1. ` 25 only
Guru Talk: Nilesh Gupta, iPrimitus Consultancy Services VC Talk: Nandini Hirianniah, Morpheus Venture Partners Most Promising Cool Products
EMPOWERING TECHNOLOGY LEADERS OF TOMORROW August 2011 thesmarttechie.com
10 Most
Promising
Creating
WOW
the
Mukund Mohan, CEO
Experience

2. cover
H
story
uman psyche is very strange
and unpredictable. A simple
gesture like a small gift on
their birthday from the com-
pany can go a long way and
Creating
make an employee feel very happy
the
and valued. Similarly an unexpected
souvenir for New Year can at times
make people feel overwhelmed with
joy and make them feel appreciated by
their company. Small acts like these
can make the employees feel that they
are an integral part of the company
and that their company cares about
them. Can this be taken forward to in-
crease brand loyalty? Will this help in
reducing the attrition rate? The answer
is yes! But how can a company with
hundreds or even thousands of em-
ployees and very large number of cus-
tomers keep a track of all this? Well,
ExperienceBy Hari Anil
they can let Jivity handle it for them.
Bangalore based Jivity specializes
in providing brand engagement solu-
tions for companies and educational
institutions. Companies are desper-
ately trying to retain their customers
by employing devices like advertising,
social media, public relations and
Mukund Mohan, CEO
more, but falling short of this goal
many a times. Higher salary packages
and other benefits are often offered,
but employee attrition still remains as
a major challenge. When all these
means are failing, what is it that a
company can do to increase their
brand loyalty still remains as the big-
ger question! Jivity is trying to answer
by employing its merchandising capa-
bilities to actively engage the employ-
ees, customers and partners of their
customers. “We let the companies un-
derstand what part of their brand peo-
ple like and appropriately run their
brand merchandize, thus helping them
to improve brand loyalty,” says
Mukund Mohan, CEO, Jivity.
The Smart Techie
|22|
August 2011 The Smart Techie
|23|
August 2011

3. tion, and boasts over 50 happy cus- range of products to choose from as major player in this fast growing mar-
tomers. These customers include the well,” says Mohan. The company ket. As long as the company’s focal
Customers and employees can giants like Dell, Mahindra Satyam, In- flaunts with more than 100 top notch point remains their customers and they
directly access the online brand store
dian School of Business, TATA Tele- brands and about 20,000 unique prod- keep on improvising and innovating,
services, Franklin Templeton, ucts in 200 different categories. It part- the future looks very bright for it, the
to look at merchandize offered, get Mindtree, Oakridge International
School and more. These are all sectors
ners with a lot of these companies to
make itself capable of getting the cus-
future can have nothing in store for it
than a hockey stick growth.
status on their rewards, and to pursue with so many differences, companies tomized products on a regular basis.
The Man Behind the Scene
redemption options.
are poles apart, but one thing they all This wide variety itself makes Jivity
have in common is the people. The stand out in the crowd and that is also Mukund Mohan, the founder and CEO
Jivity Team people are all the same, the same ges- a reason why it was able to attract so of the company, has a reputation of
tures make them happy and appreci- many customers in such a short period. building successful companies. He has
Modus Operandi tomers provide this to their employees particular campaigns work, and so on. ated, and this is why Jivity’s model As if customized products from so far successfully found and sold four
The company starts by identifying the at reasonable prices. At this point, the We put all these together and handle works irrespective of the sector. Levi’s, Reebok, Fastrack, HCL, entrepreneurial ventures including the
brand placement of its clients. Under- company is preparing for the Inde- this over to our clients. This also helps What is so special with Jivity that Nokia, IFB, Titan, Apple, and the likes social media marketing company,
standing is the key; understanding pendence Day campaign, in the month us with customizing the products,” is attracting all these big shots to it? are not enough, Jivity makes it a habit
where a company is standing in terms of September they will be putting to- says Mohan. Using this methodology
the company smoothly and cost effec-
How is it different from its competi-
tion? “To help our clients have maxi-
to hatch new and new ingenious ways
to create and retain that WOW experi-
The Indian brand merchandizing is
a Rs. 500 crore market, growing at
of brand value, loyalty and engage- gether a Rakhi related campaign, after
ment, and then figuring out what can that Ganesh Chadurthi, and this goes tively manages to get the branding mum control in brand merchandising, ence among the employees and cus-
be done to improve it. Jivity puts a lot on. Thus helping the employees get
good quality festival products at very
done for its clients.
