The Ecom business in India

The year 2014 saw e-commerce companies as the biggest ad-spenders across all media as brand building and customer acquisition were the top priorities for these companies. According to a Datawrapper report, Flipkart and Amazon led the charge, with Snapdeal, and Jabong following suit. Market experts feel the trend is likely to continue till there are investors who are ready to bankroll the ad-spend or their cash run out. As the entire online shopping battleground made news headlines after the Flipkart hoopla, buyers were forced to think what led to the popularity of festive sale advertising all over TV, and other media. Here are the top e-commerce players grabbing shoppers’ eyeballs: >FLIPKART: The brand launched teasers around 'The Big Billion Day' sale for October 6. The teasers buzzed all over social media platforms and television with news about the forthcoming sale. Flipkart positioned it as something that has never happened. One teaser ad was a stand-up comedy act by Bollywood actor, Vir Das, and another promotional video highlighting attractions like bumper discounts and unprecedented prices for a variety of products across categories. Flipkart, did jacket ads with national dailies, making sale announcements almost every day this month.

AMAZON: As Flipkart’s big day saw major setbacks such as products vanishing from the cart, rampant order cancellations and system failure led to reality falling short by several miles of what was claimed in the promotional ads. Infact through exclusive tie-up with Flipkart Chetan Bhagat launched his book “Half Girlfriend” which was pre-booked and sent to customers post the launch But during this Flipkart fiasco, Amazon stole the show as customers moved away from Flipkart and landed in the Amazon basket, and with the kind of dominance that Amazon holds in the ecommerce sector, it steered the Indian fanfare for online shopping from Flipkart to its own cart. Even as Flipkart drew curtains on its 'Big Billion Day' sale for the day, Amazon tried a novel way to own the catchphrase coined for the sale, to get users to their own site. When users typed bigbillionday.com in their browser, they landed on the amazon.in site and not on Flipkart.

SNAPDEAL: In a deft strategic move, Snapdeal.com roped in leading TV actors from top GEC channels to roll out a mega Diwali campaign. The 40 commercial campaign (yes 40!) called the ‘Diwali Bumper Sale’ stars the current brand ambassador Pulkit Samrat of Fukrey fame and 20 well known TV celebrities such as Ali Asgar, Sumona, Kiku from Comedy Nights, Alok Nath, Harsha Bhogle, etc. who reprise their TV avataars, albeit with a quirky twist. The campaign focuses on the key offers from Snapdeal on more than 5 lakh products across different product categories, establishing Snapdeal as the one stop shop for all the shopping needs of the consumers. Snapdeal aggressively advertised on all print mediums too.

JABONG: Jabong.com launched a campaign featuring a 360-degree multimedia integration of television, print, outdoor and digital platforms. The new TV commercial conspicuously emanates the philosophy around which Jabong functions today with a message directed in two simple yet assertive words, “Be You”. The TVC which was aired across channels, had been shot across many cities in India, capturing the personal styles of youngsters, and emotions derived from the sense of empowerment and confidence from fashion, the commercial showcases the latest styles and trends across clothes, shoes and accessories.

courtesy: inputs from exchange4media

Countdown to Ganesha 2014

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In-film advertising

In todays market scenario marketers are finding unique ways to reach their audience. Various integrated marketing communications have been emerging by the day. One medium Product placements has gained maximum mileage at a lesser cost involving customers without they feeling obtrusive. In India in-film branding has been in existence ever since early 70’s not taking in to account movies like Shree 420 and An Evening in Paris where Coca-cola was prominently displayed in the early 50’s and late 60’s .

 In-film advertising is a medium through which brand or products are placed in movies, that is visible to consumer without any distraction, this is also known as “Covert advertising” and is gaining momentum because of its clutter free features as it leverages on the entertainment value along with the emotional quotient of the film leading to a psychological impact on viewers.

Covert advertising is different from celebrity endorsement. The celebrities endorse products and brands with commercial reasons, which normally come in the breaks in television programmes or cinema halls. Brand placements provide an opportunity where the involved audience gets exposure to the brands and products during the natural process of narration of movie or television commercial.

