Just when we're finally used to seeing everybody constantly talking on their cell phones, it suddenly seems like no one is talking at all. Instead, they're typing away on tiny numerical pads, using their cell phones to send quick messages. SMS, or text messaging, has replaced talking on the phone for a new "thumb generation" of texters.
In this article, we'll find out how text messaging works, explore its uses and learn why it sometimes takes a while for your text message to get to its recipient.
What is SMS?
SMS stands for short message service. Simply put, it is a method of communication that sends text between cell phones, or from a PC or handheld to a cell phone. The "short" part refers to the maximum size of the text messages: 160 characters (letters, numbers or symbols in the Latin alphabet). For other alphabets, such as Chinese, the maximum SMS size is 70 characters.
But how do SMS messages actually get to your phone? If you have read How Cell Phones Work, you can actually see what is happening.
Even if you are not talking on your cell phone, your phone is constantly sending and receiving information. It is talking to its cell phone tower over a pathway called a control channel. The reason for this chatter is so that the cell phone system knows which cell your phone is in, and so that your phone can change cells as you move around. Every so often, your phone and the tower will exchange a packet of data that lets both of them know that everything is OK.
Your phone also uses the control channel for call setup. When someone tries to call you, the tower sends your phone a message over the control channel that tells your phone to play its ring tone. The tower also gives your phone a pair of voice channel frequencies to use for the call.
The control channel also provides the pathway for SMS messages. When a friend sends you an SMS message, the message flows through the SMSC, then to the tower, and the tower sends the message to your phone as a little packet of data on the control channel. In the same way, when you send a message, your phone sends it to the tower on the control channel and it goes from the tower to the SMSC and from there to its destination.
The actual data format for the message includes things like the length of the message, a time stamp, the destination phone number, the format, etc. For a complete byte-by-byte breakdown of the message format, see this page.
In the next section we'll learn about some of the uses and advantages of SMS.
Why use SMS?
SMS has several advantages. It is more discreet than a phone conversation, making it the ideal form for communicating when you don't want to be overheard. It is often less time-consuming to send a text message than to make a phone call or send an e-mail. SMS doesn't require you to be at your computer like e-mail and instant messaging (IM) do -- although some phones are equipped for mobile e-mail and IM services. SMS is also a convenient way for deaf and hearing-impaired people to communicate.
SMS is a store-and-forward service, meaning that when you send a text message to a friend, the message does not go directly to your friend's cell phone. The advantage of this method is that your friend's cell phone doesn't have to be active or in range for you to send a message. The message is stored in the SMSC (for days if necessary) until your friend turns his cell phone on or moves into range, at which point the message is delivered. The message will remain stored on your friend's SIM card until he deletes it.
In addition to person-to-person messages, SMS can be used to send a message to a large number of people at a time, either from a list of contacts or to all the users within a particular area. This service is called broadcasting and is used by companies to contact groups of employees or by online services to distribute news and other information to subscribers.
In a 2004 University of Plymouth study on the psychology of SMS users, researchers found that mobile phone users were primarily either "texters" or "talkers" [ref]. Compared to the talkers, the texters sent nearly double the number of SMS messages and made less than half as many voice calls per month. The texters preferred SMS to voice calls for its convenience as well as for the ability to review a message before sending it.
Companies have come up with many uses for the service beyond just your typical person-to-person message. Because SMS doesn't overload the network as much as phone calls, it is frequently used by TV shows to let viewers vote on a poll topic or for a contestant. As a promotional tool, wireless carriers put up giant screens at concerts and other large-scale events to display text messages from people in the audience.
You can use text messaging subscription services to get medication reminders sent to your phone, along with weather alerts, news headlines or even novels broken into 160-character "chapters." Internet search engines such as Yahoo! and Google have short messaging services that enable users to get information such as driving directions, movie showtimes or local business listings just by texting a query to the search engine's phone number. Social networking services such as Dodgeball use SMS to alert people who live in big cities when their friends or crushes are nearby. The possibilities for integrating SMS into your lifestyle seem endless.
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Friday, March 24, 2006
Get Ready for Digital Convergence: A Primer on Life in the Twenty-First Century
First, a riddle: What are the differences among
a Fiona Apple CD
Citizen Kane
the complete works of William Shakespeare
a tax return
the Mona Lisa
an electric bill
your baby pictures
a call to your mother
a laundry list
a lecture by Richard Feynman
a staff meeting in the Marketing Department
slides of the family trip to the Grand Canyon
a program in C++
the first Mickey Mouse cartoon
sheet music for Schubert’s Ave Maria
a speech by Harriet Tubman or Mahatma Ghandi?
To a computer, not much. Properly transformed, each of these items is to a computer simply a collection of 1s and 0s. Through the magic of sampling (the process of choosing discrete parts to represent a continuous whole), almost anything—text, sound, speech, film, graphics, animations, music—can be digitized, and whatever can be digitized can be presented on a computer and transmitted over a network. Therein lies the future.
Imagine a place without books, photographs, movies, televisions, stereo systems, letters, post cards, billboards, telephones, and fax machines. That place is not Europe in the Dark Ages but the world that most people in the twenty-first century will inhabit. In lieu of the media that we now take for granted there will be the one great digital medium that replaces the current Internet. The process by which all these separate media become digital and come to be delivered via the global network is known as digital convergence.
Why is digital convergence such a certainty? There are three major reasons. First, bits—the 1s and 0s that computers understand—are incredibly cheap. Think of the staggering cost of cutting down trees, turning them into paper, writing words down on this paper, flying the paper via airplane across the country, sorting the paper from among thousands of other pieces of paper, loading the paper onto trucks, and paying someone to carry the paper to someone’s door. Think also of the time that such a process takes. A letter sent from Boston to Los Angeles may well take seven to ten days to arrive. Now think of sending a piece of e-mail. Type the mail into your computer, click on a button, and the bits move almost instantaneously and at a cost so low as to be almost nonexistent, to any place on the globe. The United States has an incredibly efficient, cost-effective mail system, but traditional mail, sometimes referred to as snail mail, can’t begin to compete with the cost of e-mail. What is true of mail is even more true of such tangible products as books, music CDs, and videocassettes. A new hardbound novel costs around thirty dollars; a music CD, fifteen; a videocassette, twenty to forty. Turn each of those—the book, the music CD, the videocassette—into a bunch of 1s and 0s and you eliminate the manufacturing cost almost entirely. And, of course, there is an environmental benefit to not cutting down all those trees and not making a lot of plastics that will end up in landfills.
The second major reason why digital convergence is not simply a possibility for the future but a certainty is the quality of digital materials. Think of the difference in sound quality between an old LP recording and a music CD. The difference is that the former is an analog medium, whereas the latter is digital, and digital materials can be reproduced at any resolution, assuming that one has the storage space and the bandwidth (bandwidth is simply the number of bits per second that can be sent through a given medium, such as fiber optic cable or the air). At some point, the level of resolution achieved by digitizing a signal, such as a music track or a graphic image, becomes so good that it is indistinguishable, given the limitations of our senses, from the real thing. Television signals today are grainy and poorly resolved compared to the digital signals that we shall receive in the future. Watching a television program in the year 2040 is likely to be similar to peering through a window.
