Consumer Durables and IT Blog

Lessons learned from a distributor who ventured to launch his own brand....

- Contributed by Akash Kumar, Sales Buddy

Recently I was handling one of our clients (let us call it Ram Pvt. Ltd.) from the IT hardware industry. They were into IT networking products, under which they were mainly focused on IT networking cables i.e. CAT5E, CAT6, CAT6A LAN cables and Fiber networking cables. It was interesting to work with this client due to two reasons. First, Ram Pvt. Ltd was the only Indian company that had a presence in this specific product category. They were competing against MNCs who were having a stronghold all over the world. Second, they were changing their image from Trading Company (Distributors of MNCs brand) to a branded company with their own global brand.

While handling this client, I came across a number of new challenges which I feel that one can learn only through experience. Based on my learning, I am presenting those precautionary steps which a distributor firm must take before launching their own brand.
Image transformation of Trading Company to Branded Company should be Gradual Process. Even though Trading Company would be having sales staff, reach, supply chain, efficient working capital, it should not stop their entire trading operations suddenly and start selling only their own branded products. Typically the driver for the firm to launch their own brand is a higher margin. Although the distribution business will continue to offer lower margins the trading business will be crucial for the survival of the business.

Technology advances, and with it, new terms build up. Grid computing has been shifted to “Cloud Computing”. As the name suggests the data is somewhere in the clouds simply because large groups of servers that often use low-cost consumer PC technology are networked together, with specialized connections to spread data-processing chores across them.

You don’t know where the server located is and where is the data amongst multiple servers but it is ensured that you have created repository of information which will stay lifelong irrespective of common problems of losing data- computer crashes; file lost or damaged. One of the best examples of implementing the Cloud is Google Apps, which not only implements so called virtualization by allowing companies to run multiple applications on a single server computer but also makes it as an open source by collaborating the data of multiple companies under a single unit. Software as a Service (SaaS, typically pronounced 'sass') is a model of software deployment where an application is hosted as a service provided to customers across the Internet. By eliminating the need to install and run the application on the customer's own computer, SaaS alleviates the customer's burden of software maintenance, ongoing operation, and support. Cloud computing easily manages Saas by reducing the overhead involved in buying the software simply by offering “on demand pricing”.
Since the simple storage service is provided by the vendor, there are lot of risks being involved in the technology

What will happen to data in the case of a disaster of the server
How will data be accessible when server is down
What will happen to data if the company goes out of business; how data be returned

There is one hard and fast rule in generating income for your website: A steady flow of website traffic. If no one goes to your site, it hardly bares a chance of generating an income. Many sites have tried and failed in doing so, and these results to the sites demise. It takes money to maintain an income generating site; it also takes money to make money.
 

BUT, it doesn’t take a whole caboodle of cash to generate website traffic for your site.
Ever wonder how does big hit sites drive traffic top their site? Most of them are spending tons of money to drive the traffic to their sites, investing in many advertising campaigns and different forms of marketing schemes and gimmickries. This is all worthwhile because, well, they are what they are now, high earning, big hitting websites.
 

You don’t have to do this if you don’t really have their resources. There are many ways to generate low cost website traffic without having to spend what you don’t have or can’t afford. Many people have banked on high cost methods and have ended up losing their shirt over it.
Here I present to you the Top five ways to generate low cost website traffic that could help your site a whole lot. Even if you only get a small percentage of successful visitors in to client ratio it still works especially if you get a high number of website traffic.
 

Exchange Links
This is a sure and proven method. Rarely would you see a site where there is no link to another site. Many webmasters are willing to exchange links with one another so that they could produce more public awareness about their sites. You’ll soon see and feel the sudden upsurge of the traffic coming in to your site from other sites.
 

An Indian netizen is hitting the search button on an average 51 times during a month, but this puts them only at the last position among the top 10 countries of Asia-Pacific in terms of intensity of online search.

According to the latest ranking of top internet search figures for Asia-Pacific released by internet traffic tracking firm comScore, Koreans have topped in terms of online search intensity with an average of 102.8 searches per searcher during the month of July.

The meltdown of Wall Streets blue-blooded banks and the growing fear that the contagion will spread to some European banks could directly impact India's upcoming 3G spectrum auctions by keeping away global bidders.

The absence of global players is expected to seriously restrict the value of the bids placed for 3G spectrum, which jeopardises the government's Rs 40,000 crore revenue target from this spectrum sale.

Typically, it is large global banks like Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch that are intimately involved in supporting the financial bids of both existing operators and new entrants.

They also have a strategic role in the M&As that follow such bids. With the weakening of the financial sector and a general nervousness around money supply, it is highly likely that even if global telcos do participate, the bidding will be far more conservative than it would have been under normal circumstances.

"The financial meltdown is at its peak. India's 3G auctions could not have come at a worse time. The weakness in financial markets is bound to impact bidders confidence," a leading global banker told TOI.

Apart from the fundamental weakness in financial markets, these international banks have very close relationships with global telecom service providers where long term debt, bridge loans and IPO's are concerned. With the collapse of these banks, many global telcos have started tightening their belt and frozen future investments, M&A's and even hiring.

"The entire sentiment is negative. Don't expect global telecom service providers to swim against the tide and put out massive bids in a market like India which is already littered with regulatory uncertainties," says a global telecom operator whose company has been in the Indian market for investments for nearly two years.

-Contributed by Ankit Nagori

Google is best known for two reasons. Firstly because they have an uncanny ability to come up with totally new and innovative products such as Google Earth which none of its competitors would have even contemplated about.