By this time everyone who had anything to say must have already said it. In this quick-fire world, people tweet their entire blog posts / thoughts as 140 characters. I didn’t participate much in such discussions, but I still have a few things to say. I think I should’ve been quicker, but hey! Better now than never! This is not someone’s wedding that I shall speak up in the stipulated time or hold my peace!

Yes, I am talking about the ToI Vs Hindu fight which is all over the place now!

First, a bit of history.

The Hindu has been having its own struggles for quite a while. Having handled the some brands from that stable (albeit briefly), I believe that they had way too many issues to fight against and TOI was not even in the radar then. Back then, people used to read Hindu publications to improve their English. Many a south Indian has been able to manage cracking CAT and other related exams by reading Hindu editorials apart from their other reading material. Hindu held the pride of place there. Over time, with the advent of technology, the human laziness crept in somewhere. Hindu was at one point filled with spelling errors, grammatical blunders and what not! But the paper still had some integrity left in it. Although at some point it became a bit of anti-establishment, some point it became a Congress stooge. At least, that was the impression that I was left with. With the brand pretty close to my heart, I did feel a bit odd when my own intellect questioned a lot of stuff from The Hindu press.

Things got worse with the family linen being washed in public. Between N Ram, Malini Parthasarathy & the entire editorial board there was a huge family problem which was very publicly fought. The worst part was the open letters by the members of the board which got published in all rival newspapers. Open letters got a new meaning altogether!

Editorial instability, lack of direction, family feud dogged The Hindu. No amount of fresh ‘layout’ changes could help. After all, the content started taking a beating. The Hindu is a serious newspaper and is supposed to remain so. That was its strength. And that was a strength which was losing its power with all the hullaballoo around the senior management & family.

But The Hindu is a tradition. Coffee & this newspaper is a must combination for all locations where the paper was available and given a choice, I would go back to it even today. Sadly, The Hindu doesn’t publish in Mumbai. And even if it did, would it have the same charm? I don’t have the answer.

Enter TOI.

TOI is not a serious newspaper. At least in my mind! It is a frivolous, bordering on yellow journalism kind of a publication. Front page news yesterday was ‘Bus Driver mowing down people’ replete with pictures. The paper thrives on scams, death & bollywood.

While it is true that Scams are important to be highlighted, deaths to be announced & Bollywood to be covered, the publication lacks the editorial strength. The Op-ed pieces there are good, but somewhere the line of seriousness is always crossed. Breaking News is key!

Can it be blamed? Chicken & egg story. They will claim that they provide what is read by the man on the road. If Bollywood claims it, we can pardon it. But a newspaper cannot do that. My opinion of course!

And when TOI entered the Madras market, they tried to change the culture. Page 3 happened. I never knew till TOI & DC entered the Madras market that such low neckline, short skirt, LBD toting PYTs roam around the streets of Chennai till these papers started publishing pictures of them in big sizes!

I read somewhere that you can win over a country not by wars, but by infiltrating (read polluting) their culture. TOI & DC did exactly that in my opinion. Hindu’s page 3 was about the city. I think it still is. The page 3 used to cover information about the city, changes happening, things of value and things that matter. Boring shit it was. TOI and DC made it glamorous. Partly visible bosoms, neatly waxed legs, funky jewelery! Whoa! Tamilians buy gold jewelery. Seriously! Oxidised Silver was made fashion by these papers! There obviously was a clash of sensibilities.

Hindu still sells largest in TN. South Indians are boring people. They believe in smaller scams which are not of national interest. Worried more about Mullaiperiyar than Chikni Chameli and Hrithik Roshan’s shaved chest (Do South Indian men shave their bodies?). And more worried about their exams (or their ward’s exams) than the name of Beti B.

TOI called it boring. TOI called it yawn worthy. TOI called it sleepy! And how!

HINDU responded

Sleeping Lion woke up. After nearly 2 months. War footing for Hindu is 2 months of time! They didn’t do it quickly. They made TOI spend all their money and then came up with this campaign.