The third major reason why digital convergence will happen is that technology is rapidly approaching the stage where high-bandwidth transmission of digital information between any two places is possible. Telephone companies are replacing old copper twisted-pair cables with new fiber-optic lines that transmit billions of bits per second at the speed of light. In many areas of the United States, cable modem hookups to the Internet, which provides up to 60 Mbps (that’s millions of bits per second) for downloads, are now available. Two companies—Teledesic and Motorola—are planning, for the first decade of the twenty-first century, a system of low-orbit satellites that will make wireless global networking available to the entire globe. And, of course, governments around the globe are hard at work updating their information infrastructures, including cables, routers, and switching devices, to make high-bandwidth networking, on which economies of the future will depend, widely available.
Other technological obstacles to digital convergence are being rapidly overcome. Storage prices have dropped dramatically in the past decade. In the mid-1980s, a 20-megabyte hard drive could cost as much as seven hundred dollars. Now, a 2-gigabyte hard drive can be purchased for a fourth of that. It seems reasonable to expect that this exponential drop in the cost of storage will continue. Recordable DVD-ROM is but one of many emerging technologies that will give us all someplace to store those massive audio and video files that come streaming over the global network onto our home media centers.
In the future, almost every device will be a network device. Some of these devices will be large and immobile, like movie or television screens. Others will be small and portable, like wallets, watches, or cellular phones. All will be hooked up to the global network. It is often objected that most people do not want to read a book online, and that is indeed true given today’s display technologies. But here, again, the times are changing. Researchers at MIT have invented a kind of ink that turns a sheet the thickness of a piece of paper into a black-and-white monitor, and they are working on a color version. Within a few years, breakthroughs in display technology will make extremely high-resolution monitors commonplace. People will be able to carry their computers or even to wear them as clothing and will be able to use these computers, in any place and at any time, to send telephone, mail, video, or fax messages; to do their shopping or banking; or to receive news and entertainment. At home, the telephone, the personal computer, the mail box, newspapers, newsletters, magazines, the tape deck, the VCR, and the CD player will be replaced by one or more all-purpose devices, and one will be able to interact with these devices using ordinary speech commands.
In the future, people will doubtless still make books and other consumable information and entertainment products, but increasingly, these will become not primary delivery mechanisms but objects of art. It is no accident that at the same time that Project Gutenberg (http://www.promo.net/pg/) is assembling the largest collection of online books that the world has ever seen, the staff of the rare book division of the Wellesley College Library is hosting a show of handmade books—books as art objects rather than as mass media.
Most commentaries on the coming digital convergence concentrate on high-profile, jazzy applications like online movies, but the emergence of the global network and of wireless connections will also have profound effects on the everyday devices that we use. Consider, for example, the automobile. Via wireless connections, automobiles will be able to access GPS data (see http://www.redsword.com/gps/apps/index.htm) to pinpoint a person’s location or to provide street-by-street maps (of the kind that can already be found online at http://www.proximus.com/yahoo). There is no good reason why other consumer products and appliances might not be hooked to the global network as well. A home heating system, for example, might communicate with the local power plant or with a national power grid and adjust itself to achieve energy efficiency and low cost. Ranges, stoves, microwaves, and refrigerators might communicate with food products manufacturers, cookbook publishers, and food delivery services. The possibilities for such networked appliances are enormous. All that awaits is the genius (that good old Yankee ingenuity, often found, these days, in places like Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea) needed to figure out the applications. Who knows, the Edison of the digital appliance might be learning his or her multiplication tables in some elementary school as you are reading this.
A lot remains to be worked out. Cable, telephone, and entertainment companies are busily trying to position themselves for the digital future. They know that in that future they will be general media companies operating over the global network. There will be companies that provide and maintain the hardware and software for the global network, and there will be content providers, but the old distinctions among the cable company, the telephone company, the television network, the news wire service, and so on, will become part of technological and cultural history. Despite the occasional horror story in the astonishingly Luddite popular press, more and more people are realizing that conducting commercial transactions via the Internet is at least as safe as conducting them over the telephone. New technologies, such as digital watermarks, are being developed to protect intellectual property online. Plug-ins and helper applications for playing multimedia over networks are improving, as are engines for real-time videoconferencing and 3-D interactions using avatars, or virtual proxies. To date the courts have largely held the line against censorship, encryption schemes, the outlawing of links to others’ sites, and other legislative obstacles to the development of the online world, and the FCC has continued to relax the regulations against entry of media and telecommunications companies into markets previously closed to them.
The coming digital age holds much promise. It will extend human abilities and shrink space. It will make available to ordinary people, worldwide, resources that Caesar Augustus, Kublai Khan, or Louis XIV could not even have dreamed of. The real possibility exists for a renaissance of human potential, not just in so-called "developed countries" like the United States, Germany, and Japan, but over the entire globe. Certainly, traditional societies will encounter threats from the global network to their mores and ways of life, but the global network also promises to give those mores and ways of life a wider audience. The astonishing variety of the present-day Internet is but a small taste of what is to come. The future is but a mouse click away.
Courtesy: EMCParadigm Publishing
a Fiona Apple CD
Citizen Kane
the complete works of William Shakespeare
a tax return
the Mona Lisa
an electric bill
your baby pictures
a call to your mother
a laundry list
a lecture by Richard Feynman
a staff meeting in the Marketing Department
slides of the family trip to the Grand Canyon
a program in C++
the first Mickey Mouse cartoon
sheet music for Schubert’s Ave Maria
a speech by Harriet Tubman or Mahatma Ghandi?
To a computer, not much. Properly transformed, each of these items is to a computer simply a collection of 1s and 0s. Through the magic of sampling (the process of choosing discrete parts to represent a continuous whole), almost anything—text, sound, speech, film, graphics, animations, music—can be digitized, and whatever can be digitized can be presented on a computer and transmitted over a network. Therein lies the future.
Imagine a place without books, photographs, movies, televisions, stereo systems, letters, post cards, billboards, telephones, and fax machines. That place is not Europe in the Dark Ages but the world that most people in the twenty-first century will inhabit. In lieu of the media that we now take for granted there will be the one great digital medium that replaces the current Internet. The process by which all these separate media become digital and come to be delivered via the global network is known as digital convergence.
