Showing posts with label Arindam-Chaudhuri. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arindam-Chaudhuri. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

IIPM Prof Rajita Chaudhuri says, GREAT MARKETERS ARE GREAT LOVERS

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A great
Rajita Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri
marketer loves people. He observes them well, and is quick to find out what they want, many times even before the consumer himself! They call him the “accidental billionaire.” But one thing the man knew as well as software programming was what people his age liked and wanted. Mark Zuckerberg knew that kids on campus want to always be in touch with each other, apart from of course knowing who was dating whom. He probably was right; no wonder Facebook has over 500 million users, and the “status” tab is the most talked about feature! For a great marketer, the consumer is king.

The rule is simple, give them what they love and you will have them eating out of your hand.

There is nothing more attractive than this four-letter word. No, it’s not ‘LOVE’ but ‘FREE’! If you understand consumers, you will know the magical power of this word. Add to this another four-letter word ‘EASY’ and you have a blockbuster brand in your hands. If you are not convinced, look at Google. It’s so successful because it’s free and it’s so easy to use. It even corrects your spellings. Look at Facebook. It’s free and so easy and simple a concept. In 2007, suddenly everybody was talking about Ryanair, making it Britain’s most loved airline. Why? They gave away 1 million free air tickets. In 4 hours, 4 million people hit its website, making it the most talked about & popular airline service.

Price is the key driving factor and getting it right is one of the key qualities of a great marketer. Bata was always famous for its prices. Though there may not be much difference between Rs.100 and Rs.99.95, somehow Rs.99.95 is always perceived as much lesser than Rs.100. A keen observer of human nature discovered this & Bata sold more shoes.

What’s marketing without advertising! And a great advertisement is one which makes people go out and buy the product! The one advertisement that has burnt up cyberspace, TV, and newspapers in the US recently is the ad for Chrysler’s new sedan. It was shown on Sunday (Feb 6, 2011) and in two days, the ad had gone viral and racked up more than 3.5 million views on the YouTube. Everybody was talking about it. The ad has the one thing everybody loves – honesty. It tells the story of a city that has been to hell and back. It tells the story of an underdog. The world loves this kind of a story. People cried after seeing the ad. And it worked like nobody’s business, for according to Autometrics, within 10 minutes of the ad going on air, 131 people inquired about the sedan’s price. The ad featured Eminem, a rapper, who himself comes back from tough times – much like Detroit. The combination was deadly and worked superbly for Chrysler and Eminem. After all, a good ad reflects the state of the consumer’s psyche and this one echoed what Americans wanted to hear… that the good times would be back again soon.

Tata Nano seems to be doing just that here. Its cute advertisement, where the little girl cuddles her first cute car, pulls at your heart strings; and as you smile, you almost feel a part of this family and share their happiness.

Boroplus too understood a woman like none other. It knew what a woman loves – appreciation. The advertisements of Boroplus moisturising lotion did just that by showing men going crazy over the complexion of women! Women loved it and Boroplus knew it did not need Amitabh Bachchan to sell its product, for it had hit the right chord with its audience.

The appeal of an advertisement also lies in its slogan, its punchline. “Virginia is for lovers” – the slogan worked so well that every resident of the city had this provocative slogan emblazoned on their car bumper stickers. Catch the imagination of the people and you will be able to bowl them over.

Understand what people want and innovate accordingly. The reason why Super Bowl was watched by 111 million people in America last Sunday was because it knew that to increase viewership, it had to promote the game among women and Hispanics. It did just that and made it the most popular show of the year. The reason why Suhaana of the Hindi soap ‘Sasural Genda Phool’ has been voted the most popular character by Indians is because she was just the person they loved to watch & talkabout (according to survey done by ‘Characters India Loves’).

A great ad guy understands human insecurities, wants and desires, and touches those very chords. Just the way Ali Ali and Maged Nassar, two ad guys of Cairo did. They knew what the people of Egypt were thinking and they used their creativity to transfer the feelings of people into one image. They took a decade-old photo of Hosni Mubarak, added the Hitler moustache & floppy hair, found a printer who agreed to print the image secretly, and behold, the revolution got an “image” to bash, and unify against.

Give people what they want. China loves a price war. It always increases sales of the brands that do it. After all, one of the best selling books of that region is The Art of War and they love a war to see the strongest one survive. Not so in America. They don’t like price wars (guess the real ones are more than enough for them to handle!).