Now folks here are my two cents.

a.       TOI & DC cater to a different market. Not the serious ‘news’ reader. They believe in volumes and started a price war by selling a year’s subscription for 99 bucks. Everyone bought it because one month’s newspaper at the raddhiwala will fetch Rs.8/9 per kilo. Good investment. Their news was also of that kind. With a pinch of salt, the average householder let the paper enter his household. Period.

b.      Hindu didn’t reduce the rates. Held on and still holding on. Of course, they need to really whip up their editorial team and screw the s&*% out of them to get a good newspaper going. But they cater to serious newsreaders. Hindu WAS the opinion maker in the south. They need to get that position back if they need to be in serious business.

c.       The campaign from both is frivolous. TOI poked fun at a serious newspaper calling it boring. Hindu responded with a ‘screw you’ kind of campaign by calling TOI what they are… frivolous. Tit for tat! As an aside TOI’s launch campaign was also frivolous. Day in life of Chennai was replete with films, fist fights, water fights and a folk song based on a film song. JWT (and Senthil) won awards and accolades, but little did they realize that they were setting the tone albeit unconsciously for the future. And this was just one of those occasions when the big brother of Chennai publishing industry tapped on the head and said ‘shut up’.

d.      You can’t change TOI. The Hindu should not change from its ‘old’. The last few years are but a blip in a tradition which The Hindu should remember and hold on to. Else the brand will face a slow but eventual death.

e.      Fond hope that the new CEO Arun Anant would bring in some change. He has a huge challenge in hand. Feuding family, bad ‘recent’ history, outgoing strongman, new editorial board being called ‘inexperienced’ very publicly by family members. Feces has already hit the roof. Clean-up is not going to be easy. I sincerely hope he is given a free hand to take things to a logical direction.

Just a couple of points about the TOI Vs Hindu campaigns

1.       TOI took a bold step. To call seriousness a.k.a boring the way they did. Very cheeky. Appreciable campaign and ran it for quite a while in the TN markets. Good media usage and viral potential which was also exploited well.

2.       However, biased as it may sound, I liked the Hindu campaign very well. To hit where it hurts most. The readers. The Hindu campaign did show some steel by calling the bluff on the reader rather than on the newspaper. To call them ‘dumb’ requires a lot of guts. To say ‘Read the other newspapers and you will also become dumb’ is not an easy task.

I remember seeing home videos of American idiots who didn’t know the difference between Iran or Pakistan, Sikhs or Muslims, couldn’t point Washington in their own map, but wanted to bomb Iran because they have WMD. Because Bush said so!

The Hindu campaign is a great take-off from there and I guess puts the message across not so softly or subtly!

After all, all is fair in love and war. There obviously is no love here

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Do I write an Ode?

Do I continue crying?

Millions and millions of blogposts, commentaries & columns would’ve been written about you, who decided to leave the world a better place than when you transformed into a life form from a mere ordinary ‘fastest sperm’.

Just a couple of days ago, I mentioned that I am an Apple fanboy and rued whether you are bigger than the organisation you had created. I am from the school of thought that everyone in an organisation in dispensible. Thanks for changing that thought. You are not. And you are proof enough that I was wrong and inspiring enough to show that everyone who has the will to achieve, CAN.

I may have never used an iPhone or an iPad, but have always aspired to have one. You inspired me to do things which are the size of mountain (rooting a nook color for instance) just so that I can say it is ‘like an iPad’. Your creations have always been of aspiration value for me and the brand you have created is amongst the best in my mind. As a brand professional, I adore Apple and the marketing finesse that you have brought into peddling what seems innocuously simple but extremely complex creation of tech wizards.

I continue to take inspiration from the way the products you’ve designed, the marketing ideas that you’ve powered and the creative genius that you’ve exhibited.

