Management Case

Vision
21(3) 323–329
Shradhanjali.com: New Address for © 2017 MDI
SAGE Publications
Memories of Our Ancestors sagepub.in/home.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0972262917716796
http://vision.sagepub.com

Amarpreet Singh Ghura1

Abhishek2

Abstract
This case is about Vivek Vyas and Vimal Popat who have conceived an idea to start an online obituary advertising platform. It describes
the situation faced by Vyas and Popat who face different options for starting an online obituary advertisement platform. The purpose
of this case is to provide an opportunity for stepping into the shoes of Vyas and Popat and explore the best possible option for offering
an alternate solution to print obituary advertisement. The case provides the context for students to examine alternate options for the
print obituary advertisement amidst lack of entrepreneurial experience of Vyas and Popat.

Key Words
Online Obituary Platform, Print Advertisement, Classified Ads, Tributes, Condolence Messages

It was a warm evening of 2010. Vivek Vyas (Vyas) and
Vimal Popat (Popat) were going for a joint sales call in
Rajkot, Gujarat. Both of them were working in Tata AIG
Life Insurance Company-Vyas as training manager and
Popat as sales manager. (Exhibit 1 presents short profile of
Vyas and Popat.) On the way, they stopped at a road-side
stall for snacks where Vyas ordered tea and samosa.1 The
stall owner gave the samosas wrapped in a newspaper.
When Vyas opened the packet, he noticed that the samosas
were wrapped in the obituary page of the newspaper. He
felt sad that the memories of the departed lingered on for
just a few hours before being thrown away and totally for-
gotten. Popat asked Vyas if there could be a better alterna-
tive than publishing just a short tribute in obituaries and
could something be done?
Exploring the Idea
After finishing the joint sales call, Vyas and Popat reached
office and searched on the Internet for Indian memorial
websites and online obituary advertisement services. They
could not find any website which offered online obituary
advertisement services. This is when Vyas realized and told
Popat that ‘Today one can get all kinds of information
online, but if one wants information about one’s ancestors,
one won’t find it online!’
Vyas and Popat thought of starting online services for
the same and discussed the feasibility of the idea. Vyas and
Popat started discussing the feasibility of the idea. They
gathered that India ranked number two among the Asian
countries on the basis of population. (Exhibit 2 presents
India’s position among the Asian countries as per popula-
tion.) They also recognized that while India had collectivist
culture and people tended to keep touch with extended
families, it was becoming increasingly difficult in modern
times. In this age of nuclear families which were spread all
over the globe, keeping ties with the immediate and
extended family was challenging. Many people seldom
met their uncles, aunts, cousins or even grandparents. Very
few children knew about their fore-fathers and their roots.
Vyas and Popat realized that while people knew a lot about
leaders, actors and celebrities, they had no clue about their
own great grandparents and other family members. Every
year, in an average family of four, more than 7 million
Indians passed away and 28 million people got directly
affected by the loss of their dear ones. There was so much
history that got lost with every generation.
Online Obituary Services
While Vyas and Popat could not find any memorial website
in Indian context, many options were available in other

