Curious Cat Survives

Product life cycles (PCL) trace the evolution of product from their inception, through their growth and maturity, and to their decline. However, most PCLs are not as predictable as others. Marketing experts predicted Twitter’s life cycle to reach its end as early as 10 years ago. However, twitter is still being used today and has in fact become one of the main sources of news for journalists.

Introduction

Twitter started its journey in 2006 when Jack Dorse, the creator of Twitter put out his first tweet, “just setting up my twitter”. It was originally launched as a microblogging service on July 15^th 2016. While the costs were high at this point, profits were rather low as is commonly seen in the development stage of the product life cycle.

Twitter’s reach started increasing around 2008 when it began to gain visibility. It passed the 1 billion mark in November 2008. A Nielsen Online report indicated that Twitter grew 1,382% year-over-year in 2009. However, being the first micro blogging site to become popular, analysts were skeptical about how long it would hold its place in the microblogging industry. However Twitter continued to gain popularity passing the 5 billion tweet mark in October. As Evan Williams, one of Twitter’s founders later pointed out, Twitter was a problem child in its early years, no one knew what the product was, and no one knew how to use the opportunities that were opening up for twitter.

Growth

Twitter soon became a Star Product as it established itself as the platform where news was discussed first. Twitter became more of an information network than a social network. NASA astronaut T.J Creamer sent out his first unassisted tweet from space on January 2010, the platform saw a record breaking 3,085 tweets per second during game 7 of 2010 NBA playoffs which was soon surpassed during the World Cup finale.

In 2010 Twitter added an advertising platform to its interface. Promoted tweets allowed advertisers to reach out to a wider group of users or spark engagement from existing followers. This brought in more revenue while the product lasted. At the same time it added a host of new features including tweet buttons for websites, a search option that allows one to search a user, and the “suggestions for you” option. Twitter saw a second exponential growth as it became the prime source of information during the Arab Spring in the middle-east and the death of Osama Bin Laden.

Maturity

The rate of Twitter’s growth slowed down in 2015. The product had entered the maturity stage of the product life cycle. In the world of marketing, what goes up must come down. While people predicted Twitter’s success to be short lived, and thus twitter became a Cash Cow product with high market share and low market growth. Twitter continued to be a prime source of information especially for journalists as the news now began to break on social media. However, the initial buzz around twitter was slowly dying off.

Decline

Standing in 2019, it is easy to see that Twitter has entered the last stage of the product life cycle. Twitter’s monthly user count fell for three quarters, leading to Twitter’s decision to stop revealing the number of users it has lost. Twitter has largely become a hub of keyboard warriors and bots trolling the users. Twitter claims its crackdown on these spam accounts is what triggered off the fall in the number of users. However, with its reach falling at this rate twitter could be headed towards its death pretty soon. Twitter is commonly classified as a Dog according to the BCG matrix, a product with low market share and low market growth as users move on to newer social media applications and whether or not the product will be able to revive itself remains to be seen.

Moneyball shows the power of statistics like no other movie. It showed how analyzing past patterns and relying on data instead of going by gut feeling literally changed the game for Billy Bean and his team the Oakland A’s. Billy managed to rebuild his team on a shoestring budget of a few thousand dollars and win twenty matches in a row, competing against baseball teams such as New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox which had budgets as high as 1.4million dollars each. He did this using sebermetrics instead of traditional scouting methods.

Moneyball shows the power of statistics like no other movie. It showed how analyzing past patterns and relying on data instead of going by gut feeling literally changed the game for Billy Bean and his team the Oakland A’s. Billy managed to rebuild his team on a shoestring budget of a few thousand dollars and win twenty matches in a row, competing against baseball teams such as New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox which had budgets as high as 1.4million dollars each. He did this using sabermetrics instead of traditional scouting methods.

The movie has been phenomenally successful and has given rise to a new term in the marketing world- Moneyball Marketing. Moneyball Marketing refers to taking on bigger competitors with a small budget by strategizing based on hard statistics. Here are a few lessons Moneyball can teach online marketers:

1.Identify the Right Metrics

Before Pete, the fresh-out-of-Yale economics graduate came into the picture, the Oakland A’s were looking at data, just the wrong kind. They were looking at how well the players could swing while what counts most in a baseball game is how often you get on base.

