“Boss, kuch solid creative banao jo hila de! Ghanti baja de!”

What agency do you choose as the young, infirm, impressionable ad executive? Would you fall for the compelling promise of magic at the big brand ad agencies? Or would you take the plunge for the lucre love at the smaller sole proprietorships? I was young once – and I was courageous too. Here’s my story – but take your own decisions.

The big, burly ‘client’, chewing his favourite brand of pan masala (with three rings on his right hand and four on his left, along with various coloured strings gracing his wrist) dressed in a safari suit of dazzling maroon, seated on a massive, filmy, throne-like chair in a room filled with pictures of Gods, Goddesses, his late father, stared hard at the young, fresh-faced Account Executive from the agency they had hired. From time to time, the client sighed and nodded his head – left to right and back – indicating cosmic sorrow. Eventually, wisdom descended from those pan-masala-stained teeth. “Boss, kuch jama nahin! Kuch solid creative banao, jo hila de, ghanti baja de. Yeh sab to ghatiya, nonsense, rubbish, bakwas!!” With these encouraging gems, he flung the eight ads (which the agency had created in two hours, flat) towards the young man and began to speak again. “Beta, don’t take it personally. I like you very much and love your English-speaking and gyan on advertising, lekin kya hai, bijness to bijness hota hai, hai naa? Your boss is my very good yaar from college days. Kamaal ka tuning hai, to mana nahin kar sakta, hai naa? But you must brush up on creativity. Waise ek phone me ghumaoon to line lag jayegi Adwalon ki and you know it, lekin mind it, mein aisa nahin karna chahta hoon. Navar!” He paused for breath and another intake of pan masala. “My 17-year-old daughter Dimple can do much better. Believe nahin karoge, by gaad, she’s too creative! Angrezi poetry likhti hai, painting karti hai, aur kya GK hai, oye hoi! She only told me these designs are ghatiya, third class, not something that will hilao the junta!”

Totally shaken and bewildered at this bizarre onslaught, the young man – whose parents had invested their wholesome income into making the lad what this world would call “cultured, educated, soft-spoken” – made the appropriate, polite sounds and left the office. On the way, stopping by for a ‘cold drink’, he reflected upon his life. Who were these strange clients – completely uninformed, coarse, totally disconnected with anything to do with basics of good, effective advertising? Why was his agency boss always insisting on young, nubile, half-naked girls to be splashed as the main focus of his ads even when all the client was selling were locks? Why did these creatures never exist six months ago in his high-profile Mumbai agency, where he trained and spent two glorious years? Why did he even shift?... The lad was now beginning to feel the stress and pressure of working in an environment that was a million light miles away from where he came…

Back at the office, confusion became confounded! His boss – a proprietor who was all sugar n’ spice just a few months back while begging him to join – blew his fuse! “Yaar, who told you to give him bhashan on what is good for his product? Is he a fool? Pata hai, he is one of my langoti yaars who has successfully run his Papa’s business for over 20 years, making a huge profit. Also, by the way, he is the President of the Ad Club and active member of the PRSI and Press Club, samjhe?” And then, a sudden parallel track, “What an excursion he organised to Amritsar and Wagah border, maja aa gaya… anyway, he called me and told me not to fire you. But yaar be dedicated to your work. What are you doing? Chal, chal get back…” This was the tipping point. It all spooled over in a millisecond – his fantastic two years at the professional agency, then the rush of blood to join this sole proprietorship of an ad agency for the so-called ‘independence’, and then the nightmare – bah! The young man had had it and finally exploded. “You got me here luring me with big bucks and great promises of freedom with responsibility. From an A-lister, all I’ve become is a Z-lister! My fault is that I didn’t listen to my friends because I was dazzled by the ‘seniority’. However, I’ve started regretting my shift more than anything I’ve ever done – you constantly refer to clients as Mai Baap and Bhagwan, you continuously instruct me to improve my ‘setting-fitting’! What the hell are we here? Pimps? Ever-ready suppliers? Weren’t we supposed to be communication consultants, solution providers?!? Or am I supposed to now always be a yes-jee, no-jee buffoon? You will never, ever understand professionalism because for you, billing is god, not quality… and that is injurious to my health!” Shocked silence followed on both sides. And then the lad blurted out, “I am quitting here and now. Bye!” With that outburst that even surprised him, the young man stormed out of the office. Of course the boss was too shocked to react. No one in his 30-year stint of doing various businesses ever had had the guts to speak to him in this manner.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
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Planman Technologies

Experience Vs. Evidence

Evidence-based advertising, founded on experimental studies, is the only path to improving the effectiveness of persuasive advertising procedures

Prior to the 1940s, if you had a disease, it made little difference which doctor you went to. There were so many diseases and so many conditions that doctors could not learn from their individual experience which treatments were effective. This changed when doctors began to rely on evidence from experiments. Further progress was made when medical schools began to teach evidence-based medicine. And things progressed even more rapidly when the Cochrane Collaboration for health care began in 1993. It now has 28,000 contributors to serve doctors and patients. Evidence-based medicine has had enormous beneficial effects on the average length and quality of life.

