Winds of change

I guess the meteorological department and the national media too are a little bit too hyper about jumping their guns and predictions pertaining to the advent of monsoon. I remember how the meteorological people have tough times to predict monsoon or when or not the rains might arrive. So what if they are somewhat right this time? Winds of change, despite low rains and waging recession. The rain is flirting with us. Delhi recorded 203 mm of rainfall in August alone and 383.2 mm for the total season. the bigger question still is for farmers committing suicides in Chattisgarh and Andhra. Cumulative forces like the recession and rainfall has put brakes in India's development this year. Despite, reports indicating total growth crossing 6% in the 2Q. India still is dependent on the monsoon rains and the lack of it has adversely impacted rice, sugar and cotton. Eventually leading to high prices of eatables.

Can we build a mechanism to check mate low rainfall and of course it's after effects?

Technology grips Management

The IIT’s i.e Indian Institute of Technology are known for imparting quality and quantity education in engineering and technology. MBA (Masters in Business Administration) today can be done from the engineering and technology major IIT. A child today dreaming to make an inroad to the IIT, pulls up his socks right away and starts preparing from standard 8th and 9th itself. It takes an iit-ian more than four years to call himself a specialized ‘hardcore engineer’ from an institute of this standing. Approximately 50% of its students move ahead for a management degree from premier institutes of India.


In today’s era of rat race and a desire of a higher level of achievement motivation is seen and is rising among Indian students. This kind of development is a threat for students coming from non- IIT background. The students of IIT after 4 years of rigorous studies can get easily through competitive exams and finally crack the CAT exams. They somehow stand as one of the road blocking agents of the seats in premier management institutes. “A trend has been seen that a good number of engineering students are able to make their way towards Indian Administrative Services (IAS).” Says a senior officer of the IAS cadre.

A veteran academician and director of a reputed management and technology institute is aware of this development, he corroborates “It is happening due to stiff competition.” To take it this way for example, the IIT’s can retain the best brains of our country and further empower them to go high in the horizontal hierarchy of the corporate world.

These institutes have introduced specialized courses not many management institutes are offering take for e.g the IIT- Kanpur. It offers an MBA in collaboration with the Industrial and Management Department of IIT-K and have courses like infrastructure, system management, manufacturing etc. The idea is to prepare an MBA pass out manage modern enterprise effectively and independently. Similarly IIT-Bombay in its management package offer courses like technology policy, R&D (research and development) management and managing technology transfer. IIT- Roorkee, IIT- Madras, IISC- Bangalore are the other institutes where management courses are available.

To leaf a recent example some private investment and banking companies came to recruit final year engineering grads from the IIT-Delhi. According to sources, the HR persons were eager to hire the iit-ians primarily for their number crunching ability and analytic approach.

Clusterising or grouping subjects has also been seen, engineering subjects like operations management are also taught in the management institutes. It also includes topics like inventory control, game theory, decision making etc which are mathematical in theory but managerial in practice. A media person reacts by saying that even a plain engineering graduate, once in a workplace should know how to work and lead a team to ensure better results. “So, management principles are applied in engineering too.” he completes. “To become a complete package. A combination of technology and management degree is good in terms of career prospects.” reacts an engineering graduate.

According to reports, more than Rs 10 000 crores, circulates among the management institutes, popping up across the country. They somehow fail to deliver quality education. “Disallowing brain drain is the prime idea, I feel. Hence retaining students and money too, in form of fees.” Says an academician.

It is like your neighborhood PCO wallah started offering cyber services also. “With infrastructure and expertise available, no harm in disseminating knowledge from the same campus” Says an education researcher and supports IIT’s coming up with its management programme.

KBF 2010 is an much awaited event

Circa 1976 Kolkata will host the 34th Book fair on 27th January 2010. The theme will be Mexico The three countries. Mongolia, Canada and China will be partner countries. again the annual gala event from 26th of January that lasts well over ten days. The fair has already attracted record footfalls and sales.The ‘Publishers and book sellers guild’ are the organizers of this fair. More than 20 nations are participating this year exuding an international fragrance . A ‘Book fair culture’ has been germinated all over the state, mere mention of the book fair or boi mela in Bengali transcends one to a hysterical maniac. Book worms or not, KBF evokes spontaneous reaction to many a people. Do all visitors are genuine book lovers or wear a makeshift garb. Is the established hype justified? Let us take a look.

