“Kolaveri” Success – Viral Marketing of the Century - 'Why this Online Promotion Di’

The cross- cultural Tamil-English music- "Why this Kolaveri Di.  " has created a viral phenomenon, unprecedented in the history of online promotion in India or even in the global internet viral promotions.  The quantum of ‘likes’ both in Youtube and Facebook created was awesome.  The video clip placed by Sony Music had attracted over 22 million hits and 85,792 comments on Youtube in just over two weeks.  The comments in the main video reached 108,972 and attracted 221,044 likes with a viewership of 39 million in two months.  The music which was written and sung by Dhanush, the Tamil film actor, became the most-searched song on Google, and most-shared on Facebook within ten hours of posting.  It was identified as the number one Indian trend on Twitter on November 21, with many tweeting random bits of the song.  

The term Kolaveri, meaning ‘murderous rage’, is now being picked up by marketers and brands alike and people in other parts of the work as a form of expression.  The track is also the first regional language (Tamil) song ever to see a high rotation on Mainstream Music Channels - play listed on 43 Radio Stations Pan-India.  The blend of two languages along with the funky music is what did wonders for the number.  According to a study done by IIM Kozhikode, many non-Tamil speaking people liked the son due to the peppy feel, funky music and the Tamlish lyrics.  

The song has got many versions released, “Female Version”, “Give me Milk Version by Naveen Nigam”, and “One Random Remix” after its sensational hit on the internet.  There are almost 1,000 search results appearing for the search query Kolaveri Di on YouTube.  The one by Nevaan Nigam, 3 years child son of Sonu Nigam attracted  5 million views  in 45 days (placed on Dec 4, 2011).  Kolaveri came in different languages and the one in Punjabi version - Pinki Mogey Wali (Jan 23, 2012) attracted 14,920 views in a week time which points out the success of the Kolaveri.  There are many spoof videos floating around the YouTube based on Kolaveri Di, which indicates the height of popularity of the song.  

There are reports which mention that the Tamil movie fans (mostly male) and non-resident Indians drove most of the traffic in the US and the Gulf, and students studying abroad made up the majority of mentions in Europe.  From 16 November on, according to Social Hues, the rate of Twitter mentions of Kolaveri increased by nearly 200% every day, starting at 179 and peaking a week later at 14,907 tweets on 24 November—the day after it became the first Tamil film song to be played on MTV and Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan  had tweeted about his admiration for the tune.  Most traffic was driven by Facebook, which accounted for nearly 80% of social media mentions of the song, followed by Twitter and YouTube, according to Social Hues. 

Tamil population in India is around 72 million and India is reported to have 8.5% internet penetration.  Assuming the internet penetration rate among Tamil speaking people is same as 8.5%, an estimated 6 million Tamilians will have internet access out of the total 72 million.  However, the song had hit 22 million in the first two weeks point out the fact that it was not the mere Tamil fans which pushed the video clip.  As of now the viewership reached 39 million which clearly highlight the fact that the video clip became viral beyond language or region. 

The Google Keyword Interest analyses a portion of Google web searches to compute how many searches have been done for the terms one entered, relative to the total number of searches done on Google over time.  This analysis indicates the likelihood of a random user to search for a particular search term from a certain location at a certain time.  The following data reveals that the higher Keyword Interest for the term ‘Kolaveri’ was from Maharashtra followed by Orissa and other Northern States of India rather than the Tamil speaking places.  At the same time, Tamil Nadu reported 22.  0 in Google Keyword Interest analysis data.  

What is the secret of the success of the music Kolaveri.  Wait for our next blog on the Viral Marketing analysis of Kolaveri which is quite interesting to all digital marketers. 

FDI in Retail Sector - Do we need FDI in Multi Brand Retail in India?

It’s been a long wait for global retail giants like Wal-Mart, Tesco, Carrefour and others to set up shop in India.  As the winter session started on 22nd November, the ruling party of India decided to lift the ban on big-box retailers’ investment in multi brand FDI.  Soon the topic raised the political storm in the Parliament with several other issues like including price rise, separate Telangana and safety of Mullaperiyar dam and more.