Never before has a ‘business executive’ achieved a cult status as you have. A totally consumeristic economy like the USA has never been brought to knees with queues lining up on the day of launch the of any product. Never before has USA believed in cults. You made it happen. I respect you for your finesse.

Never before (in my life) have I seen a more inspiring speech than your Stanford address. Never before have I seen anyone so honestly presenting such beautiful thoughts so succinctly and authentically. It was a bit of a let down that you read out from a paper. But proof enough that you have bothered to put to paper thoughts that were really profound, applicable and honest. I adore you for your honesty and simplicity.

Never before have I seen such beautiful simple presentations of a new product like your introduction of the Pods & Pads. I still remember the ’small pocket in jeans’ that you used for introducing the Nano. Your presentation skills are a lesson to be taught to everyone before stepping into the real world.

Never before have I felt like Ekalavya – to be learning from continuously (both from you and from the brand you’ve created) but never worked with you. If I am allowed to borrow Bill Gates’ words, I would be ‘insanely fortunate’ to work with you side-by-side. Alas! I wasn’t. But hey! That is something half the world would be dying for and would give both their arms for. I am one of them. Simply put… A fanboy!

You will be sorely missed. I must be honest in saying that I have not stalked you like many else would have. But on the same vein, I must also tell you that I have always looked up to you for inspiration, learning and your most oft spoken skill… determination.

And never before have I mourned for someone I have never met, like I did for your passing. I couldn’t control my tears. I cried alone.

I hope, I will join the dots too. And when I do, I will shed one more tear.

In your honour.

Thank you for walking this earth! Let the heavens shine with your prowess!

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• I AM AN APPLE FANBOY
• I adore Steve Jobs and respect all the work he has done
• I give due credit to all the employees of Apple for their contribution towards iconic creations from that stable!
• I have never used iPhone (any version). I am a Blackberry boy owing to work & workplace considerations. The Apple products I’ve used are the iPod & MacBook Pro. Awesome creations.
• Am a fan of Android after I recently rooted my Nook Color and made it a Tab running on CM7

Searched for ‘Apple iPhone 4S’ (news) just a short while back. This is what I get.

Mixed response to a new product launch. iPhone Fanboys seems to be a disappointed lot this time around. Despite the fact that the liveblog crashed prompting apologies, the latest version of the product hasn’t kicked up the kind of good PR that is so very typical of the iconic product.

Steve Jobs resigned recently.

Is there a connection?

The first product launch after Steve Jobs has resigned has failed to create the positive buzz that the brand is always known for. In fact, Washington Post has called the 4S ‘underwhelming’.

Somewhere in my mind, I am led to believe that Steve Jobs after all WAS greater than Apple itself.

Recent events at Apple have not been very promising. With Steve going on a prolonged medical leave with Tim Cook at the helm of affairs, (with the stock is trading at $400+ levels) and subsequently announcing his retirement / resignation, the organization has suddenly plunged into difficult times. I am sure they had time to put things in place, but it seems like a missed opportunity.

Anything Steve used to do when he was at the top job used to generate a larger buzz. Even his medical condition. So much so, the stock prices used to fluctuate every time he went on a medical leave. Tim Cook certainly had a large shoe to fill and one needs to wait to find if he eventually can.

Apple Stock price movement (courtesy Yahoo Finance). The blue dot was the day of Steve Jobs’ resignation. And the preceding fall was because of the speculation that Steve was hanging up his boots.

It seemed to be picking up well and the market seemed to have digested the fact that Steve is not in great health to manage the company. But the stock is now back to sub 400 levels. And one needs to wait and see how Wall Street reacts to the subtle response to 4S by the critics.

Check the stock price movement in 5 years. Astronomical! From sub 100 levels to $400. Steve Jobs has done what would otherwise be called ‘IMPOSSIBLE’. To produce iconic products is just one thing. To make it a fantastic business proposition and provide such shareholder value is just another.

It may look like I am just viewing this from one side of the mirror. But Apple meant Steve Jobs to many (almost  all). And the fact that 4S has had a lukewarm response from critics just reiterates it.