Films like “Taal”, “Fashion”, “Phir Hera Pheri”, “Koi Mil Gaya”, “OM Shanti Om”, “Love ke Liye Kucch bhi karenga”, “Aakhen”, “Baghban”, “Dhoom”, “Krish”, “Dil to pagal hain” “Dostana”, “Dil to Pagal Hain” “Kaho na Pyaar hain”, “Lage Raho Munnabhai”, “Krrish”, “Corporate”, “Dabang”, “Dabang2”, “Cocktail”, “Mission Istanbul”, “Don”, “Namaste London”, Tara Rum Pum“, Bum Bum Bole”, “Rang De Basanti”, “Heroine”, “Bodyguard”, “Aisha” have used it successfully and have been drawing viewers attention. Marketers conveniently have been using the advertising of the product as a part of a films plot.

Recently Krissh3 had various products perfectly placed in their film, the placements of which appeared very easy in the film and was not at all overboard and appeared clutter free. The products that were subtly placed or mentioned by the characters were Bournvita, Flair Pens, Tata Motors, Air India, Hamleys, SIS security where the central character of the film was shown as adorning security guards dress, Aaj Tak and Tej TV channel, Euro Now a prime TV channel Forever jewellery with their Fusion brand, Airking airlines, 9.1 swisscom pay phone, TV club, xoso, Del monte, Havmor – both the central characters visit an ice cream parlour, Bisleri mineral water, Fortis hospital, Café Coffee day, Rado, Mcdonalds, R city mall, HSBC, Yamaha, Hungama.com, Shopperstop. 

With such plethora of in-film options available, advertisers are waiting and latching on such opportunities and we can definitely say in-film placements are here to stay.

what a B school doesn't teach

Service Levels - The People and the Process

Recently on a visit to a wholesale vegetable market, I experienced huge service gap in  understanding the nuances of how a wholesale market (primary) works in comparison to  retail (secondary) market. 

This strongly reiterates the understanding, whatever is taught at B-schools covers only the secondary market totally overlooking primary market and similar trends are found in majority of B-schools that has mushroomed across the country.. 

All through our life it has been reiterated again and again that customer is King, they are like God, kindly recap what the legendary Mahatma Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had quoted about the customer. “A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.” this is followed across the globe primarily because a positive word of mouth fetches more footfall and business and it helps an organisation to survive longer in this competitive world.

To further substantiate this the book "Principals of Service Marketing and Management" by Christopher Lovelock & Lauren Wright, helps us to understand and learn all the facets of what constitutes a service, its processes, the service encounter, the emotional labour, the customer behaviour, relationship marketing, pricing etc. However what was observed is in stark contrast to the above and it will be etched forever in my memory.

The Customers (Buyers) who buy in wholesale were gleefully transacting with rude and incompetent wholesale vendors (sellers) and neither of them were actually concerned about both the quality nor the value of the services, but in the both seemed to be happy. It was a kind of situation where the sellers were displaying an attitude akin to "take it or leave it", however hard the customers bargained the sellers were more adamant probably having a feeling in their minds that the buyer needs them more than they needing the buyer. 

To further substantiate my learning, the exchange of pleasantries was also unheard in service industry (the thought still shudders), the language used was blasphemous and both the seller and buyer were not complaining about it, rather I, believe they treat it as a like a customary practice to wish or greet each other or even used it when they differed  with each other. 

This visit of mine can be a classic case study in how not to treat a customer – as it contradicts all the rule book and as I look back on my experience what surprises me is that all services and offerings from the vendors were overlooked by the buyers. How else could we explain why more and more buyers were thronging the market and that for every customer the sellers lose there are a couple of hundred thousand queuing out there, ready to buy their wares. 

If we calculate the money that is transacted on a daily / weekly / monthly basis it would run to several crores. What was observed at the wholesale market is a an example of low contact high audience that happens on a daily basis, the supply chain that we have learnt is different than what is practiced here, both the seller and the vendor transact and trade business with each other 365 days and when the same buyer transforms himself as a retail seller the market scenario changes and they start behaving differently and must be experiencing a different service encounter, Emotional labour etc. The customer insights changes at each level. Fortunately, in almost every industry there are service suppliers who know how to please their customers while also running a productive, profitable operation.

In our case because of the diversity the way in which services are created and delivered to the customers, is often hard to grasp since many inputs and outputs are intangible. Here we need to understand how as a nation we are moving toward service marketing economy and therein the need to understand the concepts from different perspective. The Government is working very hard to enforce FDI in retail, there emerges a concept of whole sale market, where we need to understand the only thing that is constant is change and understand what and how to handle various grades / classification of CUSTOMERS thereby altering client servicing at various distribution levels. Of the 8 Ps in Service Marketing, apart from the Process assesment of the People providing the service matters.

