quotient performance OF CU eesple of contents TRAVEL AND BOOKING WEBSITES IN INDIA = 7Ta BRAND STORYTELLING ON SOCIAL MEDIA SOCIALINSIGHTS 77 Simplify, 360Competitive Differentiation - To be or Not to be! As all firms move online, it has become impending for brands to differentiate themselves. Strategic desisions such as whether to be present on new media platforms (or) to be present only on platforms that are widely populated (or) to build the largest social network have become some of the most impendent decisions and a daunting process when it comes to finalizing one. Source: stage2planning Firms today have recognised the need of connecting with their customers online. Online customer service and brand building is easy, cheap and extremely rewarding if done right. The biggest challenge faced by firms today is how to align their corporate brand positioning and extend it online while adapting to the changing industry trends. These decisions are unavoidable and at times difficult to take, because if they fail to give the expected results or if one of your moves backfires, the firm may even land up paying up few million dollars and yet not be able to erase the digital footprint. In this light many firms who have outsourced the operations are advised to bring back the operations in-house. Travel & Ticket Booking Websites in India Simplify 360 eesIRCTC receives close to 1.2 million daily visits and handles 180 million transactions every year. Making it the largest e-commerce site in India focused on train & air ticketing business. It is the only firm which is not present on any of the social media platforms. In 2013 it launched e-commerce platform selling goods in partnership with Yebhi.com. The objective was to become a one-stop e-tailing platform. In India the adoption on new media transactions and methods of doing business has generally been slow. Especially in the travel industry, it has been seen that over the last decade consumers have slowly adopted ecommerce as the means of making decisions and purchasing travel plans. Itis also observed that of the total ecommerce sales in India, travel alone makes up to three quarters of it. According to a new report by eMarketer, “BRIC Travel Markets in Transition: Trends Influence Overall Ecommerce’, during 2011-16, India's annual growth rate would be 30.6%, making it the fastest growing online travel sales market. Online Travel Sales in BRIC, by Country, 2010-2016 ‘lions soa ‘sae pren $40.00 2112022013 20M— 20152016 $2477 $5251 ss870_ sa2i1_suses 54799 sos Si1s0_sisae_s2o4s 2560 s0061 $506 $632 $759 Sion sit02_si168 so Mae te: inchides onine lesure and unmanaged business travel sales. Pe pr feet eo Serrinamcsgerceomem veeacer iat” ha at a resem 20 * ors may ret ad Use of social media is mostly restricted to services-led initiatives such as reviews and feedback which is, CRM processes substituting for not so good offiine customer services by sales and customer support personnel The success of travel and hospitality sector is purely based on customer experiences and sharing of these experiences with other likeminded travellers. Sales in this industry is heavily dependent on the referral system and hence social networking sites have paved way to huge Simplify 6 360 Page 4opportunities for firms to tap on to. Travel is a social experience and hence this industry becomes a qualified candidate for end-to-end social media integration. Information Search and Planning Source: Studio23 Let's explore the typical process a customer undertakes right from searching for information ‘to making the payment using the services of one of the travel services providers online and then identity the pain points of a customer that can be addressed through social media services, The very first step to plan a travel would be choosing the destination — Where to go. Customers generally go through various review sites like Lonely Planet or start gathering opinions from friends, family and colleagues. Else they have a search on Wikipedia on the best places to visit in the given budget and the time frame The next step would be making flightitrain/bus/hotel booking and hence going through travel portals which provide options and a level of comfort and service. At this stage the customer is looking for the best deals and a loyalty memberships and possible rewards that can be redeemed in some cases are additional factors that affect the search and the decision making process. Simultaneously an itinerary is planned and the finally the service that is most suitable and recommended. The last step is processing the payment. Websites that are most frequently visited at each stage are: Destination Search: Lonely planet, Wikipedia, incredible India, trip advisor, travel blogs etc. Booking, Planning, Payment: Make my trip, Cleartrip, redBus, Goibibo, Expedia, Yatra, laCcTC Means of communication: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, email, online chat, telephone Let's look at some of the most commonly used websites in India used by customers to make their travel plans and payments. Simplify 6 360 