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Ajit Narayan is a die hard relationship/direct marketer based in Bangalore, India. Armed with more than 10 years of hands on exposure to relationship marketing, with working exposure of more than few direct marketing agencies, he has conceptualized CRM and direct marketing initiatives for leading MNC's and Indian brands.

Currently associated with OgilvyOne worldwide (as Manager - Bangalore, India) one of the worlds largest and the most creative and experienced one-to-one network. He shares some of his beliefs and perspectives on the direct marketing segment in India with Shiladitya Sunny Ghosh.

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What is your current assessment of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), & Direct Marketing in India, aftermath to the global economic slowdown?

AN: CRM has the power to make and break a lot of companies. Conceived as continuous process with the customer as the central point, it can act as one of the key differentiators in a market, which is full of parity products. And, offer Extra Value in a scenario, where, each brand is trying to outshoot the other with media, financial, creative communication muscle!

A larger & challenging vision to drive CRM in India – would also call for “How open are the Indian CEO’s for CRM?”, or in simple terms, “How open is the CEO to the consumer in India?” No IT department, or internal client relationship manager can be of help or can be delegated such responsibilities. This is a matter of utter importance and requires a lot of knowledge and awareness beyond market accessibility skills. Indian CEO’s and CIO’s will have to drive this top down quantum change of thinking, process, & perspective.

Pilot initiatives are a great starting point, but Indian companies & consumers have matured to a large extent & can easily identify the flaw of non-scalable customer management projects.

Example: A simple telephone call made for car loan & then for house loan -- to a large Bank call center. The consumer is asked to go the same motions of first giving personal details. Similarly, paperwork and documentation requirement in some cases do not change, even though the consumer might have submitted all of them for purchasing some other financial product! Are we talking about relationships here?

AN: As I mentioned before, the corporate agenda and shift of perceived attention of CRM as an offshoot of Information Technology is one such challenge that we face everyday. Globally, 75% of all CRM implementations are a failure due to this. Our challenge does lie not in terms of consumer awareness, but towards building a successful corporate awareness and education for a consumer focus, which would involve maybe a 10 to 20% involvement of IT products & peripheral agents.

Simultaneously, another huge challenge for us lies in our ability to direct & drive Indians in Indian companies. The ‘Corporate’ & ‘SELF CENTRIC’ approach within rigid structures confine us to relate to tangible benefits, for funds spend aimlessly in brand – advertisement and campaigns. That’s why a top down approach of CEO will work in this country much better as opposed to our current status.

AJ: Our Industry runs on knowledge. From the inception to the current stage, from within or from outside, knowledge differentiates us from each other. How fast we develop insights, understanding and nurture critical areas, drives our business on a daily basis. Within ourselves we have a huge pool of codified knowledge and the flexibility to upload anything new / interesting / experimental to each corner of our corporate boundary. This it-self shows how open we are for knowledge, of any form.
How is the net going to evolve according to you?

AJ: The Internet is fundamental and the next logical platform for us. India in particular is just getting on to the net, which opens a great challenge for us too. How well we derive & drive online communication and content solutions is in particularly very challenging for us. We are already witnessing a lot of demand for cross media synergies from our existing clients globally and hope to see similar harmony in India in using the net and Wireless (SMS) applications.
Any advice or recommendations to companies who are entering the Indian Market to sell their products?

AJ: (1) Market sizing and estimations are critical. No borrowed data will help in the country where say 2% of the population is affluent and 98% are not. Estimations will pay off & will remove discrepancies of under or above estimations.

(2) One must have a strong conviction and belief in customer service. In advanced economies, there is already a tremendous thrust of providing services and products with a same standard of perfection. This will call for tremendous amount of investment in HR and Training services in building customer oriented employees and management staffs. You cannot afford to ask your customers to talk to you any more!

(3) India is a very distinct country of contrast. A set of built-in global adaptation procedures might not work that well in India. Studies involving cultural, social, economical and up-bringing patterns of people are a very necessary process before entering India. Catalogs do not sell here!

(All views expressed above are personal and have no relevance to any entity or any other person in form)

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Shiladitya 'Sunny' Ghosh interviews Ajit Narayan, at OgilvyOne, Bangalore-India.

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