1. To take up the Page Rank on Google and Alexa -- I would be needing your help on this
2. To complete the long list of ToDo at office -- more about that in another blog entry :)
3. To concentrate on those conference calls. Make them worthwhile.
4. And finally, stay away from all trouble ;)
In line with the changing times, added a few new features (Guest Book, Site Meter) etc and also changed the template to give it that new winter look :)
Feebdack welcome.
Hello All
A little different theme this time around.
Have decided to stay back in Kolkata for the Pujas instead of going home. And man, did it pay off or what?
I wouldn't say nething more. See it for yourself. But yes one thing. I have seen Diwali in Delhi Chandi Chowk and Ganesh Chaturdhi in Bombay and Hyderabad. But let me tell you, Puja @ Kolkata beats all of them just on hte back of enthusiasm and excitement shown by the general public. They just go crazy. Yes, they take off the rest of the year but Bongs during Puja are the most passionate people I have seen.
More in photos,
More Photos from Ashtami, Navami and Dasami to follow.
luv
Whoa... 3 months is a long time to be away from action. But i guess these are the sacrifices one has to make for a successful career (rofl in background).
Anyway, so what has been happening? On a personal front, things look good. Hope it stays that way.
And career bole tho, nothing exciting. But I shall not bore my readers with menial stuff like this. Straight to action --
What has been appalling me is the way marketers think (yours truly included). Why do we think that we can sell any damn product by saying that it will get you women. Let me just list a few ads from the top of my mind that have used this approach...
a. Axe
b. Wild Fire (or sth like that)
c. Cinthol
d. Zen Estillo
e. Wagon R
f. SX 4 (I see a pattern here)
g. Scorpio
h. Hair Gels
i. Pulsar
j. Some other bike which i dont even rmr now
h. Mouth Fresheners like Minto
i. Chewing gums like Wrigleys
So basically, if i am using soap, shampoo, hair gels, deodarants or even cars and suvs or bikes and even if i am chewing gum my only objective is to hook up with women.
Now this actually poses problem. If i use axe, I will have women swimming the seas and climbing down the hills but if i use this wild fire (or is it wild stone) i hv a chance to get laid (and that too a bong babe -- hint - puja chantings behind) while if i use a cinthol i can be sure of getting a lift from a set of hot babes. So now what do i choose -- if i am the type of f*ck and forget i should use Wild Fire but if i am of the type who wants to be centre of attraction i should use Axe while i am the seeda saada whose dreams end at creating a positive first impression i should use Cinthol.
This moral / mental dillemma can be extended to other product categories as well. If i buy a wagon r, i can invite my photographer friend over to click photographs of me along with hot babes (ohh... along with the car). But if i buy a SX4, i can proudly proclaim that men are back (now that makes me feel truly like a man). But wait, if i buy a scorpio i will have women chasing me on water scooters (now that is sexy). But the best, i should buy a zen estillo in case i am harboring plans of eloping with my girl friend so that i can make my would be father in law forget that i am eloping with his daughter.
And should i chew a gum that promises babes jumping out at me from most unthoughtable locations or should i settle for rakhi sawant (yuck!!).
I always thought advertisements were suppose to make an impression on my mind so that next time around i have a requirement for that product category -- i shd rmr the ad and make a choice. But, now whenever i have to buy a car, i hv to first decide what are my intentions -- frget the stats.
Advertising is supposed to make my buying easier -- not inflict moral dillemmas on me and make it difficult :)
Warning -- Some of them might be a little senti :P
In no particular order
1. Rudraveena starring Chiranjeevei and Shobhana -- Language - Telugu
There is this scene in the movie where Suryam (Chiranjeevi) goes to a poor farmer's house. He finds the farmer's daughter there and inquires about her father's health (who met with some accident or sth like that). She replies saying that he is still a drunkard, comes late in the night, beats up her mom and abuses her and that nothing has changed. Meanwhile, he asks her about her mother who is inside the house (it is btw nth more than a shack). This girl calls out for her and the mother responds by asking her to come in. The girl goes in and the mother comes out. Mom and daughter whisper to each other and though we don't get to exactly hear the conversation, we realise that the mom is berating the daughter for something. Mom comes out finally and starts talking to Suyram. In the conversation, there is a reference to the daughter and she answers without coming out to which Suryam asks her to come out. The camera moves on to the mother and she says that if her daughter has to come out, she has to go in as there is only one saree in the house and that they have to share it.
