Ones again Shiv Sena showed its extremely myopic, restricted and selfish philosophy. Even the most insane person on earthshall never be able to express this senseless, ludicrous and disgusting remark of calling a man, who dedicated more thanhalf his life for the love of his country and made his heart to dedicate his every beat to the cause of his nation.
It further proves that Shiv Sena Supremo has really gone old and probably he himself doesnt know, what language is he using and for whom.
Probably Shiv Sena is loosing its own focus and is getting doubtful about its own existence in the wake ofMNS's one point agenda of dividing the country by hook or crook.
All said and done, MNS is surely creating a dent and breaking the vote bank of Shiv Sena, and Sena is almost getting clueless and directionless under the leadership of a directionless, old tiger..
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Stay in the Game
Almost after a fortnight I was back on the tennis court. All my joints were cracking and muscles had just lost their elasticity. But no issues, I had been familiar with this body condition of my mine so many times earlier, that it really didn’t mattered.
I reached my tennis club pretty late in the morning so couldn’t meet my usual doubles partners for a good 3 setter game like we usually play.
But caught hold of one kid who has played in few under-16 state level tournaments and is on circuit for past many years. She is one of the better kids at the club and hence I thought its going to be a good practice to hit few shots with her.
After an hour of practice, I felt my body moving more rhythmically and shots were falling where I wanted to.
Finally we thought of playing a 2-3 setter match, depending upon how much our body can support, since the weather was quite hot, but thankfully not very humid.
The girl’s temperament totally changed when I named our practice session as a MATCH.
She started hitting really hard, playing serve and volley game and made me run all over the court. I was hitting too many unforced errors, every time I tried to hit a winner shot on her service or even during the volleys. I started trying harder but no luck. I was down 2-0 in the first set, as she won her serve and broke mine too. I was feeling a bit dejected, but thought I don’t have anything to loose so lets try to just hit the volleys, make her play more shots and try to hang around as much as I can.
I was not trying to put too much power in my shots, since i planned to play longer rallies, by placing the ball all over the ocourt with low height volleys, long lob shots, drop shots, slicing on the backhand. Somehow the tactic paid off. She started loosing her patience since I was not hitting very hard but just returning her shots most of the time. Finally I won my first point of the day.
In the next game. She started hitting harder than before, which lead to committing more and more errors. Finally I won the first set 6-4. Trust me; it was a quite brave attempt on my part!. She had gone pretty exhausted and so was I, the weather had taken a little toll on our bodies, but we decided to play a decider set.. We started our next set and I applied the same tactics. By the time i was leading the set 3-0, she had really lost her patience, shouting at her own self, every time she missed a shot, and once even threw her racket on the ground when she hit 2 double faults back to back. I finally ended the set 6-3 and won the match 6-4, 6-3.
Well it was not such a big occasion to write it down on my blog, to win a match against a kid, half of my age :-). But keeping in mind that, the kid is playing tennis for past 4 years, have been participating in state-level tournaments quite often and aspiring to play in grand slams oneday and I have been playing for less than 4 months only as a part of my fitness routine, I think it was quite a commendable job.
then why did I shared this small, stupid and funny incident? Not to get any applauds or appreciation from you guys, but the thought which struck to me later sitting at home while recalling the morning the game. The corporate life, business, competition, and strategy for survival!
Let me represent myself as one of those old organisations, which have been running successfully for many years in the market. With various ups n downs, booking profits as well as losses at times, but still successfully managing to run and fight against all odds and market conditions.
Suddenly a new competitor arrives (the kid), with lot of fire power, enthusiasm, new techniques, strategies, technologies, and starts giving me big competition in the market place. My established roots get a little shaken. The company is not performing as it should. So we also try to adopt the same strategies, work for longer hours, stretch my manpower for higher targets, and pushing every thing and everyone in the organisation to reach the next level.
Then the management realises, that, by putting more investment, pushing employees to work extra hours, giving stiffer targets to sales team, there strategies have brought just a marked difference compared to what they were doing earlier. The cost-benefit analysis shows that the extra efforts put in have not yielded any desired results. In this scenario the management can adopt a new technique, which i experienced today in my game. To simply follow the competition, give to the market what the competition is also giving, adopt similar kind of communication strategies and overall, just stay at a nagging distance to the competition that it can see you from the corner. In a marketing jargon, I can say behave like a ‘follower brand’ (me the old brand) to a challenger brand (kid the new competition).
In this kind of scenario, there is a high possibility that the challenger brand will explore harder, for new strategies, new products, may be new distribution and logistics mechanism, reduce costs etc, to displace me; but my management has decided to simply hang around and put in enough efforts to maintain the current market position.
Generally the tendency of these extremely passionate, ambitious and determined guys, who have been winning all the time, is there vulnerability to loss. They get extremely scared of loosing the battle, they always want to stay number one. And when they see a competition consistently follow them for quite sometime, they are likely to commit mistakes, as they keep trying harder and harder and likely to go overboard at times, in gaining that EXTRA mileage over the competition.
So that’s how, a small tennis game with a kid, taught me a business strategy which might be helpful to evade competition and survive in the market.
“Sometimes it’s advisable to just try and stay in the game and let the competition try harder. In doing so, you are making the competition more vulnerable to commit mistakes, and eventually you can be winner!”
I reached my tennis club pretty late in the morning so couldn’t meet my usual doubles partners for a good 3 setter game like we usually play.
But caught hold of one kid who has played in few under-16 state level tournaments and is on circuit for past many years. She is one of the better kids at the club and hence I thought its going to be a good practice to hit few shots with her.
After an hour of practice, I felt my body moving more rhythmically and shots were falling where I wanted to.
Finally we thought of playing a 2-3 setter match, depending upon how much our body can support, since the weather was quite hot, but thankfully not very humid.
The girl’s temperament totally changed when I named our practice session as a MATCH.