Management is in a similar situation today as medicine was prior to the 1940s. Managers rely on their own experience and on the experience of other managers to decide what actions to take. This works well in simple situations in which they get good feedback. However, many management problems are complex & uncertain, and in these cases, eight decades of research have shown that experience fails. Few people are aware of this research, and, when told, most believe that the conclusion does not apply to them.

When doctors learned that some of their treatments were based on incorrect knowledge or procedures, most reacted as people often do when presented with disconfirming evidence about important topics: They became upset and attacked the credibility of the source. Nevertheless, the pressures are strong to follow best practices in health care. Many patients are well-informed about the possible diagnoses and treatments when they go to their doctors. Many doctors have been sued for failing to adhere to evidence-based procedures.

I have been fascinated by evidence-based management since I began my career in 1960. Many useful management techniques and principles have been discovered. However, to my dismay, this knowledge was typically ignored by managers.

In 1980, I visited my friend Paul Westhead soon after he became coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. After spending a day with him as he took the team through practice, it dawned on me that if we could apply management science techniques to the Lakers, it might lead businesses to follow suit. Paul was enthused about the project, but the owner of the Lakers, Jerry Buss, was not. (The Lakers won the championship that year, without my help.)

Nevertheless, evidence-based methods are currently being used successfully across the sports world, by teams including the Dallas Cowboys, New England Patriots and Philadelphia Flyers. Half of the 30 NBA teams had at least one statistician on their staff in 2009-2010. Those teams won 59% of the 962 games they played in the first half of the 2009-2010 season, while those teams with no statisticians on staff won only 41% of 958 games.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM Best B School India
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
IIPM in sync with the best of the business world.......
IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism
Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM RANKED NO.1 in MAIL TODAY B-SCHOOL RANKINGS
Planman Technologies

150 awards (and not counting!)

They have lived in Both Rural and Urban India. This helps them understand their audience better and craft communication that connects with them

They have been awarded for their creative work by Abby, One Show, D&AD, CLIO and Cannes Lions. But once the awards lineup reached 150, they stopped counting. Their middle-class family background has not enabled them to afford a ‘Creative flair-o-meter’, as they put it. But that does not stop them from executing ideas that resonates their passion and commitment. 4Ps B&M brings to you Manish Bhatt and Rahgu Bhat, Founder Directors, Scarecrow Communications who believe that it is the consumer who seals the fate of a creative creation.

Were you always thinking of setting up your own agency?
Manish Bhatt (MB): Not exactly. In our advertising journey, somewhere along the way, we started taking ownership of clients. We had a free hand and could carve ideas our own way using our own methodology. Also, the exposure to different agency cultures helped. I still remember that it was at Contract that we learnt the craft of print. Every piece of work had to meet a certain set quality standard. It was an everyday battle that the agency was engaged in to ensure this quality. O&M on the other hand, had a very practical approach. We wouldn’t fight over every dangler or poster with the client beyond a certain limit. O&M therefore was a new school of thought altogether. At Ambience, we put this experience to work even as we were learning to deal with clients. Later, when McCann called us in 2004, it was Prasoon, whose strengths we could learn from. This was also a larger, powerful agency platform to stand on.

So, when did this actually happen?
MB: It was at McCann that freelance offers started pouring in and we realised that our equity had gone beyond the four walls of the agency. That was the first spark of entrepreneurship. Reputed brands were offering us freelance work. Most agencies we went to had their own philosophy of how things should happen. We started developing, over the years, subliminally, our own philosophy. While there was no friction, we realised that our philosophy was clashing with those of the agencies we worked for. In 2007, we moved from McCann to Contract. There we started forming an opinion on the way communication should happen, and the way an agency should function. We got a feeling that the optimum level of knowledge acquired over the years could help us set up shop. We were ready to take the plunge.