Market Views

The BJP announced that it would not allow foreign MNCs to set shop in states ruled by it.  At the same time, BJP admitted it had first proposed the full opening up of the retail trade sector nearly a decade ago in May 2002.  In a note for a group of ministers on FDI chaired by the then finance minister Yashwant Sinha, the ministry of commerce and industry under DMK’s Murasoli Maran recommended permitting 100 per cent FDI in retail trade, subject to a minimum capitalisation of $10 million in 2002.  BSP chief and UP Chief Minister Mayawati, AIADMK supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, BJD chief and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Trinamool chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee are also opposed to the FDI move.

CII supported FDI in multi-brand retail and stated that it would go a long-way in boosting confidence would give a boost to the organised retail sector which positively impacts several stakeholders including farmers, MSMEs and consumers.  CII noted that Foreign investments in the sector would not affect the traditional trade (Kirana shops), and it would continue to grow.

What is FDI in Multi Brand Retail?

FDI in Multi Brand retail implies that a retail store with a foreign investment can sell multiple brands under one roof.  Now, the global retailers can come to India with a local partner and can set up stores.  Till now FDI was not allowed in multi brand retail.

Organized Retailing

The organized retailing can negotiate prices more aggressively with manufacturers and pass on the benefit to consumers.  They can lay down better and tighter quality standards and ensure that manufacturers adhere to them.  With the availability of finance, the supermarkets can invest in much better infrastructure facilities like parking lots, coffee shops, ATM machines, etc., and all this will make shopping a pleasant experience.  The supermarkets offer a wide range of products and services, so the consumer can enjoy single-point shopping.

The organized retail could help tackle inflation, particularly with wholesale prices. This is underscored by the fact that the weight of food in rural and agricultural household consumption baskets is approximately 65-70%.

Kiranas -  Mom and Pop Stores of India & Existing Retailers

Indian retailing is generally known as Kiranas, the Desi  Mom and Pop shops.  According to a report from National Sample Survey Organization, the retail sector is the second largest employer in India - employs 7.2% of the total workforce roughly around 3.4 crore jobs (34 million) just after agriculture which employs nearly 60% of total workforce.  There is not any specific data about the number of people employed under Kirana shops in major cities.  Obviously, the Kirana jobs are not an important vocation in major cities compared to small places where Kirana is plays as a nerve centre of village supply chain.  The Kirana retail segment survives based on the price difference between wholesale and retail market.  This price difference shared at different points in the supply chain.  Ultimately, this cost is passed on to the consumer who ends up in paying higher price for products. Thus, around 34 million jobs are generated on account of this price differences at various points of the supply chain.

The media report mentions that the entry of foreign players will most definitely disrupt the current balance of the economy, and will cost the above 3.4 crore jobs.  It is a fact that Kirana shops in places other than major cities will enjoy built-in protection from supermarkets because the latter can only exist in large cities.  The concern by domestic firms in the organized retail sector as an infant industry cannot be taken in its face value since many of the retailers have already stabilized in major cities.  

As of now, the current status of organized retailing in India is much better than its position compared to year 2002.  As per A.T. Kearney Global Retail Development Index (GRDI) India stands fourth position in terms of top 30 emerging countries for retail development which is an indication of  higher opportunities.

 

Advantages of the Policy of Allowing Multi Brand FDI in Retail Sector

The global retailer will play a big role in sourcing several consumer goods from India for wider international markets.  India certainly has an advantage of being able to produce several categories of consumer goods, viz. fruits and vegetables, beverages, textiles and garments, gems and jewellery, and leather goods.  By allowing FDI in retail trade, India will become more integrated with regional and global economies in terms of quality standards and consumer expectations.  In effect if the global retailer finds that onion can be sourced for 10 cents per KG or sauce can be bought for 10 cents per sachet then Indian onion/sauce will move globally.  Thus, a major beneficiary would be farmers and small manufacturers, who will gain substantially through some of the best-practices of international retail companies.  Thus, the traditional Indian farmers will get better remuneration and this will ultimately lead them to modernise agri-retail marketplace.  This will improve the life of 60% of Indians who depend on farming, and 100% Indian consumers at the cost of a small percentage of existing Kriana shops in major cities.

