Mirror

Intel - Redefining Audio Identity

2009-12-05T07:37:00.000-08:00

If you have seen the old(hardly a year back) Intel ads you will be familiar with their trademark sound bytes at the end of those ads. Thats what we call audio identity of a brand in Branding. And like a good audio identity this one registers itself in the prospects memory, easy to recognize and aids recall. I am giving the link for one of such ads below.

Older:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qqS1kDWjDQ

But recently Intel came up with a new ad campaign with a tagline "Sponsors of Tomorrow" which instead of using beats uses human voice singing in chorus and follows the same old tune(it goes Pom...Pom...Pom..Pom). So you will ask whats the big deal?? well I feel by using the human voice they have made their audio identity hummable and so manage to get more involvement from the prospects. It also enhances the three features of a good audio identity which I have already mentioned. I really liked these ads. The link for one of the ads from the series is given below.

Latest:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6nOlgNJfHo&NR=1

Regards,

Ravi

Mundu and The Barber

2009-11-23T06:14:00.000-08:00

Today Mundu(read previous post to know more about him) went for a hair cut in a saloon( the one in the basement) near Kutty's. The barber greeted him and ask him to occupy one of the vacant chairs. After taking all the specifications for the kind of hair cut Mundu wanted he started dressing his hair. In the process he started the following conversation with Mundu :

Barber: Is this the first time you are visiting my shop sir?

Mundu: No, I have been here once before.

Barber: Ok. Where do you stay sir?

Mundu: LIBA Hostel, Loyola College.

Barber: So you are a student sir.

Mundu: Yes I am doing my MBA. Management, you know.

Barber: Ya ya I know MBAs sir. I hope I have not told you already that I have started a part time real estate agency sir and if any of your friends need a flat on rent please tell them to contact me.

Mundu(sounding excited) : No no you havn't told me earlier. Thats great. How long have you been doing that?

Barber: For the past 6 months sir.

Mundu: Have you advertised about this in classifed section of some newspaper?

Barber: No sir. I have just been telling this to all the customers who visit my saloon.

Mundu: So you are relying solely on "word-of-mouth".

Barber: Whats that sir?

Mundu: Don't bother. But I strongly feel you should put one ad in newspaper else your business won't pick up. Tell me how many leads you generated till date??

Barber: How many what sir??

Mundu: I mean how many people came to you looking for flats.

Barber: A good number of them sir.

Mundu: Really, I am surprised. So in case people get flats through you, do you pay some commission to your customer who recommended them to you?

Barber(mockingly) : Thats why I told "I know MBAs" sir.

Regards,

Ravi

Introducing "Mundu Marketer" !!!

2009-11-09T03:45:00.000-08:00

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to this character called "Mundu Marketer"(no, he does not market Mundus, this Mundu is a concept I am lifting from the movie "Jhankaar Beats"). This character is purely frictional(no spelling mistakes:)) by nature because he picks up arguments at the drop of hat for the greater cause of marketing. He swears by Kotler and the only "f-word" in his dictionary is 'F'inance.

From today onwards I will be writing(whenever I get opportunity) about the adventures of our very own Mundu Marketer. So here is the first one in the series:

Mundu was sitting facing me and reading the latest edition of Brand Reporter(a fortnightly magazine by afaqs for marketers and advertisers) in the library. He almost fell down from his seat when he saw a full page ad by a Hindi Daily purely in Hindi in the magazine. And we had the following conversation:

Mundu : This newspaper brand has gone crazy.

Me : Why? What happened?

Mundu : Look at this full page ad. Its totally a waste of money in a place like Chennai.

Me : How?

Mundu : Its so simple. How many people will understand Hindi in Chennai?? So it will be better if this brand start advertising in Tamil. Didn't Kotler wrote about "Developing Effective Communications" in his book and these people are flouting that basic rule of communication.

Me : Hmmm... thats a brilliant idea. A Hindi newspaper targeted to Tamil readers :).

Regards,

Ravi

The Gr8 Indian Rubber Story - So It Finally Got Stretched !!

2009-11-08T01:02:00.000-08:00

Talking of the ad campaigns for Indian rubber(condom) brands the one ad that has top of mind recall is "Pyar hua iqrar hua, pyar se phir kyon darta hai dil" ad of Deluxe Nirodh. Then there were ads of Kohinoor, Kamasutra(the one with Pooja Bedi) and Moods(Moods Please ads) which were able to register themselves in one's memory. But still there were dozen more brands which were vying for consumers mindshare but failed miserably to do so.

So what ailed these ads? I think they were low on what I call "creativity quotient". If you checkout some ads of condoms from West(e.g. Durex) you will be impressed by the effectiveness of their communication by purely being creative. I guess one of the reasons could be the contrast in the censorship regulations between India and the West. But I still feel such regulations are actually blessings in disguise as they encourage marketers and admen to be more creative in their approach and beat the system.

And one such creative campaign has been started by JK Ansell, which owns the Kamasutra brand of condoms. The campaign is not a TVC but a digital one capitalizing on the popularity of social media networks. They have come up this Facebook application Find Your Rubber which associates a personality with each condom variant and suggest the one to the user which matches his personality. This campaign is truly viral in nature and a path breaking one for a condom brand.

