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VivaConnect explains the art of missed call marketing in India

VivaConnect, an Indian mobile marketing agency offers engagement services for consumers irrespective of their education or affordability backgrounds

Zero Literacy, Zero Cost and Zero Balance

Only after the arrival of Indianised feature phones did mobile phones become a norm in India. These feature phones offer services in local languages and were available at reasonable rates.

Smart phones are also now seen to be adapting with home grown brands such as Micromax giving the option to go Hindi. VivaConnect is another.

VivaConnect, a B2B organisation that offers mobile marketing solutions to brands through their Non-VAS infrastructure for voice and missed calls, besides SMS, email and mobile app development. The agency offers solutions on the lines of “Zero Literacy, Zero Cost and Zero Balance” to suit the cultural diversity persistent in India.

e27 peeks into the company’s strategies and tactics to get a view of what is still relevant in the digitally evolving Indian economy.

The language of missed calls!

Want a call back? With two rings, users are able to understand that their friends have reached home safely. With two back-to-back missed calls? “It’s urgent, call me back!”

The language of missed calls came in a lot before text messages became cheaper and chat applications arrived, but has stayed consistently under use.

Vikram Raichura, MD, VivaConnect
Vikram Raichura, MD, VivaConnect

Vikram Raichura, MD, VivaConnect

“We have campaign based clients and the perpetual ones. For instance our service of ‘Missed Call Balance Check’ offered to banks is a round the clock service, while the ‘Free Voting Platform’ for a reality shows is completely a project based thing,” said Vikram Raichura, MD, VivaConnect, explaining the nature of missed call marketing.

Vijaya Bank, a leading Nationalised bank in India, had been looking at increasing consumer participation without actually having them to come down to the bank.

The bank then resorted to missed call services for its account holders, who would have to ring a number and then wait for a call back to get their query answered at no cost.

Replacing long calls to help lines for the smallest of requirement with a missed call service offers comfort with cost effectiveness to consumers irrespective of their handset model or talk time balance available on their cell phone.

Localised approach

The best way to approach a consumer is to exhibit that you are one of them and thus, be it a national or an international brand, all would prefer to reach out to their target audience in their local language.

In attempt to reach out to the Indian citizens on their devices, in their national language, Narendra Modi (candidate for Indian Prime Minister in 2014 elections) made himself available on a service called LiveTalk – a live audio streaming service that does not require any internet or special service. Interested users had to dial a published number to tune in to the speech of their beloved minister.

In the lieu of expensive data plans and week connectivity, live audio streaming does not require internet support seems to work well with the Indian audiences.

The tried and the tested – SMS

With no scope of getting ignored, SMS has been the best method to gain consumer attention. Though the marketing push was in doldrums post TRAI’s DND policy to avoid needless spamming, it still continues to be strength in mobile marketing, explains Ruchira.

“TRAI regulations are brought in action to ensure more utility and minimum disturbance to the masses over mobile services and hence we respectfully abide them,” he added.

To keep away from becoming interference, VivaConnect proposes the Opt-in-database that that offers 24/7 presence of the brand for the customers. For instance, a frequent flyer would like to keep him updated about flights, then he can subscribe to services of flight related alerts. This serves the purpose of facilitating information with the consumer’s consent.

Read also: Viber launches free IDD calls from the Philippines for Haiyan victims

Additionally, VivaConnect also offers application and e-mail solutions, both of which are hot trends in India.

In the lieu of diversity among people and their handsets, services provided by VivaConnect seem to work well at it appeals to all equally. However, with the increasing penetration of smart phones and the boom in the app economy, one would not be surprised to see missed calls or SMS bow out of the play. Nonetheless, the “Zero Literacy, Zero Cost and Zero Balance” strategy seems to have picked up well.

The post VivaConnect explains the art of missed call marketing in India appeared first on E27.