Rajita Chaudhuri said, OLD NEED NOT BE GOLD

Prof Rajita Chaudhuri follow some off-beat trends like organizing make up sessions

If you want to raise a happy child, the rule is, “Till he is five years old, treat him like a king. Till he is 13, treat him like a prince. From 13 to 18, treat him like a pauper. After 18, become his best friend.” The crux is that good parents change their ways as their children grow. Good marketers too change their strategies as markets and times change.

What worked this decade will be outdated in the new one. In the 1970s, the hottest marketing invention was the ‘Direct Mailer’. It is known as ‘Junk Mail’ today. The 1980s was dominated by “collect tokens; and exchange for gifts.” You were encouraged to collect bottle caps, tokens, labels and encouraged to exchange them for gifts, discounts etc. Today, you log on to Groupon.com or snapdeal.com and find out exciting discount offers of the day. After all, who has the patience today to wait and collect a desired number of tokens and then get the discounts. The 1990s saw the explosion of ‘Loyalty Cards’. Every retailer had a loyalty programme, which promised discounts and freebies. Today, the consumer is not motivated by just discounts. He wants more. He wants to take charge – and Smirnoff showed him how. It launched a campaign named “Be There”. You were invited to a nightclub, but there was more it. Loyal consumers even got a chance to plan which music they wanted to hear and everything else they wanted to do that night via Smirnoff’s Facebook page. Today, those are the Fan Pages on Facebook that do more business for a brand, than loyalty cards do.

The new decade is all about ‘interactivity’. On December 14, 2010, Apple launched its first iAd for the iPad with the advertisement of Disney’s new film Tron Legacy. The advertisement featured 10 minutes of video and movie stills. Ipad had a movie theater locator with showtimings and a preview of the sound track, which you, as a privileged user, had the option of purchasing from iTunes. With the iPad becoming the “it” thing for gifting this holiday season, and with already more than 7.5 million iPad users worldwide, advertising professionals would soon have to reinvent and start thinking beyond the 30 or 60 second spots on TV, for those are the interactive advertisements that will be the next new exciting trend of the coming years.

All that you learnt about marketing in school is going to change totally. So be ready to give up your favourite ideas and start adopting new ones.
This article is sourced from PR-CANADA.net, click here to read compelete article.

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RAJITA CHAUDHURI: INNOVATION IS NOT GOOD SOMETIMES

Prof Rajita Chaudhuri follow some off-beat trends like organizing make up sessions

A great leader, like a great parent, changes and moulds his ways first. More importantly, a good leader never fails to accept his mistakes. It helps him to remove the shackles, free himself from the burden of his faults and move faster.

On April 10 this year, Microsoft launched its social networking phones Kin1 and Kin2. Exactly 79 days later, on June 30, 2010, it killed the products. A record! No other products till date had had such a short lifespan. To survive, you need to innovate; but to sustain success, you need to quickly kill innovations that went wrong. Sometimes, there is no second chance for flops. Intelligent marketers know that. ESPN launched its mobile phones in 2006 with the idea of offering exclusive ESPN content. No one bought either the product or the idea. ESPN withdrew the concept within eight months. HD DVD was supposed to be the next big thing after the traditional DVD. However, Blu–ray of Sony took away the cake and the Toshiba led HD DVD disappeared from the forefront within two years.

In their haste to outperform their competitors, sometimes apparently great sounding innovations fail to perform. An intelligent marketer should not hesitate to accept defeat, drop the idea and move on. It’s more cost effective that way, than trying to pump in more money in marketing a flop idea. Sometimes, it is argued that marketing kills the spirit of innovation. A dead idea, with excellent marketing can extend the life of that idea. We need to watch out for such ideas and kill them at the right time. Microsoft launched Zune in 2006, to compete with the iPod. It came nowhere close. Even today, Zune is struggling. Time you gave up the fight Bill Gates and dropped it. After all, when it comes to innovation, the one man, the one company that defeats all by miles is Steve Jobs and Apple. The 1990s saw Apple losing out to competitors and almost fading away; but the last decade belonged to Steve Jobs. Jobs has set new benchmarks, created and started new trends and changed marketers and consumers forever.
This article is sourced from PR-CANADA.net, click here to read compelete article.

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Band Baaja Barat: The Worst Laid Plans

IIPM Prof Arindam Chaudhuri on Our Parliament and Parliamentarians' Work

TSI Five-O: Neither slick, nor grand

Band Baaja Barat

"Band Baaja Barat" (BBB) had the set up to be a well crafted rom-com directed by Maneesh Sharma as a complete family entertainer and would have lived up to those expectations if it had not bungled up on technicalities. Apart from the slight disconnect, abrupt love making scenes and distastefully done smooching sequences, the story BBB dishes out is an interesting one about Shruti Kakkar (Anushka Sharma) aspires to become a wedding planner. Bittoo Sharma (Ranveer Singh) is a laid back lad from Haryana, who passes out of Delhi University and is now desperate to get away from his family business of sugarcane farming. Luckily, he falls for Shruti and soon makes friends with her and convinces her to make him her partner in the big fat wedding planning business called ‘Shaadi Mubarak’. Shruti makes it a point not to mix business with pleasure and plays by her rule book and is ‘just friends’ with Bittoo. But soon that goes for a toss as the proximity between the duo increases and the equation becomes more relaxed once they rejoice after each successful event. How the duo ends up in bed and how things unfold in the second half lacks subtlety and class. Ranveer looks promising being a debutant and Anushka does justice to her role as well. The music by Salim Suleiman, especially the “Ainveyi Ainveyi” number is a peppy one and adds a little dash of flavour of this rather half cooked platter. A slight attention to detail and trivial tweaking would have made BBB delight. But the planning’s gone a bit awry.