1 Post-Doctoral Researcher, IIM Calcutta, India.

2 Associate Professor, Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad, India.

Corresponding author:
Amarpreet Singh Ghura, Post-Doctoral Researcher, IIM Calcutta, Kolkata, India.
E-mail: profasghura@gmail.com
324
countries. There were obituary websites outside India who
offered variety of services, such as virtual memorials and
flowers. For instance, ‘Mourner’s Lane’, an online obitu-
ary company in New York offered options to create a
virtual resting place for loved ones and pets. They also
came across another online memorial community platform
named ‘HeavenAddress’ which offered online memorials
and virtual flowers to families and friends in different coun-
tries, such as Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom,
the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.
These online memorials were individual pages through
which one could pay respect and tribute to the individuals
and loved ones. Family members and friends were able to
interact and keep the memories alive by writing messages,
lighting candles, drawing pictures via the Guest Book as
well as by posting photos, videos and their favourite music.
These pages were designed to involve all generations
regardless of age. HeavenAddress also enabled its users to
show family and friends that they were thinking of deceased
by sending sympathy flowers direct from the website.
People could choose from a variety of flowers according to
their budget and the flowers were delivered to the residen-
tial address or at the funeral service.
Print Obituary Market and
Formats
In India, the obituary market was huge but highly scat-
tered. Print was the only mode and no one had ever tried to
capture this market by any other modes (e.g., voice, online).
When someone wanted to pay homage, advertisements in
newspapers obituary column were the only option availa-
ble. Even though newspaper obituary advertisements were
not treasured by readers and passed off within seconds,
they had a purpose. These advertisements were used by
people to make announcements at times of death in family
so that people could attend the funeral and prayer meet-
ings. Newspaper obituary advertisements existed in differ-
ent types and formats.
The most commonly used format was text classified
advertisement which was low-cost text classifieds in which
charges were calculated on per word basis or per line basis.
These advertisements often had a tick mark, or a thick and
bold outline to enhance visibility. Bold letters were used to
highlight certain keywords in the text classified advertise-
ments. Good and convincing text classified advertisements
attracted readers to devote time in reading the headline.
Thus, one had to ensure that text consisted of keywords
which grabbed attention of readers. (Exhibit 3 lists samples
of text classified advertisement.)
The second type of print obituary advertisement availa-
ble was display classified advertisement. These were high
visibility display classifieds advertisement and could be
booked with images, if required. They were more effective
in getting attention and better response. Display classified
advertisements were more expensive than text classifieds
Vision 21(3)
advertisement and the rate was charged on a per sq. cm
basis. (Exhibit 4 lists samples of display classified adver-
tisements.) The third type of print obituary advertisement
was display advertisement. These were high impact adver-
tisements and also the most expensive ones. Display adver-
tisements could be of any size in width/height not less than
3 sq. cm. They could be in black and white or in colour.
They were considered to be the most effective. (Exhibit 5
lists a sample of display advertisement.)
The rates for obituary advertisement and messages
differed as per circulation figures of newspapers. (Exhibit 6
lists the rate of print obituary advertisement for leading
newspaper—Times of India.) They were based on the size
of the advertisement and the newspaper edition selected
(city). (Exhibit 7 lists samples of different sizes of print
obituary advertisements options available.)
Planning for Shradhanjali.com
The talk of Vyas and Popat had come to an end. Both had
clearly identified the issues in the existing obituary print
advertisement market with only newspapers printed adver-
tisements as the sole option. Vyas came out of office in a
pensive mood. He was familiar with the online space. As
per report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India,
number of online users would rise to more than half a billion
by 2018. It was expected that there would be significant rise
in the number of users from the rural areas, people who
access Internet from their phones and women users. While
driving back home Vyas developed an idea to offer online
option to the existing obituary print advertisements. He
thought of setting up a portal which could offer slots for the
biography of the deceased persons along with their photos
and space to include family and personal details. These
slots would have an option to select the background music
of one’s choice with embedded video-sharing option.
He thought of the domain name shradhanjali.com2 to host
the portal.
Vyas thought that the first page would be the home page
which would have a personal profile of the deceased. The
second page would be where personal life of the deceased
would be documented, much like a biography. Multiple
language option would be provided for biography. The
third page would be meant to record the details of the
deceased person’s intermediate family. The fourth page
would be for the photograph with captions on each photo
and unlimited space. The fifth page would have all the
videos with unlimited space. Further Vyas thought of offer-
ing some special features such as religious background
music for each online account created and also providing a
service of sending reminders to the listed relatives of the
deceased person on the portal every year via email and text
message about the birth and death anniversary of the
deceased. The relatives and friends, in turn, could reply via
email with special and condolence messages. He also
contemplated about providing readymade templates for
condolence messages and tributes so that anyone across the
globe could post a condolence message.
Ghura and Abhishek 325

