How to calculate Marketing Budget - Grabowski Ratio

Some one asked a interesting question about calculating Marketing budget.
Whether you are Startups or established Big Company, Marketing is important aspect of business.
It is  qualititive, not quantitive. We can not easily measure the effects of Marketing and budget.

I hit this document through quora and found it quite interesting.

http://www.slideshare.net/dmitryklimov/ralph-grabowski-fullarticle


here is summary, which I understood,
a) Invest more in Marketing (exclusive of Promotional and selling) than in Engineering
b) At Early stage of Product development, One should allot budget in ratio of 1:1 for Market Research and Engineering.
c) Low ratio will lead to failure
d) How much is More Marketing?
     Marketing is defined as a upfront process that comes before the product is ready. (Promotion and selling comes after product is ready)
e) More Marketing is qantified into recommendation that technology based enterprises invest more than one dollar in marketing for each dollar invested in engineering

f) Marketing/Engineering Investment ratio > 1

Planned Skyscrapers, Mumbai, India

India Tower, at Marine Lines 125 floors (on Hold)

World One, Worli India, 117 floors (under Construction)

Orchid Crown, Prabhadevi (under construction)

Group Buying - Real Estate

Some Popular group buying portals:
www.gemideals.com
www.groupbookings.com
www.groffr.com
www.dealflats.com ( Delhi, Hyderbad, Mumbai, Bangalore)
www.indianrealestateforum.com

Cruelty with Python (Azgar)

Today morning I got shocked scene at bus stop. Normally I travel to office by Bike, but today I thought of  travelling by bus. When I approaching busstop, I noticed one long wood in half-burnt state. but when I reached near, I found out that it is not wood but brutally killed python. His mouth was beaten till death..and body half burnt.

It was shocking... I dont know why someone has to kill it. They easily couldhave called up SGNP authorities to catch this wild beast and take it to release him in jungle.

Shame on those people who kill snakes, out of fear.

Poonam Haveli - Udaipur

This is just acknowledgment to Poonam haveli for making our stay in Udaipur pleasant.

This hotel is just walking distance from City Palace and Bagore ki haveli.

Also Hotel Manager is very knowledgable person, will help you in your all sightseeing.

Normally foreigners stay in this haveli, but it didnt seem problem for us as  staff was good.

Poonam Haveli
Hotel & restaurant
39, Lal ghat, Udaipur,
Rajasthan, India
313001

Email poonamhaveli@hotmail.com
website: http://hotelpoonamhaveli.com

Mobile: 9828112828


Rates :

1) Ground floor: 800 Rs per day.

2) 2nd floor with Lake View: 1200 Rs.

2G Scam explained - India - summary - part 1

All companies combinely paid the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology's telecommunications division Rs. 10,772 crores.
 The amount of money expected for this licensing by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India was Rs. 176,000 crore


Here are 2G license deals

1) Unitech bagged licence for Rs.1661 crore
    sold 60 % stake in wireless division to Telenor for  Rs.6200 crore,
    Unitech valuation rose to  Rs.10,333 crores.


2) Tata paid Rs 1600 crores to get licenses -  
 DoCoMo the go-ahead to buy 27.31% stake in TTSL (Tata Teleservices) for Rs.12,924 crores.
and  12% stake worth Rs. 570 crore in TTML.  total =  Rs.13,494 crores.
 TTSL valuation Rs. 47,866 crores


Source: MediaName

3) Swan bought licenses for Rs.1,537 crores, 
UAE's Etisalat acquired a 45% stake in Swan Telecom for  Rs.9,000 crores,
Swan(Rcom) valuation becomes Rs.20,000 crores
- making the DB Group firm the first of the new mobile licensees to have made a killing. Swan valuations 


- 10 times
Source : Economic Times

4) Shyam Telelink paid Rs 1,626.32 crore to get 21 licenses.


Sistema in-principle agreed to buy 10% of the company for $11.4 m (Rs 45 crore) valuing thecompany at Rs 450 crore. 
 Govt of Russia) paid Rs 2,699 crore to get 17.14% of the company (Annexure-G) ; thus 
valuing the company at Rs 15,750 crore


source firstpost

This pictures clearly shows Indian businesses were clearly gained from this, and loss of revenue for government.


Next post about Involvement of politicians in 2g Scams.

List of cancelled licenses
http://www.scribd.com/firstpost/d/80198932-List-of-122-Licences-Issued-on-10-January-2008


2G scam details on Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2G_spectrum_scam

The Berkus Method - Valuing the Early Stage Investment.