GREAT MARKETING IS ABOUT GREAT RELATIONSHIPS

Business is about building relationships with clients and ensuring that they are genuinely happy. Business is not aboutjust “closing a deal,” it’s about genuinely caring for the people and finding out what they want.

Getting good customer insights is most important for not just survival but also to be really loved by your customers. 3M thought it had made a world-class innovation with “Post-it” notes. Then sales started falling. A keen observer of people, 3M immediately realised that this was the era of iPads & smartphones and no one wrote notes on paper but typed them into their gadgets. However, it also saw that these gadgets had made digital photography extremely popular. It took a team of one marketer and two lab-scientists to hit upon the idea of “Post-It-Picture-Paper,” an adhesive coated photo paper on which people could stick their photos & easily display them on their walls. The company found a way to survive!

Sitting in Finland, Nokia did not realise that just making low-cost phones would not help it capture the Indian market. A little thorough research showed that a lot of people could not read & hence were unable to use the phone in places like China, India and Nepal. A simple innovation helped it survive. It made a contact list, where images could be stored. Everyone found it easy. It worked!

All great relationships are based on the ability to really listen to your partner. Infosys does just that. It listens to its youngest recruits. N. R. Narayana Murthy introduced the “voice of youth” programme where each year, 9 very young & very bright recruitswere allowed to attend the very senior management council meeting to discuss their ideas with the top guys. In fact, every great company from P&G to RIM (makers of Blackberry) have at the top a CEO who sets a culture of listening. This way you understand people better, create marketing campaigns that work and build strong ever-lasting relationships, with both your customers and employees. That’s the most important aspect of marketing!

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Friday, December 31, 2010

GIDF Incorporation in MA, USA and its first successful initiative

IIPM BBA MBA Institute: Student Notice Board

GIDF, USA Chapter started its operation in Oct 2010 in the state of Massachusetts, USA. The objective of operating in USA is not only to create and spread awareness related to child education, women empowerment, livelihood and health but also to make the people of United States believe in the cause and raise a helping hand in order to eradicate the elements leading to the cause.

GIDF USA structured many marketing tools but the first and the most effective way to get the word out, about these worthy causes was through a donation flyer called ‘Hamari Gudiya’. The prime objective of this flyer was sending a girl child to school. This initiative was not only cost effective but one of the most powerful tool to reach out to masses. After identifying the right marketing tool, it required to approach the right locations, which were none other than the HIGH TRAFFIC LOCATIONS and what could be more crowded than the upscale malls during winter and Holiday season. So GIDF USA partnered with a chain of casual Indian fast food restaurant – Gourmet India.

Gourmet India is located in various upscale malls in Massachusetts and has a huge number of customers visiting these locations on daily basis. GIDF placed these donation flyers on the communication center of each restaurant. These communication centers have been placed in such a way that when a customer is waiting for the meal or a drink or even if he passes by gourmet India location, he is forced to look toward the communication center and of course towards ‘Hamari Gudiya’. Placing these flyers on the communication center of a busy restaurant or any location which is full of activities leads to creating visibility, awareness and value to the product or service and that is exactly what happened in our case.

Our main purpose of putting these flyers was to market GIDF and create awareness but to our surprise we have not only been able to meet our objectives but we have also started getting donations. This has been our very first initiative which has and is helping us in communicating and connecting directly with the target audience. GIDF USA is also approaching other high traffic and crowded locations in Massachusetts like Indian grocery stores, salons, Banks etc in order to generate more visibility, awareness and support from the potential donors. Hamari Gudiya flyer has generated a very positive outlook amongst the potential donors and given GIDF USA a platform which is for sure leaning towards success. So come, join us in our journey to share the dream.

During the initiation of this activity, we observed that 40% of the gourmet India customers actually took the flyer along with them. This number is big and tells us how successful our initiative is. After reading the donation flyer, few American’s asked about GIDF and its future plans in United States.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
Award Conferred To Irom Chanu Sharmila By IIPM

Monday, November 15, 2010

Prof Rajita Chaudhuri on 'THEY ARE COMING TO GET YOU – NOT ALIENS SILLY'

IIPM Prof Rajita Chaudhuri: The New Age Woman

He is more popular than Jesus… well, at least on Twitter and he is just 16 years old. His mom posted a video of his on YouTube, which triggered a series of events and shot him to fame. Today every girl from the age group of 7-16 dreams of how it would be to be his girlfriend.

She did in 18 months what Madonna took nearly a decade to accomplish. She is 23. She features in the 2010 Time Magazine’s listing of the 100 most influential people in the world. Who are these people? How will they affect business?


