Bare Metal Cyber

Hey, welcome back to Cyber Talks,

developed by MeribetalCyber.com.

I'm Dr. Jason Edwards,

and today we're stepping out of the strict

security lane and into a topic every cyber

and tech professional actually lives with

every day, marketing.

Our guest is Dipan Dekka,

assistant professor at Madhavi Skills

University,

and he's joining us to walk through the

classic four Ps of marketing and why they

still matter in a digital always-on world.

Tapan brings more than eight years of

teaching and professional experience in

marketing and international business,

plus hands-on work in digital marketing

and personal branding.

In this session,

we'll connect those marketing fundamentals

to things you care about every day,

positioning your work,

communicating value,

and the core business principles to drive

real outcomes.

So Tapan, welcome to the show.

Good to have you.

Yeah.

Good morning, good evening.

Good morning.

Yeah.

Good morning.

Good evening.

Good night.

Yeah.

So so tell us about what you do

and where you work and the university.

Thank you, Dr. Jason,

for this opportunity to for calling me to

this bare metal.

So my name is Tapan Deka.

Actually, I have worked in the teaching.

I have more than eight years of

experience.

And besides this,

before coming to teaching,

I have worked in the

corporate world also around seven years.

So as a total,

I can say about fifteen years.

I worked in Madhavi skills university.

This university is in Sikkim,

one of the northeastern states of India.

And this university's beauty is that we

actually try to develop the skills which

actually mostly the industries need.

And it is a skill university where,

along with the theoretical knowledge,

we are giving more importance to

application-based knowledge based on the

skills of the students.

And Madhavi Skills University,

if I say in India,

is one of the

most forefront or you can say in the

first place in introducing skill education

to whole of the Indian populations.

Besides catering to the students of

northeastern states of India,

we are also trying to cover whole of

the Indian population or the youngsters or

you can say so that they can not

only learn these things only in

theoretical purpose but practical way

also.

And I also want to, through this,

I want to give gratitude to my Chancellor

of the University, Dr. Parviz Dudhani,

and Dr. Kulip Sharma also.

They are actually the pioneer in

establishing this university.

So this is all about me in short

to say.

Thank you so much, Jason.

Yeah, great.

So let's go ahead and get started.

I'll go ahead and put the slides on

the screen and you take it away.

okay can you see him yes uh today

i want to share something knowledge about

the four piece of marketing and how we

can use it inside your security because uh

this four piece of marketing you can see

uh from here only from the slide also

here we'll be discussing about how this

four piece is related about product price

place and promotion

These four Vs are also considered as one

of the important marketing tool because

without this tool,

it will be very difficult to apply the

practical knowledge or you can say

theoretical knowledge in the most skillful

way in order to give

what you can say a real time picture

of how a product is being moved in

the market or how the product actually

help to put it in the mind of

the customers.

So let us move to the first spring.

What is that is can be also known

as product.

But before we go for the product,

So marketing,

many people think that marketing is about

being lucky,

but marketing not about success is not

about luck because like to make a very

good food,

we also know a very good recipe should

be there.

So this for free can be considered or

we can be considered as a balanced recipe.

And through my today's talk with Dr.

Jason,

I'll be trying to break down how from

cybersecurity point of view,

these four P's can be applicable in this

modern way and in making a very actionable

framework for immediate use.

So let us jump to the first P

that can be also known as product.

But before going for this,

always the common mistake that we as a

what you can say the normal people or

the customers or you can say a layman

always we focus on only the product but

one thing before we go more in the

four piece

We should also know the value that is

being created by this product and also how

this value is being captured because lots

of strategy is involved and not just only

innovation.

So this actually helps to move from being

a product person to being a market

strategist.

So now we can go directly for the

force speed that is known as the product.

Now here you can see from my heading

its product which can be also known as

the value generator or we can say that

this product can be also act as a

solution which we have to trust.

If we go for the definition of product

from cybersecurity point of view,

the security of pricing is not just only

about software or service.

