Random Ramblings

Revolution 2020 - The Alternate Ending

2011-11-08T09:19:00.005+05:30

Chapter 42

On March 1, I worked a lot harder than I normally do. I went through the mid-term results that Dean Srivastava brought over. I met with Bedi to discuss plans for the institution moving into engineering and MBA. I met with every student; every staff member who knocked on my door. I did everything to not look at that one card that Raghav had sent through in my mail a week back.

But I couldn’t avoid it. Every 10 minutes; my eyes automatically glanced at it. And none of what anyone said registered in my head. The message on the card just kept coming back to me

Mrs and Mr Anil Kashyap

Invite the pleasure of your company

For the wedding of their beloved son

Raghav

With

Aarti

(D/O Mrs and Mr Pratap Brij Pradhan, DM)

At 8 p.m.

On March 1, 2010

Poolside Lawns

Taj Ganga, Varanasi

I scheduled a visit to Shuklaji that evening. It was my way of ensuring that I wouldn’t be tempted to land up at the Taj Ganga. God knows I did!! I wanted to run in; catch Aarti in her room and confess to her. Tell her I made everything right; including giving Raghav his life back. Tell her I wasn’t the bad man I made myself out to be. Tell her that even after all this; I did deserve her.

But this really wasn’t the truth. I was the egotistical bastard – the bad guy in this story. And I told myself – let this evening go by and then Aarti will be a closed chapter.

I’d switched my cell phone off. I didn't want Raghav to try and get me to attend the wedding; which he definitely would. And I didn’t want to hear from Aarti. It would complicate this further.

And so at the dot of 7:30 pm; I begun the walk towards my car. And just as I was about to move, Dean Srivastava called out “Gopal Sir; wait, it’s urgent”

He walked over and handed me his mobile. I asked him who it was and he said nothing – just walked away. And I instantly knew.

“Gopal”….I hadn’t heard her voice in two months. I choked “You cheat”.

I guess I deserved this. She was in her right to speak her mind before she got married. It was fair for her to demand a closure to our chapter. So I quietly listened.

“How could you do this to me?”…and she broke down.

I had tears in my eyes but made a genuine effort to keep my voice firm “Aarti, I’m really sorry. Only I know what I’ve lost”. She went silent at the other end.

“But in a sense; it’s the right thing. Raghav loves you like crazy. You’ll be happy-er”. The “er” took a while to come out. Because that’s the one bit that I knew I was lying about.

“I can never forgive you. But I want you to pay for what you did. You are going to come to the Taj and be the one standing closest to the mandap while I take the pheras with Raghav. It won’t make up for what you did but I want you to live with the regret. So be there in half an hour”…and she cut the call.

She was right. I probably wouldn't be able to take that moment. I couldn’t watch her get married to Raghav. But I needed to….she wanted me to. And in a funny, tragic way; it would put this whole thing to rest.

Half shivering; I asked the driver to divert the car to the Taj Ganga.

It takes about 20 minutes to get there from my college. It’s a soothing drive; one can take in the sights and scenes of Varanasi – and at 7:30 pm; with the aarti lights glowing, it makes for a particularly calming experience.

But this wasn’t a normal evening. I was anything but calm – I felt a deep gash in my chest; like a person suffering from a cardiac arrest. I just closed my eyes and thought of all the times Aarti and I had spent together. It was probably the worst thing to do at the time but there really wasn’t much else I could get myself to do.

I woke up when the driver tapped me – at the gates of the Taj Ganga. I got off my car & saw – NOTHING.

No decorations; no flower arrangements. No line up of cars. Whenever there was a wedding at the Taj; the decorations would not cover the hotel; they’d cover the entire street. But now – NOTHING.

Could it be…..?

I walked into the property and the lawns were empty. There clearly wasn’t a wedding here. I thought of calling Aarti but held back; not knowing what to expect.

I walked to the front desk; where Aarti would be; on a normal work day. But it was unlikely that she’d be here now because her shift ended at 6. And because she should ideally be somewhere getting married!!

Before I could say anything to the lady at the front desk, she just pointed to her right and said “Coffee shop”

Was she there? Was Raghav with her? Did they find out about how I’d treated Raghav? Did they hear about the dirty side of GangaTech? …Before I could even process any of this in my head, I was at the coffee shop.

EMPTY…expect one table. At the very end of what was a long rectangular coffee shop; was a table occupied by…Aarti.

Clearly the wedding wasn’t happening…today. But why? What happened? Did she ….?

“You lied”….her voice cut my thoughts short. I found myself standing right next to her…at the table.

“You planned it all; you’ve brought it to this” said Aarti, rather coldly, looking straight at me with eyes that showcased a feeling of being let down.

All I could think of was how beautiful she looked; even now. In her work saree, with her hair all tied back; she looked like the Aarti I would longed for; for the last 15 years.

I composed myself and begun to say “I know Aarti; I shouldn’t have….”

But I couldn’t say more. Aarti had just flung herself at me and was clinging to me – in a tight hug.

But the wedding, Raghav….my thoughts started flowing in at the rates of knots. And then I looked down at Aarti; sobbing away on my chest.

And what had happened before this moment – really didn’t matter.

This felt right.

Aarti just looked up at me and said “Whores? That was your idea to get me to leave you?”

And with that….we kissed, for the longest time ever.

Chapter 43

There’s a difference between being a haraami and a c@£%*&a

Mr. Shukla was the latter but definitely not the former. He had done many bad things but wasn’t a bad person. And I now know that when he said I’m like a son to him; he really did mean it.

I did tell him about my situation with Aarti way before March 1. Not for any other reason but because he was expecting me to get a political ticket and bail him out of this mess. It seems evident now but then I was a bit surprised at how calmly he took the news. Given that I told him his arch nemesis, Raghav; would most likely contest the MLA seat and that I engineered the whole thing; I was expecting him to throw a fit. He didn’t.

Now I know why.

He used his contacts to get Mr. Pradhan to come over and meet him – not just alone, but with Aarti. Mr. Pradhan did go; albeit grudgingly; expecting to be asked for some political favor but what did happen was quite the opposite.

Shuklaji told him about me…and Aarti. About how I’d gotten those women over to my room to get Aarti away from me. About how I’d gotten Raghav his job back, about how I coaxed him to make the first move towards Aarti.

Mr. Pradhan was shocked. And with good reason. He had no idea about what had transpired between me and Aarti.

The only person even more shocked was Aarti. From what Shuklaji tells me, she broke down…inconsolably. She made it vocal to her dad that she had fallen head over heels over the “good for nothing” Gopal Mishra.

And from that point on, she did the clean up job, with a sense of precision I didn’t know she was born with.

1. She came clean with Raghav. Told him about us…told him everything, including my stupid “whore” stunt.

2. She amicably broke of the wedding with him – they still remains friends to this day

3. She kept the fact that the wedding was called off a secret from me.

4. And then planned the March 1 confrontation; well now; reunion to a T.

One evening, a year after we’d been married; on the boat ride we used to take since we were kids; she looked at me and said “I guess I always loved you; that explains the effort”

I smiled back and said “How I wish you owned up to it on this same boat 15 years back!!”

EPILOGUE

I checked the time. The hospital clock showed 6:00 am

‘So getting drunk and crashing down is a habit, I said

‘It’s the first time it happened,’ he said.

“So you’ve been married a year?” I asked

“A year and 20 days” he said

“Where’s Aarti, then” I asked quizzically

“She works the graveyard shift at the hotel now. I don’t disturb her at work; if I start doing it; I won’t stop” he smiled mischieviously.

“So why do you think you are bad person? You did well; Aarti’s with you. Life’s turned out better than you would have imagined” I asked

“I haven’t come clean. Aarti still doesn’t know what I’d done to Raghav in the past. She doesn't quite know how Gangatech runs. She knows it’s dubious but not quite how much” Gopal said, with his face pointing downwards.

“So…” I asked in a nonchalant manner.

“So it hurts me that I still haven’t got it all off my chest. But I’m scared…I can’t afford to lose her again” Gopal said.

I looked at him and broke into a little bit of a smile; “She came back to you after you almost slept with two whores. She can take it, I’m sure”

“Sure?” Gopal asked.

At that precise moment, I woman rushed in. She was in the exact same saree that Gopal had so articulately described.

“Why didn’t you call? You freakin mo…” she trailed off as she saw me.

“Aarti, Meet Chetan. Chetan, meet Aarti” Gopal introduced us.

“Aarti, the pleasure is all mine” I said, trying hard not to smile.

“Thanks for getting him here” Aarti said; in the sweetest possible manner. I could see why a person like Gopal could fall for her.

“No issue at all…but I better get going. I’ve a flight in two hours” I said and waved at Gopal and Aarti.

“I’ll mail you” Gopal said; while I left.

I went to the door; paused, turned and said “Gopal, you are a good man”

A Decade Of Growing Up

2010-12-31T11:03:00.003+05:30

People who know me will probably deny that there is any truth in the topic of this blog itself. Especially my wife and some of my closest friends would guffaw away. Yet I believe that these have been the “growing up” years...

And the best way I think I can explain this is by talking about all the things I did not know at the beginning of 2000 that I do now. At least it makes my claim of having matured a lot more believable. So here goes:

Things I did not know at the beginning of 2000 that I do now:

Mola (my single most significant and fond discovery of the decade)
That I’d be married at the end of the decade (and married for almost half of it at that)
That it (marriage) isn’t as cumbersome as it seemed back in 2000
That I could still find a way to make some money at the end of it inspite of being a fucked up engineer (which is all I was in 2000)
That I’d end up in a police van for just paying the bill that was brought on the table
That a place like Utah existed where I could be jailed for saying “shit” or “fuck”
That a place like Vegas existed just 5 hours away from Utah where I could almost never get jailed, irrespective of what I did
That I’d live in a place where it snowed 8 months of the year – and actually survive
That I’d actually see New York (and not in a movie)
That doing an MBA would teach me almost nothing yet make a difference to my life
That “advertising” was a profession devoid of film making (yeah, I thought the same people made ads too)
That I’d ever work in advertising
That there was a profession called “planning” which did not mean “city or town planning”
That I’d have mentors and they’d make me a career (Suman and Rajan Sir)
That Euro RSCG was an ad agency (when I first heard of it, I thought it was some financial firm)
That BBH actually meant something meaningful
That Goafest would happen and I’d love it as much as I do
That there was a world of dance bars that thrived within 8 kms of my house, which was quite fascinating
That “dance bars” in 2000 would metamorphosise into “pick ups” in 2010
That I’d be called a “near alcoholic” in 2010 (considering I did not drink in 2000)
That I’d wear casuals to work everyday (I wore formals all through my college years)
That I’d ever meet Shaheen after passing out of engineering and I’d grow as incredibly fond of her as I did in the years to come (yes Shaheen, you and Ash tie)
That Ashwin and Arjun would not just be my best friends for nothing – but for standing behind me when I needed them the most
That I’d know a life without a father
That my grandpa would still be around, relatively hale and hearty, in 2010.
That a person called Jindal existed who’d be known to me as one of the nicest people I ever met
That I’d be good friends with Avi
That I’ve the most awesome set of cousins one could wish for (Gaurav, Abhi, Gautam)
That I’d be happiest spending new years at a house and not at a do (signs of getting old, I guess)
That I’d have a residential address that has Bandra in it
That I’d have a car – let me rephrase; a vehicle; that I could drive without knocking someone down every second day
That I’d actually watch Sachin Tendulkar make a 200, make 50 test centuries and take us single handedly to a World Cup Final
That I’d see movies like Munnabhai, 3 Idiots, Lagaan, Chak De, Hazaaron Khwaishein…all being made in this one decade
That Shahrukh Khan could actually act
That I’d be as unfit as I actually am
That I’d stop playing basketball and athlethics and try my hand at cricket; which I was, sorry am, actually quite bad at
That at the end of all this, I still like drinking in a quarter bar rather than in a swanky pub
That my best memories of the last 10 years would be

The 7 days me and Mola spent at Kovalam
A new years spent in Lonavala with best friends and Mola
A drink with Arjun at a hotel bar in Las Vegas
All of 2007 and 2008 at Euro

That I’d have enough happening in this one decade to write this blog

I’m sure I’ve missed a lot of stuff and I know that I’ve not written about a lot of things because they’d be quite scandalous or in a sense dishonest to the people I created those memories with.

But one thing’s clear; life really doesn’t go down as you planned it, does it?

The “Jaswant” Conspiracy Theory

2009-08-24T22:41:00.002+05:30

The BJP uproar against Jaswant Singh for writing a book portraying Jinnah as the “good guy” seems everything that a democracy shouldn’t advocate. It’s expelled a leader for propagating his views, Mr. Modi has autocratically decided to ban the book in Gujarat and BJP top brass has gone ahead and called it “anti Hindutva”. Given that this reaction comes from one of two of India’s dominant political parties, it is indeed shameful and paints a rather sorry picture about India to people watching from the outside.

My point is that it’s probably all pre-planned and planted….

Some questions that may shed light on my theory –

Given that Jaswant Singh has been writing the book for a little over two years, wouldn’t any of the BJP leaders know about it before its release?

Wouldn’t they have done all in their might to stop the book from coming out if they so desperately wanted to?

Did Jaswant Singh expect the BJP to exercise restraint in their views on the book?

