kishan's Voice

“The dirty bastards are back again”, The rise of Adidas & Puma.

2012-08-29T18:11:00.001+05:30

This sounds like an age-old black and white movie story but the climax resulted in birth of two giants in sports shoe industry Adidas and Puma. Today's world is full of brands that touch our life style at every thought of our needs and especially few brands that we admire has an interesting story attached to their name. One such fascinating story is of how sporting apparel cash cows, Adidas and Puma made their way into our lives.

The Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory.

The movie screen moves back to the year 1924, Herzogenaurach a small town in Germany, where Christoph von Wilhelm Dassler was a daily labour in a shoe factory and his wife ran a laundry in a small room. Their kids, Rudolf Dassler and Adolf Dassler(Adi) were attracted towards shoe making and began preparing variety of sports shoes in their mothers kitchen and named it “Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik” (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory). The shoes gained popularity in 1936 summer Olympics, as Adi Dassler persuaded US sprinter Jesse Owens to use his company shoes. Jesse Owens agreed and went on to win four gold medals in that event. Adi Dassler used to take a suitcase full of spikes and promote it at different sporting events and hence shoes produced at Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory, rallied to fame by the early 1940s.

Adidas & Puma Brand history (The dirty bastards are back again).

The Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory was doing fast & fine, then came the turnaround, World War II raised the curtains between the two brothers Adi and Rudi. After a allied bombing attack on the city, Adi Dassler and his wife rescued into a bomb shelter already occupied by Rudi and his wife. “The dirty bastards are back again”, said Adi Dassler, referring to the planes at the war place, but Rudi Dassler firmly believed that his brother was targeting his family with such words. Their sprouted fierce rivalry between the siblings. Adi Dassller renamed the company to Adidas (using first three letter of his first and last name ), Rudolf imitated the same trick to start RUDA (first two letters of his first and last name), RUDA later rebranded as PUMA. Interestingly Adidas And Puma are on the either side of the river Moselle. The riff out of miscommunication between the Dassler brothers led to the birth of two giants corporations.

The rivalry continued between Adidas & Puma till the brothers life, In the year 2009 the companies came forward to play a friendly soccer match which formally called off the red blood between the companies. By 2010 Adidas reported € 11.99 billion in revenues & Puma with € 2.706 billion .So, Isn't interesting ?

WWDC 2012 @ Apple Inc.

2012-07-06T12:39:00.001+05:30

Being a Steve Jobs admirer, I take great amount of esteem to write about Apple Inc.

Today I will take you through the proceedings of 23rd WWDC held on June 11 ,2012. Tim Cook the very able successor of Steve Jobs, walks in greeting the developers in the auditorium,Good Morning. I really liked the way Tim Cooks walks in, it shows the gut feeling that he & his company comes out with remarkable apps that touches lives across. Tim presents amazing numbers about App Store. 400 Mil accounts, 650k apps out of which 225k especially designed for ipod, 30 bill downloads and a staggering 5 bill dollars paid for the developers.Tim proudly announcing the App Store operations in 30 new countries in addition to previously operating 120 counties, making it 150+ presently.

Nothing makes Apple happier than people using their devises and software with amazing apps from developers to better the world and share their latest and greatest idea, Tim adds to the success story.

Now its all set for the agenda, introduce exciting changes to the note book product line and new releases in OS X & iOS.

When Phillip Schiller, VP world wide Marketing Apple Inc. steps up to announce different changes in MacBook Pro & MacBook Air, He presents the new generation MacBook Pro, they call it A Retina display with 5.1 million pixels(2880 x 1800, 5184000 Pixel's). An all-flash architecture. Quad-core Intel Core i7 processors. In a design that’s just 0.71 inch thin and 4.46 pounds. claiming it highest resolution notebook display ever. studded with features like 16GB of RAM. 768GB SSD. Two thunderbolt ports, HDMI. FaceTime HD, dual-microphones,802.11n Wi-Fi, 4.0 Bluetooth .USB 3.0. 4.46 pounds.Price starting at $2199. The 0.71 inch beauty from Apple Inc.is a perfect blend of Design engineering, Hardware excellence & a most desirable operating system a Apple user can ever demand for.

Craig Federighi, VP OS X software.Unveils the new OS X Mountain Lion which comes with over 200+ features that make Mac, ipod, iphone work more advanced.Features like cloud, iMessages,Power nap, Dictations are embedded along with Remainders and Notes given a touch high access. The OS X Mountain Lion can shopped in App Store this July at an affordable price $19.99.

Scott Forstall VP iOS ,Introduces the iOS 6 with features like More intelligent Siri, Turn-by-turn navigation, 3G Maps, Facebook integration, Passbook, Facetime etc.

