A Dull Evening

I always loved to click sunsets. The orange hues of the sky coupled with the chirping of the birds fascinated me always. But it is often said that if you look forward to a dull evening, you are in fact growing old. But isn’t growing old also mean gaining stability. The youth stage in a man’s life is always turbulent. Even if you look at the choice of colours used by the marketers targeting the youth, they are vibrant and in your face which demand immediate attention. Well my choice of dull evening may represent a inner longing for a well balanced life. An evening not only signifies a setting sun but a satisfaction, after having achieved something humongous materialistically or otherwise. A man’s life can be compared with a day. If the early morning pale colours denote the beginnings of life such infancy and its purity, the forenoons and afternoons comprise the youth stage – very bright, and the time of the day and life where everyone sweat it out, and the evenings can be compared to the late middle age and post retirement time period comprised of the time when a man rolls back onto the arm chair and becomes nostalgic. That is the time when a sense of satisfaction, for the works done or not done looms over. It is the stage of contentment and completion. The night signifies death and the transition into a new day, a new beginning.

Packaging – The final ‘P’ of Marketing Mix

Sounds strange, right? That was the definition given by the presenter in the show ‘logo’ telecast on UTVi on 16^th of August. I knew the 4Ps of marketing as Product, Price, Place and Promotion, but there is this channel which added a new tool to the marketing mix. Jerome McCarthy! Are you listening? I learnt packaging to be a part of Product, one of the Ps of marketing mix. But this 24 hour English Business (Take a note of this) News Channel claims packaging to be one of the Ps. I have learnt from the channel’s website that the presenter was Tina Tandon who had conceptualized the show and also anchors it. I am remembered of my advertising professor’s words here. He often says that if you are in the top rung in the industry, you may even talk crap and people would take it as words of wisdom. They may even talk things which are even common sensical but they would be applauded for their insights. Everybody can talk sense, but it is the position, the status of the person that determines the value of his talk rather than the intrinsic value of the talk itself. But when these high profile individuals or corporates make statements which are false or do not have any sense, people try and find out some kind of newer meanings in them, because it is often perceived that successful people are always right in what they say and do. Anyway, returning back to the topic, I tuned into this show some 15 or 20 minutes after its start and was astonished to hear what was being said and I was like, “What!, Packaging, the final P of marketing! Are you crazy or what?” I don’t know what the previous Ps were referred to as and for that matter, I do not even know their stand on the number of Ps in the marketing mix. So, no comments on it. The show later went on to show how the sachet revolutionized the Indian FMCG market. All was fine, but referring to Packaging as one of the P was hard to hear and accept for a student of marketing. The concept on which the show was based is all good but the makers need to take care to get their basics right before embarking on making such shows.

Some More Ads

The competition of ad making (mentioned in the previous post) took only one entry from each participant. I did some more ads considering they might be useful in further rounds, but these were never a part of the competition. But since I worked on them I wanted to play them to the audience and I went ahead with it. The ads that were done are the ad for Big FM and Kamasutra Condoms.

The original ad that was taken for Big FM was of some phone which was portraying its mp3 player functionality. I changed it and used it for a FM brand. I changed the background score and inserted the Big FM brand at the end. Though I felt, the concept did not gel well with that of the FM, I was happy with sound synchronization I was able to achieve using a basic tool like movie maker in windows. In the ad, as soon as the guy presses a button on his phone, the score starts. That was some Michael Jackson’s clip. It starts off with a sound of glass crashing and then the drum beats start. The guy just then starts swaying his head with the rhythm and I think the score has even gelled well with the man’s abuses. I do not remember the song that played in the original ad but I felt that this score has brought much more energy into the ad.