Steve has had a chequered history in Apple and when he came back to Apple, he became larger than life. He has been in the limelight (for all the right reasons) and his fanclub only increased with the advent of social media. The second line of Apple leadership was almost invisible considering the gigantic stature that Steve had. Mixed results are common given this kind of a scenario. One needs to wait and see if Tim Cook can live up to the reputation of the man he succeeded.

And the result of 4S is not the parameter to judge it. Hopefully this is just a blip.

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Recently, a prominent tweeter from Bombay tweeted about such ads being played during prime time (dinner time) on TV. It seems that the sleaze makers in this case had gone overboard and made it difficult for her to have a quiet dinner with her kids in front of TV.

Think of this. You watch TV with your children and this ad plays on TV.

And the resultant questions from the kids may not be a palatable discussion that follows.

Sex education is very unlike the Americas. We have human anatomy discussed in Standard VIII (unless it has changed recently). And schools are not strictly co-education yet. We don’t teach them what it means to reproduce (which partly explains our population burst). And the responsibility is completely vested with parents and is never approached as education. There is no formal, common system of making a child understand this. And we expose them to this:

Amrutanjan Roll-On balm ad by soumyadipc

One has virtually given up on the ‘Deo’ category where the only way to sell is by showing women running behind men in a very pied-piper-ish fashion. AXE started it and we have other brands doing the same. Many industry colleagues have different views about it. But Amrutanjan? Guys, I loved your last campaign based on ‘Funny videos’ where people fall during unexpected moments and ‘Be Ready’ was a fantastic tagline. A proposition to die for. You lose that for this? Mr. Shambu Prasad – I wish we were in touch after our DAV days. I have a few things to talk to you about the iconic brand that your forefathers created!

And Parachute! Whoa! Another iconic brand, which sold a commodity available at the nearest kirana store, branded it and virtually replaced the coconut oil tin cans with brilliant packaging (including the Re.1/- bubble pack available in pan shops) has gotten sleazy with their new product.

Well, there is a difference. The Amrutanjan TVC looks like it has been made like a B grade Boolywood film, while the Parachute TVC has obviously been given a ‘classy touch’. Almost soft porn-ish. Another great comparison would be Gramathu Virundhu by Paravai Muniyamma as against Nigella Lawson cooking up those delicious pastries and digging her chocolate stained dental combination into the awesomely soft lit cake with oodles of flowing chocolate. But hey! Porn is porn is porn.

And all this talk about sensuality is a vague attempt in evading the obvious. Impulse woman was sensuous. Singapore girl was sensuous. Liril girl was sensuous (and certainly bold), but I believe that we have somewhere crossed the thin line between ‘being sensual’ and ‘outright sleaze’.

I am no authority (yet), but I think AAAI can probably look at this seriously. I might be barely scratching the surface, but some ideas (or at least discussion starters) could be:

• A common ‘story board approval’ body by AAAI like the censor board. This can be debated till cows come home, but at least a starting point.
• A common forum where viewers can register their complaints for such campaigns to be quarantined to some restricted channels and not be allowed to be aired in GECs, news channels, kids channels etc.

Also, creative guys. Please get creative. It was fun when AXE did it. It is not when Wild Stone, Adiction and a whole host of others do the same. We also call it plagiarism. J

And marketers – Dudes! Seriously, you buy this S&*% from the creative agencies and put money behind it on media? I think it is just a lazy idea! A better brief to start with can be a good point to begin with.

I respect a condom company for coming up with this:

They are talking sex. But they are talking sensuality. Ain’t it? And I am bloody sure they sell well!

Q.E.D

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• How aggressive, in your opinion, have both the brands been, in marketing their various chocolate variants?

