Sms Country Project

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Brand Track Research to Identify the Strategic Direction of SMS Country Introduction to the Company SMS Country: SMS Country is among the leaders in the Application 2 Mobile - Short Messaging Service (SMS) domain. We deliver SMS to about 550 networks in over 200+ countries. Our SMS Gateway is designed to integrate seamlessly into any existing software system, application or web-site. SMS Country has been in business for the past 7 years and have over 500,000 registered online users and over 2000 enterprises using our tools and services. The company has an industry standard infrastructure and a dedicated support team to ensure 24 x 7 hassle free services to all its customers. We have physical presence (offices and local staff) in India, UAE, Hong Kong and Singapore. SMS Country caters to the market segment who wish to send SMS from an internet connected PC (Internet to Person - Page 1 of 103

Transcript of Sms Country Project

Page 1: Sms Country Project

Brand Track Research to Identify the Strategic Direction of SMS Country

Introduction to the Company

SMS Country:

SMS Country is among the leaders in the Application 2 Mobile - Short

Messaging Service (SMS) domain. We deliver SMS to about 550 networks in

over 200+ countries. Our SMS Gateway is designed to integrate seamlessly

into any existing software system, application or web-site.

SMS Country has been in business for the past 7 years and have over

500,000 registered online users and over 2000 enterprises using our tools

and services. The company has an industry standard infrastructure and a

dedicated support team to ensure 24 x 7 hassle free services to all its

customers. We have physical presence (offices and local staff) in India, UAE,

Hong Kong and Singapore.

SMS Country caters to the market segment who wish to send SMS from an

internet connected PC (Internet to Person - I2P) or any software application

(Application to Person - A2P). These could include -

Individuals or Retail consumers

Enterprises or Corporate consumers

Software / Internet Applications

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The ease of use, ease of integration, zero start-up costs, feed-back through

delivery reports, customized bulk push etc. are features that benefit our users

immensely.

Most of the retail customers use SMS Country's website to compose and send

SMS. They can also use our custom plug-ins, certified by Microsoft, to extend

the capabilities of their desktop applications like MS Excel and MS Outlook to

send SMS. For example, a stock broker can use the Excel plug-in to push

stock alerts to all his registered customers.

Majority of our corporate customers use the API exposed by SMS Country for

their business needs without investing in any expensive hardware or software.

For example, a Cement manufacturer was using expensive tracking

equipment to ensure that his shipments were reaching the designated

resellers without any pilferage or diversion. This process did not keep the

designated resellers in the loop and the resulting improvements were not

significant. The manufacturer used the power of mobile phone penetration

and added the capability of sending SMS using the SMS Country Gateway

and started sending SMS notifications with all the shipment details to his

resellers. This proved to be a cheap and effective solution for his business

need. The manufacturer has now added the SMS notification module to all his

plants across India.

Management Team:

Satya Kalyan Yerramsetti - Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer: 

A visionary to the core, Satya provides the driving force for SMS Country's

young, high spirited and motivated team in achieving great heights.

Satya is a serial entrepreneur. During the Dotcom days, he started an online

examination portal, A2Zexams, the first of its kind at that time. He then

managed the Indian Operations of a UK based calling card company,

Ekspertek. This experience and knowledge in the Internet as well as the

Telecom domain was instrumental in carving out the current business of SMS

Country.

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He spends considerable time researching on the internet and is a true

believer in the FREE spirit of the Internet (everything on the internet should be

free).

Satya holds a Masters in Management degree from University of Western

Sydney, NSW, Australia and a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering

from Osmania University, Hyderabad.

Raju Kalluri - Co-founder and Director, Technology:

With his quick grasp, expertise and knowledge in the ever-growing telecom

domain, Raju plays a key role in defining SMS Country's technology strategies

and product development in the areas of internet and mobile communications.

Prior to SMS Country, Raju worked with Taruni Techno vision and was

instrumental in developing the Short Messaging Server software which was

leased out to TATA Cellular (now Idea Cellular). He also worked with a couple

of technology companies in the IVR, email and fax space.

Raju holds a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineer from Andhra University. His

hobbies include watching movies (language no bar) and writing comedy

tracks for Telugu movies.

Sanyog Jain - Chief Operating Officer:

Sanyog takes care of the day to day operations of SMS Country apart from

participating in business strategy planning and development. He is also

responsible for all public relations, corporate communication, marketing and

branding activities.

Sanyog joins us from Cognizant Technology Solutions, a highly successful IT

Services company. In six years with Cognizant, Sanyog has played several

important roles in India and UK, key ones being within the Strategic Pursuits

Team and UK Relationship Management team. Prior to that, Sanyog worked

as Maintenance Engineer for a 3X30MW captive power plant for Tata Steel at

Jamshedpur.

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Sanyog completed his MBA from IIM Calcutta and holds a Mechanical

Engineering degree from IIT Roorkee. He is an armchair sports enthusiast

and has an interest in development economics.

Ravindra Kumar Yerramsetti - Chief Commercial Officer:

Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta and BITS, Pilani (Electrical &

Electronics Engineering) alumnus, Ravindra is the techno-commercial man

behind SMS Country. He is responsible for developing and executing SMS

Country's revenue strategy.

Prior to SMS Country, Ravindra worked with Tata Steel in their prestigious

Hot Strip Mill, taking care of the maintenance of High Voltage Equipment. He

also worked with Kotak Mahindra Group in their Securities and Wealth

Management Divisions, handling the investment advisory at Hyderabad and

Kolkata.

Ravindra likes reading books and watching news and sports channels. He is a

big fan of Harry Potter, J.R.R. Tolkein, Sachin Tendulkar, "Super Star"

Rajanikanth to name a few.

Ramesh Thimmana - Chief Technology Officer:

Ramesh's rich and varied experience in a host of technologies and the ability

to work with teams of different sizes, spread across different continents

makes him the right man to lead the Technology Team at SMS Country.

Providing the interface between the Customers and the Technologists, he

ensures the timely development and delivery of products and software. His

attitude to Software development can be summed up as "Be loyal to your

deliveries, everything else will take care of itself!"

Ramesh holds a Bachelors of Engineering - Honors (E&E) degree from BITS,

Pilani. Prior to SMS Country, he spent over eight years consulting in the City

of London for various Investment Banks and Financial Institutions like

Deutsche Bank, Citibank, Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, and Reuters. He's

also spent a short but valuable time at Party Gaming, one of the biggest

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online gaming companies in the world, developing their first ever Mobile

product for the European market.

Ramesh has a keen interest in the economics of football clubs and is an avid

follower of the English and Spanish leagues.

Y. Krishna Murthy - Director, Personnel & Administration:

A post graduate in Industrial Psychology, YK Sir handles the softer side of

SMS Country. Apart from the overall administration, he also takes care of the

HR initiatives of the company like recruitment, training and other such related

activities.

Spending over 30 years in the corporate sector, YK Sir has acquired expertise

in Profit-Centre Management, Project Management, and Corporate Strategic

Planning and HR areas. Prior to SMS Country, he worked in very senior roles

at a host of Companies, both in India and abroad.

He held prominent positions in professional bodies such as President of

Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Trades Association (RATA), Mumbai; Vice-

President of All India Air-conditioning and Refrigeration Association

(AIACRA), Delhi; and Member of Raw Material Sub-Committee of CII,

Mumbai.

He had also been a visiting faculty at Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management

Studies - Mumbai, Mumbai Management Association and Mumbai

Productivity Council.

He is an antiques collector and spends most of his free time hunting for the

antiques.

Board of Directors

Subba Rao Yerramsetti - Executive Chairman:

Apart from being an angel investor in SMS Country, Mr. Subba Rao brings to

this fast expanding high tech field his hard earned experience and business

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acumen. Today, his humanistic approach and business vision guide the

growth of SMS Country.

Mr. Subba Rao began his career in the sales wing of Aries Agro Industries, a

micro-nutrient company and went on to head the Sales & Marketing division.

He then started out on the entrepreneur trial and established an Agro-

Chemical distribution company in Andhra Pradesh with about 600 employees

and 11 offices spread across Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Karnataka and

Orissa.

He also has interests in varied fields spanning FMCG distribution, Telecom

distribution, Micro Financing business, Aqua culture, Infrastructure ventures

etc.

Sekhar Rao - Non-Executive Director:

Sekhar Rao is currently the Chief Operating Officer, India at MACH, a leading

clearing and settlement partner for mobile based transactions. As COO, he

has responsibility for Operations, Business Development, Marketing & Sales,

Client Support and Resource Management.

Sekhar has rich experience in Information Technology, Profit-Centre

Management, Strategic Planning and Marketing & Sales. Before joining

MACH, Sekhar was at Quillis Infotech Pvt. Ltd, an American IT Company in

India, as Managing Director. Prior to this Sekhar had held very senior and

responsible positions both in Private and Public sector corporations in India.

His expertise includes turnaround strategies, identifying and converting big

opportunities along with Domain and Operational Knowledge of several

Verticals.

Sekhar holds a Bachelor Degree of Technology (B Tech) in Chemical

Engineering from Osmania University, India and AMP (Advanced

Management Programmer) from The Indian Institute of Management (IIM),

Bangalore.

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Partial list of Clients:

     

   

     

 

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

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BUSINESS INDIA (19-October-2008) 

Country for Jain

Thirty-five-year-old Sanyog Jain started in the

mobile advertising of SMSCountry Networks, an

Internet infrastructure solutions company. An IITian

and IIM-Kolkata alumnus, he worked with IT

company Cognizant Technology Solutions for four

years in the UK.