It will be hard to describe an annual fiesta held at the cultural capital of India, mecca of intellectuals, pavilion of sports lovers and a state of freakish adda seekers. In Kolkata, unlike all its counterparts in India and the whole of the South Asia, KBF is the most revered and cherished festival to reckon with.

TAKE ONE : Chaos, maddening crowd that jostle to get an entry, frowning octogenarians, svelte and elegant ladies, blaring mikes, bunch of college yuppies, over[enthusiastic] children and section of media trying to catch the best voice over or penning the best story.

TAKE TWO : Steamy syrupy earthern cups or bhar of tea, fish kabiraji, kutlet, discussion on Roger Penrose, or queue up to watch Benjamin Zephanian. What Cuba has to offer now? Or what US is upto?

Avid readers, web surfers, business magnets, movies buffs, celebrities, politicians, educationists, bibliophiles all bump into each other during the KBF. In Kolkata books still talk to people. Despite a changed profile and skyline, buying a book still is considered necessity. A walk around the stall for any regular visitor will vouch, a full fledged exploration, a peregrination with intent . Young poets and writers enjoys their minor celebrity status with a platform of little magazines. France as the focal theme and partner country and the guest country is Spain. Britain, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Bangladesh, Japan, Brazil, Chile, Cuba &other Latin American countries, EU ( European Union ), world bank, WHO and publishers from UK, Denmark, Oxford university press Pakistan, and the Macmillan UK will grace the occasion. The price conscious and a less consumerist Kolkatans religiously streamline into this annual pilgrimage with spirit.
14.5 acres of a total space area is jotted with marquees, tents, makeshifts stall. The Eiffel tower demarcating at the entrance gives an international feel. KBF cut across the regional barrier, enormous mob-movement coaxing with each other exuberates a mixture of happiness and curiosity. The aura is filled with a mixture of different music, dust & ever dominating confusion that consistently prevails with authorities maneuvering crowd movements. KBF is serves a purpose more than just selling a book. Percussionist Bikram Ghosh says, " I love to be at Kolkata book festival. A cultural nostalgia feeling surfaces every time I am there. It is like Durga puja. A festival annually performed." He equated KBF to a large shopping mall where a visitor ends up buying at least something even if he doesn’t intend to. Pradyumna Sarkar, a last year's participant KBF says, " KBF is a platform for young talent like us. The OTS (Oppurtunity to see) of our work is high, but there are few takers." He remembers how he ended up selling terracotta artifacts, which were much in demand than their little magazines.

Book reading and television or websurfing has different dimension altogether. One enhances creative thinking and the later restricts. Actor Sabyasachi Chakraborty says, " Book fairs is a must. The habit of book reading should be inculcated and it happens gradually and specifically from these fairs. CD Roms, PC's are alright, but they do not leave a vaccum if you do not come across them for a day, in contrast of a newspaper."

Oppurtunity to see and Branding

The basic object of positioning a brand is to make people feel that there is no satisfactory substitute of a product. Adapting a strong position is not a sheer passive act, rather it is an intentional effort to influence events. It needs sidelining, ignoring, seated business targets to favour of others.

