Dear RedBull,

Clicked sometime in 2013. As part of #100HappyDays. More pics here.

Dear RedBull,

Thank you.

Thank you for giving me wings. I dont know what I would do without you.

You are one of those few brands (businesses) that has never ever disappointed me. I love you for your consistent performance. You live up to the promise that you make. You are someone I can bank on. With your always on delivery, you have earned my faith. So much so that if you fuck up, I am willing to excuse you. After all, none of is God and everyone makes mistakes.

In fact when I take a class in marketing and branding, I often start with you (I have one before the class and in the class I start talking with your example)

From the deck I use in my branding class.

You know, you have seen me enjoying the best of times (Imperium at MDI, road trips with friends - Neo, sgMS and others), worst of times (the depressive phase of my bipolar disorder) and everything in between. You are the rock that has always been around when I've needed some support (just like Agony Aunt - VK08May).

I have often been unwell and I've just need one swig at you to get back to my feet. Today is a case in point. I was supposed to get up early in the morning (~6) and work on my next book. I did wake up but I could not get out of my bed. And when I finally got up, it was well after 10 and that depressive streak held me hostage all over again. Until I had a Red Bull. And after that, I did my 30 minutes of guitar practice, wrote some for my book, worked on a deck that has been pending forever. And did a few things that I have been delaying for a few days, for no reason.

In fact in the past as well, you have been instrumental in helping me do my work as an event manager. So much so that I could not work without you by my side. You are one of the 7 things that us event managers cant live without. Remember all those shows where you've rested on the console while I was assisting Suvi in running the shows? Remember how I ask him to shut up at times (despite his obvious seniority and more experience) and let me make the decisions? If not for you, I wont have had the balls to ask him to trust me and let me handle the situation! Trust me! 

More than just work, you have given me the strength to stay up at night and work on my book when Sachin had put me under scary deadlines. I hate him for that. And I love you for allowing me to sail over the deadlines. Of course the book hasn't made me famous or rich. But thank you for being there. Thank you for the help. Sachin, if you're reading this, you better not push me like this for next one.

And then there have been times when my ultra conservative folks have questioned if you were an alcoholic beverage. Because you are priced at a premium. And you had me seriously addicted. I had a tough time explaining to them that you were an "energy" drink and it was safe, as long as I consumed you in "moderation". Well, moderation is a subjective word. No?

Finally, the greatest part of my fandom is because of all the awesome marketing that you guys engage in. As a marketer and someone who wants to go down in history books as David and Leo, I have super amazing respect for your marketing methods. I mean who else could have thought of sending someone up in Stratosphere to jump! Or creating a damn racing team. Or those crazy things that you often cook up! I often tell people that if you want to learn marketing, all you need to do is look at how Red Bull goes about it and decode the method behind your madness.

You know, come to think of it, I owe a lot to you. And I ought to have Red Bull more often. Just that I am trying to be healthy. May be I can cut on Coke and binge on Red Bull when I crave for a beverage. May be. Let's see. 

More later. Till then,

Love,
Saurabh "high on Red Bull" Garg

The Marketing Madness

Dibert on Marketing

I have been up since 4. No kidding. I have data from Moves (which I love btw) to support the claim. I slept at around 10 yesterday and after whatever little fitful sleep I managed, I finally got up at 4.

Since then, I've walked for 30 mins, did 30 crunches (despite my hernia) and had a green tea (which makes me sick in the gut but people say it's supposed to help). And I made a poster for my upcoming book. And I sent out emails to 20 strangers, literally begging them to cover my book in their publications, send mails to random people asking them to share the book with others and so on and so forth. You get the drift.

That's how my day looks like these days. That's what I do these days. And I am a teetotaler. That makes alcohol out of bounds. Guessing, of course is what I do. The entire day!

So whatever morsels of time I can save during the day, I try and think who all could I be contacting about the promotion of the book. I then add those names to a list. And at the end of day, or early next day I send out emails, starting from the bottom of the list. Remember that FIFO principle?

And no points for guessing the response rate - which (or that?) remains dismally close to zero.

But...

but...

but... I understand this is all a tiny part of hustle. In a positive way. I am learning a lot of new things. The chief one being that it's ok to let the world judge you. All this while, in my entire life, I have not subjected myself to other people's opinions. Even then, if there were any opinions, I took them on the face value and ignored them. This time around I think I'd be affected. I know, I know. First book is just testing waters. It's not a big deal if people don't like. And other things like that.

I have these endless conversation with myself. Damn!

The other side, the flip side of the entire thing is that I literally get no time to do things that I want to do. This todo list includes poker, learning a new hobby, taking it easy, meeting people, more writing, travel. The list goes on. I have come to accept that I am a lost soul and I shall remain one. I just need to maximize my time. This marketing madness is not helping matters. Only thing I get to do these days, is talk about my book for a couple of hours every morning. And thats' about it!

And it sucks. S U C K S. Yeah, loud.

I am a fucking artist writer. And I am supposed to work on writing. On the craft. Not on the ancillary things like marketing. I know it's an important part of the craft. But these days, it has become the only part. Ant that's where my problem is! I wonder how to other writers manage this bit. May be they have money and they have large departments to churn out ideas for them? May be they don't need marketing. I mean if Stephan King came out with a book tomorrow, he'd just have to drop a tweet and rest shall take care of itself. Look at Chetan Bhagat. He could book a front-page ad in the most widely circulated daily of the country! How do they manage? How do other authors manage?