Did the old fogie really believe that Mr. Modi wouldn’t take a lashing at his topic unless held back by the party members?

After being in politics for 30 odd years and also knowing that Advani’s made a huge blunder pandering the Jinnah topic, would Mr. J. Singh still believe it’s a risk worth taking with his political career.

If you can answer all these questions, then you pretty much know what I am getting at.

The reality is that BJP from 2004 onwards, had gradually lost its sense of identity. The one plank that it stood for, Hindutva, was no longer theirs. And BJP had tried to moderate it’s stand on it through the planted Jinnah comments by Advani and the many attempts to woo the minorities. And all had failed.

They’d then and as was apparent in the 2009 elections, decided to return to their original Hindutva ideology. But they needed to do it fast, because a party having lost two elections, couldn’t afford anymore losses. And therein came the idea of Jaswant Singh’s book on Jinnah.

A man, who was in the twilight of his career and a BJP loyalist was asked to pen this “diluted” view of Jinnah being a more secular leader than many of our distinguished politicians of yore. His book and the outrage that followed within BJP ranks that led to his ouster from the party were all a part of a plan, a plan for BJP to, in one stroke, re-affirm it’s Hindutva stand. For Jaswant, there was the monetary benefit of the book becoming a bestseller (the best the party could do for him given that he would probably not be a part of the cabinet in five years).

The question arises – given Mr. Singh started writing the book a good two years back, what was the plan behind releasing it now? Why not before the elections…the answer probably is that they wouldn’t want one of their top leaders tainted just prior to the elections. The thought may well have been that if they did win, this would probably re-affirm their Hindutva stand again. And if they didn’t…well, this would be their “comeback” vehicle…

The only thing that BJP doesn’t get and did not get even during the Advani-Jinnah fiasco…we don’t really care about Jinnah and neither do the Indian Muslims. And that’s where it probably will all go wrong…again..

“Sach” Ka Saamna

2009-07-27T11:16:00.002+05:30

Reality television has found success because it appeals to people’s voyeuristic nature. That’s really not tough to figure out. But there are some facts that our politicians need to deal with before they point a finger at a show like Sach Ka Saamna. And here are those facts:

· Indians are a lot more voyeuristic than our Western counterparts. The westerners are more individualistic, they find it relatively easy to not be bothered about what’s happening in their neighbor’s house (yet a show like “A Moment Of Truth” does well in their market). Indians have never been like that; from our neighbors to our uncles to our bosses to our bais, we are constantly on the lookout for gossips and scandals; for an insight into their world. It stems from the fact that we are a more collectivist race; hence we’ll always seem more interested in what’s happening around us, it comes naturally to people who live and thrive in groups. So it shouldn’t come as a complete surprise that Sach Ka Saamna is doing so well. It’s the ultimate form of voyeurism we can hope for: a direct window into a person’s most intimate memories. The TVRs of shows like Big Boss and even Iss Jungle….provided pointers to this trend. So in reality, the show is not divorced from but reflects a very true version of Indian culture.

· The very basis of “voyeuristic intention” is that it’s meant to be controversial and gossipy. No one’s interested in knowing what you and your husband had for lunch. But the fact that the husband has a roving eye or the wife is having an affair on the side is something that Indians (housewives and men alike) can spends days on end discussing.

· Because voyeurism is about human behavior, there can really be no censorship on that. While censorship can be forced on graphic/extreme display of emotion (although that too is uncalled for), it cannot be forced on voyeuristic intention and on a person’s individual choice to share his life with the world. At the end of the day, it’s a personal choice and there really cannot be any censorship on a person, can there?

· Finally politicians should be the last ones complaining about moral policing. They wouldn’t survive a single question on the show. Inspite of being the epitomes of voyeurism (not only do they have a roving eye, they use the info they gather to create or destroy people’s image), they find the show demeaning and against Indian culture. If anything at all, the show captures a very real facet of a typical Indian behavior.

· Politicians are worried about the fact that reality television has gotten into ordinary people’s bedrooms. They are also probably worried about the fact that issues such such as homosexuality, extra marital affairs, child abuse, etc may get discussed with amore liberty because of a show like Sach Ka Saamna. On a more selfish level, with celebs like Kambli coming on the show, the worry may be that inadequacies of the system may come out into the open. After all, guess what demons may come out of the wood work if a single politician sits on that seat…

Guess what guys, we’re all waiting for that one episode….

Welcome to the “arranged employment” market

2009-06-24T10:29:00.002+05:30

Think of a typical process of scouting for prospective partners in an arranged marriage.

You send out feelers through family and friends, or you enlist the services of a well connected “wedding expert” (usually a family relative), nowadays even that process has evolved – people put up their profiles on wedding sites.

Now think of how the job market works – if you want to change jobs, you ask friends and colleagues for contacts/info, contact a professional recruiter or consultant and if you get like really, really desperate, you post your profile on job sites. Just like in a marriage, so too in a job; the internet remains the option of last resort, a means of desperation when nothing else works. Fairly similar scouting process, isn’t it?

Step 2 – Prospective partners are identified and their profiles scanned (exactly same process in a job as well, the only thing missing here is probably the picture, but depending on the tendency of the employer, that may play a role too – especially in advertising agencies). And few lucky individuals are selected to be interviewed (parents meet, employers meet). Increasingly here too, the codes have changed simultaneously, earlier it was layered – uncles, then parents, then prospective and in an employment scenario, the HR head, then the interdepartmental interview and then the immediate boss. Nowadays pretty much both cut directly to the chase.

Step 3 – Couple of prospects are identified and then starts the “investigation”. Iske mama ke chacha ke dost se baat karte hain…are there any skeletons in the closet that can be found. Similarly, employers too look for information from the “employee’s distant professional relatives”, first boss, agency moles, etc. Usually, in both searches, they are looking for the same thing – character clarification. Boozard, womanizing issues, income, ability to get along, temper, etc….And more often than not, everything tends to come clean (in most cases). Just like in marriage so too in jobs, people are more than capable of hiding skeletons.

Step 4 – This one’s relatively new to both. Courtship period. The guy and gal get to spend some quality time together, to figure out whether they BOND..In a marriage situation, the only bonding that the guy is looking is some quick pre-marital action. The same rules apply to jobs. The employee is asked to meet people in the company over a drink to figure out if it’s his kinda place…all he’s looking for is a. how much are they willing to pay me and b. how hot are the gals here….Completely futile exercise in both cases, I must say.

Step 5 – Len Den. Simple and straightforward. Here it’s the job market that again learning from the marriage market. “Deal Sweeteners” have made their way into corporate packages. Uncles and dads offer honeymoon packages, companies offer Porsches and Jags (recent CEOs of ad agencies should know). The incentive plan’s made it to the marriage market as well. “Beta, in a year; we’ll get you a flat in Lokhandwala too” Read between the lines, you take care of my child and I’ll take care of you after a year…

Step 7 – Break aways and break offs….All done, the pasts buried, ex girlfriends told to back off, current employers told about the “I’m moving on” story; this is what’s best for you and me….again these ones work for both employees and ex’s too…

Step 6 – Sign on the dotted line…pheras….seal the deal.

Step 7 – Honeymoon and first day at job – in both cases, the “humping” begins….

Sounds familiar??

This is a story about the 2Cs and the 2Ps

2009-06-19T09:42:00.002+05:30

At a client meeting recently, we presented a fairly fresh “social movement generating” idea for a brand. We’d thought it through reasonably well – the biz and the buzz both seemed to have been covered. When we got into explaining how the idea would become a monetization engine for the brand, the CEO politely reminded us that since this was a truly BIG idea, we shouldn’t dilute it with stating monetary commitments/expectations upfront.

Cut to second presentation, this time to the sales heads of the same brand. Same idea, same presentation, yet completely different reactions. This time, we were reminded that the idea is just one that’ll bring fame to the brand but not any profits. We’d rather spend the media money on something more direct, something that drives immediate profit, blah, blah, blah and blah.

That, in today’s day, seems to be the core issue. While most companies want to embrace a truly large social cause, they still tend to look at the initiative through two different lenses, purpose and profit. We’ll either do it for the money or for the fame, not for both. To most clients, embracing a social cause almost always means having to sacrifice profit for the purpose.

The issue is that our consumers don’t think so.

Was recently speaking to a guy that passed out of IIM A last year and started his own version of an NGO. Yes, he was driven by the desire to make a change; yes, he knew he had to do it on his own and yes, he also expected to make a healthy living out of his profession. He did really believe that he could marry his purpose without having to compromise on the profit. Today’s youth are purposeful but not sages, they believe in making a difference but not at the cost of the quality of their lives.

A look at the “Bunty Syndrome” research numbers shows that. Close to 90% of youth in Tier I & II cities believe they can make a valuable difference to society and close to 86% believe that they will also be very successful in life. To today’s consumers, purpose and profit go hand in hand.

And the biggest one is that they don’t expect companies to look at the two in isolation too.

The Euro RSCG Corporate Study 2009 indicates that 77% of consumers would like to align with companies that are willing to drive a positive change to the world. Close to 80% also believe that there is nothing wrong with companies making healthy profits.

It’s time companies realized and embraced the fact that purpose can drive profit and profit can make a purpose seem more meaningful to everyone within the organization. Because in today’s business world, both are equally important.

Unfortunately, our consumers understand this but most companies don’t.

Planning - Evolving With The Times...

2009-05-26T11:03:00.002+05:30

Wrote this in a response to queries by a mag; thought i'd put it up on the blog for people to react and respond.

It’s always tough for an account planner to explain in one line what he actually does for a living. However, that dilemma is probably becoming redundant, more so in the last five years.

The way it was envisioned is that there existed a place in the business for a person who had a sharp understanding of the client’s business, a keen eye for the consumer’s view and a means of getting it through to creative. They were, in a sense, meant to be bridge between business & consumer needs and the creative interpretation.

However, with clients going to specialists, the role of a planner got marginalized. Research gets done by research agencies; business consulting by clients…hence the onus on a planner is now on the “ideas” alone. Both within and outside the agency, planners are evaluated on the power of their “ideas” rather than the rigor of their work.

Planners today are used as the “ideas” guys, the guys who’ll come up with the idea for a brief, for an event, for a pitch presentation, for a way to sell the creative to the client. Given the sharp segregation of functions, the onus of “ideas” seems to always fall on the planner’s table.

Today, that role is metamorphosing. Given the emergence of new forms of media (digital, marketing services, blog marketing, channel planning), integration has become of paramount importance to all agencies. The reality is that few actually deliver it, the reason being that the onus for that integration does not lie with any one person. That’s probably the role that planners will need to take upon in their agencies. From being just “idea generators and sellers” to being “integrators of ideas and solutions” across media.

Planners have had to think of innovations even around the execution and that’s probably a sea change in the way planners perceive their jobs. A place of pride exists for specialization within planning (channel planning, creative planners, data planners) but the reality is that a good planner can play all these roles with equal ease.

In a sense, while a planner would always be about the “why and the what”; today his/her role is also a lot more about the “how”!! Or put differently, the role is evolving from “One I 2 another I” – from being just about ideas to being about “ideas integration”

That being said, the currency of a planner, knowledge and varied influences, still remains pretty much the same, it’s just the manner in which we tend to use that has made all the difference.

Where are the courageous brands??

2009-04-20T10:21:00.001+05:30

Was watching Rocky Balboa yesterday when a random thought came to mind. The reason that half the world adores Rocky is because he always came across as unpretentiously courageous. Rocky was a man who’d stand up against opponents who most others would shudder to face off with and then go on to beat them. It was his courage and simplicity that made him such a loved character in the movies.

Within the movies space, think of some of the real classics. Lagaan, again loved for a team of underdogs that had the courage to take on the existing system. True of Chak De India, true of Remember the Titans and even true of an otherwise useless movie like Gadar. Movies show us that people love characters that demonstrate genuine “courage”. These are the characters that are immortalized, remembered across generations…

So, when was the last time we referred to a brand as courageous?

I can’t think of a single brand that I’ve worked on in the last few years that would like “courage” to be a part of their brand world (each of us can call that different names). We like to be customer friendly, idealistic, warm, blah, blah, blah but not courageous.

Yet, every single brand desires and wishes to command respect from its customers?

Think about some of the people that we respect. The jawans/soldiers who keep the terrorists out every night, cricketers like Dhoni who’ve had the courage to push for their own will in order to drive a larger Indian dream, movie characters like Rocky and people around us who we know have had the courage to fight the system and make a difference…

The reason why the TOI Lead India ad connected with people is because a little kid had the courage to do what others couldn’t: remove a simple obstruction from the road, one that his small frame could never possibly move. Yet, he tried….showed the courage….and managed to move the tree.

So clearly, even our customers respect individuals who demonstrate courage…

Yet brands want to be respected and yet, they don’t want to demonstrate courage…Sounds funny, doesn’t it??

The only plausible reason that could exist is that most brands don’t want to “walk the talk”. Courage demands an action, and usually an action that takes on an establishment. Hence, to demonstrate courage requires

1. Conviction for a belief that you may have (Aamir Khan was convinced that the Lagaan levied on him was incorrect in Lagaan and hence would go to any extent possible to reverse it, our soldiers are convinced that the country’s security comes ahead of their lives)

2. Action – The physical act of taking on people/individuals who are in opposition to your belief/cause and come out on tops.