My recent crush Sir, now knows more languages, wide local search, Sports, you can update Facebook & twitter status & Apple is working with Car manufacturers across the globe for siri integration. With iOS 6, Factime works over cellular networks as well as Wi-Fi. Turn-by-turn navigation means your iphone can steer you from point A to B without the need for a pricey third-party app.

The Phone App is the one which drove my attention in iOS 6.They added 2 new options answering a call, 1.Send a message,2. Remind me later, especially the “When I Leave” option is super cool the phone pops up a message once the user leave a geographic location be it a meeting hall or a building isn't it cool. The Enthrall of all should be the Passbook, This new app keeps all your airline tickets,movie tickets and what ever in one convenient location. Even better, it's location-aware, meaning your boarding pass will pop up when you get to the airport &theatres . It can even update the boarding pass in real time with gate-change information etc.

"Only Apple can come up with products and services that empower people to do great things”- Tim Cook

So true, I wish Tim & his team of developers to make wonders out of Apple.

WWDC 2012 @ Apple Inc.

2012-06-14T04:58:00.001+05:30

Being a Steve Jobs admirer, I take great amount of esteem to write about Apple Inc. Today I will take you through the proceedings of 23rd WWDC held on June 11 ,2012. Tim Cook the very able successor of Steve Jobs, walks in greeting the developers in the auditorium,Good Morning. I really liked the way Tim Cooks walks in, it shows the gut feeling that he & his company comes out with remarkable apps that touches lives across. Tim presents amazing numbers about App Store. 400 Mil accounts, 650k apps out of which 225k especially designed for iPad, 30 bill downloads and a staggering 5 bill dollars paid for the developers.Tim proudly announcing the App Store operations in 30 new countries in addition to previously operating 120 counties, making it 150+ presently.

Nothing makes Apple happier than people using their devises and software with amazing apps from developers to better the world and share their latest and greatest idea, Tim adds to the success story.

Now its all set for the agenda, introduce exciting changes to the note book product line and new releases in OS X & iOS.

Craig Federighi, VP OS X software.Unveils the new OS X Mountain Lion which comes with over 200+ features that make Mac, iPad, iPhone work more advanced.Features like iCloud, iMessages,Power nap, Dictations are embedded along with Remainders and Notes given a touch high access. The OS X Mountain Lion can shopped in App Store this July at an affordable price $19.99.

Scott Forstall VP iOS ,Introduces the iOS 6 with features like More intelligent Siri, Turn-by-turn navigation, 3G Maps, Facebook integration, Passbook, Facetime etc.

My recent crush Sir, now knows more languages, wide local search, Sports, you can update Facebook & twitter status & Apple is working with Car manufacturers across the globe for siri integration. With iOS 6, Factime works over cellular networks as well as Wi-Fi. Turn-by-turn navigation means your iPhone can steer you from point A to B without the need for a pricey third-party app.

"Only Apple can come up with products and services that empower people to do great things”- Tim Cook

So true, I wish Tim & his team of developers to make wonders out of Apple.

My Social Media Case Study @ Peter England !

2012-05-24T14:37:00.001+05:30

I never had my personal stuff on my blogs, but today I would like to share a personnel experience of mine. It goes around social media, branding and customer support and what not!

So all these days I've been listening about social media its buzz, the importance, the mileage it can bring to brands. Suddenly I get to understand what social media can do for me, with a personal experience, so let’s start!

Few days back (15th May, 2012), I was shopping at a Peter England store at himayat nagar, Hyderabad. After I made up my mind, for a cool blue shirt and walked straight to the billing counter, the guy at the counter asked me “cash or card Sir “ it’s by card I replied. The store keeper took my card swiped it and said there was a problem with the connectivity and asked me if I can pay cash, well I walked all the way to a ATM nearby, and paid the bill, 849 it is.

Later the day I was surprised to see, a late alert on my mobile showing a shopping transaction. So I called him back and he replied asking me to consider his mistake and want me to compensate the mistake by buying another shirt at the same price (frustration at peeks) & later on conveyed that he would return my money back if someone makes an equivalent bill of 849 (this is mad stuff). Eventually I made up my mind to wait for the deal, but there after it’s the social media magic!

Social media the saviour (Thanks to Twitter)

Well unconsciously I wrote this issue on Peter England’s brand page on Twitter and the brand replied me with a sorry, a promise to look into the issue and conclude this as soon as they can. Later on requested for the store details and my mobile number for which I did the expected. Then just after one hour from my tweet I received a call from the store asking me to collect my money (with a polite voice). Believe me, it just happened in no time. Yuppie there ends the drama, I'm happy with my money back.

I really loved the way Peter England cares for its customers, superb.

Conversation on twitter.

Not just Peter England many brands were talking to the target audience on twitter, I had similar conversations with brands recently. Chocolate Room a local chocolate recipe’s provider had retweeted and replied to my tweets, here the chocolate is the common interest for both of us. It’s awesome experience to see brands talking to you.

Now let me sum up my experience with how social media can help brands manage their online image & customers are at comfort of it.