I have no fucking clue. And I hate wasting my limited time like this. I hate doing non-productive work. Hell, in my time I could choose to sleep but that's my decision. And I am not answerable to anyone. This marketing shit... damn. Oh, and come to think of it, I am a marketeer by training and profession. Irony!

Anyhow, in the entire episode, there are a couple of silver-linings to be happy about. A, the folks at Catapooolt have been a pleasure to work with. I can totally see myself recommending them to others. And B, I have made so many new friends. While the world at large remains hostile and friends (and acquaintances continued to desert me), I have been pleasantly surprised by the kindness that a few strangers have shown towards me. More about them in some other post, on a day when I am not feeling rotten about how I am spending my life.

Till then...

Wait a minute. Did you like the FB page yet? Did you buy the book yet? Did you tell your friends about it yet?

P.S.: That's crib # 2 in as many days. Note to self. Watch out!

#tnks on Catapooolt

News!

I just signed up for a crowdfunding campaign on catapooolt.com to help me raise money to market #tnks. The campaign is live on the catapooolt website. Please go see it. Here is a small intro I made for it.



So why I am doing this? What do I hope to get out of it? What is the exact status of the book? You must have like a million questions. Hopefully this post will answer all those. I like the QnA format the best. Here it is.

U: What is the status of the book?
SG: As we speak, the book is with the printers. Should be available in first half of November. The publisher (Grapevine) has sent requests to Flipkart and Amazon India to list the book but I don't know the status as yet. I need to check with the publisher for it.

U: What do you hope to get out of the campaign?
SG: Two things actually. A, Reach out to more people. And B, raise some money (Rs. 5 lakhs to be precise) that I plan to use to market my book.

U: Thats a lot of money. How do you plan to use it? 
SG: To be honest, Rs. 5 lakh would not translate into a lot of actual cash. A large chunk of it would go towards the cost of running the campaign (cant get into specifics buts it's in low double digit percentage points). Then, each contributor will get atleast one copy of the book. Another large chunk will go towards its cost. Finally, I would be left with about a couple of lakhs for marketing. I hope to spend it on conducting a book tour, physical meetups, placing sample copies at libraries across the country and online marketing (SEM, FB and other online platforms). No, I will not take home any money that I raise from the platform. Please do ask me in case you have questions around this.

U: Do you have marketing plan in place? 
SG: Yes I do. Available on request. Please ask me and I would share.

U: Why crowdfunding?
Few reasons. Here is a list.

• I am poor. No shame or guilt in admitting it. Heard of poverty porn?
• I need money to market. Like any product, the audience (people who read books) needs to be told that a product that they may like (my book) exists and they ought to try it. This telling the audience bit requires money. And hence crowdfunding. Simple.
• Access to "crowd." As much I hate calling people "crowd," it's an accepted term. So, crowd is a set of people spread all over the Intenret - who I may or may not know - that often help others realize their goals dreams. Most crowdfunding websites have a long list of patrons and a ready community of such people.
• No other alternative. I have to spend money to get attention. Everyone may hate the book. That's a different matter. But they need to read it first. So, I don't have a rich father or long-lost uncles. Not dating a rich heiress. Worked for peanuts all my life and hence no savings. Don't like the concept of loans. And hence no other source of money.
• Marketing. Every person who sees the crowdfunding campaign gets to know about my book. That's a motivation in itself. The entire idea of getting as many people possible to read the book is driving this bit. Higher the number of people who read the book, more feedback I get and better I get. I am in this (writing) for the long haul and I better get better with time.
• Finally, why not! 

U: What would you give in return if someone supports the campaign?
SG: Boat load of thanks. That translates into good karma. In terms of tangibles, you ofcourse get a copy of the book.I volunteer to sign and write a personal message in each copy that I ship to people who support me. I know I am no big deal and my message is not important to anyone. But your support is important to me. And writing a message is the least I can do for you. A few goodies that the Catapooolt guys have thrown in (more details on the campaign page). I also plan to work alongside other first-time authors come up with their books. I am definitly not the best writer out there. But I am sure that I know how to finish a book and get it in a shape that a publisher may want to see. To me, that was the biggest challenge while I was working on the book. And I want to work with other first-timers on it. And, an opportunity to pitch your book to my publisher, Grapevine India. Trust me, its a tough ask to get a face-to-face meeting with a publisher.

U: What if the campaign is a flop and you can't raise the money you seek?
SG: Big deal. Things often don't go as planned. That does not mean we stop living. I would atleast learn a few things about this thing called crowdfunding. No? That's it. I've run out of questions. You have more questions? Yes? Please ask me. No? Please support me.

Thank You! Oh, one more thing, Catapooolt guys are really really cool. If you are looking to raise funds for a project or something, please do consider them. I would be happy to connect. It's been an absolute pleasure to work with them.

Originally published on #tnks blog.

Next steps on #tnks

Its done! I have finished the first draft of The Nidhi Kapoor Story.

What? Did you ask what is The Nidhi Kapoor Story? Are you living under a rock or something?

I can talk about excitement, exhilaration, fear, butterflies in the stomach, emptiness and all that. But let me park those because for the time being, I want to focus on the tasks at hand first.