Page 5Travelling is all about social experience One of the very first name that customers recall while planning, searching for destinations and booking for travel and accommodation is Makemytrip.com! ‘So why is Makemytrip so popular among customers? Founded in 2000, Makemytrip is one of Indian's favourite online travel companies. It has been one of the few start ups to have recognised the changing trends in the industry and adapt online marketing opportunities to engage customers and make travel experiences a social experience. They are one of the brands to have realised that most of the purchases online happen through referrals and recommendations by friends, family and in this case other likeminded travellers. The company's presence only on the major networking sites such as Facebook. Twitter and YouTube indicates that they are very clear of their objective of using social media for marketing. Today it has become a one stop shop for all travellers, no matter at which stage of decision making process they are in (Information seeking, planning, comparing, evaluating, recommending, payment ete.) Their presence on Facebook began in 2009 and today they have over 1,184,742 fans and 78,232 people talking about them. They have successfully built a strong community of likeminded fellow travellers who interact, recommend and rate destinations, travel experience, services at the hotel or the travel planner. Creating brand advocates with minimum investment. Another reason why Makemytrip tops this list is that they are one of the few brands that keeps up to the changing trends in the industry and integrates it almost immediately. For instant one of the most prominent examples is that of moving on to Pinterest and promoting their presence on Pinterest on Facebook to showcase that they are present where their customers are. Doing things right Calculating social media ROI is not an easy task. However, brands today are becoming ‘smart in setting measurable objectives. ‘As brands gain better insight into conversations and revenue and cost saving campaigns. half the battle is won if brands are able to freeze on their online presence strategy. That is if brands today can define their social media objective and are able to get their online portfolio right then they can decrease their customer acquisition costs, customer retention costs, administrative overheads, routine labour costs, shared creative and production costs etc. A’so firms would benefit by increased marketing productivity and profits. Let us look at other top online travel and ticket booking companies that have also successfully adapted social media for ecommerce in India. Let's also seek answers to some of the most common challenges faced by brands today: Simplify 6 360 Page 6Should they be present on all popular channels or select few channels only? If they have to select few channels, which channels should they choose? Once a brand is present on the top three social media platforms then what next? Should they further strengthen their community in the existing platforms or diversity further to newer platforms to gain first mover advantage? Be there where your competition dares not to be Yatra.com was started in 2006. One of the earliest entrants on social media and yet they have not been able to bag the number one position. As per Alexa’s ranking it is positioned #4 after Makemytrip and Cleartrip who have entered the social media space three years later and followed a similar strategy for building fan following. Yatra.com is one of the only travel and ticketing company to have embraced newer platforms such as Pinterest to build a community and gain a first mover advantage on a platform that acts as a personalized media platform where users can collect and organize images of your interest. w Pintonest a “> Yatra Holidays oo OE ee a Source: Pinterest.com, as.n September 2013 Expedia on the other hand, being an American based company founded in 1996 ranks the least. The parent company owns several global brands: they operate 100 branded points of sale in more than 60 countries. In India Expedia's sale to point is through Expedia.co.in (Expedia India). While it has a weak social megia presence in India, it has been very successful in capturing target audience attention and interest through Google+ and YouTube. With 31% growth in Simplify Page 7fan following on Google+ and the second largest number of views on YouTube in this industry they are the only company to have gained access and take advantage of this medium in India. Google+ has been very popular in US, it has been the second largest social media platform followed by Facebook. The interest of users of social networking sites over the period compared to changes in interest in the travel category shows that Google was perceived as a good social networking medium in the year 2011 and the fad died by the mid of the same year. Since then Google+ has not be very popular in India. Google Trends data analysis shows that Facebook and YouTube have been the most effective and the favourite channels of users in this