Ghajni : Creating the Buzz.....

Its a time tested fact that Viral or Buzz marketing as it is popularly know always has an impact to pull the customers attention.

I think Aamir has learnt this art, his latest release Ghajini is following the same art, If we look closely his movie promos have been only creating teasers and curiosity. The ways the movie has been promoted is also unconventional , may it be through "dress alike men" or through "exclusive release on selective channels" 

 This is creating the buzz and making people talk of his film rather than he or the producers doing the talking, I would say a perfect example of Buzz marketing.

 It is always said that it is difficult to create a buzz and even more difficult to control and manipulate it but some of the biggest brands of our time like the Hush Puppies and iPhone have managed to create it, perhaps slowly yet steadily the marketing community is learning this art.

Should Governments Bail Out Companies ?

Today's Times Of India had a story about Jaguar Land Rover seeking 1 bn pound loan from the UK government, the question which comes to the mind is should government be bailing out these companies. 

Very recently many financial institutions in the United Stated were given a bailout of $500 bn, AIG was bought over by the US government and many other small and medium scale companies also were helped directly or indirectly by the government.

Every company is managed by its Board, which take decisions on its strategies which course its future, if the people who are deciding its future knowingly throwing its to the dogs, then why should government spend the money of the taxpayers.

Some might argue that eventually its the money of the common man which is lost if these companies sink, but I would rather say "don't drown thyself to safe a drowning man", any how common investor will loose money but let the market itself decide the future of the company let not the government get itself into the act of a 'cleaner' who is going to  clean the financial mess which is created by the inability of the board members to run a company.

The Momentum Effect : Book Review

Momentum. Most businesses get it at some point -- the impression that everything they undertake succeeds effortlessly, as if they're being carried along by a tailwind that increases their efficiency and propels them on to exceptional growth.

Some hold on to it. Most don't. Slowly, imperceptibly, the tailwind turns around and the momentum disappears, without anyone quite realizing what has happened. The company is still growing, but not as strongly as before, not as efficiently. Everyone's maxing out, but it seems like there's molasses in the works. Sound familiar?

Sooner or later, it hits you in the face. Imagine you are meeting up with a senior analyst whose opinion counts with some of your company's biggest investors. You think you're on safe ground -- after all, your company is doing better than the competition. But the analyst is in full gimlet-eyed, illusion-killing mode. "That's nothing to crow about," she says. "Yeah, you've got reasonable growth, but it's nothing exceptional. You're a safe bet, nothing more.

What's  In it ?

This book sets out to answer one question: How can we find a way to deliver continuous, exceptional growth, year after year? By exceptional, I mean exceptional relative to expectations: growth that sets you apart. In some high-technology markets, this might mean 60%. In others, 6% might really stand out from the crowd if the market average is just 3 or 4. What I am talking about is growth that puts serious distance between you and your competitors.

After all, grind is what most businesses endure. Most firms that manage to deliver growth do it the hard way. Measures that improve profitability often hold back top-line growth, while measures that drive revenue growth require investments that can drag down profitability. As one foot starts to run, the other starts sinking in the mire. It's devilishly hard to get the balance right and break free: It seems that all you can do is keep pushing. Companies have to push sales forward with big marketing investments while at the same time harrying their employees to become more productive and nagging their suppliers and partners for better deals. Pushing is hard work -- it's exhausting and it churns through resources.

According to the book  "There just has to be a better way than this.". The performance of some firms when observed closely suggested that, under certain conditions, there existed a phenomenon whereby growth could be achieved more efficiently. The disproportionately higher growth these firms delivered hinted at some hidden energy driving their growth -- an energy that seemed to feed on itself without the need for excessive resources. Their progress has been natural, highly efficient, and realized with almost frictionless ease. Because they were not held back by the sheer weight of resources others were employing, they were able to get some speed up. They had momentum.

According to the authors if momentum is powering a firm's success, then its relative marketing spend should be decreasing, Contrary to conventional "spend money to make money" wisdom, the authors argue that firms with momentum achieved superior growth while spending a relatively smaller percentage of their revenue on marketing than those pursuing the traditional "push hard" methods.

 

Pushers, Plodders, and Pioneers

The authors have divided the firms into three groups according to how their marketing behavior could be described: Pushers, Plodders, and Pioneers, since the logic was to study the  effects of extremes in marketing behavior, the three groups were divided in a 25:50:25 split.

For eg.

The Pushers were those companies that pushed their businesses hard in the traditional way, seeking to drive sales through aggressive increases in relative marketing spend.

the Plodders were the firms grouped around the middle of the sample.Their marketing-to-sales ratio remained more or less constant for 20 years. These middling firms stayed in the safety zone of past behavior and took no drastic action one way or the other.

Finally, in the remaining quarter -- those firms that were, either boldly or foolhardily, heading in the opposite direction from the Pushers, and decreasing their relative marketing spend. Taking these firms' average marketing-to-sales ratio,

Given the preeminence that marketing spend has among the tools most firms use to drive growth, this is a big, big call. Would these unconventional firms, which we dubbed the Pioneers, discover other avenues to growth, or fall behind as a result of their foolhardiness?

The first clue to the difference in the strategic behavior of these two groups appears in the top-line growth of the Pioneers. Over the 20-year period, using the Pushers' performance as a reference, the Pioneers' revenue growth was 93% better -- almost twice as high. They achieved this massive revenue growth despite decreasing their advertising ratio. And remember: This is in comparison not to underperforming firms but to firms that actually matched the Dow Jones Index.

If we compare the profitability growth of these two groups, we can see that the Pioneers also did much better, with average earnings growth 58% superior to that of the Pushers. A 58% advantage in earnings growth is very impressive, but it is noticeably smaller than the difference in revenue growth. Despite the Pushers' much poorer performance on revenue growth, and the fact that they were increasing their spending on marketing, they managed to claw back some lost ground: Their relative gap on earnings growth is less severe than one would expect. How did they manage that?