She started hitting really hard, playing serve and volley game and made me run all over the court. I was hitting too many unforced errors, every time I tried to hit a winner shot on her service or even during the volleys. I started trying harder but no luck. I was down 2-0 in the first set, as she won her serve and broke mine too. I was feeling a bit dejected, but thought I don’t have anything to loose so lets try to just hit the volleys, make her play more shots and try to hang around as much as I can.
I was not trying to put too much power in my shots, since i planned to play longer rallies, by placing the ball all over the ocourt with low height volleys, long lob shots, drop shots, slicing on the backhand. Somehow the tactic paid off. She started loosing her patience since I was not hitting very hard but just returning her shots most of the time. Finally I won my first point of the day.
In the next game. She started hitting harder than before, which lead to committing more and more errors. Finally I won the first set 6-4. Trust me; it was a quite brave attempt on my part!. She had gone pretty exhausted and so was I, the weather had taken a little toll on our bodies, but we decided to play a decider set.. We started our next set and I applied the same tactics. By the time i was leading the set 3-0, she had really lost her patience, shouting at her own self, every time she missed a shot, and once even threw her racket on the ground when she hit 2 double faults back to back. I finally ended the set 6-3 and won the match 6-4, 6-3.
Well it was not such a big occasion to write it down on my blog, to win a match against a kid, half of my age :-). But keeping in mind that, the kid is playing tennis for past 4 years, have been participating in state-level tournaments quite often and aspiring to play in grand slams oneday and I have been playing for less than 4 months only as a part of my fitness routine, I think it was quite a commendable job.
then why did I shared this small, stupid and funny incident? Not to get any applauds or appreciation from you guys, but the thought which struck to me later sitting at home while recalling the morning the game. The corporate life, business, competition, and strategy for survival!
Let me represent myself as one of those old organisations, which have been running successfully for many years in the market. With various ups n downs, booking profits as well as losses at times, but still successfully managing to run and fight against all odds and market conditions.
Suddenly a new competitor arrives (the kid), with lot of fire power, enthusiasm, new techniques, strategies, technologies, and starts giving me big competition in the market place. My established roots get a little shaken. The company is not performing as it should. So we also try to adopt the same strategies, work for longer hours, stretch my manpower for higher targets, and pushing every thing and everyone in the organisation to reach the next level.
Then the management realises, that, by putting more investment, pushing employees to work extra hours, giving stiffer targets to sales team, there strategies have brought just a marked difference compared to what they were doing earlier. The cost-benefit analysis shows that the extra efforts put in have not yielded any desired results. In this scenario the management can adopt a new technique, which i experienced today in my game. To simply follow the competition, give to the market what the competition is also giving, adopt similar kind of communication strategies and overall, just stay at a nagging distance to the competition that it can see you from the corner. In a marketing jargon, I can say behave like a ‘follower brand’ (me the old brand) to a challenger brand (kid the new competition).
In this kind of scenario, there is a high possibility that the challenger brand will explore harder, for new strategies, new products, may be new distribution and logistics mechanism, reduce costs etc, to displace me; but my management has decided to simply hang around and put in enough efforts to maintain the current market position.
Generally the tendency of these extremely passionate, ambitious and determined guys, who have been winning all the time, is there vulnerability to loss. They get extremely scared of loosing the battle, they always want to stay number one. And when they see a competition consistently follow them for quite sometime, they are likely to commit mistakes, as they keep trying harder and harder and likely to go overboard at times, in gaining that EXTRA mileage over the competition.
So that’s how, a small tennis game with a kid, taught me a business strategy which might be helpful to evade competition and survive in the market.
“Sometimes it’s advisable to just try and stay in the game and let the competition try harder. In doing so, you are making the competition more vulnerable to commit mistakes, and eventually you can be winner!”
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Is Being simple, too complicated?
This question keeps floating in my mind quite often. Is being simple, too complicated, or presenting a complex and complicated personality considered to be an IN-THING these days.
In today’s society when networking, communication, socialising have become the biggest tools and parameters which define the success rate of an individual, simplicity or an ordinary behaviour is loosing its sheen.
Often people misunderstand a person, who doesn’t speak a slanged language with Queen’s English and cosmetic expressions, as a person who is socially inactive or who is too plain Jane and ‘not there type’.
But to some extent, the society can’t be blamed for making such an opinion about someone. The world is moving too fast, and one need to be little manipulative, little street smart and have to have a sharp presence of mind to stay tall; be at the work place or at a social gathering.
However one can remain street smart as well as simple at the sametime, but they need to be very clear how do they want the society to look up to them. In marketing jargon, I can say, what kind of positioning the person wants to create for himself in the society and how he want others to perceive him.
There is a place for pseudo-intellectuals as well as plan Jane Gandhians in this society; it’s just a matter of how someone wants to be remembered as.
In today’s society when networking, communication, socialising have become the biggest tools and parameters which define the success rate of an individual, simplicity or an ordinary behaviour is loosing its sheen.
Often people misunderstand a person, who doesn’t speak a slanged language with Queen’s English and cosmetic expressions, as a person who is socially inactive or who is too plain Jane and ‘not there type’.
But to some extent, the society can’t be blamed for making such an opinion about someone. The world is moving too fast, and one need to be little manipulative, little street smart and have to have a sharp presence of mind to stay tall; be at the work place or at a social gathering.
However one can remain street smart as well as simple at the sametime, but they need to be very clear how do they want the society to look up to them. In marketing jargon, I can say, what kind of positioning the person wants to create for himself in the society and how he want others to perceive him.
There is a place for pseudo-intellectuals as well as plan Jane Gandhians in this society; it’s just a matter of how someone wants to be remembered as.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Debate or NO Debate: Should Jaswant Singh’s book be banned in India
I have been following so many blogs as well as magazines, newspapers, television etc, and just fail to understand why this issue has become a bone of contention.