industry. While Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ battle out for better attention span and popularity among users india = 2004-preser Travel eb Sear 2 Google+ Pinterest Interest over time Note Source: Google Trends, as on September 2013 Goibibo is an excellent example of how the firm has exploited the popular and most viewed platform and built community and fan following in those platforms. Being laggards in adopting social media in December, 2009 it has the second largest fan following on Facebook with 1,277,907 fans and 78,139 people talking about it. It is the only travel and ticketing website to have received the maximum views on YouTube. After the acquisition of Rebus.com Goibibo now also offers bus ticketing option. Redbus.com still operating independently is yet to gain popularity and grab its piece of pie on the social networking front. Simplify 6 360 Page 8Goibibo has followed a similar strategy as Makemytrip when it comes to engaging customers. Both the brands promote exclusive offers, suggest destinations, interact with customers by conducting polls, encourage and invite submissions from customers on best memories and experiences etc. through their Facebook page. They ensure customers are constantly engaged and updated with latest information in the industry. Goibibo also does YouTube promotions successfully through their new bus and new hotel TV commercials. YouTube is powerful platform and the only one known to hold audiences’ attention for a longer period of time. With funny, witty and engaging video, Goibibo uses YouTube channels to extend its TV commercial footage and audience views. Goibibo.com (Official G+ Page) =a # Goibibo's New TVC Release Mow Hotel TVC New Golbibo THC ight New GoIbibe TVC Source: YouTube.com, as on September 2013, However, what the page lacks is the efficient usage of the space provided and the opportunity to strategize and use YouTube to promote and build the brand through this channel. YouTube like Facebook or Twitter provides an opportunity for brands to upload a cover image promoting the brand, special offers and packages on their social networks. Simplify 6 360 Page 9The Golden Nugget: Choose the right social media mix §] \\ \ ete right Ei) ed Today all social media networks are trying to imitate each other and offer the same set of features and opportunities to customers. Like Facebook has also adopted the #tags from Twitter, Twitter today allows users to upload a cover image etc. What now becomes important for brands is that they analyse their social media objective, identity the channel that would help them meet their objectives the best and then adopt a strategy to increase audience and fan following in the long term. The trick here is not just to be customer centric but to know which social strategy works best during which customer phase. Companies must know when to use an orchestrated combination of social strategies by mapping programs against the marketing funnel. Apart from all these the most important element of choosing the right social media mix is to have long term thinking. Most brands have a short term vision when they launch their social campaigns. Growing fans, followers and building a community online is cost intensive; hence the plan must be focused on long term objectives rather than short term. Customers have been on web before the brands and will remain on web after the brands have left as well Simplify 6 360 Page 10‘This chapter deals with the strategic issues faced by most of the brands in the lifestyle product category that are spoiled with choices and confused about how they should deploy social media strategy. Today it is no longer about the type of media or the message from the marketing department on social media but it’s about what consumers are talking about your brand also called earned media. Studies show users share their experiences on Twitter and Facebook and four out of five share their story through pictures and videos. Source: The Economic Times This indicates that brands have an opportunity to tap into the power of channels such as vine, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube etc. Earned media is when customers talk and share about a brand on various platforms. The value of earned media is based on trust and authenticity of the content shared by the customer. Hence we see that pictures and videos have become a powerful means for telling your story. Companies should effectively use new channels such as Vine, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube to share formation and not just use them as yet another channel of promoting advertisement. All you need to do is offer a product or share an experience that customers can relate to and are willing to share it with their friends and official network. One of the brands which have entered this space successfully is Yebhi.com. With 1881 followers today the company has been able to engage its audience and establish as the best lifestyle brand on. Pinterest. Brands have to differentiate themselves by providing value that cannot be replicated by other. It