This proximity to the finish line means that I need to find answers to a few very important questions that would determine the fate of the book. And my future as a full-time writer.

Here is an indicative list of things that need done. Pronto.

1. Find an editor. Someone to painstakingly go through the first draft, find all the mistakes that I've made. Mistakes in terms of plot, grammar, sentence formation, structure etc. 
2. Find a designer. To help me make marketing collaterals and design other miscellaneous things. Yes, I have asked everyone who has the word "design" in their bio. And everyone has refused so far. I don't know why. I don't know what am doing wrong here. Help!! 
3. Find a publisher. Or an agent. Someone who know how this "industry" works. Someone who could help the book see the light of the day. 
4. Create a marketing plan. I may claim to be an aware marketeer, but I need to put the plan on paper. And more importantly, execute it.

All this, under the constrains enforced by joblessness and limited "financial leverage".

Not to mention that I am on a constant lookout for the next career opportunity, after all, the money that I had saved all this while, is about to run out. Help me? This is my LinkedIn profile.

God? Tooth fairy? Bhagwan? Jezus? Anyone? Please? 

One year at Creativeland Asia

This day, last year, I moved from GE Money to Creativeland Asia and its one of those few decisions that I have not regretted or reconsidered.

Reasons are two fold.

1. GE was not my kind of place. It might be very very good place to work and might have very good work policies but it did not work for me. May be I am not programmed to work under structures and rulebooks and guidelines and policies and checklists.

2. Creativeland Asia on the other hand, has been a very rewarding and enriching experience. Its my kind of place. Its my land. Just about over an year old, its not really perfect. It can obviously be better. And I, we at Creativeland are working towards it. Hopefully will see some results soon.

I have learned lots of lessons and have made tons of mistakes in this past year. And Creativeland has truly given me a canvas where I can make mistakes and learn from them. At Creativeland we are moving towards that fictional Utopian world.

Hope the coming year is even better and we get closer to making that revolution happen.

P.S.: Why do I always talk about revolutions?

Why I would NOT buy an iPhone

I am a huge fan of Apple Computers as a company and Steve Jobs as a business leader. I have used Apple products in past. An iPod and a Macbook. Both times I was ecstatic and getting them was such an important event that I had blogged about them.

Coming on to iPhone, everyone around me in India is talking about iPhone now. So much so that you can pre-book it with two major operators - Airtel and Vodafone (Hutch).

I have been wanting to get one ever since Steve Jobs launched it in one of his SteveNotes. For me, iPhone has revolutionized the way mobile phones are looked at. It is the first time when a mobile phone is being looked at just more than a communication tool. It had become an entertainment tool. An accessibility tool. A tool that was intuitive and was easy and fun to use at the same time. You could leave your home with just one iPhone and nothing else and you could still be fine. Why wouldn't you want to have an iPhone?

Few lessons for marketers

1. Hype is an interesting thing. The way an Apple product is hyped, it can put all the marketers and movie makers to shame. But too much hype can kill it.
   
2. Mass marketing could be a bad thing. I would not want to see every Tom, Dick and Harry carry an iPhone and trying to look uber-cool. I know at least 10 people who have been tracking the iPhone for about six months now and would not buy it just because everyone else would have it.
3. Price it right. At 31K, in India, it is out of reach of most of the people. Even the ones that are SEC A1. Even the ones who were waiting for it eagerly. Like me.
   

Aviation Industry and OTA in India

In India, we have a couple of famous full service carriers (Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines) and a plethora of no frills or low cost operators (Spicejet, Air Deccan, Go Air, Indigo). And all of these players have been in troubled waters for quite some time now.

The industry has been reeling with rising fuel costs, rising manpower costs, airport charges, taxes, consumer awareness and complaints, regulatory hurdles etc. In fact because of all these, none of the operators in India is making money. We have already seen the mergers and buyout games begin.

Of all operators, the low cost carriers are the worst hit. Especially the smaller ones. Simply because they were anyways operating on low margins and revenues from value added services were absent. And since they are not big, they cant extract efficiencies of scale by sharing ground staff and airport or negotiating prices from their vendors etc.

Then there is another industry that has mushroomed in last few years. The online ticketing industry. We have so many players now in the OTA market that even keeping a count is really difficult. So how do these companies make money? They get certain amount of brokerage (if I can take the liberties of using that term) for every ticket they sell. The number varies from operator to operator and airline to airline but its in the range of 1% to 3%. Then they make money by offering hotel bookings, weekend getaways, travel packages etc. But they still make most of their money from commission from airlines on tickets sold. With rising prices, airlines are now pushing these OTAs to the wall and cutting their margins as well. Does this signify slow and eventual death of OTAs? I don't know and I can't predict but next few months would be very interesting.

Apart from OTA, the newly privatized airports in the country are also facing the heat. They have pumped in so much money to create huge "world-class" structures that its not even funny. Their sources of revenues are fees from the airlines and other services like parking, restaurants, advertising etc. With drop in number of travelers, revenue from all these value added things would come down. How would these sustain? Traditional economics says that a toll gate owner or a broker would always make money as long as the number of passengers (or transactions) is high. In the long run, airports shouldn't loose money but again you never know. Its hard to predict.

