Vernacular

The Bollywood culture is growing more and more each day. In the same way as Hollywood dominated the movie industry the Indian economy has grown so much over the last 10 years that if you use the term Bollywood to anyone in India it is a household name. This article explores the significance of the Bollywood industry and how more and more people are socialising on the Internet to share their interest and passion of Bollywood. Furthermore, the influence of Bollywood on society has a whole worldwide has led to many successful movies and more and more Hollywood scripts are now being used by leading Bollywood movie directors.

Bollywood has grown over the last twenty years or so thanks to technology such as the Internet, mobile phones and set up cable TV boxes. In the late 1980s people in the USA and the UK could not access any "Bollywood" channels because there was no real service available. However from 1992 everything changed. The service Zee TV was launched and this led to a subscription based channel. The Bollywood market is a growing niche market and there was a growing demand for Bollywood movies, shows, comedies and cartoons for young children. Therefore, more and more TV companies took note of this and managed to provide a service to this market.

Finally, Bollywood movies have grown and have continued to dominate the cinema industry worldwide. More and more people have embraced the Bollywood culture and thanks to video sharing websites such as Youtube people from different cultures have managed to understand what Bollywood is really all about. Moreover, Bollywood has a whole has had a growing influence on today's young society. For example, more and more Bollywood movies are now being shot in exotic locations such as Dubai and New York as there are many people in those parts who have a growing passion for Bollywood.

To meet people and talk to other people who share the same Bollywood passion you can go to http://www.BollywoodChatFun.com

Imran Naseem

# posted by phoenix-pets80546 : 4:19 AM  0 comments

Like it or not, the Web is turning into an environment that will be dominated by audio and video presentations. And as we have already seen, the democratic nature of the Web has allowed the best and worst to stand side-by-side.

On one side, you have the wacky viral videos that serve little commercial purpose other than to enhance the reputations of their creators; and on the other side, you have deadly boring corporate videos that lack any of the qualities that make Web-video the best sales tool a business will ever have.

In the middle are a few innovative companies that know how to deliver a marketing message by telling a business story with style and panache so that an audience will remember the message and act upon it. And yes, even a few know how, and are willing, to do it with a reasonable budget.

Pay for Content-Production Not Airtime

The non-time sensitive nature of the Web differs from the corporate world of broadcast television where the cost of airtime has seen commercial formats gradually decrease from sixty, to thirty, to fifteen seconds.

I imagine the day is not too far off when we will have a new five-second commercial format all while the broadcast regulators are allowing more commercials per half hour of programming. According to Answers.com, "a typical 30-minute block of time includes 22 minutes of programming with 6 minutes of national advertising and 2 minutes of local (although some half-hour blocks may have as much as 12 minutes of advertisements)."

We've all had the distinct displeasure of having to sit through the same mind-numbing commercial as many as three times in the same commercial break. At that rate even good commercials we want to watch become exercises in Guantonamo-style torture tactics.

It's unlikely that the independent mentality that governs the Web will ever accept a uniform presentation standard to take hold; the idea is just too conventional for an environment that thrives on breaking the rules.

That said an argument could be made for the discipline of a Web-based video presentation format that tells an effective marketing story in the most efficient and memorable manner.

Form, Function, and Discipline

Effective marketing communication is about telling your story, whether it's a fifteen-second television commercial or a thirty-minute infomercial. If you don't tell a story you aren't communicating your message effectively.

Because the Web doesn't require you to purchase airtime, your video presentation once uploaded, is available 24/7 for all to see, anytime they wish, as often as they want.

Since you have this freedom of expression, you need to ask yourself, what is the best way to implement this independence? Do you follow the standard television format based on a cost-per-second basis, when in fact the length of the presentation is mostly irrelevant, or do you drone on for half-an-hour boring your viewers to tears?

There must be a standard format for Web video that makes sense both technically from a time-to-download perspective, and from an effectiveness standpoint, delivering the message in an unforgettable way.

Like with most things in life, discipline is very important, video production requires the producer to be focused; it helps keep budgets in line; and it delivers results because there just isn't any room for extraneous self-indulgence. In addition, following a standard format provides viewers with an expectation, a promise that you will say what needs to be said, and what they want to hear, in a reasonable and efficient amount of time.

The 120 Second Solution: The 3 Act Web Presentation

Unlike cost-per-time formats, you have the freedom to fudge the timing to meet your needs. On the Web, there is no sense in cutting a presentation because it runs fifteen seconds long, or adding superfluous material because it runs fifteen seconds short. That said, it is a good idea to start with a structure that allows you to build a presentation that works; a presentation that has a beginning, middle, and end; a presentation that tells a story viewers will sit through and pay attention to. What we have come up with is "The 120 Second Solution: The 3 Act Web Presentation."