Indian Government recommends that retail firms source a percentage of manufactured products from the small and medium domestic enterprises.  The opening up of the retail sector to FDI could therefore provide a boost to small-and medium enterprises.  At the juncture government can go for bringing safety nets in the form of strengthening the marketing of the products sold by small retailers/Kiranas, the provision of soft loans, and setting up a central logistics system to act on behalf of the small retailers.

Also it is to be watched with the rising salary pattern of Indian employees if the global retailer can compete with the existing retail chains which have already established in major cities.  The rising operating cost in the organized retailing and the rising wages of employees will give smiley face to Kiranas to bring innovative methods and float in the competitive market with its inborn low cost operations and long working hours.  Kiranas get an opportunity to enhance their customer proposition through steps like adding new product lines and brands, better display, renovation of the store, introduction of self service, enhanced home delivery, more credit sales, and acceptance of credit cards.

Wal-Mart has the history of exiting from Germany (2006) and from South Korea (2006) both under difficulties.  Carrefour which set up shop in Russia even failed to sell its Russian assets after it decided to abandon its operations in the country in 2010.  If Indian retailers are equipped to meet the challenges the incoming global retailers, their entry will just remain as another competitor in the market and an opportunity for innovation for ingenious Kirana shops.  These types of competition will be negligible for existing retailers taking into account of India's market size and the purchasing power of its growing middle class.  Moreover, country has successfully opened up its telecom and banking sector for investment and consumers have experienced such benefits already.

Nofollow Links and Backlinks - Does “Nofollow” Hurt Your Site Backlinks?

Yes, you heard it right! It is helpful to increase organic traffic to your site if blog and/or website has high Page Rank (PR). It will increase your Alexa traffic rank also. Let me give you a brief description about the 'nofollow' link.

“Nofollow” is an HTML attribute value used to instruct search engines that a hyperlink should not influence the link target’s ranking in the search engine’s index. It is intended to reduce the effectiveness of certain types of Spam, thereby improving the quality of search engine results and preventing spamdexing from occurring in the first place.

Okay I will suggest take a look at this website www.americanfireinc.com. This site has about 25+ links on its homepage because of the categories links generation. Most of its links have been created through nofollow links, still the website has managed to create 25+ backlinks and a good Alexa traffic rank (670,208) as well. Let’s look at some of its screenshots given below.

How to Install Wordpress ?

WordPress is an open source blog tool and publishing platform powered by PHP and MySQL and was first released on May 27, 2003. It's often customized into a Content Management System (CMS). It has many features including a plug-in architecture and a template system. WordPress is identified as the most popular CMS on the internet. 

Here are our guidelines to  install WordPress through Cpanel.

Step 1: Please, login to your CPanel and locate the Fantastico De Luxe icon:

 Step 2: Find and click the WordPress link.

 Step 3: Then choose New Installation:

 Step 4: Decide upon the location of your blog - if you would like to have it as your site front page, leave the directory box blank, otherwise fill in the appropriate folder name. Next, fill in the administrator details and the e-mail account configuration then click the Install WordPress button.

Step 5: A new confirmation page will be loaded for the installation. Click the Finish Installation button if no errors are reported.

If else you will have to go back and rectify the specified issues.


Step 6: After completing the installation the final screen will load, providing you with the installation details. You will be able to e-mail the details to a specified address also in order to keep them for future reference.

Now, you  have successfully installed the Wordpress application.  If you find any issues in installation, please feel free to ask questions to romesh@dartconsulting.co.in.

What all Web Analytics Tools in the Market ?