In today’s world, most brands want to be dynamic/ fluid and at best “mediums” that drive change. They want to be catalysts rather than initiators or leaders of change. Belief systems in brands are also fluid, we know what we will not stand for but we are not really sure what we will stand for. And even if we do know, we will do precious little to hold forth on our stand.

Brands like Idea and Tata Tea do have a conviction. In the case of “Idea”, the conviction of equality is a noble one. But will it do something to ensure that the “caste reservations” will be eradicated. Will it ensure that “female infanticide” will not exist in the world over the next 10 years? Will it make a firm statement against Raj Thackeray for trying to create a “communal divide” in Mumbai?

That’s the difference between a brand with good intent and a courageous brand. Unfortunately, there are many with intent and very, very few with courage.

The Emergence Of Election Markitecting In Indian Politics

2009-02-05T12:00:00.002+05:30

Barack Obama’s election campaign is probably the best marketing campaign for a “personality brand” (some may say it’s the best marketing campaign for any brand or product ever but there will be many people arguing against that, so we’ll let that rest for a bit).

By the end of it, “Change” reverberated through the length and breadth of America and brand Obama could do no wrong. All thanks to a marketing campaign centered around the theme of optimism which no American could have possibly missed.

Indian political campaigns have never really been campaigns in the true sense of the word. While television and print commercials pass off as campaigns; the impact is quite limited primarily because the reach is very, very restrictive and communication cold (no personal interaction, no vested propaganda). To that extent; they were never engineered or architected as political campaigns. The attempt at “architect an election marketing campaign” (read markitecting) was never there.

However, that seems to be changing in the elections for 2009. A semblance of a structured election campaign seems to be coming out of the BJP ranks. And the similarities with the “Brand Obama” campaign seem to be quite stark. BJP is making a serious attempt at markitecting a campaign aimed to position LK Advani as the leader of change and progress.

Given that NDA declared Advani as their Prime Ministerial candidate well in advance has allowed them the opportunity to tackle all the issues that brand LK Advani may face in a structured manner well in advance.

It all began at the HT Leadership Summit with Mr. L K Advani sharing his views about secularism and corruption in the country. Given his well documented stand on “Ram Rajya”; the view he put forth on secularism was his first step in ensuring that he is seen as the leader of a country and not of Hinduism in the country.

The book authored by him “My country, My Life” also launched at an opportune time, an attempt of bringing the “urban eclectics” closer to LK Advani. The attempt was at projecting a leader who was secular, intellectual and a strong leader with strong views.

Next up was the issue of tackling the “82 year old man leading a young India”. To put forth the fact that he is in tune with and comfortable with the fads of the new generation, www.lkadvani.in was launched. A blog site where Mr. L K Advani attempted to speak his mind and connect with a young, talkative India while proving that he’s a leader “young at heart, if not young in age”

Many may say that these seem to be just coincidences. But the way I look at it; there were some tick marks that Obama covered in his political campaign. And they hold true for “Brand Advani” too.

Book, tick. Blog, tick. Talk to the intellects and the opinion makers, tick.

And chances are by the time we reach April 2009; there will be a lot more tick marks on that “election campaign marketing” sheet that Obama had and which is being followed by the Advani marketing think tank.

Attention deficiency Syndrome

2009-01-11T10:51:00.000+05:30

I am just going to get out there and say it. I suffer from what I think is a case “Attention Deficiency Syndrome”. I find it tough to hold onto a thought/single chain of thoughts for too long (it’s usually less than a few seconds). Hence, I keep fleeting across topics and most people who know me well find me moving from one topic of conversation to another very quickly (most times, others are still discussing or responding to the earlier query when I move onto another topic, a habit which Nishita and my close friends cannot stand).

The only real time that I make a concerted attempt at staying with a line of thought is when I am at work; and most importantly when I am working on pitches and presentations (that too is usually aided by a document I write). But the point is not to be labor my own problems but to make what I think is a related point.

I think this “attention deficiency syndrome” has helped me quite a bit because my ability to react to my own emotions is also quite short. Hence some of the most disheartening incidents in my life (dad’s death, grandpa’s accident, development of a physical distance from my closest friends), I have managed to put behind me in a much quicker time frame than I thought it would take me.

Till now I thought I was the only one twisted. But post observing reactions of people post 26/11; I think it’s a problem that a lot of people suffer from:

· Our politicians seem to have forgotten 26/11 already and their cowardly acts of diplomacy and toeing the line indicate that they’d rather look ahead to the elections and Obama’s reinstatement rather than “belling the cat” and turning some serious heat on Pakistan

· Each one of us has done our ceremonial acts of “protest marches” and voicing opinions on the “Speak Up” section and moved on with life. Even voter registrations have not increased substantially on the “Jaago Re” site so clearly even individual votes are not been valued to make a difference. 26/11 is off our “action radar” clearly

· As always, economic issues have made it right up there on our new print and television screen. Our media personnel have diverted their lens and their pens towards monitoring the markets and the sensex again putting “Mumbai burning” firmly on the ceremonial backburner.

I’ve hence reached a conclusion that I’m not alone; that “attention deficiency syndrome” is more a societal issue than an individual one. It’s this ADS that allows us to be resilient, partly insensitive and gives us the ability to move ahead.

Just that I think, every once in a while, it may not not necessarily be such a good thing.

Believe...

2008-12-29T21:22:00.002+05:30

Just last week, I was playing our weekly cricket match. We were in a really hopeless situation – it read 33/7. And for the first time in the entire tournament, I had finally discovered some form. It felt like it was my day; I was able to shield my partner, get a boundary and also managed a single off the last ball to keep strike. I genuinely felt that I’d bat out the 20 overs.

And then, I made the fatal error…I went after an absolute sitter and holed out on the boundary. With that, it was all over, my innings, our innings, our match….

While I walked back to the pavilion, I thought to myself; this just sounded like my 2008 to me. My mind rushed back to the beginning of 2008:

_ We’re doing well at work; we seemed optimistic to get our targets. And suddenly towards the end of the year, we’ve really had to sweat it out.

_ In the beginning of 2008, I was feeling on the top of my health. By the end, I was struggling with a nagging back problem; one that seriously hampers my regular movements

_ January 2008, all of my closest friends were around me. December 2008, there are just a handful left behind in Mumbai.

_ January 2008; I was completely confident of my own abilities to do my job well. December 2008; I am not sure of whether I need to make some radical changes.

_ January 2008; I was happy being a Mumbai-ite. December 2008; I am a scared and frustrated Mumbai-ite.

Clearly, things did not pan out the way we had planned out and it hurts even more so because we began 2008 in a position of strength. What applies to me probably applies to a lot of things that have changed around us; the economy, our city, social environment, etc. The drop has been so phenomenal that it has sapped our confidence and belief in being able to survive what seems to be a shaky 2009.

But the cricket match taught me the answer to it all…We walked onto the field for the next match and said to each other; we BELIEVE we can win this one and we’ll fight every inch of the way for the victory.

And that’s my only resolution for 2009 – I am going to BELIEVE

Believe in my ability to make a difference to my work this year. Believe in my ability and that of my city to make a change for the better. Believe in my intent to bring my health back on track. Believe in my ability to make a new set of “close” friends. Believe in my own efforts and those who are with me to put in their best as well.

Belief, I believe it works and in 2009, we’re all going to test it.

As for the match; our belief took us quite far; we didn’t quite make it but we got really, really close….BELIEVE…

Jerry Maguire & The Recession

2008-12-11T09:16:00.002+05:30

It’s been one of those years. One of those where everything you do does not quite seem to come off the way you expected it to. Akin to the global recession, it’s been a little bit of an “individual recession” as well. The kind of year that you’d just like to see the end of, quickly.

But yesterday night, I felt a lot, lot more optimistic. Thank you Jerry Maguire. In many ways, this movie tells you how to deal with recession, both personal and professional. Think about it, here’s a guy who has to leave his job on a whim, he goes from being a professional superstar to have to scrounge for pennies, his hot girlfriend of years leaves him and he’s left with just one client and even that client’s not really hot property.

The same situation can apply to a lot of advertising agencies as well (in fact, any business). From billion dollar targets, companies are down to the millions and the lakhs, a lot of our clients are asking to cut down spends/leave us (girlfriends leaving) and the clients we are left with too don’t feel like they’re top draw anymore.

That’s where Jerry Maguire’s lessons kick in. I’m going to put some of them out here, the ones that made perfect sense to me.

1. Help me help you – Something Jerry said to Rod Tidwell (his client). In times of recession, I guess that’s the language a lot of our clients may understand. Sure, they’ll want to save on marketing spends but partnering them through tough times will help us feel the sunshine when it comes. Something Jerry Maguire did.

2. If this (points to the heart) is empty, this (points to the head) does not matter: Same point, I guess but just more emphatic. Be sensitive to your client’s issues as well. They’ll respect you more for it than for your anxiety.

3. Hey... I don't have all the answers. In life, to be honest, I have failed as much as I have succeeded. But I love my wife. I love my life. And I wish you my kind of success: Of course we don’t have all the answers but its important for our clients to know, especially in these tough times, that it’s their interests that matter to us. We don’t have a magic wand but we do have all the bloody effort that’s there in the world

4. That’s how you become great man, hang your balls out there: Has always worked (Bill Gates, Ambanis, Mittals, …) and probably does even more when you’re fighting from the down. Because from there, almost every second option looks like a risk. Jerry said so, again.

5. Bet on me dude, like I bet on you: Good times, you ask for the money; hard times, you ask for the trust. It works both ways, I guess.

6. That’s not a dress, that’s an Audrey Hepburn movie AND You…complete me: Nothing about clients and recession but this should get you a smile from women on any given day

Life seems such a lot simpler once you’ve seen a Jerry Maguire. May be there is stuff to learn for some and may be there is not but at the end of the day, it’s one helluva of a god damn great movie. Like the movie says “It had me at hello”

The “I have never…” game

2008-12-08T09:18:00.001+05:30

At an office party this Friday (December 5, 2008), everyone decided to play the “I have never…….” Game. The way it works is that each person mentions an “I have never __________” moment of their life and if the others have, then they take a sip of their drink. Fairly simple but a lot of fun. If everyone play the game seriously, some real interesting things about people can come out. Given the fact that I was buzzing quite a bit, a lot of my so called secrets did get out into the open.

But it did get me thinking, thinking about the fact that we drift on life without trying a lot of things. Things you’d have wanted to do in a lifetime but never have thought about it. Other people’s “I have nevers….” become a goal/cause for envy for many others. It’ll be worth wondering whether there are some of those interesting things in life that you have always wanted to do but never really thought of.

The bucket list but one that hasn’t made it to the mind yet.

So I thought I’d begin by penning down my “I have never…” list that I must achieve before I make the journey heavenwards:

1. I have never done a wheelie

2. I have never finished a book in a day

3. I have never directed a film or even written one

4. I have never made a crore in a year

5. I have never made it to the front page of a newspaper

6. I have never stolen/shop lifted

7. I have never bungee jumped/air glided

8. I have never attended a film premiere

9. I have never bunked office just for the heck of it

10. I have never managed to strike up a conversation with a fellow passenger (stranger) during an air or train journey

11. I have never invested in the stock market

12. I’ve never taken off on a journey just by pure instinct

13. I have never done a “spa trip” in the Himalayas

14. I’ve never done a “3 pointer on the whistle” or a “last ball boundary” (not literally but in the figurative sense)

15. I’ve never planned for more than 5 years (it’s time I did)

16. I’ve never really figured out what I really want to do in life (am sure not many have – read “Keep Off The Grass”, you’ll believe me)

Yeah, that’s my bucket list in a sense. Hopefully, I’ll have achieved most of these by the time I’m done.

Let’s find our “OWN” Heroes

2008-12-04T11:50:00.003+05:30

I’ve spent all of the last week venting venom through dialogue and blogs on our politicians, the security inadequacies of our country and Pakistan as well. I am quite happy about the fact that this one time, the agitation hasn’t died down. We’ve actually managed to get the government to take immediate measures that in our country would usually take a couple of terms to implement.

But I do think that we as citizens cannot palm off the blame entirely to others. There are things we can do and changes we make within ourselves to ensure that 26/11 never gets repeated. I know some of the things that I am going to do so that I can avoid the one phase of my life that I never want to re visit again:

1. I have never voted in my life; I don’t even have a voter card. But I will vote in 2009 and every election henceforth. We can’t blame our leaders if we haven’t carried out our moral responsibility to elect the correct candidate. The educated class of the country now have a responsibility to ensure that their “less influenced and more analytical” judgement of candidates be put to good use. And each one of us should ensure we use that judgement to get the right people into parliament.

2. I won’t let potential embarrassment come in the way of questioning fellow passengers in my train compartment about an unidentified object I notice. Conversely, I won’t feel assaulted if someone questions me about my belongings as well. Very often, we notice things in trains and buses that seem out of place but we let it pass because it may cause unnecessary altercations or put us in bad light. Not anymore, we must all understand that questioning things is a necessity, especially in public places.

3. I won’t crib or get angry at the long queues outside the security counters at airports; I won’t lose my temper at the security guard outside cinemas for taking too much time. They’re trying to a job that’s more important anyday than the loss of a couple of minutes.

4. I will do all I can to ensure that the “crown jewels of Mumbai” are restored. I’ll buy as many shares I can of these companies, I’ll have a drink at Leopold and I will continue watching movies at Metro. I’ll travel like I used to from CST to Vashi (RDX or no RDX).