1. Social media is such huge media where the reach is enormous so brands can’t take a chance on presenting a pale picture of its image online.

2. Social media is the reach, that a busy customer can easily communicate with the brand be it regarding customer support, queries, product information etc. Not just this social media can be moulded the best way to fine tune with the brands requirement of communicating with its target audience.

3. The credibility is social media, brands can’t make false promises nor they can deny pitfalls from their side.

4. The word of mouth, as I'm happy with the brand ill shout it loud and social media makes it Louder.

So this is my social media story, what's yours?

Mergers & Acquisitions, a Knowledge economy perspective.

2012-03-28T14:32:00.001+05:30

One of the longest go from my end. This article is a research paper, I’ve submitted during my college days along with my friend. This blog welcomes you with few catchy topics like knowledge management, Mergers & acquisitions and an insight on knowledge economy.

Understanding, “Knowledge Economy” !

The phrase knowledge economy was coined by Peter F. Drucker in the year 1966 in his book “Age of Discontinuity”. Knowledge economy refers to an economy of knowledge focused on production and management of knowledge in creation of value. It refers to the use of knowledge technologies such as knowledge engineering and knowledge management to produce economic benefits. In a knowledge economy, knowledge is a product, knowledge is a tool and the key stress is on creating knowledge that would lead to a value creation. The implication of the knowledge economy is that there is no alternative way to prosperity than to make learning and knowledge-creation a prime importance.

The break out of Industrial revolution in the late 18^th century, manual labour and animal-based economy was replaced by machine-based manufacturing. Starting from late 19th century, emphasis on human capital and intellectual property is gaining importance in any business model in a knowledge economy(21st century).

“The concept supports creation of knowledge by organizational employees and helps and encourages them to transfer and better utilize their knowledge that is in line with organizational goals”

In a knowledge economy the organization’s emphasis is on human capital and intellectual capital where in developing and sustenance of intellectual capital is closely related to the creation and maintenance of competitive advantage in the knowledge economy. Drucker in his book described the difference between the traditional Manual worker and the knowledge worker, a manual worker who works physically and produces goods or services. In contrast, a knowledge worker works with his intellect to produces ideas, knowledge, and information for organizational success.

Knowledge has become a valuable asset A firm's intellectual capital i.e. Employees' knowledge, brainpower, know-how, and processes, as well as their ability to continuously improve those processes has become a source of gaining competitive advantage.

Over the last decade we have seen the emergence of an economy in which the digital component has become a constant presence in all areas of knowledge. There are new business concepts, new strategies based on innovation, new mechanisms to create value, with more of human resource involvement and intellect adding to it.

The various driving forces that are changing the rules of business and competitiveness

Globalization markets and products are more global.
Information technology

Information technology changed the way people generate & disseminate information.

Information/Knowledge Intensity: Efficient production relies on information and know-how; over 70 per cent of workers- in developed economies are information workers many factory workers use their heads more than their hands. The birth of giants in the internet industry like Google & Yahoo bought sea changes in the way people search for information.
Out of box Media: New media increases the production and distribution of knowledge which in turn, results in collective intelligence. Existing knowledge becomes much easier to access as a result of networked data-bases which promote online interaction between users and producers. Thanks to blogs, social media, online discussion forums & online content sharing platforms.

Mergers and Acquisitions they say.

Mergers and acquisitions helps organizations reach out new avenues/markets, bring in product innovations, helps stretch their arms globally in an inorganic way.

Mergers & Acquisitions offers tremendous opportunities for companies to grow and add value to Shareholders wealth. It is a strategy for aiding its growth and expansion plans.

Let us examine the trends of mergers & acquisitions over the years.

1^st merger wave (1897-1904) Merging for monopoly & its characteristics

Technological developments
Rapid economic expansion
Corporation laws relaxed.
Voluntary code of ethical behaviour
Characteristics of 1^st merger wave
Horizontal merger.
Heavy manufacturing industries.

2^nd merger wave (1916-1929) Merging for Oligopoly & its characteristics

Produced fewer monopolies, rather oligopolies, vertical mergers, and conglomerates (usually related)
Primary metals, petroleum products, food products, chemicals, and transportation equipment were the most active M&A industries
Used significant proportion of debt to finance deals
Investment banks played central role in financing (as in 1st wave)

3^rd Merger Wave (1965-1969) Conglomerate Mergers & its characteristics

Primarily conglomerate mergers
Some bidders smaller than targets
Primarily equity-financed – investment banks did not play central role
Aerospace most active industry, while industrial machinery, auto parts, railway equipment, textiles, and tobacco also active
CEOs with vision to create conglomerates

4^th Merger Wave (1981-1989) the Megamerger & its characteristics

Size and prominence of acquisition targets much greater than before.
Oil and gas industries dominant in early 1980s, while pharmaceuticals most common in late 1980s; airlines and banking also common.
Foreign takeovers became common
Heavy use of debt to pay for acquisitions.
Junk bonds.
More hostile takeovers.