Coming back to airlines and their problems, they acted like a typical producer in a producer driven economy. They hiked prices of their tickets. So much so that these prices are now comparable to full service operators. A lot of people look at this as a very good move. They argue that with higher fares, the revenues would also increase. I beg to differ.

Lets divert from the debate and try to see a traveler in action. A traveler can choose a low cost carrier, lug all his bags with him, sit in really cramped seats with his legs folded, pay for every thing he uses in the plane (except for the loo - and paid loo can be a good idea :D) and come out of the travel feeling harrowed and hassled. This traveler could alternatively pick a full service carrier, have a valet help him with bags, relax with enough leg room on the aircraft, have a choice of three course meal on the aircraft, pampered by the staff of the airline and get to his destination feeling good about his travel.

Again back to the debate, in my opinion if fares for no frills carriers are comparable to full service carriers, any rational person would opt for service and comfort levels offered by full service operators. And with limited choices, fare hike by low cost operators mean more business for full service operators.

And this is not all. As flying gets out of the reach of the common man, more and more travel would happen for business reasons (leisure and casual air travel would reduce substantially) and these fliers would choose full service operators. This would translate into lesser capacity utilization for low cost operators. And empty seats means more losses for low cost operators.

What about full service carriers? With this hike, they might get better occupancy rates but how can they survive the spiraling costs and dwindling margins?

And for how long can these airlines operate on losses? What about the investors? Air Sahara (acquired by Jet Airways) and Air Deccan (merged with Kingfisher) have already succumbed to their losses and growth costs. Are there more in pipeline? What is in it for existing players?

Airline operators have never ever made money anywhere in the world. Will it be different in India? Can there be solutions? Can they come up with more creative ways of making money (like charging for check-in luggage)?

Whats your take?

Branding 101 for Digital Brands

In this post I shall talk about brands as I understand them and as they are applicable to digital brands. Please note that this list is still in beta and will evolve with time. Your feedback would be really appreciated.

This is required because we need to stop looking at startups as just startups but serious businesses where branding plays a vital role. Often, the way you look at the business makes a lot of difference to way you work.

Coming to the point, I think there are three principles. Utility, Emotional Connect and Relationship that goes beyond just one product.

A: Utility

• Customers never talk about a brand they are going to use. They talk about the action they will perform. What problem does the brand solves?
• I need to book and air ticket. I will use Cleartrip.
• I need to upload slides and show them to friends. Let me use Slideshare.
• The brands that can make themselves synonymous to utility invariable become the leaders.
• Can you Google the data on number of Internet users in India?
• Can you Slideshare your presentation please?
  
• The utility could be functional, mechanical, emotional, psychological or any of those –al things.
• Using Twitter helps me stay in touch with friends on the go.
• I use FB because the elite Internet users in India are on FB.

B: Emotional Connect

• A customer will use a brand that he can associate himself with.
• I like Apple products because they stand for innovation, user interface and simplicity.
• Google stands for open culture. I am an open source evangelist and hence I will use and promote Google initiatives.
• If possible, the association with the brand should elevate the status of the user.
• Google could have invited everyone when they launched Gmail. Limited invite was a way to get traction. All limited launches are like that.
• Alltop gave away batches like “featured on alltop”. People displayed these batches because it was a way to show off that you belonged to the best of the category (as rated by alltop).

C: Relationship extending beyond single product

• The relationship should start with one product and when the company launches more products, I should be aspiring to buy them too. This is very important for creating sustainable businesses that go beyond one time relationship.
  
• My relationship with Apple started with an Ipod. I have already bought a MacBook and have pre-ordered the iPhone.
• I started using Google as a search engine. Then I started using groups. Then it was Gmail. And then calendar. The list continues.

Which one of the three things are valid about your brand? If it does only one, how can it do other things?

Please give your feedback to me at saurabh.garg+digitalbrands@gmail.com

1V1: Whether vs When

Next in the 1v1 series. Whether vs When.

Today I will talk about Whether and When. Most of the times when you want to take a decision, there is often a debate between whether and when. You argue on things like "Whether you will do or not", "When will you do it" etc..

I think the use of these words greatly affects the decision.

The WHETHER questions by its very nature brings along uncertainty and with it a possibility of not doing it. You might do it. You might not. You will ask more people about it. You will seek more approval for the idea. And in the end you might or might not do it.

Moment you start asking WHEN question, the whole paradigm changes. You have already made the decision. You are going to do it. If not now, later. But you will do it. And this decision makes all the difference.

What do you think you will choose when making decisions? Whether or When?

Originally posted at Saurabh Garg @ Thoughts

The Great Indian Media

If you dont know Arushi, The Great Indian Khali, the colored cheerleaders, blog wars of Amitabh Bachchan and Amir Khan you live in a cave. The Indian media has gotten into so much frenzy with all these that all other events sound minor.

Inflation is touching 8% and there is no analysis or debate on the same. Indian Hocket team finally is doing something right. They lost in the finals of Sultan Azlan Shah cup but there was hardly a mention. A very important issue is being debated at WTO but no one has a clue about it.

Brings me to a point where I am thinking if media business needs a radical change. I have expressed my displeasure at the way media functions in India. They show what is popular and people see what media shows. With time the original thoughts would die away. They need to move beyond popularism and start talking about things that really make a difference.