We arrived at this format by analyzing how the best storytellers spin their yarns, the Hollywood moviemakers. Your standard Hollywood movie contains forty scenes, three acts, and runs approximately 120 minutes; yes, some movies run only ninety minutes, and others run as much as three hours, but 120 minutes is the optimum.

If you accept the premise that commercial Web videos are all about telling your story, then perhaps the best solution is to take the standard, three act, one hundred and twenty minute movie, and scale it down to a three act, one hundred and twenty second movie.

A Web Marketing Campaign

Our recent thought-piece the "18 Web-Marketing Concepts That Make A Difference" was introduced by six entertaining videos comprising 'The Lost Brad Tapes,' that loosely follow the 120 Second, 3 Act Web-Presentation Solution.

Act One: The Setup

Your first act is the setup:

(1) A proper setup needs to introduce your hero (every story, even commercials, need a hero);

(2) It must contain an Inciting Incident that triggers action on the part of the hero, and;

(3) It must also create an object of desire and define the nature of success.

By incorporating these elements in your first act, you attract viewer interest, hold viewer attention, create viewer expectation, and provide vicarious, virtual-viewer participation through the actions of the surrogate hero.

In the case of The Lost Brad Tapes, the inciting incident is our hero, Brad's, failure to find the answer to the question, "How do you become a website success?" Our hero searches the world and endures countless hardships just to find 'The Man' with 'The Answer.' And who in business hasn't searched high and low for some expert who could provide a simple solution to a complex problem.

Act one also establishes the object of desire, the knowledge needed to become a website success, and it defines the nature of success, finding the answer.

Act Two: The Conflict

Act two is about establishing conflict and building tension by creating an obstacle that provides the motivational impetus to act to resolve the problem.

With each successive chapter (video) of The Lost Brad Tapes, our hero runs into a roadblock in the guise of a supposed authority who has other things on his mind, and who is ultimately of no help, but who builds the dramatic tension that holds the viewer's interest. Will our boy Brad, find the answer and will he share it with you, the viewer?

Act Three: The Payoff

Act three provides the resolution: the object of desire is secured and the need is gratified. The audience is satisfied with the knowledge gained and the investment in time.

Act three of the Lost Brad videos presents an attractive host who interrupts the video and talks directly to the audience, providing a teaser of one of the '18 Web-Marketing Concepts That Make A Difference,' and points the viewer to the complete article with the entire list of eighteen things to think about along with a complete explanation of each.

Conclusion

The Lost Brad Tapes initiative is an example of how to produce a marketing campaign that delivers a business message by telling a story by following an organizational and development structure, proven to be effective. It is not a sales pitch; it asks for nothing from the viewer other their time; and it delivers sound business advice that establishes expertise.

If Web video is on your 'to do' list, but you're not sure how to go about telling your story, then the 120 Second, 3 Act Web-Video Solution is a good place to start.

Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, http://www.136words.com, and http://www.sonicpersonality.comContact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.

# posted by phoenix-pets80546 : 4:01 AM  0 comments

For the longest time I have been uncomfortable with the various labels we place on our customer facing activities. They are referred to as:

Customer Service

Customer Care

Customer Support

Customer Relationship Management

Client Services

Client Relations.

Most of these titles and designations focus on what we DO without focusing on the results we are hoping to achieve.

We engage in these activities, presumably to promote:

Customer Satisfaction

Client Retention

Customer Loyalty.

And we trust that these aims and practices will contribute to PROFITS.

But as a long time management consultant and President of Customersatisfaction.com, Im not at all convinced were headed in the right direction, that these words and phrases are helping us or our clients and customers as much as an alternative model, which Im going to introduce, here.

I believe all would be better served by focusing our efforts on IMPROVING CUSTOMER VALUE.

Peter F. Drucker, renowned management guru, used to point out to those of us who studied with him, that customer service Must be defined from the customers point of view.

The true test of valuable service is whether, if unbundled, customers will pay extra money for what is being dispensed to them.

A fellow student, in senior management with a financial services company, boasted that his firm was superior to competitors because it had a network of local branches close to customers.

When grilled by Drucker as to whether he had PROOF that these expensive deployments had any significant value in the minds of customers, my colleague balked and stammered.

It was merely an ARTICLE OF FAITH on his part; and in fairness to him, also in the minds of many at his company, that all of their efforts to serve were actually serving.

Upon closer scrutiny, the local service centers were found to have slight, if any, marginal utility to the customers in whose name they were built.