Surprisingly this is not the first time that Kamasutra is leveraging digital media to its advantage. About six months back they set up this interesting website called Sendsomerubber.com where in you can send rubbers to your friends. And you have to visit this website to find out the number of rubbers already sent :). Now you will agree with me that this brand of rubber has really stretched the Indian rubber story.

Regards,

Ravi

The Serial Ditchers

2009-07-03T20:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was reading this article "Five Rules For Retailing in a Recession" published in Harvard Business Review. The very first rule talked about going for the Headroom whch they defined as market share you don't have minus market share you won't get.So for retailers, customers who are loyal to their competitors represent market share they don't have and will likely not get. Customers who are loyal to them represents market share they already have and hence holding on to these loyal customers is a high priority job in a downturn. But if they start spending 25% less, it will directly affect retailer's sale. So the headroom lies with the customers who are loyal neither to a particular retail store nor to their competitors and such customers are called switchers. But I would rather prefer to call such customers "serial ditchers". Read on to find out why.

The romance kindles with the proposal(read ads) issued by retailer through different channels. This particular type of customer accepts the proposal and comes singing to the store Tumne pukara aur hum chale aaye re (You called me and I am here). So both retailer and customer are happy and the affair begins. The customer visits the store frequently and the retailer can't help singing Hame tumse pyaar kitna yeh hum nahi jaante, magar jee nahi sakte tumhare bina(I don't know how much I love you but I can't live without you). This running around the tree(read store) and singing(read purchasing) continues for a month or two and then customer feels disenchanted(or disillusioned) from the spell of the retailer. The retailer realises that something is wrong with customer's behavior but poor fellow don't know what is in store for his store. And one fine day the customer walks out of the store singing Teri Galiyon mein naa rakhenge kadam aaj ke baad(I won't step into your neihbourhood (read store) in future) and leaving retailer sad and gloomy searching for the reasons of this unexpected betrayal.

But the (ex-) customer looks for new proposals and has an affair with almost all the competitors of the retailer with assurance given to each one of them that Hum bane tum bane ek dooje ke liye( We two are made for each other). Then she went on ditching them all one after another. The customer has no remorse at all because for her change is the only constant. The customer wants honeymoon but no marriage. And what happens to those retailers she ditched?? well in business you can't afford to be Devdas because Paro gayi toh kya hua he has to concentrate on Chandramukhis(read loyal customers). But would it be wise for him to close his store's door for Paro?? I would say no because this attitude will ruin his business. So I would picture him singing this another bollywood oldie Koi jab tumhara hriday tod de, tadapta hua jab koi chod de, tab tum mere paas aana priye, mera dar khula hai khula hi rahega, tumhare liye( When someone breaks your heart leaving you in agony and pain then you can always come back to me, my (store's) doors are always open for you).

So my dear retailers wait for the right opportunity to hit the nail on the head(read headroom).

Regards,

Ravi

Howrah to Chennai aboard Coromandel

2009-06-18T04:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I returned to Chennai after a 20 days summer vacation spent mostly at my small village in Bihar. It was a train journey via Howrah where I was joined by one of my college friends. He had booked ticket of AC III for both of us in Coromandel express. We reached our compartment 10 minutes before the scheduled departure but found 9 people already seating in that compartment( earlier it used to be 8 but Lalu introduced extra side berth in each compartment but thankfully Mamta has directed to remove them all). When we inquired we found out that 3 people have been given RACs for a single seat(not ours) and thats why we two were extra over there. Somehow we managed to adjust and got place to sit since this RAC puzzle will be solved only when T.T.E arrives.

The train started as per schedule. Our co-passengers in the compartment included an elderly lady tavelling all by herself(Tamil), a gentleman in his late fifties(Telegu), three men almost of our age(all contenders for a single seat, I couldn't find out much about them) and a Bengali family of beta(son), Maa( mother) and Maasi(Mother's sister) travelling down south because beta had to attend counselling for some medical college.

Ten minutes into the journey the family started complaigning about the heat and congestion. Beta looked most restless of the lot and complaigned to coach attendant about the same. The coach attendant assured that the heat problem will be solved in another half an hour as AC requires some time to show effect but he told solving congestion problem is beyond his capacity. So the family had no choice but to wait for another half an hour.

But it seems there was some technical snag in air conditioning system and there was no improvement in temperature as half an hour passed. During this half an hour I think the family informed almost everyone in their khandaan(clan) about the problems they are facing. Meanwhile the attendant along with his helpers was trying hard to fix the snag amidst the constant cribbing of the family and threats of lodging complaign against him at the next station. Thankfully both the problems got solved before the next station. Two people with RACs were alotted seats in other compartments bringing an end to congestion and AC started working properly bringing an end to heat.

Now everyone looked comfortable but the family still had a problem, one of their seats was on the opposite side and the elderly gentleman had that odd seat on their side. So they started cajoling him to exchange his seat. The reason for exchange they gave was it will be convenient at night if all three from the family have berths on the same side. All this conversation was taking place in Hindi. The old man thought for a moment and replied "Sone ke baad family kahan yaad rehta hai"(Who remembers family once he/she is fast asleep). His remark threw the rest of us in splits of laughter. But he obliged to their request and exchanged the seat.