The main benefit is always making your

software being safe for the users because

we have to follow the different rules.

We have to keep the business running.

So trust is one of the main thing

when we are launching a product in the

form of software or any product which is

related with, you can say,

the software-based industries.

Now, what will be the key focus?

So the key focus from the client point

of view, we should go to the ZTBD.

That is known as job to be done.

That means not using only the fire rail.

Instead, we should also prevent,

for example,

a five million dollar breach so that we

can ensure the GDPR,

which is very important from European

country point of view.

Because this GDPR compliance is very

important or we can say if we apply

it,

we can sleep soundly so that our product

also not only help in getting the customer

whom we are actually segmenting or

targeting or positioning,

that will also help a very good sleep.

Now, from actionable point of view,

we can translate these features.

How?

For example,

we can use AI power threat detection in

our product so that the business outcome,

for example,

ninety nine nine point nine percent

reduction in false positive saving analyst

time.

And also one can go for a faster

incident response,

which can cut the bridge time from days

to hours.

So next,

let us move to the next piece.

Price.

Now, price,

when we'll be putting a price to any

product or product as a service,

it should be always able to capture the

value the price is giving.

So that means the price should also act

as a protector or you can say the

value of the protection.

Now,

what happens when we deal with these

products which are made for cyber point of

view or cyber security point of view?

So the degree of how one has to

face these risks should be reflected in

the cost.

So this is for the premium for any

business to become resilient also and for

bringing a peace in the mind of the

customers and also bringing a peace in the

mind of the seller also.

Now,

here the key focus is that we should

use a RIC space pricing so that it

can determine the client's total cost of

potential bridge,

which is also known as TCB.

and which may include penalties and we can

say downtime or reputational harm that may

come.

So this also be considered when we are

putting a price on the product.

And it is also important that insurance

premium should be also included in the

cost because someone will be buying some

software.

That insurance, if it is there,

so obviously it will be creating as an

insurance payment rather than only a cost.

Then a strategic insight if I have to

give.

A low price for cybersecurity,

one can frequently indicate the lack of

market trust and quality because it's

natural for any human being.

If someone is using a premium product,

price matters because the same thing the

Lamborghini car will give you will be not

given by a car which is made by,

for example, one Indian brand,

I can say the Maruti.

Yes,

if I consider the brand which is making

the Lamborghini and if Maruti,

then if you want to bring Lamborghini in

your home,

we should be ready to bear that price

because already this Lamborghini have lots

of varieties of what you can say benefit

for the customers.

So here,

that's why I saying here that low price

for cybersecurity frequently will induct a

lack of market trust and quality.

Now in a high-stake industry,

like for example, cyber defense,

premium pricings can be strengthened our

expertise also.

So let us move to the next P.

Place.

Place means,

The product where we can go for,

we can get easy access to the customers

and the distribution is very frictionless.

That means which can show the security

journey.

So the security journey of the client,

where and how they'll be using our

knowledge is that place.

So this include our SOC,

SO means Security Operations Center.

which the teams should immediately make

available for the customers and also the

smooth implementation.

And it should be also user friendly from

client's point of view,

because whatever the portal they'll be

using,

it should be very friendly with the

customer.

Then only this place they can go for

the software service.

Now for modern view point of view,

what we can say,

We can adopt a frictionless security.

That means where security will not be

compromised because it is very crucial

because nowadays we have heard that many

softwares we have to put in your,

what you can say,

in your desktop or in your laptop,

we have found that breaching is there.

And not only that takes our data,

but we also become the,

pray to any hackers will be using it

so that's why we should see that does

uh our uh mdr service have a complicated

uh onboarding process is there or not and

there mean managing this detection and the

response from this security as a service

so it is difficult to understand the

reporting desperate we should ask these

questions when we are going to place our

product

that does our MDR service as a complicated

onboarding process,

because this will be used by someone who

will be our customer,

or whether it will be difficult to

understand the reporting dashboard or not.