A few other interesting observations:

In another lesson on optimum use of resources it was observed the vendors in order to keep the vegetables fresh were not spraying water through spray jets but were using  make shift disposable plastic bags, piercing it with a hole and sprinkling water on the vegetables which goes on to prove necessity is the mother of all invention. Another interesting observation was made by a vendor who casually informed me that they do not discard the crushed tomatoes or any of the rotten  vegetables because there is another set of loyal customers waiting & willing to buy at a very subsidised rate post market hours, and please please no prizes for guessing it is our own the F&B industry who buy it in bulk and use it in their restaurants to feed lakhs of hungry customers who gorge on outside food. A classic example of perishable product put to optimum use and we pay premium for consuming this at restaurants, the bigger the restaurants bigger the premium.

My Take on Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar - A God on Earth

"I have seen God. He bats at no. 4 in India in Tests." this aptly described words from Mathew Hayden testifies the stature of a five feet five inch 'God of Indian Cricket' or perhaps the biggest compliment would have been Sir Donald Bradman equating Sachin with himself. (I am not going into who is the greatest because both played in a different era). He almost gave sleepless nights to spin wizard Shane Warne.

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar aka Tendlya when the whole world is baying for your retirement I, too at times as a human being fall prey to that. Perhaps after playing for twenty three long years the reflexes are not as great as they used to be, however you truly represent the aspirations of 1.2 billion Indians.  

A cricketing genius who started playing International cricket at a young age of sixteen years, incidentally the current breed of players like Gambhir, Dhoni were 8 years old, Rohit and Raina were two years old and Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja were just toddlers. 

Tendlya having amassed more than 30,000 runs in International cricket have always stood firmly to the ground and have steered cleared from any controversies which is very difficult for a man of his stature to stay for more than two decades. You were compared with Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Vivian Richards, Sir Brian Lara but you never allowed yourself to be compared to these greats you held these greats in great esteem. 

People often have called you the Richie Rich of Indian cricket and the money that you earn playing cricket is only a sort of pocket expenses, a report some time back screamed 'Tendulkar makes money more faster than his runs', but people have not seen the other side of you, a positive persona who always have been a great philanthropist and has helped several NGOs / charity houses raise funds for the deprived section of the society. 

If you were only running after money why else should you turn down a multi-crore deal with liquor baron Vijay Mallya of UB Group two years ago. You have always been categorical about what categories you will endorse and always have turned down offers from tobacco and alcohol companies.

In cricket you always have been an over achiever but the pressure of performing consistently at the top seems to be taking a toll on you which is affecting your concentration and the agility. What more proof you need to deliver despite century of centuries critics always have been expecting you to perform every time you come in to bat for India.

Critics have been clearly stating that Tendukar is in the evening of his career." performance of late has been below par and this is because the last century took a long time coming and this feat was associated with fatigue, but they do not understand your first century too took a long time to come and when it came there was no looking back.

We always have loved you Tendlya, and have immersed ourselves in cricket oblivious to the surrounding, cheered you whenever you have played for India or for Mumbai Indians. My love for Mumbai Indians is only because of you else I, have no other team to cheer for. Your shots have de-stressed million of fans and made us wonder in awe whether God has really ascended on earth. 

You are a source of inspiration, a heart beat of millions and always have been a  great sport, the recent reports that you spoke to selectors to decide whether they would like to play you or not for the third test against England is really disturbing. It is you who should decide when to hang up your gloves. People go to God to pray when they need any help, and the reverse will never be true.

Tendlya, having brushed shoulders with the like of Sunny Gavaskar, Kapil, Ravi Shastry, Sanjay Manjrekar would definitely know through their experiences how bad or worse it would be when somebody force you into retirement, having seen you play for more than twenty three years we know you will definitely choose the day like Rahul, Kumble, Srinath or laxman. 

Cricket lovers should ask why and not when and I, assure you along with me lot of avid cricket watchers will stop watching cricket the day you announce your retirement.

Green Marketing

GREEN MARKETING

The term Green Marketing is being used quite liberally in today's competitive world and is eyed as the future of marketing. Though the term Green Marketing is in vogue since the 80's it is still in a nascent stage and marketers are still to reach a critical mass and to remain forefront in the minds of the shoppers.

The new marketing approaches adopted by corporates speaks about Green, Environmental and Eco-marketing.

Let us understand What exactly is Green Marketing?

