By Ramesh Thadani

The Y2K customer is here: she, probably, arrived sometime in the last decade of the previous century riding on the infotech wave. So immense is the impact of infotech all over the globe that it is redefining everything: the way we communicate, the way we shop, the way we buy goods and services, and the way we keep ourselves entertained.

The post-World War-II era saw tremendous growth in the power of the brand. Brands became global, and began to cater to the myriad needs of the customer. Markets were segmented, based on not only what people looked for in terms of tangible benefits, but also in terms of consumer psychographics and lifestyles. This trend will continue across many categories well into this millennium albeit with a difference. The difference is that brands, juxtaposed with infotech tools like e-Commerce, database marketing, and data-mining, will be able to cater to specific segments, right down to a segment-size of 1. This individualised marketing will not be the forte of small niche brands; even big global brands will be marketed thus. Customisation and individualisation will, definitely, be the mantra of the Millennium.

Many organisations, particularly those in the services sector, are already beginning to cater to these needs. Airlines and hotels, for instance, are already a decade or so ahead of consumer durable and FMCG companies which have, traditionally, relied on the retail trade infrastructure to take care of transaction-level tasks. However, in these sectors, and in a few others, the transition may be slow. Customer-defined barriers may discourage rapid change in some; for instance, recent studies show that, in many markets, while customers are comfortable using tele-banking to check balances and ask for statements and cheque-books, they are not at ease carrying out transactions over the wire.

This leads us to the reality that social and sociological factors, apart from economic ones, will play a key role in the rapid adoption of the new way. Even in 2000, we are still a decade away from the Malabar Hill housewife ordering her vegetables or fish on the Net. She may use the Net to check prices, or locate difficult-to-get items. Even in the case of packaged goods, where a mouse-click may substitute the call to the bania, the payment-mechanism is still likely to be cash-on-delivery.

It is really in the communications and the entertainment sectors where the convergence of technologies will have the biggest impact. The tremendous cost- benefits that can be achieved through this convergence will fully democratise the transmission of information to the lowest economic strata. Today, the Keralite electrician in Abu Dhabi need not write a letter to his wife in Alwaye; he can send an e-mail every other day at a fraction of the cost of posting one. For less than Rs 200 a month, cable TV operators provide customers access to almost 100 channels.

Access to this information is creating, and will continue to create aspirations even among the poorest of the poor. It is also creating its own tensions: recently, a well-placed bureaucrat described to me how one of his colleagues could not accept the fact that his son, who works for a software company, started at a salary higher than he was earning after 20 years of service. This points to the sociological issues that Indian society will have to live with. Does it signal the end of the quasi-joint family system prevalent in most of urban India? Does it create greater tension between parents, who grew up in the socialistic eran and the bahu, who has an easy life because her husband is a software engineer in the US?

What does this mean in terms of the right customer-strategies for corporate India? All corporates should strive to understand how infotech will impact their customers. There is tremendous scope for innovation and entrepreneurship in using the new technology to their advantage. Those who don't lead the way or, at least, quickly follow the ones who do will be the dinosaurs of this millennium. Understanding technology goes well beyond the traditional approach of putting a hardware and software team together or spending millions on the latest ERP or e-Commerce solutions, no matter how sexy those ad sound. It means looking at a wide range of issues, particularly sociological ones, related to how customers accept and adapt to the new way.

All companies will have to re-examine their conventional business models. Handling a segmented portfolio of a dozen brands, mainly promoted through TV and other mass media, and distributed through the conventional wholesale and retail infrastructure is one thing; catering to the customised needs of over a million customers is different.What will happen to our business? The new way for us impinges on our entire business: our products, the delivery-system we use, and the speed with which our customers want information.

As corporates begin to use new infotech tools for marketing, they need measurements that can tell them the reach, penetration, and efficiency of these new methods of communication and transacting business. All the global market research companies are focusing on the Net as a technology that needs to be understood and used. Many companies are using the Net as a basis for creating databases and data-mining. We also need to monitor social change, and the impact that the new way has on all segments of society.

Research information is increasingly being offered to customers through the Net. Low-cost syndicated research can be easily accessed. Customers of continuous syndicated products such as TV ratings get their weekly data delivered through the Net. In future, this electronic delivery of information will fully replace conventional paper-and-ink systems.

The major process-led impact that we will see in this millennium in India is in the field of data-capture. Here, relatively low-cost data-capture devices, like Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) using notebooks or palmtops, digital cameras, electronic diaries, coupled with the Net and low-cost telecom will make surveying and capturing data from remote areas and rural India far more feasible than it is today. The interactivity of the Net will facilitate gathering information about the customer, and using it to support decisions. This will have a major impact on the way corporates seek and use information.

It is tempting to end with the French saying, Plus ca change c'est la même chose (The more things change, the more they remain the same). But I am more tempted to add a footnote that when so much has changed, things will not remain the same in this millennium!

Ramesh Thadani is the President of the Indian Maket Research bureau

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