BB10 - Innovation or just another smartphone?

Finally BlackBerry (or should I call them RIM) launched BB10 software and two new phones – Z10 and Q10 on January 30^th, 2013. This blog is not a review of these phones or BB10 software platform but an attempt to understand company’s current innovation model and business strategy.
Lets focus on Z10. It is a pretty decent Smartphone with competitive features and design. Market was waiting anxiously for BB10 as most of the analysts predicted that RIM’s future depends upon success of BB10 generation phones. After months of delays BlackBerry launched a product that I would say is not disappointing but neither is a ray of hope.
Innovation is the mantra in technology industry and if you are in Smartphone business, you have to innovate continuously to attract customers who are curious, tech sensitive and impatient. Apple created Smartphone segment and lived up to the expectations of the customers and tech pundits not just once but repeatedly. Android (Read Google) enabled Smartphones (Read Samsung) smelled the opportunity and took advantage of following Apple as first followers. Most importantly Samsung and other Android enabled devices are following the path of continuous innovation (Check out Samsung’s new bendable screens) and pushing hard to overtake the Smartphone market Godfather Apple. However, once recognized as Smartphone giant, BB got lost in this race completely. They not only lost the opportunity of creating this market segment (understandable as they did not have Jobs) but also missed the bus by not jumping into this segment right behind Apple. Now they have come up with BB10/Z10 which is a competitive product but innovative? No way. You cannot call converting keyboard to touch screen and introducing an external battery charger innovation. Strong OS, security feature and user friendly texting were already part of BB’s strength before this launch. Most of the features are mere improvements of currently available smartphones features or BB phones itself. It will be interesting to see whether BB would be able to come up with BB11,12,13...launches every six months to one year or not(And obviously with even better features that can woo customers). People may argue that this is highly innovative product as compared to previous BB products, but who cares (except for few BB fans) that Z10 is better among BB products. Innovation is measured across an industry, not across one company’s products. BB could have learned from Amazon who forced Apple to launch iPad mini by creating another segment altogether in tablets market (anyone remembers Playbook??). I pity BB for appointing Alicia Keys as new Global Creative Director as this is not going to help them in improving their odds to become innovation leaders.  
BB10/Z10 needs to make money. BlackBerry has currently 6% market share with forecasts projecting 5.9% in 2016 (Source: please check here). They have to attract users to buy Z10 and develop those users as brand ambassadors. Is there any key feature in Z10 that will force Apple or Android users to switch? Forget about switching, why would first time Smartphone buyers consider Z10 as their first choice? iPhone users who have bought iPad and Mac would never leave iOS platform, iTunes and apps. Android is growing strong by improving their OS and adding more apps. Android phones provide plenty of choices in smartphone devices with a strong support by Google. With 70,000 odd apps, no strong music store, no strong developer community and potentially no other device in portfolio, is BlackBerry attractive option to switch? At least not for now.
BB is taking more than a month to bring this product in US market after showcasing Z10. This will disappoint even those users who are interested in this device. I highly doubt that customers would be lining up outside stores to buy Z10. Sales will surely increase after this launch but would that revive the whole company?
BlackBerry has a great history. They still have a strong business across globe with more than $ 2 billion in cash. But their struggle starts and finishes at home, North America.  Z10 is competitive but not one step ahead of any other phone. This is true specifically in current market where smartphone users are connected to a system that gives more value out of a smartphone than it’s market price. The only option for Heins and his team is to keep everyone on their toes and use innovation as fuel. I am not a BlackBerry hater. I believe turnaround of this company is possible but not by appointing a celebrity their Global Creative Director and following other companies innovations. True innovation with continuous cycle is the only option that will survive this company.  

User Experience - How The Economic Times website is killing it.

User experience is the key to user engagement that leads to conversion. This is a cycle that all online channels such as e-commerce websites, general websites or social media channels follow. Recently I came across a website that nearly killed my user experience and forced me to write this blog.

The Economic Times is a leading business newspaper from one of the largest media houses in India. Their mother website http://www.indiatimes.com/ currently ranks 142 on Alexa. Business section of this site is http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ and 20% of the overall visitors visit this section. Looking at the prestigious brand online and offline, I can’t believe that they are making a mockery of user experience.  I am analyzing The Economic Times (ET) website from a product manager point of view and will analyze only the top section of homepage.

Below is the snapshot of this site’s home page on September 12, 2012.  I searched for the site on Google and as soon as clicked on ET website link, a pop up appeared on my browser showing a Shaadi.com ad. Not only this was annoying, I could not even see the content as pop up was covering almost 40% of the page. Anyways I avoided the pop-up and started looking at the content. It took me few more seconds to understand where to start as ET website has a very complex layout with no clear focus on what is important for visitors. They use blue, black, white and red font colors that reduce the readability of the site. If you notice, within “Top News” section they use normal blue, bold blue, normal red and bold red fonts for no obvious reason. If something is really important for visitors then they could have made it bold but use of two colors and bold fonts is awkward. To make things ever worse, top news has black background and white font which does not go with the color theme of the site.