COSTA RICA TECHNOLOGY INSIGHT

2008 ( March 6-7, 2008 )

As part of the Indian Delegation, SMSCountry

participated in the Costa Rica Technology Insight

2008, one of the premier communication and

information technology event of the Central

American region. During the course of these two

days, we have interacted with a large number of

individuals and enterprise customers. They helped

us understand the potential of the Central America

as a market, the existing practices and the local

pricing models. We are now focusing our efforts in

catering to this market by forging ties with local

companies and telecom operators. 

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Hindustan Times ( New Delhi, March 10, 2008 )

Just click 160by2.com and send free SMS!

"On one side were users who wanted free SMS and

on the other side were brands and media companies

trying to reach these consumers. Initially we ignored

them but as the number increased, we realized that

there was a genuine opportunity here, waiting to be

exploited," said Satya Kalyan Yerramsetti, CEO,

SMSCountry Networks Pvt. Ltd. 

THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS.com ( 19-Oct-2007 )

Hotmail rewrote the rules of communication via the

internet in 1997 by introducing free personal email.

Taking the cue, SMS Country Networks Pvt. Ltd has

launched a free personal SMS service through its

website www.160by2.com.

THE HINDU ( 14-July-2007 ) 

160by2.com to offer free SMS

Explaining how SMS can be offered free of cost, Mr.

Ravindra says half the screen of any mobile phone

can be offered for advertisements. Any standard

SMS has 160 characters. If 80 characters are left for

the user, the remaining 80 characters can be

devoted for the ad space.

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Andhrajyothy ( 28-June-2007 )

Nowadays youth cannot spend a day or even a half-

day without using their mobile. And, even most of

them use SMS service more than their talk-time. But

it's a costly affair. For every SMS one has to spend

a minimum of 50p, which comes up to almost Rs

250-350 per month. Now you can save all this

money with the Free SMS service from 160by2.

Indian Express ( 21-June-2007 )

An SMS with a scrolling ad! SMSCountry Networks

Private Limited, which is already in the business of

sending bulk SMSs across the globe, has come up

with the novel venture. 

The Economic Times (20-June-2007)

The catch being the size of the SMS has been fixed

by the good folk at 160by2.com at 80 characters.

According to Venus Kumar, manager, business

development, "Research shows that 85%-90% of

the SMS messages are less than 80 characters

long. Hence, 80 characters for the user and 80 for

advertisers".

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Indian Express (22-May-2007) 

The bulk SMS facility can be utilized by schools to

inform parents about meetings. Individuals can use

this service to inform about a marriage or any event

to relatives and friends in a short time.

Andhra Jyothy (17-May-2007)

With SMSCountry’s Bulk SMS service you can

easily send an SMS to your colleagues and friends

anywhere in the world. Especially in colleges and

offices you can get huge amounts of work done with

minimal human resources.

INDIASOFT 2007 (10-January-2007)

International IT Exhibition & Conference. Stop

clicking away your puny mobile keyboard for

messages and shift to the mouse instead.

SMSCountry a new PC to Mobile software promises

bulk smsing over 1,000 SMSs at just one click of the

mouse.

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TIMES OF INDIA (09-October-2005)

News Article by Times Of India talking about the

power of Excel Tool and future products that

SMSCountry plans to Launch.

SMS via MS Outlook

Features include messaging multiple recipients

using Outlook address book.

-Sunitha Natti ( Thursday,

July 14, 2005 )

HYDERABAD: SMSCountry, a Hyderabad-based

two-way text messaging application developer, in

December 2004, commercially launched a slew of

mobile office tools that link the desktop to mobile

phone for SMS-ing, no matter wherever you are in

the world. 

Indiantelevision.com's Media, Advertising &

Marketing Watch (04 December 2004)

SMSCountry launches pc2Mobile SMS service at Rs

1.49 - Indiantelevision.com Team

BANGALORE: Short messaging portal

SMSCountry.com has launched internet based SMS

service called PC2Mobile. The service costs Rs.1.49

per message anywhere in the world.

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Business Standard ( 05-November-2004 )

SMSCountry is aiming big time

SMSCountry.com a Hyderabad based company, is

all set to take its innovative messaging platform big

time.

Deccan Herald (05-November-2004)

SMS through net for just Rs.1.49/- 

The facility is expected to be a boon for those who

want to send international SMSs... 

Bangaloreit.com Daily newsletter ( 3rd-November-

2004 )

Stalls you must not miss at BANGALOREIT.COM

Here is a list of some stalls, which are the center of

attraction at IT.com here is our list of "most

happening" stalls at the pavilions:..

Awards/Achievements:

SMS Country Networks has been a leader in the SMS messaging solutions

segment. We have been honored with numerous prestigious awards that

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reflect our commitment to servicing our customers and an uncompromising

attitude when it comes to maintaining the highest standards. Listed below are

some of the awards and achievements we have earned.

Deloitte Fast 500 Asia Pacific

Recognized by Deloitte as among the 500 fastest growing technology

companies in Asia Pacific for 2008.

SMS Country Networks was 208th in the list of 500

Deloitte Fast 50 – India

Recognized as among the 50 fastest growing technology companies in

India by Deloitte for the year 2008.

SMS Country Networks was 25th in the list.

Best Website of the Year 2008

Awarded by Metrix Labs as the best website of the year 2008 in the

ISP/Telecom category

Winners in other categories include Google, Cricinfo, Naukri, Zapak

and Orkut.

Certified Microsoft Vendor

SMS Country’s Microsoft excel plugin software certified by Microsoft Inc. as a

genuine value added innovation to their software and listed in the Microsoft

marketplace.

Bulk SMS Software’s:

SMS Country's Bulk SMS Gateway can be integrated seamlessly into your

existing SMS messaging system or application through Bulk SMS software(s)

like MS Excel Plugin, SMS APIs and Desktop SMS software. This allows

developers and integrators access to a secure, reliable, high capacity SMS

messaging platform. Developers can build and deploy mobile data

applications through several SMS APIs, using generic protocols.

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SMS Country has improved bulk SMS software. It releases the versions of MS

Excel and API Plugins for covering more features on sending SMS in an easy

way.

Microsoft Excel SMS Plugin

Bulk SMS APIs (Application Programming

Interface)

Bulk SMS Desktop Software

Bulk SMS APIs - Application Programming Interface for Automated

Messaging

An Application Programming Interface (SMS APIs) is one way to connect to

SMS Country's Core Messaging Platform. SMS API provides an easy,

efficient and flexible option to integrate with your website / application,

facilitating auto-generated SMS Text messages to be delivered to the

intended recipient’s mobile phones. This method does not require SMS

Country's Software Platform at your Enterprise/Data Center site.

The company offers two different packages of SMS APIs to the clients.

How much currently charging for bulk SMS APIs:

Free Setup inclusive of Sender Names.

This account gives 24x7 (24-hour 365-days) connectivity with the operator

SMSCountry now gives the option of One-Week trial period for testing our

SMS API Service.

SMS Gateway Connectivity - HTTP/S API

HTTP - Hyper Text Transfer Protocol

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HTTPS - Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure Socket Layer

Automated Text SMS: Using this feature you can satisfy your customers with

quick transfer of information. This tool is of great help to deliver automated

text SMS regarding Doctor Appointment Reminders, Payment Notifications,

Shipment Delivery Messages, and Bank Transactions over and above a limit

set by the customer etc.

Language SMS: Send SMS in the language of your choice be it Arabic,

Chinese, Urdu, Hindi, Spanish, French, Greek, Russian etc.

WAP Push SMS: This feature enables you to send an SMS that contains web

link, which can take your Customer to MMS-Content on your Web Server.

He/she can visit a web page; download a software, etc. just by clicking the

URL in the mobile.

Picture messages: Picture messages are small images that can be used on

mobile phones as a background image or screensaver. Small black and white

picture messages can be sent through SMS. Colored picture messages

cannot be sent using SMS because they have huge size.

Flash SMS: Flash SMS appears on the recipient's mobile but won't get stored

in the Inbox, unless he or she saves. The user will benefit by just having a

look at the information he/she wants, and there is no question of user

inconvenience. This can be used for advertising purposes for example:

opening of your new branch, your company reaching a land mark

achievement etc.

Unique Features of SMSCountry's HTTP API -

Our HTTP API is one of the best and the fastest ways to deliver SMS

Text messages across the globe.

You can send any type of SMS of your choice and need; let it be a

normal text message, flash message, ring tones, logos and picture

messages.

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Our gateway can be easily accessed by submitting values to the HTTP

API Server by the POST or GET method.

You can define your own unique Sender Identification.

You can create and manage sub-accounts with administrative rights

etc.

We also provide you Dynamic Delivery Reports with call Back Script

Option enabled. With this option, we will send Deliver Reports directly

to the URL specified by you. You can also access Delivery Reports

through our website.

You can now also integrate our services into your applications using our Web

Service (SOAP).

SMSCountry now gives you the option of One-Week trial period for testing our

API Service.

Email2SMS Gateway Connectivity - SMTP API

SMTP - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

With SMSCountry's SMTP API you can easily send SMS to any mobile across

the globe just by sending a simple Email. Our SMTP API gateway connectivity

(also refer Email2SMS) enables you to send emails to our gateway, and we

deliver your email as SMS to mobiles instantaneously.

We also give you the option of Two-Way messaging. With this the mobile

recipients can send SMS replies, which will be routed back to you via email or

SMS.

Using SMTP SMS API, you can send Plain Text & and Language (Unicode)

SMS Text messages.

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SMTP API is very useful to those who do not have a direct internet connection

but are connected to a mail server (like Outlook), which is connected to the

Internet. Server Maintenance Personnel, Network and Database

Administrators, Companies with firewall settings, Real Estate People,

Placement Consultancies, Corporate Managers to contact their Sales Team

on the move etc. could use this Email to SMS service best.