At the same time it was quite overwhelming to see that almost 80% of the young Indians believe that the book should be published on the grounds that India is a democratic country and everybody has a right to speech and expressions. The other school of thought is that, the book carries personal opinions of Mr.Jaswant Singh and it has nothing to do with BJP party agenda or its philosophy, so who is BJP to decide weather the book should be published or not!!!
One thing I have observed, is that since the exit of Mr. Vajpayee from BJP, it has completely gone into shambles. Every party worker voices his own opinions and dictates’. Be it Modi, who was once a self proclaimed Prime ministerial candidate and later it became party agenda to fight 2009 Lok Sabha elections, or the differences arised between Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley, then difference of opinion on the Varun Gandhi speech issue, and suddenly issue of black money parked in swiss accounts became an election agenda. The motto of MAZBOOT NETA NIRNAYAK SARKAR was a good advertising punchline but the fact of the matter is it was never accepted by the people of India, which was evident from the results. Even today we are yet to hear BJP in a single voice. The party is just running without any agenda or motto like a headless chicken. I have deliberately not mentioned the Vijayraje Scindia issue.
The way Jaswant Singh has been dishonoured and expelled from the party, shows the complete absence of spirit of solidarity, respect and camaraderie even towards the senior party members.
Jaswant Singh has remained one of the most non-controversial BJP leaders for decades. We have hardly seen him coming up with non-secular views or religion biased opinions ever in his speeches, this could itself be one of the reasons that in someway the questions cudve have been raised on his loyalty by many party workers in the past also. And this latest issue gave them a chance to show him the exit door.
It’s a very sorry state of affairs and shows how brittle the unity and internal party politics is within BJP.
Coming back to this book and his opinion on Jinnah, I think it will be extremely disappointing and heart breaking to see such a book not coming on to stands. Such things are actually very common across the borders. Let us behave like citizens of a civilised society where respect is given to everyone’s personal opinions. Having difference in opinion and observations will always exist, but that’s how the good and bad philosophies of any social, religious or political issues are segregated.
More over such acts hurt the image of the country globally. These party actions taken in haste not only dent the image of the party, at the same time, it sets bad examples about the Indian political system to the outside world.
At the time when we are already trying to improve our tarnished global image due security issues being raised by so many countries (the latest being pull out of Australian and British teams from the World Cup badminton championship tournament organised in Hyderabad). More so at the time when commonwealth games are round the corner, the exit of Britain surely has not left a good taste in the mind of many other commonwealth member countries.
We cannot get judgemental and create an opinion without understanding the root cause for any issue or a problem merely on baseless speeches of handful of politically motivated individuals who themselves are not clear about there own reason for existence!.
People have hardly read the book, it’s not even on stands, but everyone has started making their own pre conceived notions. Let us get the book in the stores. All of us have read the history million times, some of us know the past, some have vague idea of the past and some are clueless about it. I think this book will bring out more ideas, more opinions, more observations and more views on the subject.
We cannot sit back and keep discussing weather creation of Pakistan was right or wrong. It’s been more than 50 years since Pakistan was created; it is now a recognised country by United Nations and every other global and political agency. Let us accept this fact and stay focused on our own agenda, rather than keep scratching the past wounds and keep debating that who created this wound, why it happened, weather this injury is justified or not, or was this injury a blessing in disguise for the people of India as well as Pakistan!
Jaswant Singh has put forward his opinion on the subject, lets look at them, understand his views also and that’s it. Lot of people said, it’s a way to grab a share of Muslim vote bank! Very very myopic view I must say! If name of Jinnah can pull vote bank, then only God can help this country. His book is not going to change the history; his book is not going to create any further divide between people of India and Pakistan. His book is just a collection of his own ideologies, believes and opinion on the subject. Those who want to understand buy it, others move on.
After all AUR BHI GHAM HAIN HINDUSTAN MEIN, JINKO BHARNEY KE LIYE MARHAM CHAHIYE AUR EK DOOSREY KA SAATH CHAHIYE!
At the same time it was quite overwhelming to see that almost 80% of the young Indians believe that the book should be published on the grounds that India is a democratic country and everybody has a right to speech and expressions. The other school of thought is that, the book carries personal opinions of Mr.Jaswant Singh and it has nothing to do with BJP party agenda or its philosophy, so who is BJP to decide weather the book should be published or not!!!
One thing I have observed, is that since the exit of Mr. Vajpayee from BJP, it has completely gone into shambles. Every party worker voices his own opinions and dictates’. Be it Modi, who was once a self proclaimed Prime ministerial candidate and later it became party agenda to fight 2009 Lok Sabha elections, or the differences arised between Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley, then difference of opinion on the Varun Gandhi speech issue, and suddenly issue of black money parked in swiss accounts became an election agenda. The motto of MAZBOOT NETA NIRNAYAK SARKAR was a good advertising punchline but the fact of the matter is it was never accepted by the people of India, which was evident from the results. Even today we are yet to hear BJP in a single voice. The party is just running without any agenda or motto like a headless chicken. I have deliberately not mentioned the Vijayraje Scindia issue.
The way Jaswant Singh has been dishonoured and expelled from the party, shows the complete absence of spirit of solidarity, respect and camaraderie even towards the senior party members.
Jaswant Singh has remained one of the most non-controversial BJP leaders for decades. We have hardly seen him coming up with non-secular views or religion biased opinions ever in his speeches, this could itself be one of the reasons that in someway the questions cudve have been raised on his loyalty by many party workers in the past also. And this latest issue gave them a chance to show him the exit door.
It’s a very sorry state of affairs and shows how brittle the unity and internal party politics is within BJP.
Coming back to this book and his opinion on Jinnah, I think it will be extremely disappointing and heart breaking to see such a book not coming on to stands. Such things are actually very common across the borders. Let us behave like citizens of a civilised society where respect is given to everyone’s personal opinions. Having difference in opinion and observations will always exist, but that’s how the good and bad philosophies of any social, religious or political issues are segregated.
More over such acts hurt the image of the country globally. These party actions taken in haste not only dent the image of the party, at the same time, it sets bad examples about the Indian political system to the outside world.