Vyas was concerned about the competitors as he felt wondered if the idea of shradhanjali.com was a step in
anyone could adopt his idea and find a better way to mone- right direction. They were not sure about the strategy to
tize it, as there was a clear gap in online obituary space. India, move ahead.
as a subcontinent, was the birthplace of some of the world’s
major religions, namely, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Acknowledgements
Sikhism. Moreover, Constitution of India allowed freedom The authors are grateful to the executives of Unique Concepts
of religion as a fundamental right, making India a land of Marketers, especially Mr Vimal Popat and Mr Vivek Vyas, for
religious diversity. In order to ward off competition, Vyas their co-operation and support in writing this case.
also thought of buying domain names, such as www.
marhoom.com, www.marhum.com3 and www.pitru.com4 Exhibit 1. Profile of Vyas and Popat
which could cater to needs of people of different religion. Vivek Vyas
Vivek Vyas was born in 1980 in the city of Manavadar
which was in Junagadh district of Gujarat. He completed
Costing and Pricing the Services his Bachelor in Science in the year 2000 and Post Graduate
Vyas had completed his Post-Graduation Diploma in Infor- Diploma in Information Technology and Management
mation Technology and Management in 2002. However, in 2002 from Malaviya College, affiliated to Saurashtra
the technology landscape had changed significantly by University in Rajkot, Gujarat. He was a Training Manager
2010. Vyas knew that they would need a resource which in Tata AIG Life Insurance Company since 2007. His father
could develop the web interface. Vyas and Popat started had retired from Agriculture Department of Gujarat
meeting companies in Mumbai and Bangalore who could Government as Joint Director and his mother was a teacher.
build the website according to their need. The quotes
received were between the ranges of INR 4 lakh to INR 5 Vimal Popat
lakh. Vyas and Popat found the quotes on higher side. Vyas Vimal Popat was born in 1970 in the city of Rajkot, Gujarat.
contacted one of the junior in his college, where he had He completed his Bachelor in Commerce in 1993 from
done his Post-Graduation in Information Technology and Saurashtra University in Rajkot. He was a Sales Manager in
Management and asked if he would be ready to develop the Tata AIG Life Insurance Company since 2007. He had
website. The junior agreed to work on freelance basis and prior work experience with Castrol India Limited where
quoted INR 2 lakh. He offered to use Core PHP5 in the he looked after developing dealer network. His father
back end programming, Hyper Text Markup6 in front end had retired from Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation
and Cascading Style Sheets7 for front end designing. as Assistant Traffic-in-charge and his mother was a
As the idea of shradhanjali.com crystallized, Popat and home-maker.
Vyas ideated on revenue stream of portal. Popat felt that Source: Discussion with company executives.
the portal should be without advertisement on any of the
pages as a tribute portal should be free from distractions. Exhibit 2. Population of Major Asian Countries
He planned on having revenues through subscription
India Position in Total Population
model and contemplated offering two payment plans—one
among the Asian Countries
by charging INR 1,000 every year and the other by charg- (As on July, 2015)
ing INR 2,700 as a onetime fee to register with shradhan-
(In ‘000)
jali.com. In second option, the space offered would be with
a validity of 30 years which could be renewed later. Vyas Population
suggested offering complimentary service for any martyr Rank Top 10 Countries (In ‘000)
of defence and police service, freedom fighters, activist,  1 China* 1,401,587
politicians, saints and national figures. He thought this  2 India 1,282,390
 3 Indonesia 255,709
would increase the traffic on the portal.
 4 Pakistan 188,144
 5 Bangladesh 160,411
Challenges Ahead  6 Japan 126,818
 7 Philippines 101,803
As Popat and Vyas firmed up the idea of starting shradhan-  8 Vietnam 93,387
jali.com, they were plagued by many concerns. Both did  9 Iran 79,476
not have relevant information technology background and 10 Turkey 76,691
thus lacked the technical knowledge for starting Internet-   Other Asian Countries 472,389
All Asian Countries 4,238,805
based business. Second, they had a background of service
World 7,324,782
jobs with no prior entrepreneurial experience. They were
also concerned about the manner in which they would Source: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
(ON1002).
pitch such a service to customers, as no one in India had Retrieved 17 May 2016, from http://www.indiastat.com/table/
ever heard or experienced such a service. Popat and Vyas
326 Vision 21(3)

Exhibit 3. Samples of Text Classified Advertisements

Source: Provided by the company.