And another thing,

adoption itself is threatened by friction

in security adoption.

So that's why the place where we'll be

putting our software

So we should be very much aware about

that.

And we should make sure that our client

communication channels are simple.

Because if, for example, I myself,

if I have to buy software as a

service or any software,

if this communication channel is very much

complicated,

it will become very difficult for me.

Though I may have a limited knowledge of

using these different softwares because my

field will be different.

So for that purpose,

I should make that my client's

communication sensor simple.

And also they are available around the

clock.

So this is very important so that our

system is deployed,

can be deployed quickly.

Case example,

we can manage security service provider,

which is known as MSPS, SACSI.

on place by providing what instantaneous

round-the-clock access for the human

knowledge and also we can remarkably once

go for straightforward one click incident

acceleration procedure so let us move to

the next piece

So promotion means promotion means

promotion does not only mean about

advertising about our software or about

saying about the security that only our

product will give a cyber security point

of view.

Promotion should always try to tell a

story that why the customer should how how

this product will be credible for them.

Or it can be like a war stories.

For example, once there is a king,

there is a queen and they go away.

and forever and they own it for like

that we can make also on a software

we should tell a story through our

promotion so we should try to establish

some unquestional credibility to our

product so whatever we promotion that we

are doing our promotion always to

demonstrate knowledge through some

thoughtful leadership should be there

In the promotional,

we should also share some success stories

in order to transform what fear into

trust.

Because nowadays,

everything is being digitalized.

And once this AI has come to our

click of our mouse,

so these promotional techniques,

whatever stories we are saying,

we should be very much be trustful to

our customers.

so key focus we can go for some

case to case studies or we can do

stories about cyber world or we can

demonstrate how we can avoid a real

business crisis or we can also go for

use some high level non-technical

narratives also that will also help to

promote our software products and another

thing we should pay attention to the

solution part when we are promoting our

product because our products should give

solution to the product and also

we should keep in your mind the client's

problems, such as compliance headaches,

because compliance is one of the things

most of the customers who will be using

software as a service,

most of the customers actually face.

So we should,

while using this promotional technique,

we should also keep on our mind this

client's problem.

And from an actionable step, for example,

we should invite a client for a brief

private webinar about a very specific

trait, such as the top three REST groups.

REST could mean ransomware or service,

as services.

Or we can target some mid-marketed main

focus also.

So instead of selling,

we should start a pertinent conversation

with them.

We should try to establish ourselves as a

true thought leader by providing

actionable and exclusive insight.

Because this promotion is one of the,

you can say,

the trick through which not only if we'll

be sharing our story,

we can also promote our product in the

mind of the customer.

Because through this promotion,

we can position software as a service in

the mind of the customer.

And through that,

we will not only able to reach our

target customer,

but our target customer will be also very

happy that cybersecurity is not being

compromised.

Can you move to the next slide, doctor?

Now,

what will be the equitable marketing mix?

So why these four cyber piece need to

work together?

So particularly in the high-stake field of

cybersecurity,

these four piece must be in balance.

because failure will be a result from an

imbalance.

Example, excellent product is there,

but the promotion is very awful.

Then what will happen?

The product may have very good price also.

The product may have very good promotion

also.

But if we are not promoting it in

the right place,

then it may be a disaster for us.

Therefore,

these four cyber piece need to work

together.

Then through this,

if we're able to include this marketing

mix through our four piece,

we're able to also bring cyber-harmonic

example

The market will assume what?

Low quality.

If we have the best product also,

then you need zero day defense.

But if our price is too low,

then people will think that we are

undermining the trust.

That means we're undermining the security

of that particular customer because

necessarily human psychology is like this.

If we are using some cyber products,

the price should be a little bit higher.

Then only the trust is built in.

Then cyber imbalance example,

if you are not equating this marketing

means.

So adoption and renewal will be killed if

our promotion is great,

producing a lot of leads, but our place,

that means where we'll be onboarding or

when we'll be going for a client portal

is very difficult.