At the time when we are already trying to improve our tarnished global image due security issues being raised by so many countries (the latest being pull out of Australian and British teams from the World Cup badminton championship tournament organised in Hyderabad). More so at the time when commonwealth games are round the corner, the exit of Britain surely has not left a good taste in the mind of many other commonwealth member countries.
We cannot get judgemental and create an opinion without understanding the root cause for any issue or a problem merely on baseless speeches of handful of politically motivated individuals who themselves are not clear about there own reason for existence!.
People have hardly read the book, it’s not even on stands, but everyone has started making their own pre conceived notions. Let us get the book in the stores. All of us have read the history million times, some of us know the past, some have vague idea of the past and some are clueless about it. I think this book will bring out more ideas, more opinions, more observations and more views on the subject.
We cannot sit back and keep discussing weather creation of Pakistan was right or wrong. It’s been more than 50 years since Pakistan was created; it is now a recognised country by United Nations and every other global and political agency. Let us accept this fact and stay focused on our own agenda, rather than keep scratching the past wounds and keep debating that who created this wound, why it happened, weather this injury is justified or not, or was this injury a blessing in disguise for the people of India as well as Pakistan!
Jaswant Singh has put forward his opinion on the subject, lets look at them, understand his views also and that’s it. Lot of people said, it’s a way to grab a share of Muslim vote bank! Very very myopic view I must say! If name of Jinnah can pull vote bank, then only God can help this country. His book is not going to change the history; his book is not going to create any further divide between people of India and Pakistan. His book is just a collection of his own ideologies, believes and opinion on the subject. Those who want to understand buy it, others move on.
After all AUR BHI GHAM HAIN HINDUSTAN MEIN, JINKO BHARNEY KE LIYE MARHAM CHAHIYE AUR EK DOOSREY KA SAATH CHAHIYE!
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Challenges of a marketer with GENERATION Y - (The YOUNG ONES)
The ever burgeoning middle income community of India is the biggest diaspora which is attacked by almost every product, every service and every brand. Forget about the brand, (as there are too many), think about the product or services which doesn’t come in front of your eyes in your daily life. Soap, car, bike, television, beauty parlor, health clinic, shampoo, salt, credit card, insurance plan, burger, pizzas, a house, office space, holiday package, a website, networking portal, anti virus software and many more things. Can you name which of the above product is such which either you have never used or whose's promotion you have not seen in some way or the other?
You must have realized now that almost every product or service mentioned above has surely passed by your eyes in some form or the other even if you have not used it. Be it an email lying in your junk folder unattended, billboard on road, shop interiors, television ad, radio spot, bus stop, railway station, Metro Station, Tubes, inside train compartments, SMS, IVR, Carry Bags, inside cricket stadium and many more such locations.
Everything is targeted towards US (The bulk of middle income INDIAN).
With media playing the biggest role, every Indian is getting exposed to the western culture, what they wear, how they wear, and over all, how do they live? Unfortunately, though every westerner has accepted the grandness, culture, rich heritage of the country and sound economic growth and high quality of Indians in the professional field; which is proven in the form of Vikrat Pandit, Indira Nooyi, Lakshmi Mittal, to name a few who have created niche for themselves on global inc. or our home grown Tatas, Ambani brothers, Birla or Modi groups, but still majority of Indians still feel and try to close on their heels and walk like a Firang.
This puts a greater challenge to a marketer to devise a strategy which not only converts a consumer into customer of his brand as well as sticks to it. Hence even to attract a house wife and influence her to buy a pack of washing powder, he needs to make the promo full of jazz and flashy layout to create some space and recall value for his brand in the mind of the housewife (TG).
India being one of the youngest nations with more than 50% population around 25 years of age makes it easy and yet challenging to identify a segment and create a pull for the brand.
With some extra digital effects, loud background sound, an almost firang looking women in the AD, are some of the ingredients which are used by almost every marketer today to create a message that stands out and develops a recall value in the mind of this ME-TOO. But will this communication guarantee the marketer that it will influence the TG and turn his purchase decision in favor of the brand?
As on date I have not come across any proven theory or a formula which gives us a guarantee and delivers the expected result.
The consumer has umpteen options, variants, and choices in terms of brands as well as products to satisfy his different needs. This leads the marketers to explore more n more unconventional and different mediums to reach out and communicate to his TG in a unique manner.
And thus while exploring for such options to reach out to their audience, at one point they land up hanging a hoarding on a shopping mall facade, because that’s where consumer goes to shop and also sending a mailer to his inbox, because that’s where he connects to the world.
I term this community which is extremely volatile, brand conscious, trends conscious, not ready to compromise with next best option, as GENERATION - Y(where Y stands for YOUNG)... is surely going to raise the bar of Indian advertising as well as marketing fraternity. It will keep throwing the newer and tougher challenges to the Indian marketer and test his creativity as well as patience to reach him in the most effective manner.
With downward trend of global economy not likely to return to growth trajectory, and increasing number of job losses, salary cuts, reducing incentives, are further leading to restrict the purchasing power of the middle income household. At the same time CEOs are getting more demanding and stricter towards allocation and spends of marketing budgets against the delivered results.
As a marketer myself, I see fewer options for my other counterparts in the industry. Firstly, make a more concentrated effort and clearer objectives as well as deliverables from your marketing plan.
Secondly, have more and more interaction and combined brainstorm sessions with the sales team, to understand their objective and understand there strategy to reach out to their clients and business partners.
Based upon the thorough study of the organizational objective and sales team objective, identify the need gaps and put the same in front of the advertising agency, PR agency and whom so ever is required to be part of your marketing plan.
Before identifying the tools, media vehicles, campaigns, go back to the sales team and give them a ball park idea of how the mar-com team has planned to fill those gaps which were identified earlier.
Lot of negatives and NOs will be heard, but end of the day, one will come up with a conclusion to either revisit the whole strategy or start cutting and trimming the current flow of strategy.