If I have to consider all facets of marketing (not just communications), I believe that Cadbury’s has been relatively more aggressive. In my opinion, their distribution strengths far exceed that of Nestle. Also, regular promotion strategy for new products and festive seasons are highly catchy as compared to the Nestle stable. The focus shown by Cadbury’s in having different SKUs in the chocolates segment is again superior. You will always find something at every price point by Cadbury’s and I think it starts at Rs.2/-

• Though Cadbury Dairy Milk(CDM) occupies a major share of the entire market, one doesn’t see advertisements of variants like Fruit & Nuts, Crackles or Wowie. Do you think that affects the consumer mindset in anyway?

Not necessary to advertise the other variants. The strategy could be to get the consumer to ‘ask’ for a particular (maybe the cheapest) variant in your stable. Since Chocolates are ‘low-involvement’ & ‘high-impulse buying’ products, they would almost always be ready to pay that Rs.10 or Rs.20 extra to go for the other variants. Especially Wowie, which I have never seen advertisements of. But consider this scenario when a family is walking through the aisles of a super market looking at CDM & the kid spots Wowie. The consequences will be far higher than the parents can imagine if the kid doesn’t get it! J

I always go to a store with the determination to not buy chocolates, but end up buying a crackle or Fruit & Nuts. Not as much of CDM though it is evergreen!

• What are your thoughts on Nestle Kit Kat’s squirrel commercial? Do you think Nestle’s recent marketing campaigns have been able to oust the impact of Cadbury in the crunchy chocolate category? ( Cadbury: Perk, 5 Star Crunchy. Nestle: Kitkat, Munch)

The Squirrel commercial was heart warming. No doubt about that. The insight, the creative & the execution were to perfection. But the campaign could not survive the onslaught of Cadbury’s muscle of being present all around the Nestle communication, distribution and the variants at every price point. Though Kit Kat is a lovely product, I think they must do something far reaching like the Jesus in Kit Kat (Dutch viral) to outdo the effects of Cadbury’s. The products from the Nestle stable are as good or better, but should have more muscle or that ‘one great idea’ to outdo Cadbury’s.

• Nestle launched fresh campaign for Bar One late last year. Would you consider it a wise move considering their product faced competition from both CDM, and 5 star?

It is a variant in a similar price point. I think it was a good move by Nestle to launch the Bar One chocolate as against the 5 star. Bar One has again been in the market for way too long, but has almost been forgotten. Also, the issue with Nestle is that there is no over arching brand identity as compared to Cadbury’s. People will always remember 5 star as a Cadbury product, but not many realize that Bar One is a Nestle product. Their chocolate category communication requires rethinking.

• Despite not much competition in the Milk chocolate category, we hardly see any marketing activity for Nestle Milkybar? What does that say about consumer demand for the category?

In my opinion Milkybar is a smaller niche as compared to the dark chocolate market. This is a very acquired taste and is very evolved in many other markets. India is still a dark chocolate market and would take a long while before there will be activities in this space.

• In general, which are the best marketing initiatives of each of the brands that you like the most?

Cadbury’s – 1^st of the month campaign & festival campaigns are great. Their latest ‘Khane ke baad kuch meeta ho jaye’ is not exactly as great as their ‘sweet uthao, majaa lo’ campaign. However, their support to these campaigns are just inspiring.

Nestle – I believe that their Kit Kat Squirrel campaign was very heart warming. Also, their old campaigns still ring in my head!

• With CDM Silk getting popular in the market, do you think it would make the cut to the premium chocolate category( imported chocolates)? Or we are still far from that?

Not exactly. ‘Chocolates’ is a not a requirement market. It is not a necessity. Hence the urge to try the new one will always be there. One can expect slightly lesser levels of loyalty in the consumer as against to most other ‘foods’ category. So we are far from creating great / successful barriers for say a Ferroro, bounty, Mars or Snickers. They will find their own space in the average chocolate eater’s stomach!

• Any last words on how do you perceive the market for chocolates growing as an observant of consumer behaviour.