WebAnalytics is the process of analyzing, collecting, measuring, and reporting of online data which helps in monitoring and optimizing websites. It can be used as a tool for business and market research. Web analytics provides information about the traffic for a particular website and the number of page views. Web Analytics consists of offsite and onsite.  The process s of web analytics has been depicted as below;

 

The list of Web Analytics software is categorized into

1. Open Source :  Analog, Piwik, Webalizer, Crawltrack, Go Access, Log Report

2. Proprietary:  Mint, Urchin, Sawmill

3. Mixed:  Logzilla

4. Hosted:  ClickTale, MouseFlow, WebTrends, Google Analytics, StatCounter, HitsLink, Yahoo             

                 Web Analytics, CrazyEgg

The top Web Analytics tools are listed below:-

Piwik

It is an open source web analytics system written in PHP. It provides detailed reports on your website and its visitors, including the search engines and keywords they used, the language they speak, which pages they like and the files they download.

Google Analytics (GA)

GA explains how people found your site, how they explored it, and how you can improve their visitor experience.  Based on this data, one can fine tune the website to increase the return on investment, increase conversions, and make more money online.  The dashboard of GA looks as follows;

Yahoo Web Analytics

It offers better access control options and a simpler approach to multi-site analytics, raw and real time data collection, visitor behavior and demographics reports and customized options as well.  The screen shot of a dash board of Yahoo Web Analytics is given below;

CrazyEgg

Crazy Egg allows you to build heat maps and track your visitors every click based on where they are specifically clicking within your website. It allows you to observe which parts of your site users are finding most interesting and clicking on the most.  The heatmap of the Crazy Egg is a very interesting feature of the tool.

ClickTale

It tracks every mouse movement, click and scroll, creating playback videos of customers’ complete browsing sessions as well as powerful visual heatmaps and behavioral reports that form traditional web analytics.

 

Businesses are increasingly focused on website and customer analytics – that is, computer technologies that use statistics to analyze patters and solve problems.  From identifying which pixel(s) on a page holds the most interest for customers to understanding why a particular customer abandoned his or her cart, analytics can help businesses – and particularly ecommerce site owners – understand their customers.  Understanding and examining these data can help businesses understand not only their customers, but also the manners in which their customers interact with their websites.  Analyzing these data can also help businesses spot technical problems and areas of their sites that require attention.

Now, with the latest analytical tools even we can measure the breath of the person who browsed a site.  Interesting……….. keep on reading DART blogs.

Trends in web Analytics

Most of us are aware about Google Analytics, but not heard about many other web analytical tools with interesting features.  Here is a list of web analytic tolls with mindboggling features.

Logaholic:  A web analytics package with a lightweight javascript snippet that won’t significantly slow down your customer’s web browsers like other trackers do.

Woopra:  With over one hundred thousand web sites tracked, this company offers a rich statistical monitoring experience in real time.

Cehartbat:  A real-time charting, tracking and monitoring suite designed for impatient webmasters that need constant access to fresh, current data.

GetClicky:   It offers many of the same features that you’ll find in other packages from this list, but it was designed specifically for ease-of-use. This feature alone makes it more practical for many users.

Extron:   An analytics service that’s designed around the entire web site lifecycle. Helping you optimize visitor experience.

Piwik:  It is an open source web analytics system written in PHP. It provides detailed reports on your website and its visitors, including the search engines and keywords they used, the language they speak, which pages they like and the files they download.

Yahoo Web Analytics:  It offers better access control options and a simpler approach to multi-site analytics, raw and real time data collection, visitor behavior and demographics reports and customized options as well.  The screen shot of a dash board of Yahoo Web Analytics is given below;

 

 CrazyEgg: The heatmap of the Crazy Egg is a very interesting feature of the  Crazy Egg,it allows you to build heat maps and track your visitors every click based on where they are specifically clicking within your website. It allows you to observe which parts of your site users are finding most interesting tool.

ClickTale:   It tracks every mouse movement, click and scroll, creating playback videos of customers’ complete browsing sessions as well as powerful visual heatmaps and behavioral reports that form traditional web analytics.

MouseFlow:  Mouseflow is a web analytics tool for performing advanced web analytics and realtime user studies on websites. It is a hosted service that can be used on any public website. Mouseflow records whole visitor sessions including mouse movements, clicks, scroll events and key strokes.

CoreMetrics:  It performs advanced online analytics, integrated marketing optimization applications, search engine bid management, email targeting, ad impression attribution, cross sell recommendations and social media ROI.