They cut down on other costs, especially in manufacturing and R&D. These combined cuts and efficiency economies more than compensated for the increase in advertising-to-sales ratio, and enabled the Pushers to peg back some of the Pioneers' huge top-line advantage when it came to earnings growth. Despite this partial catch-up, there is little doubt about where one would like to invest or work when one compares these two types of companies. The stock market recognizes this: The share-price premium of Pioneers over Pushers -- 80% -- is significantly higher than the differential in their earnings growth.

The bottom line: Although the combination of pushing hard with marketing investments and slashing other costs can deliver growth, the Pioneers' achievements demonstrates that there is a more creative, exciting, and smarter alternative that delivers even better results.

Obviously, it is not as simple as cutting the advertising-to-sales ratio. A straight cut in advertising would almost certainly result in a drop in growth. In fact, our study shows that the momentum-powered Pioneers actually increased their total marketing expenditures in real terms. But while their marketing budgets were increasing, the proportion of their revenue that this expenditure represented was decreasing. In other words, because of the Pioneers' superior revenue growth, their advertising-to-sales ratio was coming down despite the fact that they were spending more.

In a world of increasing competition, marketing resources must also, inexorably, rise. But if they are to create sustainable, profitable growth, these expenditures must be invested in an effective manner. Compared to the Pushers, the Pioneers' increases in marketing investments were more effective: They got superior growth while reducing their marketing-to-sales ratio, thus improving profitability.

The question is: What was improving the efficiency of their marketing investments? This is not simply a case of great marketing, although marketing excellence is a key part of the mix. These firms achieved greater efficiency with their marketing because they found a different path to growth: They exploited the momentum effect. They created specific conditions that ignited an exceptional organic growth that feeds on itself: momentum growth.

The Power of Momentum in Action

Wal-Mart and Toyota are two apparently dissimilar firms. They operate in two different industries and come from different countries and cultures. But they are two of the world's 15 richest companies, and each is number one in its own industry. More importantly, both got there by creating the conditions needed for the momentum effect to emerge. Although one has lost its momentum, the other is still in full swing.

Wal-Mart:

Sam Walton launched his company with a focus on customers. What is remarkable is the way that this customer focus created exceptional growth and continued to power Wal-Mart for many years after it had become a major industry force. Whatever its current challenges -- and there are many -- for the better part of a generation Wal-Mart was a momentum-powered firm.

Sam Walton knew about retail, but his main asset was the fact that he knew about customers. His strength was this: He liked to listen to them and observe them, and he understood their needs. When he started out, he related deeply to a very specific kind of customer -- people like him, people from the United States' rural South.

Walton's customer orientation made him aware of the potential of this region's smaller towns. In 1962, when Wal-Mart was launched, the standard wisdom held that large retail operations could not survive in towns with fewer than 100,000 residents. But Walton decided that this was where opportunity lay, and he deliberately opened stores only in small towns where there was no large-scale competition.

Walton understood that these customers would value his offering, that they would appreciate being able to shop locally, rather than making long journeys to larger towns. He also realized that these shoppers were worth more than they seemed. Although their wallets weren't as full as those of people in large cities, Wal-Mart was able to command a higher share of their spending because there was no competition. The combination of cheaper premises, lower labor costs [and] no competition ... meant that Walton's customers were extremely profitable to service.

This winning combination gave Wal-Mart the traction it needed to start building momentum. As the firm mushroomed, it continued to improve all aspects of its operation, from customer service to supply chain and supplier relationships. Eventually, Wal-Mart was able to glean economies of scale in purchasing to achieve its mantra of "Every Day Low Price" (EDLP) and gain further momentum.

EDLP runs counter to traditional retail promotions that lure customers into stores, hoping that they'll also end up buying more expensive products. The famous expression to describe retail strategy in the days before Wal-Mart was "an island of losses in an ocean of profits." It was really an island of bait in an ocean of arrogance and customer abuse. It was akin to duck hunting -- attracting customers the same way hunters attracted wild ducks with decoys.

With EDLP, Wal-Mart turned the relationship with customers upside down. It moved from duck hunting to a vibrant partnership. Wal-Mart's competitors, to their discomfort, failed to understand that, although EDLP was jargon on the surface, it expressed a strong, hidden emotional value deeply appreciated by customers: trust. This customer trust powered the company's growth for decades.

Unfortunately, momentum doesn't look after itself. There is a perception that Wal-Mart slowly began to pay less attention to many of the key drivers of its success -- respect for employees, local communities, and suppliers -- and began to lose its momentum as a result. Momentum is dynamic: Unless it is constantly nurtured, it will ebb away. However, the reward for that unstinting attention can be immense -- it can make you number one in the world.

Toyota:

When asked in May 2007 about the prospect of Toyota becoming the world's number-one car manufacturer, company president Katsuaki Watanabe refused to take even a minute to gloat about beating his competitors. "Rather than think about other companies," he said, "I feel that we must do our utmost to satisfy customers around the world. There is plenty left for us to do." This simple statement, reflecting an unswerving customer focus, demonstrates why companies like Toyota are able to develop a detailed and subtly nuanced understanding of customers -- and why they are able to deliver better results.

It also shows that there is much more to Toyota's success than Kaizen and lean production. That is just the base: its excellence and efficiency at extracting value from its business. It is Toyota's ability to create new, original, and compelling value in the first place that drives its growth. Its secret is its ability to connect totally with customers' sense of self, to create products that are more than mere goods but complete, perfect, and compelling presentations of value. The Prius, for example, offers a package of utterly compelling value to environmentally aware city-dwellers: With its low carbon footprint, practicality for city driving, and celebrity association, it is more than just a car -- it is a statement. The Lexus offers a totally different package of value to a totally different market, but the package is just as compelling, if you are part of its target market.

Consider the contrasting histories of the U.S. auto industry and Toyota. American car manufacturers are among the best illustrations of the limitations of the Pusher's strategy. They have given everything a try in terms of efficiency drives, but although they are now leaner, they are no fitter. They sought to drive top-line growth through expensive advertising as well as sales promotions to generate volume, along with deep discounts to move inventories of finished goods. These expensive tactics were needed to compensate for the failure of their products to really connect with customers.