As a rank outsider, I believe that the chocolates market has grown leaps and bounds with (not in any particular order):

• Frequent abroad travels by many
• Availability of different SKUs at every price point
• Easy availability
• Distribution in-roads (you can now find chocolates at local chaaiwala shops too)
• Variants to address the different palettes

It will continue to grow as long as the consumerism that the Indian markets have witnessed since 1991 continues and probably far longer than that.

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Classic conundrum! But fun topic.

The panelists were:

• Mr. Ravi Banka – CMD – Eggfirst Advertising and Design Pvt Ltd
• Mr. Raghu Bhat – Founder Director – Scarecrow Communications Ltd
• Ms. Mansi Trivedi – Associate Planning Director – Saatchi & Saatchi India
• Mr. Rizwan Khatri – Founder Consultant – Arkay’s Media Solutions
• Mr. Shashi Sinha – VP – Sales & Marketing – Laqshya Media
• Mr. Mukesh Anand – Principal Consultant – RK Swamy BBDO
• Mr. P K Anil Kumar – Senior Creative Director – McCann Erickson
• Yours Truly

The moderator was Mr. Prasen Agali – VP – Golbal Business Development – Greaves Cotton

I spent almost a week debating within myself if I have to go with the flow or instigate a debate. I guess being in front of students, it is better to start a discussion than be diplomatic or ‘correct’. So I finally decided to get a bit theoretical and stick to the topic in spirit. I made a PPT not because I believe in it, but because it helps me organize my thoughts rather than anything else.

Must admit that I fell in love with the campus. Awesome. Period.

The event started well with regular pleasantries, bouquets et al. Prof. Ashok K. Pundir (Associate Dean) and Prof. B M Ghodeswar (Prof. God as named by Mansi Trivedi) had kind words for the panel, the students and the institute.

Instead of getting to specifics on who spoke what, I would just like to share a few snippets from the event. It may not be exactly possible to share who said what since I wasn’t exactly taking notes, but was focusing on listening and sharing. Wherever possible, I have shared the names too.

• Raymond’s case study – A very lucid presentation on how strategy and creative worked together to re-create the magic that was the brand in a fairly crowded market and with awesome competition like Vimal, Reid & Taylor etc. Mukesh Anand also entertained the crowd by playing all the TV commercials to loud applause!
• Ravi had varied examples predominantly in the print & outdoor space on how creativity and strategy go hand-in-hand in making winning communication pieces
• Rizwan’s presentation argued that creative is more important especially when it comes to special situations (like in categories where the product is short lived). His examples on movies taking the highly creative platform to generate a fan base albeit for a short time, was very entertaining.
• Anil shared his thoughts extempore. I am pretty sure that his thought on comparing creatives with short skirts went well with the students. There was an uproar of laughter amongst the audience!
• Shashi Sinha was also extempore. An awesome speaker. His speaking style was fast enough to make it interesting, but slow enough for the students to comprehend, enjoy & savour each word. Lots to learn from the way he spoke. To have thoughts so organized in his mind to speak extempore this way is a great talent. He argued that creativity is the most important piece since the intended message would not reach if it is not creatively said.
• I had my presentation (which will be shared through slideshare shortly) arguing that it is the strategy which needs to be put in place first and the main point of argument was ‘Great Advertising is more important than Great Advertisement’.
• Very unfortunate that Mansi & Raghu couldn’t share their presentations owing to lack of time. But they made up well during the discussion!
• Raghu’s first visiting card (with the address being Coffee Day, Dadar / Barista, Shivaji Park) is etched in my mind forever. I hope I get the balls (pardon the language / slang) someday to take a plunge like that!
• Raghu quoting his experiences with clients on creative thoughts backed by strategy would certainly be a great learning experience for the kids
• Mansi’s original thinking is commendable. When the discussion veered towards Digital marketing, she summed up with the thought that every individual working on the brand 9including servicing, media, admin etc) must be aware of the digital platform and the campaign for it to be successful.
• The question hour (?) had impressive challenges. One question was about conflicts between strategy (planning) & creative. While Rizwan argued about the maturity with which agency professionals handle it, Mansi & I felt that a conflict is necessary for improvements and great ideas to flow.
• Another question was on NITIE’s brand building efforts. We all were of the view that NITIE is famous enough that all seats are filled and the students get placed before day 3 of placements. Also, every touch point of the alumni is a brand moment of truth. Mansi argued that they need to focus on how they need to harness thought leadership to create a sustained brand for NITIE.

