The Hindu Business Line : Blog spots and all

As blogging gathers pace, corporates are realising that blogs can make or break a brand. Product reviews and instant feedback make for good consumer connect.

I would suggest making a series of light sport utility trucks and vehicles," an auto enthusiast urges General Motors' top honchos on Fastlane, the company's official blogspot. And, the world's largest car maker is listening. Through `blog watching,' and reacting to comments by committed bloggers, GM is gleaning valuable feedback from customers for product development.

GM isn't the only one. More businesses worldwide are launching corporate blogs to zero in on clients' woes. "Since both customer retention and acquisition are extremely expensive, companies can ill-afford to ignore bloggers," says Meenakshi Sachdev Varma, CEO and Managing Director of Good Relations India Pvt Ltd, a public relations firm.

Netizens, for their part, pour out their angst about gizmos and mismanaged events in their Web logs. Take for instance, Kiruba Shankar, who was among the amateur athletes stranded at the Chennai Marathon. The ardent blogger posted a litany of complaints about the event organisers on his blogspot.

Shankar frequently reviews a range of brands and affirms, "That's the beauty of personal publishing. It gives you the power to instantly publish your frank opinions without worrying about getting edited or censored."

Frank blogspeak

Bloggers are also penning product reviews on sites such as Mouthshut.com. "These writings or opinions on Mouthshut.com serve as critical feedback for companies to improve their products," explains the CEO, Faisal I. Farooqui.

The statistics prove that Indian bloggers are taking to product reviewing in a big way. Mouthshut.com gets 80,000 browsers every day and 15 million page views per month and even the most minute details are discussed - from a restaurant menu to ringtones.

With such an influx of customer feedback, corporates have begun investing heavily in ferreting out information about their products from blogspots. Netscribes, a blogging consultancy, points out that tools such as del.icio.us, Technorati, PubSub, Intelliseek and BlogPulse are being used by several companies across the US and India to keep tabs on bloggers' discussions. Telecom companies, for instance, keep track of blog posts on their mobile services, according to C.V.S. Sharma, Country Head of Tribal DDB.

"Hundreds of companies are actively monitoring what consumers are saying about their products and services on MouthShut.com," says Farooqui.

Earlier, a popular shopping site drew flak from a group of disgruntled buyers at Mouthshut.com. It drew so much attention that the e-retailer's CEO had to post a blog on the portal to defend his company. Moutshut.com has, in fact, worked with movie production houses, banks, automobile manufacturers and booksellers to garner honest feedback from customers.

The film Black did not rake in much moolah in the first few days of its release, reckoned the bloggers of Mouthshut.com. However, the critically acclaimed movie eventually drew a bigger audience through word of mouth. Kiruba Shankar, who is not much of a Bollywood buff, decided to watch Rang De Basanti after bloggers raved about the film. MSN India's Head of Sales and Marketing, Rajnish R., says there is a growing number of reviews on FMCGs, electronics, financial and automotive products on MSN's blogs.

The site's bloggers have discussed competition between MSN, Google and Yahoo and the latest celebrity endorsements.

Tinsel town and cricket icons too are hogging the limelight in the blogosphere. MSN Spaces (MSN's blogosphere) has featured Aamir Khan (during the release of Mangal Pandey) as well as the Rang De Basanti cast. Virender Sehwag, whose Web site is backed by MSN India, has also joined the blogging fraternity on MSN Spaces. Rediff blogs were used for marketing the film Apharan. The cast shared its experiences in shooting the film with Rediff bloggers.

The Indian Institute of Planning and Management blog on Indian cyberspace sparked off a much-heated debate among netizens. The discussions spilled over into the mass media, recalls MSN's Rajnish. Most companies do not take product review blogs seriously until their products draw a series of complaints from bloggers. The negative feedback eventually trickles into the traditional media.

Blogging for branding

Some companies have realised how blogs can make or break a brand and they have tried to reach out to online groups through corporate blogs. "Skillful blogging can boost your company's credibility and help it connect with customers," says Preeti Desai, President, Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

PR agency Good Relations has designed blogs for clients in the HR, knowledge management and manufacturing sectors. "A growing number of brand strategists see blogs as a primary source of consumer feedback, research and communication," says its MD, Meenakshi Sachdev Varma.

Customers too can interact directly with the company and get an immediate response to their feedback through blogs. "Instead of spamming with so-called product news and consumer updates, companies and executives can use blogs as a platform to talk informally to customers, vendors and employers," says MSN's Rajnish.

Analysts believe a company can also establish itself as a "thought leader" in its sector by sharing insights on products and services through corporate blogs. Inspired by the `Participation Age' motto, Sun Microsystems' Chief Operating Officer, Jonathan Schwartz, was one of the first Fortune 500 executives to begin a public blog, in June 2004.

Schwartz's blog currently gets 400,00 hits a month. In addition, over 1,000 other Sun employees have jumped on to the blogging bandwagon without eulogising their company or belittling their competitors. As K. P. Unnikrishnan, Marketing Director, Sun Microsystems India, puts it, "In the Participation Age, the right way to tell people about how great your company is to get the people who are making your company great to tell how they are doing it."

Ganesh Ramamoorthy, Head of netmarking at Netscribes, says corporate blogs can make employees feel more involved in the company's projects and marketing initiatives. "More interaction has led to better awareness for the employees across various project teams, leading to the creation of stronger brand image - the thought process being that employees are the most important brand ambassadors for a company."

Google, Macromedia, HP, Microsoft, IBM and Harley Davidson have roped in employees to contribute to their corporate blogs in a big way. In the Indian blogosphere, Sun's employees frequently discuss technology-related issues with Java user groups. (Java was developed by the IT major, which is also promoting open source software.)

Over 20 such groups have been formed in the country. Sun factors in the market inputs from the user groups to ensure that its products meet the software industry's expectations.

eDesignTree, a digital services company providing Web-based marketing solutions, has unveiled its corporate blog "digicopter." Its promoter, Amit Srivastava, likens the blog to "a digital marketing helicopter" which can popularise the company among browsers. eDesignTree's clients in the US and India will also be sharing their feedback on the blog.

To make Digicopter more interactive, RSS feed (a format for syndicating Web content) has been incorporated to share the latest entries' headlines and attached multimedia files. The promoters will keep tabs on the response to their blog. Says Srivastava, "If there isn't a well planned strategy behind any blog and it is left unmonitored, it has the potential of either not going anywhere or just getting bad publicity."

Blogs are useful for measuring the response to online ads and site traffic, points out IAMAI's Preeti Desai. The return on investment can be monitored effectively too. Companies conduct surveys to gauge how blogs are influencing consumers' perception about their brands. Blogs can help increase the search rankings of products as they are linked to search engines. In addition, they can be incorporated into guerrilla and viral marketing campaigns.

Meanwhile, product reviews and corporate branding have proliferated in the Indian cyberspace due to higher Internet penetration (IAMAI estimates that there are currently 38.5 million Internet uses in the country).

Though corporate blogging is still nascent, battles of wits are bound to intensify, as more reviewers and executives virtually lock horns across blogspots.

Picture by Bijoy Ghosh

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