But in doing all these, one should never forget the timelines. One needs to strictly adhere to the set deadlines or else the crux of this whole exercise will be lost.
“A perfect marketing strategy implemented at wrong time, is a total failure”
The bottom line for effective usage of marketing budget in today’s times to reach out to your GENERATION Y is to have a more concerted approach at the grass root level of exploring a strategy devised in conjunction with sales force and other stakeholders.
Based upon this feedback, there is a possibility to device a strategy which can give near expected results, but still…………………………………Not a Guarantee J
-Shad Zaman
Is a marketer, brand consultant, reader, sports freak, music lover, photographer, consumer, and a common man. He can be reached at shadzaman@gmail.com.
You must have realized now that almost every product or service mentioned above has surely passed by your eyes in some form or the other even if you have not used it. Be it an email lying in your junk folder unattended, billboard on road, shop interiors, television ad, radio spot, bus stop, railway station, Metro Station, Tubes, inside train compartments, SMS, IVR, Carry Bags, inside cricket stadium and many more such locations.
Everything is targeted towards US (The bulk of middle income INDIAN).
With media playing the biggest role, every Indian is getting exposed to the western culture, what they wear, how they wear, and over all, how do they live? Unfortunately, though every westerner has accepted the grandness, culture, rich heritage of the country and sound economic growth and high quality of Indians in the professional field; which is proven in the form of Vikrat Pandit, Indira Nooyi, Lakshmi Mittal, to name a few who have created niche for themselves on global inc. or our home grown Tatas, Ambani brothers, Birla or Modi groups, but still majority of Indians still feel and try to close on their heels and walk like a Firang.
This puts a greater challenge to a marketer to devise a strategy which not only converts a consumer into customer of his brand as well as sticks to it. Hence even to attract a house wife and influence her to buy a pack of washing powder, he needs to make the promo full of jazz and flashy layout to create some space and recall value for his brand in the mind of the housewife (TG).
India being one of the youngest nations with more than 50% population around 25 years of age makes it easy and yet challenging to identify a segment and create a pull for the brand.
With some extra digital effects, loud background sound, an almost firang looking women in the AD, are some of the ingredients which are used by almost every marketer today to create a message that stands out and develops a recall value in the mind of this ME-TOO. But will this communication guarantee the marketer that it will influence the TG and turn his purchase decision in favor of the brand?
As on date I have not come across any proven theory or a formula which gives us a guarantee and delivers the expected result.
The consumer has umpteen options, variants, and choices in terms of brands as well as products to satisfy his different needs. This leads the marketers to explore more n more unconventional and different mediums to reach out and communicate to his TG in a unique manner.
And thus while exploring for such options to reach out to their audience, at one point they land up hanging a hoarding on a shopping mall facade, because that’s where consumer goes to shop and also sending a mailer to his inbox, because that’s where he connects to the world.
I term this community which is extremely volatile, brand conscious, trends conscious, not ready to compromise with next best option, as GENERATION - Y(where Y stands for YOUNG)... is surely going to raise the bar of Indian advertising as well as marketing fraternity. It will keep throwing the newer and tougher challenges to the Indian marketer and test his creativity as well as patience to reach him in the most effective manner.
With downward trend of global economy not likely to return to growth trajectory, and increasing number of job losses, salary cuts, reducing incentives, are further leading to restrict the purchasing power of the middle income household. At the same time CEOs are getting more demanding and stricter towards allocation and spends of marketing budgets against the delivered results.
As a marketer myself, I see fewer options for my other counterparts in the industry. Firstly, make a more concentrated effort and clearer objectives as well as deliverables from your marketing plan.
Secondly, have more and more interaction and combined brainstorm sessions with the sales team, to understand their objective and understand there strategy to reach out to their clients and business partners.
Based upon the thorough study of the organizational objective and sales team objective, identify the need gaps and put the same in front of the advertising agency, PR agency and whom so ever is required to be part of your marketing plan.
Before identifying the tools, media vehicles, campaigns, go back to the sales team and give them a ball park idea of how the mar-com team has planned to fill those gaps which were identified earlier.
Lot of negatives and NOs will be heard, but end of the day, one will come up with a conclusion to either revisit the whole strategy or start cutting and trimming the current flow of strategy.
But in doing all these, one should never forget the timelines. One needs to strictly adhere to the set deadlines or else the crux of this whole exercise will be lost.
“A perfect marketing strategy implemented at wrong time, is a total failure”
The bottom line for effective usage of marketing budget in today’s times to reach out to your GENERATION Y is to have a more concerted approach at the grass root level of exploring a strategy devised in conjunction with sales force and other stakeholders.
Based upon this feedback, there is a possibility to device a strategy which can give near expected results, but still…………………………………Not a Guarantee J
-Shad Zaman
Is a marketer, brand consultant, reader, sports freak, music lover, photographer, consumer, and a common man. He can be reached at shadzaman@gmail.com.
Will the city of Gold glitter again?
Dubai has always been a hunting ground for skilled and semi-skilled professionals from Indian sub-continent, South East Asia, Africa, various Arab countries as well as Europe and America.
However nobody expected to see or experience what they are going through for past one year, including myself!
The coffee table discussions have changed from “how much increment you expect this year?” to “How many laid off from your company?”
In real sense Dubai has started bleeding from the recession blows; however there are still arguments whether Dubai is yet to hit by recession.
A brief outlook on recent incidents:
More than 100,000 expats from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have left UAE in past 3 months; similar figures can be expected for other nationalities too.
There are no or meager increments, people are getting for their efforts put last year.
The tourist visit was almost less by 30% this year compared to last year during Dubai Shopping Festival.
Thousands of Transfer applications are lying with Embassy and schools for those who want to send their families or kids back to home country after end of their school exams.
The banks, financial institutions and realty developers have reduced their work force in the range of 20-30% from across the verticals.
More than half of development projects have been put on hold, postponed or cancelled due to lack of funds.