(You can click on the images below and see how cluttered the site is)

ET’s user experience horror story does not end here. Site’s background shows an ad and although it makes site look like a B grade Bollywood movie poster, it is not as bad as the pop up. Site’s homepage has two prominent ads on right hand side and one on bottom of the page. I can live with one or two ads but having three is just too much. Moreover these ad units are dynamic in nature and play different animations simultaneously that distracts a lot while reading text on this site. Worst piece of advertising is Google ads on this site. If you notice on the left hand bottom they display a Google ad (In this case Zip Car Sharing) that has same font color and size as any other text on site. For a normal user it will be very difficult to find a difference between Google Ad unit and content. 

Clicking on any of these links will show you articles that are even more poorly designed and served. Overdose of social channels’ icons and ads causes a very poor engagement and user experience. I understand websites make money by displaying ads and so does ET. However, the aim of product owner should be providing best user experience and adjust the ads so that users can have a seamless experience. I wish The Economic Times site owner reads this blog and makes few changes resulting in better user experience.

Amazon's Kindle - From threat to opportunity

I remember when Apple launched iPad everyone, from tech gurus to market analysts, was wondering how Apple would sell this product in a market flooded by smartphones and laptops. But iPad caught everyone’s attention and one of Steve Jobs’ babies sold more units than anyone expected. It was pretty clear that tablets had a separate market space among other new tech gadgets. However it was not clear who will compete with iPad. Eyes were mostly on traditional software/hardware/electronics giants such as RIM, Google, Nokia, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, etc.

Looking at today’s tablet market it is clear that iPad is still a front runner. However what is surprising is that the second most popular/sold tablet is from Amazon. Who would have thought that Amazon, an e-commerce giant, would jump into tablet market and become successful? Amazon’s Kindle is on fire and today they launched next generation Kindle. Looking at the product it is clear that Kindle is no more a rushed up and nervously made product. Amazon has made sure that the new Kindle Fire has best features at the lowest price. Moreover they have a few versions that have similar features and price range as iPad and may become a potential threat to iPad’s next generations.

Amazon did a great job in positioning first generation Kindle. It was simple, affordable and easy to carry. Those who did not want to spend too much money on iPad bought Kindle and they had a great experience using this device. It was great to see that Amazon did not go with “me too” product strategy unlike Samsung and RIM. The message was clear – Kindle was a different product for specific customer segment.

It is amazing to see how Amazon has forced its competitors to follow the path it has created. Google came up with Nexus following Kindle’s success having same features and almost same price range. Apple is planning to launch mini iPad targeting the customer segment created by Amazon. It will be interesting to see how Amazon will respond when this segment will become crowded (Remember cheaper products are easier to create and sell). Plus side is that Amazon is planning to make money by offering services on Kindle such as books and other apps rather than having thick margins on tablet itself. Apple may fight on this battleground as iTunes and Apple’s app store have a loyal customer base. But for others, the road will be full of obstacles.

Kindle is a classic example of how a threat can become an opportunity. Amazon read the trend earlier that users prefer to read books on electronic gadgets and Apple may take away Amazon’s market share. Threat of losing market share to Apple forced Amazon to come up with a product that is redefining a new market completely.  

Apple - Waiting for the right time?

Apple launched a newer version of iPad on March 7th, 2012 which is almost similar to iPad 2. New highlighted features include HD screen and a faster processor which, in my understanding, are not very distinctive features. As a current user of iPad 2, I am happy because no other new iPad user can show off his/her new iPad when I am using mine. As an Apple fan I am disappointed with yet another not-so-different product release. And as a business professional, I am curious about Apple’s strategy post Steve Jobs era.

Should we call this product a failure? No way. New iPad is still one of the best tablets in the market and with new features Apple’s new baby is challenging other companies to keep coming up with new products. Apple still dominates tablet market hands down and no other company is able to compete with Apple in this market despite serious efforts from me-too Samsung products and lower cost Amazon tablets. However, does this product launch justify the status of Apple as an innovative and strategic marketing company? My answer is, no.

Apple’s strategy of focussing on fewer products is a perfect strategy as tablet and phone market still has a great potential to consume more of these products. However looking at the past two launches of iPhone 4S and new iPad, I am a little skeptical about company’s senior leadership and their tactics to keep the ball rolling. I am not worried about their vision as they got it from Steve Jobs. But do they have any sales person like Steve Jobs in senior management who can promise and deliver a unique product to accomplish that vision? iPhone 4S went through a lot of criticism for not providing any new distinctive feature. At the launch of iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 users were happy, iPhone 4S users were happy and investors were happy but Apple fans were unhappy. Similar story was repeated during the launch of new iPad.