Post success a product will reap increased sales/profits and a consumer franchise who will finally believe that there is no satisfactory substitute. Dilip Ray believes in branding first and positioning later. He says, “Lots of products have gone haywire over the years. They constantly keep aspiration levels high and reminding that a product is there.”
In a heavily competitive space ME TOO products will hardly make a difference, a product has to get ingrained inside an audience’s mind. Prof Subroto Sengupta an author once said, “a product must find a definitive place in an individual’s perception inside a world of products.” In other words the product should find a strong position and should sit tightly over it. To position a brand requires that helps you make choices and having a position that means that the product will appeal to some and might not to others. Piyush from vedainformatics.com confirms a thought by saying, “a product’s success can define a company’s brand value. Branding is not something which is one size- fits all, understanding a product and their target audience is important. Positioning can happen later along with packaging and finishing that comes as additions.” In broader terms positioning can be done in several ways like offering special benefits, targeting special segments, pricing and distribution.
Being different is essentially important, benefit positioning can be used if the brand is perceivably differentiates in its ability to deliver a specific benefit. Benefit positioning will again depend on how many people really care about benefit and how differently the brand delivers it.
Arthur Cadzo stresses on comparisons, “One can simply flaunt the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) of the product. Show the facts and salient features of the product. You are sure of then compare the facts and stats and figures of yours and others.” He meant dotting the dart- know your audience. It requires brand marketing should be focused, precise and targeted on a specific segment. The target audience can vary from demography, economy, geography, ethnic identity and of course attitudinally. To work, target positioning should cause the people in the target to perceive superiority of a brand to meeting their respective needs.
Prodeep K Hui a senior media person asserts, “The strategy of undifferentiated marketing has now changed to focused marketing activity amongst individual sub-group and a defined geographical area.” Markets have always been sensitive to pricing. Prices build brands. It has the ability to put a brand either on the top or bottom of the category. Being the most or least expensive brand in respective category can be an asset or liability in certain cases. Well, there are standalone exceptions like Rolex and Marlboro, if reports are to be believed their sales plummeted dramatically after their promoters reduced their prices. Here the former brands have positioned in the consumer minds in a different league (macho and elite respectively). It purely depends that the particular promotion is done for the masses or the classes. Obviously size of consumers, brand image and profit margins might get affected by this strategy owned.

At times it becomes difficult to depend on a price position, for instance we understand that Mercedes Benz has been positioned as an expensive and conservative vehicle. The implication for the marketing mix -the 4P’s would be that of this premium branded car, a high priced car which is selectively distributed and marketed. For example an Audi or a Porche will never get advertised in a regional or vernacular newspaper, it will choose Discovery, National Geographic or BBC unless the promoters have biased interests. The selective target group comprises of price elastic consumers, segmented on the basis of demography, lifestyle strata and certain rational/emotional core values.
Speaking macro six qualities can result a successful brand position campaign. A product with a face or relevance. Positioning that fails to touch a human chord through which a person can not relate or identify is ineffective. A positioning which is unable to reflect a character of the product is unable to reflect a character of a product is bound to fail. Akshay Kumar’s endorsement of Bagpiper and Thumbs Up reflects a macho image. The legendary Gattu, the painter boy of the Asian paints. Relevancy of the product from a human angle helps positioning a brand successfully.
Plain and simple words can do wonders read clarity. ‘We try harder because we are No 2’ established Avis as a major league competitor quickly. By establishing an underdog position in the mind Vs Hertz. Avis strived to overcome dissonance in the prospects choice situation by triggering an effective route to persuasion i:e evoking a sense of empathy for an honest #2.
A position should be simple enough to comprehend. The message should be loud and clear. Is your product unique or somewhat distinct from others, if not how can be – Discontent, emptiness or a vacuum in a person’s heart is always there. All his need is not satisfied. Hundred of products are scrambling with each other in a limited space. What is that differentiates– price, promotion and expensive strategies that will not build brand equity in long term.
Don’t you think look matters? No matter how good your product is does not create an articulate stroke, you may land up in an unwanted place. If a product is meant for a particular class the class has to be identified first and then accordingly jive up to expectation and be committed.

In the past decade or so the WWW (world wide web) has provided an independent platform to individual users, private firms, government and large organizations to show up and showcase who they are. Here comes the relevance of OTS (opportunity to see). A spiraling growth of the internet and unique users is growing by the day. Blogs/ articles writing is a neo phenomena and SEO (search engine optimization newer). Here is the opportunity that lies, there are approximately 70 Million blog users in the world, how to differentiate? SEO is a rank improvement technique of a site, blog or even a company with the help of existing popular search engines like Google, Yahoo or Rediff. If I talk about businesses relying heavily on the internet, optimization will become indispensable in forthcoming years, for sure. I would like to mention again, your product has to be good and reliable, SEO techniques is like a supplement which can boost immunity and health of a modern organization tremendously. No matter how good you dressed your window, the pane should good or else, sooner than later, it will fall off.
A brand is like a promise--it represents traits of company's products/ services. The brand is also a faith that a consumer reposes and believes that it will change lives.