Why is digital convergence such a certainty? There are three major reasons. First, bits—the 1s and 0s that computers understand—are incredibly cheap. Think of the staggering cost of cutting down trees, turning them into paper, writing words down on this paper, flying the paper via airplane across the country, sorting the paper from among thousands of other pieces of paper, loading the paper onto trucks, and paying someone to carry the paper to someone’s door. Think also of the time that such a process takes. A letter sent from Boston to Los Angeles may well take seven to ten days to arrive. Now think of sending a piece of e-mail. Type the mail into your computer, click on a button, and the bits move almost instantaneously and at a cost so low as to be almost nonexistent, to any place on the globe. The United States has an incredibly efficient, cost-effective mail system, but traditional mail, sometimes referred to as snail mail, can’t begin to compete with the cost of e-mail. What is true of mail is even more true of such tangible products as books, music CDs, and videocassettes. A new hardbound novel costs around thirty dollars; a music CD, fifteen; a videocassette, twenty to forty. Turn each of those—the book, the music CD, the videocassette—into a bunch of 1s and 0s and you eliminate the manufacturing cost almost entirely. And, of course, there is an environmental benefit to not cutting down all those trees and not making a lot of plastics that will end up in landfills.
The second major reason why digital convergence is not simply a possibility for the future but a certainty is the quality of digital materials. Think of the difference in sound quality between an old LP recording and a music CD. The difference is that the former is an analog medium, whereas the latter is digital, and digital materials can be reproduced at any resolution, assuming that one has the storage space and the bandwidth (bandwidth is simply the number of bits per second that can be sent through a given medium, such as fiber optic cable or the air). At some point, the level of resolution achieved by digitizing a signal, such as a music track or a graphic image, becomes so good that it is indistinguishable, given the limitations of our senses, from the real thing. Television signals today are grainy and poorly resolved compared to the digital signals that we shall receive in the future. Watching a television program in the year 2040 is likely to be similar to peering through a window.
The third major reason why digital convergence will happen is that technology is rapidly approaching the stage where high-bandwidth transmission of digital information between any two places is possible. Telephone companies are replacing old copper twisted-pair cables with new fiber-optic lines that transmit billions of bits per second at the speed of light. In many areas of the United States, cable modem hookups to the Internet, which provides up to 60 Mbps (that’s millions of bits per second) for downloads, are now available. Two companies—Teledesic and Motorola—are planning, for the first decade of the twenty-first century, a system of low-orbit satellites that will make wireless global networking available to the entire globe. And, of course, governments around the globe are hard at work updating their information infrastructures, including cables, routers, and switching devices, to make high-bandwidth networking, on which economies of the future will depend, widely available.
Other technological obstacles to digital convergence are being rapidly overcome. Storage prices have dropped dramatically in the past decade. In the mid-1980s, a 20-megabyte hard drive could cost as much as seven hundred dollars. Now, a 2-gigabyte hard drive can be purchased for a fourth of that. It seems reasonable to expect that this exponential drop in the cost of storage will continue. Recordable DVD-ROM is but one of many emerging technologies that will give us all someplace to store those massive audio and video files that come streaming over the global network onto our home media centers.
In the future, almost every device will be a network device. Some of these devices will be large and immobile, like movie or television screens. Others will be small and portable, like wallets, watches, or cellular phones. All will be hooked up to the global network. It is often objected that most people do not want to read a book online, and that is indeed true given today’s display technologies. But here, again, the times are changing. Researchers at MIT have invented a kind of ink that turns a sheet the thickness of a piece of paper into a black-and-white monitor, and they are working on a color version. Within a few years, breakthroughs in display technology will make extremely high-resolution monitors commonplace. People will be able to carry their computers or even to wear them as clothing and will be able to use these computers, in any place and at any time, to send telephone, mail, video, or fax messages; to do their shopping or banking; or to receive news and entertainment. At home, the telephone, the personal computer, the mail box, newspapers, newsletters, magazines, the tape deck, the VCR, and the CD player will be replaced by one or more all-purpose devices, and one will be able to interact with these devices using ordinary speech commands.
In the future, people will doubtless still make books and other consumable information and entertainment products, but increasingly, these will become not primary delivery mechanisms but objects of art. It is no accident that at the same time that Project Gutenberg (http://www.promo.net/pg/) is assembling the largest collection of online books that the world has ever seen, the staff of the rare book division of the Wellesley College Library is hosting a show of handmade books—books as art objects rather than as mass media.
Most commentaries on the coming digital convergence concentrate on high-profile, jazzy applications like online movies, but the emergence of the global network and of wireless connections will also have profound effects on the everyday devices that we use. Consider, for example, the automobile. Via wireless connections, automobiles will be able to access GPS data (see http://www.redsword.com/gps/apps/index.htm) to pinpoint a person’s location or to provide street-by-street maps (of the kind that can already be found online at http://www.proximus.com/yahoo). There is no good reason why other consumer products and appliances might not be hooked to the global network as well. A home heating system, for example, might communicate with the local power plant or with a national power grid and adjust itself to achieve energy efficiency and low cost. Ranges, stoves, microwaves, and refrigerators might communicate with food products manufacturers, cookbook publishers, and food delivery services. The possibilities for such networked appliances are enormous. All that awaits is the genius (that good old Yankee ingenuity, often found, these days, in places like Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea) needed to figure out the applications. Who knows, the Edison of the digital appliance might be learning his or her multiplication tables in some elementary school as you are reading this.
A lot remains to be worked out. Cable, telephone, and entertainment companies are busily trying to position themselves for the digital future. They know that in that future they will be general media companies operating over the global network. There will be companies that provide and maintain the hardware and software for the global network, and there will be content providers, but the old distinctions among the cable company, the telephone company, the television network, the news wire service, and so on, will become part of technological and cultural history. Despite the occasional horror story in the astonishingly Luddite popular press, more and more people are realizing that conducting commercial transactions via the Internet is at least as safe as conducting them over the telephone. New technologies, such as digital watermarks, are being developed to protect intellectual property online. Plug-ins and helper applications for playing multimedia over networks are improving, as are engines for real-time videoconferencing and 3-D interactions using avatars, or virtual proxies. To date the courts have largely held the line against censorship, encryption schemes, the outlawing of links to others’ sites, and other legislative obstacles to the development of the online world, and the FCC has continued to relax the regulations against entry of media and telecommunications companies into markets previously closed to them.
The coming digital age holds much promise. It will extend human abilities and shrink space. It will make available to ordinary people, worldwide, resources that Caesar Augustus, Kublai Khan, or Louis XIV could not even have dreamed of. The real possibility exists for a renaissance of human potential, not just in so-called "developed countries" like the United States, Germany, and Japan, but over the entire globe. Certainly, traditional societies will encounter threats from the global network to their mores and ways of life, but the global network also promises to give those mores and ways of life a wider audience. The astonishing variety of the present-day Internet is but a small taste of what is to come. The future is but a mouse click away.
Courtesy: EMCParadigm Publishing
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Compelling Logic
An atheist professor of philosophy speaks to his class on the problem science has with Krishna. He asks one of his new students to stand and.....
Professor: You are a Hare Krishna devotee, aren't you, son?
Student: Yes, sir.
Prof: So you believe in God?
Student: Absolutely, sir.
Prof: Is God good?
Student: Sure.
Prof: Is God all-powerful?
Student: Yes.