5. I will henceforth participate in every fire and safety drill that the government, police or even my own office complex authorities conduct. Terror comes without a warning which makes personal safety measures all the more important.

6. I won’t lose hope.

Let’s not look for heroes and role models. Like they say in cricket, individual brilliance can make a difference once in a while. It’s team effort that ensures consistent victories. If we believe that safety and crisis management are as much our problem as it is our government’s, then we will all do our own little gestures to make our world a safer place.

Let’s be the team that ensures 26/11 doesn’t happen again. Let’s be our own heroes.

Some Responses For Some Of Our Politicians

2008-12-03T17:24:00.001+05:30

The politicians of this country are making a strong case for depoliticizing the business of politics itself. Some of the statements they’ve made in the last few days are downright appalling. I’d just like to provide a common man’s response to their comments:

1. “Protestors” as terrorists – During difficult times like these, people are waging a war against democracy, instead of waging a war against terrorism; women wearing lipstick and powder – Abbas Naqvi

a. I wish the lipstick and powder were on you. Mighty glorious of you to stay put inside the confines of your house during the three days of terror and now make moralistic statements. Such is your situation, that even if you wanted to, neither do you have the capability or the power to do anything, not that you have the ability to as well. So just do yourself a favor, keep your trap shut and hope that this comment of yours hasn’t eroded your vote bank. Er, one last thing – who exactly are you and what have you done in the political world for me to know you?

2. Had it not been for Sandeep, not even a dog would have visited his house – C Achutanandan

a. You are an apt example of a typical politician in India, putting one’s own ego and political agendas ahead of your wards even in times of distress. Hopefully, the backlash against your remarks are so strong that you will not need to make such “ego hassling” visits again; hopefully Kerala will have a more mature CM by then.

3. Narendra Modi’s unannounced visit to Mumbai and Hemant Karkare’s home:

a. Mr. Modi, there are definitely better ways you can think of of staking your claim to the PM’s post. Visiting people in their times of distress (Karkare) and visiting a city in the grips to terror are definitely not smart ways of exercising your agenda. I never respected you after the Godhra Kand but recognized your contribution to Gujarat as a state, something that told me you were an autocratic person but one with the state’s interest in mind. Now I know that was a mere illusion.

We’ve seen really, really bad politicians, ones that slept (Gowda, Deshmukh), ones that in any other country would have been hardened criminals (Mulayam) and ones that push personal agendas through case politics (everyone). But this has been an all time low.

Till now we were a country that was progressing inspite of a corrupt and inept politburo. Today we’re a country whose very existence is at stake because of a corrupt, lethargic and inefficient politburo. And we’re the most desirable form of governance, a democracy? Pity!!

Make The Change By Making Up Our Minds

2008-11-29T14:15:00.001+05:30

“It’s over. The terror has been averted”

“The stranglehold of the terrorists on our great city has been released”

“NSG – Our new found heroes”

Over the next few days, these are the kind of stories we’ll be seeing beaming out of the newspapers. We’ll follow a similar pattern – we’ll forget 26/11 and be reminded of it only on 26/11 next year; we’ll find a new hero to worship (NSG, some cricketer cracking a century, a fiery politician making a vehement speech, a corporate honcho who’ll ring a bell at Wall Street); we’ll forgive our politicians and turn up in hordes to vote in June 2009.

Because in India, there are no ghosts!! There are no ghosts that remind us of our past, no ghosts that keep staring us in our face reminding us of our scariest nightmare, no ghosts that make us want to face our fears.

We’re happy pointing fingers at Pakistan, cribbing about our politicians and corrupt system, being indifferent to terrorist attacks and moving on with life like nothing ever happened.

Tell you what – we can keep living like this. We can fool ourselves by saying that it’s all done and dusted, no one is going to get to us again. But the harsh reality is that we’ve now just been introduced to the effective of extremist terrorism. We’ve been told that whether its our trains, our hotels, our stations, our homes or our airports; we can be hurt and gagged anytime we want. Our most basic right of existence is under threat and yet, we choose to ignore it and move on with our lives.

We can make the change to stop this if we want to. As much as I hate to say this; our 9/11 has now happened and we must exercise the same message that Obama is preaching to America – change.

But change in our case needs to begin with a change in our perspective. A few changes we must internalize to deal with our situation are:

1. Pakistan cannot be a diversion everytime for our own inadequacies: Yes, we’ll discover the ISI’s involvement in 26/11. Yes, the government will promise and probably take some firm action. Yes, we’ll all concentrate our emotional energies on Pakistan’s downfall. And yes, we will thus be looking in wrong direction. Terrorism has no religion or nationality; so it’s not about who attacked us but about whether we were adequately ready. And the answer to that is big NO. We must demand the government to provide for and prepare for a war against terrorism and NOT for a war against Pakistan alone

2. Political Leadership must stand up during tough times not just during political jousting: So who was the leader of our 3 day operation against the terrorists? Not the CM, he showed up only after Oberoi was in control. Not the PM, his speech proved that a. he had no plan b. he had no mettle to deal with terrorist threats (he’s a great economist but probably not a good leader). Not Raj Thackeray, for all his rabble rousing about Mumbai, there wasn’t a whimper from him in the last two days. Not Narendra Modi, he was too bust making the issue a targeted attack against the government? Who was making the tough calls? As is apparent from the interviews of the NSG and army officials, there wasn’t a single political leader adding value to the entire operation. We haven’t voted in a single leader in the current system who has the mettle and the attitude of being one. And that is a decision we need to take blame for. In June 2009, we must make our vote count by selecting a leader with the intent of making the change and taking the charge; not just one capable of swaying public opinion by caste politics and oratory skills.

3. Media is not about entertainment alone; its responsibility towards society must be demanded: India TV covered the terrorists attacks like it covers a “baba walking on water”; looking for sensationalism at the cost of responsible reporting. That’s true of all the Hindi and some English news channels as well (Times Now & CNN IBN were exceptions). Sensationalizing speculation during such times amounts to being an alibi in a possible death/murder because the panic that such news causes is quite unimaginable. And the consequences even more so. Yet, India TV has the highest TVRs amongst news channels. As long as we don’t make the distinction between news and entertainment, such irresponsible channels will keep thriving. We must encourage responsible media reporting by subscribing to it, not by dismissing it as too “newsy”. The media of the country is its eyes and ears to the world and its surroundings. Hence it’s our job to ensure that the media is responsible.

4. Our Hard Earned Money Requires Greater Accountability: Do we want the taxes we pay to fund the convoys of our politicians or the weapons that our policemen ought to use? I rest my case

I agree each of these need to be acted upon. I also agree what needs to be done to accomplish some of these does not come easily or quickly. It may take a few years but it will happen if we push for them. And it won’t if we do what we normally do, forget about it and move on!!

Let The “Mumbai Spirit” Rest For A Bit

2008-11-28T10:44:00.002+05:30

I don’t know what to write. Any word that I can think of seems too small and inconsequential in the wake of what Mumbai has seen over the last two days. When it all began, there were many thoughts: few of which were

1. I hope no one I know is anywhere in South Mumbai

2. It could well have been me – the evening show at Metro Cinemas leaves around the same time the shootout took place

3. I don’t know whether I’ll ever get into a train again – after all, that’s probably the time I get into one – it could well have been me or Nishita or someone I know

4. Hopefully, everyone at the EFFIES reached home safely

5. WHY? WHY? Why Mumbai ? Why us? Why Taj? Why Oberoi? Why today? Why at all?

Unfortunately for us, that WHY has an answer. Over the next few days, people will find innumerable ways of saying it and denying it. But the blunt answer is –

Mumbai is a soft yet attractive target for terrorists to make bold statements because we are inequipped to handle/defend against any terrorist attack.

We have an internal defence mechanism that’s reactive and not pro active. Security is offered only in wake of terror and threat and is absent otherwise

From a terrorist’s perspective, it all seems rosy. The security measures are abysmal – anyone can walk in and out of heavily crowded public areas with tones of ammo and there will be no one to stop them. They can also walk into areas where the national and corporate leadership wine and dine on a daily basis and hold them hostage for hours. Foreign tourists and expats are sitting ducks – they can walk right into their room with a gun and grenade in hand and not a single security person will even notice. Mumbai is a media hub; journos are willing to cover anyone with a view on anything; hence a terrorist attack here will make headlines across the world and also manage to get a window into every person’s house. It is a “tax haven” equivalent for terrorist organizations looking for demonstration and recognition of their might.

It is clear that we don’t have a mechanism in place to check any form of terrorism. Pardon my language but no fuckin bastard should have the right to cross over into my country with a revolver, let alone a ton of ammunition, unless he has a bloody good reason for it. No arsehole has the right or the access to places which are of political and national importance to us.

Yet they managed to enter my country with tons of ammo. Yet, they managed to enter Taj and Oberoi unrestricted with ammunition enough to last them a few days. Yet, they managed to hold my city ransom for more than 48 hours.

And yet, today morning, we’re all at work giving our politicians a reason to wave the “Mumbai Spirit” card in our faces again. Mumbai will rise and walk again like nothing ever happened and that makes us proud – will say many politicians. But the reality is SOMETHING DID HAPPEN and will keep happening till we do something about it. We demand accountability, we demand better security against terror, we demand our leaders to value our lives a little more than they do, we demand that our law enforcers have the weapons that allow them to stand a chance against the terrorists (our policemen were using rifles against AK 57s – how’s that for protection)

I say we use the “Mumbai Spirit” to not show our resilience but to show that we care – we care for our lives and the normalcy of it, we care for the fact that it could have been us, we care about the people and cops who took the bullets for us, we care for the people who died for no reason at the Taj and Oberoi.

We care.

And its about time our leaders did too.

Fringe's the new entertainment wave

2008-07-18T09:04:00.001+05:30

Just seemed like yesterday; Indian Idol got a TVR of 15 odd, Kyunki… and its earstwhile twins (only the nos were more than two) could manage to garner TVRs of close to 8 – 9. Well; however recent that phenomenon may seem; the reality is that phase of the “middle of the road entertainment” is over.

And that’s really what it is. A few tears here, a couple of loud performances there, a couple of timely time lapses mixed with a few deaths and reincarnations to boot. The typical “masala potboiler” – an art that did phenomenally well even on the big screen through the 80’s and the 90’s. But even in Bollywood, that phase ended close to a decade and a half back. The genre of “masala potboilers” found its substitute on the smaller cousin of entertainment and managed to hold fort for a significant period of time. Even reality shows tended to be orchestrated to provide the twists and dramas that would make an entire family viewing unit happy. But over the last two years, the genre of “saas bahu” serials and “dance/sing/act” competitions have seen a dip. We’re now seeing a phase where “reality” in the true sense of the word is back and by the looks of it, its here to stay.

Analyzing the TVRs shows a pattern. The most successful reality shows in the recent past have been “Fear Factor” and “Big Brother”. Fear Factor opened at 4.37 and Big Brother on 3.5 respectively and both shows managed to consistently maintain their TVRs through their tenure on television. Reality found new meaning in these two shows. The audiences were exposed to “real stunts and real relationships” on view as against orchestrated and practiced dance moves and songs. From a Rajshri school of film-making; the programming had moved to a more “Madhur Bhandarkar” school; of film making and the audiences seemed to love it.

The other recent trend that has dominated the tele tube has been the return of the mythologicals. Ramayan did for NDTV Imagine what “Dhoom Macha De” and Mission Ustaad couldn’t for 9X. It managed to break the monopoly of a Zee TV/Star Plus in a prime time slot and in effect propelled the channel to a no. 3 contender position. Its success has initiated a heavy investment of all major GEC channels into creating prime time “mythological” properties and from the initial reactions to 9X’s Mahabharat, the move to mythology may well prove to be a wise one for many GEC channels.

So, the rise of mythology on one end and “hardcore reality” on the other has led to a gradual movement away from the “habitual masala entertainment”. The formulae that worked wonders for close to a decade are now no longer cutting ice with the core GEC consumer. Something’s changing and a lot of us are left scratching our heads wondering what’s really changed. I’m not sure that I know some or any of the answers but here’s my attempt:

The “grey’s” kicking in: Bollywood’s seen a shift towards the “grey”. Characters like Saif’s in Omkara and SRK’s in Kabhie Alvida Na Kehna have been well received and accepted. Audiences are alright with the fact that a hero can actually end up on the losing end in a movie (Johnny Gaddar). And most importantly, we’ve accepted the fact that you can be manipulative in order to achieve your goals (Race, Guru). Television content, on the other hand, has been extremely comfortable painting shades of black and whites in their characters. If there’s a manipulative bahu in the house, she’s got to be the meanie. If a judge is overtly critical on air with a contestant (Anu Malik); he must be marketed as the quintessential bad guy. If there’s a bunch of people living under the same roof, they must belong to one faction or another.

And that’s exactly what the more successful recent shows are not shy of showing. None of the participants on Big Brother were saccharine sweet; they all had their fallacies and we loved them for it. The main protagonists of Ramayan and Mahabharat literally typify “grey” and Indian audiences are more than happy to see that. Fear Factor thrives on the fact that there’ll most contestants who won’t have the ability to perform and that’s what audiences like to see – it’s the failures that get the eyeballs not the winners alone.