Similarly, in online marketing, it is important to not get distracted by empty numbers. The number of followers does not matter, what matters is the Revenue Generated, the Search Volume of a kind of content and the user engagement level. While followers can easily be bought, these numbers reveal how interested someone is in a product.

2. Adapt or Die

While most people believe in tried and tested methods and prefer to follow the crowd, Billy leaped faith into what seemed to be a better strategy and it worked. Be it baseball or marketing, one needs to have an open mind. Adapt or Die. Holding on to gut feelings when hard stats prove you wrong is probably not going to work out well for you. Technology is here to make things simpler, use it.

3.Believe in Yourself

New strategies take time to work and often face a lot of criticism. Very few people initially had faith in Billy’s methods, but he stuck to his theory and went all the way to prove it, even trading off one of his most valued players to do so. His method proved to be so efficient that Red Sox tried to hire him.

Online marketers, too need to stick to their strategies and not get dissuaded by criticism. It is only when someone believes his idea can succeed that he does his best to make it succeed. In the marketing industry, one must believe in his strategy to pitch it well and continue believing in it to see it succeed.

4.Value for Money

One way Billy and Pete’s strategy stood out was that they went for undervalued players on purpose, working their strengths to their advantage. They focused on how much each player could raise the team’s average by getting on base and whether this was worth more than what these players were usually offered. Thus instead of focusing on selecting the most skilled players, they built the most cost-efficient team. This team actually won more matches than the A’s had ever won.

Similarly in online marketing, one should focus on how cost-effective a campaign is in terms of selling the product rather than on whether it will bring hundreds of followers to one’s page.

Moneyball is not just a movie about how sebermetrics overtook traditional scouting methods in baseball but rather a movie about how efficient strategic decisions helped a team win 20 times a row without using up half as much funds as its competitors. If there’s one lesson we should learn from Moneyball, it is how to be efficient.

You wake up in the morning and make your morning coffee. In order to get to your workspace you need transportation. Uber saves you hours of waiting for a taxi and makes sure you reach work on time. You check your mail on your way, you need to be prompt in replying to any mails you receive, a minute’s delay could cost you that important business opportunity. The new intern has sent you an article on Le Casse-Croûte, and of course she spelt “Croûte” wrong. Just google it you WhatsApp her.

What makes these brands the top brands today is simply the fact that they are indispensable. While going offline seems like a great idea, it has become impractical to the point of being absurd. You can’t function without Google, WhatsApp, Gmail or YouTube, and even if you can, society will not let you.

These products are ones which have become part of how we function in both professional and personal spaces and not using them would be considered a short coming.

However, there is another category of brands that makes it to the list of the world’s most loved brands. These are products we aren’t forced to use but are simply too addictive to stop using. Instagram, Netflix and YouTube are so addictive, it is hard to keep track of the time we spend on these apps. One major reason for this is that these brands use AI to track the kind of content each user likes and sends them suggestions which keep them gripped. While listening to songs on the radio or watching music videos on television, people often simply turned it off when a song they did not like came on. But with YouTube, songs suggested to you are based on your taste in music and you always have a few more songs to choose from just in case you don’t like the one next on the auto playlist.

Brands such as Amazon and Uber make up the third category of the world’s most loved brands. These apps have not yet become completely indispensable, neither are they addictive. These brands simply make life a lot easier. They digitalize time consuming processes and help customers get their work done more efficiently. Amzon offers you a wide variety of products right at your fingertips and allows you to compare prices and specifications all from the comfort of your room. Uber saves valuable time by connecting you to your cab.

What makes a brand a true success is its design. Apple, the first brand to discover this formula, has a special place on the list of the world’s most loved brands. In fact, the one thing in common between all these brands, is that they are all simple to use. Children who do not know how to read know how to use YouTube, Google is available in over 100 languages and Amazon makes the shopping experience simpler for billions of people around the world.

Thus what makes people love a brand is how well the brand is designed to suit its consumers. Ideas can change the world, but ultimately ideas are a dime a dollar and what really matters is how accessible you make your product.

