TuracoMobile looks to stop digital marketing from being so pushy, aims to pull consumers in
Digital marketing is definitely changing the way products are brought to the notice of customers. Display and search advertising takes up the majority of digital marketing budgets, which all in all run into around $100 billion a year. Beyond that, huge budgets are allocated to email/SMS/outbound dialer and other marketing strategies. All these are of a push nature, with very little end-user control or preferences, and are largely an annoyance to the recipient.
Bringing to bear his 25 years of experience in the mobile and software domains, Srinivas Mogalapalli decided to start his own venture to solve this problem.
Srinivas founded Turaco Mobile in December 2013.
TuracoMobile, via its GreatBuyz platform, is planning to aggregate some of these alternatives marketing techniques in one easy-to-use platform/app. Srinivas hopes to connect brands and consumers in the pull fashion with consumer opt-in preferences.
How does TuracoMobile help you market to your target customers better?
It provides a mobile marketing platform that has business applications in both the B2B and B2C spaces. In the consumer space, it hopes to be a leading aggregator of a few large marketing channels. They can be opt-in marketing - Brand Follow, Coupons, Deals, Gift Cards, Marketing Surveys, and more.
How did Srinivas go about addressing the opportunity?
GreatBuyz’s platform was initially launched with a telecom operator in the B2B space. It is now slowly being ramped up in the consumer space through an app that can help save money and time for the shoppers of products and services. Consumers can now benefit from four marketing channels - Coupons, Deals, Follow Brands, Gift Cards - under one app.
Story behind the name
Srinivas says, "Our brand - GreatBuyz - is expected to help consumers save time and money during all product and service purchases. The name TuracoMobile comes from a predominantly African bird. As we were in the field of primarily mobile-consumed software, we wanted to choose an animal or bird that indicated mobility."
How do they monetise?
On being asked this question, Srinivas shares, "Brands/businesses will be the source of revenue for GreatBuyz, paying for the use of various marketing solutions and the reach that we will provide. Each of our marketing channels will have different revenue models. Our current B2B revenue models are based on the pay-per-use and subscription models. Our B2C revenue model will be based on platform usage fees, consumer usage, and even views, similar to traditional digital advertising.
The team and their motivation
They have 15 members in their team. Srinivas believes that employees should be self-motivated, that it shouldn’t be only the company or the founder's job to motivate them. They thus hire people who are self motivated. He believes in providing a fair working atmosphere that encourages good team efforts, along with smart and hard work.