Toyota, on the other hand, has become the world's largest and most profitable car manufacturer, riding a fantastic wave of momentum. Its success is based on a number of factors, but underlying its achievement is a deep understanding of its customers. First, Toyota proved that it could consistently deliver reliable, impeccably engineered automobiles. Once this crucial plateau had been achieved, it went on to innovate its range with cars that were somehow more than mere vehicles. Models like the Prius and the Lexus range appeared in their showrooms. Both of these cars connect on an emotional level with their drivers' self-image and aspirations -- green and clean for the one, luxurious and status based for the other. This level of customer engagement did not happen by chance -- it was the result of a focused, iterative process that created the conditions under which the momentum effect, and the efficient momentum growth it delivers, could flourish.

 

Smart Investment

Investment Ideas!

If you purchased $1,000 of Delta Airlines stock 1 year ago, you would have $49 today.

If you purchased $1,000 of AIG stock 1 year ago, you would have $33 today.

If you purchased $1,000 of Lehman Brothers stock 1 year ago, you would have $0.0 today.

But, if you purchased $1,000 worth of beer 1 year ago, drank all the beer, returned the aluminum cans for a recycling refund, you would have $214

So what do you think is a better investment :)

Post-Diwali fortnight to register 25% job cuts: Assocham

New Delhi: The prevailing economic negativity that dampened the 2008 Diwali was expected but what was not is the post-Diwali scenario that indicates a strong slowing down. Corporate India is likely to announce lay offs of nearly 25% of its workforce within the next 10 days across seven key industrial segments, according to an analysis on ‘Jobs scenario, post-Diwali’ persented by industry chamber, Assocham.
These sectors comprise steel, cement, ITeS/BPO, financial and brokerage services, construction, real estate and aviation to begin with as their promoters are no longer in a position to sustain their operations with existing manpower strength.
Key Findings
* HR heads of a majority of the steel, cement, ITeS/BPO, financial and brokerage services including construction, real estate and aviation have drawn up conclusive plans to curtail their workforce by 25 to 30%, announcements for which are likely to come in by early November
* Most companies had wanted to start laying off employees in a phased manner much before Diwali but were advised to defer their restructuring plans
* Companies are thinking of further cutting down on bonus, ex-gratia and other incentives to reward performance
* Companies are also thinking of curtailing perks and perquisites of middle and senior managers as slowdown will continue and CEOs too might be expected to absorb salary cuts
* Manpower recruiting firms have deferred plans of expansion that require additional influx of funds since business houses in the crisis ridden sectors have stopped requisitioning human resource requirement
*The assessment suggests that negative sentiments in these sectors can be turned into an opportunity provided the Reserve Bank of India discontinues with its tight monetary policy and decreases the interest rates by at least 3%

Marriage of the Competitors : Jet and Kingfisher

Few months backs "Consolidation" was the buzzword in the in the Aviation industry. During that time Air India and Indian Airlines merged , Jet Airways and Sahara airlines merged resulting in creation of 3 major players in the Indian aviation space, Indian , Kingfisher and Jet Airways.

The recent news of collaboration between Jet and Kingfisher comes as a surprise for me.

Altough the deal does not involve any equity sharing but still Jet-Kingfisher combined will capture the 60% of the market share.

This deal is a result more of necessity than choice, with the rising overhead costs it was imperative on the airline companies to cut cost. The resulting deal will result in rationalisation of routes for both the airlines, reduction of excess staff and overall better profitability by sharing of similar costs and and may be revenue sharing

The only point to note here is that it may now perhaps mean the end of a low cost carrier model. With such a dominance force in the aviation industry the Jet-Kingfisher combined would not try to push into this model instead could now dictate the way the business is and should be carried.

Well as I had already stated in one of my earlier blogs, that the dream of the Indian middle class to fly has to be remain a dream for some more time now.

The War for the Red Sofa

Marketing Warfare has now moved way beyond the Cola domain and today has reached the other segments. The case I am referring to is the advertisement created by Reliance BIG Tv to counter Airtel's DTH launch.
Now let me tell you about the background first, The DTH business is a rapidly growing business , already biggies like Tata Sky,Dish TV, DD direct are present in the market. Sensing this as an business opportunity Reliance ADAG group also very recently launched its BIG DTH services. Bharti Airtel also had plans to enter in this business and had planned to launch its DTH services in India on 9th October.
Now comes the real story , to generate curiosity amongst audiences Airtel started the teaser Ads showing a Red Sofa, and a caption "see you at home on 9th".
This advertisement started appearing on the national televisions few days back prior to the launch , i.e in the first week of Oct.
But here came the master stroke from the Reliance Creative Ad agency, sensing this empty Red sofa as an opportunity, within a day Reliance launched an Ad with similar settings i.e Red sofa and with the caption "See you at home with 250 channels..."
The Reliance creative ad agency fully utilized the buzz created by the Airtel's ads and was sucessful in associating itself with the "Red Sofa" i.e the curiosity around the teaser ads, as a result Airtel actually had to prepone their launch of DTH services and they started showing their full advertisement with their brand name.
But honestly i feel that the damage was already done, consumers actually took a minute to understand which ad belongs to which company, and initially they all thought that this Red Sofa belongs to BIG Tv only.
Analysing this very closely i sincerely feel that the creative people at Reliance truly got it right, they were able to take a little fuzz out of the grand launch of Airtel's DTH services.
Its True "Marketing is Warfare"

West Bengal's Loss is Gujarat's Gain

Its official now , The Tata Group has finally announced that it will set up its factory in Sanand, Gujarat. This project will bring an investment of about Rs 2,000 crore in the state back in Bengal now Mamta Banerjee will have to think of new gimmicks to keep her shop alive, what a loss she has brought to the state and its people

Nouriel Roubini : “Dr Doom” or Economist at his best

Nouriel Roubini is a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, and head of Roubini Global Economics.