The ad that was taken for condoms ad was the Himalayan mountain water. I happened to notice the ad for the first time on some news channel in college and I immediately felt that this concept could be perfectly used for a condom. I did not change much in this ad. I just cut the portions where Himalayan mountain water was used and inserted a clip of Kamasutra condoms and put a tagline at the end. The concept in the mountain water ad was that everything was going back to its original form. The woollen scarf of the guy turns into a sheep; the bag the girl carries breaks down to its original form; the wooden guitar turns into a tree, the shirt of the guy turns into cotton and the girls skirt into a silk worm and then both jump into a pool of water. The original ad tried to portray the purity of things in their original form and so the purity of water was hinted as they were sourced from their origin, the Himalayan Mountains. If the original ad showed purity by regressing things back to their original form, I used the same concept to portray that everything was moving back in time. So, as things were moving back in time, the guy and the girl also go back in time to become Adam and Eve. What could be a better selling point for sex, than the successful union of the first couple. I tried to position the condom as the forbidden fruit. The forbidden fruit was the reason, Adam was attracted to Eve and the rest is history. I wanted to position the condom not on the basic utility of it, of avoiding reproduction, but as a something which enhances the process. The couple using it should experience the same feeling as Adam and Eve after using it. And the jump of the couple into the pool symbolized that they were getting themselves involved completely into the mood. And then the logo comes followed by the tagline, “Gets the ‘Adams’ and ‘Eves’ out of you.” Initially the competition coordinator (one of my classmates), was hesitant to play the ad since it was a condom ad and the file name read ‘kamasutra.wmv’. And a warning that appears initially was only a tactic to attract some eyeballs, since people tend to get interested when something proclaims itself as something which cannot be shown but is being shown. The response to the ad once it was played was overwhelming and I had people congratulating me for my guts to play such ads in college. On the whole, a different experience.

The Ad that took me to the Final

As part of an ad making competition, I had made this ad in my first year of study. The concept of the competition was to take existing ads and make it suitable for other products.

This was an ad for ponds cold cream. The original ad consisted of different emotions portrayed by women. It depicted that face speaks for you. Therefore you need to have good looking face which could achieved by ponds cream. I found that the concept of emotions being portrayed by women could also be used for greeting cards. The ad consisted of women portraying emotions with their faces and were not verbal. I felt that as a card company, it can position itself as someone who has the words for all your expressions. That is, the company knows what you feel, and what you want to say. That thought formed the basis for the ad. I immediately modified and put in some tag lines and a greeting card brand and made it an ad for cards from Hallmark. I also took care into detailing aspect of the ad. The background score was changed and the popular Rehmans score for jeans was used. The use of pink colour for the background was also deliberate. Firstly, it was used to get a feminine tinge to the ad. Secondly, it was done to match with the colour of the top worn by the girl shown at the last so that there wouldn't be any drastic change of colours which would be taxing on the eyes of the viewer.The result was I was into the final round.

The feeling that I had when the ad was playing in the dark auditorium on a projector being viewed atleast by 200 people and I was on the stage looking at my work is unexplainable.

Formal Education or Experience – What counts for Success?

(This post and the one below it were written for one of my cousins who was attending an interview. I never intended to write on these topics or never thought I would someday be writing on such topics. But anyway since I had written, I thought these also could be a part of my blog since they were also thoughts with me, thoughts with Viswasam.)

Gone are the days when business culture was inherited from ancestors wherein generations after generations were involved in the same line of business. Now are the days of getting oneself equipped with a swanky degree in management. Whether these qualifications form a passport to success in the entrepreneurial or managerial success in the corporate world, is a question for which it is tough to find an answer.

The good old days were on the lines of, ‘Like Father. Like Son.’ The progeny learnt the rules of the game in an informal manner through first hand observation and, on the field experience. Take a case of retailing, where one could see a typical baniya running the business of kirana stores on his own with little help from his family members. The business is later taken over by his offspring. The size of operations in such a business was also very low. But in these days of Globalization and Liberalization, there is always a threat from new competitors not only from within the country but also from outside the country. Taking again the case of retailing, the size of operations have grown; organized retail has been gaining importance; such situations call for thorough knowledge of the environment not only locally but globally which can be met only through formal training. So it becomes evident from the case above that experience cannot replace formal education.

But does formal education alone guarantee success is another tricky question. Now that also poses questions on the objective of the formal education offered by the schools of management. Traditionally management education has been seen as an education for the working people who want to advance in their careers (Literally speaking, it was for people looking for higher paycheques). It concentrated on only making them better equipped with knowledge which they could use in their areas of work. But lately, there has been a constant increase in the number of B School grads opting for entrepreneurship (This might be due to passion or recession, do not ask me). This has led the schools to launch specialized courses on entrepreneurship. But still the question remains unanswered. Does this education alone help? This could be answered by the number of start ups that have failed; the number of students signing up for entrepreneurship courses as opposed to the traditional businessmen of inheritance.

What could be said is that entrepreneurship requires passion, dedication and lots other adjectives to go with it. When this is coupled with a formal learning of management principles, them that would be the deadliest of combinations one could have.