The banks are either not issuing any loans and credit cards or following very strict criteria for issuing them.
Property rates have gone down by as low as 40% including the rentals market. (Palm Jumeirah Island prices gone down by 50 %!)
The money flow in the market is less.
The shopping malls and markets are nearly empty.
Hotels are running on approx 60-70% occupancy as against 80-90% till last year.
Instead of focusing on increasing the revenues and profitability of the company, everyone is stressing more on finding ways of cost cutting and reducing the expenses.
Luxury cars, monstrous 4Wheels, and super bikes, which were considered ultimate symbol of being WEALTHY, are now left abandoned in parking lots. As per a recent news, more than 3000 cars were found in parking areas of Dubai International Airport with keys and apology note left for banks and police informing their inability to pay back the car loans and loss of job etc.
Approximately 1500 Visas getting cancelled everyday for past couple of months.
Luxury spending reduced by 25% amongst UAE expatriates.
The friendly “Khan Bhai” taxi drivers are earning 50-60% fares against what they used to earn till last year.
Are people still skeptical and wondering if Dubai is yet to face recession?
My company adopted a new strategy of cost cutting, shifting the regional office from UAE to Lebanon without firing anyone. So the new option came up is “accept 25% salary and shift to Lebanon or else QUIT”. Interesting proposition! I like to challenge myself with new projects, but there is always a difference between CALCULATED RISK and IDIOTIC RISK. My entry in Dubai was a calculated risk, and rest is history!
At a time after completing more than a year’s service with my organization and expecting an INCREMENT, 25% deduction surely came as a blow below the belt!.
Be it Recession or Appreciation, hundreds of economists as well as theories have always advocated a controlled economic growth, which results in creating evenly balanced crests and troughs on a trend graph!. But when upward curve goes very steep and disproportionately faster than time, a quick downfall is also inevitable and dangerously at alarming rate; which is bound to leave common man bleeding. (PS: no one is common in Dubai; everyone is unique in their own wayJ)
Dubai converted a common man into a filthy rich family owning a flat in Dubai and a house in homeland within no time. The money was not there, capacity was not there but ownership of flat was surely there along with a PRADO or Mercedes parked outside? Courtesy; the generosity of our banks and financial institutions and their eagle like desire to make every human being in Dubai a millionaire through issuing more and more personal loans, car loans, credit cards etc.
This virtual money which created WEALTH amongst the expatriates has unfortunately became one of the biggest reasons for the downfall of this gold city.
When something which never existed is believed upon, the reality is bound to come out entirely different!
Recently the government had pumped in approx AED 31.1 Dirham to rekindle and provide some support to the falling economy, but the pit created is too deep to be filled up so soon and so easily.
One thing the Government surely must’ve understood from this recent economic massacre is that, giving impetus to tax benefits and infrastructural support to attract investments is surely a successful strategy to develop an economy at a faster pace. But needs to keep enough checks and balances to make sure that; wealth of the country, as well as income of expatriates doesn’t get affected and any economic slump should not result in turning WEALTHY EXPATRIATES into Homeless Refugees.
(written in April, 2009)
However nobody expected to see or experience what they are going through for past one year, including myself!
The coffee table discussions have changed from “how much increment you expect this year?” to “How many laid off from your company?”
In real sense Dubai has started bleeding from the recession blows; however there are still arguments whether Dubai is yet to hit by recession.
A brief outlook on recent incidents:
More than 100,000 expats from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have left UAE in past 3 months; similar figures can be expected for other nationalities too.
There are no or meager increments, people are getting for their efforts put last year.
The tourist visit was almost less by 30% this year compared to last year during Dubai Shopping Festival.
Thousands of Transfer applications are lying with Embassy and schools for those who want to send their families or kids back to home country after end of their school exams.
The banks, financial institutions and realty developers have reduced their work force in the range of 20-30% from across the verticals.
More than half of development projects have been put on hold, postponed or cancelled due to lack of funds.
The banks are either not issuing any loans and credit cards or following very strict criteria for issuing them.
Property rates have gone down by as low as 40% including the rentals market. (Palm Jumeirah Island prices gone down by 50 %!)
The money flow in the market is less.
The shopping malls and markets are nearly empty.
Hotels are running on approx 60-70% occupancy as against 80-90% till last year.
Instead of focusing on increasing the revenues and profitability of the company, everyone is stressing more on finding ways of cost cutting and reducing the expenses.
Luxury cars, monstrous 4Wheels, and super bikes, which were considered ultimate symbol of being WEALTHY, are now left abandoned in parking lots. As per a recent news, more than 3000 cars were found in parking areas of Dubai International Airport with keys and apology note left for banks and police informing their inability to pay back the car loans and loss of job etc.
Approximately 1500 Visas getting cancelled everyday for past couple of months.
Luxury spending reduced by 25% amongst UAE expatriates.
The friendly “Khan Bhai” taxi drivers are earning 50-60% fares against what they used to earn till last year.
Are people still skeptical and wondering if Dubai is yet to face recession?
My company adopted a new strategy of cost cutting, shifting the regional office from UAE to Lebanon without firing anyone. So the new option came up is “accept 25% salary and shift to Lebanon or else QUIT”. Interesting proposition! I like to challenge myself with new projects, but there is always a difference between CALCULATED RISK and IDIOTIC RISK. My entry in Dubai was a calculated risk, and rest is history!
At a time after completing more than a year’s service with my organization and expecting an INCREMENT, 25% deduction surely came as a blow below the belt!.
Be it Recession or Appreciation, hundreds of economists as well as theories have always advocated a controlled economic growth, which results in creating evenly balanced crests and troughs on a trend graph!. But when upward curve goes very steep and disproportionately faster than time, a quick downfall is also inevitable and dangerously at alarming rate; which is bound to leave common man bleeding. (PS: no one is common in Dubai; everyone is unique in their own wayJ)
Dubai converted a common man into a filthy rich family owning a flat in Dubai and a house in homeland within no time. The money was not there, capacity was not there but ownership of flat was surely there along with a PRADO or Mercedes parked outside? Courtesy; the generosity of our banks and financial institutions and their eagle like desire to make every human being in Dubai a millionaire through issuing more and more personal loans, car loans, credit cards etc.