You have been together for more than a decade now. But how was the first encounter?
Rahgu Bhat (RB): We first met on the 3rd floor mess of Contract’s Delhi Janakpuri office in January 1996. I was a management trainee in Contract Direct. I was at my table, alone, having paneer pasanda, which was floating in oil. Manish joined me at the table and said (pointing to the paneer), “Lagta hai, aaj ka khana has been sponsored by Shell.” (One of Contract Delhi’s clients at that time). We decided to work together on a road trip to Bikaner and Bharatpur. While having a chai along with ‘mirchi ke pakode’ at a thela in Bharatpur, I got to know that Manish was not hitting off that well with his copy partner. I asked if he would team up with me. I was any way ‘single’. His only condition was – he wanted to participate in the ideation process and not limit himself to art direction. I had no problems. By the time the trip ended, I had no money in my pocket but I had a new art partner.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM Best B School India
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
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IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management

“It’s about literally connecting with Indians”

Etihad’s growth as the fastest growing Airline in the world has been legendary. Ward’s marketing strategies have paid off in many markets. In India, Ward tells Shephali Bhatt about the need to do a lot more in future

Andrew Ward
VP, Marketing, Etihad Airways

7 years ago, Etihad Airways made a humble beginning with around $100 million in revenues. Last year, the airways reaped US $2.3 billion. The man at the helm of marketing, Andrew Ward, VP, Marketing, says, “For an airline, the most important thing is to differentiate itself since over the last decade, with the introduction of local carriers, airlines have become general commodities. The consumer is now prepared to buy an airline ticket just like he would buy a train or bus ticket. We have to upgrade the offer so that most people would fly with us for a longer time. We have to offer a higher degree of service, so that when the consumer looks at the price equation, he realises that he is getting good value for money. We need to ensure that the consumer doesn’t switch to any other airline.”

For Etihad and its marketing man, India is an important market in that Indians are spread all over the world. One would find huge numbers of Indians in every continent. For example, even UAE, the key country for Etihad, comprises 30% Indians. Ward comments that he has positioned Etihad as one of the premium offering members of the market. To that effect, he adds, “Etihad Airways has been the fastest growing airline in the world over the last six years. That has been our strength. We have taken new aircraft orders, new spa services, first class private suites and what not. We have been on the path of continuous innovation in order to position ourselves as the luxury premium airlines.”

In this year, Ward has ensured that there be a stronger focus on digital marketing. He has significantly increased expenditure in the digital arena on an year on year basis. The aim is to create Etihad’s own online service environment. According to Ward, although standard banner advertising would always stay there, the most effective mechanism to advertise these days is through the internet. Certainly, there are different stages of development in terms of internet penetration, and Ward is not blind to it – one reason his offline advertising strategy stays fixed.

But given that Etihad is not as well known as certain other airlines in the Indian market, how does Ward plan to distinguish his brand? Ward accepts, “We have to push the brand awareness of Etihad in this market. A good way of doing that is finding a property that is already well known. In some markets, it can be sports personalities but here in India, it’s definitely Bollywood. It’s all about how we connect. We had to find somebody who is famous, in this case, we found Katrina Kaif. We now have to link the airline with her, get her to represent us and thus benefit from her popularity. We have already started a viral marketing campaign online with the video we’ve shot in Abu Dhabi airport. We are going to have her travelling to all our important markets where we’ll have specific events targeting our target and trade audience so that we can work on a B2B basis with travel trade.”

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM Best B School India
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
IIPM in sync with the best of the business world.......
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Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management

Discover Travel ->TLC!

The rebranding bug has hit the lifestyle entertainment channel segment too as the race to provide trendier, bolder channels with new faces, new genres and new places goes on. Discovery Travel and Living, with more than 60% market share in the same category, has been rebranded with a new name – TLC! Rahul Johri, Senior VP & General Manager, India, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific said, “TLC marks the beginning of a refreshing journey. It will add a new dimension to lifestyle programming by introducing innovative formats, spunkier hosts and swankier locales.” TLC will come up with new offerings which include ‘Shimmy’ and ‘Exxtreme Sommer’ and will also extend seasons of the already popular ‘World Cafe: Middle East’, Vir Sanghvi’s ‘Asian Diary’ & ‘Living with a Superstar-Shahrukh Khan’. While the exercise is a radical attempt at fortifying gained ground, it would also go a long way in adding newer viewers. On the whole, the rebranding and reprogramming will be initiated from September 1, 2010.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM B-School
Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri
Planman Consulting

IIPM in sync with the best of the business world.......
IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism
Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management

BREAKING BARRIERS TO EXPRESS AND EXPAND

A brand that had the first movers advantage in India and still commands the highest subscriber base, Airtel has moved on to ‘express’ itself on the global stage post one of the biggest acquisitions in Africa while preparing for imminent 3G war

One dream can change the world....one raised finger can break a billion hearts, two can win a world war. A whisper can inspire hope, a touch can instill faith, some voices can move a nation, some can dissolve boundaries. One act of defiance can spark a revolution, one hundred thousand candles can end a war - the power of human expression and the brand that has always asked us to Express Yourself, Airtel has grown leaps and bounds in the last few years to become one of the global telecom giants today. With a turnover in excess of $7 billion, it has become the 5th largest mobile operator in the world in terms of subscriber base and the 3rd largest, single country mobile operator. The brand has won an array of awards including “Most Preferred Cellular Service Provider Brand” award for six years in a row that only touches the tip of the iceberg!