The 75 people strong team is de-
we give them the option of online
brand store, retail brand store, a brand
tomers of its clients. Among these are
discounts. For example, an employee a very rapid pace. Jivity is leveraging
this opportunity by operating across
of efforts into this, and this helps them
in successfully taking the next step. affordable rates at the apt time. ployed in sales, marketing, customer store on wheels, and brand vending of Dell walks into Café Coffee Day or
Pharma, Financial Services,
Based on the result of the first stage, Jivity Rewards is a hosted software services, fulfillment, delivery and en- machines. No one else has such wide Lifestyle and gets a discount of some
the company devices the plan and solution that the company provides to gineering to give its customers very variety of options,” says Mohan. This percentage since they are an employee
strategy to take the branding further. It its customers to help them administer
and manage the program. The cus-
balanced and complete services. is also a differentiation factor for the
company. Keeping the customers and
of that company. This is sure to make
them feel WOW. With such campaigns
Technology and Education sectors
then goes towards merchandize selec-
tion and innovation. With its in-house tomers and employees can directly, The Clients employees of their customers happy and promotions they make sure that
designers Jivity custom designs mer- from the client’s website, access the Multinational organizations spend mil- and satisfied is the whole motto of Jiv- their end customers stay happy. BuzzGain. His has made it a routine to
chandize for its customers. As a result online brand store to look at merchan- lions every year in the process of hir- ity. “Jivity have provided us from time The company understands the follow the technology, entrepreneurial
of this approach the products that dize offered, get status on their re- ing, not to mention all the time and to time, various innovative gift items need of the day and manages to bring and business circles closely and is a
come to the table are very specifically wards, and to pursue redemption other resources they put into this. Then at competitive prices, shorter lead products accordingly. For example, regular blogger on these.
personalized products which fit the options. Since the portal is seamlessly they spend several more millions on times and pro-actively provided gift- now the necessity of healthy food Before venturing into the entrepre-
customer’s image. For example, one of integrated into the client’s intranet site, training these hired employees. Even ing solutions to suit our budget and in- habits is becoming popular among the neurial scenery he has successfully
its customers is a trucking company it is only visible to their employees. though not so much, the small compa- dustry,” says one of its customers, people and they are changing their steered leadership teams at HP, Invois,
and Jivity built a miniature of the But there are many who are not happy nies are also spending a good percent Infotech. food habits accordingly, and now the Ariba Technologies and Cisco Sys-
client’s truck with their emblem and buying online, who wants the touch of their revenue in this. After that they The company constantly comes up company has started offering organic tems. He was also on the board of
all the other details. “One of our cus- and feel of what they are buying, for are fighting and struggling through at- with new and new products, both stan- food materials like daal, rice and more iConclude (acquired by HP), Seman-
tomers, wanted to put together a green such people the company has on- trition. All the measures they are tak- dard and customized products to keep to meet this demand. They also offer tic Defense and Kinetic Brains. Mohan
campaign and so we put together a premise retail brand stores, Store-on- ing to challenge the attrition, does not their clients engaged. On top of this their end customers biking tours, is known for his innovative ideas, abil-
whole bunch of eco friendly products Wheels, a temporary retail brand store seem to have much of an effect. It is in they analyze the data that they gener- trekking, or similar packages to keep ity to build, manage and leads teams
that they could give to their employ- like a mobile-store, and brand vending this scenario that Jivity came with ate and improvise them accordingly. them even more engaged. to success, and this quality is reflected
ees and customers along with the other machines. their much simpler, effective, and cost This keeps them on the edge at any throughout his career.
products that they have,” says Mohan. From Jivity the brand profession- efficient brand merchandizing model point of time and this is another rea- A peek into the future His experience in the sales and
Jivity works out a monthly en- als can obtain results and analytics on to engage the employees. son why the big companies stick to “We intend to increase our number of marketing sector made him see the op-
gagement campaign for each of their top selling products, categories that are The Indian brand merchandizing them. customers by several fold and we want portunity in the space in India. He
customers. In the month of any partic- selling frequently and new product of- market is a Rs. 500 crore market to be known as a company that creates thought about how a more effective
ular festival the prices of anything and ferings, analyze the response of the which is growing at a very rapid pace. The WOW experience the WOW experience among the em- medium than advertising can be made,
everything associated to that festival employees and customers of its clients The opportunity present in this market “The whole point is to reinforce the ployees of our clients and create a lot how companies can be made into
go sky high. This is another target area and give feedback to the client. “We is huge. To leverage this opportunity brand perception among the employ- of shareholder value,” says a highly strong magnets that keep on attracting
for the company, they will bring prod- gather a lot of information like, what the company is presently operating in ees and the customers. We do that by enthusiastic Mohan about what he their employees and customers, this
ucts that are relevant to that particular the employees like, what they don’t four different sectors, Pharma, Finan- specifically custom creating products wants to do in the future. The com- thought finally led to the conceptual-
festival to their stores and let its cus- like, when their birthdays are, when a cial Services, Technology and Educa- for them, and we have a very wide pany is suiting itself up to become a ization of Jivity.
The Smart Techie
|24| August 2011 The Smart Techie
|25|
August 2011