askme’s commercials here. There are 3 of those.
Firstly, its an ad for an app that has a celebrity endorsement. Secondly, its also an ad for an app that apparently does many things. Thirdly, its a head-on competitor to leading single purpose apps.
But the real question that one is left asking askme is ‘WHAT DOES IT ACTUALLY DO?’
Error 1: Lack of proposition in a fucking launch commercial. :O
which makes me wonder why askme is burning cash with these ads. Why would someone posture, instead of actually communicating? Perhaps its a desperate dash to get the name out before the owners go out to woo investors.
But which investors would put their money on such shallow proposition?
Error 2: Wrong insight.
The apparent insight around which this campaign is strung together seems to be – “people are fed up with having to manage so many apps on the phone”.
What utter bullshit. Who in India is ‘worried’ about having to manage their cell phones.
We, Indians love to play with our phones. The cell phone is not just a gadget; its a fucking fountain of newness.There is so much to discover and so many things to fiddle with. Ringtones, wall papers, apps, settings.. everything is a game. We are constantly trying new things; seeing how things work; customizing experience endlessly. And none of it is bothersome. We want to do it. Give us more apps, I say. (even yours, even if only to uninstall an hour later).
Error 3: No strategic perspective. (Wrong problem definition. wrong solution. please all. posture.)
I am guessing that askme intends to burn cash like quikr and myntra are doing. so quite possibly, they would get decent enough awareness numbers and even trials owing to people wanting to try new apps. once driven to the app.. would the consumer stay?
The website looks ambitious in its scope.. from weddings to yellow pages to god knows what else.. it has ‘everything’. and I guess, that is their pitch – ‘it has everything’. but why would I stop using Justdial or Sulekha and use askme instead? The product does not answer that.
There are a few billion-dollar-ideas buried underneath their ‘many’ness. But I think, they are largely oblivious to those. I can identify at-least 2 whitespaces that askme can exploit and hit jackpot.
The strategy should be to identify these white spaces to spring board from.