In all, a very enjoyable session. Would love to interact more with the students. It keeps us close to academia, fresh thoughts from students and helps us be on our toes always. Maybe one of these students might rise like fire in the Marketing and advertising world. Arms wide open. Welcome my friends!!!

Thanks are in order to Prof. Ashok K Pundir, Associate Dean (Placement), Prof B M Ghodeswar, Dean Academics, Vijay Baweja & Shruti Sharma who coordinated with me and the many other students whose names are not mentioned here.

Thanks to Mr. Prasen Agali for moderating the panel. Some great questions which initiated further discussions and arguments and hence the learning!

Thanks to all the fellow panelists. Fun engaging with each one of you!

Update: Have added the presentation in slideshare. You can download it from here.

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I almost always knew the person who was waiting on us. It would be a friendly smile and there would also be some friendly suggestions on what’s new in the kitchen. The consistency in quality used to be awesome to say the least. I am not sure if it was because it was always the same chef .

There will always be a queue to get a seat with the waiting time ranging between 15-45 minutes. But you would end up gobbling the food when you see it and would forgive Eden for the waiting time. They would make it worth it.

I still believe that one of the key positive about Eden was its small size. Because, the clientele will always know what to get, the variety within and the quality was always assured. To achieve these positives in the food business is very difficult and Eden had. The cash registers being noisy would never be a complaint if that happens.

The inevitable then happened. They opened more outlets as franchises. Everything changed… the ambience, quality of the food, the wait time, the homely feeling, the familiar waiter. Poof! It was gone.

It is four years since I moved out of Chennai and I am not sure if people still go gaga about the outlet anymore.

This is true of many services brands. From creative hot shops to boutique consultancies many brands have come up in recent times. The big question will always be, “How big can I grow?”

The purpose of hiring these small services firms is the talent pool. If a brand engages a boutique firm started by a star strategist and is willing to pay a premium for their services, it means that they want the star strategist to work for them. But organizations which have grown beyond their shoes engage second rung employees who would service the brand with limited or no input from the star. Won’t it leave a bad taste?

My two cents:

• Boutique services firms in my opinion must (at least consider) have a ceiling on how big they can grow.
• The firm MUST have a ceiling on billing OR the number of clients. That way the clients are sure of the services that they would get and hence the relationship stays.
• Promote work with non-regular clients only on a project basis. By doing so boutique firms get to keep their manpower meaningfully occupied and also earn a bit more than they otherwise would.
• Beyond a point, if growth becomes an imperative, acquisitions may be considered because this mode of growth comes with clients, people and scale of operations.
• Limit the scope of services to specific industries, which would help open more doors within the set of industries and also in creating a niche.

I have read a great one-liner.

Fall in love with your job, never with the organization.

By falling in love with the organization the start-up kings create, they end up killing it themselves. Perhaps that is one reason why I will ALWAYS salute Mr. Ramesh Chauhan. He was ready to exit the business of soft drinks, but never exited being in business. He loved his job, not the organizations he created.

Any views?

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I think that I have been able to actually read, learn and understand a lot of issues and subjects before posting anything. The pressure was again because I had some senior colleagues from the industry reading these posts. Some learnings:

• I could have used more images
• There are some days when the posts didn’t achieve the level of quality that I would have wanted. But still…
• This forced me to learn about a lot of other categories that I otherwise would not have. Something like an annual exam which we used to dread while in school. So I was under pressure to learn and say the right things
• I tried different styles. Some were good, some weren’t and some outright pathetic. There were a few who commented about it on FB because they didn’t want to hurt me in public . Thank you!
• I tried writing with word limit and still make sense. I am sure I could do with some improvement. Working on it.