Get to know them better
Welcome to the new world. Generations come and generations go and they leave their impact on the world. The generation of ‘Baby Boomers’ is retiring and a whole new, and totally different one is emerging, ready to take on the world. Look around you they are everywhere, in sports (Maria Sharapova, b.1987), in business (Mark Zuckerberg, Founder Facebook, b.1984, Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump’s daughter, b.1981), in music (Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus of the Hannah Montana fame, b: 1992, and of course Justin Bieber, remember he is more famous than Jesus, and Lady GaGa, who beat Madonna in her own game) in Hollywood (Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame, Megan Fox, b.1986 , Hilary Duff and the very pretty Scarlett Johansson, b.1984). They are even the new face of Royalty! Move over Lady Diana, it’s time for Princes, William and Harry. These are the people who are not just bringing the gold medals for sports, but also the Oscars, and the moolah for businesses. (Read More)

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Tuesday, November 02, 2010

There is a lot in a caste!


IIPM Prof Rajita Chaudhuri: The New Age Woman

Caste based census is politically instigated!

The other day an enumerator came down to my home and comfortably started to ask me and my family details for census 2011. Everything was going smooth till he asked me about my caste, and that was the only moment I felt a little awkward. Not because he asked me about my caste or I wanted to keep it under anonymity, but actually because I do not remember when was the last time someone (educated and hailing from urban area) asked me such a question so bluntly and more so because this was the least expected question in this kind of survey!

The whole hue and cry or the so-called politicisation of including caste in the census does not hold any merit for our generation. At a point in time when we are talking about equality and framing polices to break down nexus of Khap panchayats and caste based politics, such an inclusion for the national level database management is kind of absurd! Even the key-designer of Indian Constitution, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, never supported this kind of practice and was once found saying, “So long as people were divided into several thousand castes, we were cherishing a 'great delusion' in believing that we were a nation.”

It goes without saying that the prime motive of census is to give our policy makers a framework on which they can design social and human developmental schemes. If the policy makers are so keen on devising strategy and recognising the underdeveloped pockets of population, caste census is a ‘no solution’. As such there is no system in place to ensure that one would disclose his actual caste details, and in that case the whole purpose of including a column on caste details becomes completely redundant. Census should rather focus on social attributes like education, economic condition, women participation as workforce, average marriageable age in family and so on and so forth. No doubt, the whole issue just seems politically instigated! This kind of database would empower our politicians to effectively exploit the caste card. As such political parties like Samajwadi Party, RJD and JD-U have been strongly demanding inclusion of caste in the census! Not to forget, these are those parties who rely heavily on caste based politics for their vote banks. The advocates of such moves are also of the opinion that this would enable a better targeting for reservation. But then, it is no secret that such caste based reservations have their own sets of challenges. Not to forget that now, there exists a big probability of responders deliberately misrepresenting the facts in the official records, in order to grab a reserved part of developmental schemes.

When it comes to a democratic regime, caste is an antithesis. Above all, caste census is a retrograde move and should be replaced with concrete plans for development of backward pockets of population irrespective of their caste. There is no logic to defend that only the so-called SC/ST/OBCs needs development and reservation and almost all upper caste people are well-off! In no circumstance, poverty can be confined to the unprivileged caste. In a country, where 60 per cent people earn less than a dollar a day, the actual purpose of such pan-India survey should be to bring out people from unlivable economic conditions.

It another example of petty private political gains made at the expense of national exchequer. If amends are not implemented at this point in time, it will bring back the horror of 1931, when Britishers executed such census to strengthen their divide and rule policy…

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

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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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

The role of branding and advertising in your fund raising strategy…

People’s Watch does not really believe in ‘branding and advertising’ for fund raising. As far as possible we try not to market ourselves because we are a human rights organisation and being a public organisation we ensure that we do not undertake any unethical marketing initiative since in most of the cases we are dealing with the lives and livelihood rights of ‘victims’ whose identities have to be respected and protected by us. In addition, human rights work is more effectively carried out with lesser visibility since it is really a risky engagement on our part. It involves a variety of risks, from state to non state factors, according to the cases we deal with.

Do celebrity endorsements really help when it comes to fund generation? Does it really make your job easier?
Although we are not connected with them at all for the moment, celebrities really help in fund raising. Moreover, celebrities do not always refer to people from the film world, but even then they are important for fund raising in human rights work. It does make our job easier as they are able to represent you completely and correctly. Moreover, they can convince all stakeholders more easily than an NGO. However, the most difficult part of this is to make them understand your work and strategies correctly so that they do not misrepresent.