Note - Make sure your text message does not exceed 160 characters. If it

exceeds the limit, our system will send the first 160 characters as the

message and the remaining characters will not be included. In case of

Language SMS the character limit is 70 characters.

Setting up SMTP API: Configure the E-mail id(s) from which you want to

send the email. The default setting is the E-mail id you have provided during

the registration process. You can change/add more E-mail ids at any point of

time by clicking on the "Edit" link against "Email2SMS" on "My Account" page

(landing page after you logon to www.smscountry.com).

How SMTP API works – Format

User can send an email in the format recipient's mobile number.

Sender's [email protected] with the subject line as the User's

"username" and the body of the email containing the SMS Text message

Our server receives the E-mail, authenticates the User, extracts the recipients'

mobile numbers and the message and then sends out the SMS Text message

to all the intended recipients.

Destination E-mail address: 

[email protected],

[email protected] 

Subject: Testing Email2SMS 

Body of the E-mail: Testing SMTP API feature provided by SMSCountry

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MS Gateway Connectivity - XML API

XML- Extensible Markup Language

Quite often the easiest way for two applications to speak to each other is via

XML. SMSCountry's XML API helps you connect to third party API's. We

support only XML over HTTP.

For SMS XML API, we offer the same benefits and features we offer in

our HTTP API.

Download the XML API Setup Document to know how to set up the XML API

and Send SMS, Receive Delivery Reports and Check Account Balance.

SMS Gateway Connectivity - COM OBJECT

COM - Component Object Model

With our SMSCountry's HTTP API you can interact with our SMS Gateway via

the HTTP or HTTPS communication protocol. Since not everybody is able or

willing to implement the whole HTTP(s) channel, we have made COM Object

that takes away all the hassles and makes the task much easier and more

beneficial.

Our COM Object API helps you by:

It exports a rich set of methods and definitions, and makes it easy for you to

integrate SMS sending facility into your programs or ASP pages.

You can send SMS Text messages in Visual Basic (both in early and late

binding mode) and in VBScript (late bound Visual Basic only).

Since the COM Object interface is completely documented, any COM enabled

programming language can be used.

For COM Object API, we offer the same benefits and features we offer in our

HTTP API.

Download the COM Object Help Document to learn how to Send SMS,

Receive Delivery Reports and Check Account Balance.

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SMS Gateway Connectivity - SMPP

SMPP - Short Message Peer to Peer

SMPP is an open standard industry messaging designed protocol to simplify

the integration of all data applications with wireless mobile networks/operators

such as CDMA, TDMA, GSM and PDC. This protocol is widely deployed in

the mobile Telecommunications industry.

SMSCountry supports connections via SMPP Protocol using the global SMPP

3.3 / 3.4 standards. Please visit www.smsforum.net for the SMPP 3.3 and

SMPP 3.4 specifications. Using this connectivity, a client can send large

volumes of SMS messages per month reliably. We offer exhaustive message

reports, balance information and more through a web interface.

Integrate SMSCountry's SMPP API into your Software/ Application and you

will be able to send:

Automated Text SMS: Using this feature you can satisfy your customers with

quick transfer of information. This tool is of great help to deliver automated

text SMS regarding Doctor Appointment Reminders, Payment Notifications,

Shipment Delivery Messages, and Bank Transactions over and above a limit

set by the customer etc.

Language SMS: Send SMS in the language of your choice be it Arabic,

Chinese, Urdu, Hindi, Spanish, French, Greek, Russian etc.

WAP Push SMS: This feature enables you to send an SMS that contains a

link on an internet which can take your Customer to MMS-Content on your

Web Server. He/she can visit a web page; download a software, etc. just by

clicking the URL in the mobile.

Ring tones: Ring tones can be a value added feature for your site, especially

if you are owner of an entertainment website. With SMS Country's HTTP API

you can automatically do this rather than doing it manually.

Picture messages: Picture messages are small images that can be used on

mobile phones as a background image or screensaver. Small black and white

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picture messages can be sent through SMS. Colored picture messages

cannot be sent using SMS because they have huge size.

Logos: You can send your own logo, which the mobile user can use as a

background image or screensaver. This way you can easily create brand

awareness that too in the customer's personal space i.e. his/her Mobile. If you

are a corporate head you can ask your employees to keep your company logo

on their mobiles.

Flash SMS: Flash SMS appears on the recipient's mobile but won't get stored

in the Inbox, unless he or she saves. The user will benefit by just having a

look at the information he/she wants, and there is no question of user

inconvenience. This can be used for advertising purposes for example:

opening of your new branch, your company reaching a land mark

achievement etc.

Setting up an SMPP Account

SMSCountry looks at a minimum volume commitment from the client in order

to maintain a live SMPP connectivity account. Also, the client needs to

undergo a SMPP compliance test as per parameters set by our technical

team before one can get the SMPP connectivity.

SMS Gateway Connectivity - Web Services

The World Wide Web is being used more for application-to-application

communication. The programmatic interfaces that are useful for performing

this task are referred to as Web services.

Web services define a standard means of communication or inter-operating

between different software applications, which run on a variety of platforms

and/or frameworks. They are of great use and even a necessity for sending

SMS from Internet or any software application because of their great inter-

operability and extensibility.

Their machine-process-able descriptions also made Web Services more

useful. By combining them in a loosely coupled way, one can easily achieve

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complex operations like - sending Flash SMS, Picture Messages and Ring

Tones.

Desktop SMS Software

Are you looking for a tool that

Saves the time and cost you spend logging into the website

Allows you send to GROUP SMS to your friends, employees.

Gives you the flexibility to send BULK SMS in just a single click

Easily operated right from your desktop.

Then, SMSCountry Desktop SMS Software is the right solution to all these

needs.

SMSCountry Desktop SMS Software is a comprehensive and powerful

desktop tool that enables you to send out SMS from your computer to mobile

phones across the world. You can send messages from the comfort of your

desktop window, all at the click of a button.

Some of the excellent features of our Desktop SMS software -

It allows sending SMS in your own language like Arabic, Chinese, Spanish,

French, Greek, Russian, Hindi, Tamil etc. using your language keyboard or

conversion software.

Our SMS-Excel Plug-in functionality is included in this software. You can

upload MS Excel Spreadsheets and simply send personal customized SMS

Text messages to all your customers. It also has Phonebook facility to store

all your contacts. You can also upload a Text file [notepad] having details of

your contacts into your Phonebook.

SMSCountry Bulk MS-Excel Plugin 

SMSCountry SMS-Excel Plugin makes the task of sending Bulk SMS very

easy for our users. SMS-Excel Plugin seamlessly integrates with Microsoft

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Excel® and enables you to send SMS to mobile phones across the world from

your PC using Microsoft Excel.

Plan/Validity Lite Basic Premium

Life Time 10,000 60,000 1,20,000

One Year 2,000 12,000 24,000

6 Months 1200 8,000 16,000

3 Months 700 5,000 10,000

1 Month 250 - -

Per usage 10 - -

Free upto 10 SMS in a click - -

Excel Lite Features: 

Rs.0 charge for upto 10 SMS sent in a single click.

Option to pay per usage or monthly subscription.

Allows sending maximum 160 characters in a click.

It allows users to send upto 500 SMS at a single click.

Users can view instant delivery reports for the SMS sent.

Excel Basic Features:  All the features of Excel Lite-

It allows users to send upto 1,000 SMS at a single click.

Allows long SMS (more than 160 characters per message).

Flash SMS

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Excel Premium Features:  All the features of Excel Basic

Allows users to send more than 1,000 SMS(s) at a single click (max.

SMS depends on the version of Excel)

Allows long SMS (more than 160 characters per message).

Language SMS

Features:

Email2SMS SMS2Email

Keywords  Sub-Accounts

Mobile 2 Many Reminder SMS

Dynamic Delivery Reports Phone Book

Sender ID 2 Way SMS

Keyword/Two Way SMS:

Top of Form

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SMSCountry offers you a Two Way Messaging platform which allows you to

receive SMS, besides sending SMS. This allows you complete flexibility in

managing your incoming messages. You can modify/alter or delete these

received messages as per your need.

This facility is available to all our users registered with us. The Two-way SMS

feature works using a 'Keyword' as identifier of your messages. The Keyword

can be upto 4 characters. You can specify keywords (such as abbreviated

form of "Nick Name", "Brand Name" or "Company Name")

Bottom of Form

SMS Push URL Format: 

http://domainname/location?

mobilenumber=XXXXX&message=XXXXX&receivedon=MM/DD/YY

HH:MM:SS AM/PM

Domain-name is user website domain (ex: www.160by2.com)

Location is page on user website that will read the parameters pushed by us.

(Ex: keywordresponse.php)

Mobile-number, message and receive don are parameters that we will push

user from our end

Sample URL that finally needs to provide us for integration:

Ex: - http://www.160by2.com/keywordresponse.php

Who can use our Two-way Service?

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Individuals staying out of India & want to stay in touch with friends/relatives in

India. 

Any Business Owner who wants to Advertise & capture Interested responses

through Short/Long code.

Any Business who desires to use API to capture responses from their clients

directly. 

Email to SMS:

With SMSCountry's "Email2SMS", you can easily send SMS to multiple

recipients from your mail account. This feature allows you to send Bulk SMS

from any E-mail Client/Application to any mobile phone across the globe. So,

you need not always logon to your SMSCountry account or stay connected to

the internet for sending SMS. This feature can be used for:

Sending Error/System Alerts automatically to a group of numbers, whenever

an event occurs (Server error/ down alert for Systems Engineers, ISPs etc.).