is a very difficult task in social media and may not always be about product or service differentiation. Today it’s all about providing customer centric service and connecting with your audiences in the right way. Take the simple idea of initiating a game of Tambola to engage your audiences, it takes you back to those memorable days when one use to have get together’s with friends and enjoy this game. Simplify 360 Page 11Footprints! #YebhiTambolaHangout ea a wim |2)[ me ra sontest . love wrsty shots _p #YebnITambolaHangout Source: Pinterest.com This shows that how brands today can still find that differentiating factor and gain competitive advantage. While other brands such as Jabong and Myntra rank ahead of the Yebhi in terms of traffic on website and fan following on Facebook and Twitter, they have failed to grab attention of audiences on the fast growing new media. Studies indicate that storytelling through videos grab the largest attention span of a reader. Lifestyle brands for products such as apparels, footwear, baby products, home improvement products, cosmetics, perfumes and other products must target their customers through such highly engaging media. Babyoye.com founded in June 2010, caters to the new born child essentials segment and connects with mothers by providing quick tips and counselling ‘sessions on YouTube. Unlike other brands Babyoye does not use YouTube to promote their advertisement or Promotional offers/campaign but provides educational information to mothers who are seeking for some quick do-it-by-yourselt tips. Today they have over 1,578 subscribers and more than 89,04,128 views on YouTube. The videos uploaded are no longer than half a minute, the longest one being that of one minute and forty one seconds. Engaging the audience in a quick watch and providing the right message and brand positioning in just 30 seconds is more of an art than science on social media. Starting about a year ago they have Simplify 6 360 Page 1226 videos uploaded and the views of each video being as high as 16,243 (approximately) in just one year. Another great example of how brands can move towards earned media is that of Jabong.com on Facebook. It has been able to gain only 16,00,918 fans which is about 32,11,576 fans less than yepme.com however, Jabong is the only brand in this segment that allows customers to give feedback, complaint and complement about the product or services availed. This establishes credibility, transparency and a brand image that a message that company is willing to listen and change, which are the key objectives for being present on social network. Eh (nes ie = Sime a ay oe Pa 1 vas corer worst service Fase nnd ns mirer the last cater rey ter. Thar no cet aber oe ayuyt eng. Tee Jette cpr, Pave oo ee eevee hive Fon ge ee te se ‘So what is yepme.com doing right to have over 33 lakh fans 10% of them talking about them on Facebook? It is not easy to say. It can be the way this brand has successfully advertised and promoted the brand online or integrated social media with their marketing strategy. It could also be that Yepme.com’s social strategy is to become the largest lifestyle product community to be able to expand further on other networks. So what is the secret sauce, we do not know. But what ‘we know is Yepme has the highest number of relative number of fan. Simplify 6 360 Page 13Jabong.com |piidiiz 16,00,918 Myntra.com pitti 151,372 Fashionandyou.com pihifeeemmmm 12,43,887 yebhi.com \pi.QEfs 14,94,452 lenskart.com piss 9,22,865 Inkfruit.com gies 5,71,986 Zovi.com alii’ 53,959 yep LT 33,71,558 localbanya.com 485foy fabfurnish.com \ed8Z55 94219 babyoye.com piiSMes 4.65657 m= FB Talking about this firstery.com BBs 3,00,403 — perfumezorder.com 7750 0 10,00,000 20,00,000 30,00,000 40,00,000 What about the Engagement Rate? We find that the engagement rate which is defined as overall active fans. Calculated as: Engagement Rate = PTAT (People Talking About This)/Fans Simplify Page 14Enga igement Rate Jabong.com Fashionandyou.com lenskart.com Zovi.com localbanya.com babyoye.com perfume2order.com 0 2 4 6 8 10 ‘Yepme takes the top brand position with the highest engagement rate. But is this the correct way of measuring the engagement rate? Not really, it does not include some forms of interactions such as playing the video, photo display or click on the web link. And hence the number of people who engaged with your page which includes any click has to be included. Modifying the formula to: Engagement Rate = Engaged Users/Fans While Facebook is an important platform for brands to focus on, Twitter is yet another platform that cannot be missed. Twitter Followers ALO LL 20,926 Mit.) 13,069 FashionandyoU.com A 12,905 yebhi.com A 7.825 lenskart.comn = 5,328 Inkfruit.com =—_— 4,338 Zovi.com sam 2,238 yepme.com fmm 1,594 localbanya.com jm 770 fabfurnish.com im 761 babyoye.com ft 706 firstery.com _p 390 perfume2order.com § 275 0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000: =—25,000 Simplify Page 15Jabong.com hits the top stop with over 20,900 followers. From the above analysis we see that