Green Marketing incorporates a broad range of activities, that includes Product modification, changes in the production process, packaging etc.

Green Marketing involves developing and promoting products and services that takes care of Quality, Performance, Affordable Pricing and Convenience without having a detrimental input on the environment.

Thus Green Marketing is the marketing of Products that is environmentally safe. Worldwide evidence indicates positive concerns shown by people about the environment but the grapevine is consumers are skeptical about the claims made by the companies however despite this people are changing their behaviour and Green Marketing has continued to gain adherents particularly int he light of adverse global changes.

The Green Marketing should constitute all the four P's of Marketing, today Green Marketing is increasingly is becoming inevitable for the companies.

Product – Made from recyled and used material, environmentally friendly and safe

Price – The Intially cost would be higher but helps in the long run.

Place – Logistic convenience will cut down on transportation emissions.

Promotion – environment friendly papers, usage of cloth / paper bags instead of plastics

As resources are limited, it is important for the marketers to utilise the resources efficiently without waste as well as to achieve the organisation's objective hence Green Marketing becomes inevitable. Also consumers are learning the importance of protecting the environment and are also trying to mould their behaviour.. As a result of which, Green Marketing has emerged as sustainable and socially responsible products and services.

Marketers should opt for Green Marketing as it not only provides them a competitive advantage but also helps them to sustain their profits in the long run apart from helping them find newer markets needless to mention it also serves as a cause to the society as Corporate Social Responsibility which many companies embracing it in India. Corporates are also embracing concepts like Car Pool, usage of natural lights or energy efficient products that help conserve lot of energy. Government is also trying to do their bit by converting public transport to CNG, giving preferences to solar powered products to encouraging companies who are in the business of battery operated vehicles.

The biggest challenge that Green Marketing faces are the requirement of renewable and recyclable material, requires a technology, that seeks huge investment in R & D, ‡and the biggest challenfe is majority of the corporates, consumers are not aware of green products and their uses ‡and hence are un-willing to pay a premium for green products.

Marketers would be wrong if they think customers are not concerned about environmental issues and hence will not pay a premium for products that are more eco-responsible. Green Marketing though still is in its infancy stage it needs to researched a lot to fully explore its potential.

To have a sustainable future corportates need to work on Green Marketing as businesses have a responsibility to satisfy human needs and desires while preserving the natural environment. Indeed, there are significant indications that environmental issues will grow in importance over the coming years and will require imaginative and innovative re-design and re-engineering of existing marketing efforts on the part of many businesses.

do we socialise more virtually rather than in reality.

While sitting at a waiting lounge at a client’s place alongside my colleague It suddenly dawned upon me there was hardly any communication happening between both of us as we both were busy playing with our handheld gadgets, sitting next to us were three executives of another organisation and they too were all busy with their gizmos least interacting with each other but very much active in a virtual world. This brings us to the point has gadgets really changed the way we think, act, interact, react, feel and do? Has it reduced interpersonal interactions?

It seems as if mobile phone owners are constantly chatting, texting, surfing the Web and playing games on their devices. I, wondered if the popularity of the hand held phones has caused people to become less social. After all, when people are busy with their handheld phones, they're not making small talk with the other people sitting next to them on the bus, train , public places etc.

People become reserved over time as they spend more hours plugged into their mobile phones. They forget, essentially, how to communicate with the strangers they encounter on the street. In the past, people would ask their bus or train mates how their days were going. Now, these same people will instead spend the entire commute reading sports scores or catching up on celebrity gossip with their smart phones browsers.

Until a few years ago we enjoyed our wait outside the client’s place, as along with our supervisors and peers we used to discuss about our industry, our organisation, the competition etc., which was enriching.  During the wait we were told how to make cold calling, managing  PR, ABC’s of maintaining relationship etc., and I, used to learn a lot when experiences were shared.

I, was taught the best way to spend time at a client’s waiting lounge is to pick up some books and read. Alas, today no books are kept at the waiting lounge, and in those places where it is still visible either a back dated issue are available or we ourselves are not interested in picking up the books. Today, however with the arrival of high end phones we are either busy sending mails or majority of our time is spent on social networking, we pretend to be very busy and display scant respect to others by continuously staring at the gadgets expecting a message to arrive every minute.

We text while we walk, drive, eat, there has been news that people have become Insomniac and some has developed the habit of texting even during their sleep. These days phones dominates our lives. Texting is also changing the importance of grammar and right spelling, causing many problems because people simply do not know how to write formally and accurately. IT is not a surprise when texting causes many problems both physically and mentally. 