The camera moves on to Suryam and we here Sri Sri's nenu saitam in the background. Amazing scene, not for the way it is picturized or anything. Just for the simple concept. Poverty at it's worst. And I am sure, this is not an exaggeration.
2. Saagara Sangamam starring Kamal Haasan and Jaya Pradha -- Language - Telugu
Both the protagonists are sitting in a park when Jayapradha (don't rmr her character's name) asks Balu (Kamal Haasan) if he has ever attended a particular music and dance festival. He replies saying that quite a few years back he managed to source an invitation from his guru but in the last minute had to cancel the trip as he was out of money. She says that she has a few invitations to this years event and that she can lend him one. Balu is like very happy and says that it is a forum where the greatest dancers of the country come together. She takes out an invitation and hands it over him. He starts going thru the contents and remarks that this year around, all the dancers are very talented. Suddenly he sees his own picture in the invitation and he goes speechless -- to which Jaya pradha says that even the person in the picture is a great dancer. We suddenly see tears rolling down Balu's face and he hides his face behind the invitation. Few seconds later, he looks up and we see him laughing / smiling.
The way Kamal Hasan acts in this scene is simply remarkable. There are scenes from other movies too (like Mahanadi where he goes in search of his daughter and manages to find her in a whore-house in Calcutta) where he manages to make audience senti. But this particular scene -- I don't really have words. I always end up having goose-bumps when I see this. The way his emotions change in a matter of few seconds is really really worth watching.
3. Pursuit of Happyness starring Will Smith
The last scene where he manages to secure himself a job with the company. He is extremely happy / thrilled and the way he dances once he comes out of the office -- again remarkable.
There is something in these two emotions -- sadness and joy that makes them universal. Was reading this book called emotions. He says stuff which most of us are aware that sadness and joy are universal emotions and people across the world react in a similar way to similar triggers. No wonder, we sometimes tend to understand the moods of the other person without them explicitly saying anything.
No more gyan about ads today. I feel extremely tired. I guess i need a vacation. 6 and a half months is too long a time without a break.
Anyway, so what is happening?
There are quite a few things, professional and personal, which I have no clue as to where they are headed. But I guess, you don't always need to know the destination of every journey. Maybe, that is what makes the trip exciting.
I guess all I need is just one good nights sleep. To clear my mind off everything and get back my focus.
Till I come back tomorrow, long life to all and have fun.
....this month
Just noticed that my last post was on June 19th. Incidentally that was the day I took off for my first market visit as Asst Brand Mgr to Punjab. Was fortunate enough to travel across Punjab by road in a AC car. Managed to enjoy the lush green surroundings while escaping the scorching hot climate.
After that, nothing of consequence actually happened. Days just went by. Go to office, spend time till it is time to head back home and then head back home. Oh yeah, one of my brands is gonna be launched this month end. So a little amount of work had to be done there.
Anyway, no more gyan. Coming straight to what I wanted to say today. I was in kitchen when suddenly I heard this pretty familiar tune. "Buland bharat ki buland tasveer" (which I guess means strong picture of a strong India). I loved this particular tune as a kid. It is very catchy, has a lot of energy to it and it just lingers on you. So I come out of the kitchen wondering why Bajaj started advertising their scooters all over again (Weren't they out of market a few years back? Though my guess is that they will make a comeback again just for their fashion, heritage and Italian connection). Anyway, what I see on TV is this really sleek ad for Bajaj Pulsar. I guess it is their new improved model with all that 180cc jazz and stuff. The ad is pretty simple -- black bike, biker in black leather jacket, black helmet, black road, the bright surroundings (though I don't rmr if it is brownish or greenish -- my guess is that it would have been brownish or golden (wheat you see)). You see the bike zooming along the curves and in a very tacky looking (though I kind of liked it) animation, you have new bikes appearing from the initial bike. So initially, you have one bike and one rider, then you have two bikes and two riders and then three and it is as if they are racing along.