Users who do not have a direct internet connection but are connected to a

mail server (like Outlook), which is connected to the Internet.

Send messages/ job details to colleagues, field-based engineers and support

staff, which is away from the office (field force, agents, retailers etc.).

Share the latest information/ appointment reminders with clients and partners.

Note - Make sure user text message does not exceed 160 characters. If it

exceeds the limit, our system will send the first 160 characters as the

message and the remaining characters will not be included. In case of

Language SMS the character limit is 70 characters.

Mobile 2 Many:

Now, with our unique Mobile2Many feature, user can easily send bulk SMS to

contacts in his Phonebook from his mobile handset. Mobile2Many feature

enables user to send SMS to his Phonebook contacts without the need to visit

our website.

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This is especially useful for persons/businesses who -

Are on the move but need to send out an alert/news to their

Clients/Customers.

Are not connected to or do not have access to the internet.

Save on the costs of sending bulk SMS from their mobile phone,

particularly when on roaming.

How does Mobile2Many feature work?

Send a single SMS Text message to SMSCountry Gateway Number

(+919246356765) with the short name of your Group (Group ID) as the first

word in the message. As soon as our server receives the message, it is sent

across to all members in that particular Group.

What does a User need to do to use the Mobile2Many feature?

Configure your Mobile2Many settings: Log on to www.smscountry.com with

"Username" and "Password". On "My Account" page, go to "Mobile2Many

Settings". Set the mobile number from which you would send the SMS Text

message. The default setting is the mobile number you have entered during

the time of registration with SMSCountry. If you wish, you can change it at any

point of time by clicking on the "Edit" link.

Ensure you have created Groups and sorted your Contacts into these Groups

in your SMSCountry Phonebook.

Create a short name or Group ID for each Group in "Mobile2Many Settings",

so that you don't need to key in a long name when sending an SMS Text

message and also save on the SMS character count.

SMS 2 Email:

Our free "SMS2Email" feature allows you to send SMS Text as email (SMS

text email). Just send an SMS to our gateway number +919246356765 with

the recipient's email address as the first word of the SMS. SMS will then be

delivered to the recipient almost instantaneously via an email. Anyhow you

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have to bear the standard charges from your network operator for delivering

the SMS.

How SMS2Email Works

To send the email message - "Rahul, I will be late for the afternoon

meeting." to [email protected]

Simply send text...

"[email protected] Rahul, I will be late for the afternoon meeting." to

our Gateway number... +919246356765

and we will deliver this SMS via email to... [email protected]

SMSCountry Pricing and Coverage:

To Send SMS from SMSCountry, you need to recharge your account with a

certain 'Amount of money' and we would offer you an applicable discount for

that recharge. It is similar to recharging your mobile phone. We offer recharge

packs of various denominations, with each denomination of recharge having a

discount % associated with it.

The specific price per SMS would depend upon the country and network

where you wish to send the SMS. The specific per SMS price can be viewed

below :

No of

SMS

Price Per

SMS

Recharge

Pack

5000 0.15 INR 750 INR

10000 0.14 INR 1400 INR

25000 0.13 INR 3250 INR

50000 0.12 INR 6000 INR

75000 0.11 INR 8250 INR

100000 0.1 INR 10000 INR

250000 0.09 INR 22500 INR

500000 0.08 INR 40000 INR

750000 0.07 INR 52500 INR

1000000 0.06 INR 60000 INR

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Note: Service tax of 10.3% is applicable.

The recharge is valid for a period of One Month from the date of last recharge.

Product Information:

SMS History:

SMS (Short Messaging Service) was an accidental success that took nearly

everyone in the mobile industry by surprise. Few people predicted that this

hard of use service would take off. There was hardly any promotion for or

mention of SMS by network operators until after SMS started to be a

success. SMS advertising went from showing business people in suits

entering text messages to bright pink and yellow advertisements aimed at the

youth markets that adopted SMS Marketing.

SMS was the triumph of the consumer- every generation needs a technology

that it can adopt as its own to communicate with- and the text generation took

up SMS. Paradoxically, it was because SMS was so very difficult to use that

the young people said that they were going to overcome the man machine

interface and other issues and use the service anyway. The fact that the entry

barriers to learning the service were so high were an advantage because it

meant that parents and teachers and other adult authority figures were

unlikely and unable and unwilling to be able to use the service.

SMS is one of the few services in consumer history that has grown very fast

without corresponding decreases in pricing. Usually- even in the case of voice

mobile phones- price reductions in the cost of the phones and phone service

have led to increases in usage. Whilst these factors have helped to bring

younger people into the mobile market, the price of SMS itself stayed steady

because the networks were having trouble handling the volumes of messages

being sent and dared not reduce prices.

A whole new alphabet emerged because SMS messages took a long time to

enter and were quite abrupt as people attempted to say as much as possible

with as few keystrokes. Abbreviations such as “C U L8er” for “See you later”

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sprung up for timesaving and coolness. The use of “smileys” to reduce the

abruptness of the medium and to help indicate the mood of the person in a

way that was difficult with just text became popular.

The introduction of prepay mobile tariffs in which people could pay for their

airtime in advance and thereby control their mobile phone expenditure was

the catalyst that accelerated the take up of SMS. The network operators were

unable technically to bill prepay customers for the SMS they were using

because the links between the prepay platform and the billing system and the

SMS Centers were not in place. The network operators responded with

silence- the prepay literature did not mention SMS at all even though the

prepay phones supported the service. One thing that is certain is that in these

days with the Internet revolution to spread information, the young people will

identify loopholes like this. And they did. Suddenly, millions more SMS

messages were being sent- with some individual mobile phone subscriptions

accounting for thousands of SMS per month alone as they set up automated

message generators. Network operators worked with their platform suppliers

to try and sort this out and implement charging for SMS for prepay customers.

Meanwhile SMS incubated and spread and people were using it because it

cost nothing whereas carrying out the same transaction using voice clearly did

cost. Eventually after a few months the network operators finally got their act

together and managed to implement SMS charging for prepay users- such

that they could decrement the prepay credit by the cost of an SMS message

A mass SMS message distribution campaign was then typically sent out- such

that everyone that had used SMS received a text message informing them

that from a certain date, SMS would be charged for. This led to an immediate

and protracted decline in SMS usage to between 25% and 40% of the pre-

charging levels as people suddenly stopped using SMS or using it as much.

Then something interesting happened- the volume of SMS messages started

gradually increasing again and soon reached its pre-charging levels. SMS

volume growth has continued its upward growth ever since, fueled by simple

person to person messaging as people told each other how they were feeling

and what they were doing- information services and other operator led

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initiatives failed to interest the user community to any degree and never have

done. Whilst it was free, SMS had become an important part of the way that

young people communicated with each other in their daily life. SMS would

have taken off without this prepay factor because it was already being used

before that time- but it would never have taken off as quickly.

SMS growth continued its astonishing growth during the year 2000 in Europe,

a period of time when the mobile industry was trying to dictate the deployment

of WAP. Despite doing nearly nothing else of any benefit, WAP did at least

increase the attention that the mobile Internet received as people tried to work

out services that would appeal to the mobile phone users. Those companies

that survived the WAP debacle started to realize that it was SMS and not

WAP that had the addressable audience of users and the clearer business

case. Advertising and other services based on SMS started to be trialed as

companies realized that people who could use SMS for person to person

messaging would also be able to access SMS based commercial messages.

The next great success for SMS based services was ringtones. Nokia had

started its smart messaging protocol that was built on binary SMS rather than

the standard text SMS. Nokia had expected this technology to be used for

information services and over the air service profiling and it had languished for

years, until suddenly in the year 2000, it found its application- ringtones that

allow users to change the way their mobile phone rang. Because the network

operators were woefully inadequate and unable to offer the ringtone suppliers

fair and flexible revenue sharing, the service providers started using premium

rate Interactive Voice Response (IVR) voice platforms to trigger the

transmission of ringtones. The ringtones market soon became a billion dollar

market- and few of the network operators even offered services- this category

was dominated by independent service providers who advertised in

newspapers and magazines.

SMS was the triumph of the consumer- a grassroots revolution that the mobile

industry had next to nothing to do with and repeatedly reacted to. This is in

stark contrast to the top down technology and industry led approaches to

other non-voice services such as WAP. The industry can learn a lot from SMS

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as it tries to create other nonvoice services- it is no surprise that the only other

non-voice success- i-mode in Japan was also an unprecedented and

unexpected success. The mobile industry would do well to realize that

success for nonvoice involves setting the right environment to allow services

to succeed- ensuring everyone implements the same open standards in the

same ways, putting the right payment and micro billing technologies in place

and recognizing that it takes a while to build a critical mass of usage. The

mobile industry needs to realize that it can either delay the mobile Internet

revolution by refusing to cede control to the end user and application and

service development communities- or this will be taken away from it by the

markets by force. Either way, the nonvoice revolution will arrive- it is not a

question of whether, just when.

"Mobile" or "Cell"

What is correct: "mobile" phone or "cell" phone? Same thing; the word cell is

short for cellular and has been used since Bell Laboratories set up the first

wireless telephony system in 1947. It consisted of a network of low-powered

transmitters, each placed to cover a small region or cell. Commercial cell

phones were introduced in Chicago in 1978 and in Europe in 1981. If you're

surprised to learn that mobile telephony has been around so long, here's

another surprise: Bell Laboratories invented the videophone in 1927.

Numbers

Most numbers on a phone keypad have letters assigned to them. For

instance, the letters for the number 2 are a, b and c. But there are no letters

assigned to the numbers 1 and 0. These numbers remain unassigned

because they are so-called flag numbers, kept for special purposes such as

emergency or operator services. Previously, Q and Z were not included on the

keypad, meaning that you could not dial a word such as Quincy. Q is now

assigned to the number 7 and Z to number 9.