We text even when the person we are contacting lives down the road or is at a longer distance,Grammar, spelling, syntax, abbreviation do not matter any more, which is why texting is largely popular with younger generation. Many people have expressed their concerns about the non-existence of grammar it seemed to have in our society in the present and text messaging is not helping to change the trend.

Are we then getting evolved negatively - A few years ago, people used to either meet for coffee stop by one's house or pick up the phone and call, today many people are more apt to learn or receive the latest news about one another through Facebook rather than from a personal inform. How many people learn about the happenings of family and friends online? even of those who live nearby? 

It is resulting in decreased face to face interaction, less phone calls, less one to one interaction (earlier during birthday's or marriage anniversary, we used to visit our dear and near ones, exchange greeting during festivals and share joy and happiness, but it is just a mere formality of sending a text message and greeting them). This significantly impacts interpersonal realtionship. Let's live out of this caged life and enjoy life to the fullest. Recently watched a marathi movie Ek Unaad Divaas, it teaches us how to enjoy life by living one day in a different way.

Tale of Udaipur's old city

On a recent visit to Udaipur was suggested an infamous hotel in old city for stay, Udaipur as we all know is city of lakes, known for majestic Palaces, many of those have been now converted to luxurious hotels and are the prime business of this city.

On reaching the city, the hunt for uncovering our hotel was initiated and I, began enquiring about the direction for reaching our terminus, traversing through narrow lanes for tracing the almost impossible location, this was in stark contrast from what we drove from Ahmedabad to Udaipur which is an excellent four lane highway road.  

At some point with no sight of the hotel I, parked my car and had to navigate through foot to discover the same. After discreet enquiries eureka I could locate ‘Hotel Tiger’ near Gangaur Ghat Chandpol. I wondered how Christopher Columbus would have stumbled upon America.

The roads leading to the hotel was not clean. Upon reaching the hotel I, was informed that this being an off-season they are not in a position to provide us any room service including tea/ coffee, breakfast, lunch etc. and we have to manage it on our own. To add to our already existing problems we were informed that they do not operate lift, and hence the only choice was to ascend the stairs, no parking space too sir was the reply. I was only blaming myself for such a choice of a hotel.

However on a closer look, I fell in awe of the property. The interiors were great as it was built on lines of a heritage property. Both the lobby and rooms were spotless. The white marble was sparkling and the ambience soothing. I wondered how in such a congested place they are able to manage and pull customers and run the hotel.

The whole marked was buzzling with activity. The way to the hotel was steered by a series of courtyards, overlapping terraces, corridors and gardens - a harmonic glut hard to describe. The place is housed with many antique articles, paintings, decorative furniture and utensils which would be attracting thousands of visitors every day and announcing availability of roof tops restaurants.

We have shops by the name of Bougainvillaea, Café Isaac with multilingual hoardings and this really caught my attention and to my surprise was made to understand that Gangaur ghat was earlier only visited by foreigners who used to spend months camping and visiting in and around places. Gangaur Ghat in Udaipur is the prime location for travellers, backpackers with lots of hotels, restaurants and cafes. This place is next to the famous City Palace and Bagore-ki-Haveli which is just walking distance away from the Ghat. This part of the city is beautifully restored and still holds the heritage of the ancient architecture.  I could still observe lot of foreigners walking across the streets.

For the convenience of foreign visitors all the hoardings had three or four foreign languages, infact the hotel menu card also had translation of names of food in four different languages. Incidentally all the hoardings screamed that they are recommended by Lonely Planet including the daily cooking classes.

The food that was dished upon was continental, Mexican, Korean and less of Indian. Cafe Edelweiss served continental dishes and sweets, Irish Coffee, Arabic Coffee, Cappuccino, Expresso, Mango crumble, Apple crumble, eggs, toast, Iced Tea.

I, was briefed that this entire area  experiences full visitors during winter season, majority of them being foreigners and the hotels are packed to their capacity and would be the best time of visit. The biggest surprise was the owner of the hotel was not an Indian but a German Gunther Maria Norrenburg settled in Udaipur for over a decade.

The purpose of writing this piece was though I, felt negativity at the first instance but there is so much to observe, learn and understand that this place can definitely be visited by families and would be a great place to spend and unwind.

