India as a marketplace?

Why should Program Managers care about India as a marketplace?

As we work on our own little piece of making the world move, we must open our eyes to the idea of a global marketplace. All of those products labeled "made in India" or "made in China" are the result of someone at the other end of the world laboring away to create something YOU wanted. Guess what? They get paid too. Why aren't you making a plan to capture some of their new found cash?

What do they want?  According the Honeywell's CEO, they want just about everything he makes:

"Honeywell, which makes products ranging from thermostats to plane cockpit instruments, is expected to top the $30 billion revenue mark this year. Sales to India last year were $500 million, 10 times the level of three years earlier, Cote said."

I use Honeywell as an example because it makes the point LOUDER for technology peeps. If you are building something that can be accessed or used in any location, don't forget about the 2.5 billion people that make up India and China.

One of the things that bothers me in this space is specifics. I hear a lot of folks running to build an "India" specific application. I propose that India wants somethings to reflect their cultural preferences, but Western models can be overlaid instead of rebuilt.

I was use an example that falls close to my heart, an online dating service. Many years ago I worked on the first BIG dating service, love.com. Here were our basic tenants:
1.) Let people find what they are looking for in an easy fashion.
2.) Help people find what they are looking for by offering tools.
3.) Push people to find what they are looking for cause they may not really *know*.

This means a man in Hawaii may think he wants a 29 year old in Maui. Let him find her by searching for 29 year olds in Maui. Help him find her by offering up interfaces that present categories like new 29 year olds in Maui. Push him to find something close her by sending him alerts that there is a 27 year old in Maui...and there is a 29 year old that lives across the street from him.

Take these tenants and apply them to a global model. We HAVE an online dating service. How can our model be applied to a new marketplace:

1.) Let people find what they are looking for in an easy fashion.
Do we have the right search tools for this market? Are our global neighbors looking for the same search identifies as the US? Based on the Indian newspapers the answer is yes and NO. We need more information like Caste identifiers.

2.) Help people find what they are looking for by offering tools.
Does our interface allow for changes that will easily adapt to a global environment? We push content based on state residency in the US, can we convert that model to the India? If so, what is the right geographical breakup for this market? How local is local? Arranged marriages are still common place in India with little care to geographical location. Can we accommodate this market and assist in these arrangements?

3.) Push people to find what they are looking for cause they may not really *know*.
This is the *tough* question where we need to know more about the culture to offer advice. Can we create a model for suggestions and to get it off the ground in short order release it in beta? For example, emailing suggestions based on the model and soliciting feedback?

This model is simple and has likely been deployed by yahoo's matrimony site. Without telling you ANY details on the site you immediately get the picture by the title of the site: Matirimony. This is not a "dating" site, it is a "matrimony" site. 

Comments

[Rich]

Great post, and thank you for stopping by the BizNicheMedia blog to comment.

I agree wholeheartedly with the message of the post, westerners focus too much on marketing within our own comfort zone and rarely venture out and consider the possibilities of cultures and nations other than those we are familiar with.

Keep up the great work!