Nobody knows what is happening behind the screens. But one thing is clear that past two launches of Apple products do not justify company’s innovative products launch history. I am ready to give the senior leadership a benefit of doubt as Apple is still recovering from Steve Jobs’ sudden departure but this should not last long. Apple products’ biggest competitors are Apple’s own products. This is a highly profitable and comfortable position but this will not remain for long as the industry is moving at a faster rate than we can imagine. RIM and Nokia went through the same phase and now struggling to make a comeback.

It will be interesting to witness the next Apple product launch. Senior management will have enough time to recover from Steve Jobs’ shadow and to redefine the product lines. Next product launch will be a fire test for Apple and I hope they will come out as a winner.

Customer Insights: Data collection, analysis and execution

Summer time is perfect for attending conferences and if the conference is organized by Canadian Marketing Association then it is even better. I was at the CMA’s roundtable conference and it was a great experience. As expected the conference was full of marketers from various marketing agencies and companies. The conference was focussed on using customer insights for successful marketing campaign execution and it was great to listen to some of the industry leaders. Below are some interesting points that I noticed during the presentation
1. Customer’s insights concept is all about consumer behaviour data collection, analysis and creating strategies that helps companies in creating an ideal customer’s profile for a particular product or service. It was great to go through some interesting marketing campaigns and all the presentations strengthened the fact that customer insights are necessary for any marketing project. However it will be interesting to know more about the support mechanism that is provided by the client’s marketing department to marketing agencies. I believe if the client management is really serious about working on an effective marketing campaign, this support mechanism is the key to success.
2. I am also curious about the decision making process in such marketing campaigns. Every data analysis process results into two or more than two hypothesis and strategists must be selecting one of those hypothesises. It is much easier to make a decision when you have a hypothesis leading by a huge margin but what happens in case of two hypothesises either have same scores or have a low difference in margins. Is there any industry standard process to make a decision or marketing agencies do it by their own standards? I hope not all such decisions are intuition based.
3. Last but not the least is the execution and analysis of the campaign results. Execution depends upon the customer insights but is there any way to measure how much the campaign is aligned with the customer insights. Also companies must be keeping a record of how much business they got from such marketing campaigns but do companies use this data for the future marketing campaigns?

For those who want to learn more about customer's insights, please visit this link

Google Adwords for small business owners

Google adwords is one of the most effective ways of online marketing. This marketing channel has been around for quite a long time and no surprises Google is churning hell lot of money out of it. However there is a significant change in the ways people used to perceive Google Adwords few years back. Small/medium business owners were the most benefitting customer segment of Google Adwords when it just started. The competition for the keywords was not so high and only early adapters knew about the impact of Google Adwords. With time the competition increased and all small/medium and big companies entered this battle of keywords. Nowadays even Google ad strategists don’t claim to bring profit to small businesses in a small time period. Means to say, if you are a small business owner don’t expect Google Adwords to do wonders for you in a month or so. Is there any solution for this problem? Yes, but you have to spend some money and time initially before you can see the adwords account bringing profitable leads/conversions. And time and money are the two most important constraints for any small business owner. So can we conclude that Google Adwords is a strictly no-no for the small/start-up businesses? I wont reach to such conclusion right now. There are marketers who claim to set up google adwords campaigns that are highly profitable for the small business owners (scam? Could be and be aware of that). If they do it, then they are doing a good job. But there are many companies out there that are just ripping off the customers.
Best strategy could be to give it a try yourself. Small business owners can ask their friends or family members to help them out in understanding this kind of marketing. One needs sharp marketing mind set up, technical knowledge and labour intensive attitude to control this beast. Your friends and family members can help you with the hard work and technical knowledge, which are the big chunks of the pie. Small business accounts can be started with a small investment and once the account starts doing well, you will see good conversions. And please don’t forget the branding impact of these ads.
Google Adwords are still the most powerful way of online marketing. Don’t ignore it but also don’t get trapped in the web of CPC, CPM and other addictive terms. Take is as a marketing channel and try it for six months. If it works, you are the boss. If it does not, don’t repent for the money you spent and start looking for the other options.

Making decisions - No piece of cake

I always thought it was a piece of cake until I made those. Business related decisions bring some situations when everyone thinks about these factors

1. The revenue – Cash flow was and is always a big factor while making any decision.

2. Future business – Will it make a great impact on brining new business?

3. Relationship – How the decision will impact the existing relationship between multiple stakeholders?

And other several factors. I remember in my Organizational behaviour class, I came across an interesting article – making managerial decisions is information based or intuition based? This debate has been going on for so long that no one wants to discuss it any more. However it is the basic of many business related activities. Why should I believe in information when it is just the old data? But at the same time how can I believe in intuition which is nothing but just an irrational choice in the world of rationalization. Well I know there is always a balance working behind the scene, it will become more and more difficult to make decisions with the time. Information is so transparent now that no one can hide it but we are also removing human factors from decision making process (Do I need to mention the Lehman Brothers and BP cases). There is no 100 percent solution for decision making processes and even if it is there, no one will believe in it. So better to make decisions based upon the situation. They taught me the best phrase ever in my B-School – it depends.

Dilbert will add more to it