A day in life at RTO

I, had the luxury of spoiling my smart card driving licence issued by RTO Gujarat State and upon enquiry was told that physically an individual needs to be present for obtaining a duplicate.

Earlier when I, had obtained the existing driving license, I had visited only the driving school and presto the driving license was handed over to me (only for formality sake had visited the RTO).

However I, was informed currently this practice has stopped and it is not possible to get it done through an agent as stringent and regular checks are in place, so I along with my colleague irritatingly reached Ahmedabad RTO only to find a huge queue already.

Reluctantly, grudgingly, or rather painfully we decided to endure the long queue, however during this ordeal I, had opportunity to observe a few interesting facts which made me ponder, even in such adversities how mankind looks for opportunities remember Sir Albert Einstein had quoted "In adversity lies opportunity."

In order to beat the heat, we had salesmen or rather sales women selling water in small pouches of Re. 1 each and for tea lovers like me, we had vendors selling tea, to idle our time groundnuts were being sold for munching, and while observing all the above suddenly I, could spot rag pickers coming to pick the empty plastic water pouches for re-selling it to vendors.

A gentleman came to sell smart looking covers for keeping the Smart Card intact without getting spoilt, another gentleman walked in with a pack of visiting cards specifying an address of nearby shop and urging people to laminate their old or new smart cards guaranteeing a longer shelf life.

A realisation dawned on me that a whole lot of entrepreneurial activities do happen around us without us, even realising it or that matter even the RTO authorities would not have realised how much entrepreneurship they must have generated.

This particular experience was unique; I could never imagine such experience could come from these sets of people. Here I, wish to borrow the words of the ancient Roman philosopher, Horace: “Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant”.

Luxury was mentioned in the first line because it gave me a good learning

Sports and Marketing

What a nerve wracking match the Vth and final decider match between India and South Africa turned out to be yesterday.

Finally the better team won; the lessons to be taken from yesterday’s game are grit & the positive attitude that differentiate men amongst the boys. How a single individual with the right positive approach, attitude, and passion can weaken a strong opposition.

The result was a foregone conclusion, the point that needs to be pondered are how Yusuf Pathan played mind game against the opposition; out playing them even though the chips were heavily loaded in favour of the opposition, speaks volume of what an individual can do. The grit and determination he displayed has to be commended.

I, am not here to analyse the plus and minuses of the game but how relevant games are in our day to day context and this made me sit up and analyse how games can be closely related to our sales and marketing lives.

The key attributes could be

 Confidence
 Discipline
 Focus
 Goal direction
 The drive
 Ambition
 Mental Toughness

We can probably deduce that the same characteristics apply to successful people in marketing, Sportsmen always are always on a lookout for a way to get an edge on their competition. A sound mental training can often make the difference between a winner and a loser.

Same techniques can help a marketing personnel to become more successful in both business and life. There are studies documenting the performance improvement that comes from spending 5-10 minutes a day visualising an upcoming competition.

Think about the performance improvements that could occur. It could make the difference between you and your competitors, or even between you and a peer going for the same promotion, no wonder Yusuf Pathan is the second highest paid player in IPL.

Sports can be a great metaphor for business, but we can and should apply more than just a story about a favorite player or team. If you want to get an edge on your competition, utilize some of the same techniques Sportsperson do.

We always crib that the targets are high and is un-achievable and whatever has been decided and handed over to us is from the perspective of the top management, the management is impractical, they do not understand the practical problems faced by Sales people in the field etc etc., thank God Pathan did not think negatively like that; else he single handedly would not have turned the match against proteas and made it more interesting; and worth the watch.

Reminded of one more old school of though “ Fortune favours the brave”

Yeh hain Mumbai Meri Jaan

It has been over a dozen years since I left Mumbai in the quest for both personal and professional life in a city that was unknown to me or even my entire generations of family could even think of, a city that was known to have only three climate, Bad, Very bad and “Ahmedabad”.

Without even knowing the “A” of “Ahmedabad” I, set of enthusiastically only to meet a friend for life “Murali” in Karnavati train itself (my tryst with train continued). We knew immediately that we have found in each other a friend for life. He was ever ready to help and a lot of credit goes to him for helping me to settle in this unknown city right from finding a hotel to stay till the set up of our first house.