Then this thing,

there will be this balance and this

balance.

So from here we can find out now

our marketing mix should be very

equitable.

So can we move to the next slide?

Now,

there are some two pieces which actually

have been included in the latter part of

this four piece that can be also say

the people in the process foundation that

can be also considered an extended means.

So bridging theory is that these

facilitators can be one of the online

success because this will enable

functions.

For example,

the people means who will be on your

team,

who will be the members in your cyber

quality,

how they'll be maintaining it or the

process that means

how efficiency is there whether the

logistics is efficiency or not they will

be guaranteeing what the regular and

profitable delivery of the fundamental for

me because these people in the process

they will be play a very important role

when we will be dealing with this cyber

for this because uh

People are ultimately who will be involved

directly or indirectly with the product.

People, number one,

is the manufacturer or seller of the

product.

And second will be the customer or the

client with whom we will be doing.

So this is very particularly important

that in cybersecurity,

While we are delivering the trust,

so it will be definitely will be heavily

dependent on the human expertise and also

whatever the execution we are doing,

it should be flawless because one flaw can

destroy the whole data of an individual or

the whole security purpose of the

individual and which may be compromised.

So as an entrepreneur, what we can focus,

we can guarantee the quality of place,

that means the client journey or the

support,

and our products should always try to give

a solution

and that solution should be delivered to

our client and we should also record our

process in so that we can get the

customer feedback because this customer

feedback is very important because that

this customer feedback will going to

create our loyal customers because if we

have to go for upselling that means more

selling of the product then this customer

feedback is very important because that

will and also the return because in using

this people and process efficiently we can

also get a very good return

And we should make sure that our process

requires our client communication samples.

And it should be easy and it should

be easily accessible,

twenty-four into seven.

Can you move to the next slide?

Now, what is the final takeaway?

The final takeaway,

we can take it that we should evaluate

that whether our cyber four piece on a

scale of one to ten when we're making

a cyber product,

we should scale it that whether and we

should be very honest in scaling it

because there is one saying is that the

good seller is that who can not only

satisfy their customers,

but can consider the customer as their

wife.

Because for example,

if we are able to fulfill or if

we make our wife happy,

then our home will be very happy.

So same thing,

if we're able to make our customers happy,

like if we're making our wife happy,

then we can also make our product happily

going in the market.

Therefore,

we should be very honest when scaling this

product in the scale of one to ten

so that we can rate our four piece

by ourselves before launching the product

or after launching the product.

because our type top priority is one with

the lowest score so out of the four

piece every pay may not be uh going

for eight or nine in their uh scaling

so one of the p may be marking

from our own use we can find out

that it may be give a rating of

four or one can give a rating of

five so this may get go we can

go for the rating before launching of the

product and after launching of the product

then cyber focus so in particular we

should check our place for so that uh

This does not create a friction with our

client journey because this friction can

be very dangerous for cybersecurity.

And also our promotion should have more

credibility, should be there.

So because we should talk as a leader,

because if we're only thinking from only

entrepreneur point of view,

then we should also have the quality of

leadership insight.

Then a product,

this product should always give the

solution and that solution should be

trusted so that customer can trust our

solution.

And also score of less than seven will

indicate an urgent security emergency

because after all it will be an online

product,

not offline product because customer

cannot go directly for the sellers

directly.

So always there should be this trust

should be there.

So if the product has it's indicating

seven or less than seven,

then we should be sure that red button

have been switched on.

Then how we can modify this thing?

We should try risk the pricing also try

varying our prices to see how it affects

the demand right away.

And if we go for a cyber focus,

we should try to modify our pricing model

to be risk based rather than simply

cutting the price.

We should, we have,

because as an entrepreneur or as a

supplier of this product,

we should be always trying to take the

tricks and we should examine whether

sourcing a higher price

should be it should be supported by

convincing tool for example the total cost

of bridge we should always keep this in

our mind we should analyze it and also

we should validate our knowledge and raise

the porsche value of the product so thank

you so much session that actually i want

to add about the four piece and if

you have any questions uh you can ask

me

Yeah.