Prof: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to Krishna to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But Krishna didn't. How is this Krishna good then? Hmm? (The student is silent.)
Prof: You can't answer, can you? Let's start again, young fella. Is God good?
Student: Yes.
Prof: Is Satan good?
Student: No.
Prof: Where does Satan come from?
Student: From...God...
Prof: That's right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world?
Student: Yes.
Prof: Evil is everywhere, isn't it? And God did make everything. Correct?
Student: Yes.
Prof: So who created evil?
(The student does not answer.)
Prof: Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the world, don't they?
Student: Yes, sir.
Prof: So, who created them?
(The student has no answer.)
Prof: Tell me, son. Do you believe in Krishna?
Student: Yes, professor, I do.
Prof: Science says you have 5 senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Have you ever seen Krishna?
Student No, sir.
Prof: Tell us if you have ever heard your Krishna?
Student: No, sir.
Prof: Have you ever felt your Krishna, tasted your Krishna, smelt your Krishna? Have you ever had any sensory perception of Krishna or God for that matter?
Student: No, sir. I'm afraid I haven't.
Prof: Yet you still believe in Him?
Student: Yes.
Prof: According to empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your Krishna doesn't exist. What do you say to that, son?
Student: Nothing. I only have my faith.
Prof: Yes. Faith. And that is the problem science has.
Student: Professor, is there such a thing as heat?
Prof: Yes.
Student: And is there such a thing as cold?
Prof: Yes.
Student: No sir. There isn't.
(The lecture theatre becomes very quiet with this turn of events.)
Student: Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don't have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold.
Heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it.
(There is pin-drop silence in the lecture theatre.)
Student: What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness?
Prof: Yes. What is night if there isn't darkness?
Student: You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light.....But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and it's called darkness, isn't it? In reality, darkness isn't. If it were you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?
Prof: So what is the point you are making, young man?
Student: Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed.
Prof: Flawed? Can you explain how?
Student: Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it.
Now tell me, Professor. Do you teach tour students that they evolved from a monkey?
Prof: If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do.
Student: Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?
(The Professor shakes his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument is going.)
Student: Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and
cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavour, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher?
(The class is in uproar.)
Student: Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor's brain?
(The class breaks out into laughter.)
Student: Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor's brain, felt
it, touched or smelt it?.....No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, sir. With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir?
(The room is silent. The professor stares at the student, his face unfathomable.)
Prof: I guess you'll have to take them on faith, son.
Student : That is it sir.. The link between man & god is FAITH.
That is all that keeps things moving & alive.
Professor: You are a Hare Krishna devotee, aren't you, son?
Student: Yes, sir.
Prof: So you believe in God?
Student: Absolutely, sir.
Prof: Is God good?
Student: Sure.
Prof: Is God all-powerful?
Student: Yes.
Prof: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to Krishna to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But Krishna didn't. How is this Krishna good then? Hmm? (The student is silent.)
Prof: You can't answer, can you? Let's start again, young fella. Is God good?
Student: Yes.
Prof: Is Satan good?
Student: No.
Prof: Where does Satan come from?
Student: From...God...
Prof: That's right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world?
Student: Yes.
Prof: Evil is everywhere, isn't it? And God did make everything. Correct?
Student: Yes.
Prof: So who created evil?
(The student does not answer.)
Prof: Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the world, don't they?
Student: Yes, sir.
Prof: So, who created them?
(The student has no answer.)
Prof: Tell me, son. Do you believe in Krishna?
Student: Yes, professor, I do.
Prof: Science says you have 5 senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Have you ever seen Krishna?
Student No, sir.
Prof: Tell us if you have ever heard your Krishna?
Student: No, sir.
Prof: Have you ever felt your Krishna, tasted your Krishna, smelt your Krishna? Have you ever had any sensory perception of Krishna or God for that matter?
Student: No, sir. I'm afraid I haven't.
Prof: Yet you still believe in Him?
Student: Yes.
Prof: According to empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your Krishna doesn't exist. What do you say to that, son?
Student: Nothing. I only have my faith.
Prof: Yes. Faith. And that is the problem science has.
Student: Professor, is there such a thing as heat?
Prof: Yes.
Student: And is there such a thing as cold?
Prof: Yes.
Student: No sir. There isn't.
(The lecture theatre becomes very quiet with this turn of events.)
Student: Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don't have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold.
Heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it.
(There is pin-drop silence in the lecture theatre.)
Student: What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness?
Prof: Yes. What is night if there isn't darkness?
Student: You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light.....But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and it's called darkness, isn't it? In reality, darkness isn't. If it were you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?
Prof: So what is the point you are making, young man?
Student: Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed.
Prof: Flawed? Can you explain how?
Student: Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it.
Now tell me, Professor. Do you teach tour students that they evolved from a monkey?
Prof: If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do.
Student: Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?
(The Professor shakes his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument is going.)
Student: Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and
cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavour, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher?
(The class is in uproar.)
Student: Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor's brain?
(The class breaks out into laughter.)
Student: Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor's brain, felt
it, touched or smelt it?.....No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, sir. With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir?
(The room is silent. The professor stares at the student, his face unfathomable.)
Prof: I guess you'll have to take them on faith, son.
Student : That is it sir.. The link between man & god is FAITH.
That is all that keeps things moving & alive.
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Have u ever loved a woman?
The passengers on the bus watched sympathetically as the attractive young
woman with the white cane made her way carefully up the steps. She paid the
driver and, using her hands to feel the location of the seats, walked down
the aisle and found the seat he had told her was empty. Then she has settled
in, placed her briefcase on her lap and rested her cane against her leg.
It had been a year since Susan became blind. Due to a medical misdiagnosis,
she had been rendered sightless, and she was suddenly thrown into a world of darkness, anger, frustration and self-pity.'How could this have happened to me?' she would plead, her heart knotted with anger. But no matter how much she cried or
ranted or prayed, she knew the painful truth, her sight was never going to
return. A cloud of depression hung over Susan's once optimistic spirit. All
she had to cling to was her husband Mark.
Mark was an Air Force officer and he loved Susan with all his heart. When she first lost her sight, he watched her sink into despair and was determined to help his wife gain the strength she needed to become independent again.
Finally, Susan felt ready to return to her job, but how would she get there? She used to take the bus, but was now too frightened to get around the city by herself. Mark volunteered to drive her to work each day, even though they worked at opposite ends of the city. At first, this comforted Susan and fulfilled Mark's need to protect his sightless wife who was so insecure about performing the slightest task. Soon, however Mark realized that this arrangement was not working - it was hectic, and costly.
Susan is going to have to start taking the bus again, he admitted to himself. But just the thought of mentioning it to her made him cringe. She was still so fragile, so angry. How would she react? Just as Mark predicted, Susan was horrified at the idea of taking the bus again. "I'm blind!" she responded bitterly. "How am I supposed to know where I'm going? I feel like you're abandoning me."