What changes do you feel are required, both in terms of policy and operations, so that the social sector bear fruits in the long run?
The social sector needs to ensure that it makes its work accountable to the public at large. This principle of accountability could be made possible by a functional Board of Trustees or Executive Committee that sits with the organisation at least four times a year to oversee its activities as well as the financial management of the organisation. It is also important for any non-profit organisation to be effective to ensure that in addition to having a band of good activists at the grass roots it also has a good team of senior advisors to guide and review the work undertaken by it.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

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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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

PASSION OR PRAGMATISM? TAKE ONE!

Is it conviction and heart that inspires great communication or sheer hard nosed professionalism? 4Ps B&M does a checkout with some eminent creative hot-shots...

It was an idle conversation with eminent filmmaker Shyam Benegal that really got this issue into focus. As an evolved, informed and culturally-savvy communicator, Benegal believed that in the area of creative-driven professions (Film, Advertising, Theatre … whatever) there will always be themes, roles, offers, jobs and assignments that may not necessarily viagrise your creative juices – but hey, big deal! It’s a job, remember? So, as a smart, focused and result-oriented Pro, it’s your job to give it your best. The respected Movie Guru insists that “your mandate is to bring your professional skills and expertise to the table and deliver what needs to be delivered in the appropriate fashion. I don’t really see any conflict or soul-destroying problem there – especially in the arena of Advertising, where there is a specific job to do.” Another veteran, Equinox Big Boss Sumantra Ghoshal (Cherry Blossom, Hamara Bajaj) a revered, thinking, Ad Film maker, agrees. He says that it’s impossible to get up close and personal with every brand you work for because the duration is rarely over six weeks. Besides passionate involvement is not the name of the game in most cases. “It is about being sensitive and honest to the brand personality, what it represents and communicates it with the magic and chutzpah at your disposal to the select target group that matters.”

Exec Creative Director (JWT) Anuja Chauhan comes in next. Slamming a huge sixer with her maiden novel The Zoya Factor (picked up by SRK’s Production Red Chillies Entertainment) and responsible for such deathless slogans as Dil Mange More, the petite phataka pushes the Benegal-Ghoshal button, even harder. “I would not fall back on romanticised passion or inspiration as my drivers to approach an assignment. I would go in with an open mind and invest in the job all the truth, sincerity, dedication and creative energy at my disposal. Sure, there are preferences and one is inclined to enjoy working with one particular category more but that’s neither here nor there. For me, professionalism is the key.” Ogilvy’s resident dude Sumanto Chat agrees. “Early on in my career, there may have been roadblocks and some product lines a real pain, but with time I’ve learnt to work it out.” Experience and maturity remains the best teacher, he suggests and a healthy detachment from the brand lends it the required objectivity necessary to give the creative quotient the right spin. “Of course there will always be preferences … for me, the Unilever brands, for example, remain real close to my heart. And luckily, I have a super team to make up for all my deficiencies!”

Pritish Nandy provides the first chord of dissent. “For me, I think its instinctive. If a theme, storyline or an idea doesn’t instantly turn me on, give me a hard-on, excite me – its an immediate no-no! There is no question of cultivating it, making it an acquired taste and soldiering on for this highly, over-rated animal called professionalism! Something, somewhere has to click, pronto. Remember, I am not looking to impress, but move people emotionally to a different plane. That comes from passion not pragmatism; heart not head, mate”. Creative Consultant Sonam Khanna agrees. The San Francisco-based writer believes that “The professionalism bit doesn’t really work where there is a creative calling”. Creativity comes from within and has nothing to do with hard-nosed discipline. I never ever accept any assignment that doesn’t fuse with my basic sensibilities. I know because of my experience and knowledge, I will perhaps be able to deliver – but it clashes with my conscience. It won’t be something I am proud of or honestly given it my all. And I detest the chalta hai, theek hai, client to okay kar diya attitude. For me, I am the judge and jury and unless I am really charged, it’s a polite but firm NO!”

Rediffusion’s Mumbai-based NCD Sagar Mahabaleshwarkar wraps up the debate with his distinctive take. “I think it’s a personal thing. For me, doing stuff for a new category, client or product is hugely exciting because I am playing blind and getting sleepless nights! That’s my big NO! Otherwise, repeating the familiar is comfortable … but God, so boring!”

So, for different folks, different strokes, huh?!

Monojit Lahiri

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

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

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