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"