The Article Deals with how VAS Retailing should evolve in India, How a Business Manager should think of Retailing when it comes to selling music or movies.

1. VAS Retailing in India – The Unconquered Frontier
In one of casual encounters in one of premium retail stores in Sydney I figured out that music is
being sold at one of the counters. The idea which India Telecom VAS is struggling with is successfully
implemented in this part of the world and no one is noticing the same.
Apple is successfully selling i tunes gift card which one buys and buys music worth the price of
the voucher. One can buy movies, songs and Apps available on the apple i Tunes store.
ITunes Gift Card
Music Retailing is most experimented idea in Indian telecom industry which has failed. The only
company one which came a little closer to some what a little successful implementation was Hutch
now Vodafone. However lessons learned were never implemented again.
Things to keep in mind when selling Music or Movies –
1. Let customers choose
2. Should be at their comfort
3. Give then pre review and visibility
4. Voice portal/Data portals alone will not work
5. One can only target specific customer segment
6. No one will buy from a telecom company's site, so create presence in Music sites and Stores
7. USSD won't work

2. A Telecom retailer cannot or rather not sell songs (you don't buy chicken at electronic store)
No one thinks I will buy a song at store, people buy when they listen on internet, computers, phones
etc. It is an impulse decision and no matter what one does it cannot create that impulse buying in a
retail store, so let customer decide when to buy and what to buy the store. Do you decide hours
before that you will have Pastries at a coffee shop; it is decided by the mood and ambience of the
shop and your girlfriend sitting next to you.
Similar is the decision of buying a Caller Tunes/MP3/Movies and Videos, it is usually influenced by
your friends, your mood variant, Girlfriend and of course your Smart Phone.
A Suggested solution which can work --
1. Create a voucher which will be a VAS Credit. (Name this Second Credit)
2. One can buy only music, movies other services from this credit (This will work like data credit)
3. Buying has to be two step process, decision to purchase and download of purchase.
4. Entry will only take your mobile no and debit the Music credit
5. Keep It Cheap
6. Distribute on Internet
7. Voucher distribution with Prepaid Voucher.
But let's see how and when the industry evolves.
I was thinking to write this from sometime now but better late than sorry and let's see how this
moves going forward. Let the Ideas flow at https://www.facebook.com/groups/VASContent/.
Chandan Mishra
Wireless Marketing Professional
http://in.linkedin.com/in/chandanmishra