The next day we all had little conversations among ourselves and it was mostly in English or Hindi but I don't know what was it with the family they assumed we all knew Bengali and will suddenly switch to it during conversation. We nodded twice or thrice but since they started using more and more and more Bengali I had to tell them that "aami Bangla jaane na"(I don't know Bengali). But my friend continued nodding whenever they spoke in Bengali to him. I was damn sure he don't know Bengali but I had no clue why he was nodding his head on every sentence they spoke.

Anyways when we were about to reach Chennai our conversation finally touched upon the place we come from. They were surprised to know that my friend is not a Bengali. One of the ladies asked how come he spoke such a fluent Bengali. I was surprised because he never uttered a single letter in Bengali but my friend smiled as if he was expecting this question and told that he can understand a little bit of Bengali but can't speak. Well the family looked a bit disappointed, they exchanged looks among themselves and my friend, he was nodding.

आ गया निर्णय का दिन

2009-05-15T06:43:00.000-07:00

तो आ ही गया निर्णय का दिन

देखें कौन रहता है किसके बिन |

कैसा रहेगा इस बार का जनादेश

सबको हैं त्रिशंकू संसद के अंदेश |

दूरदर्शन हो या आकाशवाणी

सब पे हैं मनमोहन - आडवाणी |

देखते हैं हाथी किस करवट बैठता है

कौन कितना मुलायम है और कौन ऐंठता है ?

क्या अम्मा की ममता इस बार रंग लाएगी?

या फिर जनता करुणा के सागर में बह जायेगी?

कौन होगा इस सरकारी बागीचे का बागबान ?

कोई कहता है नीतीश तो कोई कहता है पासवान |

किसके बांये खड़ा होगा बाम दल ?

ये तो बताएँगे आनेवाले पल |

क्या इस बार लालू रबरी खायेंगे ?

या फिर चंद सीटों में ही सीमट जायेंगे ?

अब शुरू होगी जोड़ - तोड़ की राजनीति

किसके कितने हैं नंबर किसकी कैसी है स्थिति ?

निर्दलीय अपना दल चुनेंगे

धीरे-धीरे उनके भाव खुलेंगे |

272 का आँकड़ा वाकई जादुई है

जानते हैं सब जिसने भी छुई है |

सोनिया या मोदी किसकी बजेगी बीन ?

आखिर आ ही गया निर्णय का दिन |

There Will Be Blood !!

2009-05-09T16:34:00.000-07:00

The coming week promises to be the one packed with events and entertainment. As both IPL 2.0 (Indian Premier League) and IPL 15.0(Indian Parliamentary League or 15th General Elections) enter into their final lap. Both of these mega-events looked lacklusture in their initial phases. But now the battle is intensifying.

In IPL 2.0 its still difficult to pin point the four teams which will qualify for the semis. In the initial phase of the tounament when matches were low-scoring, one-sided and boring; one looked forward to the ads for entertainment especially the ZooZoo ad. This has changed in the last few matches as they are proving to be last ball finishers and players from Austrailian team joining in. As each and every win will decide whether a team is going to get a berth in semis they are delivering their best performances. So the coming week brace yourself for some 'sit on the edge' thrillers as the teams are readying to cross swords for the final round of battle.

Coming to IPL 15.0, with the Election Commission prohibiting media from doing exit polls there is nothing much that news channels and newspapers will cash on. Also polls'09 has proved a low turnout affair for the voters in majority of constituency. So till now general elections '09 is unable to enthuse media and public alike. And I guess things won't change till May 13th when the fifth and final phase of polling is getting over. After which media and public will be agog with speculations of who is hot and who is not. But as many poll pundits and politicians themselves are predicting that no single party or pre-poll alliance is going to get majority of their own so the parties will have to get their mathematics right. Come May 16th and all speculations will be put to rest as the results will be out that day and the politicians will get to know the public mandate, however fractured it is.

So all those Cricket and Politics buff out there get ready for some real action.

What's in a name ?

2009-05-08T22:19:00.000-07:00

Friends, I am going through an identity crisis, literally. And the person overshadowing my identity has got a name that is superset of my name( or mine is subset of his). On top of that we have a common last name and we come from the same state. And in his first name he has got one additional element 'j' and rest is same as mine( not in the same order though).

Since my name is shorter it is logical to expect that it will have 'top of mind' recall in people's mind. Unfortunately it is not the case. Almost 7 out of 10 common acquaintances call me by his name first and if good sense prevail get it right in second attempt. If he has posted something on Yahoo group there were occasions when recipients came to me for queries regarding mail that I have not sent. Well sometimes he also get called by my name but it is less than 1 out 10 cases.

Things have reached to a level that if someone is shouting his name outside I go and check if he is actually looking for me :). This whole confusion over name reached its height when I went to deposit my hostel fee. Our hostel warden credited the money to my namesake's( I think I can call him so) account. Later I detected the mistake and he transffered it to my account.