From Berkonomics

You should be able to adopt it to most any kind of business enterprise if your aim is to establish an early, most often pre-revenue valuation to a start-up that has potential of reaching over $20 million in revenues within five years:

If Exists:	Add to Company Value up to:
Sound Idea (basic value)	$1/2 million
Prototype (reducing  technology risk)	$1/2 million
Quality Management Team(reducing execution risk)	$1/2 million
Strategic relationships (reducing market risk)	$1/2 million
Product Rollout or Sales(reducing production risk)	$1/2 million

  Once a company is in revenues for any period of time, this method is no longer applicable, as most everyone will use actual revenues to project value over time.

What is Boxing Day!

From Quora - Lou Davis, Emergency Nurse, Clinical Nurse Educator




Boxing Day is the 26th December and is a national holiday in the UK and Ireland.

Why is it Called Boxing Day:

Arguments abound on the origins of the name Boxing Day.

A ‘Christmas Box’ in Britain is a name for a Christmas present.

Boxing Day was a day off for servants and when they received a ‘Christmas Box’ from the master. The servants would also go home to give ‘Christmas Boxes’ to their families.

A box to collect money for the poor was placed in Churches on Christmas day then opened the next day.

Great sailing ships when setting sail would have a sealed box containing money on board for good luck.If the voyage were a success the box was given to a priest, opened at Christmas and the contents given to the poor.

A/B Testing

- Reposting from Wikipedia

A/B testing, split testing or bucket testing is a method of marketing testing by which a baseline control sample is compared to a variety of single-variable test samples in order to improve response rates. A classic direct mail tactic, this method has been recently adopted within the interactive space to test tactics such as banner ads, emails and landing pages.

Significant improvements can be seen through testing elements like copy text, layouts, images and colors. However, not all elements produce the same improvements, and by looking at the results from different tests, it is possible to identify those elements that consistently tend to produce the greatest improvements.

Employers of this A/B testing method will distribute multiple samples of a test, including the control, to see which single variable is most effective in increasing a response rate or other desired outcome. The test, in order to be effective, must reach an audience of a sufficient size that there is a reasonable chance of detecting a meaningful difference between the control and other tactics: see Statistical power.

As a simple example, a company with a customer database of 2000 people decides to create an email campaign with a discount code in order to generate sales through its website. It creates an email and then modifies the Call To Action (the part of the copy which encourages customers to do something - in the case of a sales campaign, make a purchase). To 1000 people it sends the email with the Call To Action stating "Offer ends this Saturday! Use code A1", and to another 1000 people it sends the email with the Call To Action stating "Limited time offer! Use code B1". All other elements of the email's copy and layout are identical. The company then monitors which campaign has the highest success rate by analysing the use of the promotional codes. The email using the code A1 has a 5% response rate (50 of the 1000 people emailed used the code to buy a product), and the email using the code B1 has a 3% response rate (30 of the recipients used the code to buy a product). The company therefore determines that in this instance, the first Call To Action is more effective and will use it in future sales campaigns.

In the example above, the purpose of the test is to determine which is the most effective way to impel customers into making a sale. If, however, the aim of the test was to see which would generate the highest click-rate - i.e., the number of people who actually click onto the website after receiving the email - then the results may have been different. More of the customers receiving the code B1 may have accessed the website after receiving the email, but because the Call To Action didn't state the end-date of the promotion, there was less incentive for them to make an immediate purchase. If the purpose of the test was simply to see which would bring more traffic to the website, then the email containing code B1 may have been more successful. An A/B Test should have a defined outcome that is measurable, e.g. number of sales made, click-rate conversion, number of people signing up/registering etc.

Start Now, No Funding needed

This is answer to startup related question from  Unni Krishnan Koroth  

1. Dont quit your job now.
2. Find a cofounder. If you are from a technical background(Hacker), find a person who can sell and collect money from your future customers(Pirate). If he doesnt have a job now, he can take care of the company formation and other works while you can support him continuing in your present job.
3. Talk to your family about this. Please note that the social status of entreprenurs are very low in India. They get high status only when they succeed. If you have financial commitments, finish it before resigning from your job. You should start your company with a clear and focused mind.
4. Make an emergency fund. 50,000 rupees per year for the next 3 years. It takes minimum 3 years to build a good company.
5. Don't take an office. Don't recruit employees. If you are doing a business it should be a scaling of what you can do alone. See this video 
6. -
7. When you are quiting your job, dont burn the bridges. Keep good relation with your existing company.
8. Register the company and a good domain name. Start working and focus on giving value to your customers.
9. And remember "People overestimate what they can achieve in one year. But they underestimate what can be achieved in ten years."
10. Save every single rupee. Enjoy getting rejected from your potential customers

Twitter for India

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