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IIPM Prof Rajita Chaudhuri on 'FIGHT FOR THE NO.1 SPOT'

Prof Rajita Chaudhuri follow some off-beat trends like organizing make up sessions

Rajita Chaudhuri at Polo Exhibition Match

It’s not easy to reach the No.1 spot; you need to fight hard, and sometimes even snatch that spot, like Rin did. It came out with advertisements which clearly mentioned it was superior. The ads stated, “Tide se kahin behatar safedi de Rin”. Of course, Tide filed a case and Rin got into a controversy; but it helped generate a buzz – which is most important. Audi joined the top league when it came out with the advertisement which mentioned, “Audi is growing faster than BMW, Lexus & Mercedes.” Now, whether it was actually growing faster or not, did not bother the consumer much. However, it changed people’s perceptions about the car. Now, they clubbed it along with BMW and Mercedes. Audi jumped the rungs and established itself as the premium brand. Yes, sales increased too.

Sometimes, the fight for the top spot is taken public, consumers love it, and it never fails to grab eyeballs. Coke and Pepsi have been doing it for years. Apple and its humorous takes on Microsoft defined its brand personality and brand image as uber cool in comparison to the fuddy duddy one that competitor Microsoft had.

FIGHT NOT JUST FOR NO.1 BUT THE NO.2 SPOT TOO
With the marketplace getting so cluttered for the No.2 was neglected. Of course, not always. Some very intelligent marketers knew that when there is no space at the top, it pays to be clearly labelled as No.2, for that makes people notice you. Avis did that years ago. Hertz was the leader and had the maximum awareness when it came to car rentals. So, Avis brought out its iconic ad, “We are number 2, that’s why we try harder.” Everyone knew who was No.1, but now for the first time a new slot was defined. So, if for some reason, a consumer could not get Hertz, he knew whom to call next. Avis carved a niche for itself, and did brisk business for now the consumer knew, maybe not No.1, but Avis was as good, and definitely better than hoards of others.

Hindustan Times (HT) seems to be doing the same in Mumbai. Its ads claim that “Hindustan Times beats DNA to become No.2 in Mumbai.” The beginning of this month saw HT advertising how it was now very close to the market leader, The Times of India, with a readership of 5.92 lakhs, a lead of 17,000 over DNA.

Sometimes, it pays to play the second fiddle. Miller High Life has always positioned itself as the “good” beer, providing “good” value for money. Miller Coors is America’s second largest company and it decided to take the second position seriously. In 2009, when the market leaders were paying $3 million for 30 seconds of airtime during the Super Bowl, Miller said it was No.2 and did not believe in spending so much and thought a “one-second ad” during the Super Bowl Sunday was enough to make its point. So, days before the Super Bowl, it started its 30 second teasers, promoting its 1-second-ad that it would air on Super Bowl Sunday, for its commonsense philosophy could be conveyed in just one second. The No.2, with a tiny ad budget drew more attention than the big spenders.

CALLING YOURSELF NO.2 ALWAYS WORKS – WE ALL LOVE THE UNDERDOGS!
If you are sure about your product and your philosophy, you can tackle not one, not two, but many competitors at one go – much like our Bollywood heroes who cansingle-handedly fight all the bad guys and emerge victorious. That’s exactly what Brita water filter system did. It came out with ads which claimed that tap water in developed countries was excellent and there was no need to spend money on bottled water and increase pollution, for 16 million gallons of oil were consumed to make plastic water bottles – which could be totally avoided by using the reusable Brita water filter bottles. It asked you to drink responsibly and avoid buying bottled water in plastic bottles. Tap water was as good after all!

It takes vision and guts to speak out against the leader. But if you have a better product, it’s best to just bulldoze your way into the minds of the consumer with an aggressive marketing campaign. It works! Don’t knock ! Just barge in!
This article is sourced from PR-CANADA.net, click here to read compelete article.

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Katrina reigns, and how!

Prof Rajita Chaudhuri follow some off-beat trends like organizing make up sessions

Katrina Kaif

Katrina is the talk of the town, though for quite an unpredictable reason! She was apparently so overwhelmed with Manoj Bajpai's acting prowess that she actually touched Manoj Bajpai's feet! Having given a wonderful performance in 'Raajneeti', as a bubbly girl in the first half and a suave and serious political leader in the second half, Katty too has been busy receiving compliments from film critics, audiences and film director Kabir Khan. The man behind 'Kabul Express' and 'New York' now plans to cast Katrina in his next Yash Raj banner flick.


