Future of shopping in India

The whole concept of 'going shopping' has changed. 'Shopper Marketing' is fast changing too. Significant shifts has happens in shopping. Mall crawling with credit cards in wallet to home -delivery to e-commerce and internet shopping to m-commerce and mobile shopping. These days we're talking about Social Shopping which is a giant leap in itself. Google just released some interesting statistics. And here the Fast Company talks about the future of shopping. So what is the future of shopping?

In India, unfortunately we don't discuss or debate important issues like these anymore. We in India are still a developing nation and hanging around in malls is increasingly becoming a nation past-time. So obviously the question comes in my mind, how will shopping change in India? What consumer behaviors will drive shopper marketing and how will brands and retailers adapt technology? How will Indian consumers use technology for their benefits? How will shopping for daily usable items change compared to shopping for luxury items? Will smart apps replace the joys of leisurely mall crawling in the afternoon? Will we shop with our smart phones and get charged for the door delivery service? Will we see a Phoenix Mills Mall in Mumbai apps available on Smart Phones, where we pre-select and buy things and just visit the mall to pick-up those on the way back home? Or Big Bazaar Apps (They created FutureBazar, the online version of the store however, it ain't easy to navigate and the user experience is relatively poor) that still allows consumers get the cheapest deals without the crowd, chaos and long queues? Will we have to wait for international brands like Zara & Gap & Diesel to change things or can we write our own future? How will cashless shopping will become the accepted norm? When will we start flash our smart phones and walk out of the store?

SO THE QUESTION IS: HOW WILL TECHNOLOGY HELP EVOLVE SHOPPER MARKETING IN INDIA? HOW CAN WE REMAIN AHEAD OF THE CURVE?

No doubt the future of shopping and shopper marketing will be mobile apps trying to recreate the experience of shopping. Product catalogs for smart phones is already the new thing for big retailers and billions are being spent on providing a flawless user experience to shoppers. RFID technologies, Location based services, mobile payment gateways, social shopping will truly transform the way we look at shopping in India.

Now these are serious issues staring at the face of marketers and retailers in India. However, I do feel we lack the conviction and courage when it comes to experimenting or challenging the status quo of providing simplified solutions for the future where people are converging towards.

I'm doing some serious thinking and research in these subjects, so please feel free to share your views and comments and point to interesting articles, blogs, books that you might stumble upon. Cheers.

Smart moves by Smart Phones - The Mobile Movement

Google just released a some statistics about Smart Phones and where it is leading us in the future. Nice.

Nokia's Burning Platform

Nokia is expected to bring some radical changes to revive the fortunes of the company, says new CEO Stephen Elop in a memo to all his employees. The memo says, "The company's situation is that of a man standing on an oil platform in the North Sea and facing a raging fire on multiple fronts - who has no choice but to jump into freezing water to survive."

• "...there is intense heat coming from our competitors, more rapidly than we ever expected. Apple disrupted the market by redefining the smartphone and attracting developers to a closed, but very powerful ecosystem."
• "They changed the game, and today, Apple owns the high-end range."
• "Google has become a gravitational force, drawing much of the industry's innovation to its core."
• "We have some brilliant sources of innovation inside Nokia, but we are not bringing it to market fast enough. We thought MeeGo would be a platform for winning high-end smartphones. However, at this rate, by the end of 2011, we might have only one MeeGo product in the market."
• "...Symbian is proving to be an increasingly difficult environment in which to develop to meet the continuously expanding consumer requirements..."
• "Our competitors aren't taking our market share with devices; they are taking our market share with an entire ecosystem."
• "We poured gasoline on our own burning platform. I believe we have lacked accountability and leadership to align and direct the company through these disruptive times. We had a series of misses. We haven't been delivering innovation fast enough. We're not collaborating internally. Nokia, our platform is burning."

Nokia has become just another handset manufacturer from being the world leader especially in the Smart Phone category which is now being dominated by Android and Apple. Well, I was wondering what is W+K doing with the Nokia account? Couple of months back, I met someone from W+K Amsterdam office who works on the Nokia account and uses an iPhone. When I asked him why not the N5, he was utterly embarrassed. I guess, that's why I didn't get the job. Anyways.

Nokia needs a miracle to survive the onslaught launched by Apple IOS and Google's Android. God save them. This is a perfect example of how a market leader is reduced to nothing when they lose focus on competition. Apple and Google on the other hand has managed to create strong eco-system around themselves. Brands that manage to build stronger eco-systems around their core offerings will not only be successful but drive consumers along with them in the future.

More on Brand Eco-system coming soon. Cheers.

iAds twice as effective as TV.

Media companies and agencies, watch out. The truth is out. Campbell's an early adopter of iAds along with Apple conducted a study. The reports says - Those exposed to one of Campbell's iAds were more than twice as likely to recall it than those who had seen a TV ad. Indeed the five-week study, conducted by Nielsen, showed that consumers shown an iAd remembered the brand "Campbell's" five times more often than TV ad respondents and the ad messaging three times more often.

To quote from Adage.com, 'Now that the first iAd campaigns are over, Apple is looking for data that would persuade existing marketers to renew or increase their initial investment as well as win over new advertisers standing on the sidelines. The problem Apple is facing is for their high cost of entry -- a reported $1 million minimum for first-run advertisers -- many other options exist for mobile advertising, including rich-media competitors like Medialets that look and feel a lot like an iAd.'

iAd era is here. God save the copywriter. Amen.

NOKIA N8 - Aiming to gain ground

The Mobile Category in India is going through lot of changes at the moment. 3G, MNP, Smart Phones, Mobile Internet, Mobile TV ... A series of trends, analysis, reports and meaningful changes that will affect the Mobile market in India. Watch this space, lots of interesting things coming up... Smart Phones and Mobile Internet will be the next big things in India. Nokia is not the market leader when it comes to Smartphones, will N8 be the cash cow?

Here's a review of NOKIA N8:

Discover the Nokia N8 - an amazing smartphone that lets you take stunning photos, capture true HD movies and play them all back on your HDTV! Nokia N8 is the first phone to have a large 12 Megapixel camera lens and Carl Zeiss Optics, for flawless photo quality. It also bosts a HD video recorder and HDMI out, so you can be the movie maker, and share movie time with family and friends on your HD TV. The brilliant touchscreen and sleek aluminium casing are just what you'd expect from such an impressive phone, and with apps, maps and more to delve into, the Nokia N8 is easily one of this year's most exciting phones.

The world's first Symbian^3 smartphone, Nokia N8 is full of exciting features, apps and innovations. It's incredibly easy to stay in touch, as the N8's Twitter™ and Facebook™ applications are connected all day long, keeping you up-to-date with all the latest happenings in each of your networks. You can stay signed in to multiple instant messenger and email accounts, have several IM chats at once, and see all your texts in conversations.

Nokia N8 is all about entertainment. You can browse the whole web and watch flash videos online, store your favourite HD movies on the 16GB internal memory or on a microSD card (up to 32GB), and even enjoy on-demand Web TV, on your mobile phone! The exclusively customised BBC iPlayer app lets you catch up on your favourite BBC shows, and you can access TV channels online, from CNN to Paramount, and never miss out on your favourite shows.

For all those who wants to pick up a new smartphone, check out the new NOKIA N8.