Read on for the perfect economic predictions he made :
Just after the sub-prime crisis and before the current global financial crisis emerged or any one foresaw / predicted it he in August 2006, wrote, “The scariest thing is that the gambling-for-redemption behavior…are not the exception in the mortgage industry; they are instead the norm. …If this kind of behavior is — as likely — the norm, the coming housing bust may lead to a more severe financial and banking crisis than the S&L crisis of the 1980s. The recent increased financial problems of…sub-prime lending institutions may thus be the proverbial canary in the mine — or tip of the iceberg — and signal the more severe financial distress that many housing lenders will face when the current housing slump turns into a broader and uglier housing bust that will be associated with a broader economic recession.”

Roubini went on to say, in 2006, “One cannot even exclude systemic risk consequences if the housing bust combined with a recession leads to a bust of the mortgage-backed securities market and triggers severe losses for the two huge GSEs (government-sponsored enterprises), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.” Talk about prescience. To add on he had also predicted the failure of Bear Stearns, Its amazing but he also predicted that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will eventually bite the dust, and today they are nationalized.
The story doesn’t end here , read on , a bit earlier, in July, Roubini had said that Lehman Brothers would need a buyer: it soon did, but didn’t find one, and is now bankrupt. He didn’t stop there. He predicted in July that Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley would also not survive as independent firms. Lo and behold, Merrill Lynch is now set to be owned by Bank of America.

Surprised , yes we all should be , the crux of the matter is that when Roubini talks, people should listen.

The beauty of Roubini’s predictions is that they are based on crystal clear economic analysis. He had argued that the independent broker dealer model (epitomized by the former big four firms) is fundamentally flawed. These firms use the same business model as banks: they borrow short and lend long. But they borrow on even shorter time frames, use more leverage, and do not have explicit government backing (as banks have had since the Great Depression) and therefore the liquidity crunch.

To conclude i would leave it to you , to decide whether Nouriel Roubini is “Dr Doom” or Economist at his best. Your comments are welcome.

Tense Economic Situation depicted lightly

All images are from Glasbergen

Another Story on Innovation : Japanese Fishing Industry

The Japanese have a great liking for fresh fish. But the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades. So, to feed the Japanese population,fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever. The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring back the fish. The longer it took them to bring back the fish, the staler they grew. The fish were not fresh and the Japanese did not like the taste.
To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer.
However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen fish. And they did not like the taste of frozen fish. The frozen fish brought a lower price. So, fishing companies installed fish tanks.
They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little hashing around, the fish stopped moving. They were tired and dull, but alive. Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference. Because the fish did not move for days, they lost their fresh-fish taste. The Japanese preferred the lively taste of fresh fish, not sluggish fish.
The fishing industry faced an impending crisis! But today, it has got over that crisis and has emerged as one of the most important trades in that country! How did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem? How do they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan?
To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks. But now they add a small shark to each tank. The shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state. The fish are challenged and hence are constantly on the move. And they survive and arrive in a healthy state! They command a higher price and are most sought-after.

Another example where innovative ideas can help bussiness

$13 bn a year : The cost for gender equality

The report entitled ‘Equality for Women: Where Do We Stand on Millennium Development Goal 3’ was released today during a joint seminar of the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and the World Bank.

According to the report women’s health and education have improved substantially in most of the countries, but progress is still lagging on improving their economic opportunities. The investments of the tune of some $13 bn a year is needed to achieve the overall goal of gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The report says that out of 122 countries for which data are available, 82 achieved the official MDG3 target of gender parity in primary and secondary enrollment by 2005. However, 19 countries, 13 of which are in Sub-Saharan Africa, are seriously off track to meet this target. Also, in general, progress in expanding women’s opportunities (employment and political participation) has lagged behind progress in expanding women’s capabilities (education and health.

The report also notes that no country or region have achieved gender equality in all the areas covered by the MDG3 plus indicators. The health indicators single out the high mortality rates of girls under age 5 in East Asia and Pacific and South Asia, as well as the high adolescent fertility rates in 36 countries, with a majority of those countries in Sub- Saharan Africa.

Cultural Branding : The way to go

Marketing managers seek to keep their brands fresh and relevant, by trying out the latest trends and fads like the online and major media advertising with new imagery,new slogans and taglines,. new product packaging— and above all trying to attach themselves to the latest pop-cult phenomena, hot colors, and new vibes.
But can these cosmetic changes can result in the ‘value’ of the brand, or can these changes alone can result in the increase patronage of a brand. The answer to these questions is a big No.

Jumping on the latest trends can have the opposite effect, Brands cannot and should not be all things to all people. Nor they should change themselves constantly going after whatever is trendy at the expense of consistently ( a classic example can be the Burger King Advertisement campaigns ) . But instead the brands should always reinforce their core values and assets.Brands should have the ring of authenticity and conviction. They should possess and express the following:
· A reason for being
· A definitive point of view
· A system of beliefs
· Clearly defined values and assets
Therefore there has to be complete alignment at every touch point so that the brand is consistently and faithfully portrayed to employees, business partners, stakeholders, and customers ( the Triangle should be balanced )
Keeping these in mind can we think of some ways in which a more closer and emotional connects can be made between a consumer and its brand. I think Cultural anthropology can play an important role in developing consumer connections by taking marketing to a more meaningful, and at a more human level.
Tying core brand essences to deeply held cultural meaning gives consumers "reason to believe" in them. By being firmly grounded in cultural values that really matter to the customer, brands can transcend competitors to become not only category leaders, but icons.
These brands can become a way of projecting their own identity by the help of these brands for example , Harleys Davidson , the bike owner displays his identity with the help of his bike.These therefore become a way for consumers to affirm who they and allow them to project their identity to the world.

It is still true that consumers choose products based on price, quality, and cachet. Yet to a considerable degree brands with deeply significant cultural meaning override these aspects of marketing. For example, Apple, the brand, has an iconic presence among consumer-product brands and a cult-like following. So do brands like Harley Davidson, Coca Cola, Nike, Starbucks, The NFL, NASCAR and Whole Foods.
None of these brands appeals to everyone, but among the consumers they do appeal to they enjoy a devoted, and even fanatical, following. We can also point out that whether consumers are devotees of these brands or not, very few consumers the world over do not recognize their brand marks or fail to understand the essence of these brands' core values.
The evangelism inspired by these brands has everything to do with their meaning and an integrated lifestyle fit among their devotees. When these brands are marketed, and their products and services packaged, their core values are leveraged in a consistent, targeted manner that does not respond to every trend or fad. Otherwise, a dilution would occur with the very audience for whom they are viable and relevant.