The ideal free market economy is one which has the condition of perfect competition. In such an economy, anyone can join the market since there are no barriers to entry. While such a market structure is simply a utopian dream, economists believe that more competition pressurizes companies to produce better products which are cheaper and packaged in a more appealing way. In this article I will attempt to compare 3 products from 3 different product categories to see how they differentiate themselves from their competitors.

•  Fashion:

Fashion is all about expressing yourselves. The fashion industry is about more than just clothing, it is about creating clothes that your customers can identify with. The brands we really remember have a personality of their own and thus who you’re producing for and how you reach out to them become very important. The table below show 3 well-known brands in the fashion and how they have made a mark for themselves.

2 Brand	Segmentation	Targeting	Positioning	USP	Why the brand name works/doesn’t work	Success
H&M	18-34 year olds with medium to high purchasing power.	Those who have a bohemian attitudechique yet carefree and fashion forward people.	Fast FashionOffers high class brands  Trendy fashion at affordable prices.	Fashion and Quality at the Best Price	H&M stands for Hennes & Mauritz AB, a Swedish retail-clothing company established in 1947, England.“Hennes” means “Hers” in Swedish however, the company diversified their product to cater to both men and women globally. Had a strong brand image and did not want to change its name.	2nd largest clothing retailer in the world
Global Desi	Positioned between the premium high priced brands and brands catering to the mass market.	The urban youth who wear both western and ethnic wear and are bold enough to experiment with their style.	Fusion fashion	Global Styles Indian Threads. Creates your unique style Mantra.	The name reflects the attitude of the target audience as well as the style of clothing they are famous for.	Owned by House of Anita Dongre, a Rs 680 Crore company.
Allen Solley	Young fashion conscious working men and women.	Upper class and upper middle class	Lighten up the workspace	Stylish office wear	The name sounds sophisticated and elegant like the products they offer.	Part of Aditya Birla Fashion and Lifestyle, a company that has a footprint of 7.5 million sq ft of retail space across 750+ cities and towns

• Cigarettes

Cigarettes are one of the products which have the most price inelastic demand curves. This means, even though the government may keep increasing taxes to discourage smoking, the demand for cigarettes will keep increasing as more people get addicted. As compared to few years back we have an astonishing number of cigarette brands competing in the industry today.

Brand	Segmentation	Targeting	Positioning	USP	Why the brand name works/doesn’t work	Success
Marlborough	20-25 year olds	Originally marketed as a ladies cigarette with feminine qualities Later rebranded as a masculine product	Classic product	First Filtered Cigarettes	The name was taken from the name of a street in London Later it came to represent a marketable version of the American dream, symbolized by the Marlborough Man	Number one position in the world
Wave	Young people	Non Smokers who are not yet addicted to nicotine.	Flavored cigarettes	Flavored Cigarettes	The name reminds one of a wave of freshness which is usually associated with its menthol flavor.	Introducing nonsmokers to Nicotine thereby increasing the market size.
Djarum Black	Young people	People who want natural grown tobacco.	Sophistication, modernity, boldness: Elegant looking black cigarettes	First Kretec (clove) cigarette to feature a black paper wrapper	The brand has become known as Black. Since its color is the first thing someone remembers about the cigarette the name works.	Indonesian brand which has spread to Six other countries including India

• Instant Noodles

Instant Noodles sounds like a niche product doesn’t it? Well, you’ll be surprised by the number of competitors you’d find in this very specific segment of the market. The table below shows how products which are in fact very similar.

Brand	Segmentation	Targeting	Positioning	USP	Why the brand name works/doesn’t work	Success
Maggie	Kids, Teenagers, Working Professionals, Mothers- no specific market segment	Those who want quick mealsLow prices make it accessible to people of all classes	Fast to cook good to eat.2 minute noodlesTaste bhi health bhi	Maggie 2 minutes	Maggie has become an integral part of the Indian food culture due to movements such as Mai aur meri Maggie.The name is easy to pronounce for Indians and rolls off the tongue easily.	Leading instant noodle brand in India
Wai Wai	No specific market segment	Those who want quick meals and variety in life.	First Brown Instant Noodles Can be prepared in three ways Add chili powder and eat it like a snackPrepare it like cup noodlesAdd vegetables and cook it like any other instant noodles	123 Noodles	The product originated in Nepal and is more popular in the North East. The name reflects the authentic Nepali taste of the product.	Number one brand in Nepal.
Top Ramen	No specific market segment	Health seeking families	Family favorite ready to cook noodles	Vitamin plus energy healthy noodles	Ramen Noodles sound foreign to Indians and hasn’t been able to make a place for itself in the Indian heart.	Top Ramen hasn’t been able to catch up with Maggie since it joined the Indian market almost 10 years later and lost out on the first mover benefit.