I owe some thanks:

• Anil Nair – He pushed me to write again.
• My wife – a photographer who doesn’t like blogging , but still allowed me to take my time on the machine and with books when possible
• Everyone who commented on my posts (either here or on FB). A special mention to Raza who actually bothered to click images of the Pantene & Dove controversy for this blog.
• Wordpress – The most amazing blogging tool.

This is not the end. Just the beginning. By going through this experience, I think I have realised that I enjoy writing about Brands and Branding as a subject. It may not be every day, but it would certainly be more often than what was history. On that note…

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At some point, it is important for everyone to put themselves in the place of a brand and view themselves through this magic mirror. Which part of the life cycle does the brand ‘you’ belong to, what kind of effort needs to invent / re-invent oneself, grow and mature and make money out of the ‘brand you’.

I believe that it is possible to consider oneself as a brand and ‘build it’. By employing almost every technique that you would for a brand on yourself, it is possible to achieve great brand salience for yourselves amongst your peers, industry and the market in general.

Let’s take a few key issues that one needs to answer which would help in building a great personal brand.

Values & attributes: There has to be a bunch of values that you would stand for at a very fundamental and honest level. It is important that you identify them because those are the key elements which will bring you happiness. If you are not honest here, then you would probably land a great job or be known in the social circles, but you would never be able to experience happiness when you are by yourself. Choose your words carefully. Similarly there must be a few attributes (adjectives), which would define you as a personality. This would outline the kind of jobs you should get into for success to follow.

SWOT: Standard operating procedure in understanding and presenting oneself in front of others. By understanding the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats you are clearly defining your every move in making a good brand of yourself.

Research: Any brand requires a bit of research to understand where it stands, what position it can take and what needs to be done to reach the desired goal. You are no different. It is important to do your own research (qualitatively or quantitatively) on where you stand on various parameters. This could include not just your area of operation but also finer details like soft skills, leadership qualities etc.

TG: Every brand stands for some values to a certain set of audience. From 50000 feet, Coke is a serious soda, while Pepsi is the irreverent, yuppy, generation now kind of soda. The TG is clearly defined. Similarly, you need to clearly delineate who you are catering to. It is possible to do so at every sphere of work. You can be a Customer Service Person, but clearly delineating yourself to be a CS resource in a BPO, Telecom company or Technology company can be possible. It is just a function of understanding where you want to be and who would be your consumer. At a different level, you can provide a different message to different people without lying. And the overall brand message (what you stand for) can still be the same. If you doubt it, read an earlier post here.

Competition: Less said the better. However, by understanding your competition in a given space, you would be able to position yourself better in your consumer’s mind. If it is a job offer where you are pitted against say 2 others with a similar skill set, by positioning yourself as a better leader, it is possible to attract your TG. Many times, many brands sell for some reason totally different from what it fundamentally stands for. Just look out for the Nissan Micra advertisement and you would realize that the car is being sold on a premise that it doesn’t need a key to operate. But a car is supposed to give you ‘driving experience’, mileage, comfort, maneuverability etc. What Nissan does is not wrong at all. But is just a proof of concept that you can be a great Customer Service Resource, but the prime reason for choosing you over someone else could be ‘Leadership’.

Finally, I would like to leave with a thought.

Operate within your sphere of influence. Example: Rajnikant. If the radius of his sphere of influence is 3 kms, you will always find that he is operating at the epicenter. You would seldom find a movie where the title is not based on the character he plays, where he is not introduced with a song, where he does impossible things to win over the heroine and annihilate the felon. This is a thought germ for a complete post in itself. However, I have used Rajnikant as an example for the perfect brand manager of brand ‘Rajnikant’. If he can do it, any one of us can. I am just working on it.

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