Online Matrimony Industry

Identify and explain company's inbound marketing activities. Is the role of traditional marketing activities minimized?

The Online Matrimony industry in itself started as a significant shift from the traditional way marriages in India and around the world were arranged. Shaadi.com is one of the oldest of such Online Matrimony companies as discussed in our service analysis above. This service industry has risen by leaps and bounds and there are major players on the list like Jeevansaathi, Bharat Matrimony. Shaadi.com being one of the leaders in the industry has tried out various outbound and inbound marketing activities to be successful in this arena.

Some of the recent inbound marketing activities that have helped them pull customers are:

Angry Brides Application- Shaadi.com, the world's largest matrimonial site, has launched "Angry Brides" a game to create awareness and showcase the company's stand against Dowry. The game was launched on Shaadi.com's Facebook page which is liked by over 266,000 people.

Social Networking- Shaadi.com, through its consistent focus on audience engagement on Facebook succeeded in effectively setting a new benchmark in social media interaction. The Facebook brand page of Shaadi.com, with its current 938, 807 strong fan-base has 327,084 people talking about its content on a weekly basis. Through Facebook, Shaadi.com directly connects with over 8,213,094 unique people each week.

Search Engine Optimization- Shaadi.com is ranked 7 in Google Page Rank. To rank higher in the Natural Search Listing, they use techniques such as Keyword research, Meta Tag optimization, Content Optimization and Link popularity.

Press Releases- The company keeps conducting surveys about interesting topics which appeal to the masses like 'The best eligible celebrity'. These press releases interact with the people and helps in building rand recall. 'Matrimonial Week' as part of their 15 year anniversary celebrations. Basically, it was about spouses gifting something precious to their significant others. The matrimonial week lasted from October 12th to the 19th and was heavily promoted by Shaadi.com over all media channels including Social Media.

The role of traditional marketing- The company where on one hand uses out of the box marketing activities to reach out to the customers, the role of traditional marketing like advertisements on television and print are reduced to a certain extent. The advertisements on television are however directed towards the NRI audience, a large customer base of the company.

Identify any situation where the company has achieved a service recovery or has instituted a service recovery program successfully.

History - Shaadi.com was started in 1996 as they saw a good potential for NRI's to easily find their soul-mate online. The Internet was taking off as a medium and this was the perfect time. Indeed the service was only launched only for NRI's as finding a Indian life-partner was decidedly difficult for them. Hence, Shaadi.com thrived successfully in NRI circles because of their early adoption of online services.

Hurdle - Their growth of in India was slow as people were worried about the credibility of the site and the people who used it. The country was still very conservative about doing anything online, even shopping transactions simply because they didn't trust the medium.

Service Recovery-The company used various measures such as word of mouth by their successful couples made Shaadi.com an avenue for people looking for a partner. Another aspect for this rise in numbers is the rise of Social Networks. 'Sharing' as concept has been instrumental in passing