Mark's heart broke but he knew what had to be done. He promised Susan that each day he would ride the bus with her until she got the hang of it. And that is exactly what happened. For two solid weeks, Mark, military uniform and all, accompanied Susan to and from work each day. He taught her how to rely on her other senses to determine where she was and how to adapt to her new environment.
He helped her befriend the bus drivers who could watch out for her, and save her a seat. Each morning they made the journey together, and Mark would take a cab back to his office. Although this routine was even more costly and exhausting than the previous one, Mark knew it was only a matter of time before Susan would be able to ride the bus on her own.
Finally, Susan decided that she was ready to try the trip on her own. Monday
morning arrived, and before she left, she threw her arms around Mark, her temporary bus riding companion, her husband, and her best friend. Her eyes filled with tears of gratitude for his loyalty, his patience, his love. She said good-bye, and for the first time, they went their separate ways. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday... each day on her own went perfectly, and Susan had never felt better.
On Friday morning, Susan took the bus to work as usual. As she was paying her fare to exit the bus, the driver said, "Boy, I sure envy you." Susan was not sure if the driver was speaking to her or not. After all, who on earth would ever envy a blind woman who had struggled just to find the courage to live for the past year? "Why do you envy me?"
The driver responded, "It must feel so good to be taken care of and protected like you are." Susan had no idea what the driver was talking about, "What do you mean?"
The driver said, "You know, every morning for the past week, a fine looking gentleman in a military uniform has been standing across the corner watching you when you get off the bus. He makes sure you cross the street safely and he watches you until you enter your office building. Then he blows you a kiss, gives you a little salute and walks away. You are one lucky woman.
"Tears of happiness poured down Susan's cheeks, for although she could not see him, she had always felt Mark's presence. She was blessed, so blessed, for he had given her a gift more powerful than sight, a gift she did not need to see to believe - the gift of love that can bring light where there had been darkness.
You don't love a woman because she is beautiful, but she is beautiful because you love her..
woman with the white cane made her way carefully up the steps. She paid the
driver and, using her hands to feel the location of the seats, walked down
the aisle and found the seat he had told her was empty. Then she has settled
in, placed her briefcase on her lap and rested her cane against her leg.
It had been a year since Susan became blind. Due to a medical misdiagnosis,
she had been rendered sightless, and she was suddenly thrown into a world of darkness, anger, frustration and self-pity.'How could this have happened to me?' she would plead, her heart knotted with anger. But no matter how much she cried or
ranted or prayed, she knew the painful truth, her sight was never going to
return. A cloud of depression hung over Susan's once optimistic spirit. All
she had to cling to was her husband Mark.
Mark was an Air Force officer and he loved Susan with all his heart. When she first lost her sight, he watched her sink into despair and was determined to help his wife gain the strength she needed to become independent again.
Finally, Susan felt ready to return to her job, but how would she get there? She used to take the bus, but was now too frightened to get around the city by herself. Mark volunteered to drive her to work each day, even though they worked at opposite ends of the city. At first, this comforted Susan and fulfilled Mark's need to protect his sightless wife who was so insecure about performing the slightest task. Soon, however Mark realized that this arrangement was not working - it was hectic, and costly.
Susan is going to have to start taking the bus again, he admitted to himself. But just the thought of mentioning it to her made him cringe. She was still so fragile, so angry. How would she react? Just as Mark predicted, Susan was horrified at the idea of taking the bus again. "I'm blind!" she responded bitterly. "How am I supposed to know where I'm going? I feel like you're abandoning me."
Mark's heart broke but he knew what had to be done. He promised Susan that each day he would ride the bus with her until she got the hang of it. And that is exactly what happened. For two solid weeks, Mark, military uniform and all, accompanied Susan to and from work each day. He taught her how to rely on her other senses to determine where she was and how to adapt to her new environment.
He helped her befriend the bus drivers who could watch out for her, and save her a seat. Each morning they made the journey together, and Mark would take a cab back to his office. Although this routine was even more costly and exhausting than the previous one, Mark knew it was only a matter of time before Susan would be able to ride the bus on her own.
Finally, Susan decided that she was ready to try the trip on her own. Monday
morning arrived, and before she left, she threw her arms around Mark, her temporary bus riding companion, her husband, and her best friend. Her eyes filled with tears of gratitude for his loyalty, his patience, his love. She said good-bye, and for the first time, they went their separate ways. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday... each day on her own went perfectly, and Susan had never felt better.
On Friday morning, Susan took the bus to work as usual. As she was paying her fare to exit the bus, the driver said, "Boy, I sure envy you." Susan was not sure if the driver was speaking to her or not. After all, who on earth would ever envy a blind woman who had struggled just to find the courage to live for the past year? "Why do you envy me?"
The driver responded, "It must feel so good to be taken care of and protected like you are." Susan had no idea what the driver was talking about, "What do you mean?"
The driver said, "You know, every morning for the past week, a fine looking gentleman in a military uniform has been standing across the corner watching you when you get off the bus. He makes sure you cross the street safely and he watches you until you enter your office building. Then he blows you a kiss, gives you a little salute and walks away. You are one lucky woman.
"Tears of happiness poured down Susan's cheeks, for although she could not see him, she had always felt Mark's presence. She was blessed, so blessed, for he had given her a gift more powerful than sight, a gift she did not need to see to believe - the gift of love that can bring light where there had been darkness.
You don't love a woman because she is beautiful, but she is beautiful because you love her..
Saturday, February 25, 2006
Dealing with the Spam Epidemic: Regaining Control of Your Inbox
Dealing with the Spam Epidemic:
Regaining Control of Your Inbox
The first spam e-mail ever sent, according to IBM, can be traced back to April 2, 1994. In the 12 years since, spam has grown at an exponential rate. According to readily available statistics, spam accounted for anywhere between 40% and 82% of all e-mail in 2005. With this growth has come new legislation: the CAN-SPAM Act of 2004 (see “The CAN-SPAM Act” below).
The sources of spam are widely varied, but the most common perpetrators include unregulated overseas parties, legitimate businesses, viruses, criminal phishing scams and others. Although legitimate businesses have largely cleaned-up their act, consumers may still perceive certain legally acceptable e-mail solicitations as spam (see “What ‘Exactly’ Is Spam?” below).
Many other efforts to curb spam are also underway. Some of the largest ISPs are making some headway. And thousands of publicly available blacklists and white lists exist, denoting “good” and “bad” senders (see “Fighting Back…and Winning” below). Yet, despite all the efforts underway, the surest method for protecting yourself and your family today is to run your own anti-spam software.
What "Exactly" is Spam?
It’s hard to nail down a precise definition, which is a constant challenge in the fight against spam proliferation. The fact is, “spam” means different things to different people. Some believe in a broad interpretation — that spam is unwanted email of ANY kind, even forwarded joke e-mails from friends and relatives can sometimes qualify. Others confine their definition of spam to unsolicited ads and commercial offers. But what if the offer comes from a store or Web site where you shop frequently — and comes with a valuable coupon attached? What if you were glad to receive it? Would you still then call it “spam?"