Kubbra Sait’s talk at the Women Writers Fest Bangalore 2019

Kubbra Sait, better known by her screen name Kukoo, spoke at the Women writers Fest Bangalore, on Saturday 31st August. Kubbra spoke of her rise to fame and struggles as a woman in the media industry, with unabashed candour. She shared her most personal experiences to an audience that she knew would do anything to support another fellow woman. Kubbra spoke of her childhood, bullying in school, and her relationship with her brother Danish Sait.

Kubbra also narrated stories of her move to Dubai and the culture shock she felt there. She held the audience with her familiar tales about mother-daughter relationships and brought the house down with her jokes about what it takes to be a writer. But what shone through her speech was her feminist consciousness, the voice of a terrifyingly strong woman. On playing the role of Kukoo, a transgendered woman, Kubbra said, “I wasn’t trying to play somebody I am not. By anatomy Kukoo is a man (but) the soul believes she is a terrific woman”.

When asked about the change in , Kubbra reminded us Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil, “incredible women of the day who changed the narrative for the wife, the sister and the other woman”. She praised Vidya Balan for her portrayal of Silk in Dirty Picture, she said: “to pick up a flawed character and play it unapologetically is outstanding”. However, Kubbra maintained that playing complex female characters is just part of her job, “Don’t call me courageous, don’t call me bold. Just let me do my job”.

Most of us know the story of how a nineteen year old developed Facebook in his dorm room. But what most of us do not remember, is that Facebook was not a one of a kind product. This is not a story of a brilliant innovator with an idea that changed the world, but rather a story of a marketing genius who had what it takes to push the idea.

When someone speaks of social media, one of the first names that come to our mind is Facebook. No one remembers MySpace and Friendster and most people remember Orkut as a fad that just did not last. Facebook was the first social media to take the world by storm and the first social media site to make a space for itself.

When Mark Zukerberg came up with the idea of Facebook, he had one thing in mind, he wanted to make it cool. But it turned out to be more than cool. It was addictive, influential and ultimately a major force that impacted how millennials perceive themselves and those around them.

The Facebook Revolution

Facebook could turn anything viral, and thus is the most effective way of communicating an important message to the masses. It has made a larger part of the population aware of the world around them and encouraged some to find out more about an issue they might see on Facebook. It helps draw attention to charity events and encourages more people to join social causes. The best example of the effect of Facebook used well is the success of the “Fridays for the Future” movement. What began as a solo protest by 15-year-old school girl, Greta Thunberg in Sweden has now turned into a worldwide movement for immediate action against climate change. While the press attention she has received has helped her redraw our attention to the climate crisis, the “Fridays for future” pages on social media keep the protesters around the world connected. This is not the first social media movement to have taken over the world by storm. The success of the #metoo campaign too depended on the ability to reach thousands over such platforms.

Facebook was also the first platform to make idols and celebrities more accessible to the masses by letting them share stories from their day to day life and give their fans a peep into “who they really are”. Needless to say, it has opened up new avenues in the P.R. industry as ones social media image is an important part of the message one puts out to the world.

However, the psychological and social impacts Facebook has had, are not just restricted to online interactions. Social scientists such as Colette Lopane[1] are worried that relying on text-based communication from an early age might hamper the social network user’s interpersonal communication skills. According to Body language expert R.B. Kelly one communicates through multiple channels such as outer appearance, voice tone, choice of words and body language and a heavy reliance on social networking sites does not let the networker develop these channels of communication.. Moreover, Linguists are concerned about the future of language as internet slangs such as “brb” and “lol” enters common parlance. It is feared that sentences which get shorter every day to allow more effective communication will leave very little room for self-expression.