So, what IS value to customers? And how is it linked to achieving value to companies?

It is a moving target, for one thing. Yesterdays first class air traveler insisted on a larger seat with more leg room. Todays requires sleeper seats, independent audio and video programming, expedited baggage services, and an amenities kit on international flights.

One of the key components of providing value to customers is by offering an attractive PRICE. Take the shopper at a 99 Cents Only store. He or she can expect to find a tube of toothpaste for 99 cents, where the same item costs three times as much at a typical drug store or supermarket.

Thats value, without question. The amount and quality tendered should offer substantial utility to the customer.

But stark utility and functionality are only part of the equation.

The Mercedes dealer that has a Hall of Fame, a Polaroid portrait gallery of every buyer dating back decades displayed on the wall, insists on awarding men and women a dozen long-stem roses with each car purchase. Its a moment in which every customer feels special and important, and a snapshot commemorates it, and is placed on the wall joining similar images of Hollywood celebrities such as Clark Gable, that have bought cars over more than a half-century at this famous dealership.

Thats value, too. Compared to the cost of an upscale car, the roses and the photo are very inexpensive. But they are part of a much greater ritual that the dealership has orchestrated to create an ELITE club, consisting of mostly ordinary purchasers.

This example shows the possibilities for IMPROVING CUSTOMER VALUE are practically endless.

Frequency marketing plans, based on airline miles, cash-back rebates, and even free dinners and haircuts, have had a dramatic impact on generating repeat business and a perception of value for buyers. At the same time, they have introduced loyalty and more predictable revenue streams into otherwise fickle industries.

These promotions show the Win-Win potential of focusing on creating VALUE.

From the businesss standpoint, when a customer can be induced to spend more, to buy the higher profit items, to resist the siren songs of competitors, and to be a source of referrals, then a CUSTOMERS VALUE has been increased, and for that matter, so has the value of the overall enterprise.

The trick is to create better FITS and ALIGNMENTS between what a company offers by way of customer-facing practices and to increase the willingness of customers to select and prefer their vendors.

Does the company that answers the phone more pleasantly and faster than its competitor, win more business and better retain its customer base? We presume it does, and millions of dollars are invested annually by firms to train their personnel in telephone etiquette and call handling techniques.

As the author of MONITORING, MEASURING & MANAGING CUSTOMER SERVICE, let me ask you to consider these questions:

Where are the MEASURES that show such a correlation between good calls and good business? Where are the MONITORING techniques that capture and compare the RESULTS achieved by well trained versus poorly trained reps? How many customers have been DETECTED grumbling instead of singing as conversations conclude, or have explicitly responded to post-mortems and surveys by stating, I went to your competitor because your call handling is inferior?

Instead of focusing mostly on what we do, we need to ask What are customers achieving? and equally important, What are we getting, in return?

I have often said the truest test of customer satisfaction is this question:

Will your customers reorder, or permit you to up-sell or to suggestively sell them more, RIGHT NOW?

If not, you have not increased a customers VALUE to your firm, and you have demonstrated that you have not dispensed enough value to the customer, up to that point.

There is a VALUE DEFICIT that should be detected and remedied, immediately, but all too often it evades review and repair.

How do we create better FITS and ALIGNMENTS?

We need to (1) Seek and obtain FEEDBACK from clients on an ongoing basis that were delivering what they value. We should employ explicit and implicit measures of value tendered and received. (2) We should benchmark our processes against known BEST PRACTICES in the field and across industries.

But we cant be satisfied with these initiatives, important as they are.

We also need to (3) CREATE NEW SATISFACTIONS and NEW VALUE for customers and for our companies.

This means taking risks.

For example, todays hybrid vehicles cost more off the showroom floor, but they deliver more over time, including long-range economy and an increasingly important perception that the buyer is doing his share to reduce dependency on foreign energy sources, making his country more safe and secure in the process.

But when hybrids were designed, gas cost about $1.80 per gallon, and manufacturers had to get in front of their customers and entice them into the future.

Toyota made the bet that the market, and global events would catch up with their vision, and they bet right, winning a leading worldwide market share in the process.

You dont have to be big to emulate them.

For the price of a few roses or a snapshot, you might accomplish the same thing, providing customers find VALUE in it.

Best-selling author of 12 books and more than 1,000 articles, Dr. Gary S. Goodman is considered "The Gold Standard" in negotiation, sales development, customer service, and telephone effectiveness. Top-rated as a speaker, seminar leader, and consultant, his clients extend across the globe and the organizational spectrum, from the Fortune 1000 to small businesses. He can be reached at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.

# posted by phoenix-pets80546 : 12:49 AM  0 comments