Hello All,

WSA -What is this a question asked by my family with a little bit of skepticism. Thanks to a cousin residing in USA and vouched for by her, this was allowed on the family computer. This was because we have for the first time moved from Kaspersky and Mcafee in 15 years.

 

 

As a satisfied user of WSAC I believe the people at Webroot ought to do the following in my country-India on a war footing for the home market especially.

 

1 Open a dedicated Office and helpline with a visible presence. Or allow a licensed authority on your behalf with some reach and presence.

 

2  Advertise 

    Especially in the "old" media of tv radio magazines and newspaper tying in a powerful and visible programe related to festivals,cricket and other national events. The desktop is still a family device which requires the approval of family elders and the laptops tied to them in many cases and so it becomes a matter of respect. A budget of 3-4m$ for a good PR campaign spread over

12months spread over all platforms should push it. Not a day passes when some like kaspersky,Quickheal,Trendmicro or K7 push an ad or two.

 

3  Boxed cds and or usbs

    Some people will crawl the walls when they hear this but in India you have to distribute the cds. A physical product will be better appreciated, in lieu of showing some download. The Physical product also allows it to convince others.

    

4  Distribution

    Both microsoft and intel assemblers have a tremendous reach, tap into them. This is essential for a computer is still assembled and laptops referred to by these people for a commission. You cannot show a mere online presence and hope for people to buy your product. Av solutions are asked for by word of mouth as well as recommended.

 

     There is no presence in Indian online retailers e.g flipkart and smartshopper which is unforgivable.

 

5  Timing

    There is a perfect storm building where people are getting free laptops courtesy of the govts schemes and the computer is not seen as a luxury but as a necessity. The people who buy this are also buying entry level smartphones and tabs, if your team miss this opportunity you will not catchup easily. This is a 100 million nodes.

 

6  Package

    Start a 3 device package and a promotional single device package. Many people will not buy a 5 device package for the first time.

 

7  Pricing

    Your pricing is much higher than competing brands almost double or triple. This is a delicate issue. Pricing it is essential as you cannot simply replicate MS or Oracle by converting the dollars to Rs. This av market is a different beast altogether.

 

8  Competition

 

Mcafee- old warhorse still recommended thanks to 2 decades of presence despite its track record. Also comes preloaded in computers.

Norton-same scenario.

Kaspersky-from what is it to the most recognised av brand thanks to an advertising blitzkerig and atremendous cut-throat price. In fact I will not hesitate their campaign must be emulated by webroot.

Quick heal and K7- Leveraging their location as a local product and making some headway.

Trend-Micro- Emulating Kaspersky and gaining marketshare.

ESET-trying to grab some eyeballs.

Others like Bitdefender, Avira, Escan, G-data are struggling without much advertising.

 

9  Conclusion

 

   Although youngsters are the dealbreakers the invisiblity of WSA makes it tougher to push it through. The country is traditional and conservative which means loyal customers which can be seen in McAfee's and Norton's despite their recent fiascos.

    Although Hindi is the national language 500 million dont push it and it is easier to push english than hindi in the south and east. This is the bulk of the consumerbase, don't turn them off by giving your message in Hindi alone. Learn from FMCG companies and push forth in Telugu,Tamil,Kannada,Malayalam,Bengali and Gujurathi. They buy more than 70% of the computers.

    Carpe Diem. Lose this oppurtunity and you can play catchup perpetually like certain others.

 

    Good luck.