Coming back to Arushi, whatever happened with that girl is very tragic. It should not have happened but I guess media could leave her now in peace. I am sure media is saying that they want justice for her. But did media raise a single hand for justice to all those people who die very regularly on roads because of negligent driving?

The bomb blasts in Jaipur were forgotten as fast as they happened. Media has decreed that police and intelligence have failed in their task and thats it. I want to ask why dont they investigate the Jaipur blasts with as much gusto as they are tracking murderers of Arushi? Why cant media itself become the investigation department and then we will not need the CBI, IB, RAW or even the new central investigation agency that Dr. Kalam has envisioned. It will sure get them more eye balls and save the nation some money.

The great Khali is another example of media going overboard of things that dont warrant a single glance. Agreed he is 7 feet. Agreed he is from a village in India and now a professional wrestler at WWE - a place known more for glamour rather than professional wrestling. In my humble opinion, the great Khali might be the best ever but on the wrestling stage he has only brought disgrace to India. The way they talk about India, the way they dishonor the Indian flag, the National Anthem and the way they mock Indians there at "professional wrestling" ring is not even funny. If he was half Indian, he would have put a full-stop to all that show business.

IPL - Indian Premier League. If I start talking about this, I wouldn't even stop. Agreed cricket is our unofficial national game but any channel - sports, news, family, even devotional channels are full of insights. Someone correctly said that there are 11 players and 1 billion experts on the game. Every one has an opinion and everyone wants to voice them. It doesn't matter if the logic is flawed or opinions are biased.

Wish there were more people who wanted to raise their voice against this stupidity that we call media in India.

Fake Characters

Inspired by work done by Phonethics, I also thought I would create some characters. And some lives. Here is the first draft.

Koncious Kapoor

KK is our typical metrosexual Indian. He belongs to a very small time in UP and his is the first family to have stepped out of their town. They hence have an elevated status amongst their peers. Kconcious Kapoor has studied in a boarding school and although he has a modernish outlook towards life, he is still conscious of his background and upbringing. Like any typical young Indian, he wants to get rich quick, become famous and is really scared of facing an audience.

Khoob Bai

Everyone knows that KB is 35ish, claims to be 25ish, looks 30ish and is 45ish in real. She does everything including cleaning utensils, scrubbing floors, acting as the informal communication channel between young lovers, delivering gossip and obviously peeping on personal affairs of her employers. She knows more secrets than the FBI, CIA, RAW, The Mossad, MI6 and KGB combined. And she keeps dropping hints about her (in)famous access to information. She promises her loyalty to everyone but she is loyal to only one thing - money.

Totaram Sharma

better known as Sharma Ji in his colony and Sharma Babu in his office. He is a struggling middle aged government employee who has been a clerk since last 30 years and has seen two salary hikes and one promotion. He is a perpetual landmark on his office canvas. All the kids in his colony hate him for his never ending cribbing about noise and ruckus that these kids make. He has two teenaged daughters that add to his agony in life. He is also known for speaking for hours without making any sense at all.

Toofan Kumar

is in a perpetual state of hurry. He is rushing for something or the other. He even talks as fast as he walks. Folklore has it that he was last seen relaxing when he was standing in the visa queue to US of A. He thinks that world today is full of opportunists and he needs to do something about it. He feels very passionately about all the popular social causes and actively participates in debates around these. Motive is not to save trees or prevent child abuse but to pave a road for his political dreams. And of course the visa was rejected.

Happy Singh

is a typical surd. Happy go lucky, content and hungry - all three at the same time. Thanks to his beard, no one knows where his smile begins and ends. Or if he is smiling at all. He is on the heavier side and has an insatiable appetite. Every time he sees a cow, goat, chicken or any other animal of edible quality, his hunger pangs strike him. He is still single with no immediate plans or chances either. His family lives in Ludhiana and thus he has all the money he needs to live comfortably without working.

This has potential to become a huge business by itself. Not on the lines of what Phonethics is doing but something else. Keep watching.

Ceat, Shoppers Stop and Godrej Rebranding stories

Three very big Indian brands have gone for a makeover. Godrej, Shopper's Stop and Ceat. Before I get into a long rhetoric on these individually, I think except Godrej, Shopper's Stop and Ceat have got it wrong.

Godrej Industries Ltd.
Godrej has added colors to it age old logo. Shoppers' Stop and Ceat have completely changed their looks. Also, Shoppers' Stop says "Change is Good" and Ceat says "Change is here". I wonder if both these have been created by same team?


Godrej the behemoth that sells everything from shoe polish to animal feed to almirahs to locks to lavish food for rich to real estate to a lot of things unimaginable has got a new look. They did not do anything drastic. They retained their logo. Added some animation, color and jazz to it. As a customer I love what they have done. For me I have grown up in house where we had tons of Godrej almirahs and locks and for me Godrej means trust. Is the new look enhancing that? No it does not but it gives me a sense that owners are trying to reinvent the old company and are committed about it. And since And are they doing it because a Godrej Properties is planning to come with its IPO?


