Mobile telephony is paving the way for an unprecedented digital empowerment for millions of people in India. In 2014, the country topped as the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market. The availability of low-cost smartphones, tablets and customer friendly data tariffs is driving internet penetration across urban, semi-urban and even rural areas. The increasing number of smartphone users in the global market has led to a tremendous increase in the number of apps that consumers use on their phones.
So now, you are navigating through your App Store and every Aisle you turn, there are amazing newly launched Music, Movie or Gaming Apps that just draw your attention. You try it and if you like it, you subscribe to it.
Have you ever thought about how these Apps actually made it to the store? With the work of the creative Product Development team, the Analytics team and the strategic Upper Management, together they have come up with the perfect product mix put on the floor. A lot of data mining and strategic planning goes into the process of making audience purchase the product from an App store.
I worked as an Analyst Intern in Digital Marketing at Corporate Head-office of Idea Cellular Ltd., Mumbai this summer. My main Objective was “To drive Mobile Application Distribution for Idea’s Digital Content”. Initially, I knew there would be some number crunching, you know like the statistics course I took in college.
Actually, there was a lot of analytical thinking, trend forecasting that went into my job. I might just have been an intern, but I prepared data and data reports and crunched a large amount of data daily. While there was lots of data and lots of numbers to look at, like install numbers, registration numbers and download numbers, there were a lot of fun things I got to do as an Intern.
The important part was not to get wrapped up in the product. You really have to know your business. How much money can you spend for the season? Will this content be appealing to my target audience? And you must also know when to simply say “no, that will not work for us.”
Sitting in a cubicle, looking at data on a computer screen all day might not sound exciting, but the end result is amazing; a full collection of product for you to access online, try on and subscribe.
So next time when you navigate through different Apps through the App store, you will know all the hard work that went into making sure that the product made it to the store for you.
Shital Rithe
Batch 2016-18
DoMS IIT Roorkee