5^th Merger Wave (1992-2000) Strategic restructuring & its characteristics

Emphasized longer-term strategy rather than immediate financial gains.
More often financed with equity than debt.
Consolidation in the telecommunications and banking industries.

The Prowl for the small fish !

Now there is a shift in the inward essence of considering mergers and acquisitions, the bottom line is to empower knowledge assets for gaining competitive edge.

For instance Microsoft's acquires an average of six companies a year. The company has purchased more than ten companies a year since 2005, and acquired 18 firms in 2006, for enhancing its human assets for meeting the ever growing global requirements in programming and IT. Its even more aggressive with Google, in the year 2010 Google acquired on an average more than one company a week.

Some other examples at a glance.

Satyam Computers IT giant from India received a warm hug from Mahindra & Mahindra even after it was painted with India's largest corporate scam image, to form Mahindra Satyam. Just by considering the knowledge base and brand image Satyam holds, the balance sheet no big problem as seen by Tech mahindra. “It’s no doubt that Mr. Ramalinga Raju had built a great brand over the years” - C.P. Gurnani, CEO Mahindra Satyam says.
Yash Technologies a fast growing global enterprise and business solutions provider headquartered in East Moline, USA acquired Aarseya (Pune, India) a niche player seasoned in Oracle applications, in Dec 2011. This acquisition helps Yash to leverage the customer centric models & practices Aarseya build over the years and also a strengthened Oracle applications center of excellence across US and Europe regions.
In 2008 Daiichi Sankyo of Japan acquired 63.92% stake in India's pharmacy major Ranbaxy laboratories limited. Vesting up on manufacturing practice innovation that Ranbaxy build since 1961 & valuable patents the company holds in generic drug manufacturing.
Genpact acquired 90% stake in Citi BPO, in October 2007. Adding an employee base of 1800 to the company.

From these illustrations one can understand, organizations are on a prowl for knowledge assets through mergers and acquisitions, pooling up intellectual capital is the key at recent times in many of the mergers and acquisitions . Its a fact that the trend continues where the human resources are given at-most importance to any other resources to run a business.

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I thank my Professor Mr. Raju who helped us with the outline & I also thank Miss. Megha my colleague at Dhruva college of management, for her efforts in drafting this article.

References:

1 http://www.slideshare.net/kishanankani/mergers-acquisitions-in-knowledge-economypdf

2 http://www.yash.com/news-events/2011/acquires-aarseya-a-recognized-services-provider-around-oracle-applications.php?obj=pr-yash-aarseyaDec11&ptr=aarseyaDec11&camp_id=1104&source_id=1

IPL 2012 Carnival Ad film (Ogilvy’s Masterpiece )

2012-03-12T15:30:00.002+05:30

Brand: IPL (Indian Premier League )

Marketing Campaign: IPL 2012 Carnival (The Magical Mystery Tour!)

Punch line: Ye IPL Hai Boss.

Agency: Ogilvy India Pvt Ltd

Creative Director: Abhijit Avasthi

Filmed by: Bang Bang Films.

Client: BCCI (board of cricket control in India)

Are you all set to an adventurous & nail biting cricketing carnival of different joy rides featuring “Gilly Funda”, “Slinga Malinga”, “Warrior Dada”, “Viru Whammer”, “Vettori Twirler”, “Dravid Wall”, “Dhoni Dhamal”, “Master blaster” etc. Yes the IPL season 5 will kick start from 4^th April 2012.

The IPL Carnival ad designed by Ogilvy is simply a creative masterpiece, It starts when 2 school kids were offered with a joy ride in a big carnival by the exhibition host (Makrand Deshpande). Firstly welcomed with a purple & orange caps (caps offered for highest run getter and wicket taker in IPL), The kids enjoy the carnival with fun filled games and thrilling rides on rollercoaster's named after famous cricketing names like Ganguly, Gilchrist, Sangakara and others in the IPL.

When kids were puzzled on why this hungama, The host replies “Ye IPL Hai Boss”.

Abhijit Avasthi was outstanding in crafting the IPL 2012 advertisement especially in merging cricket with a carnival experience, and also blending names of famous cricketers to the rides & games in the carnival. The ad film is full of colours, dazzling lights, excitement, huge sets, hoardings of cricketers, rides & celebrations. The demiurgic thought from Ogilvy was given a shape by the film service and production company based in Cape Town (South Africa) Bang Bang films who shot this ad film for Ogilvy.

The ad film was aired on March 06th 2012 bringing in new flavour to cricket after Indian cricket team struggling overseas in the recent times.

Undoubtedly one of the finest act from Ogilvy India Pvt Ltd, I enjoyed this ad a lot. Only an agency like Ogilvy’s muscle can bring in such Brilliance.