Shoppers Stop
Coming on to Shopper's Stop, its is a chain of premium retail megastores. They sell clothes, accessories and other fancy things that riches and the great Indian middle class buys. In fact they are amongst the first players in Indian retail industry to have experimented with large format stores and organized retailing. Their earlier logo and identity was very classy by Indian standards and for the last 10 odd years that logo has been itched in the minds of the customers. It had everything a premium brand's logo should have - curves, stars, symmetry. It was very very appealing.The new logo is anything but premium and yet is a good piece of work on a stand alone basis. But moment you compare it with older logo (and comparison is inevitable), it looks dull. It looks like someone has stepped back in time. To start with it is plain text in a font that can be used by anyone and everyone. A plain text logo could have been good if you added colors, gradients or other elements to break the clutter (hint Godrej). But that too is missing. I think they wanted more serious and elegant look for the brand and the logo has failed to deliver that. I would say this was created by an amateur designer trying random text layouts.

I have no clue what warranted the need for a change in logo. I understand that Shoppers' Stop is coming up with an IPO but did it require a change in look?


Ceat Tyres
Ceat is one of the oldest tyre manufactures in the country. Its a publicly traded company and although I have not had any interactions with their business (never purchased a ceat product), have heard a lot about them. The new logo looks like a half baked pie. Its like work in progress and first time I saw it, I could not relate it to the type manufacturer. When I read the headline, that was the time I realized that it was ceat they were talking about.

As a customer and as an observer, I like their earlier logo better. It had a meaning to it. I could see a rhino and I could conjure an image of a vehicle running on a ceat tyre negotiating hard curves. The new look might also have a road (the E looks like a road with a divider) but it fails to conjure any kind of imagery. Is there a trend in design houses to move towards plain text fonts with minimal use of colors? Or both Shoppers Stop and Ceat have been done by the same agency with a Creative Decision Maker believing that plain text is good and we should talk about change to go along with that?



Its often said an organization is as good as the decision makers it has. I dont really think design teams for both Shoppers Stop and Ceat have done their homework and tried to design a contemporary look. And they should consider the fact that people do not buy products or services. They buy and consume brands. And brand is something that makes the decision process for the consumer simpler. Not more complex by creating conflicting images in their minds.

Design, Advertising and financial markets may sound very different but there is indeed some kind of a relationship. Any more IPOs or redesigns coming up .. ?

P.S.: All the comments are not from an aesthetic point of view. I am hardly a person who has good design sense. I am talking from the perspective of a customer. I have tried to think how would a customer feel when he is interacting with a brand that is supposed to be premium.

All three companies trade on the stock exchanges and I own certain number of shares of Godrej Industries ltd. I might or might not choose to buy/sell these shares.

And I just realized that I am indeed passionate about brands and way consumers think abut brands. As a very good friend would say .. "Aha" moment of the day !

Tags: IPO, Indian Financial Markets, Godrej, Ceat, Shopper's Stop, Retail, India, Design, Logo, Re-design, Advertising, Marketing, Branding.

What kind of blogger are you?

I have been blogging for over 4 years now. I have been asked why I blog numerous times. And obviously I have give piece of mind to all those people. I have also met and interacted with a lot of fellow bloggers and I have realized that there are basically 4 kinds of bloggers.

1. Conscious Bloggers: People who really want to make a difference – not only in societal context but also in terms of business, way people use technology and other things. They are very focused in their approach and make sure they are attuned with the latest in their respective industries. More often than not, they end up becoming an influential voices in their respective fields.


2. Copy Cats: Because having a blog is cool, there are people who want to be cool and who would want to follow fads, they blog. Most of these blogs are abandoned within a short span and end up contributing to the Internet Junk. The lesser said about these people, better it is. Saves times and energy and content on Internet


3. Money Mongers: People who want to make money using their blogs (inspired by TechCrunch and other such blogs). They would start by posting everything and anything under the sun. They would blatantly copy things from other popular bloggers and will submit their blogs to search engines and aggregators at a feverish pace. It is very unlikely that they would ever make money with their blogs and will end up frustrating themselves. Some who are smarter, would on the course realize that blogging with an objective of making money would not work and they change course and obviously end up successful.


4. Confused Souls: People who don’t know why they blog but they anyways do it. The idea is not to make money or to get famous. The idea is to find an audience for their thoughts. Only gratification comes in the way of comments from their friends and other random visitors that have stumbled onto these blogs. They often have interesting things to say but due to the lack of recognition, they are lost in the noise. They are like the needles in the haystack that if identified could be put to good use.

What kind of blogger are you?

Originally posted here.

Simpu Sodhi - Bring back Simpu Singh

How about writing to Channel V and bringing back Simpu Singh? I am ready to create FB groups, Orkut communities, send out chain mails and file petitions online. I will do anything (virtual) to get him back.

For the uninitiated Simpu Sodhi is/was a Channel V character that they created way back in 2000 for their shows. It is modeled after a sikh teacher and he is simply awesome.

Simpu Sodhi is all you can want in a person. He is a grown up. He is a kid. He is charming. He is innocent. He is intelligent. He has a temper. He is sensitive towards cute school kids that look more like micelings... He is Simpu Sodhi. Like No Other.

PLEASE HELP ME GET BACK SIMPU SODHI. Can some marketing whiz help me promote the cause and get some media attention?

He certainly makes it to my list of favorite fictional characters that includes Homer Simpson (of Homer Simpson fame), Michael Corleone (of Godfather fame), Jack Bauer (of 24 fame) and Udham Singh (again Channel V).

My playlist on Youtube.