different brands have adapted different strategies on social media platforms. As brands recognise that social communities are growing more and more crowded due to mass adoption itis becoming harder to grab user attention and garner it, Today company can make an impact only by integrating paid tools and appointing a change agent. In 2009, Forrester defined owned mecia as a channel owned by a brand such as a website etc., paid media as advertising etc. that is purchased by the brand to leverage the channel, and earned media as the word of mouth (WOM) that happens around the brand, turning the customer into the channel. ‘The Golden Nugget: It is no more about choosing the right social media mix. It is about how engaged the aucience is with your content on the channel making interactivity and appropriate measurements absolutely critical. INCENTIVE ADVERTISING DIGITAL PROPERTIES CONTENT 7 Ns1 1 510) ery : PARTNERSHIPS lela Ne rare INFLUENCER outposts: ENGAGEMENT Source: Preview Networks Blog Simplify Page 16Flipkart still is the big daddy of all when it comes to sales. However, when it comes to social media, we see smaller players like Junglee.com and Pepperiry.com are asserting their dominance. Launched in 2011, Pepperfry and Jungle have gained the highest engagement ratio of 8.9% and 3.7% respectively. The content strategy of Pepperfry seems to have ‘worked for them. They are still building and fighting for a space in the top three e-commerce website online as they have low customer base as of now, however, interactions and customer engagement ratio has proved that though a small player, if you have a strong social media presence it impacts your direct sales positively. Fi ‘ans on Facebook junglee.com 32,66,911 futurebazaar.com infibeam.com 10,23,254 shoppersstop.com 49,58,966 Snapdeal.com 14,77,167 homeshop18.com 10,78,396 Flipkart.com 21,99,132 groupon.co.in ebay.in (non indian) 24,08,151 Dealsandyou.com naaptol.com [ll 1,96,987 © —_ 10,00,00020,00,00030,00,000 40,00,000 50,00,000 60,00,000 Let us also look at the website traffic of these top 10 players. We see that Ebay, Flipkart, Groupon, Snapdeal have the highest traffic, while Homeshop18 and Junglee.com fight for the 5” position. What is interesting to see is that Junglee.com (Amazon's Indian e-commerce site) has been a late entrant and captured a large market share in such a short span of time. Within just two years it has been able to deliver value and capture customer mindshare. With the Alexa rank of 84 preceded by Homeshop18, Snapdeal and Flipkart al 81, 18 and 10 respectively, it is amongst the top 5 e-commerce website in India. Simplify 360 Page 17Fig: Website traffic comparison Website Traffic Historical Traffic Trends Source: Alexa.com So will Junglee.com overtake Flipkart and Ebay? Only time will answer this. In January 2012 after a long waiting amazon.com announced its entry in the Indian retail market with a new website jungle.com. Junglee entered the market with a new business model where it directs customers to both online and offline vendors listed on Junglee. It is not involved in any buying or selling in India. On the other hand, Flipkart owns the largest distribution channel in this industry, which caters to all the needs of a customer. As of now Flipkart and Snapdeal have not listed themselves on Junglee.com as vendors. But what is to be watched is how long they can stay off the list! Daily Reach (percent) junglee.com flipkart.com infibear com homeshop18.com ebay in 02 01 0 Jan 27 Jan26Jon29 Jon 30 Jon3a_Feda__Feb2 Source: Alexa, as on Jan 2012 Simplify Page 18Flipkart’s social media strategy is that it has no strategy. It uses social channels to connect with customers like one connects with friends on social networks. It is known that many a times it's Sachin Bansal, founder Flipkart interacting with customers on Twitter. They do not believe in any code of conduct on social media, they believe that interaction with customers should be based on common sense and no rules defined. But why do experts then insists on defining social media policy for an organization (especially Start-ups)? Take a look at the recent controversy between Homeshop18.com and its customer who was a Flipkart employee. ‘Source: Twipic -hitoy/Awitpic.com/eképxt Here we see a customer who has ordered a product from Homeshop18 and cancelled the order after the product has been shipped. The customer goes on to abuse Homeshop18 on Twitter. Homeshop18 points out that he is Flipkart's employee to Flipkart and expects Flipkart to apologize as well for the use of abusive language. The question that arises here is if it's right for Homeshop'8 to point it to Flipkart and involve a brand and expect for an apology for its employee's actions? Are employers responsible for Simplify 6 360 reemployee social media action in work hours? Shouldn't there be some rules and code of conduct for employees on social media? While many experts believe brands must create a social media policy, brands still believe that social media interactions are more personal and should not be restricted. It is