Zoom In, Zoom Out:

An analysis of the audiences’ time spent on prime time (GEC) indicates that a plateauing of the growth in the last three years. The amount of time spent by the audiences has not seen an increase. An analysis of the overall time spent on all channels indicates that the audiences are moving to genres like news, sports and leisure. An analysis of the time spent on prime time in the US market indicates a steady decline for the last 10 years. These facts indicate that although the overall time spent on television has not reduced, the amount of time being spent on the “appointment viewing” properties is on the wane.

Increasingly audiences are finding it tough to watch serials that need to be followed over a period of 100 shows. The involvement levels of the consumers is reducing (increase in time spent on the other forms of entertainment – eating out, chatting, walking, reading – each one has shown an increase in the latest “Leisure & Entertainment Report”). Shows like Kyunki… and Kahaani….cannot be enjoyed by the new “28 year old housewife” anymore. Also, the song and dance reality shows usually base their novelty around celebrity contestants and coming in cold doesn’t help breed the familiarity one needs to become a loyalist. Fear Factor, on the other hand, allowed audiences to come in whenever they wanted; watch a stunt or two and go away. The familiarity with mythologicals also allows for “zip in, zip out” since we don’t necessarily have to follow the show to enjoy what’s happening in show no. 36. The world’s moving from “appointment viewing” to “instant rejuvenation” and the shows that deliver against it are bound to succeed in the future.

Here’s the bottomline: Keep it “REAL” and keep it “QUICK” and the GEC audiences will treat you just fine !!

Some Moments.....

2008-06-25T08:48:00.004+05:30

There are times in life and believe me, for most people, there are very few of these; when you genuinely feel proud about being born in your country. Given that we Indians are an emotional lot; these moments may be a few more than say our American compatriots (for them nationality and pride rarely go hand in hand; their favorite game is one they play amongst themselves; their most memorable movies deal with issues like superheroes; oil crisis etc) but even then we have very few of those moments where the emotion of patriotism overtakes our sensibilities. But 25 years back; there was one; one that even after so many years makes every Indian proud; makes me want to stand up in the theatre today and wholeheartedly sing the National Anthem - the 1983 Cricket World Cup Victory.

A lot of countries that have faced strife to earn an identity or have faced internal crises within the last century tend to value their own identity much more than the developed countries. For these countries, even a relatively small incident of world domination is a reason enough to celebrate. That's because it allows us as individuals sub consciously to believe that there's hope for us, a hope that someday very soon we'll be able to match the world in all frontiers. And it gives them a reason to believe that they can now stand shoulder to shoulder with their foreign compatriots.

And that's exactly what that 1983 world cup win did. A perfectly scripted fairy tale story; we rose from the ashes (literally from an 5 - 18 against Zim.) to go on and beat the Goliaths of the cricketing world. That one single moment when Mohinder Amarnath got Michael Holding's wickets and the Indian team went ballistic made it for us as Indians. It gave us our moment in the limelight; probably our first when we could proudly say we were Indian and felt not one bit of remorse about the fact. For a country that was still putting its building blocks in place and trying to find a consistent way of making development work; this one victory over the world did a phenomenal lot for its confidence beyond just its sporting implications.

Today, close to 60% of the people living in this country have no memory associated with that day because they weren't even born. Today, we live in a period where India is the world's next big white hope and where we're increasingly the dominators and not the suppressed. Today confidence is not an issue and "being Indian" is fashionable. But let's take a moment today and celebrate the occasion that, in a sense, was the first real show of domination in a period where confidence in our abilities and being Indian were both issues. Let's celebrate the moment when for that one day; we stood above the world and felt like kings. Let's celebrate the 1983 World Cup win.

The Era Of Sports Entertainment

2008-05-27T14:29:00.000+05:30

World Wrestling Federation started it. A modest, uninteresting sport like wrestling with an extremely limited reach and practically no saleability was suddenly made into an extremely entertaining, albeit fake sport by adding huge (read HUGE) dollops of glamour, drama, celebrity value and a structured delivery of edge of the seat entertainment to it. It did many things for wrestling itself; took it from being a “basement” game worshipped and followed by a handful of people to being a global media property (don’t we all remember being hooked onto it for sometime??). More importantly, it allowed for the sport to be an extremely lucrative medium for advertisers (Gillette’s been an advertiser on it globally for many years now; sports like American football and Boxing frequently ride on “customized” events in WWE to extend reach of their own sport). In short, a sport called wrestling became sports entertainment and thus managed to bridge many barriers.

And that’s precisely what’s happening to cricket through the IPL. From being a game played within 12 countries and watched by only about 1/6th of the world’s population; the game has re-invented itself through Twenty20 to become a lot more acceptable to a large mass. Think about it, which other sport in the world that’s widely watched requires an attention span of either one or five days? Baskteball – 90 minutes, Football, Soccer – 90 minutes, American football – 3 hours at the max, Tennis – again 3 hours at a max. Clearly, cricket in it current form could not have extended its reach. It needed to be capsuled, reduced so that people used to watching games for a few hours after a hard day of work could enjoy it.

That’s probably also why GEC channels have ruled the roost for so long in India. In most countries outside of India, key sports events are telecast live everyday at prime time (case in question – NBA, American Football, Rugby, English Premier League and even boxing for that matter); any sport that the nation wants to watch is served piping hot on a regular enough basis at prime time. And its not like these are one off things; these sports events are typically spread over a period of 4 – 6 months with a telecast everyday. Its only in India that sports in a “capsule driven, entertainment focused, regular enough” form has stayed away from our television sets.

And now IPL has changed that. It now offers the larger mass of India “entertainment” at prime time. And that’s pretty much what it is. A generous sprinkling of celebrities, enough melodrama on the field (“Slapgate”, an animated Tendulkar) and nail biting finish every second match. Sounds so much like WWE. For all the loyalists of WWE, what’s the few things that attract us to the game (other than the hot women on display and men beating each other up). ? It’s the heightened rivalry between two individuals or teams, the controversies that surround every match, an almost guaranteed nail biting finish to important matches and the loyalty that we have for our favorite stars…. Sounds quite similar to why we watch the IPL doesn’t it (just like wrestling’s a given in WWE, cricket’s a given in IPL, so that don’t count).

As much as purists will cringe at the mention of this fact; the reality is that the days of the sport called cricket are now over. It’s the era of “cricket entertainment” that’s upon us. As much as we keep saying that tests will remain the strongest test of a cricketer’s character, in days to come, we may see fewer tests being played than usual. The game needs T20 and the IPL to become famous so that it can grow its revenues by becoming attractive to audiences outside of the cricket playing nations. The advertisers need T20 because the eyeballs are more and also more focused. The players need the IPL because barring 10% of the current players (mostly Indians), most others cannot make a livelihood out of cricket; something that IPL allows them to do. That’s why the Australians have put their foot down and said that next year, they’ll prioritize the IPL over national duties.

So, will India vs. Australia and India vs. Pakistan remain the world’s most sought after rivalry in 5 years from now? Probably not, it may probably be Mumbai Indians vs. Melbourne Mavericks. The loyalties may shift from countries to clubs. Or just like the WWE, where two leagues (RAW and Smackdown) operate independently with their own roster of players but meet at every main event to judge who’s the better league, we may have our own league rivalries (IPL vs. ICL). Just like Wrestlemania is the annual battleground between the two leagues, the Criket World Cup will be a battle between the cricket leagues too.

Who knows what the possibilities are. But one thing’s for sure, “cricket entertainment”; here we come!!

Another gladiator puts down his armor!!

2008-01-28T11:46:00.000+05:30

From as far back in life as I can remember, I’ve been an avid follower of cricket. So I’ve vivid memories of Kiran More walking in at no. 8 and our expectations of him to score a 30 or 40. But that’s about it. We never expected our wicket keeper to do too much with the bat. As long as he played the role of the unsung hero (that’s pretty much what keepers were in those days) well enough, we’d be more than happy. And then came Adam Gilchrist!!

Adam Gilchrist is cricket’s greatest ambassador, period!! The man re-defined the role of an all rounder, he single handedly created the concept of the wicket keeper all rounder; he embodied the values of a gentleman in cricket; he knicked, he walked irrespective of the situation (2003 World Cup semi finals comes to mind) and finally he made cricket exciting. Here was a man who never really understood the meaning of the word: graft; yet he walked in innumerable times at No. 7 and changed the course of match in a matter of hours.

Post the Sydney Test, all the respect I had for the Austrialians was lost. I believed and still do that they are able cricketers but ill-spirited sportsmen. (Ricky Ponting, may you rot in hell, you liar). But even amongst all this, there was one man who stood tall and that was Adam Gilchrist. On his interview with Harsha Bhogle (Harsha Unplugged), the man answered rather uncomfortable questions with a straight face. He made no bones about pointing out what was right and what was wrong. He did not come across as righteous, he came across as human (the honesty with which he spoke about the Dravid dismissal was amazing).

Australia have lost many stalwarts in 2007 (McGrath, Wane, Langer) but this one will probably hurt them the most. More importantly, world cricket will probably never find another Adam Gilchrist ever again. Sunil Gavaskar was right: very few people get the kind of ovation (from crowds and opponents alike) Gilly got when he walked out to bat yesterday; because there are very few people like him to have ever played the game.

We’ll miss you, Gilly. The game will go on but cricket will never be the same again!!

X Box Our Life

2007-11-23T16:28:00.000+05:30

I’ve recently figured through my travails on Facebook that I’m a “missionary” position, white colour and “ecstasy” drug not to mention the fact that I’m a “Cosmopolitan” when it comes to drinks. I must admit that indulging in these exercises of “self realization” in the middle of a working day can be quite entertaining. Follow it up with a couple of games on http://www.stickcricket.com/ and we’re set to face the second half with renewed vigour.

Games have traditionally been a breeding ground for alter egos to be developed and nurtured. Kids in India grow up playing games: Lukka Chhuppi; Ghar, Ghar; etc. Each of these games allowed us to play roles and be characters that we aspired to. From a very young age, we’ve been habituated to fostering alter egos. The new age games allow on X Box and on Facebook allow us to re-fabricate that alter ego of ours and therein lies the success of these factions in the country.

However, only 39 million people in India have the access and hence the luxury to indulge themselves in the “alter egoisation” of their personalities. Add another million odd people who’d exclusively own X Boxes, PSPs, etc and we have a round figure of 40 odd million. So, barring these people, the rest of the country leads singular one dimensional lives with no vent for their constructed psychological superheroes. Correct??

Wrong!! The confluence of mobile interactivity coupled with reality television has allowed a large percentage of Indians to indulge themselves. Shows like Nach Baliye, KBC, Indian Idols, Sa Re Ga Ma, Jhoom India allow us to find manifestations of our personality in the participants. To us, these celebrities embody the perfect “alter ego”, a person we think has some qualities that we possess but leads a life we always wish we do. Hence, we make our favorites on these shows and back them through thick and think. Mobiles on the other hand act as our “new age” joysticks. By voting in and saving/deleting a participant, we allow ourselves to believe that we’re a physical part of the game show. Hence, reality television today has become the common man’s X Box.

Well, in days to come, may be X Boxes and PSPs will go more mass (alternatively, Tata Sky will grow beyond the rudimentary gaming options it now provides and become more evolved which may lead to gaming becoming really mass). But that I guess is a long time away, so for the moment, I’m going to ensure I stay a part of this culture by casting my vote for Rakhi Sawant on Nach tonight.

The Arrogance Of Being Indian

2007-10-06T14:20:00.000+05:30

“Resurgent India” is a term we’ve heard so many times in the last two years that it’s coming out of our ears now. More importantly, its all made us believe that Indianness is truly a resurgent sentiment. The reality is that this feeling is restricted to the metros and that too may be a questionable assumption. At least that’s what can be deduced from the findings of the “Bunty Syndrome” Study conducted by us at Euro RSCG.

For those of you who don't know, Bunty Syndrome is Euro RSCG's study of attitudes, behaviour and trends in Tier 2 cities of India. The study interviewed 2400 young people in 12 non-metro cities of India.

If you think about it, the reality will seem fairly apparent. The “brain drain” that India faced for close to 10 years was primarily a metro (read Tier I) phenomenon. It was the youth in the urban metros that lost their belief in the Indian system and opportunities owing to the perceived lack of career options coupled with the flawed Indian system. Hence, the obvious aspiration was to catch the next available flight to USA and hope to live a life of their dreams.

It is also the urban metros that are responsible for the “reverse brain drain” as well. As the economy started galloping and the service sector boomed, the young Indians (in the age group of 27 – 35) primarily who had migrated to other countries realized that the future seemed brighter back home.

Hence, it is only with the urban metros that we can probably attribute “resurgence of Indianness” since it is only here that the belief in the Indian values had actually waned and subsequently came back.

In the rest of the country (Tier II cities included), the belief in the Indian values and systems had never actually waned. Of course, cynicism existed and probably still does in small measures. But for multiple reasons (lack of visible opportunities and insufficient support may be a couple) the Indians in the Tier II cities never really considered jumping over to the other side of the oceans. They youth in these cities knew that they needed to make a living in India and hence believed a lot more in the Indian values and cultures than probably their urban counterparts. The only issue was that there was a lot of wrongs happening around them (corruption, lack of opportunities, casteism) because of which they could not openly show their positivism about India since they had no evidence to back it.