That is when the jingle starts "Naye bharat ki Naye Andaaz" --- "Hamara Bajaj"
Trust me, the voice has loads of bass but the killer is the tune and the execution. Definete winner if you ask me.
At the end of it all, all the bikes merge back into one.
Now this ad could have meant a lot. One thing i felt was that Bajaj is a clear leader and thus it has nobody but itself to compete with. This thought taking genesis from bikes appearing out of initial bikes and then racing.
But that apart, what would the Bajaj people given as a brief to the ad agency --
a. The ad has to somehow relate with the Bajaj heritage (using this tune -- I am impressed / biased :P) while at the same time avoid the scooter kind of image and should be relatable to the TG
b. To make the ad relevant to TG (black everywhere)
c. No overt mention of product attributes * you can say that the way bike was showed to zoom along the curves without a hitch is a product story -- but for me it is more the freedom, joy and the feeling of adventure and comfort that I would relate with the visual rather than anti-skid tyres*
d. And yeah, umbrella branding. I don't really remember if the ad was for Pulsar or for Bajaj. Either they are having plans to get into an IPO or they just want to pursue a strategy of Umbrella branding by using pulsar as a image generator for other suff like boxer etc.
So that is the ad that caught my attention in the last few days. Coming to my rating of the vitals,
Story -- No story overtly
Concept -- 3.5 / 5
Execution -- 4.5 / 5
Impact -- 4 / 5
I have a feeling that the Bajaj folks have a winner in this ad. Trust me, it would have a good impact on their salience and recall numbers.
In all my enthusiasm of posting my first ad-related content, I have asked my friend to visit my blog. And he asked a very basic question. What are blogs meant for? Why should I read somebody's blog whom I don't even know.
I tried answering his question by saying that a blog provides you a different perspective, not necessarily an expert view, but somebody who wants to make his voice heard. It wasn't convincing enough for him. He was of the view that if he wants to know about something, he would as well go to a reliable source than something "frivolous" like a blog. In his opinion, blogs are like for people who have gone through everything avlbl on net -- a last resort.
Now, this got me thinking. Why am I writing this blog? Are my opinions important enough to be read? What would somebody actually get out of reading this blog? Is it only my selfish motive to provide an outlet to my thoughts or am I trying to do something more helpful. How reliable is the information I provide on my blog (assuming it is important enough to be read)? These and so many other questions are still popping around in my head.
Neways, in case you have a view on this, please go ahead and post your comments. As for me, this blog helps me to put forth my thoughts on a public forum at a zero cost. If somebody stumbles upon the blog and either agrees or disagrees with my views, he has all freedom to put his comments -- which might lead to a healthy discussion or otherwise a deletion of the comment :).
Chalooz then, better content later in the night.
Helloz everybody....
Was a busy weekend. Went to this nature therapy resort called Joka. Amazing place. Nature at its best. Greenery, serene water bodies, the rocking jetty, calm breeze and slight drizze -- all these together made it one of the most memorable weekends i hv had in recent times.
To add to it all, got to see putty after a long time.
The objective of this entry is not to describe my weekend though. Initially I thought of creating another blog for my thoughts on various advertisements. But I have realised that maintaining a couple of blogs with daily updates is much much more difficult than maintaining a couple of credit cards.
Anyway, to put it succinctly, I would try and and understand why a particular advertisement is made in a certain way. Would definetely appreciate debate / suggestion on the thoughts posted here.
Coming to the point, the ad of the day is .. oh wait. actually i wd like to start it with a particular genre of ads that i get to see on tv these days. I would like to term these ads as "The consumer is a dumb ass" ads. In these kind of ads the advertisers believe that the consumer is a classy dumb ass who can't understand a thing unless the thought is crassly communicated up front. Two ads immediately come to my mind -- Nestle and Nestle again. One is for Nestle coffee while the other is for Munch.