Kolkata Knight Riders New Logo (The Brand Makeover)

2012-02-15T15:21:00.000+05:30

Kolkata Knight Riders with a Brand makeover, ready to play in IPL season 5.

Marketing Campaign - “New Dawns, New Knights”

Agency - “Lambie-Nairn” (Branding agency from London specialized in Brand identity, Design, and Corporate identity)

Designer - Sophie Lutman (Creative Director at Lambie-Nairn)

The new logo and a refreshing marketing campaign from KKR aims at bringing in a new look for the franchise that appeals to wider audience & create a greater brand resonance . The new logo was designed with Gold & blue colors (previously gold and Black) giving it a distinct makeover. The marketing campaign also has a new punch line “New Dawn, New Knights” from “Go for Gold be a Knight Rider” previously. KKR has good brand equity with corporate’s like Nokia, Reebok, dish tv continue their sponsorship with the franchise.

This move has came after four flop shows by KKR in the IPL. The Franchise wants itself branded more closer to Kolkata cricket fans after losing its way by the exit of local lad and former Indian skipper Sovrav Ganguly. Performance on field matters more than any other communication or branding gesture, but the brand equity would soar new heights if KKR manage to ride well in the coming IPL season.

Coke to re-launch Citra in India

2012-02-13T15:58:00.000+05:30

Citra, Thums up, Limca, Gold Spot, Maaza & Fanta the popular Indian cool drink brands owned by Indian company Parle in early 80’s. In 1993 Parle sold all these brands to Coke and Coke continues to sell Thums Up , Limca & Maaza But replaced Citra with Sprite & Gold Spot with Fanta in its brand portfolio some where around 1997 (not sure). If one can recall Citra way back in 1990’s a lemon flavored soft drink in a green bottle was very popular in its segment.

The good news is brand Citra will surprise Indian consumer again. After 19 years Coke all set to relaunch the brand Citra in Indian markets, Coke will bring back Brand Citra to compete with 7 up, Mountain Due brands owned by Pepsi in the fastest growing lemon flavor drink segment (Growth being 16 % yoy). Coke’s strategy is to bring back Citra at price 20 % less than the existing brands to capture the price sensitive segment using one of the oldest & popular brands from its portfolio.

Citra will not cannibalize its sister brands Sprite & Limca as there was huge space in clear lemon flavored drinks segment in Indian markets. Another example to prove strength of Indian brand. I also wonder why Ramesh chouhan of Parle sold these brands which are of billions worth now to a mere US$ 60 mill in early 90’s ?

Gear up for, The Microsoft Advertising Story Awards 2012.

2012-02-02T15:31:00.005+05:30

Microsoft Corporation invites Marketing professionals, Digital media experts & Web designers from 30 countries across the globe (including India) to take part in its digital advertising/story telling contest, The Microsoft Advertising Story Awards (MSA's) 2012. The initiative aims to figure out the diverse solutions to key business challenges organizations face within Digital Marketing space, for the year 2012-13.

Contestants have to submit a forward looking & world class Media plan (Media campaign) for brands or non-profit organizations. One can Use both traditional and Digital media if the campaign demands. Contestants can participate in single or in teams and winners are judged on creativity, leveraging storytelling to the campaign and how effectively the campaign uses Microsoft Advertising solutions along with other solutions like MSN Mobile, Windows Live, Xbox, Bing, Messenger etc.

A twofold contest with local rounds in 30 countries followed by global final. Two winners are awarded with The Global Microsoft Story Telling Award 2012 and also wins a two week trip to Cannes Lions festival of Creativity 2012 starting 17th June, with Microsoft Advertising's guest status.

Entries last till 31st March '2012. Register @ https://advertising.microsoft.com/asia/msaawards/register-your-interest?s_int=AS__PREM_Story_CH_BottomContactSales_Feb2012

Steve Jobs the Brand Immortal

2012-01-31T19:44:00.009+05:30

Its an esteem to express my love towards legendary Steve Jobs and his visionary brainchild, Apple Inc. I would not dig deep into his genius as there will be millions of pages penned about Jobs virtuoso, online. One thing that caught my eye is the Apple's quarterly results which were released recently and amazed everyone.

Apple came out with its quarterly results for December 2011. The company reported a net income of 13.064 bill US$, more than double when compared to previous years 06 bill US$ with the help of robust sales of Mac 5.2 mill units (up 26% year on year basis), iPad 15.43 mill units (up 111% Year on year), iPod 15.4 mill units (up 133% compared to the last quarter). Apple managed to sell 37.04 million iPhone, up 128% compared with the sales of same quarter last year. to ones surprise revenue generated by iPhone's (single product of Apple inc) is on par with total revenue of Microsoft this quarter. A big reason to cheer for apple investors as the Earnings per share increased to more than double i.e. $ 14.03 from $ 6.53 as on 2010, with shares of Apple Inc trading at 453.01 with a market capitalization of 422.37 bill US$ as on 31 st Jan 2011. The 35 year old Apple reported revenues of 108 bill US$ for the year end 2011. Which is on top of the charts when compared to organisations like Nokia, IBM and many other giants who have 100+ years of existence.