Today, with the Indian sub continent performing like it’s on steroids, there is a lot for these youth in the Tier II cities to feel proud about. And hence, they can very confidently and openly show their pride in being Indian. They have found the ammunition to back their belief in the motherland. In the Tier II cities, its not about resurgence but about the “Arrogance of being Indian”. This comes through quite clearly in the study. More than 94% of the respondents in the Tier II cities indicated that they’d prefer to work in India rather than abroad. The urban metros had 76% of the respondents indicating such a sentiment.

I guess that’s why youth in the urban metros watched “Chak De India” and were rejuvenated but not the youth in the Tier II cities. That’s because they live “Chak De India” every single day

Movie Marketing In India - Bollywood's missing a trick

2007-07-29T12:00:00.000+05:30

There was a time right upto say the early 90's where traditional marketing methods had very little effect on the success and failure of movies. Posters, banners, wall paintings , carpet bombing of the movie's songs on Chitrahaar and AM Radio were the marketing efforts that almost all Bollywood movies; however large or small, followed. Hence, the quality of the songs and the star value were pretty much the biggest draws for success. Very rarely did any movie with both these to its benefit fail (Roop Ki Rani, Saagar, Shaan, Lamhe were exceptions but these were few and far between)

Cut to today's scenario. The largest hits of 2007 have been movies like Harry Potter and the Order Of The Phoenix, Spiderman 3, Pirates Of the Carribean: At World's End, 300, Sivaji. These are the truly pan India raking in anything above Rs. 50 cr upwards. Compared to these movies, the only Bollywood movie that has made any dent is Guru. All the other big ticket blockbusters with magnum opus starcasts have tanked (Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Nishabd, Cheeni Kum, Awarapan).

Just a few years back, the market for Hollywood movies in India was considered niche. There were the flash in the pan hits like Titanic and Jurassic Park but these were extremely rare and followed the media hype that these blockbusters generated worldwide. Regional movies never really had the expertise or the scale to be marketed pan India (Roja again was an exception).

Its really been a ringer of a year for Hollywood. The top four hits have raked in Rs. 170 cr while the top four grossers in Bollywood have raked in about Rs. 120 cr. If we add the Rs.110 odd crores raked in by Sivaji, it would be safe to say that after a dream 2006 for Bollywood, its been a nightmare 2007 upto now.

So what is it that the so called "niche" movie marketers are doing right that Bollywood's not? Here are a few answers:

1. Media multiplication through strategic tie ups: Movies like Spiderman and Harry had more than 5 brand tie-ups each. Each of these marketers like Sony Ericsson, Compaq, etc conducted their own promotions (outdoor, television) around the film thus multiplying the media visibility leading to increased reach and larger interest. Compared to this, Bollywood movies this year have been relatively lower on tie ups (even Jhoom... had only one visible tie up of note, Slice). Movies like Krrish and Khosla last year successfully rode on brand tie ups but the feat hasn't been repeated this year in Bollywood

2. Overcoming the language barrier: Each of the Hollywood flicks this year have released in a minimum of six languages (Tamil, Bhojpuri, Telugu, Marathi, etc) so as to ensure greater acceptance. This strategy has alloweed them to have a print release of more than 400 prints thus ensuring a substantial increase in volume. Quite a phenomenal growth considering that just a few years back, a print run of 100 was considered massive for a Hollywood flick. This trend begun with "Casino Royale" last year that had a print run of 400 prints.

3. Embracing The Newer Media: Spiderman 3, Pirates... had inked tie ups with mobile2win, Mobile game makers, Playstation games, etc. In addition, the producers created blogs monitored by them to allow fans to share their views and also leak out information in a measured form. Games, websites, ringtones, mobile games, the works... ensured that out of the 200 odd million people that have access to these media were aware of each of these movies being released. Again, Krrish and to an extent Corporate are the only two movies to have embraced the newer media and used them effectively to market the movie.

4. Recognition Of A Marketing Role: Cos like Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox understand that the role of marketing (the whole gamut... PR, merchandising, cross promotions, buzz creation) are as integral to the success of the movie as much as the quality of the movie itself. They realise that for a $260 mn movie, at least 8% of the budgets must be allocated for marketing. In India, that figure has been close to 4 - 5%. There have been movies like Kkrish and Rang De.. which are known to have spent about 15 -20% of their budgets on marketing. For the smaller movies like Khosla and Corporate, this figure has been in the range of 50%. But by and large, production houses in India have not realised the potential of marketing movies as much as they possibly can

Clearly, in an age like today where the concept of matinees and jubilees does not exist, the onus on attracting larger audiences in the first 3 days to a week is very high. And hence, the need for marketing the movie whole heartedly before its release is a lot more than ever before. Hollywood movies know this, regional films have realised and we are all waiting for Bollywood to follow suit. Because we as avid moviegoers are vouching for movies like Akbar Jodha, Saanvariyan and Chak de to do well.

Consumer Interactivity In Advertising

2007-07-27T10:23:00.000+05:30

Consumer Interactivity In Advertising

“Consumer Interactivity In Advertising” – Really seems like we are talking of a path breaking new discovery that will alter the life of marketing in years to come?? Some how, we make interactivity sound as if it is extremely complex to integrate into our existing models of advertising. However; in our ever increasing drive to make businesses complex so that clients can believe we deliver rocket science for them; we have forgotten that interactivity has been a part of advertising ever since advertising in its first form took fruition. It is, after all, the world’s second oldest profession.

On that note, lets just think of the world’s oldest profession; the skin trade. Even in its medieval times; that business could not have survived without a high level of consumer interactivity. There was advertising to sell the service; in fact; at a lot, lot more customized level than it exists now; but the customer interactivity was a necessity to ensure that the advertising led to business returns for the provider. However; although interactive; this form of advertising dealt with only a one-to-one marketing approach

As times moved on and the customer evolved; advertising evolved too; but in the process moved from interactive advertising to one way messaging. With a limitation in the number of platforms available and the increasing need to go mass with a minimum level of media wastage; utilizing media such as television, outdoor and newspaper advertising made perfect sense. Hence the need for targeting multiple consumers using one message; advertising moved from being one-to-one to adopting a one-to-many approach

However; with the evolution of platforms that allow for a significantly high level of interaction between marketers and consumers; there is no option for advertisers but to modify their business models to incorporate the interactivity. There is an increasing need to improve the level of interaction between the brand and the consumer to ensure not just consideration but loyalty. This, many times, requires a dialogue and not just a one way messaging approach. Hence, interactivity has basically ,moved communication from being a one-to-many approach to a many-to-many method of interaction

The e-commerce revolution followed by the mcommerce age leading upto the current craze in terms of direct to home and pay-per-view (being brought to India by Dish TV and Tata Sky) have all played their role in reducing the gap between the consumer and the marketer. And as advertising moves on; there will be many avenues to discover new ways of talking to the consumer in a more interactive manner. There will be opportunities for advertisers to take consumer interaction to the next level.

Hence; it is imperative for us to understand what are the tenets that drive interaction with the consumer in the advertising space. We need to understand that moving ahead; dialogue will lead our trade and not just messaging. We need to understand that even with the large consumer set; there will be consumers who are more influential to a particular category than others. We call this new set of consumers as Prosumers.

Prosumers are more tuned into the category than others because they are genuinely interested in the products. However; pure advertising alone is not enough to influence Prosumers. The reason for this is that they are extremely skeptical in their approach towards the adoption of any product. They believe in experimentation and it is therefore a challenge for marketers to be present in places where the interaction happens between the product and the Prosumers.

The reason why it will become increasingly tough to neglect the Prosumers is because of their extremely high propensity to communicate. A Prosumer talks about a good or bad experience with 9 people whereas a consumer talks to only two. Hence they are extremely influential human media. But, marketers need to push themselves to achieve newer levels of interactivity between their product and the Prosumers to ensure sampling as well as consideration.

Hence; we need to understand that Prosumers have become more demanding and all questions they pose cannot be answered in a 30 second commercial or a smart headline. As they say; “God lies in the small details”. Well, guess what, so does the Prosumer and providing him a platform to access all the details he needs will lead the way in times to come.

Prosumers most importantly aid marketers in achieving the basic premise of interactive marketing; i.e. creating a two-way communication channel. Interactive marketing; if we leave all the tools and the jargons aside aims at allowing the marketer to know his customer better at the same time letting the customer know the brand better. Herein lies a large role for targeting Prosumers as they make the task of communicating to them about the product easy. Their inherent interest in the category will ensure that as long as awareness for the product exists, they will be informed about it.

From this point onwards, the marketer needs to take over and convince the Prosumers that their products suit his/her interest. This requires skillfully creating brand connect through tapping areas of interest of the target audience; i.e. taking the two way dialogue into parts of their lives that are open to experimenting with the category. This is the very reason why product placements are considered so essential to marketing plans now than ever before.

Thus; the challenge in achieving increased consumer interactivity; though; lies in skillfully integrating the brand into the subject being presented so that it captivates and engages the consumer. There have been stellar examples of this integration; the most effective being that of Pepsi.

Pepsi used to have a test commercial they did and ran on the late great Interactive Network. The idea was, you'd be watching Jeopardy and playing the game at home and then the screen would say, 'Watch the following commercial, you'll be asked questions and you'd be given a prize if you get them all right.' Then a Pepsi commercial would come on and suddenly you'd be looking at a Pepsi commercial, trying to memorize things about it. You were so much more involved than if you just saw a Pepsi commercial in standard programming.

There have been similar attempts in the Indian diaspora as well. Reality television provides a high degree of interaction between the consumer and the product using “sms” as the key platform to support this interactivity. Another stunning example of increasing interactivity is a show on SET called Jassi wherein the viewers would download ringtones of the show thus acting as human media for the show itself by integrating a part of the show into a part of their life. Jassi; in fact; pioneered consumer interactivity on Indian television; most of the initiatives like flash mobs, “sms” your views, etc have become a regular feature on all shows now.

Radio as a medium too has been slightly more evolved in achieving the consumer interactivity. Shows like “Maalamaal Please” on Radio One and similar shows on other stations allow people to win prizes for just listening intently to their shows.

Even retail has used consumer interactivity to their advantage. Using couponing and loyalty cards; they have found access to consumer information that they would have otherwise have had trouble collating. Using the personal information of the consumers coupled with their purchase trends; they are now able to customize discount schemes and sales that interest every single consumer walking into their doorstep. Walmart; Cosco have all been pioneers in this space.

Pay-per-view as a model has created tremendous impact on consumer interactivity. It achieves what would have seemed an almost impossible task a few years ago; placing your brand in a space where the consumer is seeking information about a similar/related product. Again; interactivity coupled with intelligent media selection to achieve amazing results.

Amazon.com is another organization that has revolutionized interactive marketing. Every time a person logs in; the purchase interests of the consumer are mapped. The next time the person logs in; there is a section that lists new releases/books that may interest the person based on his previous searches. This level of customization allows for not just customer satisfaction but customer. A truly wonderful example of interactive marketing used to woo the consumer.

Clearly, many many examples exist where consumer interactivity has been used to achieve phenomenal returns for marketers. There is no question about the fact that going forward; consumer interactivity will drive advertising. The real challenge lies in channeling that interaction to ensure that our brands are seen a positive light. Increasing the channels of two-way communication also ensures that the brand a lot of positive word of mouth.

Buzz marketing is an interactive marketing tool that creates massive impact. By getting into situations that are commonplace to the consumer; this marketing methodology ensures that message delivery is achieved through generating interest driven largely by orchestrating word of mouth advertising. “Whatiteez” became a buzz word for Pepper Chakkar precisely because it generated a lot of positive word of mouth for the brand due to its massive interactive drive. From sms to internet to games to mall excercises, the works were rolled out to drive the message for the brand and the results were there for all to see. A fitting example of how increased consumer interactivity can drive a brand’s success.

Yes, the opportunities are many and they will only increase in times to come. But that does not necessarily mean that our lives will become easier as advertisers and marketers. Effectively using the interactivity to touch the consumer will become imperative. Hence; messaging will need to be sharper; more focused and as times move on will also become more customized. Let’s just say that Steven Spielberg’s vision of what advertising will be in 2025 in his movie “Minority Report” may just be achieved in 2010. How we will manage this surge in interactivity to our advantage as marketers will essentially chart the future of our relationship with our consumers.

Random Thoughts

2007-07-10T12:40:00.000+05:30

It's been that kinda week: Four pitches, shitload of work and hardly anytime to breathe. Yet, its been quite entertaining as well - found the time to meet an old friend, drink my self silly at Club IX on Saturday night and grab a couple of good meals in places i've never been to before.

There have been many things that've made me stop and think, albeit for a few minutes only. So, instead of writing down my thoughts on a full fledged topic, here are some random observations over the last few days:

_ The Vodka Sachet pack: Adjacent to Club IX in Bandra, there's a really sexy alcohol store with classy display units and comfortable ambience. By the looks of it, it seems a showcase store for Diageo. In this place, i discovered 30 ml sachets of Smirnoff being sold. Sachets of Smirnoff? The amount we speak about the sachet-ization of the world, the one thing that i couldn't imagine being retailed in sachets was alcohol. Yet, the store owner told me that it was selling like hot cakes. People would enter his store before getting into Club IX, buy a sachet, swig it down and then go on. Alternatively, it was a good way to allow yourself "measured indulgence". (The mindset of not wanting to drink too much but of having a drink nonetheless because i feel like it). Quite an amazing concept, i must say!!