Facebook is all about one’s online image, on an intrapersonal level, the pressure to constantly maintain a social image can damage how one views himself or herself. People begin to view themselves from the point of view of an external observer, constantly judging whether what they are doing will look impressive online.

Facebook became more of an addiction than a service, with users hooked on to it 24/7, constantly checking their phone for likes and comments. For the first time ever, a website gained so much control over its user’s life.

Dwindling Influence:

Facebook today no longer remains the single most influential social media site. It faces competition from newer sites which have more specific target audiences and provide a more specific service. Thus the impact of an app like Instagram, Twitter, Youtube or even TikTok is considerably greater than that of Facebook today. Furthermore, with new and exciting social media apps being released every day, Facebook seems to have finally lost its “coolness factor”.

However, Facebook has held its position as the most used social media site for the longest time possible. It is worth looking at Facebook’s marketing strategy to see what helped them become the first social media site to stick and the one to last the longest.

5 Marketing lessons Facebook Can Teach Us:

1. Keep it clean

The last thing you want is your product being known for its glitches. While Facebook was slowly becoming introduced in Harvard, social media apps such as Friendster and MySpace had already reached their peak of popularity in the real world. However, Friendster’s popularity is what ultimately killed it. Friendster simply did not have the back end infrastructure to support the huge number of users it had gained. This resulted in slow service and glitches and Friendster gained the reputation of a glitchie site.

Facebook on the other hand, carefully controlled its expansion till it had the back end infrastructure to support a large audience. It started out in Harvard and slowly expanded to other ivy league schools. Rolling out the product one school at a time allowed Facebook the time to develop its infrastructure and prepare for its worldwide launch in 2006. As such Facebook gained the reputation of a social media site that could be trusted.

2. Roll With It:

Unlike other companies who spend hours on market surveys and focused group discussions before launching a new feature, Facebook simply rolls them out. Once these features have been rolled on, Facebook then analyzes the response to them and adjusts them accordingly. Facebook received intense criticism for their “Beacon” and ultimately terminated it after a court case. However, with features such as news feed, Facebook constantly adjusts it based on feedback from its users.

While skipping focused group discussions might seem like a strategic mistake to marketing professionals, the willingness to adapt its features based on feedback makes Facebook look more responsive to its audience.  

3. Keep your Friends Close, your Enemies Closer

Facebook has enjoyed a monopoly in the social media industry for the longest time. It has become the giant it is today by keeping a close watch on competitors and often buying them out when they turn into a threat. The first land mark acquisition made by Facebook, was Instagram. Instagram, the photo and video sharing app that had the potential to be one of Facebook’s biggest competitor is estimated to generate more revenue for the parent company than Facebook itself. Instagram also helped Facebook shift from a website based service to an app based one. The second land mark acquisition, of course, was WhatsApp.

Facebook has acquired a total of 76 other companies to date, and WhatsApp and Instagram are just two of them.  In fact it’s not just competitors Facebook has its eyes on. In 2014, Facebook acquired Oculus VR, one of the leaders in the Virtual Reality tech space, thus diversifying its products.

4. Keep It Simple

Apple has always been obsessed with simplicity and its formula has worked. Facebook similarly has been obsessed with functionality. Unlike MySpace which allowed users to customize their sites and had millions of options, Facebook chose to keep its design simple, clean and functional. The initial version of Facebook did one thing well, allow people to show who they were and connect to people. Facebook’s design has always been very user friendly. Unlike MySpace that required users to learn coding in order to be cool, Facebook could be used by anyone. While the site has been developed over the years, Facebook still continues to be easy to use.

5.Keeping your PR game on point:

Facebook has faced backlash from its users time and again. However, it has handled this user revolt remarkably well. When criticized for its terms of service Zuckerberg launched an election to decide between a new Statement of Rights and Responsibilities and Facebook Principles and its older Terms of Use, stating

“History tells us that systems are most fairly governed when there is an open and transparent dialogue between the people who make decisions and those who are affected by them. We believe history will one day show that this principle holds true for companies as well, and we’re looking to moving in this direction with you.”