about how an organization wants to manage their customers and competitors as well. As the e- commerce environment matures in India brands will have to find a solution to such dilemmas soon. Flipkart recently launched a campaign deploying social media as an active and primary medium and breaking the clutter in the advertisement industry. They previewed their new campaign to their dedicated 50 lakh users before broadcasting it on Television. They took feedback and also tweaked their media plan as per Ravi Arora, Sr. VP Marketing Flipkart.com The brand has used their social media influence and reach innovatively. One of the few examples on how brands can identify their social media power and build a strong customer network that would in turn contribute to their growth. “Initially when we were working on the first campaign the idea was to have a treatment that was fresh and also to build trust for the category - and who better than children to help build trust. The idea worked and the brand has continued to use the same set of characters and extending the storyline with the central thought. So much so that now using the kids as adults is a language that everyone identifies as a Flipkart idea" - Kartik Iyer, chief executive officer, Happy (the agency behind the campaign) "Many users have actually got back to us saying that they are happy at having been treated as more than just a ‘like’ or ‘fan’ statistic.” - Ravi Arora, Sr. VP Marketing, Flipkart.com Source: Economic Times, September 2012 As the e-commerce is maturing in India, brands have a lot of catching up to do with respect to adopting best practices when it comes to leveraging social media strategy for their business. Most of the brands including Flipkart, Ebay and Homeshop18 do not have their most engaging social channel integrated to their website. Take the example of Ebay, they have over 5.5 million views and 12643 subscribers on their YouTube channel, one of the largest subscriber base in this industry and yet has not integrated the channel to its website. Brands can leverage the customer interactions and engagement investments by directly or ingirectly channelizing their viewers to their website which is the key medium to drive sales and business. Take another example of Groupon.com, a global leader in local commerce, making it easy for people around the world to search and discover great businesses at unbeatable prices caters to many global locations and hence needs to have different touch points at different locations. It has an excellent presence on Pinterest where it maintains separate profiles (pinners) for all locations. However, the challenge is how to integrate all these pages into the main Groupon Page? Simplify 6 360 Page 20Prtoredt 7 While most of us are aware of Flipkart, Snapdeal, Homeshop18, Shoppersstop, FutureBazaar, Ebay, Groupon, Junglee, Naaptol, Letsbuy, Tradus.in, Bag it Today, IndiaPlaza, Bestylish etc. when it comes to online purchase; only few of us would recognize names such as Wear Your Opinion (WYO), Fernsnpetals.com and Zoomin.com. The future of Indian e-commerce is moving towards to providing niche products and services to customers, especially on the demand services and products is what smaller brands are aiming at providing. Have a look at one of the customer experience at WYO. The post shows how a new small player can differentiate itself from others and customize their engagement with customers. Purchase Receipt ™® = Inbox x eo WYO Order Information ‘Apr 9 (5 days ago) « - tome = The Transaction was successful we need to successfully stalk yo Well look at the brighter side, What do you get in retum (to loosing your privacy): A magnificent WYO tee. Jokes apart, Congratulations on your purchase. You now possess a 100% cotton, 100% handcrafted & Made In india, utterly pampered tee. Wear your opinion, Stand out. Simplify Page 21koe POLICY If your shirt is defective, or if we sent you the wrong size, or we sent you some other shirt by mistake, let us know at support@wyo.in. We will get in touch with you and guarantee that you will be taken care of. If you just realized you don’t look good in orange, or you decided not to check the sizing chart before ‘you placed your order, well, we will still give you a week to exchange if there is a size issue. Email us at That's @ good seven days from the day of your purchase. After that, well, our impulse is to say that your friend will always like a new gift. One of the buyers from WYO goes on to write a blog on his experience about purchase from WYO and how he was surprised by their service when compared to his experience with other well established vendors such as Ebay or Flipkart. Read the full story here: /ftecheorplegal.com/Blog Technol w Business Research/2013/04/15/how-to- keep-customers-happy-in-online-business-e-commerce-case-study-wear-your-opinion-wyo/ Golden Nugget: Look beyond share of mind. “A brand that captures your mind gains behaviour. A brand that captures our hearts gains commitment’ - Scott Talgo, Brand Strategist. Simplify 360 Page 22THANK YOU GO009500 © Simplify 360 360