_ Flogging The Ad world: Read an article in the "Mocha Cafe" section of Economic Times about the overuse of celebrities in ads today. The author made statements to the effect that celebrities are being increasingly used in ads because the industry is bereft of ideas. Imagine this "A whole industry whose only reason to exist is to come up with ideas for communication is bereft of its only saleable currency" A whole industry consisting of 12000 odd people (even that is a conversative estimate) relies on celebrity advertising because they are short on ideas. I urge the author to just repeat these statements in her head three or four times; it should be fairly apparent that the statement was quite a foolish one to make. It surprises me when people take the liberty to make such statements without giving prior thought to the fact that its not a comment about a singular person but a whole industry; and hence an such opinion can be a broad generalization at best and could be easily disproved. In this particular case, our performance at Cannes over the last two years should be proof enough

_ The price of growth: Today's (July 10, 2007) Hindutan Times front page was quite an intriguing one. On the one hand it reiterated the rapid India growth story through an article on "why India is a more lucrative market for airlines and hence the drop in prices of flying within the country". On the same page, there were two more articles that spoke about incidences of rape within the city of Mumbai. It makes me wonder whether a ever loosening social fabric is the price we pay for growth. After all, the most developed nation in the world (USA) is also the one with the highest reported numbers for sexual abuse and rape.

The accused as well as the victims reported in today's articles were people either below or just about above the poverty line. We may soon come to a situation where the gulf between the affluent (mass affluent, class affluent, just about affluent, etc) and the poor (destitutes, below poverty line, etc) widens to such as extent that frustrations will lead people to indulge in nefarious acts. Will we be a society where as the increase in GDP numbers will be directly proportional to the increase in numbers of robbery, rape, muder, mugging, etc? Its happened in other countries, there's no reason that it won't in ours.

My two bits towards the "quota" debate

2007-07-01T20:18:00.000+05:30

Everyone who's anyone in the business of Indian journalism (Barkha Dutt, Vir Sanghvi, etc, etc) have had their opinions about the 40% quota proposed for preferential admission of Christians at St. Stephens College. So, my guess is that the issue has been looked at and analyzed from every possible angle available. Hence, this blog of mine's merely meant for me to put up my two bits of opinion towards the whole issue of "quotaism".

I'd like to begin by saying that almost every insitution on the face of this earth adheres to some form of preferential admission. Listed below are the key ones:

_ Preference towards residents of a particular state (lots of US based state univs follow this)

_ Preferential towards large pocketed donators (happens in EVERY college in the country - IIT, IIMs may be an exception but i am not sure)

_ Preference to children of alumni (again a majority of educational insititutions - St. Stephens being one of them again)

_ Preference towards children of a particular nationality ( 60:40 is the ratio of resident:foreign students even in the American universities)

_ Preference towards residents of a particular religion (NMIMS, Thadomal Shahani, Somaiya are some exmaples in Mumbai)

_ Preference/reservations towards members of backward/scheduled castes.

Clearly, quotaism is not really a phenomenon that does not happen in a world around us and we by and large livein with harmony with it too. No one's ever really complained about preferential admission at NMIMS (during the MBA admissions) and i've also never really seen anyone complain about preferential admissions in the US universities as well. The only issue on which people spend a lot of ink and time is primarily about reservations for backward/scheduled classes.

Hence, its quite surprising that so many people have suddenly come up in arms against the reservation introduced at St. Stephens. As far as i know and have read up, there is really no law which bars the "donors/office bearers" of an institution from introducing quotas. And if Rev. Thampu is to be believed, then St. Stephens was founded as a mission college (one that would keep the interests of Christians at its heart). Hence, its really not doing much wrong in introducing the quota. If people/alumni of the institution thought of it as a college for the socio-economic elite/ cauldron of free speech, etc, etc; then it was at a perception that they carried and not necessarily one that the college aimed at propogating.

The core question, if you take St. Stephens out of the equation, remains "Should educational institutions allot preferential admission basis religion/sect/caste/gender"? If the constitution itself has defined equality as a part of our social fabric, then i guess the answer is fairly simple. A firm and strong NO for reservations basis religion.

With regards backward classes, i'd have to say that the institutions have their heart in the right place when they hope to restore equality by equipping the backward classes with high quality education. But in this case, the issue is that backward is not really equal to "below poverty line". In a majority of the cases, people who have no business being priveleged and should ideally be treated on merit for admission (they are by no degree of imagination "backward" in income) get away and into great institutions just because their birth certificate says SC, ST, OBC.

Equality is a basic human right and currently, the reservation system and its method of assigning quotas are ensuring that a very large majority of the country comes out with a feeling of being "inadequate and unequal"

Servicing a Pitch

2007-06-27T09:05:00.000+05:30

It's forever been a grey area (at least during my rather short experience with advertising); what role does servicing play when it comes to working on a new business pitch? Does the role end with mere orchestration (fixing time with the client, ensuring that the planners and creatives talk, ensuring that everyone's working to a deadline and applying pressure in the system to assure delivery) or does it end with being a support function (collating data, feeding information, shooting and recording AVs) or is there a way where the value add moves beyond these two?

I've worked on two pitches where the scope of servicing in a pitch has moved beyond the two roles mentioned above and i have to say it was their inputs that made the overall experience of working on the pitch a lot more satisfying. The primary reason for this was the fact that servicing was not (and the involved persons did not act as) a support function but an integral unit of the entire process. In a way, they lead the pitch.

Their inputs were based on two fairly simple facts:

1. They knew the brief from the client a lot, lot better than anybody else involved

2. They knew exactly what the client wanted - again much beyond anybody else involved in the pitch from the agency side did.

And these two facts allowed them to achieve the following:

1. Help channelise the content presented in manner that it answered the brief and also ensured we said everything the client wanted to hear

2. Ensure that we touch upon and deliver aginst every key point mentioned in the brief

3. Keep the client's interests at the heart of our efforts

4. Lead the pitch - not just in terms of orchestration the deliverables but in terms of orchestrating the entire process - from brief to presentation to creative.

5. Have a point of view to share in the meeting which is in sync with the overall thought that the agency aims to project

Servicing thus can make a difference by adding focus and a degree of corrrectness to the presentation and the creative. However, this particular role is not a matter of spending a couple of hours with the concerned teams; it's a matter of spending a day and in some cases days at end sitting in on the process of creation itself.

In the pace at which work's done, there is an argument that the time required for this kind of activity is hard to find. But the counter argument to that is that "time" is a small price to pay for ensuring that the output the agency presents is accurate. It's an even smaller price that one pays when you consider that it allows us to truly live upto the one promise that we repeatedly make to our clients: integration not just in processes but in thought as well

Pitch orchestrators --> Pitch drivers....that's the choice to make!!

Disclaimer: Mine's an opinion restricted to my immediate surroundings....so please forgive me if this comes across as shor-sighted.....it's in the spirit of the key idea behind my blog, "Random Ramblings"!!

Who's The Boss??

2007-06-25T22:37:00.000+05:30

At 10:19 pm on June 24, 2007 when Rajni made his entry onto the screen of the “Adlabs” theatre at Vashi, mass hysteria took a completely new meaning for me. I’ve seen many, many movies (people who know me also know that’s an understatement) but not once have I seen people react at the entry of a hero the way the audience in this theatre reacted.

People stood up, raised their hands in the air and shouted chants of “Rajni”, “Sivaji”, and some other words that I could not understand spoken in a language quite alien to me. And at that time, I wondered, was I really witnessing the biggest brand that “Indian entertainment” has ever seen?

What ensued in the next 3 ½ hours only made my belief grow stronger. This film if ever made in Hindi was one that people would have had to drag my dead body to. An exercise in complete non-sense, the movie was a three hour ten minute marathon that to a “cinema devotee” would seem to be blasphemous. If you think, I’m being overtly critical in my analysis, sample this:

_ The movie had “abysmally pathetic” production values. The camerawork was so shoddy it looked like they ran out of money after paying Rajni’s fees.

_ Rajni’ stunts defied all possible logic: he throws a gun, it travels 50 m and goes around a pillar, fires a bullet at a gangster hiding behind the pillar and then dutifully boomerangs back to Rajni.

_ Rajni, my dear friends, is well past is age and it shows the most on his dancing. He’s completely at sea in all the dance moves.

_ The story’s been seen on the Indian screen umpteen number of times, with multiple versions in each language if I may so.

_ Finally, we have to bear the sight of a “Michael Jacksoned” Rajni (his skin goes completely white for all of 10 minutes)

I could go on and on about the fallacies in the film but that’s not the point of this blog. The point is that not for once did the audiences feel even slightly bored or tired. They were whistling away, cheering his every action, dancing on his every song and applauding his every dialogue.

So the question abegs, is Rajni a bigger entertainment brand than say Amitabh or Tulsi? He’s built a career on catapulting mediocre films into superhits primarily on the back of his presence. He charges anything between 4 – 8 times more than the costliest Bollywood star (Apna AB). As was apparent in the theatre yesterday, his fan following is not limited by any socio-economic, gender or regional divides (the movie’s running house full in Vashi, a Maharashtrian dominated locality).

The argument is that probably the Southern parts of the country believe in idol worship than most other parts of the country. But considering that the movie has been released with only some 250+ prints worldwide and that it grossed about 150 crores in 10 days, that argument may not hold too much water.

It seems that the country is witnessing the creation of regional brands that are fast becoming the market leaders in the entertainment space. Rajni’s one example, Ravi Kissen another (although he’s not as much of a brand yet but considering he’s playing Gabbar in a Bhajpuri Sholay, who knows). It’s the same marketing principles, sometimes its good to be niche because a leader in a niche segment can become the category leader.

Seems like it holds true in the “entertainment” segment at least…. Have your doubts?? I suggest you rush to the nearest cinema house to catch a glimpse of “Sivaji”… Chances are your doubts may be laid to rest when Rajni says “Cool” at the end of 3 hours and ten minutes.

Bypassing the e-commerce age - Have we found our killer app ??

2007-06-19T00:35:00.000+05:30

We've been propogating the thought for sometime now that India as a country has bypassed the e-commerce age (only 2 in 100 Indians have access to the internet). The numbers are there to back the story: the internet penetration in the country is about 38 million while cellular phones have already reached 160 million and are growing at a rate of 6 million new users every month. Clearly, the reach and hence the usage of mobile services today is a lot higher than that of the internet.

Yet, there's always been an arguement that the degree of freedom and number of options that the internet provides in terms of entertainment and knowledge is far greater than that the mobile can ever provide. The two killer apps that resulted in the e-commerce boom - e mail and chat - have not really been replicated in a widespread manner on the mobile platform. True, blackberries and other such technologies allow quick e-mail access but these are at best available to an extremely limited section of the cell-phone using audiences. Chat has loosely found an interpretation in messaging but since it is not real time, it has remained by and large a means of information exchange rather than dialogue.

The magic of chat online was that it allowed people to create a world of their own, create alter egos and establish meaningful dialague with like-minded people who may or may not be a part of their peer group. Chat was the earliest form of social networking which later matured into evolved online forums such as orkut.com, etc. M-commerce has yet to replicate/find a tool that allows for people to form social networks of their own online.

Came across an article in Mint today which spoke about the initiation of voice chat with other people much in the same way that a traditional chat session in a chat room used to work: - the person logs into the service on his mobile phone, he gets a registration ID which also acts as his "nick" (if you may call it), then he can dial a three digit number to log into a mobile chatroom where people are introducing themselves verbally, if interested..they dial the person's reg ID to get in touch with him/her.

To me, this particular feature of voice chat marks the beginning of social networking on the mobile phone. It's the one feature that can really explode the VAS market for mobile service providers (VAS currently accounts for only 10% of the ARPU). The service is gaining rapidly in popularity too; its already been introduced in 13 out of 22 circles, almost all major providers provide the service (barring Airtel).

And in the long term, it'll end up being just as addictive as virtual chat rooms. Considering the fact that its a lot more authentic than online chat rooms can ever be (let's face it: it'll be tough for a 60 yr old man to pass off as an 18 yr old damsel here), a lot more "real time" than online can ever be and a lot more entertaining; i wonder whether this unique form of "mobile networking" may well be next big thing.

Cricket Will Never Be The Same Again

2007-01-02T14:59:00.000+05:30

I absolutely abhor the Australian cricket team. For a die-hard Indian cricket fan like me; they have been the cause of great heart burn and innumerable humiliations. I still hope that in the upcoming world cup; we do manage to whoop their cumulative arses and avenge some of the sore wounds they have given us.

But today morning; on the second day of the new year; I have let myself lower my guard a little bit and ponder over some of the developments of the past three weeks. True; I hate the Aussies from the bottom of my heart but then that’s because they have always been talented enough as a team to make us Indians look almost amateurish at times at the way that we play our cricket. And for that; most of those guys command my respect too.

Hence; I think in about a month from now, cricket will be a little different. It will be a little different when Glenn McGrath does not amble in to ball all six balls in the corridor. It will be a little different when Warney; the magician, does not get one to rear up and make a hapless opposition batsmen look eternally stupid. It will be a little different when you can’t see Damien Martyn walk in at No. 4 and play the most technically correct game an Aussie player can ever play. And it will be a little different when you don’t see Langer dig his heels in and ensure that the Aussies are 102-0 every second time they walk to bat.