This virtual money which created WEALTH amongst the expatriates has unfortunately became one of the biggest reasons for the downfall of this gold city.
When something which never existed is believed upon, the reality is bound to come out entirely different!
Recently the government had pumped in approx AED 31.1 Dirham to rekindle and provide some support to the falling economy, but the pit created is too deep to be filled up so soon and so easily.
One thing the Government surely must’ve understood from this recent economic massacre is that, giving impetus to tax benefits and infrastructural support to attract investments is surely a successful strategy to develop an economy at a faster pace. But needs to keep enough checks and balances to make sure that; wealth of the country, as well as income of expatriates doesn’t get affected and any economic slump should not result in turning WEALTHY EXPATRIATES into Homeless Refugees.
(written in April, 2009)
Thursday, June 25, 2009
From The Eyes of a Gardener
The other day, I was just walking past the lush green lawns of internet city,
behind my office to have my day meal.
It was a hot sunny day with sun gazing on my head. However what was
interesting to see was the completely focused dedication of the gardeners and incharge
of the landscape maintenance company, who were cutting, trimming and
removing the weeds in the garden.
It’s a rare sight in a desert island, but fortunately at internet city in Dubai, you
can see one of the most rich, lush and green grass!
However within no time I saw lots of lawn movers, and other gadgets and land
maintenance armory on the ground, brutally crushing the bushes, chopping of
the grass with no sympathy at all.
Anyway, I reached my place to have some food.
After 45 minutes when I left back, I got a real setback! The whole placed looked
completely bald! There was no green grass, what so ever, the bushes were
trimmed down less than half there size 45 minutes back, and now the place
looked like near to being a dessert.
I just couldn’t understand why this brutality shown. It just reminded some
images of Kabul and kandhahar shown on CNN post US invasion!
I couldn’t resist my curiosity to know the reason for such a barbaric action taken
by these protectors of greenery and beautiful landscaping.
While passing by I caught up with one of the gardeners. He was a local national
as expected (read keralite)!
I asked him, that in this dessert place, it’s already a rare sight to see green
patches of land, healthy trees and plants. Maintaining the landscape is onething,
but then chopping of the grass and cutting down the bushes in this manner is
something I really fail to understand.
He stared at me for a while, glanced here n there and made me feel as if either, I
have asked something which I shouldn’t have or he is not supposed to respond
in a public place. Then he smiled a little (another rare sight), and said “Sir, the
grass which you saw earlier looked very healthy and soothing to eyes for any
passer by. However, in reality this grass was getting spoilt completely at the
roots. The mud, the fertilizers, everything is brought from outside and then grass
is cultivated here. There is always scarcity of water hence we have a fix schedule
of sprinkling exercise with limited quantities of water.
However, with more grass and weeds, it leads to over consumption of water. The
grass, as well as bushes and the trees absorb more water. The scorching heat and
continuously rising temperatures make dry ground as well as plants and trees
more demanding for fertilizers as well as water.
Hence once in a while, it is important to remove the top layer of the land and
make space for the new grass growing underneath.
The new grass is fresher, healthier and absorbs less water. It also helps to remove
extra weeds and other germs which might have developed because of usage of
artificial and excessive fertilizers.
After this exercise, in just next 3 4 days, you will again see the grass look as green
and as fresh as earlier. But this time, it will be healthy at the roots as well.
Hence to maintain the landscape, look beautiful and healthy in long-term, its
important to shave the top, which might look ugly for short term, but will always
be beneficial for future growth.
I thanked him for explaining things to me so much in detail and felt relieved that
I found someone in Dubai, who is ready to satisfactorily answer my queries.
Otherwise usual expression of communication is “anything you speak may go
against you”!
Later that night, when I was thinking about this conversation, it made me realize,
that this uneducated gardener has explained me one of best philosophies
applicable in our corporate world too!
In our daily lives, we do come across such professionals and people who are
sitting at the top, absorbing a decent proportion of company’s exchequer but
making a little contribution towards the growth and productivity of the
company.
We find many such people even in our own office and at times probably sitting
next to us. Who are there, just because they are there for ages. Nobody questions
there contribution, loyalty, or involvement towards company’s goals and
objectives. And the argument of justification is “we are with company for 10
years, how can our dedication or loyalty be questioned!”
It’s fine that, they have been with company for 10 years, but what about next 10
or 20 years?
Thus at times, the company has to take a tough decision to chop the old top
layer, which is absorbing more, producing fewer benefits and putting the new
roots of the organization in danger for future.
For some old timers or common man, the decision may look harsh and cruel and
inhumanly from outside, but probably end of the day, they will also smile and
feel content with company’s decision, the way I felt good after the explanation by
the gardener.
P.S. This article is a work of fiction based upon my real experience and is not
meant to hurt anyone’s feelings or different opinions on the subject:-).
The readers are free to air their thoughts and point of view!
(August 2008)
behind my office to have my day meal.
It was a hot sunny day with sun gazing on my head. However what was
interesting to see was the completely focused dedication of the gardeners and incharge
of the landscape maintenance company, who were cutting, trimming and
removing the weeds in the garden.
It’s a rare sight in a desert island, but fortunately at internet city in Dubai, you
can see one of the most rich, lush and green grass!
However within no time I saw lots of lawn movers, and other gadgets and land
maintenance armory on the ground, brutally crushing the bushes, chopping of
the grass with no sympathy at all.
Anyway, I reached my place to have some food.
After 45 minutes when I left back, I got a real setback! The whole placed looked
completely bald! There was no green grass, what so ever, the bushes were
trimmed down less than half there size 45 minutes back, and now the place
looked like near to being a dessert.