This incident set me seriously thinking of why people confuse me as him? I think I have found the answer. Read on. If you consider us as two brands with our own brand personalities and of course, brand names(which are not so distinct) then it is the brand personality which is responsible for my current identity crisis. His is an extrovert, gregarious( eat, drink and be merry) kind of personality on the other hand I am an out-and-out( or in-and-in?) introvert who prefer to stay all by himself. It is his outgoing, mixing personality which gives a top of mind recall to his name vis-a-vis a recluse, taciturn personality with almost similar name.

Therefore if one is launching a brand which has a brand personality similar to me extra care should be taken while choosing a name for it lest a brand which has similar name with my namesake's personality will win the race of occupying prospect's mind. Now I guess you guys can understand the feelings I undergo if someone quotes Shakespeare "What's in a name?".

@ My namesake: I know you will be reading this so I will request you again to remove the moustache you have recently started sporting. I think that was the only stark difference between us that helped people getting my name right(atleast in 2nd attempt :).

Kingfish-err ???

2009-04-28T10:36:00.000-07:00

After taking its then arch-rival Jet Airways head on in 2007 Kingfisher Airlines has now trained its guns on low cost carriers in general and IndiGo in particular. The new Kingfisher outdoor campaign takes a veiled dig at IndiGo.The second picture above has all the ads in this series launched till now.

In 2007, Jet Airways which underwent image makeover released an outdoor campaign stating "We have changed". In what could be termed as a "Cheeky" move Kingfisher placed a hoarding above that stating "We made them change" and managed to get away with lots of publicity.But as you all know back then Jet Airways was market leader in high end carriers or luxury class. So targeting Jet Airways through such campaigns was a great idea as Kingfisher has projected its brand image as a high end luxury carrier.

But will such comparison with a low cost carrier do good to the well-established brand image of Kingfisher ? In my opinion answer is 'No'. Because it's customer will think that Kingfisher is compromising its brand promise by competing with low cost carriers. I believe such campaigns will dilute it's brand image.

So how do you think IndiGo is taking all this? V Sunil, executive creative director, Wieden+Kennedy, the agency handling the IndiGo account, says they won’t be reacting to the new outdoor campaign. He adds, “I believe it is a big compliment for us if Kingfisher is making digs at the brand. IndiGo is flying to full capacity and if a full service carrier is taking the trouble to talk about us, it’s great.”(Source: www.campaignindia.in). Smart chap. He knows this campaign is going to bring lots of free publicity for IndiGo after all they are being compared with the no.1 private player in airline industry.

But if he feels Indi-gnated enough and decides against taking it lying down then he can always try the copy written by me(the top picture in this post) to counter the four issued by Kingfisher. After all it seems everything is fair in love, war and advertising :).

आइना

2009-04-26T07:36:00.000-07:00

ये आइना है

आपको रूबरू करेगा सच्चाई से

आपको दूर रखेगा तनहाई से

ज़िन्दगी की जद्दोजहद में जब कुछ पल पायेंगे

ख़बर ना होगी इस आईने के साथ यूँ निकल जायेंगे

ये आइना है

आपने की होगी मुहब्बत किसी शक्स से

आइना सिखायेगा मुहब्बत आपको अक्स से

ये आइना है

अपने अक्स पे कभी गुरुर कर लेना

थोड़ा ही सही मगर ज़रूर कर लेना

क्योंकि जिन्हें खुद पे नाज़ होता है

उनका कुछ अलग ही अंदाज़ होता है

ये आइना है

सोंचता हूँ हर बार ज़रा सुधरेगा आइना

सोंचता हूँ हर उम्मीद पे खरा उतरेगा आइना

ये आइना है |

Modern Swayamvar

2009-04-16T04:29:00.000-07:00

Blog ki duniya ke doston(excuse me for copying legendary radio presenter Amin Sayaani's "Awaaz ki duniya ke doston", though I am pretty sure it would have passed as my own creative). I hope you guys will be enjoying life wherever you are.This happens to be my 12th post in this blog. After this I can boast of having written a "Dozen"(Darzan in Hindi) posts. I don't know why but the word 'Darzan' always reminds me of the joke cracked by one of the bar girls in "Chandni Bar". The movie I mean :). I can't share that joke here but I will give some clues for those who have watched it and trying hard to remember. It was in response to the question "Are you a virgin(rather Verzan in her accent)?". I hope that was clue enough for you to recollect it otherwise watch the movie again.

Lets get down to business. The word Swayamvar always brings in the memory of one of the numerous bed time stories I was told as a kid. Its none other than the royal love legend of Prithviraj Chauhan and Sanyogita. It goes like this Sanyogita,daughter of Jaichand, a sworn enemy of Prithviraj fell secretly in love with Prithviraj. Prithviraj had heard of Sanyogita's unmatched beauty in a poem and met her in disguise. And the rest is common sense. Her father got wind of this affair and resolved to have her safely wed at an early date. He arranged a Swayamvar, a Hindu ceremony where a maiden selects a husband from a number of suitors who assemble at the invitation of her guardian.Jaichand invited many princes of high rank and heritage, but deliberately failed to invite Prithviraj. To add insult to injury, Jaichand had a statue of Prithviraj made and placed at the door of the venue, thus parodying Prithviraj as a doorman. Prithviraj came to hear of this. He made his plans and confided the same to his lover, Sanyogita.