These four blokes along with Ponting formed the foundation of the successful Aussie juggernaut after the departure of Steve Waugh. Between them they ensured that the now well recognized Aussie attitude towards to game never dipped and I think more importantly, was imbibed in new recruits over the years. Each of them tough men; forever criticized either for attitude on/off field (Warne); kept being interrupted in the drive towards greatness by recurring injuries (McGrath); always doubted for talent although numbers suggested otherwise (Langer, Martyn); they somehow found a way to keep these menial issues outside of their purview and ensure that Australia reached the distinction that it deserves in the Test as well as the One-day arena.

And now they are gone. The next time the Aussie team walks into the cricket field; it’ll be without the magic of Warne, the accuracy of a McGrath, the solidity of a Martyn and the doggedness of a Langer. Will it make them a weaker team? Going by the history of the Aussie team; probably not. But one thing’s for sure; their cricket and that of the world will not quite be the same again.

Ode to you mates; well played!! Cricket will miss you

Social Status On The Rise, Not So Sure About Social Values!!

2006-12-25T10:48:00.000+05:30

Just yesterday, the maid servant coming home every afternoon mentioned to my mom that her son as well as daughter-in-law were younger than my sister. Normally such a statement wouldn’t be surprising; except in this case; my sister is all of 19. Bai was talking excitedly about the fact that she had got her son (all of 17 years) married to a 14 year old girl. The reason: he was now earning Rs. 3,000 a month and was extremely marketable in the “dowry” circuit.

Mind you, my bai isn’t really a oppressed woman living way below the poverty line. She’s probably got a television, a cable connection, fridge, a DVD player (may be) and enjoys at least a few amenities that lower middle class families in this country do. Her social status has definitely improved in the last five years; but as the above mentioned example suggests; that has not transpired in an upgradation of her thinking towards life and relationships in general.

We may be led to believe this mindset is a prevalent phenomenon in just the what-we-call lower strata of society. I have always had the belief that all the friends I have and people I know are fairly modern in the mindset and devoid of the traditional and religious baggage that a generation before ours still carries. However; in the last two weeks that mindset has been broken.

Two Sundays earlier, I was involved in a debate with my immediate friends circle over the advantages of a love/arranged marriage. And the moot point of discussion was how much dowry each one of us would stand to earn if we wedded within our religion. I found it hard to believe that I was even involved in that conversation and even harder to believe that I was having this debate with my friends circle, repeat MY FRIENDS CIRCLE..

For Pete’s sake; these were the guys I grew up with. I was privy to the infatuations of my friend Sameer (name changed, as will all that follow) with Nazneen; of Usman with Shweta, of Ashish with Sharmeen. However; at that point; the religion that the girl belonged to did not matter. How wealthy or poor she was did not matter too. All that mattered was that she tugged a portion of my friends’ hearts.

All through college, the same cycle repeated. We all at some point in time fell head over heels over the women in our college but not once did we think of the relationship in terms of money, fame or glory. Still, in today’s day and age; these guys were talking about things like how much money will come home, how much money her job will fetch, etc, how society will rebuke our parents for a inter-religion marriage, etc, etc. A couple of us tried to rationalize our point and argument but I must admit we were really outnumbered and also out-argued on the point of practicality.

We have heard and will continue to hear many stories of India Shining; etc, etc. In a way, we are the forbearers and also the beneficiaries of India’s current-day rise. However; at both ends of the now fairly large middle class; some of our age old social values still bind us. My bai as well as a large part of my friends circle still believe in the large economic benefits of a dowry; of the negatives of an inter-caste marriage. We seem to have left behind some of the economic demons that hounded us a decade back but some of our own ideological demons still exist. And I dare say that till we manage to rid ourselves of these; our growth as a community may be restricted. We will be a richer society but not necessarily a healthier one.

Cricket, Emotions & Rationale: No Connect Whatsoever

2006-12-10T14:25:00.000+05:30

Well; i am writing this one about an hour after India's famed batting line up has failed yet again in front of a second rate South African team. I am pretty sure a dozen or more journos will be typing the obituaries of half our Indian team right now. Yes, we won the match but currently that not something that will deter critics from finding burning issues again to malign the team.

It's tough and i will be the first one to admit it; to understand what's really going wrong. But then if we think about it really hard; it isn' t rocket science at all. We have all gone through a period where our respective businesses have gone through a slump because 4 -5 key people are not performing upto their normal; expected levels. But i don't think management goes ahead and sacks them. They wait; patiently and with the confidence that they will be back to their usual competent self; because somewhere deep down there we know; they are all capable.

Just because its the Indian team and not our respective workplaces/businesses; why do the rules have to change. Yes; they are collectively going through a rough patch. Yes, they can't seem to know what it means to play cricket. Yet we know that each of these guys do. They are genuinely world beaters. It's support and not detrimental criticism that's required.

The other big issue: Ganguly. Here's a guy who may have lost his place in the side on grounds that are not exactly democratic. May be he did deserve to play on then ( i mean a year back). But currently on the basis of pure merit; he does not deserve a place in the side. He is not amongst the top 15 Ranji scorers in the country. He is being sent to SA; a place which is replete with bouncy wickets; the types on which he has traditionally been a bunny. True, he has managed a gutsy 83 but then again; the guys bowling to were not even a scratch on the Pollocks and Ntinis of the world. The decision to elect him back is not based in any sound judgment to say the least. Yes; experience counts but not stand alone; it needs to be backed by a semblance of a performance.

Anyways; Ganguly or no Ganguly; we need to be patient with our guys. They are an extremely talented bunch. Sooner rather than later; they will find their touch and will be back to their winning ways. We need to be supportive rather than write a scathing critique of their performance. Yes; criticism is necessary but constructive. And we; in our own emotional outbursts; tend to demean our own cricketer's earlier performance (the other day a person told me Tendulkar's innings against Pak in the WC was a stroke of luck). Imagine one your colleagues walking upto you and saying; "Dude; how lucky you are...you got your appraisal this year without actually doing any work". Hurts, right? Well then, next time you demean a past performance of one of our own cricketers; think about that!!

Random Thoughts About Sanju Baba

2006-12-10T14:15:00.000+05:30

Let's get one thing straight; although i am a self-proclaimed Bollywood fanatic, i really don't care a rat's arse about whether Sanjay Dutt goes to jail or not. I don't think too greatly of his acting talents (even in Munnabhai; i think he was a supporting act to Circuit and Boman's characters).But i do have my opinions about the issue and for all its worth; here it is:

I do honestly believe that the bloke has some connection with the underworld. It does not necessarily make him a bad guy though. I think he does know people like the Dawoods and the Shakeels of the world and chances are bright that he more than JUST knows them.

However; that does not change things about the man's attitude itself. Media honest people like Vir Sanghvi and host of other otherwise critical journos (Karan Thapar included) have admitted that they are yet to meet a more humble celeb. He can be extremely crude on one occasion and a thorough gentleman on another. We know many many such people in our own peer groups who behave in such a manner (some choose to call it double standards; i choose to call it discretionary behavior)

Secondly; and more importantly; his connections do not definitely make him a terrorist. A lot of people connect his now well-documented conversations with underworld dons to his arrest under the TADA code and pass their judgment on him. And that according to me is grossly incorrect. He knows them but that does not mean he helped in the terrorist acts in 1993. The two incidences reported are separate and must be treated as such.

I honestly believe that he DID possess those weapons but i also believe he bought them to protect his family. Yes, he may have been naive enough to not procure the permit/licence but that does not make him a terrorist. He has been a victim of an agenda that people had against his father's political manifestos. That more than his act has been the reason for his 18 months spent in jail.

And that i think is enough of punishment for possessing illegal arms that were bought with the intention of protecting a family. Couple that with the 13 years he has spent under a constant worry of being convicted for an act he hasn't committed and we come across a situation where you really begin to question the fact as to who runs the judiciary of this country: the courts; the politicians or commoners with tons of money.

Anyways; let him be...He's not a terrorist; just a naive celeb who puts emotions ahead of logic. 18 months in jail is a lot more than one normally pays for that!!

The Retail Game: Behavioral Observations

2006-12-10T14:07:00.000+05:30

Personal (wedding; new house) coupled with professional (new retail clients; need for a better understanding) reasons have prompted me to observe my own interactions with the category a lot better. It’s quite funny how much we can understand about any particular topic or category by just concentrating on our own behavior. However, that’s probably a topic that merits another blog. Coming back to the topic; I firmly believe from my observations that large format retail stores in India are going to see a gradual decline. And in the next four paragraphs; I’ll try to explain why.

My interaction with the category is primarily through four different retail formats: Sai Siddhi (my local kirana waala; exactly 10 seconds from my house) Foodland Fresh (about 5 minutes walking distance from my house), Big Bazaar (about 7 minutes drive from my house; in a mall) and the other specialist stores for clothes, consumer electronics, etc.

Sai Siddhi is pretty much my Man Friday. He delivers stuff to my place, he’s cheap and I can count on him. However; my purchases from him are need based and hence impulse driven. I never purchase groceries from him to stock for the entire month. I definitely make purchases from him three times a day but these are primarily water; veggies and sometimes fruits. I also never purchase juices; cereals, etc from him although chances are high that he stocks these too. And the primary reason for my behavior is a store called Foodland Fresh.

Foodland Fresh is a small/medium format organized retail store. Not three times a day but at least three times a week; I visit this place to buy juices, soaps, shampoos, fresh fruits, biscuits, etc. And everytime I go there; I need up spending three times more than my designated expenditure at the place. The place is clean, well organized, is small enough for me to find the things I want and large enough to stock everything I need. I end up buying half the things I normally buy from Sai Siddhi from this guy and that too in bulk. More importantly, Foodland Fresh has made a once very large resource for my household seem redundant; i.e Big Bazaar.

There was a time when we used to go the Center One; the mall just to buy our weekly groceries from Big Bazaar. But with the convenience that Foodland provides; even if I am in Center One; we no longer find it necessary to visit Big Bazaar. It’s just too much of a hassle; too crowded; tough to find things; the service is not as efficient as Foodland and I just don’t feel like carrying such a huge weight back home (although we have a car; such a perception exists). The advantages of a Food land far outweigh those of Big Bazaaar: closer, cheaper (perception not reality), more organized, better service and cleaner.

The bottom line pretty much is that the small/medium format stores that provide the convenience of a kirana with the efficiency of an organized format appeal more to the Indian mentality. They genuinely help in making life seem easier while adding significant value to the purchase experience. Hence it’ll be the Reliance Fresh & Foodland that will appeal more to the Indian psyche rather than Big Bazaars. Even Walmart; if at all it decides to replicate its global model of being a large format store in India; will face a similar issue. In days and years to come; I think the lines at Big Bazaar are set to become a lot shorter!! What say!!

What's My Reason For My Profession ??

2006-12-10T13:15:00.000+05:30

Today afternoon; over a rather sumptuous lunch, I was talking to one of my colleagues about general workplace issues ( you know the kind of bitching that happens when two guys get together and talk about everyone and everything they know in the company) when he mentioned to me that he wanted to move to planning. And I asked what seemed a rather obvious question: “Why do you want to be a planner?”

And then I realized that I may not have the answer to that well defined myself. Don’t get me wrong here: It’s not that I don’t enjoy what I do; in fact; I abso-positively love it. But the basic issue is I really did not have my reason to be in planning. A lot of emotional reasons exist (I like my job a lot; I love the people with whom I work, I feel comfortable in this environment, this seems just right, etc, etc.) but I didn’t have a rational reason and definitely not one that I could think of spontaneously. Well; the thought is quite scary when you come to think about it, considering I have spent two years in this profession now.

Well; the next step was then to say to myself that my thinking was probably not true; I just needed to probe myself enough to find my peace. It wasn’t easy to say the least but I made an honest attempt and came up with some answers that seem satisfactory to me. So here are some of the reasons that motivate me to come to work everyday and do my job:

-I like the pace at which I have to shift brands as well as categories (although sometimes it does get a little too fast paced for my own good)

-I like the fact that I need to constantly use my own observations about people (and in some cases; almost force myself to observe; a process I call research) to be able to make genuine recommendations to clients

-I think this stream allows me to use my most valuable learning from my engineering days: the power of thinking logically; to the maximum possible use (sometimes that can be a deterrent too; when people tell you to think out of the box )

-I can reference anything that I do to movies and people will appreciate or overlook it but definitely not criticize it

-Being a researcher by profession; I get to use data rather than just provide it with recommendations being a part of annexure

-The thrill of pitching for a new business is exhilarating and the thrill of getting it right even more so. But the thrill of winning a pitch is pretty much unexplainable.

-The efforts put into ideation; research and analysis finally do see the light of the day as a tangible product.

-Having to think through a brand and all the stools on which it rests (category, brand and the consumer) and finally making sense out of it is quite a kick.

So, that’s that!! I think some of these are rational enough reasons for me to like what I do day in and day out. But come to think of it, who ever said that you need a rational reason to do anything?? And if rational reasons were the only motivators for people to stick to a particular job; then HR executives wouldn’t really get paid the fat salaries they do right now.

While writing this blog; I asked one of my colleagues to give me his opinion and he told me this seems like an act of self indulgence. Well, it definitely is an effort towards self observation but if it comes across as self indulgence; there’s really not much I can do about that; can I? All I can say is indulge yourself too; once in while.