In the big business that comprises BPO, KPO and LPO, adding to the alphabet soup these days is ‘MPO', which stands for marketing processing outsourcing. With several companies realising that outsourcing hastens, standardises and automates routine marketing, there's a lot of work from the marketing domain being doled out.
Explaining the rationale for MPO, Vinod Harith, Founder, CMO Axis Outsourcing Services, says that instead of dealing with several firms – such as a Web design agency, an e-mail marketing agency, a database agency – it's simpler for companies to deal with one agent that handles all these functions. Four years into this venture, the firm that claims to be India's first MPO has set its sights on the bottom of the pyramid which it sees as a multibillion dollar opportunity. CMO Axis is betting on these small businesses to play a big role in its journey to a Rs 100-crore-in-billings target by 2015. As of March 2012, CMO Axis expects to achieve $1.5 million in billings, and $5 million by 2012-13.
“MPO is actually a subset of KPO (knowledge process outsourcing),” says Jessie Paul, CEO of Paul Writer Strategic Advisory, a marketing advisory firm. Paul, earlier CMO at Wipro, says Wipro too has an MPO business which targets large firms. Others in the business are the Champions Group, William Lea, and a few emerging smaller players from Coimbatore that promise to support a company's marketing efforts and provide a greater and complete brand experience.
Big-ticket deal
According to Harith, the opportunity for MPO, in “very, very broad numbers,” is $8 billion in the US alone. In India, the opportunity can easily be 20-30 times that, with its 26 million and more small and medium businesses (SMBs). “There's never going to be enough marketing managers for that many SMBs,” he says.
“The business may be small, but it needs the same kind of marketing ammunition big companies need because the goal is the same share of wallet.” MPO fills the gaps caused by lack of competence and capacity.
The pros and cons
Jessie Paul lists the advantages of MPO: The job is done whether someone comes to work or not; companies are saved the burden of investing in automation; savings in cost; flexibility for companies. Lack of control, says Paul, is a big disadvantage. On paper the MPO firm may claim it has all kinds of technologies and processes, but in reality, it may fall short.
Additional reporting: Chitra Narayanan