History of SMS Messaging:

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The history of SMS messaging started in the 1980s when telecommunication

experts started discussing the technical specifications of sending short

messages between mobile phones thru a network. This would be known later

as GSM services.

These technical discussions culminated in the sending of the first ever SMS

message over Vodafone GSM network in the United Kingdom on December

3, 1992. It was said that Neil Papworth, an engineer of Airwide Solutions, sent

the first SMS message from his personal computer to Richard Jarvis of

Vodafone. The message was a short and sweet "Merry Christmas".

This initial success was later followed in the succeeding year with the

successful deployment of SMS messaging services in Norway and UK. In its

early history, SMS messaging growth was very slow as GSM customers were

only sending 0.4 messages per month on the average. The reasons for the

slow growth were: billing fraud, inefficient charging setups, and non-existent

interoperability among the telecom networks. 

When these initial problems were addressed, and with the efficient

implementation of pre-payment schemes, SMS messaging usage took off in

the year 1999. The teenagers were credited as early adopters of SMS

messaging followed by adults and business people. 

It was now all history, SMS messaging was said to be the triumph of the

consumer. What started as a technology used only for alerting a mobile user

of a stored voice mail or technical applications such as telemetry, SMS

messaging is now used by all segments of the society. 

The high learning curve in using the SMS messaging services spurred a new

form of SMS communication which gave rise to abbreviations and acronyms

to save time in typing the messages over a small keyboard. Curiously, most of

these abbreviations are understood by the majority of the population.

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Today, SMS messaging is not only a part of GSM but also available on other

networks like 3G. Unlike in its infancy years, SMS now is being used in a wide

range of applications: from ringing tones, to information services, American

Idol voting, and even fortune telling. Recently, businesses started using SMS

broadcasting thru the Internet for its marketing campaigns. Using web-based

SMS providers like www.clearsms.com, business owners must have

recognized the advantages of SMS over other mode of communications. SMS

messaging offers the fastest form of transmission; it can reach areas

unreachable by voice services; and at minimal costs.

In its 15-year history, SMS messaging has gone far and wide and deep.

Commercially, SMS is a massive industry worth over 80 billion dollars

globally. In the coming years, we should see other applications of SMS

messaging especially in the areas of business development and marketing.

When that happens, make sure your business is not left behind.

Free SMS Texting - Its Pros and Cons

Free SMS Texting services are everywhere these days. It seems like every

week a new online SMS texting service appears to get a share of the SMS

market. This sector has become VERY competitive over the past few years.

Here are some of the things that you need to know before you engage the

services of free online SMS texting.

Free SMS texting, as the name implies, is a free service for sending SMS

messages thru your PC and your Internet connection. The main reason why

this service is very attractive to most businesses is because it eliminates the

cost factor in sending text messages. It is free and you don't have to pay

anything, ever. 

Sending SMS messages from your PC, also, has the added advantage of

quickly composing the text messages to your recipients because it is definitely

a lot faster to type your messages from your PC keyboard than from the tiny

keyboard of your mobile phone.

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But having it free has its disadvantages. Not all SMS text messages are

actually free. Some service providers charge the recipient some fees for

receiving the message. If you are using a free SMS texting service for your

business, make sure your partners or clients are not being charged for

receiving your text messages.

Almost all free SMS texting providers require you to register to avail of their

free texting services. Once you register your own mobile phone number and

the mobile phone numbers of your clients, you get spammed SMS messages

regularly. You can just imagine how frustrating it can be for you and your

clients to receive spam messages.

These free SMS services also do not provide for sending bulk SMS

messages. Even if some of them spam your mobile phones, they don't want

their services abused by other spammers as well. If you are sending a

promotional message to 1000 clients, using a free SMS service will take you

ages.

Finally, free SMS texting sites, are often overloaded so your messages get

delayed or remained undelivered. If you have a critical announcement to

make, you don't want to take the risk of your messages not being received by

your clients.

So, there you have it. Now that you've been given the highs and lows of free

SMS texting, the next step is up to you. For businesses serious enough to

reach new heights thru the use of SMS texting, taking the free option to SMS

texting may not be the best choice for you. Take this information and make

the best choice on your next texting campaign.

Sending Bulk SMS Made Simple

SMS, or text messaging, is constantly evolving. There is a wide array of SMS

services available, ranging from transferring funds, utility payments, sending

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love notes, receiving your daily horoscope, and a lot more. Text messaging is

proving to be very lucrative and this resulted to stiff competition among the

telecom companies. This free market competition benefited most of us since it

rewarded us with more widespread SMS text messaging platforms and

applications.

But have you tried sending bulk SMS thru your cellphone? If you were the

coach of a basketball team, and you need to announce the next practice

schedule, you will first create a group list in your cellphone, then retrieve each

player's mobile number from the phonebook and store it into the newly

created group. Of course, this is manageable for 12 players. No sweat here.

Let us take another scenario. You are the Club President for a dog training

club in your city and you have 50 members. All of their numbers are recorded

in your phonebook. If you need to invite them to attend a dog show, you just

create a group list, retrieve each member's number from the phonebook and

store it into the newly created group. Sending bulk SMS to 50 members will

take a little bit of time. This task, though not extremely difficult, takes a bit of

effort to complete.

Let us take our example to a grander scale. You are the owner of a

Montessori School and you need to send bulk SMS to the parents and

teachers of an impending storm scheduled to hit the land by the next morning.

If there were 350 parents and teachers, it will take you some time to do that. If

on another occasion, you only need to send to the 230 parents excluding the

teachers, you will create another group and extract the relevant numbers

again. Sending bulk SMS thru the cellphone is proving too burdensome as the

number of mobile phones increases. 

Text messages do not always have to be sent from mobile phones. A variety

of options are available to the sender. Yahoo Messenger and AOL Instant

Messenger have options to send messages to cell phones, all for free. There

are also web-based applications, like Google Send to Phone, which allow you

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to send SMS messages to mobile phones in the U.S., but these are not

designed to send bulk SMS. Again, most of these sites provide free SMS

services.

If you have a need to send bulk sms to a group of people regularly, then your

only option is to go for web-based bulk sms providers. Aside from being

cheaper than sending messages from the cell phone, SMS transmissions are

extremely fast and reliable. Add into it the facility to import mobile phone

numbers from a text file and its scheduling function; subscribers get maximum

flexibility and ease of use. Since the computer keyboard is definitely faster

than the cellphone keypad, you get to accomplish tasks quicker, simpler and

easier. 

Technology is constantly evolving, that is for sure, especially in the field of

SMS technology. Next time, when you need to send bulk SMS to your friends

to play team sports, think about how simple it would be to use a web-based

system to do the job faster and cheaper.

Bulk SMS - a Revolution of Mobile Phone Industry

Short Message Service or simply the SMS is

revolution of mobile phone industry. SMS are often called the Text Message.

SMS started to get huge popularity during the initial days of 21 century. After

seeing the rapid popularity of SMS, companies decided to do marketing of

their product through SMS. But since they are targeting a large mass to whom

they will start to campaign about their product. So it will be an irritable

situation to send SMS to the people individually. They started to think about

some tool by which they will be able to send the promotional SMS in bulk to

campaign about their product. Following this idea a new concept was

developed called ‘Bulk Short Message Service’ or the ‘Bulk SMS’.

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In this short article you will come to know about some basics of Bulk SMS, its

features, and some of its general information. At first you should know the

definition of ‘Bulk SMS’. In short ‘Bulk SMS’ is a special type of system by

which an institution or an organization becomes able send or receive a large

volume of SMS i.e. SMS in a bulk. That’s why this concept is known as the

‘Bulk SMS’. The Bulk SMS do follow a special channel of particular bandwidth

limitation. Delivery reports can also be gathered if the Bulk SMS sender

wishes to gather.

Now, followings are the some important features of Bulk SMS for you. The

most obvious and useful feature of Bulk SMS could be found from its name. A

single SMS could be sent to number of users using the concept of ‘Bulk SMS’.

The Bulk SMS sender could set the number of recipients. The number of

recipient may be set to 1 or to some other huge digit. A unique sender

Identification tag or ID Brand is generated for each and every user. Every time

the sender has to use that ID brand while sending Bulk SMS.

The group functionality is also an important feature of the ‘Bulk SMS’ service.

The reputed companies are using the ‘Bulk SMS’ system to promote their

product due to its low cost nature. It is seemed that the cost of

sending Bulk SMS in million is 20% to 30% less than the printed media

campaigning. The network coverage of these types of ‘Bulk SMS’ operator is

quite good and the network area is also very huge

Now some of the basic and common advantages of ‘Bulk SMS’ system for

you! Though this service has the biggest use in field of product promotion by

companies, though it can be used in some other purposes too. This system

can be used to send number of messages to the cellular phones of many

individuals at any instant. The other advantage is the low cost factor that is

mentioned already earlier in this article. These days bulk sms, SMS

Messaging to friends are becoming a favourite time pass to youth.

Now, if you want host a business and want to campaign your own product in

the mass you may go for the ‘Bulk SMS’ system because this is a latest

weapon in the field of business competition.

