Be careful of what you post on FB, Twitter..etc - Pietersen fined over Twitter outburst

Last month only I asked one of my friends to delete the "I hate office" Facebook status. That time you didn't take it seriously - Read below from Reuters.  

Kevin Pietersen was fined on Monday following his online outburst after being dropped by England for the first time in his career.

 “He has been fined an undisclosed sum in accordance with the terms and conditions of his England Central Contract,” the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said in a statement.

 The 30-year-old batsman posted a Twitter message last Tuesday announcing that he had been dropped for the one-day series at home to Pakistan. The message contained an expletive.

 Pietersen's punishment was decided after an ECB disciplinary hearing at Lord's convened by Hugh Morris, Managing Director of England Cricket and England team director Andy Flower.

 “The hearing considered two charges against Kevin Pietersen relating to recent comments made on Twitter following his omission from England's one-day squad for the series against Pakistan,” the statement said.

 “Pietersen pleaded guilty to both charges and offered an unreserved apology to ECB and the England team management for his actions.” The former England captain apologised publicly last Wednesday, insisting on Surrey TV that his comments “had not been for the public domain”.

 The ECB said Pietersen had been dropped so that he could regain some form with county side Surrey after a run of disappointing scores.  (Reuters) 

Other Factors effecting consumer behaviour online

We have so far discussed 2 main factors effecting consumer behaviour online. Let's discuss the rest.

3. Legal context
There are numerous laws that overrule consumers in the internet. They range from privacy laws, data security laws, Trademark laws, patents..etc. Their buying patern on a web site maybe effected by them.
For e.g. Kazaa.com which was very famous for downloading music - had less amount of hits after Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sued thousands of illegal consumers. But it saw many consumers getting used to legal purchasing of music through iTunes concept of apple computers.

Police raiding of 4 shops in Unity Plaza - Bamabalapitiya in 2008 - Afterwards there was a huge increase in software sales in the country.

4. Individual Differences
Consumers vary by Age, sex, income, education, location and various others ways.
For e.g.

• Adults make just as many calls, but text less often than teens.
• Internet user population is 60% Teens and 40% Adults -But Latest research - Older adults using social networks nearly doubled in the past year (www.pewinternet.com)
• Online shoppers are more price oriented
• Males use more internet than females

Following table shows American Internet accessibility data (because others countries are not readily available)

When developing consumer websites all these differences has to be addressed. The way to address will be discusssed in the later posts on online market segmentation.

Im on Sunday Times - Business Times 2!!!

This was the Business Times 2 Article on Sunday Times - that featured me.

Big thanks to Career Guidance Unit & the organizers of the Final step program by JKH. 

Final year student Nadheera Udawatthe, agreed, saying, "we are all grateful to JKH for giving us this wonderful exposure and aiding us as we take on our futures "

How to select your University Special Subject

Following is a true story and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.


A guy came and told me that he is selected for two special subjects in UNI.(True story) And ask me how to choose the best one for him. (I know you are wondering - Even i was wondering why he asked me.).


Following are the 5 key factors you should consider -


1. Bro-Chick ratio of students selected to the subject
This is very important as it determines your attention, your availability of notes (More girls - better notes), your amount of finance dedicated for photocopying and for some other reasons as given in the chart. 

Taken from the sacred "Bro Code" Article no. 56, page 77.


But make sure you have at least another guy - i can give examples of many desperate bro.s who suffered alone in a chickaland.


2. Distance from the department to the canteen
Mobility, Accesibility are key words in today's corporate world. Time poverty is another key word. Not forgetting food crisis. All these phenomena makes distance from canteen an important factor in selecting your special subject. 


For your convenience i have the University map given below.

3. Quantity & Quality of 1st, 2nd year female students following the subject
Any business is valued by its future potential market. So is your special subject.


4. Amount of books available in the library for the subject
If its lesser - the better. 

Question : Ayya, does that mean i have to go and count the no.of books in the library.
Answer : No. Bro. Use technology. Only 7 steps.
1. Go to the library 
2. Sit on the book search computer. 
3. Click twice on the "e" sign on desktop. (Open Internet Explorer) 
4. Click on the bar and type www.google.com (Go to google)
5. Put subject A name and click on search - Note down no.of search results.
6. Put subject B name and click on search - Note down no.of search results.
7. Select the special subject that returned less search results




NOTE :  
1. A statistical research by Nadheera Udawatthe indicated that google search results is directly proportional to the no.of books available in the same library
2. If you are finding step-7 hard (I.E.If you cannot count the search results, compare and find which one is highest - do not choose MATHS as your special subject)


5. No.of your own clique(set.a.k.a.Patthiya) selected to follow special in that subject
Bro.s do not break your two years fit-ness because of subjects (Because of other reasons such as a "girl-friend" is accepted as long as "koku"a.k.a-"hooking up" party is given). 