Ahmedabad was polluted and the driving sense was pathetic (I should say it is still pathetic) with drivers pointing their legs as a signal when taking a turn; even the drinking water was heavy. There was no public transport and all were travelling in either their own two or four wheelers. I was told if I do not have a two wheeler it would be impossible to survive in this city. Left with no choice I purchased my first two wheeler (Kawasaki Bajaj) and learnt to ride, subsequently after a few years also learnt to drive a four wheeler (when I upgraded from a two wheeler to first free car of my life a FIAT of my editorial colleague Manas Dasgupta).

In Mumbai our life revolved around either a 7.55 AM or a 7.59 AM suburban local train for office and on our return journey it was a 7.36 PM or a 7.47 PM train. Local trains are the main life line and it was survival of the fittest, even a fraction of minute late the train would have chugged the railway station with your daily train-friends. We used to rue and dread thinking of even missing our daily specific local train.

In Ahmedabad life was terribly slow, laid back and to top it the Corporates were un-professional and it was very difficult to adjust with the professional background that I carried. Any business deal revolved only on contacts but yes the biggest advantage was because of the reduced travel time I had quality time to spend with my soul mate and friends. Families till date spend evenings together, as this is considered a luxury in a place like Mumbai (unless you are lucky to stay near your office).

During my initial days in Ahmedabad I stayed in a hotel named “Metropole” opposite a prominent landmark of the area – Bijli Ghar and from there I used to commute to the office. I found two generous media-friends in Rajesh and Rutesh; who used to work in Anand Bazaar Patrika group then, and they were a great help to me.

Slowly I, got accustomed to the customs and tradition of this city and I, was ably helped by all citizens of Ahmedabad be it in personal life or professional life. Like there is a saying in Mumbai - Mumbai absorbs and gives a fresh lease of life to all newcomers who come to the city on a look out for a livelihood, similarly Ahmedabad absorbed me.

In Ahmedabad I started visiting residences of media friends and used to be in regular touch. Slowly Ahmedabad also became fast paced (though it will never match the pace of Mumbai) but yes the entire skyline of this city has changed for good, the roads, the infrastructure, the attitude, and the professionalism (though still a few people will never learn that). The pollution levels have come down drastically, and for experiencing Ahmedabad you will have to visit and feel this city to experience Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS) which by far is the best in our country.

In Ahmedabad after a few years I got introduced to a community member Mr. Ramani and since then have been involved in lot of socio-religious programme and would want “Shree Asthika Samaj” to achieve greater heights in days to come. Through the samaj I, came in contact with many like-minded fellow South Indians and we will always want to be under a single umbrella for the betterment of community.

So Ahmedabad has definitely given me many things which I cherish. I used to frequently visit Mumbai and recently re-visited Mumbai for four days and this trip became a revelation. I was reminded of the good old days of catching the train on time and had to travel during the first two days by the 7.29 am, the 3.33 pm, and the 6.46 pm local which actually refreshed all the memories of Mumbai and reminded me about the time I spent in this wonderful city.

We really miss those deadlines of running after public transport like train; buses etc life in Mumbai was always great. It was always survival of the fittest in Mumbai, you love it or hate it but the local train is indeed your true friend

During this trip, I also, was fortunate enough to meet my childhood chums Sunil, Kishore and Francis and felt truly elated.

Suddenly I felt I was never away from this city. It was almost a decade that I spent away but Mumbai remained with me forever. I always used to think that if I stay longer away from Mumbai I, will slowly start forgetting Mumbai but somebody has rightly said you can take a person away from Mumbai but Mumbai cannot be taken away from him (the Mumbaikar in me still remains). Mumbai is the place where I met my soul mate who really has played a bigger role in changing our life (Seen the Hindi remake “Saathiya” – perhaps the Tamil movie (Alaipayuthey) director Mani Ratnam took leaf or rather was inspired from our story and he is a celebrity), this could possibly summarise why a Mumbaikar life revolves around Local train. Saluting 157 years of local train service in Mumbai.(NEXT TAKE ON RAINS AND MUMBAI)

The Indian Rupee

The Government on Thursday 15, July 2010 adopted a new symbol for the rupee that shall be used henceforth to represent the Indian currency in all written and electronic communication worldwide thus joining the elite club of currencies such as UK's pound sterling, US dollar and the Japanese Yen that are identified by a symbol.

The Indian Government is of the opinion, with this the Indian rupee will also be seen as a distinct entity from its name sakes in the neighbouring countries such as Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, where either rupee or rupaiah are in vogue.

The question to ponder is are we not already different than these countries? and these countries have grown at our own expense and more so as an off shoot of our country.