Experience Makes a Brand

Café Coffee Day or CCD as it is popularly know stands today, with 595 cafés across 100 cities in India, It also has three outlets in Vienna, and two in Karachi,
It is the largest player in the coffee market and is followed by Barista, which has about 200 cafés. Java Green (around 75 cafés) and Mocha (around 25 cafés).
According to the venture capital firm Sequoia Capital: "The coffee shops have enough potential to open a café every 200 yards in the country, within five minutes' walking distance of one another.", now keep this in mind before you read further.

In this intense competitive market , what do we think would make a brand different from the another, the taste , the offering or the experience ? Even before you answer this question ask yourself whether you go to a coffee shop to have a coffee or to enjoy a coffee.

When a customer goes to an outlet he not only factors the offering in the menu but is equally looking forwards towards the ambience, the service, the hospitality and may be the not so significant aspects like the music played.

What makes me write this, well very recently we found all these elements missing during our outing to a CCD outlet. The Cold coffee was served hot , there were no glasses to serve water , the order were messed up and above all even the music which was played was bad.

The case in the point is not to complaint about the outlet but to highlight two important issues :

1) Cafe Coffee Day to have 900 outlets by year end , now if they only want to grow and do not focus on customer experience then they are leading to nowhere. Only growing their stores would not result in any benefits , patronage of its brand will.
2) At this pace of growth the company needs to ensure that customer ensure the same experience all over the country in the similar manner, may be I am talking about copying the Mc Donald experience model

To conclude I will only say that brand is what the customer experience and associate with. If a brand especially of the likes of CCD, is not able to strike a chord with the customer then, certainly its growth is not a real growth but its slow yet steady movement towards the path of oblivion.

Hadron Collider : To know about the Past ; A peek into the Future

Scientists in Connecticut and around the world will be watching closely today when their colleagues in Switzerland flip the switch on what is being touted as the world's grandest experiment in particle physics.If all goes according to plan, the Large Hadron Collider, a gigantic particle accelerator underground near Geneva, could re-create the very moment 13 billion years ago when scientists believe a tremendous explosion known as the "big bang" created the universe."It could be the most exciting thing since Einstein," said Yale Professor Paul Tipton, part of a multinational research team, including physicists at Yale and Fairfield University, that has spent years designing and building the collider.Data collected in the coming months has the potential to lead to the discovery of new dimensions, a new understanding of time and space, or advances that could someday be applied to fields such as medicine or energy generation, said Tipton and other scientists.
By working at unprecedentedly high energy levels, the collider will, in effect, provide the ultimate in back-to-the-future information, researchers said."It is in a sense a time machine to look back to the earliest moments of creation and to be able to explain the present state of the universe and to predict its fate," said David Winn, chairman of the physics department at Fairfield University. He spent 15 years working on the project.Shedding light on the most basic building blocks of the universe at the moment it was born could help scientists understand what makes up the most fundamental elements of matter, which could lead to advances in medicine and other fields, said Chris Sanzeni, who worked on the project when he was a student at Fairfield.Researchers don't expect major breakthroughs immediately. The European Organization for Nuclear Research expects to propel the first beam of protons through the accelerator today, but it is expected to take several weeks to reach top speed and start beaming back data to computers watching their every move.Tipton likened the collider to a brand-new race car that won't be driven in fifth gear for at least a few months.But even turning on the collider today has significance, said Keith Baker, a Yale physics professor who has been working on the project for 14 years."What happens [today] is exciting more from a social and a human point of view, and that is, a lot of people worked for a long time to make this thing work," he said. Some 2,300 scientists from 40 countries collaborated on the collider, work that often required bridging languages and currencies.Baker said he plans to watch the collider turn on — remotely — so he can tell his grandchildren about it.Construction on the 17-mile long tunnel 328 feet underground began 14 years ago and has so far cost $5 billion.Scientists hope the collider will shed light on things that have eluded researchers, Baker said, things they have been unable to see in experiments or describe with current models of understanding. For example, the way scientists understand the big bang suggests that the expansion of the universe should be slowing, Baker said, but in fact, it is expanding and accelerating outward. So they are hoping what might explain this. Similarly, researchers know nothing about what accounts for the rotation curves of galaxies, he said.Baker and his team are searching for something called the Higgs Boson, sometimes referred to as the "God particle." Scientists have theorized that the elusive Higgs Boson, if it exists, is what gives particles mass, but researchers have not found it. Baker has hopes that if it does exist, the Large Hadron Collider will help find it.Tipton said he doesn't expect the information to produce anything directly; it won't bring about a brighter lightbulb in the next few years, he said. But he expects major things from the research. "Humans have never learned something and not used it," he said

Execution In Outsourcing : A critical Issue

I was recently reading an article in HT Mint in which S.Mitra Kalita a columnist writes about the issues she has faced as a customer and how these things are somehow related to outsourcing.( Please, Airtel, Hear My Call )
The question which comes to the mind is whether it is really right to outsource when our customers are not happy about it.The answer has always been from the perspectives of the companies, that cost savings and efficiencies are achieved by the involved companies. But how much these affect the customer is what is the subject matter of concern here.
We can understand the concerns of the US and the EU customers, but this is the case of an Indian company outsourcing to a Indian service provider. By doing this the company aims to achieve effiencies in service and better customer experience . But quite contrary to this situation the customers are themselves complaining about the whole setup .
So the question , has Airtel gone wrong in its decision of outsourcing ? after all the "Customers are always right"
In my view Airtel has taken the right choice of outsourcing its business , but now it needs to focus on excecuting it right. The company has its busines service portfolio's outsourced to various vendors , but now its needs to create a "Command and Control" centre which coordinates with all these business partners so as to achieve the desired results. One more thing which needs to be addressed is that Airtel needs to ensure that the Outsourced business partners 'Own' the process. They should feel that they are a part of the Airtel family and not of a different company say HTMT , Firstsource or a IBM Daksh, then only the 'Wow' effect can be created.
To sum up the customer only knows Airtel and would only complaint about Airtel and not about its partners , so the company now needs to focus on Executing its outsourcing plans flawlessly.

