One of the things I like about French is that it is full of euphemisms. Also given that anyone speaking French sounds either polite or romantic (albeit in a very facial paralysis kind of way, where the lips are always too close to each other), it’s a great language to be impolite in.
Case in point: Courier Indésirable. You know what we call that in English? SPAM.
The reason I bring this up is because, in the past week, a few different customers have emailed me saying
“What is wrong with Online Bookstore A, B, C? No matter when or where I mention Flipkart, this Online Bookstore A, B, C pops up and adds its 2 cents about how I should try their bookstore. What makes them think that by annoying me— your customer — they’ll get converts? Whoever their marketing/sales person is, he/she deserves to be fired.”
The little snippet on top has been paraphrased and condensed by me, just to TONE IT DOWN. You may think I’m making this up, because I need to spew bile and didn’t find a better place. NOT. I spew enough bile everyday on my Flipkart co-workers; ask them. I am always annoyed about something or the other; once everyday, twice on Sunday.
And if I’m annoyed, well, you should go have a chat with these people who mailed me. People on Twitter and Bloggers.
Again, I am not an authority on an issue such as this, so feel free to correct me or contradict me. All I ask is for you to approach this with an open mind.
There are primarily 2 ways to acquire customers:
1> Find those who have never before tried a product/service such as yours, and get them on your side.
2> Target those who try a product/service similar to yours and get them to switch to your side, because you have the “better mousetrap”.
The way you are going about your No. 2 (pun unintended) is what is annoying people.
If someone was using Vodabone and you advertised that your Fairtel was cheaper, hence getting Vodabone customers to switch to you, that is acceptable. However, when you find Vodabone customers and plaster their house walls with Fairtel marketese (blogs), or their scooter and car with Fairtel bumper stickers (Twitter), then it annoys them.
Maybe it was a bad analogy, but you know what I’m getting at.
No one said marketing and customer acquisition was easy, and for the most part it’s an all’s-fair-no-holds-barred-gloves-off-fight-to-the-death contest. There are a lot of things both you and me do, and we both know we do it, and we both let it slide. It’s my left hook for your jab. We both understand the rules. We don’t cry foul, until of course, now.
Knowing where to draw the line — or spotting a line already drawn, so as not to overstep it — that should have been mentioned by Al Ries & Jack Trout.
If overstepping was bad news, allow me to break the worse bit to you: These people are complaining to US about YOU.
a> These same customers are telling us about you. They were under no obligation to do so, neither do we send probing emails out to people. They volunteered to give me that information.
b> And if it has annoyed them so much that they’ve taken the trouble to tell us, I will hazard a guess that they’ve already told all their friends.
c> You’ve succeeded in losing customers you didn’t even have.
British Airways did a similar thing with Virgin Atlantic and we all know how that story ended. I know, you are not BA and we’re not VA.
There is this term — will be familiar to those who read Clausewitz / Art of War, or are into gaming — “Fog-of-War”. It is used to describe uncertainty, dark areas, the unknown etc. If Indian e-commerce was a battlefield in a MMORPG, you would see a few little fireflies on a canvas covered in Fog-of-War.
Those little fireflies are us. You and me. We.
My advice to you, kindly rethink your strategy. I’m saying this not as a competitor, but as one of the people involved in making Indian e-Commerce a bigger better happier place.
Lest you forget, we are all on the same page.
PS: My apologies if I took too much of your time or sounded too preachy. Now if you will excuse me, I have bags to pack and a flight to catch.