On the day of the ceremony, Sanyogita emerged from an inner chamber, entered the venue of the Swayamvar, walked straight down the hall past the assembled suitors, bypassing them all. She reached the door and garlanded the statue of Prithviraj. The assemblage were stunned at this brash act, but more was to follow: Prithviraj, who had been hiding behind the statue in the garb of a doorman, emerged, put Sanyogita upon his horse and the two eloped from the scene.

Now coming back to the present where our very own controversy girl Rakhi Sawant who loves to be in limelight is planning her swayamvar on a TV reality show.Rakhi will choose from among 15 grooms on NDTV Imagine's new show "Rakhi Ka Swayamvara" and and will take the help of viewers to decide on her perfect man.The first of its kind show will trace Rakhi's journey from selecting a groom to the marriage ceremony.Over the duration of the show, the prospective grooms will be brought together under one roof and put through a series of challenges that will test their personality, character, physical fitness, talent and also their compatibility with Rakhi.

One has to wait and watch how many applications Rakhi will be getting (I wonder whether Mika will apply for this job or not). There is also this possibility that she has already decided on her 'Prithviraj' and this whole reality show is just to generate some TRP for the channel and publicity for Rakhi. But if she is really hunting for her groom then how justified she is in choosing this method? In my opinion this is not the right way to find one's life partner.

I think Rakhi should have opted for a more foolproof method. One of my friend studying in one of the premiere B-school told me about one such method followed by one of the girls in his college. It goes like this she befriended some five or six guys from the college to whom she was attracted to for one or the other reason. One was a character straight from the Mills & Boon series of novels(tall,dark and handsome). One had a lots of grey cell( Einstien) and so on. She handled them on one-to-one basis with SMSes,calls etc.She kept them all in this illusion that they were her 'Prithviraj' and he will be taking her home whenever the Swayamvar happens. But alas, she had her own designs. She started scrutinizing their horses(if you consider life as a journey then there are many things which can pass as a horse) on which she was supposed to run away with one of the guys. And you know what she garlanded the guy with the best horse.

Moral of this story : It doesn't matter if you are a Prithviraj or not lekin Ghoda toh lambi race ka hona chahiye.

When Silence Speaks Louder Than Words

2009-04-13T22:25:00.000-07:00

Brand Bihar has lots of equity but unfortunately its all negative. The brand image of a place is created by it's people and their representatives. I think in this information age the later play a vital role in projecting a particular brand image as their day to day life is comprehensively covered by the media.

In case of brand Bihar it is the irreprresible Lalu Prasad Yadav who has been acting as it's self- appointed "Silver Bullet" ( term coined by Regis McKenna, is a subbrand that is employed as a vehicle for changing or supporting the brand image of a parent brand) for the past two decades.

This loud mouthed Bihari is undoubtedly one of the most popular politicians in India and has won masses with his rustic charms. But in the process of gaining political mileage he has created a brand image of Bihar which subjects a common Bihari to lots of ridicules and mockeries in many circles. So Lalu has become a stereotype for Biharis.

The brand Bihar took further beating when Lalu name surfaced in the famous Fodder Scam and his subsequent imprisonment for the same. To keep the reigns of Bihar within his family he transffered the chair to his wife Rabri Devi. If Lalu was a silver bullet for brand Bihar his wife proved to be a "Platinum Bullet"( coined by me :)). She took the Bihar's brand image to its nadir.

Although Lalu's stint as union railway minister has done some good to his as well as Bihar's brand image but it is minuscule going by the size of the damge already done. Although it did turn around the image and fortunes of Indian Railways.

Circa 2005, Nitish Kumar is sworn in as the chief minister of Bihar bringing to an end the 15 long years of Lalu Raj. A man of few words he set himself at the task of undoing things his predecessors has done in 15 years of misrule. Now into the fourth year in office one can see the change brought about by the Nitish government. I agree tht going by the size of industrial investments it is nowhere near the leading states of India. I agree that Bihar is still awaiting its first IT company and software park. But one can sense the change in the air. One can say that Bihar has been put on the right track of development.

Coming to the brand image it is more or less same with a negative brand equity. I think it will take another couple of years to bring the brand equity at zero level. And another assembly term for Nitish to make it substantially positive.

So whats the basic difference in the leadership qualities of Lalu and Nitish. I would say for so long you have judged Bihar based on Lalu's personality traits and his image but to judge Nitish you have to see Bihar and the progress it has started to make. Because for this man silence speaks louder than words.

http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/90055/kings-and-queens-common-mans-leader-nitish-kumar.html

From Jai Ho to Bhay Ho !

2009-04-09T05:09:00.000-07:00

I vividly remember the displeasure expressed by Gulzar when Congress acquired rights to use his oscar winning song "Jai Ho" for their poll campaign. I guess Gulzar had a fair idea of what happens to a beautiful piece of art when it is politicized. His bhay(fear) came true when BJP came up with their "Bhay Ho" campaign to counter Congress's "Jai Ho". Well political parties fascination with movies/movie songs/movie stars is not new. If you remember Congress chose "Chak De Gujrat" as its poll slogan in Gujrat assembly polls and thought of riding on the huge success wave of SRK starrer "Chak De" but unfortunately/fortunately they were outdone by BJP's "Jeetega Gujrat" campaign.