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Advantages of Bulk SMS:

A solo SMS can be forwarded to a number of users which is the most

valuable feature of the Bulk SMS. The number of beneficiary can be

determined by a sender. Highest number of receivers can be amplified to an

enormous digit number and can be limited to least single recipient. Unique

sender identification tag produced will be made available to each and every

user and the identical ID brand will be used by dispatcher while sending Bulk

SMS. The group of functionality of the Bulk SMS is another significant

attribute. Due to its little price tag, many alleged companies bring into play of

Bulk SMS for promoting their product. It is anticipated that you can set aside

up to 30 % of the full amount used up for printed media campaigning, with the

help of Bulk SMS. For distribution of Bulk SMS, it is extremely dependable

upon the network coverage, for good distribution of Bulk SMS. Bulk SMS used

for purpose like citation, directions, and promotional campaigns. For

distribution of a message to numerous number of mobile phone users

instantly, Bulk SMS is used. An additional major advantage of Bulk SMS is its

little price factor as affirmed earlier.

At the present time youths make use of SMS and Bulk SMS to friends as

much loved time pass. Bulk SMS method is the most up-to-date bludgeon

used in the cut-throat competition business, to crusade for your product in the

market.

The advantages of Bulk SMS in business are on the spot delivery of

messages, time cutback, price effectiveness, and immediate quantifiable

response from the recipients. The Bulk SMS can be dispersed without any

geographical restrictions with guaranteed delivery to the receiver. The user

gets a chance to subscribe on the meticulous website for text messages

connecting for specials and promotions. In Bulk SMS, to obtain a message it

does not require to be switched on the mobile unit and the user will get the

message when the unit is on air. The reply time for the Bulk SMS will be

within 48 hours following the user get the message, as the majority of the

mobile phone users use their phones most of the time and messages are

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tartan prior to deletion. The bulk SMS can drive to the recipients’ mobile

phones by the sender subsequent to typing the SMS text. A vital thing to be

paid attention is the number of characters used in a SMS need to be restricted

up to 160 characters for a single credit.

BulkSMS-Service.com is one of the leading Bulk SMS service providers in

India. Today’s requirement demands to communicate clearer, faster and

cheaper. Our bulk sms service meets the requirement in full. Visit

www.bulksms-service.com for exciting bulk sms packages.

COMPETITORS DETAILS:

1. INFINITY VENTURE:

(http://www.infinityventure.com/infinityI/aboutus.htm)

Founded in November 1999, Infinity is India's first institutionalized angel fund

which brought together Indian entrepreneurs and overseas entrepreneurs

together - to fuel growth of start ups in India. Infinity closed fund raising in

February 2000 and has invested in about 18 companies - mostly in Series A

or Seed round.

The core investment philosophy of Fund I has been - 

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a) to invest in technology companies; be it services or product or internet

related companies 

b) follow a research based methodology to identify potential investment areas

and understand emerging technologies/market; 

c) generate deals proactively through vast network within the Indian and US

technology market and 

d) and be very engaged with every portfolio company - by nominating a

person, either from the pool of Infinity advisors or Infinity Partner, Principal,

whose strengths best match the requirements of the portfolio company.

2. Silpi Soft solutions Pvt. Ltd.: (http://smssilpi.com/)

Silpi soft offers cost effective commercial applications in the modern

communication universe that is supported by robust technology and 24/7

technology support. We provide our users a magnificent solution for one - to –

one messaging, individual or personalized bulk SMS through its gateway,

ideally supporting any Text or Microsoft Excel files from your Desktop.

Our global data security standards offers a trusted environment, specializes

as a campaigner, assisting you as a quick communicator. Your Sale and

Advertising campaigns will strongly indicate a sense of customer support and

care.

Our Group Messaging feature has a high speed delivery with features like

annual scheduling; phone book upload and down load directly from the

desktop; and delivery status reports plus much more. Our focus is customer

centric and user friendly technology.

3. GupShup: (http://www.smsgupshup.com/)

GupShup is mobile group SMS service that allows users to create mobile

communities and broadcast messages to them. GupShup is growing rapidly

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with thousands of groups on topics such as finance, entertainment, lifestyle,

health, sports and technology.

The SMS GupShup platform is a simple, yet powerful, platform for building

communities. With over a million communities formed, SMS GupShup is

clearly a proven way to engage your customers, fans, employees etc. It

enables instant, 2-way communication and interaction with your customers on

the mobile medium. Communities are essential marketing tools for managing

the entire lifecycle of the customer relationship: from building awareness,

generating interest, initiating action, driving repeats to generating referrals.

The community can be either public or private. Public communities are ideal

for consumer brands that want to engage their customers and new prospects

to build loyalty drive repeat purchases and word-of-mouth referrals. Private

communities are ideal for enterprises to send special offers to existing

customers address support issues and send transactional messages.

4. ValueFirst: (http://www.vfirst.com/aboutus.php)

ValueFirst empowers its customers to communicate between varied

IT back-end systems and mobile phones using SMS Services.

ValueFirst provides a unique, end-to-end, global carrier-grade

mobile data service. Its mobile data service offering includes "plug

and play" application licensing and hosting. Employing a partnership

with Mobile operators and a clear focus on SMS mobile messaging.

Value First’s Mobile Messaging Platform is capable of delivering

SMS services to virtually any CDMA/GSM mobile handset.

ValueFirst combines signaling information from the mobile world

with innovative applications running concurrently on its own IT

applications platform and thereby pave the way for mission-critical

international messaging services.

Value Proposition:

 

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ValueFirst provides end-to-end mobile data services from back-end

integration to application hosting to dedicated connectivity with the

SMSC's of multiple GSM/CDMA operators in host of countries

ValueFirst understands the specific messaging requirements of its

customers and has a bouquet of services and products targeted at

the corporate, SMEs and the professionals

ValueFirst caters to a variety of messaging requirements of an

organization ranging from mobile marketing , intelligent pushing of

messages to intelligent processing of incoming SMS

WORK SCHEDULE

Work in our project was mainly divided into four phases

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PHASE A: GENERATING LEADS

In this phase we were told to generate leads from our natural market. I

collected names, phone number of most prospective clients. Then I divided

these data into different parts based on the business of the client. This helped

me doing need analysis of the client. I also collected some references from

those clients. Then I created database in which I recorded all the relevant

information about the clients.

PHASE B: TRAINING

PRODUCT TRAINING: A product training of 5 days was given at

SMSCountry Network Private Ltd. Bangalore Branch following topics was

discussed:

About SMSCountry Network Private Ltd.

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PHASE A

GENERATING LEADS

PHASE B

TRAINING

PHASE C

SELLING OF BULK SMS

AND SERVICES

PHASE D

WORKING ABOUT THE

PROJECT

PRODUCT TRAINING

INFORMATION ABOUT THE MARKET

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What is the Bulk SMS is all about.

Selling Skills

Bulk SMS Market

Various Bulk SMS Products offered by SMSCountry Network Private

Ltd.

PHASE C: SELLING OF BULK SMS PRODUCTS OF SMSCOUNTRY

NETWORK PRIVATE LTD.

“Patient, Perseverance, Persistent, Professional”

These are the 4Ps which acts as the key words in unlocking any sales figure

Flow chart: Sales process

DATA BASE COLLECTION

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CALLING CUSTOMER

APPOINTMENT

CUSTOMER PROFILING

NEED ANALYSIS

ASSIGNING BEST PRODUCTS

FOLLOW UP

CLOSING THE DEAL

DOCUMENTATION

ACTUAL SALES

REFERALS

AFTER SALE FOLLOW UP

Database in my case comprised of mainly:

References from my own natural market

Secondary references

Due to the shortage of time I preferred to use cold calling as an option, since

the conversion ratio is known to be extremely high.

Customer profiling helped me in exploring the need & requirement of each

individual by having 100 forms as customer database. While profiling the

customers we emphasize on the following parameters:

Consultancy

Real Estates

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Education Institutes

Financial Institutions

Retail Outlets

The Process that I followed in the company for pitching the product to

the customer is as follows:

The questions which I would normally ask are:

1. Do you know about Bulk SMS?

2. Are you looking for any Bulk SMS Services i.e. Related to Promotion

and Advertisement?

3. If yes, then could we fix an appointment so that we could make you

aware of the various products that SMSCountry Network Private Ltd.

has to offer?

After fixing an appointment we would visit the prospective customers and

explain them about the product which would suite their requirements. Apart

from this while pitching for Bulk SMS Service we would show them a chart for

the comparison of various products which is as follows:

WE ARE HERE TO HELP YOU OUT

Three Most Important Questions:

Where Do I Target?

Will My Business Grow?

Will I Get Responses?

Need analysis: During need analysis we found as we move through different

stages in Business, our uses priorities changes.

Selling consists of three sub-phases in it. These are:

Information about the product

Convincing the customer

Finally closing the deal.

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During my job at SMS Country Network Pvt. Ltd. I met around 100 people for

selling in which I converted ten clients and fifteen are in process of the

company in the month of June.

LEARNING

LEARNINGS FROM TRAININGS

From SMS Country Training, I taught a lot about Bulk SMS, Bulk SMS

industry, different types of products, its features and benefits.

LESSONS & LEARNING’S FROM THE SELLING EXPERIENCE

Be patient : In Bulk SMS industry conversion ratio is normal. If you meet

100 people there may be a chance that you may not be able to convert

even a good number of customers, but by meeting 100 people you will

face 100 different situations which will enhance your skill of selling as well

as need analysis. Lastly, remember those 100 people can give you 1000

references.

Don’t sell like you buy: It is a faulty assumption that your prospects

respond similarly to the type of sales approach that works for you.

Treat Your Customers like Royalty to Gain Loyalty: Remember the rule

20% of the loyal customer gives you 80% of your total business.

Understand the difference between features and benefits of the product

Good sales people create and demonstrate strong value propositions for

why their clients will want to engage their services.

The best way to improve your win ratio is to stop bidding on stuff you can’t

win

Maintain ethics, service, and hard work towards the customer to build a

long lasting relationship to generate repeat sales.