Bhiwani : The Kashi of boxing

An interesting article from HT Mint . Felt like sharing it . Click here to read it

Politics and Progress

Tata Motors Chairman Mr Ratan Tata has given a deadline to the WB government to end the stalemate over the Singur land issue, else the Motor company would be forced to look for alternatives elsewhere.

In the issue between two political parties -- ruling Left Front and opposition Trinamool Congress the Tatas have become a victim. If the TATA's plan to move out of the state it would mean a loss of Rs 100-200 crore on account of expenses incurred in laying the foundation, and setting up the initial infrastructure . It would also mean the inevitable delay in full-scale production of the Nano, although it might not delay the launch date as the car is now produced at their Pune plant.
If Tata Motors move out of the state because of the political turmoil then it would definitely give a bad name to the state of West Bengal. I really don't think that other companies would like to invest in the state. That would mean that there would be no new employment generation for the people of WB.

People in WB , the Political Parties and the Manufacturers together must come up with a solution that is acceptable to all. It should not look at the narrow goals of one political party or the other but instead look at the larger picture and the amount of progress and prosperity it can bring to the state.

Bbye China : See U @ London

Mr Obama and Biden together a stronger Brand

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama has chosen Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden to be his running mate for the vice president post.

Joseph Biden brings to Barack Obama's presidential bid something it lacks at the top—long experience with a range of countries, problems, and foreign leaders. Before him Obama was considered a naive in the world politics but with Biden as his running mate he has got a hint of credibility. To me this would be a classic case of 'Co-Branding'.

Co-branding is an arrangement that associates a single product or service with more than one brand name, or otherwise associates a product with someone other than the principal producer. The basic aims of Co branding a product or service are

1) Market Share
2) Global Branding

If we look closely the above two seems equally applicable for the Obama-Biden brand , The Delaware senator will bring with him a loyal base of voters who would vote for them. Secondly the combined brand name will appeal to a larger base of voters who earlier consider Obama as inexperienced.

Biden is known world over for his speeches on foreign affairs and he has been in the helm of political affairs for quite some time now. This also brings credibility of the Camp to the outside world.

All together a strategic choice and a perfect fit, but only one concern , how will his experience fit in the Obama campaign for "CHANGE"

iPhone : Not for Me Not for All

Like many others I was also expecting the iPhone cost to be to in the range of Rs 10, 000 to Rs 15,000 ( $199 - $250) . But the iPhone cost in India is $700+ which is equal to Rs 31,000 in India . This will ensure that a people like me will keep distance from the product , or in other words will be forced to think of alternatives.

So has the pricing been wrong for the companies ? will this affect the overall product sales ? or let me ask a very basic question , which class is this product targeted at ?

Let us first understand the perspective of the companies ( Airtel / Vodafone ) , In US and UK the mobile companies sell the iPhone with an 'agreement' , the cost of the mobile is obtained from the customers, through their usages of services plus additional fees of usage of the iPhone.In India the mobile service providers are only charging the cost of the iPhones and no additional fees for the usages and thus they are trying to justify the high prices.

Now let us analyse the behaviour of the customers according to the following :

Target Audience :

The iPhone is targeted at the youth and on to the SEC A1 , SEC A2 group. Amongst these categories the youth is the primary target . At this price level , the price would act as deterrent , and why perhaps in Chennai it already has , no long lines were seen in front of the Airtel /Vodafone stores which were seen all across the world. The youth cannot afford the product at such a price range the older segment would not like to invest so much , particularly at this stage of the economy ( inflation at 12.6%)

Consumer Behaviour :

The consumer behaviour is the most important thing to consider. In this technologically advance era the day when Apple launched the iPhone in US , its cost was known to all. In India too we all knew the $199 price range for the 8 GB model. We had already calculated the equivalents and added some buffer etc and arrived at the price level which seemed acceptable to us . To be more precise if the product was available at that price range then it was 'Value for Money'. Al tough some might say that iPhone is more a Status symbol than a Value proposition.

But the bottom line is that the moment we knew about the price the first reaction was 'Whew it is expensive' . The customer therefore has now even a mental blockade which prevents him to purchase a iPhone.

The discussion would be incomplete without considering the perspective of Apple Computers , world over Apple is targeting the product for a 'Mass market' hence the price range of $199 for an advanced product as against an initial price of $499 for technologicaly inferior phone . I am surprised that how Apple top management can indulge in this marketing myopia. The company can make profits only when their iPhone sell. At this price they would not achieve numbers they would have expected in India.

So will the prices fall , certainly they will , they do in the electronics market . In India the iPhone is available is available at as low as Rs 14,000 so i don't see the logic that the prices won't fall, also to put things in perspective and make the comparisons more clear just consider the fact that today a family can buy a Desktop for Rs 25, 000 and a Laptop for Rs 30,000 and an iPhone for Rs 31,000.

At current price levels the Market penetration cannot be achieved , may be that may be the current strategy of these companies ( Market Skimming ) but one thing is for sure , whatever may be the strategy , it is keeping one customer away from the iPhone.

PS: Well already there are many alternatives available for iPhone at 1/4th the price in India. Ask my Boss Arun he will tell you why his 'Beauty' is better than iPhone

Olympics and 'Brand China'

John Ruskin astutely observed: "Great nations write their autobiographies in 3 manuscripts: the book of their deeds, the book of their words, and the book of their art."

China seems to be writing its history by the deeds it performs. Before the Olympic games concerns over the Chinese government's role in Tibet, Sudan, and other alleged human rights abuses threaten to derail its plans to stage the Olympics as China's coming out party but against all odds the country has been the host of such a spectacular Olympic event.

Will this help in the improving the image of China in the western world , will this help the brand 'China' ?

Well i think so, with thousands of tourists coming in and going back with pleasant memories, they will have many good memories and experiences to share about China , in marketing parlance , create a Buzz. This will definitely help in the building of the Brand China .