According to Merriam-Webster online, spam is “unsolicited usually commercial e-mail sent to a large number of addresses.” Pretty straightforward, right? However, for Internet security providers like CA, the definition can be expanded to include phishing scam e-mails that aren’t trying to sell you anything, virus infected e-mails that come from friends, or any e-mail from persons you haven’t authorized to enter your Inbox.
Clearly, the definition continues to pose a challenge. As new interpretations arise for what spam “is” and “is not,” technological solutions and legal remedies will evolve as well.
Spam Facts & Stats
Check out these staggering statistics about spam:
• Research indicates that more than 40% to 82% of all e-mail is unsolicited, unwanted spam.
• According to the Anti-Phishing Working Group’s Report of August 2005, the country hosting the most phishing sites in August was the United States.
• 13,776 unique phishing reports were received in the month of August alone.
• 30% of all spam is relayed [or unknowingly broadcasted] by compromised home and home office PCs.
• Two-thirds of spam is deceptive or false and violates the law.
• According to CNET, consumers have rated spam as one of the most pervasive problems they face today.
• 23% of home computer users have received at least one phishing attempt via e-mail over the prior two weeks.
• 63% of email users say they have received porn spam, compared to 71% just a year ago.
• The cost of spam in the U.S. has now reached $21.58 billion annually in lost productivity.
• Percentage of spam recipients who…
… open spam to see what the message says — 14%
… sweep their accounts free of spam at least once a week — 68%
… receive at least 40 spam emails a day — 78%
The CAN-SPAM Act in Review
Ever wonder what the government is doing to protect you from unwanted spam? Here’s a brief summary of the Federal Trade Commission’s CAN-SPAM Act and how this legislation is designed to protect you:
• It bans false or misleading header information (who the e-mail is from).
• It prohibits deceptive subject lines.
• It requires that commercial email give recipients an opt-out method.
• It requires that commercial email be identified as an advertisement and include the sender's valid physical postal address.
Each violation of the above provisions is subject to fines of up to $11,000. Deceptive commercial email also is subject to laws banning false or misleading advertising. Additional fines apply to spammers who not only violate the rules described above, but also use unscrupulous methods of obtaining e-mail addresses, such as “harvesting.” The CAN-SPAM Act also allows the Department of Justice to seek criminal penalties, including imprisonment, for some more serious offenses, such as sending spam through another entity’s computer without authorization.
Despite industry and government’s best efforts, it’s entirely possible that spam may never effectively be eliminated, so it only makes sense to do your best to restrict it.
Regaining Control of Your Inbox
The first spam e-mail ever sent, according to IBM, can be traced back to April 2, 1994. In the 12 years since, spam has grown at an exponential rate. According to readily available statistics, spam accounted for anywhere between 40% and 82% of all e-mail in 2005. With this growth has come new legislation: the CAN-SPAM Act of 2004 (see “The CAN-SPAM Act” below).
The sources of spam are widely varied, but the most common perpetrators include unregulated overseas parties, legitimate businesses, viruses, criminal phishing scams and others. Although legitimate businesses have largely cleaned-up their act, consumers may still perceive certain legally acceptable e-mail solicitations as spam (see “What ‘Exactly’ Is Spam?” below).
Many other efforts to curb spam are also underway. Some of the largest ISPs are making some headway. And thousands of publicly available blacklists and white lists exist, denoting “good” and “bad” senders (see “Fighting Back…and Winning” below). Yet, despite all the efforts underway, the surest method for protecting yourself and your family today is to run your own anti-spam software.
What "Exactly" is Spam?
It’s hard to nail down a precise definition, which is a constant challenge in the fight against spam proliferation. The fact is, “spam” means different things to different people. Some believe in a broad interpretation — that spam is unwanted email of ANY kind, even forwarded joke e-mails from friends and relatives can sometimes qualify. Others confine their definition of spam to unsolicited ads and commercial offers. But what if the offer comes from a store or Web site where you shop frequently — and comes with a valuable coupon attached? What if you were glad to receive it? Would you still then call it “spam?"
According to Merriam-Webster online, spam is “unsolicited usually commercial e-mail sent to a large number of addresses.” Pretty straightforward, right? However, for Internet security providers like CA, the definition can be expanded to include phishing scam e-mails that aren’t trying to sell you anything, virus infected e-mails that come from friends, or any e-mail from persons you haven’t authorized to enter your Inbox.
Clearly, the definition continues to pose a challenge. As new interpretations arise for what spam “is” and “is not,” technological solutions and legal remedies will evolve as well.
Spam Facts & Stats
Check out these staggering statistics about spam:
• Research indicates that more than 40% to 82% of all e-mail is unsolicited, unwanted spam.
• According to the Anti-Phishing Working Group’s Report of August 2005, the country hosting the most phishing sites in August was the United States.
• 13,776 unique phishing reports were received in the month of August alone.
• 30% of all spam is relayed [or unknowingly broadcasted] by compromised home and home office PCs.
• Two-thirds of spam is deceptive or false and violates the law.
• According to CNET, consumers have rated spam as one of the most pervasive problems they face today.
• 23% of home computer users have received at least one phishing attempt via e-mail over the prior two weeks.
• 63% of email users say they have received porn spam, compared to 71% just a year ago.
• The cost of spam in the U.S. has now reached $21.58 billion annually in lost productivity.
• Percentage of spam recipients who…
… open spam to see what the message says — 14%
… sweep their accounts free of spam at least once a week — 68%
… receive at least 40 spam emails a day — 78%
The CAN-SPAM Act in Review
Ever wonder what the government is doing to protect you from unwanted spam? Here’s a brief summary of the Federal Trade Commission’s CAN-SPAM Act and how this legislation is designed to protect you:
• It bans false or misleading header information (who the e-mail is from).
• It prohibits deceptive subject lines.
• It requires that commercial email give recipients an opt-out method.
• It requires that commercial email be identified as an advertisement and include the sender's valid physical postal address.
Each violation of the above provisions is subject to fines of up to $11,000. Deceptive commercial email also is subject to laws banning false or misleading advertising. Additional fines apply to spammers who not only violate the rules described above, but also use unscrupulous methods of obtaining e-mail addresses, such as “harvesting.” The CAN-SPAM Act also allows the Department of Justice to seek criminal penalties, including imprisonment, for some more serious offenses, such as sending spam through another entity’s computer without authorization.
Despite industry and government’s best efforts, it’s entirely possible that spam may never effectively be eliminated, so it only makes sense to do your best to restrict it.
Thursday, February 23, 2006
How to target the Right Customer?
Don't be satisfied by a 2% response rate. Ask for more. Rakhshin Patel, senior vice president and general manager, Thompsonconnect Worldwide, tells us how. . .