No one knows whether a poll campaign is going to succeed or fail but political parties are spending obscene amount of money on them. Right from hiring the best PR agency to creating websites for their prime ministerial candidate everything is done lavishly. It all started in 1984, when Rajiv Gandhi felt that electioneering needed proper marketing and communication techniques, and he roped in Rediffusion to take care of the party’s campaign that year. It didn’t take long for other parties to follow suit – the BJP, for instance, got Trikaya Grey to do its advertising.

The 2009 elections has come as a breath of fresh air for many advertising agencies who were choking in current economic slowdown. Political parties are spending several hundred crores of rupees on this branding exercise. So voters today has to choose from many political brands available in the electoral market be it brand Manmohan, brand Advani or brand Mayawati.

They are all trying to create their own brand image in voters mind. I don't know how successful they will be in creating their desired brand image in voter's mind to attract his vote. Being a voter myself I will try to project the brand image I have in my mind of these politicians. Well I will be using a technique called "Chinese Portrait" generally used in marketing research questionnaires. So I will ask this questions to myself : What comes to your mind when you think of these politicians? following will be my answer:

Manmohan Singh : Pears Soap - "Pure and Gentle" (Because he is a gentle sardar)

Lal Krishn Advani : Dettol Soap - "Everyday Protection" ( He is promising to protect us from day to day terror attacks)

Well the last one is tough...

Mayawati : Liril Soap - "Lime Fresh" (She has that freshness as a politician which is missing in above two)

My sincere apologies to Deepika and Preity :).

So the big question is whom should I vote for? Going by the brand preference I prefer Pears in winter(Chennai doesn't have one is a different story), Dettol during Monsoon and Liril in summers. So this makes the whole thing complicated. I wish we could have seasonal PMs :).

Its Nanovation

2009-03-29T09:36:00.000-07:00

For India the word "nano" is doing wonders for past few weeks. On February 17, Santosh Ostwal, the son of a farmer, took to the stage at Nokia's 'Call Innovators Challenge' in Barcelona. He was showcasing his Nano Ganesh,a modem, which coupled with a mobile phone, is connected to the starter mechanism of the ubiquitous water pump, making the long march of the farmers to their water pumps in remote locations unnecessary. There were 1,000 competitors from the world over, but while the footage of his invention was playing, video director had something to say: "An Indian man has made this? Amazing!" The phrase still rings in Ostwal's ears. "It gave me a lot of pleasure and helped build my confidence enormously," says Ostwal, who amid standing ovation, bagged the first prize at the awards night. "I'm now going in for a Rs 100-crore investment, and expect revenues worth Rs 350 crore this fiscal." This is an amazing feat by an Indian by all standards.

Then came this little cute car from Tatas called nano and this one is literally grabbing the eyeballs all over the world. Priced below $2500 it will be affordable to an Indian "aam aadmi" as promised earlier by Ratan Tata himself. After all "a Promise is Promise". Touted by many as an impossible project Tata has proved that "impossible is nothing". So what does an aam aadmi has on his mind these days??? read on..

"नींद नहीं आती है हफ्तों क्या महीनों से |

नैना जब से लड़ गए टाटा तेरे नैनो से || "

I hope Rediffusion - Y & R folks are not reading this post :).

What An Idea Sir Ji !!

2009-03-29T06:27:00.000-07:00

I stumbled upon this piece in last week's Brand Equity(A wednesday supplement with Economic Times). An ad guy received an SMS joke that went thus: “A man calls his wife through an Idea mobile, but the call goes to another woman. The wrong number finds the right connection as ‘the man and the another woman’ fall in love and get married. Moral of the story: An Idea can change your wife.”

This piece of creativity came from none other than Idea Cellular's very own brand ambassodor junior Bacchan. I don't know whether the client liked his idea but I liked it although it sounds more like a PJ. Khair, what I was thinking is why would Abhishek think of such an idea? Is he looking for change?? Psst.. why am I thinking this?

"Our Models Will Strip For You"

2009-03-13T21:52:00.000-07:00

I know we are living in "interesting times"(famous chinese curse) and the economic downturn has taken its toll on campus placements all over the world. So under such circumstances the title of this post must have made you think that I am planning to start a "strip club" as my entrepreneurial venture. You must be thinking that I am using this medium to promote my new venture with the help of this catchy tagline. And I am pretty sure some of my friends will be salivating at the prospect of getting free passes to this club of mine.

Sorry to disappoint you folks, I have no plans as such. Actually this tagline was used in print ads to promote a product which does a better stripping job than those "models" of your dreams. And the product was a "Paper Shredder". Surprised.......... ? Well I went through the same feelings. This brilliant idea was a brain-child of one Mr. Mukesh Manik who started his career selling paper shredding machines. The advertising agency he hired failed to get him the expected sales result so he decided to come up with his own creative for the advertisement. He created an ad which used the title of this post as it's tagline and carried a picture of paper shredder and released it in the classified section of the newspaper.