So I guess one of the things I

was thinking about right as we're going

through this is that everything changes so

fast, especially in cybersecurity.

I mean,

the cybersecurity that I've dealt with

today that we deal with today is not

the cybersecurity that I started off with.

And it's definitely not cybersecurity from

five years ago.

So out of the four P's, right,

which do you believe we should focus on?

Like,

which is the strategic focus right now?

Yes.

So out of the four P's,

the most important P is the product.

Because see,

whenever we will be dealing with the

product, if the product is very good,

because ultimately before going for

launching the product,

we will be doing lots of market research

because this market research will give us

the ultimate outcome.

So this product is one of,

according to me,

most important four P because this product

will be the game changer.

Because this product will going to give

out what price we have to set.

This product will be say where we'll be

promoting our product and in which place

we have to put the product.

All right, perfect.

So I guess another question I had,

and again, I'm sorry,

I have a bunch of questions here,

but one of them is that

Can you provide examples of companies that

did this, right?

And I'm thinking like during major

disruptions,

like we've had a lot of major disruptions

in the industry, right?

Not only from like CrowdStrike to COVID,

right?

You know, that we've had over it,

especially the whole, you know,

shift to remote work for a while there

and now shifting back to RTO.

So can you give me an example of

a company that evolved, you know,

using these?

This four piece, one great example,

if I have to say, Dr. Zeeshan,

is that the company called ChatGPT, yes,

that ChatGPT have been developed from this

using this four piece because they have

done extensive resource.

because uh when chem altman actually

before launching that product he was

working uh as i think one of the

product developer if i'm not wrong in u.s

so before then he have gone through his

uh some degree resource also through this

resource actually through his promotion of

the products

he actually comes out not only now one

of the greatest example of chat gpt is

that they are giving the products free

presently the first person yes which is

the free version which is available that

means they are promoting their product so

he have exactly used the place also he

know where he have to promote the product

place is the different uh what you can

say the different domains where will be

this product for example just by clicking

chat gpt in the google we can find

the product from there the place and

promotion is you can say

people are getting the promotion because

many people will be able to use this

product freely so this promotion product

have been also freely promoted and

especially in third world country like

india we as a developing country so this

chat gpd is becoming very famous because

using the exact use of this four piece

Perfect.

And then one of the things I was

kind of Googling it while we were talking,

right,

is that the four Ps are pretty common

that you've seen out there, right?

Everybody talks about the four Ps.

I mean, I know them now, right?

Even, you know, before then,

I think they're pretty common.

But I saw a lot of things where

they talk about like moving them to like

five or six Ps, because why not?

I guess you got to add more Ps

to make it more popular.

But like I hear people talk about people

in process.

Like, what do you think about that?

uh means you want to know uh what

about my view about people and process

well that and how do people integrate that

right how would you add that to your

four p's i guess six p's or whatever

i guess you could go yes yes people

means uh people uh for example uh the

cyber security if you say software let me

take one product uh any software for

example uh what can your name as presently

Let us take Cisco as a software.

Yes.

Cisco is a software.

So if this Cisco is a software,

number one thing that people will be

involved with developer of the Cisco

service.

Yes.

So number one people,

they are the most wanted the engineers,

the software engineers were involved

there.

Secondly,

the developers will be involved there.

And thirdly,

someone have to make this product

available to the people.

That means the people who will be

promoting,

that means the different sales will be

there.

the different marketing people will be

there,

the different strategies will be there.

So nowadays these people are very much

important,

though we are saying that we can make

many product, we can automate the product,

but for the automation purpose also we

need people.

Yes, if I'm not wrong.

Because someone have to automate that

product.

So people is one of the most important

thing among the six piece also.

Because ultimately,

if we made the products,

we have to sell the product in order

to earn that ROI.