Links for Simpu Singh Sodhi fans
1. http://www.indianpad.com/story/208901
2. Youtube Playlist of Simpu Sodhi vids

Bomaby Quiz Club

Bombay has this quizzing club that meets every month and conducts quizzes for its members. Since quizzing happens to be a favorite pass-time, I thought I will try and see if it’s any good. And so I went to Bombay Quiz Club’s first quiz on Sunday.

There were some 35 odd people. The youngest was a student at an engineering college and the oldest was (I think) a retired professional. Most of the people seemed to know each other (probably because they have been meeting over a period of year) and few of them were past winners and finalists at various quizzes (Brand Equity Quiz, Adclub Mumbai Quiz etc).

Their format is also pretty cool. It encourages participation and it rules out good quizzers ganging up to take the fun out of quizzing. They randomly divide all participants in 8 teams and get on with the fun. The n00bs get to learn from the 1337s. Its that simple.

I must say that I was humbled and inspired at the same time by the whole experience. I always thought I was an above average quizzer and there I realized that I don’t even exist in the quizzing circles. The quality of questions and participation was really great. I would recommend any quizzing enthusiast to be a part of the club.

And yes, the place was offered by Pinstorm and its amazing how a small gesture like offering a place for quizzing can become a branding and advertising strategy. More on this later on Thoughts @ Work blog.

Future of War of Words

Few Facts First

1. No one reads your personal blog if your last name is not Hilton or Spears.

2. Even though people dont read your personal blog, it still hangs in the air (stays on the Internet) for everyone to see and read.

3. It still reveals a lot of things about you. Lot of them desirable (that you think, that you are honest, that you like straight-forward, that you love adventure sports) and lot of them undesirable (that you are old, that you are a MBA, that you are getting balder with each passing day, that you are still single and that you dont want to get married) etc.

As I have said earlier that I am thinking what to do with this blog (here and here), I will try to pen down the arguments against and for the decision.

Reasons against shutting down

1. 4 years of effort (first post ever here)

2. Emotional attachment (even though no one else reads this, I write because I want to write and I like venting out whatever I think is relevant to me).

3. Very strong identity (Google for Saurabh Garg and this is amongst the first results).

Reasons for shutting down

1. 4 years of effort - with every passing day this 4 years is growing and would be more difficult to shut tomorrow.

2. Very strong identity - I started this when I was a student. Today I am looking at creating businesses. Every new contact I make in the real world would search for me on the Internet. And they see this blog - which is a good thing but does not talk about my work and other professional interest areas. One way to go about this is to brand this as a personal blog and move on (this is a good idea - I will do this right away).

So basically there is only one strong reason for me even thinking about shutting this blog. Point to ponder is that is it that big that I shut this down (wow three "that"s in six words - a new world record?). Will keep on adding points and thoughts to this. And come to think about it, this could be an interesting personal marketing and branding problem.

How about selling this on ebay? May be I get few interesting bids and money can motivate me to finally end this? Any offers from any generous people around?

More Rational thoughts on the reservation policy in India

The last piece I wrote was an emotional outburst. This is more rational argument on reservations. I shall try to figure out the impact of reservations, thoughts on what could have been done and finally is there any hope?

Ok why reservations in the first place?
Reservation was the card played by the VP Singh govt. when they decreed for the first time that India needs reservations to help the lower castes. Some people credit their win at the centre to this card only. Obviously its a thing of past and no one can say what really happened. After-all history is written by people who win the battles.

I am not saying that reservations is a card that is played when you want to elections. You actually want to help the backward classes. You are motivated by general upliftment of the country.

Is it really going to help?
I have my doubts. These doubts are based on following observations.

1. I don't have numbers but I am told that at engineering colleges of repute (not the ones that are opened in small homes on outskirts of Bangalore), the candidates admitted from reserved classes don't pass at all. Most of them flunk in first and second year and stop studying thereon.


2. Then a lot of seats for reserved categories are filled with people getting less than 10% marks. End of the day education is about quality of students and maturity of interactions between them. If there are 53% people from general categories and average scores of 80, and 47% of people with average scores of 20, what kind of discussions are we talking about?


3. There seats remain empty because there aren't enough applications in the first place to grant admission to people belonging to reserved categories. If an institute can intake 100 students and it has to start a course with 80 students only because we could not find enough people to take reserved seats, aren't we depriving other students of an opportunity to study?

Obviously I don't have numbers to prove or reject these claims. Can someone help me with this?

To end this chapter (if I may say), honestly I don't think that reserving more seats is going to help. They should rather try to find out why do people from these classes perform this bad in the first place. Is there a flaw in the primary education system? Is it because they assume that education for them is going to be easy and hence no need to put in effort?

What will be the impact and what could be possible outcomes?
Impacts would be many-fold. For the students that avail this opportunity, students that are now deprived and the country itself.

1. Reservations means that only the best from the education system get into quality higher institutions. What happens to people who were average? They would have to settle for below average education. And because of this, they would miss the opportunity that could have transformed them from average to exceptional.


2. This also means that general quality of education will come down. Not because people from reserved categories cant perform or they lack intelligence. But because they are not equipped to face higher education. Mind you a person can be intelligent and ill-equipped at the same time.


3. Brain-drain might be back. And with a bang. I can already foresee a lot of talented budding doctors, engineers leaving the country in search of a place where their talent is respected. Not their castes.