Nestle coffee ads used to be harbinger for great ads at a point of time. I still rmr the ad where this hot babe opens up the window to a great morning with a coffee cup *of course, it is red in color* with this wonderful jingle in the background. Yes, there was romance in the ad but it was never overt and always kind of subtle with the freshness message and the best way to start a day message which were more overt. But i guess there is a change of team at Nestle and they suddenly realised that their appraisals were at stake if they don't make changes to the ad. As my boss says, in the marketing world, the most easiest thing to make is a TVC. And obviously these people set out to make one. Now comes the crucial point, they just cant recycle old stuff *give me the rain, babe and coffee any time*, so they had to come up with a different idea. Now what can this revolutionary earth shattering thought be? Their research would have showed that coffee is becoming distant from youth and having coffee is a more elderly kind of thing to do. SO, the first thing that would have struck them is let us make it cool. Now what can we do to make it cool. Let us make the romance side of it overt and push back all other attributes. AND, we have the ad where the guy asks the girl out for a cup of milk. MILK, the babe exclaims and we are shown that coffee was always the way to approach a girl. So here we have an ad with a 20+ couple (making the ad youthful is done), romance thrown in (yeah thrown in literally as i dnt really seeing it fit easily, btw, this also makes the ad relevant for the 20+) and yeah add a dash of comedy (milk ... to make a conversation.. really had me in splits) and we have a cool ad which focuses on romance between 20+.
Now why am I so critical about this ad? I am ok with the entire thought process of making coffee cooler and relevant to the youth (though I doubt if this has to be done ; the number of coffee pubs mushrooming everywhere has me in doubt. But I trust their research. If their research showed that coffee is no longer relevant to 20+, so be it). My discomfort with the ad comes with the way it has been executed. A voiceover saying that milk as a way of approaching girl sucks and that coffee is the way is not the best way in my opinion to communicate a thought. Do they think that consumers are so dumb that unless everything is put in the copy of the ad, they wouldn't get the message. Anyways, this is my take on it. The thought is good, the execution very poor.
From the stables of Nestle comes another ad which also falls in the same genre. The Rani Mukherjee walah munch ad. They had a series of ads running wherein Rani doesn't mind throwing somebody off the cliff for disturbing her while having a munch. Though i felt that ads looked a little tacky, the message they wanted to communicate was good and they didnt really spell it out. The recent set of ads are of a completely different nature. What they would have seen their research throw up is that snacks industry is one of the fastest growing segment within the foods industryand that they need to get in to it asap. Instead of creating a new brand, they can as well do it with munch would have been their thought process. So instead of a bar, we now have pieces which can be munched. The next logical step is to make the consumer believe that having a munch at home just the way you would have bhujia makes sense. And how do you think Nestle did it. They make Rani ask the consumer if the consumer has a munch at home. There are so many better ways to communicate a similar message and the only way they thought they could do this was to make consumer look like a jack ass. Whenever I look at this ad, I feel that I a good for nothing stupid to be told something so straight forward.
This approach looks good because there is absolutely no doubt of the consumer misunderstanding the communication. But the problem is that it hurts the consumers ego.
Neways, these are just my views. Would love to hear from junta who think otherwise.
~Sasak
What does going crazy mean? How crazy can you get before you officially get labeled as crazy?
Before I go ahead, I received a suggestion from a good friend that nobody would be interested in reading about my boss or my work which actually kind of sounded true. Further, as everybody who has a boss would admit to it, all we can do is only crib about a boss. Some of the eternal truths of corporate work life I have realized over the last two months
• Boss is always bad
• Work always sucks
• Work comes in bursts and only towards the end of the day
• Urgency is a relative word – relative to who says it
• People not reporting to you (read as – those whom you don’t appraise) never give you data on time
• If something can go wrong, trust me, it definitely would.
• There is NO plan
• All plans, if any do exist, never go as per the plan.
• Timelines are again relative, extendable as per the whims and fancies of people higher up
• The fourth floor sneezes and the entire third floor catches a cold; The second floor sneezes and the entire company catches a cold
• And yeah, the classic one – People are always smart enough to guess what their boss wants/likes.