Religious Intolerance

At the first place i couldn't understand why Sikhs in Mumbai were after a particular so-called self made guru from North India. You can attribute this to my ignorance also that I was unable to read the growing or say it was already there tolerance between the two communities. I failed to understand why both of them are after each other's lives. I don't have many words to describe the events but only can say that no one should be allowed or encouraged to speak against faith, speech, words or actions. The people who created a ruckus and held traffic for ransom should be accounted and charged. If not legally, then a word should come from the PMO. We need to hear what our respected prime minister has to say about the issue and growing intolerance which is just not confined to a freak accident but everywhere.

To smile or not to smile is not the question

People are using emoticons into there day to day lives. The question is do they really mean at times what they say? The American Journal of Sociology authors Daniel A. Menchik and Xiaoli Tian have expressed how subject lines and signatures define what has to be interpreted in formal communication. A new set of interactional skills in short.

It is true that while text messaging, communicating by messenger, sending emails, commenting on blogs, writing an article (formal and informal both) use of emoticons have grown. Why? Besides face-to-face conversations, body-language and context, emoticons are good way to express things. Basically an add-on to writing.

I feel that emoticons can be sometimes, just a way to deceive people, as in, you do not mean what you say. For example a smiley to make the person/s believe that they are good and happy, whereas they are not (maybe).

Effective, online strategies, in short. Like there are other ways of communicating Capital letters, use of quotations, exclamation points, punctuations, bulleted points are a few. I AM BUSY, reflects a new dimension to meaning. A smiley added to the sentence leads to sarcasm.

New Tobacco law passed

The next cigarette packet will come with a warning from now onwards. The non-smoking community now has reasons to cheers in the form of America’s anti smoking law. Widely termed as America’s toughest smoking law, US president Barrack Obama has introduced this bill which, he believes will save millions of lives, today and tomorrow.

Tobacco companies will now have to refrain using terms like "light”, "low", "mild”, candy, fruit- and spice-flavored etc, which are used as a pretext to spurt cigarette sales. What is worrisome is that these advertisements are put up in athletic and entertainment events, where women and children frequent more. The congressional Budget office estimates that the regulation is likely to pull down underage smoking by 11% over the next 10 years.

Recent survey reveals that one out of five Americans smoke and around 4, 40,000 people die due to smoking related illnesses. Despite stiff resistance by the industry and tobacco's political backers, the bill was passed. The law is expected to educate the next generation about the ills of smoking and its long term side- affects.

The law also requires that tobacco companies fully disclose ingredients and additives, stop targeting youth with their marketing campaigns, quit using terms such as "light," "low" and "mild" to market their products, and include warning labels on packaging that dominate the front and rear panels. The bill has got backing by health groups like the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association.

Milestones America achieved against tobacco consumption

1964: Americans are alerted by surgeon general's report that cited health risks caused due to smoking. Lung cancer was associated for the first time with smoking this year.

1971: Advertising tobacco products banned on mass media such TV and radio.

1988: The surgeon general confirms that nicotine is an addictive drug.

1988: Smoking got banned on all US domestic flights in 1998

1990s: FDA pulls socks to regulate nicotine as a drug. Denied by the Supreme Court in 2000, saying that it required congressional backing

2009: Finally FDA gets much needed teeth to regulate content and marketing of tobacco products

Powers FDA gets

1. To check nicotine levels if not banning completely.
2. Ban on tobacco advertisements near schools (within 1,000 feet - 300m)
3. Tobacco companies will now need permission by the FDA for new products.
4. Introduction of graphical health warnings on packets

The regulation is also likely to increase cost of cigarettes, hence smokers will pay more.

I wonder the veracity of this ban.