I just couldn’t understand why this brutality shown. It just reminded some
images of Kabul and kandhahar shown on CNN post US invasion!
I couldn’t resist my curiosity to know the reason for such a barbaric action taken
by these protectors of greenery and beautiful landscaping.
While passing by I caught up with one of the gardeners. He was a local national
as expected (read keralite)!
I asked him, that in this dessert place, it’s already a rare sight to see green
patches of land, healthy trees and plants. Maintaining the landscape is onething,
but then chopping of the grass and cutting down the bushes in this manner is
something I really fail to understand.
He stared at me for a while, glanced here n there and made me feel as if either, I
have asked something which I shouldn’t have or he is not supposed to respond
in a public place. Then he smiled a little (another rare sight), and said “Sir, the
grass which you saw earlier looked very healthy and soothing to eyes for any
passer by. However, in reality this grass was getting spoilt completely at the
roots. The mud, the fertilizers, everything is brought from outside and then grass
is cultivated here. There is always scarcity of water hence we have a fix schedule
of sprinkling exercise with limited quantities of water.
However, with more grass and weeds, it leads to over consumption of water. The
grass, as well as bushes and the trees absorb more water. The scorching heat and
continuously rising temperatures make dry ground as well as plants and trees
more demanding for fertilizers as well as water.
Hence once in a while, it is important to remove the top layer of the land and
make space for the new grass growing underneath.
The new grass is fresher, healthier and absorbs less water. It also helps to remove
extra weeds and other germs which might have developed because of usage of
artificial and excessive fertilizers.
After this exercise, in just next 3 4 days, you will again see the grass look as green
and as fresh as earlier. But this time, it will be healthy at the roots as well.
Hence to maintain the landscape, look beautiful and healthy in long-term, its
important to shave the top, which might look ugly for short term, but will always
be beneficial for future growth.
I thanked him for explaining things to me so much in detail and felt relieved that
I found someone in Dubai, who is ready to satisfactorily answer my queries.
Otherwise usual expression of communication is “anything you speak may go
against you”!
Later that night, when I was thinking about this conversation, it made me realize,
that this uneducated gardener has explained me one of best philosophies
applicable in our corporate world too!
In our daily lives, we do come across such professionals and people who are
sitting at the top, absorbing a decent proportion of company’s exchequer but
making a little contribution towards the growth and productivity of the
company.
We find many such people even in our own office and at times probably sitting
next to us. Who are there, just because they are there for ages. Nobody questions
there contribution, loyalty, or involvement towards company’s goals and
objectives. And the argument of justification is “we are with company for 10
years, how can our dedication or loyalty be questioned!”
It’s fine that, they have been with company for 10 years, but what about next 10
or 20 years?
Thus at times, the company has to take a tough decision to chop the old top
layer, which is absorbing more, producing fewer benefits and putting the new
roots of the organization in danger for future.
For some old timers or common man, the decision may look harsh and cruel and
inhumanly from outside, but probably end of the day, they will also smile and
feel content with company’s decision, the way I felt good after the explanation by
the gardener.
P.S. This article is a work of fiction based upon my real experience and is not
meant to hurt anyone’s feelings or different opinions on the subject:-).
The readers are free to air their thoughts and point of view!
(August 2008)
A Dream
I have a dream
a dream not for name
a dream, not for fame
But a dream to be a loner.
a loner who wants to get away from the crowd.
Not the crowd of living beings
But the crowd of cruelty, hatred, sadism, selfishness.
I want to feel, to express, to say
I don’t want to feel for others
but I want to feel with others
I want to be a sentient.
Why this earth is getting phlegmatic
Why people are getting eccentric
Is it that difficult to be normal?
If a man can live with animal for million years
Why can’t he live with more of himself.
Why people have become caustic
Why so much of vandalism
Could you tell me?
I have a dream
a dream not for name
a dream not for fame
But a dream to see this earth be lucid
But a dream to see people with mirth.
People who can feel, who can trust, who can love
Can you find them?
I have a dream
a dream not for name
a dream not for fame
But a dream to share peace, to share happiness
To be able to wipe off tears of others
To be able to bring smile on their faces.
I am not a savant, neither a priest
Nor I want to be
I want to be a loner;
A loner who can feel, can express, who can say
Ye Wo Zindagi to Nahi
Jaisey guzaarna chahtey they hum. Ye wo zindagi to nahi.
Jis roshni ki talaash mein nikley they hum, Ye wo roshni to nahi.
Jis muskaan ko dhoondney nikley they hum, Ye wo muskaan to nahi.
Ehsaas dil mein, yaadein zehen mein samayein, Jis humsaaye ki talaash mein nikley they hum, Ye wo humsaya to nahi.
Hota hai aksar dird ka ehsaas, Magar ye dird doonsron ko dikhai deta kyon nahi.
Hoti hai har raat ke baad ek subha ki laali Lekin ye kaisi hai raat,
Jis raat ki subah hee nahi.
Kia na shikwa, na gila kisi se humney, Apni hasrat ko dil mein samayein, hum baithey hain yahin. Jaisey guzaarna chahtey they hum, Ye wo zindagi to nahi.
Jis roshni ki talaash mein nikley they hum, Ye wo roshni to nahi.
Jis muskaan ko dhoondney nikley they hum, Ye wo muskaan to nahi.
Ehsaas dil mein, yaadein zehen mein samayein, Jis humsaaye ki talaash mein nikley they hum, Ye wo humsaya to nahi.
Hota hai aksar dird ka ehsaas, Magar ye dird doonsron ko dikhai deta kyon nahi.
Hoti hai har raat ke baad ek subha ki laali Lekin ye kaisi hai raat,
Jis raat ki subah hee nahi.
Kia na shikwa, na gila kisi se humney, Apni hasrat ko dil mein samayein, hum baithey hain yahin. Jaisey guzaarna chahtey they hum, Ye wo zindagi to nahi.
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