Driving demand and building a solid, predictable sales pipeline is at the

very core of every sales effort.

The most successful sales professionals win more business by working

smart and carefully assessing the viability of each opportunity at the

beginning of the sales campaign.

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Value — perceived or real, personal or business — is the only thing that

separates one product or alternative from another

Sales are a numbers game, but in Bulk SMS sector the quality of client

from whom the sales is being generated do matter.

LESSIONS FROM DATA COLLECTION AND DATA ANALYSIS

For data collection we went to various people which helped us to get different

views of them about Bulk SMS Industry.

Data analysis helped us to gain confidence as this was our first project based

on primary data.

Data analysis helped us to know which techniques to be used.

MY ACHIEVEMENT: I sold Bulk SMS solution to ten clients in Bangalore

Research Literature

This research elicits the use of advance and modern techniques to map Brand

awareness amongst the target group, expectations and perceptions of

customer that determine the buying behavior.

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This research maps and portrays the following aspects:

Brand Awareness

Brand Associations

Customer Expectations

Customer Perception

Customer Preferences

Identification of Strategic Gap

Identification of Strategic Direction

Understanding Brand awareness in the lime light of competition and

identification of brand associations is of prime importance to build and sustain

a positive brand in the market.

Advises, on the various aspects which woo the customer into making

purchases identifying strongly with customer satisfaction which leads to

establishing of loyalty and competitive edge in the market

Identification of strategic gap and devising marketing and sales programs to

bridge it will significantly enhance the company’s market share, competitive

position and mindshare.

This research lays the foundation of framing a strategy to address the various

business aspects relating directly to the end customer.

Specific Stratified sampling technique was used to ensure a maximum

accuracy of the collected responses.

Purpose of the Project

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Aim: To determine the Strategic Direction of SMS Country Networks Pvt. Ltd.

Objective: To carry out actionable brand track research

Determine level of Brand Awareness in a competitive sphere

Map Brand Associations to elicit customer expectation and perception

Map Customers Preferences towards buying the product

Identify and determine the Strategic Gap

Research Actionable

Determine and craft Strategic direction

Scope and limitations

Our studies are mainly confined to Bangalore only so there may be

variation in consumer behavior due to geographical factor.

Research Design

Methodology

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Brand Awareness

Brand Association Mapping

Customers Preference Mapping

Identification of Strategic Gap

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Type: Primary research

Nature: Qualitative Research

Questionnaire design

A combination of open and closed ended technique was used, which

also includes close ended maps for capturing better customer

responses.

Pilot Testing

The final questionnaire evolved after many stages of reformulating and

restructuring. A pilot test was conducted with a sample of 25

respondents prior to conducting the actual interviews. This was done

mainly to test the result orientation of questionnaire and know whether

the respondents interpreted the question as intended. Errors and

Confusing words were modified and certain explanations were added.

More questions were added to get the responses about the required

variables.

Likert Scaling:

Likert Scaling is a uni-dimensional scaling method. The basic steps in

developing a Likert or "Summative" scale:

1. Defining the Focus: 

As in all scaling methods, the first step is to define what it is you are trying to

measure; Because this is a uni-dimensional scaling method, it is assumed

that this concept of measure is one-dimensional in nature. User might

operationalize the definition as an instruction to the people who are going to

create or generate the initial set of candidate items for his scale.

2. Generating the Items:

Next step is to create the set of potential scale items. These should be items

that can be rated on a 1-to-5 or 1-to-7 Disagree-Agree response scale.

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Sometimes you can create the items by yourself based on your intimate

understanding of the subject matter. But, more often than not, it's helpful to

engage a number of people in the item creation step. For instance, you might

use some form of brainstorming to create the items. It's desirable to have as

large a set of potential items as possible at this stage, about 80-100 would be

best.

3. Rating the Items. The next step is to have a group of judges rate the

items. Usually you would use a 1-to-5 rating scale where:

1. = strongly unfavorable to the concept

2. = somewhat unfavorable to the concept

3. = undecided

4. = somewhat favorable to the concept

5. = strongly favorable to the concept

4. Selecting the Items. The next step is to compute the inter-correlations

between all pairs of items, based on the ratings of the judges. In

making judgments about which items to retain for the final scale there

are several analyses one can do:

Throw out any items that have a low correlation with the total

(summed) score across all items

For each item, get the average rating for the top quarter of judges and the

bottom quarter. Then, do a t-test of the differences between the mean value

for the item for the top and bottom quarter judges.

Higher t-values mean that there is a greater difference between the

highest and lowest judges. In more practical terms, items with higher t-

values are better discriminators, so you want to keep these items. In

the end, you will have to use your judgment about which items are

most sensibly retained. You want a relatively small number of items on

your final scale (e.g., 10-15) and you want them to have high Item-

Total correlations and high discrimination (e.g., high t-values).

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5. Administering the Scale. Now, we are ready to use your Likert scale.

Each respondent is asked to rate each item on some response scale.

For instance, they could rate each item on a 1-to-5 response scale

where:

1. = strongly disagree

2. = disagree

3. = undecided

4. = agree

5. = strongly agree

The final score for the respondent on the scale is the sum of their

ratings for all of the items (this is why this is sometimes called a "summated"

scale). On some scales, you will have items that are reversed in meaning

from the overall direction of the scale. These are called reversal items. You

will need to reverse the response value for each of these items before

summing for the total. That is, if the respondent gave a 1, you make it a 5; if

they gave a 2 you make it a 4; 3 = 3; 4 = 2; and, 5 = 1.

Data Collection

Nature of Data: Primary Data

Source:

Visit to branches of different companies: We visited different branches of

different companies for getting information about products distribution

channel etc.

Technique of Data Collection:

Questionnaire based Interviewing was used for collecting customer responses

Sampling technique: Specific Stratified Sampling

Rationale of Sampling:

Where the population embraces a number of distinct categories, the

frame can be organized by these categories into separate "strata." Each

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stratum is then sampled as an independent sub-population, out of which

individual elements can be randomly selected. There are several potential

benefits to stratified sampling.

First, dividing the population into distinct, independent strata can

enable researchers to draw inferences about specific subgroups that may be

lost in a more generalized random sample.

Second, utilizing a stratified sampling method can lead to more efficient

statistical estimates (provided that strata are selected based upon relevance

to the criterion in question, instead of availability of the samples). Even if a

stratified sampling approach does not lead to increased statistical efficiency,

such a tactic will not result in less efficiency than would simple random

sampling, provided that each stratum is proportional to the group’s size in the

population.

Third, it is sometimes the case that data are more readily available for

individual, pre-existing strata within a population than for the overall

population; in such cases, using a stratified sampling approach may be more

convenient than aggregating data across groups (though this may potentially

be at odds with the previously noted importance of utilizing criterion-relevant

strata).

Finally, since each stratum is treated as an independent population,

different sampling approaches can be applied to different strata, potentially

enabling researchers to use the approach best suited (or most cost-effective)

for each identified subgroup within the population.

There are, however, some potential drawbacks to using stratified sampling.

First, identifying strata and implementing such an approach can increase the

cost and complexity of sample selection, as well as leading to increased

complexity of population estimates. Second, when examining multiple criteria,

stratifying variables may be related to some, but not to others, further

complicating the design, and potentially reducing the utility of the strata.

Finally, in some cases (such as designs with a large number of strata, or

those with a specified minimum sample size per group), stratified sampling

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can potentially require a larger sample than would other methods (although in

most cases, the required sample size would be no larger than would be

required for simple random sampling.

A stratified sampling approach is most effective when three conditions

are met

1. Variability within strata are minimized

2. Variability between strata are maximized

3. The variables upon which the population is stratified are strongly

correlated with the desired dependent variable.

Advantages over other sampling methods

1. Focuses on important subpopulations and ignores irrelevant ones.

2. Allows use of different sampling techniques for different

subpopulations.

3. Improves the accuracy/efficiency of estimation.

Permits greater balancing of statistical power of tests of differences between

strata by sampling equal numbers from strata varying widely in size

Sample Size: Defined as N (N=100)

Sample Category selected:

Consultancy

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Education Institutes

Event Management Companies

Jewelers

Distributors/ Wholesalers

Financial Institutions

Category Number: Defined as c (c= 6)

Sample Distribution

Segment Categories Collected Rejected Selected

Consultancy 32 2 30

Education Institutes 27 2 25

Event Management Companies 13 3 10

Jewelers 16 6 10

Distributors/ Wholesalers 15 5 10

Financial Institutions 16 1 15

C=6 Nc =119 R = 19 N=100

Customer Profile:

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Consultancy30%

Education Institutes25%

Event Management Companies

10%

Jewellery Outlets10%

Retail Outlets10%

Financial Institutions15%

Customer Segments

Research Description

Brand Track Research:

Brand Awareness: In general, means the extent to which a brand associated

with a particular product is documented by potential and existing customers

either positively or negatively. Creation of brand awareness is the primary

goal of advertising at the beginning of any product's life cycle in target

markets. In fact, brand awareness has influence on buying behaviour of a

buyer. Brand awareness can be measured by showing a consumer the brand

and asking whether or not they knew of it beforehand. However, in

common market research practice a variety of recognition and recall

measures of brand awareness are employed all of which test the brand

name's association to a product category cue, this came about because most

market research in the 20th Century was conducted by post or telephone,

actually showing the brand to consumers usually required more expensive

face-to-face interviews (until web-based interviews became possible). This

has led many textbooks to conceptualize brand awareness simply as its

measures, that is, knowledge that the brand is a member of a particular

product category, e.g. soft-drinks. Examples of such measures include:

Brand recognition - Either the brand name or both the brand name and

category name are presented to respondents.