4. All the hoopla about FDI and India's growth story might be in for a rude shock. If I was Microsoft or Google or Suzuki for that matter, I would not want to set shop in India because I know that finding good people would be tough and costly. It would also mean that business environment is unconducive. And once the growth story stops, then its a debate for another day if the country would grow or not.

Is there a way to help backward classes?
Getting a reservation done at under-graduate level does not guarantee that the life standard would improve. This move might create a large work force that is unemployable. And this would bring in more frustration. You are educated and cant find a job. From personal experience, I know for a fact that there is no feeling worse than that.

So what can we do to change things for people who have been oppressed? To start with I think we need to change the way they live. A child learns as much from his parents as from his surroundings. How about taking a cue from Madarsas and Gurukuls and replicate this in mainstream? These are the places where gurus preach and teach kids about virtues of life. Make them aware of the world around them. If we cant provide quality education to these kids at formative stages of their lives, how about making the system unconventional.

I used to work with an NGO called Pratham and they used this concept really beautifully. They would take a community and teach all the underprivileged children there. Mind you - underprivileged, not the reserved category. And they did it very well. That model runs on a self-sustaining model and is awesome. Can share more details if someone is interested in knowing more about it.

What can be done to mark protest against this move?

1. How about getting talking to all bloggers to write about it? At least the ones with reach like Mutiny, DesiCritics etc.?


2. Can this be a topic for blogathon? Anyone from their team listening/reading?


3. Help YFE and other forums with online propaganda and marketing.


4. Make an online task force and spam news websites with comments, thoughts and opinions. And make these quality comments so that they have to raise it on their prime-times. Knowing Indian media, they would anyways do anything to hike their TRPs.


5. I am strongly against any kind of mass agitations that stops the normal functioning of the country. I voiced my opinions on the medico strikes, batti bandhs etc. I think I was wrong when I took that stand and I need to change. Now I am neutral to it. Is there a strong case of a mass agitation?

I am simply out of ideas. Can someone please put forth more thoughts so that we can actually do something constructive rather than just debating? Another peril of Indian education system is that we start debates and never finish things. Lets come forward with solutions rather than talking about things.

To end this on a light note, I was thinking about way forward for people who advocate reservation

1. Just education is no point. We need to reserve places on the buses also. How about roads? Special clubs for reserved categories. Does someone remember 'Dogs and Indians not allowed' posters? How about 'dogs and unreserved not allowed' posters? Come to think of it, this could be an awesome article.


2. Now that we have reservations for SC, ST, OBC, how about talking about reservations on the basis of religion? region? height of a person. Imagine - we only accept applications from people who are 5 feet 7 inches and weight 150 KGs.


3. How about creating small states for every simgle category that you can identify and then ruling over them? Who wants 29 states. Lets split India into 19043 states all with homogeneous people. There could be a state for people who are bald and have Sharma as their surnames. Oops what about ladies then? Will they marry inter-caste, inter-state? Will these be approved?

Please understand that views submitted are personal only and might be flawed. Please help me see the correct picture.

Crossposted

1v1: Excellence vs Mediocrity

Third in series after Popular vs Pertinent, Expert vs Employee.

Excellence vs Mediocrity

You can either pursue excellence or remain a mediocre.

A mediocre by definition is someone engaging in an act where objective is to finish the task rather than to complete it with best of abilities. Often, shortcuts are used and outcomes are ordinary. Borrowed wisdom is put to work and original thought process takes a back seat.

Excellence is where the objective is to compete with oneself. Idea is to create something out of the world even though the objective is well defined. Excellence could be in way you work, in way you opine of things or even the way you execute. People who pursue excellence sleep easy and tight.

Mediocrity vs Excellence in one line: The pursuit of excellence creates original thoughts that a mediocre person would put to use.

Both these are more about an attitude rather than expertise or availability of resources. And once you start the pursuit of excellence, its very easy to fall in the trap and move back to mediocrity. By definition, most of the human population falls in the mediocre category and funny thing is that they dont even realize it.

You can pursue only one at a time. You could be mediocre or you could be excellent. What are you?

Originally posted at Thoughts @ Work

1v1: Expert vs Employee

This is second in the 1v1 series after Popular vs Pertinent

I was talking to Monica when I remembered something I had thought of about 5 months ago. Finally posting it.

Expert vs Employee.

You can be seen and known as either an expert or employee.

An employee is a "just another person". He is competent and does his job well but that is all to him. There is no such thing as new ideas, innovation, bright sparks coming out of him. He is one amongst the crowd. No one expects anything from him.

Expert on the other hand is someone who is everything an employee is and then there is lot more to him. He is expected to change the way world moves, come up with brilliant yet simple ideas and should be as close to indispensable as someone can be. Expert belongs to the rare breed.

Expert vs Employee in one line: You would not want to meet an employee but would pay to see an expert.

And interesting thing is that the distinction between an expert and and employee is often an outcome of the way a person himself thinks and approaches things. Until you start projecting yourself as an expert, no one would consider you an expert.

What are you? Expert? Employee?

Kind of Business

I am always on the lookout for businesses. It just dawned on to me that I would never launch a business that I myself would not use. This rules out things for kids, grown up adults, religious sects, evangelist community and lot more.