Coming to success in the managerial career, it is often preferred to have graduates in management for the key positions, but do they alone fit the bill is an issue that needs consideration. Taking a sales profile as an example, the position at the bottom of the pyramid is often the ‘Sales Executive’ for which a basic degree in any discipline is considered. Over a period of time, this sales executive gets to climb the sales ladder through the number of years of experience that he puts in. This can even go on upto the top most position in the profile. There have been instances in some companies where the CEO started of as a sales executive in the same company. But the process takes considerable amount of time. But, if a basic graduate, instead of going ahead with the lowest level job in sales, goes on to pursue management education there are chances that he might get into a position directly after his education which originally might have cost him significant amount of time. Therefore it can be ruled out that only formal education helps in managerial success. But it might open a few doors early than the experience route. Ultimately it is the knowledge and skills which count but not the whether one acquired it in a closed room of four walls or in a big, open class room of the corporate world.

Business Schools Today – Are they Businesses or Schools?

The present day business schools are no less than business houses thanks to the exorbitant fee they charge. One gets a doubt whether the so called elite business schools get their status on the quality of education they impart or because of the fee they charge. Students too do not worry much because they see it as potential investment for which they expect much higher returns. This trend is being cashed upon by banks which give educational loans to the students since they too expect the student moves up in his career ladder after B School education and so his chances of becoming a defaulter are very low. There is no doubt in saying that the schools are merely turning into employment exchanges rather than institutions of learning. The only thing that is taught is to how to fight and win a war rather here the war is fought inside closed walls of glass. And the adage, “Everything is fair in love and war” is also very apt. And not very surprisingly most of the B Schools grads say that their goal of getting into a management school is to get themselves equipped with a better job.

There have been views that the real culprits behind the sub prime crisis are the B Schools, since they not only teach management to the students but also boost their confidence levels to dangerously high levels. With this the B School grads reach such a position where they feel that everything they do is right and with such attitude when they enter the corporate world, incidents such as the sub prime crisis are bound to happen due to utter carelessness.

In our very own state of Andhra Pradesh, B Schools can be categorised into two levels based on the fee they charge. First, the schools that charge mammoth amounts which have a national level entrance and second, the schools that charge realistic amount which have state level entrance. Surprisingly, even the state level entrance would do in some of the first category B Schools if you are ready to pay the fee. So, it is not the entrance criteria or the quality of students that form a basis for segregation but only the fee that the schools charge.

The objective of education is to impart values, ethics and should make a student more enlightened. But the education at B Schools does not seem so. They only teach how to wipe out competitors; how to be aggressive and get your point across; how to be an extrovert and the likes. Barring a few schools in India, which also teach ethics, most of the schools the world over seems to have same kind of environment. But after the sub prime in the US, the change can sensed. B Schools are reconsidering their mindless educations system and incorporating corporate ethics into their syllabi.

But the days are still to come where students get into B School out of passion for management education also and not exclusively for the career opportunities they offer.

Hero Honda going the Airtel way - What Next?

The other day, I was watching a commercial for Hero Honda which had a guy riding all the way to his girl friend’s (well, supposedly)house just to reply to a message sent by her. And the tagline read something like “the cost of petrol shouldn’t be a barrier in your relationships.” (The intended meaning is the same, though I might have messed up with the words). I immediately had this feeling “seen it before”- the costs coming into relationships - no cost cutting in relationships and the like. Now who would forget the perfect couple (Madhavan, Vidya Balan) casting done by Airtel for its ads. The same concept had been used for Airtel previously (Watch it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu4_lA6Krnw, well couldn’t find a language that I understood) and now again being used by Hero Honda for one of its bikes which it tried to position in the mileage segment.

Well, I do not know if the ad is still being played on TV. I remember watching it only a couple of times. I tried it on you tube too but no trace. Perhaps they have dropped it for plagiarism. Why did Hero Honda go with such a tried and tested concept which was the central point of a whole campaign for Airtel? And with such commanding market share that Hero Honda has in the market, one does not understand the motive behind it going for such copy, paste ads. Such acts by any organization would only lead to some kind negative image formation about the company. When you are big, only responsible things are expected from you. That is the reason, there exists a difference in the way people perceive the same thing done by a celebrity and a common man. As you grow in stature, so grows your responsibility. That is why it is said, “With great POWER comes great RESPONSIBILITY.” Things, which are looked down upon, or which are too silly, are simply not expected from companies as massive as Hero Honda. It might just start as a bitter pill down the throat but it might have long term repercussions for the company in terms of its image in the market.

P.S: Hope this post does not act as a catalyst for the image downgrading process for Hero Honda. But what is to happen, happens. I am reminded of the butterfly effect here. May be I am just a part of the numerous series of events that leads to something massive which started from Hero Honda with an ad and may again end up at the same place where it started.