This impressed internet activists around the world and Zuckerberg was praised for asking Facebook users to view themselves as citizens.

Whether Facebook survive the onslaught of new and upcoming social media sites remains to be seen. However, in order to survive in a market where its competitors such as twitter and LinkedIn provide highly specific services, Facebook must find its niche, it must focus on a service no other platform provides.

One unique feature of Facebook that may be worth looking into is Facebook groups. Facebook groups are way more popular than Google circles and may just be the feature to save Facebook if marketed properly.

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[1] https://upjourney.com/how-social-media-affects-communication-skills

  Independence Day is about patriotism, it is a day to celebrate the contribution of all those who have helped India attain its status of a sovereign, secular country. It is as much about the contributions of our farmers as that of those who have helped India gain independence and those who help protect India’s sovereignty.

I was reminded this by the students of Banni Kuppe Government School on 15th August this year. As I stepped out of the car, I was greeted by cries of “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan” and “Vandemataram”. The children of Banni Kuppe marched forth with enthusiasm and pride, determined to wake the village with their patriotic cries.

I was on a visit to Banni Kuppe Government School, as a part of the Abhyudaya’s media team, documenting their visit to the village school. Abhyudaya attended their Independence Day program and felicitated the teachers at Banni Kuppe. They also gifted the students stationery and books. The female students were given sanitary napkins as well.

We followed the group of students to the field where their program was to be held. The march-past and Flag Hoisting was followed by speeches by the students and the professors. The speeches were in Kannada, a language I am only just beginning to learn. However, the passion and patriotism in their voices transcended language and almost moved me to tears.

I was pleased to see that these children spoke of Netaji Shubhas Chandra Bose as proudly as they spoke about Gandhi and the professors spoke about the current challenges facing India when they spoke about the idea the nation was formed upon.

All schools around India put up Independence Day performances, but very few can accomplish what Banni Kuppe did with next to no equipment. The best way to serve your country is through doing your duty sincerely and the amount of hard work and dedication the people of Abhyudaya, the school and the children put into the program was evident from the performances.

The children performed a street play on how mobile phones have torn society apart instead of bringing people together. The students also performed a number of songs and dances.

The villagers were warm and welcoming. They insisted the members of Abhyudaya had lunch with them. The teachers served us food themselves and a member from the village Panchayat came and spoke to all of us.

The visit to Banni Kuppe Government School summed up the values that India stands for, hospitability, warmth, dedication and love for one’s motherland.

The distinction between what is traditional and what is modern is a rather problematic one. Traditional media at one point referred to oral, textual and visual forms of communication which did not require the use of electricity. Street plays, announcements made on streets, songs, paintings, posters, pamphlets, books, newspapers, and magazines were what came to our minds when we spoke about traditional media.

From where we are standing today, however, any form of media that was used before the internet era can be termed as traditional media. Thus television, films, radio too are considered traditional forms of media, while any form of communication that is digital makes up new media.

Most of us view media as channels of communication, the paths through which ideas reach their audience. However, Media is more than just that. It is not just a tool that conveys information but a force that helps shape it. The medium one uses affects the style, the length and the tone of one’s content.

Whether we choose a traditional form of media or a digital one not only affects the reach of our content but also it’s quality and style. Whether we realize it or not, the way we perceive that same content online and offline is vastly different.

Creating Good Digital Content

A good content creator is aware of the differences between creating content to be read, watched or seen online and creating content for traditional forms of media and uses this knowledge to his or her advantage.

1.     Making the Switch

The first thing a content creator realizes when he or she shifts to a digital platform is how low the start-up cost is. Practically anyone with a camera or even a phone camera can post pictures and videos online. Whether your content gets noticed online, does not solely depend on how much you invest on it, instead, it depends on how skilled you are, how creative you are and how good you are at capturing people’s attention.

Pop-stars, such as Troye Sivan and 5 Seconds of Summer, who are famous around the world today, started out of their bedrooms with just a camera, a YouTube channel and a song to cover.