The Princess' diaries

Bond girl Gemma Arterton recently tied the knot with her year-old fianc' Stefano Catelli in Andalucia, Spain. Gemma recalled that when they first met, they had instantly been attracted to each other,

Gemma Arterton

and later that night she had even written in her diary that she had met the man she was going to marry! Immediately after the release of 'Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time', which stars Gemma, the duo broke the good news. In an ultra romantic wedding at a Moorish Castle, this princess exchanged vows with Catelli, an Italian sales manager for a British fashion label. We hope this fairy tale wedding is followed by a happily-ever-after too!


No 'Dostana' here!

John Abraham

Latest in from the rumour mills is that macho man John Abraham snubbed the 'Ghajini' actor Asin and probably even caused her to shed a tear or two! Impressed by her acting in 'London Dreams', director Vipul Shah had plans to cast her in his next endeavour too, but John, the male lead of the film, point blank refused to work with her claiming that she wasn't sexy enough for the role! In fact, he was quick to share with the director his own hot-damsels list that featured Sonam Kapoor, Deepika Padukone and his very own Bips darling!


Girls gone wild!

Sandra Bullock

About five months ago, Sandra Bullock locked lips with actor Meryl Streep as they got up on stage to share the Best Actress Award. and it seems like Ms Bullock enjoyed the ensuing attention from the media considering that she recently repeated the 'act' at The MTV Movie Awards. this time Her partner in crime was red-hot Scarlett Johansson, and the duo smooched and embraced each other to the shocked delight of the audience. Accepting the MTV Generation Award, Sandra clarified that this award might be presented generally to those expected to make way for the new generation, but she isn't going anywhere!


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

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IIPM Prof Rajita Chaudhuri on 'THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS'

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IIPM Prof Rajita Chaudhuri

“If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way,” said Napoleon Hill. This got me thinking about the significance of “small.” It’s the “small things” that have been changing and influencing our lives. Back in the 1960’s everyone was making big long cars. Doyle Dane Bernbach was hired by this company to create a campaign to promote an ugly looking car. It took a small headline to shake up the whole automobile market and changed all the existing rules of advertising forever. The headline read “Think Small”. Bernbach’s “Think Small” advertisement for the Beetle car was actually an exercise in thinking big. This ad catapulted the Beetle into fame and sales of the car (which no one gave much chance to succeed) actually broke all records and expectations. Not surprising then that in the list of the top 100 advertising campaigns, Volkswagen stands tall at the very top with its “Think Small” campaign that Bernbach created in 1959.

In fact, it was the “big” that drove Detroit into a ditch. GM, Ford and Chrysler had been America’s symbol of economic might and prosperity. They totally ignored the small and concentrated on big cars only. But it was the small and fuel efficient cars of Japan that helped them capture the US car market. In August 2008, the American car industry saw a drop in sales by 11%. Japanese carmaker Honda, on the other hand, out performed the sliding US auto industry with its US sales up by 1.2%. In 2007, Americans bought 55 light trucks for every 45 passenger cars. In July 2008, the ratio inverted and so did the fortunes of car companies. It’s the ones who focused on “small” that survived.
This article is sourced from blogger.com, click here to read compelete article.

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IIPM Prof Rajita Chaudhuri on 'HOW TO KISS AND TELL!'

IIPM Prof Rajita Chaudhuri: The New Age Woman

Rajita Chaudhuri

Your first kiss, your first love, listening to an old song, walking in the rain, receiving a mail from an old acquaintance, watching your child sleep, watching the sunset, waking up to find you still have an hour to sleep, getting a gift that you were planning to buy, seeing your parents smile, sipping coffee in the winter sun! Guess these are just some of the moments that are our ‘bestest’ ones. Life is full of challenges, heartbreaks, pressures and tensions, but true satisfaction and long lasting happiness comes from some of the simplest things that life has to offer.

As in life, so in business, the best things are the simplest. Let’s take a closer look.

THE BEST COMMUNICATION IS THE SIMPLEST
The most famous scientist who ever lived, and the person responsible for giving the most famous equation of the world: E=mc2, was, yes we all know, Albert Einstein. What made this man so famous and made his theories create the maximum impact was not just his genius in analysing things, but in his ability to explain even the most complicated theories in the simplest manner possible. Even a layman, a non-scientific brain could understand them. One of the simplest explanations of Einstein’s ‘Theory of Relativity’ was given by a young fellow, and this is what he said: “When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute and it seems longer than an hour. That’s the crux of the Theory of Relativity.” Einstein too could simplify the various laws of physics and make everyone understand them.
This article is sourced from PR-CANADA.net, click here to read compelete article.

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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)

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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).

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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).

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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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Detail of all IIPM branches
IIPM - Admission Procedure
IIPM, GURGAON
IIPM 3-year full-time Integrated (MBA BBA) Programme
IIPM 2-year full time Programme (leading to the award of the MBA degree from IMI)