Monday evening. The phone rings. It's the agent of my mobile service provider, addressing me as Mr Patel and asking me if I want an add-on card for my non-existent wife. I tell her for the umpteenth time that I am not Mr and, No, I am not interested.Tuesday morning. I receive an email from them. My needs haven't changed, so I delete the message without opening it.Friday evening. Another call from the agent. Now, I'm getting a bit irritated to be contacted three times in one week. I tell them I am ready to move to another service provider and to take me off their telemarketing list. I would hate to change my telephone number, but the hassle factor has reached an unacceptable level.
Opt out, screen out, throw out
The result. Though I was satisfied with the quality of the product and the level of service, I became a disgruntled customer. I may not purchase from the company when a future need arises, and I may tell my family and friends about the bad experience. (Besides, writing about it.) Thanks, but no thanks.If you are a typical mobile phone user, you receive three or more credit card solicitations a month. Five or more personal loan and home loan telephone calls a month. And usually, you don't respond. You just throw the mail into the trash or bang down the phone.Credit card issuers and loan service providers mail and call millions of people every year. With responses of less than 1%, it means 99% of their marketing budget and precious time was wasted, contacting me and others like me.
Right customer, wrong message
The only thing that interests me (especially within the relatively short duration of a telephone contact) is my needs, my pain, my problems and how you can solve them. What you have is only meaningful within this context.Why couldn't the loan provider, instead of selling rates and saying I am pre-approved, tell me why an equity loan might be good for me in today's stock market situation?Direct marketers can no longer ignore the fact that the industry is in a crisis. Customers are voicing their anger for the flood of intrusive, untargeted and irrelevant marketing communications. The US Direct Marketing Association reports that its database of people opting out of email grew by 176%!Similarly, the telephone suppression file grew by 65% last year. If that's not enough, according to a Harris Poll, 75% of people would make unsolicited email messages illegal. Though in India we don't have these privacy laws in place yet, consumers are soon going to be up in arms with these carpet bombing marketers.Direct marketers keep clutching on to old paradigms like, '2% is an acceptable response.' It's not. It represents a horrendously low threshold of relevance. The opting out and junking of email, phone and mail indicates that the current saturation bombing will only further increase the number of customers who 'just say no' to our marketing. Remember, at the current 'acceptable response rate' of 2%, 98% of our audience throws our messages in the trash. Save your money.
Ready, fire, aim
So how can marketers target their prospects better?You can't please everyone, so don't try. Instead, target your products or services to those customers most likely to buy what you offer. It's easier than you think.First, define a target group of top prospects for your offering. Targeting synonyms used in advertising and marketing lingo such as SEC A, B will not help. Every prospect for your offering fits into one or more small groups or segments that can best be described by their attributes beyond income and education.Useful attributes include geographic location, lifestyle indicators and purchasing behavior. Segment specific behaviors, profiles and objectives are critical in creating your target list.Sometimes, an organisation can determine its target customers by looking at the other side of the coin - in other words, by asking who it should not try to please. The trick is to identify the best customers, and determine which characteristics differentiate these profitable customers from the rest. Then, focus your promotional strategies on the segments most likely to produce your new best customers.A premium retail apparel brand in north India used a credit card base to acquire new customers by looking beyond the basic geo-demographic information. Data, mainly transactional information of the customer through his card purchases, was tracked according to apparel and lifestyle spends across competitive brands and categories in the past six months.And the response? 22% to 30% across seasons. Who said 2% is average?
Ask and you shall receive
But what do you do when there are no lists available?A lube manufacturer in Mumbai wanted to build a list of truck mechanics, the ones who influence lube purchase decisions. These roadside mechanics don't read the news; hence advertising was not the answer. Nor does this segment own credit cards, have club memberships or have an association of their own.So the agency hired college students to walk the streets of nine cities in India, and take down the mechanics' names, contact details, the size of their workshop besides other personal attributes. Within three weeks, they had over 6,000 mechanics on their database.Similarly, when a cigarette manufacturer in East India wanted to build a list of smokers of premium brands, research agents stood outside 3,000 paan-bidi shops filling in profiles of smokers who bought particular brands. And guess what: 375,000 smokers on their base within a month. What's your pleasure?A car manufacturer wanted to develop a base of B car owners who had owned their car for sometime and would be ready to upgrade. The route? A 'hand-raiser' press advertisement with an interesting twist. It read, 'Wanted - A family to fly to Singapore!' . . . 'Eligibility: Owners of Zen, Esteem, etc.' Over two days, a substantial prospect base was developed that was more accurate and valid than any that could be purchased off the shelf.A paint manufacturer wanted to talk to people who were ready to paint their homes. Unless you were psychic, you could never find such a list. So they developed a home décor service with a centralized call center for advice on painting homes and advertised the service. The advertisement headlined, 'Don't paint your home till you call 1-600-12345' got people ready to paint their homes calling in. No more 2% response and 98% wastage.Most marketers forget that one of the easier routes to develop new customers is through their existing customers. A satisfied, happy customer is most likely to recommend others. Not only is it cheaper, but you would get similar profile prospects as your existing customers. Readers' Digest uses the referral route to garner millions of new customers.
Good, better, best
For most enterprises, there's a mix of good, better and best customers. Unfortunately, there are bad customers as well, and they can be a time and money drain. They are never satisfied and almost always cost you more to serve than they spend. Send them to your competitors.Successful companies know exactly who their ideal customers are, and concentrate on satisfying those customers. They do everything they can to please and retain them. Simply stated, targeted customers should be those who will be loyal over time. It's far more economical and profitable to retain and upsell existing customers than to attract new ones. A leading retailer reveals that, one year after becoming a customer, only two out of each thousand customers (0.2%) were in the top customer segment and only twelve (1.2%) were in the second segment. Worse still, over half were inactive.
Aya Ram, Gaya Ram
Many customers are cherry pickers, the kind who, for example, would change mobile services several times, lured by cheaper rates and bigger incentives. When the introductory offer runs out, so do they, long before they can ever be profitable.A telecom operator in South India, struggling with high churn, planned to develop a blanket rewards and relationship program with its mobile subscribers.Rewarding all subscribers was not the answer. The bottom 28% of their subscribers were actually eating up half the profits generated by the others. Another 12% did not generate any profits. 30% were only slightly profitable. By focusing on the top 30% of its customers, the operator saved 70% of his marketing budget, and was able to retain 98% of these high end customers in a market that was witnessing over 50% churn.It can be more profitable to lose bad customers than to gain new ones! They cost more money to service than they generate. Designing a loyalty program that rewards better customers without rewarding this segment at all gives them less reason to stay. Retaining the right customer is common sense. Unfortunately, not common practice. Loyal customers are your advocates. The chosen few who will attract the many new.
2% is not enough
It's the time to not accept status quo. Pursue innovative strategies and not textbook solutions. Invest in building niche databases. Don't spam, not even once, not on your life - you will do your company, the industry and above all, the customer a favor.Reset your sights, target right and surprise me, and you may even get a 98% response.