Ever since his come back to Apple in 1996, Steve Jobs made utter wonders, from products to innovations to culture to profits every thing went Jobs way. Even in times of Europe crisis and a global economic down turn, Steve jobs imagic still churning billions for Apple Inc. Apple inc sits on a cash reserve of US$ 10.31 bill i.e. 5,15,50,00,00,000 Cr of Indian currency, Oh my god a number very hard to spell, equal to what a developing economy's worth. Only a person like Steve's charisma can make this possible.

So whats next for ~~Samsung~~ Apple.

The cash laden apple now has diverse options to leverage its mighty cash reserves, first would be on new product research & development and when it comes to market share Apple should concentrate on bringing low cost products in markets like India, Brazil being stuffed with mammoth middle class population where the disposable income is low to afford igadget's (where as Samsung, Nokia and other smart phone players capitalizing on low cost devices).
"I would love to have an iPhone, but can't afford Rs 37000 buck's on a phone"

Apple outsource its manufacturing to a Chinese firm Foxcon, very recently fingers were raised about the working conditions and exploiting workers freedom in many ways. Apple should take a stand on this to make things better at Foxcon. Even giving back to the society is no bad idea as Apple seems to be very inactive in CSR activities till date.

"You have to trust in something-your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

Steven Paul Jobs.

(Feb 24, 1955- Oct 5, 2011)

References:
http://allaboutstevejobs.com/index.html
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/320193/000119312512023398/d267587d10q.htm

The Rajini power !

2012-01-26T15:56:00.014+05:30

Its not just a typical Rajnikanth signature style joke, Its an another kick-ass flick featuring the dummy god of masses Rajnikanth, Recently a website dedicated to Rajnikanth went viral online as it runs WITH OUT INTERNET CONNECTION. Yes a website which features end to end Rajnikanth from jokes to pics to his music was designed to run with out any internet support.

When you enter www.allaboutrajni.com it says, "He is no ordinary man, this is no ordinary website". It runs on Rajini Power. The only way to enter this website is by switching off your internet.Also when you try to reconnect the internet connection a warning pops-up and screams Aiyyo that was unexpected to keep browsing, switch off your internet.

a screen shot from allaboutrajni.com

Webchutney an Indian firm based out of New Delhi specialized in digital media marketing, Designed this distinctive website for Desimartini.com. They(Desimartini.com) want to do some thing parallel with, not just a super star kind of charisma that Rajni carry's.

Gurubaksh Sing creative director with Webchutney said, We designed an complex algorithm in such a way that the site will run only when the internet connectivity becomes zero and visitors start enjoying the magic show. This website marvelled millions on digital media and social networking sites in no time.

"To the grab attention of the online audience, we needed to show them something they've never seen before, and only a Rajini website holds the credibility to do so!". Amit Garg, business head of desimartini.com said.

In this online era, organisations are in a prowl for better online visibility and brand building through out the digital media space and same is the intention of Desimartini.com in launching this campaign. Recently matrimonial services firm Shaadi.com launched an online game Angry Brides (a whistle blower against the dowry practice in India) as a part of enhancing their online brand presence.

With more than 200 millions of look-ups on Google every day people search for information online to utilize this organisations provide quality and informative content online about their products & services using blogs, fan pages in social media, Youtube channel etc, thus building brand image and trust among potential and current customers.

Yenna Rascala.....That's the power of Social Media, MIND IT..!

Cricket, Controversies & Branding.

2012-01-12T17:18:00.006+05:30

"Has Vaseline on the outside edge saved the day for Laxman?" tweeted by former England cricketer Michel Vaughan, responding to a controversial decision to declare Indian batsmen VVS Laxman not out during the England vs India, second Test, July 2011. Vaughn says Laxman might had used Vaseline to his bat, so the edge is not evident on the camera. Critics slashed it saying it is utter NONSENSE from Vaughan.

Out of this nonsense the creative team of HUL (Hindustan Unilever) with the help of advertising firm Mindshare, came out with some real sense.

They sketched a enthralling campaign that bought the petroleum jelly brand Vaseline alive with its unique print and social media campaigns.In its print ad HUL has placed a red cross-mark over a bat and mentioned as many as 30 uses of Vaseline other than using it on a cricket bat. And in the Facebook it started a campaign asking Facebook users to have their specially designed badge if they agree with their words that "Vaseline is for everything good" but not for cricket bats. This social media campaign is a big hit as many as 268,000 Facebook likes were gained on this page. Thanks to social media which allowed brand Vaseline to gain mammoth brand mileage online, even it was the most trending topic in the micro blogging site Twitter that day.

