Change...

I have often heard that change is good... and when I look back, everything which seemed wrong at its onset has actually turned out to be good. Isn't it strange then... that we are perturbed by the slightest thought of change. The last few years of my life has been quite a challenge with changes happening at the most unexpected moments and with things/people/situations which I almost considered to be permanent! Yes it was stupid of me but I guess it is in the human nature... even the newton's first law of motion states the same... ( A body at rest tends to be at rest.... :P )

From the past few days changes have again started to happen at hz. As expected, the changes are painful and I would have preferred to maintain status quo but... Nevertheless there is no fun in not being subjected to change, after all it is the stationary water that acquires moss and disease causing germs and not the flowing water. Only time will tell whether these changes will turn out to be good... till then I would say "Aall iz well"

Unethical online marketing

Recently there has been a spurt in unethical marketing activities by companies, most notably by justdial and khojguru. I have received emails describing the features of these products from friends who claim they never sent it!

A lot of my friends and colleagues have been receiving non stop, spam emails from companies like snapdeal. As a user I am surely frustrated by this strategy of such companies and the more emails I get the more disenchanted I become towards them. It is very unlikely that I or any of my friends would ever use services like khojguru or snapdeal. While I do agree that email is one of the most cost effective and potent means of reaching out to ones user and informing them about new product features. Over using this medium is surely detrimental as it decreases trust and creates a negative vibe towards the brand.

It is surprising that companies of the size of justdial are following such means to gather eyeballs. It wouldn't be difficult for such companies to invest in an intelligent way of sending email communication. Instead of spamming a single user with mailers of same type repeatedly within a very small duration of time, it would make sense to send different mailers during a longer duration of time. If a user does not respond after sending a mail communication twice or thrice, it would be safe to conclude that he does not belong to the target audience. It would create tremendous ill will if the user continues to get a mail if he is not interested in the product. I hope folks at such companies sit up and think.

Why order food online

While I can advocate a number of reasons why I order my food online ( a little bias ... perhaps due to my association with hungryzone), I strongly believe that online ordering of food is surely going to be the preferred way.
To illustrate the factor of convenience here is a small anecdote, I was recently on a visit to city I have never been before and was staying at an hotel which prided in serving food cooked in coconut oil. I logged on to hungryzone's pizza corner page and placed an online order. The food was delivered on time and with the certainty of not being cooked in coconut oil! Features like this are helpful not only when one moves to a new city but also when you shift from one location to the other in the same city. Have a look, I am sure you would agree....

Reboot....

Its been more than a year since I wrote anything here. When I look back, the year gone by has been undoubtedly the most challenging times of my life and I now stand stronger and wiser than ever before.

This year promises to be another thriller :) the path ahead for hungryzone is not only exciting but also extremely difficult. The learning from the past three years will be put to test, in other words it surely is going to be the test of our endurance and business acumen.

With this small note I am trying to reboot this blog...