Because without earning that ROI,

it will be very difficult.

So the client will be using that software.

For example,

I have said you have the Cisco as

a service.

These clients are also very important.

So from our point of view,

the people that you have said,

the fifth P or the sixth P,

these people are very important.

Perfect.

Okay, so I guess let's put up your,

we skipped the QA slide,

so we already jumped into it.

So anything else you want to give us

before we're done today?

And first of all,

it was a great talk and thanks for

coming on.

But I'll hand it over to you if

you want to give any last thoughts before

we head off.

Yes.

Before I end the talk,

if anyone has any questions,

they can also reach out to me.

This is my number for calling.

They can use that number.

Or if someone wants to WhatsApp also,

because if they want to collaborate also,

with our university or also if they want

to collaborate with me i'm often for that

so that is my email id also that

is my calling number that is my whatsapp

number so in the end what i want

to say dr jason is that if we

will be perfectly using this four piece uh

a small product a very small product in

the market we can make them a hero

for example uh i want to give uh

the example of uh i think you have

heard about zoho zoho as a software

It's one of the Indian software product.

So it started very small in the Indian

market.

It started from a village area.

Now Zoho have been used extensively by not

only the small, small industries,

but the government is also using it

because the founder of the Zoho,

what he did,

he actually promote this product at a very

tier two and tier three cities because

most of the population,

I can say from Indian point of view,

most of the population you can find in

tier two and tier three cities also.

Because many people from rural area,

they migrate to this tier two and tier

three in the source of livelihood.

So they at least capture this tier two

and tier three for using this two piece

very perfectly,

the product and the people.

Because already your question is there,

you have asked me,

product p actually i'll give more

importance so if i say product so p

so zoe is a product and people because

here he is not able to connect the

clients he is also directly handling with

uh with the different engineers who are

working there because indian rural market

is very big market so

From here,

I want to say that if we use

this four piece perfectly,

not only tangible, but intangible product,

for example,

this different software or cyber security,

we can use it very perfectly.

Awesome.

Well, no, I mean,

it's neat to see how it works behind

the scene.

We've all been marketed to.

Right.

But it's kind of interesting,

especially if you're pushing out a product

like, for example, this podcast, you know,

it'll help me market it right as I

go through it.

So.

All right.

Well, thanks, Tupan.

I appreciate it.

Thanks for coming today.

Thank you, Dr. Jason,

so much for giving this opportunity to

come to your podcast.

And I always, so through your session,

I want to ask that people please come

and see Jason's podcast because his

podcasts are not only qualitative,

but his podcasts are also from where we

can learn lots of things.

And he has a very good channel in

YouTube also.

Please people subscribe his channel also

because you can learn lots of things from

him.

And personally,

I used to go through his different

newsletters also from him and learning new

things.

Awesome.

Thank you.

And I appreciate it.

All right.

Thanks, Tapan.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Hey,

so that wraps up this CyberTalk session on

the four Ps of marketing with Tipan Deka.

And it was kind of cool, right?

Because we get marketed to all the time,

but we also kind of get blinders as

cybersecurity people, right?

Where we understand our processes and

everything else becomes kind of vague or

opaque, right?

So it's kind of neat to see how

that works, especially in your career,

right?

Marketing your career,

marketing your products as you grow in

cybersecurity.

So thanks again a lot to Tipan Deka

for coming on today from the Madhavi

Skills University.

if you want to share your expertise,

right?

If you want to be on this podcast

with me, which God help you.

I don't know why you would.

I'm just kidding.

Hopefully you do.

But if you want to be on this

podcast,

reach out to me through LinkedIn and we

can set up a time.

Or you can go to baremetalcyber.com.

where you can find a ton of stuff

on there.

Not only ways to contact me,

but audio courses,

the daily cyber newsletter that we have

going out.

And of course,

the bare metal cyber magazine that comes

out five issues a week now.

So thanks to all of you for listening

and watching today as you can see this.

And I hope you all have a great

week.

And thank you.