In saying so i am never reffering to their products , the products will have to make a mark for themselves . I am only reffering to the Country, the Olympic will help China in the same manner it did to Spain during the Barcelona Olympics.

Marketing Lessons from iPhone

The iPhone has caught the imaginations of millions of people worldwide. It has already achieved the cult status and people are ready to wait for months to own this piece of electronic device. To me what matters the most is the manner Apple went about creating this unique brand. Can this model be replicated across other industries , can we learn from this and recreate some other brand may be in some industry ??

lets look closely and try to understand why iPhone is such a phenomenon :

1) Cult of Celebrity : The iPhone has already achieved the cult status, the phone is no longer considered a piece of electronics but instead a status symbol , people like to flash it to show their status. They also show how much tech savvy they are.

2) Limited Supply : this is a strategy of Apple where in the demands always exceeds the supply , this is done to maintain the hype and halo around the brand. Apple can clearly produce thousands of iPhones in no time considering its manufacturing bases in China, but the company deliberately maintains low levels of stocks so as to maintain the celebrity status of the brand.

3) New Distribution Model : A marketing lesson straight from the textbooks. Apple has not taken the classical way to distribute its products , instead it has gone for an agreement with the network service providers so as to provide the iPhones to the customers. This model ensures exclusivity to the brand .

4) Advance Buzz : Again a marketing lesson , this is a classic example that buzz are a powerful marketing tool. If a company can generate an advance buzz about its products then the rest is taken care by itself

5) Functionality : The iPhone boasts of some of the best features in its class. The product may not have all the functions, but the functions it has are truly world class.


the iPhone has achieved all these through a combination of all these and with careful marketing campaigns. The model is there its not out of this world , its simple. So can it be replicated ? well ask yourself for me yes it can be , hope anyone comes with a similar product in India too.

Mr . Ratan Tata are you listening ? Nano can be made the next iPhone ... :)

The top 8 Olympic marketing screw-ups

Follow the link . Its a good read.

Link 1 : Page 1
Link 2 : Page 2

A billion hopes a single BINDRA

India clinched its first ever individual Olympic gold medal in 108 years when Abhinav Bindra won the 10 meter air rifle event. This was the one of the most pulsating shooting finals in the history of the world's biggest sporting extravaganza.

The 'SINGH' emerged triumphant in the 10-shot final with a finish of 104.5, taking his tally of points to 700.5 as against Zhu's silver winning performance of 699.7 (597+102.7) and 699.4 (598+101.4) by Hakkinen, which gave the Finn Army marksman the bronze.

His first shot of the final a 10.7 saw him move to the third place and by the time he was preparing to shoot his fourth, the Indian had risen to the second spot.

A 10.6 on his seventh attempt earned Bindra the lead and in the deciding shot he got 10.8, way ahead of 10.5 by the Chinese and 9.7 by the Finn to bring India the first ever gold medal by an individual since the country first participated in Olympics in 1900.

The celebrations have begun ....but lets just think .... A population of billion plus and just one medal !!!

Beijing Olympics

Well after all the hues and cries and all the politics around the olympic games , its time now that sports should take the centre stage and not the politics.

Well I wish the Indian team all the luck so that they can win medals for the country and make us proud.

Knorr soups are now Indian !!!

Knorr has been the largest brand of the Unilever group across the world , Knorr soups were launched in India to increase the breadth of the product offering from the Unilever house, as in to increase its presence in the food division also.
But after its launch the product meet only with a moderate success and it was not as popular in India as elsewhere.
Now the brand is promoting itself as an 'Indian Brand' as it is now offering products to cater to the Indian pallets, this to me sounds a good strategy , remember Mac Donald, Dominos Pizza Hut too had to Indianize their product to be successful in India.
So if Knorr soups are adopting this strategy of 'localisation' to Indian tastes , then surely it will help the brand to achieve more customer base and perhaps also prompt more Indians to try out the soups as food alternative.

Forget People Even Weather is Unfriendly !!!!

Well this was the comment Arun made, he is my colleague at work and also my roommate at the PG, to describe Chennai , the city currently where we are living.

We both ( in fact three of us, Jay is the 3rd one ) have faced all kinds of difficulties one can imagine of , when someone relocates from one place to the another. Chennai offered us all kinds of difficulties Food , Accommodation, Language , Transport etc.

I was living in Bangalore ( another south Indian city ) for the last 2 years and I never faced these problems at such a level. Consider that both of these cities are only 350 kilometers apart , but the differences I have observed and felt are huge.

So why this difference , In Bangalore the influx of people from other state started 20 years back when the IT revolution began. During the span of 20 years people have learnt about the cultures of the other people coming to Bangalore from other states , they have learned the language the cuisines, the festivals etc and thus in Bangalore a group of entrepreneurs have come up who cater to these group of people. Also the people from other place found out a business opportunity and started out their business to cater to these people.

Whereas Chennai has started opening up very recently , so the common man on the street is apprehensive, he is uneasy to see so many people from other states, perhaps at this point of time he is not able to see the business potential that can be generated in the state by this influx. So he is reluctant to help he wants the other people to talk to him in his language and not in English or Hindi and perhaps that's why people from other states face all kinds of problems here. people from other states have just started coming in and Chennai perhaps is still not ready to take them up with open arms and that's why people find themselves in a different 'country' all together. It will take time to Chennai to come to the level of Bangalore or any other Metropolitan city until then "even weather here is unfriendly"

Ford India gets a makeover

Ford motor company is getting a makeover in India. The company is planning to launch its world famous brands like the Ferrari etal in India. Now this seems to be a sound strategy for a company whose market share has shrunk by 0.2% in the year 2007.

For me the company is following a similar strategy what Yamaha did for it motor bikes in India. Yamaha is known world over for its Racing bikes. It has launched bikes which have captured the imaginations of millions of bike lovers all across the world. But in India it was content in launching products which were suited for the 'Indian conditions'. But in doing this the company launched the products it was not good at, I mean the products were not the core competency of Yamaha, in India they were launching 100 cc bikes wheres as they have their competencies in Racing bikes. so here in India they just launched products which were suited for the Indian conditions , the products were based on obsolete technology as far as Yamaha was concerned, but these products were not exciting for the youngsters.

