.

4. Service Promotion MUST not be intrusive: The uptake of a service has a direct bearing on the way it has been promoted in addition to the value it serves to the consumer. There are multiple ways and means of promoting a service. Profiling of the telco’s subscriber base is utmost important here as this includes the way in which he/she likes to be intimated about value of a new product or new value addition of an existing product.

In due course of time people have realized that the textbooks in our B-schools have been just the study, implementation is a lot different from this. There is a lot of talking about mobile marketing everywhere these days and from my next post I would really love to pick up that topic.

So Keep watching this space for some insights into mobile marketing soon enough…

 

Cheers!!!

Jatin Madan

jatinmadan@aol.in