2. Most marketing companies today are VC funded.
They get their first round of funding by
showcasing fabulous ideas.
They spend most of their funds in acquiring
products and widening their product base.
This leaves the consumers in lurch and they fail
to build “Loyal Customers”.
This leads to a collapse in the second round of
funding.
3. Online companies need to target a niche set of
customers.
They fail to do so and confuse their TG in
trying to appeal to a larger set of audience,
resulting in lesser visits, fewer clicks and
trickling revenues.
They fail to understand that it’s tougher be the
“Wal-Mart” of the virtual world, than expected
as they have to manage a huge set of consumer
issues.
4. What is different in your portal from the
hundred others?
Why should a consumer visit your portal to
buy a product or avail a service?
What make you unique?
What perceived brand value does the
consumer get as an add on?
Companies often fail to come up with
satisfactory answers for these questions.
5. The offers given are sometimes too complex for
a consumer to comprehend.
Some offers are not explicitly communicated
and the consumer get to know of the “Catch”
only after spending prolonged time on the site.
Offers often some with an inherent clause.
All these lead to loss of time for the consumer
and the experience of online shopping takes a
beating.
6. Pricing and packaging are directly co
relational. The better the packaging the higher
the value perceived and more the pricing.
Some companies ask consumers to buy too
much to avail an offer.
Others under cut so much that the consumer
starts suspecting the product.
Some companies just cant identify the “Sewwt
spot”.
7. Most of the online companies are thrown with
so much of data that they fail to identify the
most important ones.
Some insights about consumer behavior are
ignored so much so that they fail to get repeat
visits.
Research shows that if a person purchases
thrice from the same site, he is likely to hang on
to it for a long time.
8. Most online portals invest huge sums in
durables with smaller shelf life that they
believe they can sell.
They refuse to change according to market
dynamics and seem immune to price changes
outside.
This lends them incompetent and they keep
selling obsolete products.
9. For a start up it is more desirous to sell a
trusted product than to put all your money on
an angel you have never experienced.
Banking heavily on un trusted products, rather
than making them a small part of the portfolio
sometimes ruins the whole idea of selling
especially when the product fails to deliver
expectations.
10. Companies just fail to understand what the
consumer wants and tend to push products that it
feels has better margins.
In case of bundled offers, in more than 90% of the
cases, the second product of the bundle is sometime
the consumer would never buy otherwise.
Consumers are smart enough to interpret product
representations. He knows that whatever is coming
free is just a bonus. Bonus consumers do not stick
to you and switch loyalties the moment they find a
smarter buy.
11. This is a common phenomenon associated with
online companies. They are not willing to put
their money on the road less taken.
I am not of the opinion that they be
adventurous, but of the opinion that every
business should take a risk to see more returns.
A new business should ideally spend 15-20% of
its revenues in testing new products with
consumers, and most importantly taking their
feedback.