Now coming back to Ford , it was also following a similar strategy, it was launching products in India which had reached the 'maturity stage' in the other developed market. It is to be noted that the marketers adopt these strategies to extend the product life cycle of the brands which are reaching the 'decline stage' in their life cycle.

but Indian customers have changed a lot over the period of time, they are well read, well connected and are aware of the latest technologies from all across the globe. They want to use the latest technologies , use fancier gadgets and use the best products which people across the world use. Their wants are also backed by their purchasing power, so to expect that the Indians would be happy using second rung products or service would be stupidity.

Now is Ford doing a right thing? well to answer this i have already mentioned about the changing Indians , their higher disposable incomes and above all the availability of a market segment for the luxury cars. So for me it sounds a good strategy , but would it affect the sales of other car brands of the same stable , well i think it should but yet they need to innovate and launch the products with the features which are latest in the world and not Indianised as they call

Singh Is King

Indian prime minister Mr. Manmohan Singh managed to prove majority in the parliament and thus managed to save his government. although the voting in the parliament was marked by constant ruckus and pandemonium created by the opposition parties. there were also allegations that M.P ( Members of Parliament ) were offered huge bribes to switch sides and to cross vote or remain absent from the scene. Some of the members actually brought the money and showed it in the parliament.

Honestly speaking I am not bothered by all these. The only positive which I see is that India can now go ahead with the Nuclear deal. This will ensure that the country can get nuclear fuel from the NSG.( Nuclear fuel supplier Group). This would ensure that the country becomes self sustainable in the matters of energy production.

Killing of Brand Logan

The car Logan, is a a joint venture production between mahindra and mahindra and Renault car company. The car was initially pitched as a wide bodied car for marketing purposes. The company recently changed its campaign and started pitching it as "why can't your your first car be a big car" and they also brought in Kunal Kapoor as its brand ambassador.

This is to the background to what i have to say, now coming to the main part of the story, I recently went to Bangalore and was disusing with my friend about the various brands of car. I told him that i was contemplating buying a car in the next 6 months or so , during the discussion when i mentioned the car Logan , his reaction was "its a taxi" , why do want to buy it .

I was not able to understand his reaction initially. later i found out that, after the new international airport came into operation many taxi operators have started their operations in the town, and most of them have bought Logan and have been operating them to ferry passengers to and fro from the airport.

This reminds me of my own reaction towards Indica car by TATA motors , nearly all the cabs in Bangalore are Indica and that's the reason why i didn't want to buy Indica. Now the same is being repeated for Logan. the car which was positioned for young executives is now is now the favourite for the cab operators. Its not that the brands like Merc and BMW etc are not used as cabs , but the difference here is that they are not used on such a wide scale the brand Logan is aimed at 'mass marketing' and its not a 'niche product'.

so how will be the company affected ? do they really care ? , well these will be good questions, the marketing and the sales managers would be very happy owing to the increased sales of cars , but what will happen over the long run , would logan become the next 'taxi car' in India ?

Should company do something , as introduce new variants aimed to cater to this section and differentiate on others. Well its only left to the senior executives of the company to take a decision , its only left to them that what do they want their brand to become .

What a Customer Wants ??

Before i start writing about the topic , i would like to tell you that i have been relocated to Chennai , and that's the reason why i was not regular in my postings . Now i am back and all set in Chennai and the story which i am posting here is a result of my today's experience at an eatery.

In Chennai I am finding a hard time to get good food, (please consider the fact that I am from the northern part of India and my taste preferences are different) therefore i have nearly tried all kinds of food offered nearby , but i didn't like any of them. The one reason is primarily taste and the second reason is perhaps the way these Shop owner operate and treat their customer, particularly those people who do not know the native language.

I am not kind of person who believes in regionalism and things like that but down here in this part of India the rationalistic feelings are very strong,( for me it presents a good marketing opportunity , perhaps i will write about it later ) now coming back to my story , today in the afternoon I was led by one of my office colleague to a small eatery located on the third floor of a nearby building. this was a kind of place one can not find if he is not aware of it, the place was very ordinary and had very basic furniture , 2 tables and 4 chairs and a ceiling fan to counter the heat and humidity of Chennai. Now the food , the food was also south Indian food and nothing was great about it either.

Now the question which might arise in your mind , then why did i bother to write so much and that too with the caption , "what customer wants", now the thing which i did not tell you till now was the service which i got from that small eatery .

The lady did not knew Hindi and could not speak or understand English. She was so caring that she made us feel at home and let me tell you that i really enjoyed that food although it was not of my taste.

She also enquired to us about our taste in the symbolic language and also complained that we did not had 'rasam chwal ' a local preparation .

Now coming to the moral of the story , in today's world there is only one thing which can make a customer stick to a product or service, and that is the kind of 'Customer Service' a company , firm or an organization provides to their customers. A good experience always remains in the minds of the customer and this always helps him /her in choosing brands or services. During the information search stage if he recalls this experience then there is a chance that he will buy the same product or service he had a memorable experience. Therefore the marketer's must ensure that at all the points of contacts the customer has a memorable experience and that can be only brought by a good customer service, in my case I am now a regular customer to her shop.

Shah Rukh , Aamir and Abhishek makes it to the Forbes List

Forbes publication, known for its rankings of wealthiest persons across the world, has named Shah Rukh , Aamir and Abhishek are the stars among ten celebrities adding star-power to mobile.
The three stars are the brand ambasasdors of the mobile phones Nokia , Samsung and Motorola respectively . the Celebrities have been joined by two international sport stars Maria Sharapova and David Beckham, four singers Usher, Fergie, Rain and Andy Lau and race car driver Danica Patrick in the 'Ten Celebs and Their Cells' list published on the Forbes website

Miss Universe 2008

Miss Venezuela Danyana Mendoza was named Miss Universe 2008, everyone saw her pic wearing the crown ...i thought to share these images .....

well u can consider it a gimmik to increase traffic to my site ;)