Sky Wars

It's just a few hours into the morning, the sun had just about started spreading its wings when the clouds came in fighting for the limelight. The picture here brings out the conflict in the sky.

Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai

The statement suddenly seems to have a new meaning to me. Lately I have had extensive interactions with people inhabiting the land to the north-east of my country. Beyond that I came across an article in the National Geographic Magazine and it surprised me, how similar we are. Really! You have to read the article to know what I am saying, to actually experience the feeling of oneness. (http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/05/china/journey/hessler-text)

The article takes the reader through various aspects of the country, viz. the highest rate of GDP growth (similar to ours, just that they have had it for over 3 decades now), the real estate boom, the growing urbanization, the generation gap, the bureaucracy, the divide between the lower and the upper class, the growing middle class that is trying the bridge the gap unsuccessfully and many more such things. What struck me was that we really were so similar but yet we look upon each other as rivals, enemies, someone we need to grow beyond.

I have always believed in the good of the world, I believe every human being is a nice person, their actions are a result of ambitions or circumstances that could be very similar to ours, hence our perception in their mind is the same as their's in our's.

Can't we change this, each of us have weakness and strengths, can't we work together to make the other more efficient and hence better than the rest in the world? They have a, English language problem, which we can address, we have a manufacturing efficiency problem which I'm sure they can help us with, this while we can also help them with being better at the service industry, then there are things that neither of us can help, like the severe paucity of palatable water and the aging population of China versus the perpetual instability of the government problems here. Each of the country can look at few of the above problems and try to pacify ourselves about how one of these problems will bring the other one down but no one seems to be thinking of how to co-exist better.

Competing is good, while happily co-existing is other. This is a personal view but I believe competing at an individual level is nice and should prevail but between nations, it should be a feeling of harmoniously co-existing. I know what I am talking about can looked as either Utopian or just lack of competitive spirit but I think it's the one way in which the world can exist for longer in a livable state, if each of the nations try being the best then there will be conflict and its not the thing we want to leave back for the next generation.

I'll leave this topic open, as this is not the conclusion, but a point to be discussed, if you have any thoughts please feel free to leave your comments behind, would love to discuss the same.

Shaurya

I'm sure you will get all the reviews of the movie through imdb, newspapers etc, what I'm putting down is a few things that I felt while watching the movie.

A movie about a Few Good Men (pun unintended)who realize their their role (both in the movie and their character) just before the interval, actually I meant just when someone manages to remind him that he too has a responsibility and has not joined the armed forces to not just enjoy the perks.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie. Its great to witness the lifestyle of the forces, the language, the discipline, the attire everything about them comes closest to perfect except a few instances.

A great effort at bringing forward just one of the small problems that our forces are facing, actually while the core reason for the problem is one of the smaller ones, its important to notice the BIG problem.

Height of Celebration

Char Minar was built by Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah in 1591 to commemorate the eradication of plague from his country.
While there are ample of pictures of the Char Minar available on the net, what I liked about this particular one is that I got to capture the brilliant blue sky (which is so rare now) juxtaposed to the worn out walls of the minaret.

Returning from work

While at this beautiful beach house in Uran, I saw this man ferrying his catch for day to the shores. He would now carry this home to get it ready for someone to sell it the next day, while he heads back to the seas to hunt for more in the morning.

Finding Friends, both New and Old

Every one of us has experienced the joy of finding things at the most unexpected places. Like when was the last time you pulled out a very old pair of trousers from your wardrobe, wore it, and just when you were walking out of the house, you slipped your hand inside the pocket and found a 50Rs note, wasn’t that exciting? Or that Slam Book you made while passing out of school, with notes from all the fiends and those subtle hints from that someone special, reading that must’ve been nostalgic.

So is the case with me in the recent times. I have recently been spending a lot of time with my older friends from college, and also find new friends. I don’t have an answer to why I did not do it earlier, but now that I am doing it, the feeling is no less exciting then felt in the situations above.

Yesterday, I was out with a completely new set of people, people who were acquaintances in office, but by the time we ended the evening, we had already found new friends in each other.