Anyways, the idea of this post was to move away from the usual stuff. The first line was in that direction. I am sure by now every body is aware that a movie by name Sivaji has released today. Was watching CNN IBN a little while ago and they just went crazy (now as I said initially, this is a relative word – what is crazy to me might be absolutely ok for somebody else) about this whole Rajini thing. I understand that he is a huge star down south. Huge as in somebody who can turn around an election, somebody whose movie runs full house till his next movie releases (which is only after two years, you see, he likes to maintain the exclusivity), somebody who has 35000 fan clubs (as opposed to 18 clubs of Amitabh) and who is literally a God. Agreed to all these facts, but does that merit a round the clock news bytes about him/ his study habits / his sleep habits / his earlier movies / his characters / his one liners. Give me a break. Every news website that is worth its salt has been running a section on Rajini on the first page for the last two weeks. Every channel which manages to grab atleast a couple of eye balls has a special daily update on how people are anticipating the Rajini movie / what are the arrangements that they are making for the D-day etc etc. There are also hazaar public generated videos on sites like You Tube which further add to the hype. Doesn’t this sound all crazy? For me, it sure does. I did lap up every piece of news broadcasted / printed / typed. But at the end of the I guess it makes sense to remember that story of the goose that laid golden eggs. You can milk any issue only to an extent. The more you go on and on about it people lose interest in it. Yeah, by then there would be something else that would interest the common man and that is the only hope with which all the media companies would go ahead with.
In an attempt to become richer, I have sold my soul to the devil....
ooops, did i just blurt that out.
Anyways, as the old proverb goes, words once said can't be taken back. So I would let it stay.
And yeah, a small request. Do you see those stupid irritating banners on the right. Click on them once in a while. Bhagwan aapka bhala karega. And yeah, the next time you have to search for something, please visit this page and use the google search here. Bhagwan aapka duguna bhala karega. And yeah finally, are you still using that stupid age-old internet explorer which comes free with your windows and you just can't free yourself from its clutches. Now is your chance, click on the image above and download Mozilla Firefox Browser. It is light weight. It is secure. No memory leaks. All in all, pretty neat and clean browser. You can take my word on this as I have been using this for almost three years now. And the updates are also pretty frequent and they have a rocking list of extensions and themes to select from.
So please go right ahead.
$$$$$ Click everywhere and make me a rich rich man $$$$$
jst the way every chapter in a book has a different title, ideally, every day in the blog should also have a different title. If the title continues to be the same everyday, there is a problem. So now you know that there is a problem ;)
But very frankly, I was at work today as well. But today it was different. I made a couple of activation plans that need to be implemented during this year. At the end of the day, sitting at a desk and thinking of various innovative things is not so easy. As a matter of fact, the moment you want to think innovatively, all innovation/creativity is lost. I guess it happens only when you don't think about it.
And yeah, there were a couple of comments regarding KNG, he just happens to be my ceo. very sharp and highly respected. going for a one-to-one discussion i guess is definitely worth putting on a blog.
To summarize the day,
Action points of the day -- Making the plans
Dull points of the day -- That stupid tracker
Guilt of the day -- Escaping off a work that your boss wanted you to do
Realisation of the day -- People do / behave in a way for a particular reason. You just need to be intelligent enough to understand it.
High of the day -- No significant highs. Wait.. I saw a few of my stocks in the green for the first time. On the whole though, me still in red. If 200 point in hike in Sensex doesn't bring me back to green, I guess nothing else can.
So more or less... that is the summary of the day.
And yeah... to leave on a positive note -- TGIF.
High of the day -- Meeting KNG
Low of the day -- Preparing to leave at 6:30PM only to realise that boss has some other plans
Good feeling of the day -- Getting everything done on the To-Do list
Bad feeling of the day -- Better left unsaid
Interesting thought of the day -- Do I want to take it further?
Depressing thought of the day -- Oh my God... I am already down by 200 Rs
Best Action of the day -- Start with quicken again
Worst Action of the day -- Non Action on the merchandising tracker
Lucky Strike of the day -- Ask the ad agency to work on something and getting it done in 1 hour
Shit of the day -- Don't ask me about the status of launched brands
~pandu
12th May, 2007
Project Commences at 11:00 AM.
~Status update at 12 noon
The count stays at 0 :)
~12:50 PM
Yo Yo Yo.... 3:00 PM.... still standing :)
7:15 PM... gave in once :(
No more giving in...
