As chairman, founder and CEO of Rediff On The Net, undoubtedly India's most popular home-grown website (www.rediff.com) with more than 65 million hits every month. Ajit Balakrishnan has had a unique vantage-point insight to web-marketing in India. Which is perhaps why he looks beyond technology and pricing into something that is yet unknown to Indian web marketers -- brand equity. And why not? Mr Balakrishnan is also co-founder and managing director of advertising biggie Rediffusion DY&R. In the capital to attend the ISP '99 exhibition for internet service providers, he spoke to The Economic Times' Nandini Sen Gupta. And broke a few mind-sets and myths in the process. Excerpts from the tete-a-tete:

As a marketman, which of the three Ps of marketing -- price, positioning and perception -- is most important for an ISP?
You need a mix of the three Ps, of course. But being first to the market is and positioning yourself correctly and hugely importantly.

What about price?
Price isn't unimportant but it's not the only thing. In fact, the current preoccupation with price is very misleading because there are so many more advantages of being the first service provider which far outweigh cost concerns. Internet services is a consumer brand so the differentiation has to be along those lines. The ISP has to build a genuine brand which is easily recognisable, well differentiated, well positioned and adds value for customers. The ISP business is a service business so the competition here will be along many many different parameters. Not just price.

Why do you think the web marketer needs to concentrate more on branding and less on technology?
Contrary to popular perception, technology is not the only cutting edge an internet service provider (ISP) should focus on. ISP technology is like a commodity; it is very, very easy to acquire. So it can never be the biggest distinguishing factor.

But if the focus is on being there first, doesn't the ISP run the risk of being confined to niche communities?
What I am talking about is locational niches rather than community niches. And even that (communities) can be substantial like, say Dalal Street brokers. Ideally the ISP should start with a niche and then expand elsewhere. The trouble is many big players simply don't know where to focus -- you have to remember that you can't match VSNL on costs. As for niche existence, typically individual ISPs have between 2000 to 5000 customers worldwide. If you take that as a base figure and multiply it with a Rs 5000 yearly subscription fee you get a cool Rs 2.5 crore which is good revenue for a business that works with five member teams and on low overheads.

You say technology isn't of prime importance. How then can you address security concerns particularly in electronic-commerce transactions?
There are a hundred consultants worldwide who will address your security concerns and handle them competently for you. There is no need for an ISP to focus extra attention on those issues. I look at it this way -- if they don't fix the pricing and bandwidth issues there will be no market; so ISPs need to look beyond technology and price.

So what does the winning edge comprise?
There could be many winners -- an ISP can concentrate on geographical niches (like the first ISP in friends colony or Bandra), it can concentrate on downward niches in that larger pie and it can differentiate on service and delivery. Just basic; the ISP will have to look beyond that at what the consumers expect, desire and even work in the unanticipated demand and offer a good positioning mix. You can differentiate on your product (disk-space, e-mail account, etc), on the speed and accuracy of delivery, on installation services, on training and consulting.

Finally, will electronic-commerce ever work in India?
Again contrary to what people believe, there are no restrictions on e-com with the current legal situation in India. The IT Act, when it comes, will only improve the ground rules.