The enquiries he received and the subsequent sales it generated surpassed his expectations. Believe it or not the ROI on the advertisement was 550%. The success of this whole campaign boosted his confidence in his advertising acumen and he went ahead to start his own agency called Encyclomedia Networks Pvt. Ltd, which is mainly into ambient advertising. Well I am feeling too lazy to go on explaining what ambient advertising is? So I will leave you with the link to their website so that you can discover it yourself. Happy exploring :)

http://www.encyclomedia.in/

Of Love, Lust & Ego

2009-03-05T04:18:00.000-08:00

Wondering why suddenly I chose to write on such topic? Well I happened to watch this hindi movie "Dev.D" this afternoon. Don't worry I am not going to bore you with another film review. But this movie left me thinking if "true love" really exists in this materialistic world(don't perceive me as a "Sab moh-maya hai" type of guy)? I feel it does. But in 9 out of 10 cases one lusts for someone and mistake it as love. One can lust for many people in his/her lifetime but he/she will love only one. Its not necessary that the person you have fallen for is the most beautiful or most handsome or most intelligent person on this earth or you got attracted to him/her on the very first sight; it just happens and it takes its own time.

I feel one can fall in love with someone he/she lusts for but one can never lust for someone he/she has fallen in love with. Now comes the big question: does ego find any place in true love? Again I feel it does. You have every right to be an egoist if you truly love someone. Your ego will be hurt when your love-interest doesn't reciprocate your feelings or sentiments with the same passion or intensity. Your ego will be hurt when you see the same love in his/her eyes for some third person. Excuse me if I sound possessive but being true in love entitles you to these exclusive rights to him/her. So if you truly love someone never compromise on your ego because your ego itself is a great love-statement. But if you lust for someone the last thing you need is ego provided the other party shows interest.

While returning after watching this movie we(three of us in auto) were discussing the message of the movie. I told it was all about lust. But one of them disagreed and told it was all about telling youngster to take it easy("Chill" in his words). But now I have second thoughts on the issue. I feel the movie was about "moving on" in one's life and I will put it precisely in following Hindi couplet....

"Paro-Paro chikh-chikh kar kab tak phirega tu yun dukhi

Hosh mein aaja Dev.D tujhe dhoond rahi hai Chandramukhi"

Jai Ho!!!

2009-03-03T03:38:00.000-08:00

Pardon me if you have got bored being bombarded with these two hindi words time and again in the past few weeks both in print as well as electronic media. But I can't help but use them as title of this blog as I am truly under the spell of the beauty of these two words. No wonder "Jai Ho!" which means "victory to thee" were named the top "HollyWords" of the year that closed with the Oscars. The Global Language Monitor, which uses an algorithm to track the frequency of words and phrases in the world's print and electronic media, said it was rare for two words from the same movie to be ranked in its annual list.

Hats off to Gulzar for penning down such immortal lyrics and to A.R Rahman for his illustrious composition. Receiving the oscar for this particular song Rahman said:

"This song belongs to the people of Mumbai. This song is about optimism and power of hope. All my life I had a choice between hate and love. I chose love and I am here."

Well I feel Rahman deserved another oscar for the last two sentences of his speech. From my personal experience I can tell you that choosing love over hate is almost impossible in certain circumstances of one's life. In such situations hate comes naturally to you and it requires quite an effort to contain it. May be everyone do not have the big-heartedness and forgiveness of Rahman. But one can always try giving love a chance over hate and trust me I am giving an honest try. May be it will take some time but I will keep trying.

"Coke vs Pepsi" - The Unforgettable Debate

2009-02-24T03:10:00.000-08:00

We the first year students @ LIBA have been debating regularly for the past few weeks on every tuesday afternoon. So today being tuesday we met and debated this topic "Coke vs Pepsi". We had 3 speakers each taking sides of one of these two big brands and a moderator steering the debate in the right direction by sprinkling some "extra-gyaan" here and there.

Well the debate went on very well and was carried forward by audience for another one hour or so and was about to die its natural death when our moderator mentioned a billboard ad shown above. He asked our opinion about this ad and this was enough to reinvigorate the audience and the debate went on for another half an hour. The only "small" thing our moderator forgot to mention was on which day this ad was put up(wait for the climax).

So almost everyone gave his opinion on "what made Pepsi to come up with such ad?". The agreements and disagreements could be heard all over the room. Someone said that Pepsi was trying to cash on the brand value of coke. Someone said the reason for this bonhomie was Pepsi wanted to convey this message to consumers that they don't perceive Coke as a competitor. Our moderator himself gave two good reasons behind Pepsi coming up with that ad(I don't remember his reasons though).

I also gave my opinion that this ad is more of a satire. It has humour in it. I asked the moderator about the year this campaign was launched and he was not sure about that. Well the motive behind me asking the year/date was to establish that Pepsi being a new-entrant to market might have used Coke's brand equity to build its own or to get some easy publicity. And then I gave this example of a lesser known girl putting up this message on billboard saying "She is less beautiful than Aishwairya Rai". Almost everyone agreed that the girl will be noticed and get publicity. They were able to draw analogies between the little known girl and Pepsi. And honestly speaking I felt proud that I have impressed people.