Exhibit 4. Sample of Display Classified Advertisements

Source: Provided by the company.

Ghura and Abhishek 327

Exhibit 5. Sample of Display Advertisement

Source: Provided by the company.

Exhibit 6. Rate of Print Obituary Advertisement in The Times of India

Rate for 1 B&W/Colour

Advertisement Total Cost for 1 B&W/
Advertisement Type Size of Advertisement Edition (City) (per sq. cm) Colour Advertisement
Classified Display 24 sq. cm Mumbai INR 325 INR 7,970
(Width = 3 cm, Height = 8 cm)
Classified Display 24 sq. cm New Delhi INR 290 INR 7,111
(Width = 3 cm, Height = 8 cm)
Classified Display 24 sq. cm Ahmedabad INR 172 INR 4,218
(Width = 3 cm, Height = 8 cm)
Classified Display 30 sq. cm Mumbai INR 325 INR 9,962
(Width = 3 cm, Height = 10cm)
Classified Display 30 sq. cm New Delhi INR 290 INR 8,889
(Width = 3 cm, Height = 10 cm)
Classified Display 30 sq. cm Ahmedabad INR 172 INR 5,272
(Width = 3 cm, Height = 10 cm)
Display 20 sq. cm Mumbai INR 895 INR 18,289
(Width = 4 cm, Height = 5 cm)
Display 20 sq. cm New Delhi INR 650 INR 13,283
(Width = 4 cm, Height = 5 cm)
Display 20 sq. cm Ahmedabad INR 195 INR 3,985
(Width = 4 cm, Height = 5 cm)
Display 32 sq. cm Mumbai INR 895 INR 29,263
(Width = 4 cm, Height = 8 cm)
Display 32 sq. cm New Delhi INR 650 INR 21,252
(Width = 4 cm, Height = 8 cm)
Display 32 sq. cm Ahmedabad INR 195 INR 6,376
(Width = 4 cm, Height = 8 cm)
Display 64 sq. cm Mumbai INR 895 INR 58,526
(Width = 8 cm, Height = 8 cm)
Display 64 sq. cm New Delhi INR 650 INR 42,505
(Width = 8 cm, Height = 8 cm)
Display 64 sq. cm Ahmedabad INR 195 INR 12,751
(Width = 8 cm, Height = 8 cm)
Source: Company reports and discussion with executives.
328 Vision 21(3)

Source: Provided by the company.

Ghura and Abhishek 329
Notes
1. Samosa is a fried or baked dish with a savoury filling of
potatoes.
2. Shradhanjali is word in Hindi language which means tribute.
3. Marhoom/Marhum is a word in Urdu language which means
dead.
4. Pitru is a word in Sanskrit language which means ancestors.
5. PHP is a server-side scripting language designed primarily for
web development but is also used as a general-purpose pro-
gramming language.
6. Hyper Text Mark-up Language is the standard mark-up
language for creating web pages and web applications.
7. Cascading Style Sheets is a style sheet language used for
describing the presentation of a document written in a mark-
up language.
About the Authors
Amarpreet Singh Ghura (profasghura@gmail.com) is a
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at IIM Calcutta. His
research interests are in the field of entrepreneurship
management and strategic management. His research work
has been accepted for publication in journal like Marketing
Mastermind and Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innova-
tion in Emerging Economies. His articles have also been
published in business magazines like Corporate India and
business newspaper Economic Times. He has also written
about five teaching cases, which have been published with
IIM Ahmedabad Case center, Emerald Emerging Markets
Case Studies and used in different institutions in India.
Abhishek (abhishek@iima.ac.in) is an Associate Professor
in the Marketing Area at IMT Ghaziabad. His research
interests are in the field of marketing communications,
consumer behaviour in retail context, e-business and digital
marketing. His research work has been accepted for publi-
cation in refereed journals like Journal of Retailing and
Consumer Services, Marketing Intelligence and Planning,
Asian Case Research Journal, South Asian Journal of
Management, Journal of Indian Business Research, Inter-
national Journal of Indian Culture and Business Manage-
ment, Vikalpa and Decision. He has also written more than
20 cases and prepared six simulation games which have
been used in different institutions in India.