6. No.of consecutive vowels and consonants in the name of the subject.

For e.g. Zoology, Food Science, Physics and PBT are subjects you should not select.

7. Mobile network of the students selected to the subject

Many students conduct tuition classes in spare time (And lecture times) to find money to pay their mobile bills. So it is not advisable for you to select a subject with many people from outside your network. 

Exception : You have a dual sim phone.

Apple revolution - iPHONE,iPAD : whats next???

It was only last month Business Today Magazine featured Steve Jobbs (Mastermind behind the success of Apple Computers) in the cover story. Following is a smile - at their future products...






He came up with iphone and ipads whic hare major transformations interms of consumer attractions. Last month i saw my first i-pad (using) in Sri Lanka - by a typical 50 year old company owner. My Java mobile sir just told me that he started iphone application programming class. The revolution they created is on - Lets see what they will give us next...

E Marketing 3 : Consumer Behavior in the Internet 3 : Socio-cultural Factor

Coming back t o E-marketing - Social and cultural factors effect the way someone behaves in the internet. There are numerous ways,

Information overload
There are infinite bytes of information in the web and the demand for it is limited by human capacity. For e.g.people do not like Spam. It was amazing to see google making use of this weakness. coming up with the product "Priority Inbox" in gmail.



Time poverty
Multitasking is around the corner and consumers do not want to spend time looking for information. For e.g.No one will comment here if they were asked to sign up for the web site. They basically do not have time!

Work from Home
If you take Sunday observer you will see lots of Ads asking you to work from home. This phenomena is making a free environment in the web creating lot of consumers browsing thru home.



I want what i want when i want
Anytime anywhere concept is really important. Consumers want to access information even while they are travelling. For e.g.They expect you to respond to an email within 24hrs. This is a very good fact for our web clients. We know very good examples of missing clients becuase of non-response and late-response. If you do not reply, well - there are many other options for the consumer.

Online Oxygen
Even in Sri Lanka, there is a community building up to be "I CANT LIVE WITHOUT INTERNET". These is a good target market for many online-business and can make use for indirect marketing by popularising your brand in social media.
Self Service
Consumers like to logon, access info, purchase goods and contact people all on their own. So do not have too many automation on your web site.
Sophisticated consumers
Consumers like to feel they are in control and help themselves on their own. When designing your web site, have room for visitors to help themselves. For e.g.Fill a form online, order a sample product...etc.

Privacy, online crime and Data Security
I know a Sunday Sinhala newspaper which publishes of some article about bad aspects of internet every week. There are pros and cons, but the fact is that consumers are aware of this and we have to be careful in designing web-sites that deal with private data and transactions.


So we discussed socio and cultural trends and factors that effect consumer behavior online.

Next in  E-Marketing we will talk about individual differences and what people really want to do online.

Sri Lanka - wonder of Asia in 2013/14 - From Dr.P.B.Jayasundara's words

Dr P B Jayasundera is the Secretary to the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Secretary to the Treasury and Secretary to the Ministry of Economic Development; three powerful institutions that determine the direction of the Sri Lankan economy.

The ending of Dr.P.B.Jayasundara's interview with Business Today magazine was truly inspiring and i thought of posting it on my blog - for those who never touch Business Today magazine...lol

From - http://www.businesstoday.lk/article.php?article=2750

The last question was :

And, finally in your assessment how long will it be before Sri Lanka becomes the Wonder of Asia?

Answer :

Well, this is a quite exhaustive interview. It is almost four hours. Just let me conclude and give you a very brief response. By 2013/14, Sri Lanka will have its first Expressway connecting two Airports. One at Katunayake and the other at Mattala (South). By that time, two large international Ports - one at Colombo and the other at Hambantota will be operational. A9 Highway and KKS and Kataragama railway connections will be completed and at least four new resorts will add a new dimension to tourism. The Remittance Economy driven by Sri Lankan skills and professionals will reach eight billion dollars. Stronger rural economy, food security and clean energy economy will surface by 2013/14. All these will begin to show emergence of a new economy in Asia - that will be Sri Lanka. So let's work harder. It is not that far.

So lets work harder - its not that far...Truly inspiring...Specially when you look below...