WebTrends:  It offers Real-Time collection of data and display and evaluate of key metrics and KPI, Review site metrics in live Excel report, taken from live updates and attach notes to various data elements so you can easily follow specific trends and share them via RSS feeds.

Omniture:  Omniture is  used for Multiple reports for video tracking,  and has the ability to track mobile phone users, Social media outlet reports to see what people are saying so you can respond right away, Pathing reports follow your visitors from the time they arrive to the page where they left and Real-time statistics and alerts to know what visitors are doing on your site right now.

Thus, there are different types of analytics software available in the market to provide an array of functions which are user-specific in nature.  The guided visual analytics workflow gives ability to easily arrange a sequence of analysis steps into a workflow template that can be edited, reused and distributed.   With the best web analytics system in place, one can accurately track user activity in order to refine your strategies that work while eliminating the mechanisms that don’t work. And once in a while, you may discover a buying pattern that you never would have noticed.

Google Analytics and Google AdWords Conversion Tracker

Conversion tracker in Google Analytics helps to track the events associated with the visit of a webpage by any user. This tool can be successfully integrated with Google AdWords to reap the maximum benefit out of ads spending and to improve your returns in search advertising.

The process involves placing a cookie on the user’s computer when an advertisement is clicked on a website. This cookie stores information about the visitor’s behavior and send back the details to the Google Server including conversion as defined. Then a conversion tracking image is placed on your site to state that a conversion has taken place. With this, Google has successfully tracked a conversion on your site. This can be linked with Google AdWords.

To view this information in Google Ad Words, you can click the “Campaigns” tab in your account, or by viewing the “Reporting and Tools” tab and in the dropdown select “Conversions”.

Fig: Displays the Google Ad Words Navigation Bar

Implementation of the tracking process includes a series of steps which are mentioned below:

1. Summary

The basic mechanism involves placing a code snippet in the source code of your conversion page which needs to be tracked. This requires a basic understanding of HTML as well as server access to your website code and a Google Ad Words account for that particular website. After you install the code on your page, leave up to one hour for data to show in your account after the first conversion from your account has taken place. You can also view conversion reports based on the keyword level used. Modification of the code snippet may result in the tracking code not working properly.
        
              

Fig: Tracking Process Explained

2. Acquiring Code Snippet

The code snippet from Google will be displayed when you select a page under the “Action Type” option for which you need conversion tracking to be operational. You also need to specify the tracking purpose meaning the type of page that you are adding. When you place the code snippet on your conversion page, statistics on users who click on a Google Ad Words advertisement and go through to a conversion page such as purchase, sign-up, page view, or lead) can be collected and displayed in your reports.

Fig: Steps Leading to Conversion

3. Requirements

a) Ad Word Ads that are valid and functioning

b) Proper placement of the Google code snippet on your conversion page source file.

c) For Ad Words Conversion Tracking to successfully track conversions from clicks on your ad, customers must be able to download images and enable the "cookies" feature in their browsers.

Fig: Inserting code snippet to the source page.

4. Inserting Code Snippet to Conversion Page

Just by inserting the code into your website does not guarantee conversions to take place, but it requires a user to click on an Ad Words Ad and click through to the conversion page to register a conversion. An option to choose the Site Stats Text on your conversion page is available and a block image appears on the end user pages. It is optional to select this feature, but you will need to convince users that you are using Ad Words free conversion tracking methodology in order to get their approval and guarantee their privacy. The block of code needs to go in between the <body></body> tags. Code cannot be pasted into the header or footer section of a page.

Fig: Code Snippet in the Body Section

5. Verifying Ad Words Conversion Tracking Code Snippet

Either you can wait for a conversion to take place or perform a test conversion yourself. If you know that a conversion has occurred on your site from an Ad Words ad, view the conversion column in your account to verify the conversion. In most cases, updates to your account may take up to 24 hours to reflect. The other option is to search in Google for your ad, then click on the ad to complete a conversion on your site.

Fig: Conversion Reporting

Conclusion: We suggest that you wait for a conversion to occur otherwise this method will cost you an ad click. This is an important strategy in search engine advertisement.