In India cricket is the oxygen for its masses & the marketing team of HUL has made the best use of it and HUL was successful in leveraging the love and support for VVS Laxman, to its brand Vaseline. They made the best use of its macro environment for good effect, A small window of opportunity was used to open doors for a unique advertising campaign.

Marketers & Media agencies around the globe are making best use of technology to changing trends to modern tools, to enhance their creativity and exploring better ways of promoting products of their clients. They are on the prowl for opportunities to showcase there creative thought.Now it proved even a sporting controversy is no exemption to a applauding marketing campaign.

No surprise even if Virat Kohli's recent gesture of showing his middle finger to Australian crowd might be in light soon.

Fanta the Cash cow.

2011-12-06T19:26:00.002+05:30

Not just my opinion this time, Its all about a flabbergasting fact about the famous soft drink Fanta, This luscious soft drink brand from The Coca-Cola Company , has a fascinating story to its brand origin.

At the time of world war II, The Coca-Cola company of Georgia, USA, was unable export Coke syrup (concentrate which is added with water and sweeteners by bottling plants to make the soft drink Coke) to Due the restrictions on shipping between Nazi Germany and the US.

To tackle the demand for coke the CEO of the German plant Max Keith, came up with a idea to produce a fruit flavored drink made out of crushed apple, the by products of cheese, in fact with what ever is cheap and available. literally fanta is made out all the waste products from the German factory giving an inconsistent taste but still enthralled huge profits even at a world war hangover. (over 60 million bottles were sold with the brand name fanta, in Germany)

In a brain-storming session keith asked his employees to go wild with their imaginations (fantasies) To name the soft drink they produced. spontaneously one of the salesman Joe Knip spontaneously came out with the name Fanta which means to Fantise (Imagination in German ).

After the world warII, fanta was flooded in America and Coca-Cola took its trade mark in 1960. Also very popular in Europe, South America and Brazil being the mammoth consumer of fanta in terms of volume.

When coke entered Indian markets in 1993 it bought Gold spot from Indian major Parle, and replaced fanta in its brand portfolio.

One will count on fingers when asked about the flavours but to every one's surprise fanta it is available in 90+ flavors in over 180 countries, fanta orange being the most loved.

So that's how the Fanta made its debut in the soft drink market, Not a planned one but emerged as a cash cow from the house of coke. Adding to the twist even the parent brand Coca-Cola claimed itself as a medicine for Headache when it is first marketed by John Pemberton, way back in 1886.

Better Marketing for a Better Society.

2011-12-03T00:33:00.003+05:30

Restaurant chain KFC in news recently for employing deaf and dumb people in their outlets, Almost this trend is observed in many outlets. I've personally seen this in a KFC outlet at inorbit mall Hyderabad. By this KFC reaches a louder brand visibility at the same time respecting the needs of the society .In today’s marketing world, "companies have to be responsible and they should look after the welfare of their customers and society on a whole".

Its a strong opinion world wide, that people will buy your products when you are contributing some profits of its sale to a cause that enrich the societal health.way back in 1983, American Express Company launched program to restore the Statue of Liberty, The company contributed, $1 for every new card issued during last quarter of 1983. This resulted in a $1.7 million contribution by American Express to the Statue of Liberty and 28% increase in use of credit cards along with massive media coverage and free publicity.

"Cause Related Marketing" it is, in marketing language.In this model a profit making and a non profit organization join hands to support a cause. By this the the company increases its sales, brand visibility, vibrates a positive public relations & media coverage and also supports a noble cause.

Project Shiksha (‘Shiksha – Secure Your Child’s Future’ ) a joint effort of P&G India ltd & CRY, to take up the challenge of educating the underprivileged children in India. consumers buying P&G products like Tide, Pantene, Head&Shoulders will contribute to a child's education. Shiksha enabled the education of 33052 children in 435 communities in 2006.

Let it be the Microsoft, Levis, HLL, ConAgra Foods, Dabur, TATA's all had their love towards the society expressed with different Cause Marketing campaigns. In-fact the TATA Tea's JAAGO RE campaign which aimed at provoking voting right of Indian youth was a mammoth success.

Indian conglomerate ITC has a joy ride of many Cause Marketing campaigns called Let's put India first under which it piped many CSR activities starting with E-Chopals (Empowering rural farmers), Child education, ‘Aashirvad- Boond Se Sagar’- a water saving initiative touching lives of 40,000 people by providing irrigation for 31,000 acres of farm land. And the consumers are well aware that they are part of this project as they keep buying the products from Ashirvad product line, ranging from salts to spices and atta.