Monday evening. The phone rings. It's the agent of my mobile service provider, addressing me as Mr Patel and asking me if I want an add-on card for my non-existent wife. I tell her for the umpteenth time that I am not Mr and, No, I am not interested.Tuesday morning. I receive an email from them. My needs haven't changed, so I delete the message without opening it.Friday evening. Another call from the agent. Now, I'm getting a bit irritated to be contacted three times in one week. I tell them I am ready to move to another service provider and to take me off their telemarketing list. I would hate to change my telephone number, but the hassle factor has reached an unacceptable level.
Opt out, screen out, throw out
The result. Though I was satisfied with the quality of the product and the level of service, I became a disgruntled customer. I may not purchase from the company when a future need arises, and I may tell my family and friends about the bad experience. (Besides, writing about it.) Thanks, but no thanks.If you are a typical mobile phone user, you receive three or more credit card solicitations a month. Five or more personal loan and home loan telephone calls a month. And usually, you don't respond. You just throw the mail into the trash or bang down the phone.Credit card issuers and loan service providers mail and call millions of people every year. With responses of less than 1%, it means 99% of their marketing budget and precious time was wasted, contacting me and others like me.
Right customer, wrong message
The only thing that interests me (especially within the relatively short duration of a telephone contact) is my needs, my pain, my problems and how you can solve them. What you have is only meaningful within this context.Why couldn't the loan provider, instead of selling rates and saying I am pre-approved, tell me why an equity loan might be good for me in today's stock market situation?Direct marketers can no longer ignore the fact that the industry is in a crisis. Customers are voicing their anger for the flood of intrusive, untargeted and irrelevant marketing communications. The US Direct Marketing Association reports that its database of people opting out of email grew by 176%!Similarly, the telephone suppression file grew by 65% last year. If that's not enough, according to a Harris Poll, 75% of people would make unsolicited email messages illegal. Though in India we don't have these privacy laws in place yet, consumers are soon going to be up in arms with these carpet bombing marketers.Direct marketers keep clutching on to old paradigms like, '2% is an acceptable response.' It's not. It represents a horrendously low threshold of relevance. The opting out and junking of email, phone and mail indicates that the current saturation bombing will only further increase the number of customers who 'just say no' to our marketing. Remember, at the current 'acceptable response rate' of 2%, 98% of our audience throws our messages in the trash. Save your money.
Ready, fire, aim
So how can marketers target their prospects better?You can't please everyone, so don't try. Instead, target your products or services to those customers most likely to buy what you offer. It's easier than you think.First, define a target group of top prospects for your offering. Targeting synonyms used in advertising and marketing lingo such as SEC A, B will not help. Every prospect for your offering fits into one or more small groups or segments that can best be described by their attributes beyond income and education.Useful attributes include geographic location, lifestyle indicators and purchasing behavior. Segment specific behaviors, profiles and objectives are critical in creating your target list.Sometimes, an organisation can determine its target customers by looking at the other side of the coin - in other words, by asking who it should not try to please. The trick is to identify the best customers, and determine which characteristics differentiate these profitable customers from the rest. Then, focus your promotional strategies on the segments most likely to produce your new best customers.A premium retail apparel brand in north India used a credit card base to acquire new customers by looking beyond the basic geo-demographic information. Data, mainly transactional information of the customer through his card purchases, was tracked according to apparel and lifestyle spends across competitive brands and categories in the past six months.And the response? 22% to 30% across seasons. Who said 2% is average?
Ask and you shall receive
But what do you do when there are no lists available?A lube manufacturer in Mumbai wanted to build a list of truck mechanics, the ones who influence lube purchase decisions. These roadside mechanics don't read the news; hence advertising was not the answer. Nor does this segment own credit cards, have club memberships or have an association of their own.So the agency hired college students to walk the streets of nine cities in India, and take down the mechanics' names, contact details, the size of their workshop besides other personal attributes. Within three weeks, they had over 6,000 mechanics on their database.Similarly, when a cigarette manufacturer in East India wanted to build a list of smokers of premium brands, research agents stood outside 3,000 paan-bidi shops filling in profiles of smokers who bought particular brands. And guess what: 375,000 smokers on their base within a month. What's your pleasure?A car manufacturer wanted to develop a base of B car owners who had owned their car for sometime and would be ready to upgrade. The route? A 'hand-raiser' press advertisement with an interesting twist. It read, 'Wanted - A family to fly to Singapore!' . . . 'Eligibility: Owners of Zen, Esteem, etc.' Over two days, a substantial prospect base was developed that was more accurate and valid than any that could be purchased off the shelf.A paint manufacturer wanted to talk to people who were ready to paint their homes. Unless you were psychic, you could never find such a list. So they developed a home décor service with a centralized call center for advice on painting homes and advertised the service. The advertisement headlined, 'Don't paint your home till you call 1-600-12345' got people ready to paint their homes calling in. No more 2% response and 98% wastage.Most marketers forget that one of the easier routes to develop new customers is through their existing customers. A satisfied, happy customer is most likely to recommend others. Not only is it cheaper, but you would get similar profile prospects as your existing customers. Readers' Digest uses the referral route to garner millions of new customers.
Good, better, best
For most enterprises, there's a mix of good, better and best customers. Unfortunately, there are bad customers as well, and they can be a time and money drain. They are never satisfied and almost always cost you more to serve than they spend. Send them to your competitors.Successful companies know exactly who their ideal customers are, and concentrate on satisfying those customers. They do everything they can to please and retain them. Simply stated, targeted customers should be those who will be loyal over time. It's far more economical and profitable to retain and upsell existing customers than to attract new ones. A leading retailer reveals that, one year after becoming a customer, only two out of each thousand customers (0.2%) were in the top customer segment and only twelve (1.2%) were in the second segment. Worse still, over half were inactive.
Aya Ram, Gaya Ram
Many customers are cherry pickers, the kind who, for example, would change mobile services several times, lured by cheaper rates and bigger incentives. When the introductory offer runs out, so do they, long before they can ever be profitable.A telecom operator in South India, struggling with high churn, planned to develop a blanket rewards and relationship program with its mobile subscribers.Rewarding all subscribers was not the answer. The bottom 28% of their subscribers were actually eating up half the profits generated by the others. Another 12% did not generate any profits. 30% were only slightly profitable. By focusing on the top 30% of its customers, the operator saved 70% of his marketing budget, and was able to retain 98% of these high end customers in a market that was witnessing over 50% churn.It can be more profitable to lose bad customers than to gain new ones! They cost more money to service than they generate. Designing a loyalty program that rewards better customers without rewarding this segment at all gives them less reason to stay. Retaining the right customer is common sense. Unfortunately, not common practice. Loyal customers are your advocates. The chosen few who will attract the many new.
2% is not enough
It's the time to not accept status quo. Pursue innovative strategies and not textbook solutions. Invest in building niche databases. Don't spam, not even once, not on your life - you will do your company, the industry and above all, the customer a favor.Reset your sights, target right and surprise me, and you may even get a 98% response.
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