Of Reading and Misreading

It was back in 1896, after gaining enormous financial success and critical acclaim, did Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wanted to “put his mind to better things” decided to kill Sherlock Holmes. Doing away with his fictitious character, and the world’s most popular detective was a bold move. Unfortunately, his subsequent writing stints never gave him similar success and seven years later, he was forced to bring Holmes back!

Fast forward to May 2016, and the Indian e-commerce sector is witnessing a similar bold move having gone awry. Swayed by promising data and trend analysis, marketing wizards at a popular e-commerce fashion retailer had decided to shut their website and become the first app-only platform. A year later, the company has decided to reconsider this idea and now plans to reintroduce the website and offer “more choices” to the consumer. Of course, with an increase in mobile internet users from 300 million in December 2014, to 402 million in December 2015, most seasoned marketers would argue that the move was justified.

Although more than a century apart, these cases highlight how successful marketers often misread market sentiments.