	GAVINI PRASANNA KUMARI Student, Class 5 Vakavaripalem Village, Prakasam District Andhra Pradesh

I come from a family of agricultural labourers. To make ends meet, I often had to work in the fields along with my parents and could not attend school regularly. I was unable to keep up in class and did poorly in my exams, so I didn't feel like studying. Then the teachers at our village ITC Supplementary Learning Centre persuaded my parents to send me to evening coaching classes at the Centre. Today I study in Class 5 at the Mandal Parishad Upper Primary School. My average marks in all subjects has gone up to 80% from 40%. I am happy that my parents let me study and I want to complete my education. When I grow up, I want to become a teacher and take care of my parents.

Above content picked from the ITC portal.

Now lets understand what customers say on this. 90 % of retailers say that when price and quality being the same customers would prefer products promoting social cause. Even stats suggest that 2 out of 5 customers prefer buying brands tagged with a social cause.

Cause related marketing has a emerged as a model that benefits corporates to customers and the society. with more thoughts flooding into this model, It can be better leveraged to sunshine the underprivileged with better governance, planning and awareness being ignited by the combined efforts of local governments, nonprofit organizations & corporates. This should add more smiles in the lives of people across the globe.

Thanks to Shalini my colleague at Dhruva college of management, in drafting the Research papers on topic “Cause Related Marketing “ which is the sole of this particular blog.

References:

http://www.itcportal.com

http://dspace.iimk.ac.in/bitstream/2259/366/1/219-221.pdf

http://www.aashirvaad.com/about_ashirvaad/csr_movement.asp

http://www.pg-india.com/hp/proshiksha.htm

Wishing all a beautiful Christmas.

"why this Kolaveri di" - a Social Media Marketing Bang

2011-11-26T15:45:00.002+05:30

Hand la glass, glass la scotch, eyes-u full- of tear-u , empty life-u, girl-u come-u,

life reverse gear-u. lovvu lovvu, oh my lovvu, u showed me bouv-u, cow-u cow-u holi cow u.

Above lines are the 'Tanglish' (Tamil-English) lyrics of a song from the movie '3' directed by Aishwarya Rajinikant Featuring Tamil hero Danush. This video was released digitally on November 16 by Sony Music, later made waves on the social media and spread like wild-fire all over the country in no-time.

The song Kolaveri di, appeared as the number one Indian trend on Twitter on November 21. first regional film song to be played by radio stations around the country, It became the most searched video on YouTube with 83000 views in 24 hrs (total of 5 crores ) & attracting more than 12000 likes in its official fan page on Facebook.

When i saw this song for the first time I enjoyed it I played it again and again. But I really started thinking of it when one of my friend raised a question, why such a hype being created around a normal song ??? The answer is simple SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING (using social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, linkedin etc for Marketing communications). I'm unable to trace out if the film crew has appointed a Marketing agency to do all this. But the way this particular song penetrated through out the country, one has to doubt its strategy. Firstly the song was released in a social networking platform, after its rounds on the web most of the media houses let it it be in print media or electronic media started communicating the success of the song (it shows the strong PR this film unit have maintained). Kolaveri di goes viral says CNN-IBN. The Hindu says, why this 'why this Kolaveri di'

The song is just an example.Most of the business organisations across geographies are using Social media to Traditional media, to make use of ever increasing internet users. Few companies including social media along with their traditional marketing communications & few companies exclusively using social media depending upon their operations and the product nature.

One major advantage of Social Media Marketing is, it provides a hassle free two way communication unlike the traditional media. 79 per cent of the largest fortune 500 firms use social media platforms to communicate with customers & major stakeholders (Burson-Marsteller report). Many companies now have a Facebook fan page, tweets its updates on twitter, have a YouTube channel to show case their case studies or success stories & have a linkedin page for brand awareness among the customers.The reason is simple instead of reaching the target audience using a media find out a media most loved by the audience so that it can reach masses easily.

Finally, social media for some people a time killing drug & for other its a money churning machine in the ever changing marketing dynamics.

References

http://www.thehindu.com/arts/cinema/article2650957.ece
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/dhanush-overwhelmed-with-kolaveri-di-success/205088-8-68.html
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/technologynews/view/1166750/1/.html

kishan's Voice

“The dirty bastards are back again”, The rise of Adidas & Puma.

The Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory.

Adidas & Puma Brand history (The dirty bastards are back again).

WWDC 2012 @ Apple Inc.

WWDC 2012 @ Apple Inc.

My Social Media Case Study @ Peter England !

Mergers & Acquisitions, a Knowledge economy perspective.

Information technology

IPL 2012 Carnival Ad film (Ogilvy’s Masterpiece )

Kolkata Knight Riders New Logo (The Brand Makeover)

Coke to re-launch Citra in India

Gear up for, The Microsoft Advertising Story Awards 2012.

Steve Jobs the Brand Immortal

The Rajini power !

Cricket, Controversies & Branding.

Fanta the Cash cow.

Better Marketing for a Better Society.

GAVINI PRASANNA KUMARI

"why this Kolaveri di" - a Social Media Marketing Bang