After the debate got over we went for tea in the canteen and excited, as I was, I came up with more examples wherein some brands use promotion strategies similar to Pepsi. The Jockey tagline "The next best thing to naked" was one of them. My logic was here Jockey is encashing on the comfort of "nakedness" perceived in consumers mind( don't get me wrong). So my whole point was it is not necessary that you equate yourself with some already established brand or idea, sometimes projecting yourself lower than that is very rewarding.

So after this eventful day at college I headed back to hostel feeling proud and happy. But my happiness was shortlived. Being an Ad-fanatic I googled for this particular Pepsi ad and when I took a good look at it the embarassment of being "April-Fooled" in February dawned on me shortly. This ad was put up on April 1st,2000. Trust me after these brief embarassing moments I laughed out loud on everyone who was part of the debate on this ad. On moderator, on the rest of audience and above all on myself. For a change I really enjoyed being fooled and hope others would also have.

"Kala Bandar" - Its in everyone of us

2009-02-20T05:24:00.000-08:00

Well I am not a movie reviewer or a film critic but let me speak my mind on the movie I watched this evening @ Ega. Total 18 of us from our class went for this movie "Delhi-6". Interesting thing was there were "couple" of people in our group who do not understand Hindi at all. Fortunately we had people in our group who love to do "Kachar-Kachar"( read "translation") for others though I feel they themselves got lost in the translation. Jokes apart, I liked the movie and I know the rest of people in the group will have a strong desire to kill me after reading this blog.

As the name suggests "Delhi-6" is about a particular locality (Chandni Chowk) in Delhi whose PIN code is 100006. Roshan(Abhishek Bacchan) along with his Grandmom(Waheeda Rehman) comes to Delhi from US as her wish is to take her last breath in her "Khandaani Makaan". They get a warm welcome by their extended family back home. The first half of the movie is set at a good pace and the superb picturisation carries you directly to the narrow crowded lanes of Chadni Chowk. This part is laced with humor and give glimpses into the day to day life of Chandni Chowk, Jama Masjid and Ram-lila Committees. The added humor is due to the rumours about the terror of an elusive creature called "Kala Bandar".

Then there is this breezy character of Bittu(Sonam Kapur) who perfectly fits in the role of the "Girl next door". I don't know what they call the type of Kameez she was wearing throughout this movie but they gave her a look which was simply elegant. And I am sure this movie will create a "Fad" for such costumes among girls. A.R Rehman's music is as usual brilliant, particularly the "Masakalli" song which is choreographed simply but beautifully.

The second half is serious and dark. Full marks to Rakesh Mehra(Director) for depicting sensitive issues with such sensibility and with a pinch of satire. It shows how a trivial issue like "Kala Bandar" could result into a full fledged communal riot between people of two communities who has been living in peace and harmony for ages . He has touched upon many social evils like superstition, adultery, hypocrisy of politicians, dowry, family disputes, untouchability, exploitation of women etc in a very subtle way.

Finally the movie leaves us with a strong social message that the evil(Kala Bandar) is within us and we have to kill or conquer it first if we want a peaceful society. Overall its a good movie which I feel will be critically acclaimed. Rishi Kapoor and Om Puri have done a great job. There are few glitches here and there but at the end movie set you thinking about those social evils and their repercussions on society.

Ad-orable

2009-02-08T03:58:00.000-08:00

While browsing through some of the "Green Ads" on google I stumbled upon this brilliant billboard ad put up by Eskom Electricity a South African electricity firm.

Hats off to the creativity of the person who came up with this awesome idea. This ad is intelligent in true sense and I bet it takes a minute or two before the beauty of this ad sinks in.

Here the company is not just preaching but practicing the message they are trying to communicate. But brilliance has limitations, this ad will lose its beauty in daylight and thus misses 12 out of 24 hours for marketing this idea to its potential customers. I hope by now you would have got the true message of this ad afterall "Har Ad Kuch Kehta Hai" else try Mentos - "Dimag Ki Batti Jala De" ( no offence meant).

The Tale of Two "Das"

2009-01-31T16:50:00.000-08:00

Warning : To all those Brand-conscious junta out there "Kalidas" and "Devdas" are not Brand- extensions of "Adidas". Now enjoy reading....

"Ishq kiya dono ne, par wafayein hum nibhate hain

Woh dekar zakhm zaalim, ab marham lagate hain"

I wonder what would have become of Kalidas if he was born in this age of internet and blogs. Ditched by his wife on the very first night of his wedding, I am pretty sure he would have found solace in writing blogs. And I am afraid Sanskrit literature would have never seen the gems like Abhigyaan Shakuntalam and Meghdootam.

They say behind every successful man, lies a woman. So was the case with Kalidas(his wife). I say behind every unsuccessful man, lies more than one woman. This was the case with Devdas( Paro and Chandramukhi). The unfairness of the "fairer sex" had been instrumental in creating many greats and many more failures.

So all you guys out there nursing your broken heart you have two options either you start imbibing alcohol and turn into a dipsomaniac (modern Devdas) or start imbibing on knowledge and turn into a "blogomaniac" (modern Kalidas).

Well the choice is yours but I would say......

Jog... Blog... Don't Slog

Happy Blogging