The idea of writing this note was to just remind anyone who reads it that, there are a lot of people out there that you could find a friend in, just step out and look for them, you sure will find ample. Infact a good start could be here, last evening the three of us decided that we will plan a trip to the Sula Vineyards next weekend, so if you want to join in, you are most welcome.

Cheers..

Do we really need Research in Brand Communication?

Being part of the Advertising industry for over five years, I have come across various instances when we have gone to the consumer to ask her about what she needs, or she likes or would buy; frankly we go back to her asking the same question but because of the sheer size of our population, we are lucky, we don’t come across asking the same question to the same audience over and over again.

Operating in the business for so long and more importantly by just having lived in an Indian household for all our lives, we all have a perspective of the consumer, whether she is the housewife to whom we are selling detergent or the teen going we are selling the shampoo to, be it the father of two who we would want to sell the small car or the mechanic he goes to, to fix his car and get advise on which lubricant, tyre or battery to use. Do we really need to go out and find out more? Don’t we already know a lot about each of the above?

On the face of it, I feel we really don’t need any research. There are various reasons I say this…

General Knowledge: Like I have said above, most of the things we find out of research are not new news; they are either known by each of us or have been well documented over past researches.

Cover their A#*: A lot of times I believe research is used as a tool by the brand team to safeguard their positions, this need to safeguard comes from the lack of conviction in taking decisions that are straight from the gut. Once decisions are taken and a campaign is rolled out, the result is either positive or otherwise, incase it is the latter, research findings are used as a tool for passing on the onus of the decision.

Unnecessary Complications: Most often, the truth is extremely simple and exists right in front of us, but in our quest for the ‘so called’ ultimate truth, we end up complicating matters beyond comprehension. For e.g. hair oil has a simple purpose and is a tonic for the hair, but research brings in layers to beautiful hair like, if you have beautiful hair, you will be able to style them well, if you style them well people around you will notice you, if they notice you it will lead you to be successful, hence the final research recommendation is, by using a particular hair oil, you will be successful, how do we expect a consumer to comprehend this the way we have layered it, for her, its just a hair oil ad and the girl and the situation in the ad as appealing to her, so she tried it.

Lack of Truth: I sincerely believe, one can’t expect a consumer to speak her mind in front of an unknown person, be it groups, interviews or even questionnaires. The consumer may speak about a few things that she doesn’t like or like, but these are all motivated by the ulterior motive of appearing smart and intelligent in front of any audience. While there are newer methods like Ethnography that derive learnings by observing the consumer in her natural environment but we still need to be sensitive to the fact that if she knows that someone is observing, she will not be real, the actions/reactions will still be calculated

Having said all of the above, I also have a few thoughts on how research plays an important role in developing effective communication.

Spring Board: Research findings very often act as a tool to initiate the thinking on any plan. Verbatim by the consumer or reactions to situations could trigger fresh ideas that are firmly rooted in the consumer insight. These ideas could be in any respect, be it product, creative idea or the medium used, but it is a fire initiated by that one spark. Lalaitaji’s “Surf khareedne mein hee samajhdaari hai” I feel must have come from one such interaction with the consumer, where the discussion would have started from the choice of detergents to the final benefit of using a detergent that could offer what a housewife always wanted, hence it makes Surf the obvious choice.

Meet the Consumers: Interactions with consumers provides confidence in the mind of the brand custodian of the fact that he/she knows the consumer well. This confidence helps the brand custodian to think boldly and from the gut, without this confidence, innovations would have never happened.

Dynamic is in: The world changes everyday, there is a new innovation somewhere in the world every minute, how can the consumer and her demands remain the same? The consumer has become extremely dynamic along with the surrounding environment; research helps to keep us updated with the new trends and drivers, had it not been for this dynamism, a Surf Washomatic would’ve never been launched. Beyond the products, the medium, the language, the expectations all are evolving, keeping pace with these changes is paramount or we would end up marketing the wrong products and also gather the impression of being outdated.

While I believe there is merit in all of the above points, we need to come to some conclusion. So I believe that while research is important, it’s the methodology that needs to be appropriate.

Testing concepts and creative ideas with consumers in groups is futile, but knowing more about the needs, wants of the new age consumer through observation methods like ethnography is important. So while in the prior, the brand custodian has to go by the gut, learning of the latter will help him/her take those decisions with confidence.