The old adage “Every coin has two sides” a few citizens may speak for it and a few may against, but as a true Indian nobody would doubt the reasons beyond the making of the symbol.

When we speak about Indian economy do we really need this facial make over?

Will this have any impact to the vast majority of Indians who strive to have the basic necessity i.e. the “Roti, Kapda aur Makaan …” these, three words that have been used often by the leaders of our country to convince people of their priorities and to show the masses that they care? But sadly, more often than not, such promises have remained just words and nothing beyond.

Though our economy has grown over the last 60+ post Independence years and we have achieved a lot; but the rich - poor divide still remains. We still have not made a difference in the lives of millions of our citizens.

Today the need is more than ever for both the private and the Government sector to take this challenge and work together in cooperation and contribute to make a small difference in the lives of citizens and this would surely go a long way in creating a strong India.

Nevertheless it is a very bold move and we all should congratulate ourselves and wish the rupee creates its own identity and really become a leader as compared to other currencies.

Embracing Change

From a single page newspapers and silent movies to single screen theatre to television to cable TV invasion to internet content on one’s fingertips the media is undergoing a rapid evolution. We talk about the shrinking global village but the true potential of media and its reach is yet to be unleashed.

It has already begun with the fast changes on all fronts of digital media including improvement in handset features, network bandwidth and quality & variety of content. Mobile has fast evolved from just being a device to talk to a centerpiece of our lives. Smartphones with better operating systems, high-speed Internet networks, falling prices and a plethora of content will fuel the mobile boom.

As if all these were not enough, the zeal to make the device more user-friendly introduction of Wi-Fi enabled phones that can connect to the selected Wi-Fi hot spots. The Wi-Fi enabled phones are now the most happening thing seeking to grow with time.

Now with the advent of 3G, the mobile penetration level India is perfectly poised to leapfrog the internet revolution to land directly into the mobile broadband revolution.

e-mailing options have made man completely mobile and also the additional features like allowing the user to attach files and documents that they have worked upon in their Office and business applications, are also installed onto their mobile. Technologies like GPRS, EDGE, and Bluetooth have become more user friendly.

The biggest advantage of mobile marketing is that since the message is delivered on the mobile phone, a personal device, the target respondent ends up taking notice of the campaign and this can add to the campaign effectively.

The other sweeping changes happening in mobile world is that of Viral distribution as it is the key to growing online web services, moreover it provides a very low user-acquisition cost. Without viral distribution PC-based online services like facebook would never have been able to grow to the level that they have without huge investment in marketing.
Marketers are integrating Viral marketing mechanisms with social networking sites like Facebook mainly through developing facebook application which can be promoted within the news feeds or through mass invites

Advertisers are clamoring to reach teens in digital environments because that's where they're spending much of their time either online, with cell phones or playing video games, the biggest innovation being handsets are getting thinner by the day and in the next few years, cell phone networks will move data at several megabits per second, and will coexist with WiMax, and Wi-Fi. Geographic ads targeting to teens via the phone is expected to explode in the coming years.

Yahoo is banking on mobile devices for future growth particularly in Asia as consumers leapfrog cumbersome computers to access the Internet via feature packed handheld gadgets.

The analog-to-digital conversion will make it possible for teens to watch live TV on portable devices. The technology will help the television networks target programming to specific audiences, and that will buoy the cost of advertising,

Just as we learn ABC in Kindergarden the Value Added Service (VAS) business model in our country also has started by identifying the ABC genres i.e. Astrology, Bollywood and Cricket. The first wave of applications was focused on ABC since the consumers were exploring mobile as a medium and were getting used to it. In the first wave of mobile VAS, service providers could get away with sending the same content to the large and varied Indian population e.g. Bollywood content to every user whether he is in Kanyakumari or Kashmir. However users are now looking for varieties of content tailored to suit their individual tastes. All in all there is business in addressing the long tail of customers also.

In the age of convergence the prominent growth driver of VAS would be the consumer’s desire of getting more from their mobile phones. In our country where culture plays a very prominent role and each of the 28 states is as different as a country the regional content will give a big boost to VAS market. The bigger challenge will be to generate relevant content catering to both regional and language differences.
TV channels and FM Channels have already joined the bandwagon, all the big TV channels have started sending their contents through short codes and the success can already be gauged by the increasing reality shows in India.

Infact we have barely scratched the surface of the Mobile, it is perhaps the most important screens in our lives today.