“The power to keep in touch” started Airtel’s communication in the early years which stood for efficiency and unflinching strength of service. The “Touch Tomorrow” campaign soon followed with a consumer appeal and established a bond with consumers. “Live every Moment” took shape of the ‘leadership of more’ – of a brand that promised unlimited freedom to communicate spontaneously, not only in words but through exchange of ideas and emotions. The brand espoused the idea that consumers could now live every dream, every desire, every ambition, every thought…in essence they could ‘live every moment’.

Express Yourself, Airtel and arguably, Indian telecom’s most famous campaign ended up taking an encompassing view of telecom services as a whole and thereby creating a leadership in consumer mindspace as well. But, despite the continuity of Express Yourself, Airtel’s breakthrough campaign “barriers break when people talk” touched chords from the individual to the humanitarian level. A R Rahman’s impeccable Airtel signature tune has immortalized the brand and it remains one of the most downloaded ring tones in India. Prasad Narsimhan, ex-CMO of Virgin Mobile comments on branding in telecom, “Recent customer research confirms that branding is the single most important factor in customer choice and telecom brands further need to strengthen their differentiation in manners that are more relevant, desirable and defensible”.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM: Management Education India
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website

IIPM B-School
Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri
Planman Consulting

IIPM in sync with the best of the business world.......
IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism
Arindam Chaudhuri: We need Hazare's leadership
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management

Apple's new OS Lion & iCloud introduced

Apple CEO Steve Jobs came out of his medical leave again on Monday to announce the company's latest operating system Lion, which will make Mac feel a lot like the company's iconic tablet, the iPad.

The company also announced its pioneering iCloud cloud computing offering, besides new OS for mobile devices — iOS 5 for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. iPhone and iPad users will now be able to edit their pictures within the device itself thanks to iOS 5.

But the most revolutionary change to Apple device users will be felt with iCloud. Jobs said iCloud will replace the company's existing service called MobileMe that allowed users to sync their contacts, calendar, and mail with a virtual harddisk for anywhere, anytime access. Unlike MobileMe, iCloud will also allow users to sync their apps, documents, music and photos along with contacts, calendar and mails. This means that users will be able to use apps purchased using iPhone on iPad as well as restore them using the cloud service if something goes wrong.

The iCloud will allow users to sync their iTunes music library across several devices running. "This is the first time you've seen this in the music industry. Multiple (music) downloads to different devices for no charge," said Jobs while announcing iTunes in Cloud. Earlier, Google and Amazon had announced music services based on cloud-computing. The conference began with Philip Schiller announcing Apple's newest operating system Lion. Schiller, a member of Apple's executive team, is senior vice-president of Worldwide Product Marketing and reports to Jobs. The Lion OS X for Apple's Mac computers has multi-touch gestures built into all trackpads just like the iOS that runs iPhone and iPad. It can also support full screen apps which matters on notebooks. Mac OS X Lion is the eighth major release of the OS with over 250 new features and 3,000 new developer APIs, which will be available to customers in July as a download from the Mac App Store for £20.99.

"The best version of OS X yet, Lion is packed with innovative features such as new Multi-Touch gestures, system-wide support for full screen apps, and Mission Control for instantly accessing everything running on your Mac," he added.

Apple also announced in-app purchases which will be available in the built-in Lion Mac App Store. Other features include Mac App Store adding push notification; auto save for everything; sandboxing for security and delta updates to reduce download size of updates.

Yet another feature of Lion would be file-sharing service called Air drop whereas a user in a peer-to-peer Wi-Fi network can easily drag-and-drop the files for sharing. There are over 54 million Mac users worldwide whereas iPad has sold 25 million units since it was launched 14 months ago. However, the company did not give the exact breakup of sales of iPad 2 which continues to be out of stock in many US stores. According to Forstall, there are 200 million iOS devices in the world put together, including iPads and iPhones.

The features of the new iOS include News Stand, using which the user can collate new issues of subscribed magazines and newspapers automatically. It has a new Notification Center, which can be accessed by swiping down from the top and includes stocks and weather notifications.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM: Management Education India
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website

IIPM B-School
Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri
Planman Consulting

IIPM in the league of best management institutes of India.....

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Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management