Hi !! My Surname is “Octa Core 2.5 GHz with 32 Gb internal memory”

Once upon a time, the mode of communication used to be only face to face interactions and body expressions. As people across the globe started exploring new civilizations, new lands, new cities, new rivers, new mountains, sand and beaches, it brought along with it, the need for more effective means of communication. This created the need for ‘long distance communication’, and solution was found in the form of pigeon messengers. Times moved and by 19th century we heard the first tring tring with ‘bells’ ringing his first phone. The invention lasted for a long time, but as the curiosity kills the cat so is the human mind. The researches kept on happening, people kept on improving the mediums of communication, kept on improvising the phones developed by Graham bell. Finally, Martin Cooper came up with first mobile phone in 1980s. Nobody wud’ve ever thought in those days that this wonderful invention meant to bridge the distances and bring people closer will become source of breakdown of humanity globally. Something which will lead to paradigm shift in the believe system, thought process and social structure of mankind. There were days when people were identified by their character, personality, knowledge, achievements, wisdom, intelligence, humor etc. today the differentiation between personalities is greatly supported by brands person is wearing in various forms, be it clothing or accessories or vehicle one drives and now the most integral part “the Mobile Phone”. Mobile phone has become an extension of our personalities. People nowadays are not identified by the wisdom they carry, but by how many megapixels they have!, how many GBs of internal memory they carry or how many Mh of battery they have! Those who feel its Russian and greek, these are some of the features of our latest mobile phones, who are called ‘smartphones’ because they are getting smarter than their creators! We cry, we crib, we smile, we laugh, we explore, we get angry, we get excited, we get delighted, we get pissed off, we buy, we sell, we order, we search, we enjoy, we love, we marry - not with our beloved family or friends but with our ‘smartphone’ enabled with superfast internet, on 5’’ guerilla glass super amoled screen! Smartphone has become an integral part of our decision making, in fact for some, its not the wisdom of their parents, friends or elderly which matters, what matters is inputs given by Prof.Google! “Google mein agaya hai to theek hee hoga” ! A decade back for school projects and assignments, kids used to search books in libraries, newspapers, visit old books shops, used to go through 4-5 books or magazines to get the right content. Today it takes minutes to prepare any assignment without literally racking much brain. Our brain is draining off, we do not want to think, we have stopped believing in the phrase “every good thing takes time”, we are more and more adopting “instant food” phenomenon. We want everything to come to us without wasting any time and without making any efforts. We believe more in telling the whole world that “I got up at 6 in the morning to jog” or send picture of first time sitting on a rickshaw or sharing a message with 10 friends, because it says if I don’t share, I will lose my job today! People have started feeling more peer pressure because they are carrying 4 mega pixel wala phone, while their best friend is carrying 8 megapixel wala, and voila, in market there is one with 20 megapixel! Megapixel has become latest status symbol and Mh the new differentiator. Adopting technologies has no harm. Like we say “Change is always for betterment”. But excess of everything is bad, and this phrase is getting more and truer day by day. We should surely use ‘technology’ as means of convenience but not try to replace our brain with it. We are leaving our grey cells to die their own death. We do not want to spend time on thinking, because “we don’t want to waste time”. Thinking leads to energizing the brain cells, it stimulates nerves, it ignites our mind with fresh thoughts, it helps to think about same topic with different dimensions. But we are ready to leave all this behind for the sake of saving time “google hai na”! We really need to come out of this “instant” syndrome. We really need to treat technology as enabler instead of decision maker. We should not let our emotions getting replaced with set of smileys in our life. We should not let “miss you mom” sms be the answer to mother’s missed call, because you were busy on completing final level of asphalt 8! Let us stay as humans, because that’s how God has created us. Let’s our identity not get measured in megapixel and our wisdom “powered by octacore processor”. Be Human, Stay Humane. -Shad Zaman

Shave it if you can’t comb it!

After spending over a decade of my professional life in brand management, and coming across 100s and 1000s of people from various walks of life or with thoughts from other planets, one thing I have surely concluded, every individual who  reaches the age of 60, ends up with thinning hair and reaching a limit where the person ends up saving all his money which he ones upon a time used to spend on hair care products.

Even though majority of individuals go through this phenomenon, but the degree of baldness varies from individual to individual.

With up gradation of technologies and newer innovations happening in the field of dermatology, more and more of these TOO-BE-BALD soon types are making beeline outside these mushrooming shops where they put new hair back on their shining head piece!

From nylon threads, to animal hairs to original human being hair, wigs have come along way and so have the newer technologies like hair weaving. Which makes the new hair as natural as they can be?

Now the question which comes to my mind is, what is the right time when a person should decide whether he needs a wig or weaving or clean shave.

If an individual who is extremely successful, renowned, famous, celebrity kinda!. He may just stay normal and not even think about adopting such dramatics.

At the same time, few not-so-confident ones, who believe that this world is made only to give them sufferings, and having low hair density is a curse on them from God. They may actually feel  low on confidence and at times out-of-place when the peer group starts chit chatting about the new shampoo brand in the market!.

Be it a celebrity or an ordinary man, my gut feeling is that both tend to get into this dilemma, as to when is the right time to revive their hair style.

And this is the cause of my disturbed state of mind, where I foresee a connect between the above mentioned phenomenon and story arising in the life cycle of many brands. As brand custodians, many times we do come across a situation when nothing seems to be working for the brand. The same set of best practices, media plans, consumer engagement initiatives, that were writing success stories in the past, prove no more than just some scribbled words on excel sheets, slides or word doc.

That’s the time when we get into dilemma thinking, when is the right time to revive the brand or bury it to death. In other words what’s the good time to get hair weaving or just shave it clean?!!

We have seen biggest of the brands going downhill, simply because they were not refreshed in the correct spirit at the correct time.  Lehman brothers, Schlitz Beer, Kodak are few American iconic brands who couldn’t make out when to refresh their brand, and ultimately let them to near death or about to die.

Hence for any brand, it is extremely important to keep it fresh, keep it lively, keep it growing. We must keep in mind that a carefully strategized positioning for the brand always means that it is targeted towards a specific age group. And AGE is the most dynamic phenomenon of life, which keeps changing every moment.

While there could be a large TG to whom one has targeted with a brand, there would be many who would be moving out of this age band in future. At the same time, there will be many who will be entering this group too!

Thus we must keep a dialogue of the brand alive with the consumers. The brand may talk various things to the consumer which can keep it alive and young. New flavours, new packaging, new distribution channel, new product benefits, new pricing, new usage of the product. The opportunities are umpteen, the scope of communication is un ending.  One just needs to keep an eye on pulse of the consumer, especially the ones who are entering the category to understand their lifestyle, needs, wants and desires and accordingly compare your own brand, whether it fits into the life of the consumer of or not.

And if one realizes that the brand has completed its life, it cannot be revived and its better to shave it off…THEN DO IT!