2.     Understanding the Medium

Once you get started, however, you begin to realize the lower start-up cost is a double-edged sword. Anyone can upload their content online, and almost everyone does. The internet is like a sea of information. Your work is very likely to get lost in it before you reach your audience.

A digital content producer must, therefore, work extra hard to stand out. A content writer, for example, must be a pro at Search Engine Optimization and an aspiring social media influencer must work hard to build a connection with his or her followers.

3.      Understanding the Audience

Unlike print media that has specific reader demographics and films that are directed at a specific group of people, digital media can and will be viewed by everyone. Since it is accessible to all, it becomes all the more important to make sure it offends none.

A content creator must steer clear of statements that could be misinterpreted by the audience unless of course, the aim is to create controversy. Most digital content creators prefer to create content that can be easily understood by all. Writers are advised to write at a low reading level, by most marketing agencies, to appeal to all.

4.      Holding their Attention

The sheer amount of content available on digital media makes it more likely that your audience will get distracted by something more interesting halfway through your post. Every line of your article must be interesting and every second of your film must be worth watching if you are to post it online.

The use of colors, different fonts and graphics help make an article eye-catching. A good quality video shot with good lighting will get more views. In short, presentation matters. Good content creators realize how short the viewers’ attention span is online and makes an impact before their attention begin to waver.

The Viewer Experience

While most content creators understand the difference between using digital and traditional media, viewers rarely realize how the medium affects their experience.

1.      The Content Seeks you Out

A consumer has to actively subscribe to a newspaper, buy a book or a film ticket. As such, there is a certain amount of decision making involved when it comes to consuming content on traditional media. You get to choose the content creator and the content you get depends on the creator you choose. For example, once you choose the newspaper you want to subscribe to, you are only exposed to their articles.

On digital media, the content is often thrown at the viewer. Your previous searches, your likes, and your interaction with content determine the kind of content that you will see when you open a site like YouTube or Instagram. When you’re online you’re more likely to discover new content that matches your taste through suggestions.  

2.      More Specific Content

While there are many ways to find out about books, films, and television shows, the most common way to find out about digital content is through online searches. As such, the content we access online is more specific to our searches.

The relevance of an article to one’s query matters more than how well it was written or who wrote it on digital media. One may view articles on climate change by people around the world without having to leaf through articles on Indian politics or vice versa online, depending on what they are interested in.

3.      A Multiplicity of Voices

Anyone can post their content online, and this means more representation. A viewer can find different sides of the same story presented through films, articles, photographs, and songs online. As such digital media allows its viewers to dig deep into an issue and have a more balanced view.

One example of this is the pro-life vs pro-choice debate where both sides share their personal stories and views. On digital media, it is up to the audience to choose which side they support.

4.      A Two Way Channel

Communication is a two-way process, and digital media makes giving feedback easier than ever. The interaction between the content producers and consumers in Print and Television was restricted to letters to the editor and T.R.P.

Digital media revolutionized the process of giving feedback by allowing comments. A producer of digital content constantly interacts with his or her consumers, fostering a close relationship with them.

Using digital media has become a habit for us without us noticing it and it has changed the way content creators and viewers perceive content. It has changed our idea of good content and bad content made us more impatient and more opinion-oriented. Finally, it has changed how content creators and consumers view each other.

Digital media is accessible to anyone who has an internet connection, and with that number continuously growing, it has overtaken traditional media in terms of its reach. The future is digital. However, this does not imply that traditional forms of media will cease to exist.

In spite of all our technological advancements, the Theater remains one of the most powerful forms of media and is being used extensively in development communication. Each form of communication has its strength and while new forms of communication have been discovered over the years, very few forms of media have been completely forgotten.

A customer is defined as a person who buys a good or service. However, there is a group of people who affect companies almost as much as those who buy their products. These are the non buying customers.

A customer is defined as a person who buys a good or service. However, there is a group of people who affect companies almost as much as those who buy their products. These are the non buying customers.

This group of people do not plan on purchasing a product or a service them selves, and they have not used it in the past. They sway the decisions of those who want to purchase a product with absolutely no first hand experience of using the product and all of us are guilty of having done this ourselves.