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Brand recall - the product category name is given to respondents who are

asked to recall as many brands as possible that are members of the

category.

Top of mind awareness - as above, but only the first brand recalled is

recorded (also known as spontaneous brand recall).

Brand recall

Brand Recall is the extent to which a brand name is recalled as a

member of a brand, product or service class, as distinct from brand

recognition.

Common market research usage is that pure brand recall requires

"unaided recall". For example a respondent may be asked to recall the names

of any cars he may know, or any whisky brands he may know.

Some researchers divide recall into both "unaided" and "aided" recall.

"Aided recall" measures the extent to which a brand name is remembered

when the actual brand name is prompted. An example of such a question is

"Do you know of the "Honda" brand?"

In terms of brand exposure, companies want to look for high levels of

unaided recall in relation to their competitors. The first recalled brand name

(often called "top of mind") has a distinct competitive advantage in brand

space, as it has the first chance of evaluation for purchase.

Brand Recall for SMSCountry

Brand Awareness TOM Unaided Aided

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SMSCountry 25 20 40

Infinity 7 10

Ghup Shup 15 15 10

Silpi Soft Solution Pvt. Ltd 20 22 40

Value First 18 15 10

Insight Consultancy Services 5 8

Mvaayoo.Com 10 10  

SMSC

ountry

Infinity

Ghup Shup

Silpi S

oft Solution Pvt.

Ltd

Value F

irst

Insight C

onsulta

ncy Se

rvices

Mvaay

oo.Com0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

25

715 20 18

5 10

20

10

1522

15

810

40

10

40

10

AidedUnaidedTOM

Result:

TOM

Company Name Total

First Rank SMS Country Network 25

Second Rank Silpi Soft Solution Pvt. Ltd. 20

Third Rank Value First 18

Un- Aided:

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Company Name Total

First Rank Silpi Soft Solution Pvt. Ltd. 22

Second Rank SMS Country Network 20

Third Rank Value First 15

Ghup Shup 15

Aided:

Company Name Total

First Rank SMS Country Network 40

Silpi Soft Solution Pvt. Ltd. 40

Second Rank Value First 10

Third Rank Ghup Shup 10

Conclusion:

SMS Country has the highest TOM Awareness and Overall Brand

Awareness amongst the competitor’s brands.

Silpi Soft Solution Pvt. Ltd. is closely positioned to SMS Country in

Tom Awareness and Overall Brand Awareness.

Recommendation:

SMSCountry Networks has to endeavor to enhance its brand awareness

amongst the target group, to maintain its competitive edge in mindshare.

Indication: An understanding of results later in the research will help us map

the favorability of customer association with SMSCountry.

Brand Concept Mapping:

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A new technique, called Brand Concept Maps (BCM), is proposed,

which elicits first and higher order brand associations while overcoming the

limitations of existing techniques. For example, the BCM technique requires

no specially trained interviewers, can be used on large samples, and can be

used to compare and contrast consumer segments. The BCM technique

produces an aggregated map from a sample of individually-produced maps.

Brand Concept Maps: A New Technique to Measure Brand Associations

Brand network maps are important because they help answer the

following questions with regard to brand assessment and protection:

Which brand associations are more or less important?

Which brand associations are directly linked to the brand and which are

indirectly linked to the brand?

How can stronger associations and inter-connections between

associations be built?

If a brand association changes in the network, how does it affect other

associations?

Steps to Creating Brand Concept Maps

There are three stages in the creation of brand concept maps:

Elicitation: The elicitation stage involves eliciting brand associations from

consumers and answers the question: “What is the list of associations

consumers have with the brand?” Responses are open-ended and retained if

stated by at least fifty percent of respondents.

Mapping: In the mapping stage, consumers use the set of brand associations

to make a network map of how they see the brand. Respondents view a

concept board which contains a separate card for each association culled

from the elicitation stage and are asked to select cards that, for them,

represent the brand. Respondents are also able to add concepts that do not

appear on the concept board by writing each additional association on a

separate card. Respondents then connect the concepts, making a map of the

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set of concepts selected, using one, two, or three lines to indicate the

perceived strength of that connection (where three lines indicate a very strong

connection and one line a weaker one). Associations with direct connections

to the brand (those that are physically and mentally seen as closest to the

brand) are called first-order associations. Associations with indirect

connections to the brand, less central to the brand mental map but

nevertheless important, are called second-, third-, or fourth-order

associations. Finally, respondents rate the brand on a 1-10 scale from very

unfavorable to very favorable.

Aggregation: The aggregation stage involves aggregating individual brand

maps to produce a consensus map of how consumers see the brand. Two

measures, in particular, are used to produce the consensus map: frequency of

mention of each association and number of interconnections found between

brand associations.

Brand Associations First Order Second Order

Solution √

Types of product √

Salesman √

Reliability √

Delivery to Entire Database √

Delivery on Time √

Service Offering √

Software √

Priority √

Trust √

No Hidden Costs √

Positive Brand Image √

Word of Mouth √

Previous Experience √

Brand Association Linkage: Defines the strength of perception with which a

customer associates with brand attribute.

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Strength of Interconnections:

Scaling Score Linkages Strength

0-.9 0.5 ----------------- Weakest Linkage

1-1.49 1 Weak Linkage

1.5-1.9 1.5-----------------

2-2.49 2 Strong Linkage

2.5-2.9 2.5-----------------

3 3V. Strong Linkage

Determination of Strategic Gaps based on Brand Concept Map:

Customer Expectations Customer Perception Strategic Gap

2 2.5 0.5

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2 1.5 -0.5

2.5 2.5 0

2 2 0

2 2 0

2.5 2 -0.5

2 2 0

2 2 0

2 1.5 -0.5

2 2 0

2 2 0

1.5 1.5 0

0.5 1 0.5

0.5 1 0.5

Interpretation:

Strategic Gap Score:

-0.5 The Customer Brand Attribute Perception of SMS Country is below Customer Expectation

0 The Customer Brand Attribute Perception of SMS Country is matches Customer Expectation

0.5 The Customer Brand Attribute Perception of SMS Country is exceeds Customer Expectation

Identification of Strategic Direction:

The Strategic Gap Score with Negative values have been identified as the

direction of strategic planning and execution.

Indication: Results will be sketched based on conjoint with the findings later in

the research.

Brand Attribute Preference towards buying the product:

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Solution

Types of product

Salesman

Reliability

Delivery to Entire Database

Delivery on Time

Sevice Offering

Software

Priority

Trust

No Hidden Costs

Positive Brand Image

Word of Mouth

Previous Experience

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

17

18

16

18

18

18

16

17

16

14

16

15

14

13

Interpretation of Score:

Scale Favorability

0 to 5 Very Weak

6 to 10 Weak

11 to 15 Strong

16 to 20 Very Strong

Data Analysis

Conjoint of Strategic Gap Score and Brand Attribute Preference

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Solution

Types of product

Salesman

Reliability

Delivery to Entire Database

Delivery on Time

Sevice Offering

Software

Priority

Trust

No Hidden Costs

Positive Brand Image

Word of Mouth

Previous Experience

17

18

16

18

18

18

16

17

16

14

16

15

14

13

Solution

Types of product

Salesman

Reliability

Delivery to Entire Database

Delivery on Time

Sevice Offering

Software

Priority

Trust

No Hidden Costs

Positive Brand Image

Word of Mouth

Previous Experience

-0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6

Strategic Gap WeightsSolution 17 0.5 8.5Types of product 18 -0.5 -9Salesman 16 0 0Reliability 18 0 0Delivery to Entire Database 18 0 0Delivery on Time 18 -0.5 -9Service Offering 16 0 0Software 17 0 0Priority 16 -0.5 -8Trust 14 0 0No Hidden Costs 16 0 0Positive Brand Image 15 0 0Word of Mouth 14 0.5 7Previous Experience 13 0.5 6.5

Cumulative Score -4

Result:

Since the Cumulative Strategic Score is a Negative value, it suggests that the

Strategic Gap has a strong negative impact on Brand and Customer Equity.

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Indication:

This result indicates the need of strategic planning and execution to bridge the

gaps and neutralize the negative impact.

Conclusion:

The findings of the research impress upon certain aspects of SMSCountry’s

strategy which needs to be focused upon.

Brand Favorability

Conjoint Findings

Brand Recall

BCM

Brand Attributes Buying Preference

Suggest that SMSCountry harbors a strong positive brand image composed of positive & negative brand association linkages. However, the negative brand association linkages happen to be present in the areas of strong customer preference towards considering and buying the service.

Brand Attribute Vs Pricing

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Brand Track Research to Identify the Strategic Direction of SMS Country

Right Solution Provider for Bulk SMS

Reliability

Service Offering

Trust

Pricing

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%

19%

15%

24%

21%

21%

Customer Perception - Degree of Importance to BSMS Offering

Percentage

The above finding shows the magnitude of intentions of a customer towards paying a price for the SMSCountry Offering.

Correlation Table:

Strategic Points Positively Correlated POA

Priority Delivery Pricing Customer Education

On-time Delivery Pricing/ Server

Up-gradation

Customer Education

Investment in IT/ ITES

Types of productsAwareness/ Customer Education

Generate Customer Awareness/Experience

Note of Confidentiality: The Above correlation table is a derivative of the internal business process, service delivery and design equipments. Hence their depiction is out of the scope of this project.

Recommendations:

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Brand Track Research to Identify the Strategic Direction of SMS Country

SMSCountry Networks needs to upgrade IT/ITES and Server facilities.

Build and sustain the Brand Awareness levels to maintain an edge in share of mind

Devise appropriate plans to generate customer education and awareness for the factors indicated in the Correlation table.

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