The complainer: The complainer lists negative qualities of a product, convincingly enough to stop a prospective buyer from making a purchase, without ever having used the product. A complainer might ask you not to buy a product because “a friend had a bad experience with the product” or because “it simply isn’t worth it”. I too am guilty of this behavior. I have never used an i-phone in my life but always complain about how easily the touchscreen breaks and how a low range android phone works just fine.

The overly agreeable: The overly agreeable non buying customer might actually influence a perspective customer to buy a good by convincing him or her that its a good buy. In reality, however, they usually have very little idea about the product. I tend to act overly agreeable when people I am not close to ask me my opinion on buying a product. Be it an over sized iguana plushie or a remote controlled unicycle, I’ll call it a good buy.

The Expert: Unlike the complainers, these non buying customers actually gives you what seems like credible data about products they do not use. While most of the time the “Experts” just leave you more confused, they may also convince you that a mediocre product is excellent or that an excellent product should be avoided at all costs. If you ask me to watch a new film with you, this is exactly what you may expect from me. I’ll speak about how films are used as propaganda and how a certain genre is misogynistic for hours before you decide to not buy the ticket.

The Pessimist: The pessimist’s bleak outlook on life will make you want to give up on the product you’ve been excited about buying for months. I’m a pessimist when it comes to fitness products. While I encourage my friends to work out, I’ll be the first one to point out that buying hardcore gym equipment is more likely to demotivate them to work out and cause injuries when used without proper supervision.

The Staller: The staller tells you about better alternatives, going as far as saying he or she will personally get you a better product. The staller effectively delays your purchase for so long they lose interest in it. I am very particular about how my home is decorated and go into Staller mode as soon as I hear my mother say she wants to buy me a new piece of furniture or item of decoration. I tell them I’ll personally buy one that suites our house better and put off the purchase for as long as possible to ensure our house does not become overcrowded. The strategy always works!

Though non buying customers may be annoying to deal with, we must remember their behavior is but normal and find ways to work around the problem.

Your personality traits are more under scrutiny than you realize online. If you have shopped online, chances are, the brands you shopped from have already sketched out your online customer persona. Tools such as Xtensio, User Forge, Smaply and Up Close and Persona help companies identify their customers and track their behavior online, in order to help businesses come up with marketing strategies.

Online shopping has made products available to all. Thus in the era of online marketing, everyone is your target audience. As such, brands need to turn to micro marketing in order to identify smaller groups within their vast audience and cater to their needs. One way to do this is looking at shoppers in terms of their online shopping behavior.

Online shoppers can be classified into 6 personality types: The Satisfier, The Wish Lister, The Brand Oriented Visitor, The Rational Visitor, The Maximizer and The Hesitator.

Most online shoppers however, do not fit strictly into one of these categories. Most people have displayed more than one of these behaviors at some point of their lives. I, for example have been a Hesitator, a Maximizer, a Satisfier and a Rational Visitor in different situations.

When I need to buy a product, I go directly to a site like Amazon or Flip cart to check out my options. I look at the products, the brands available, compare the prices, check out a few other sites just to be sure, add the product to my cart and then finally decide to not buy the product. This is classic Hesitator Behavior.

However, my quest for the product does not simply stop here. This is simply the first stage. Once I have looked at all my options and found the best priced one, I try to find more data about the product I want. I read up on the features and specifications for electronic goods, turning to as many sources as I can. I go visit stores to compare the deals and sometimes try out the product. My behavior pattern is more in line with a Rational Visitor and a Maximizer at this stage.

Once I am done with my personal market survey, I come home and make a list. The list includes the features I want the product I buy to have and the price range I want it to be in. In the final stage of my rather long drawn shopping process, I go back to the site I first visited, better informed and with a list of exactly what I am looking for. I then make the purchase based on how well the product fits into my list of requirements like a typical Satisfier. Nothing can be more satisfying than finding a product that checks all the boxes.

Of course, I have also been a Brand Oriented Visitor in the past. I simply used the brands my family used without comparing its products with others and I find myself behaving like a Wish Lister in times of extreme stress.

The 6 categories are not watertight and customer personas change over time. Thus, a company needs to constantly monitor all online shopping activity in order to keep up with this change and use the online shopping behavior model effectively.