Back in the day when a new product launch was planned the brand management teams followed the incremental cycle from idea initiations, launch of teaser campaigns and finally launching the actual product. But hey! But the campaigns were managed across newspaper campaigns.

And the results proved detrimental for some of the leading automobile insurance companies, financial portfolio management and IT service providers too.

Quick Look at The Global Ad Channel Trends

 The Old School Branding & Advertising Model

The Online Branding Model

 We all love Facebook and so do the consumer marketing and branding gurus across the globe. The customer service of Amex and some other prime financial service providers for instance is now Facebook based. Facebook has now become the customer service center of major service providers.

Even well before the launch the marketers seek idea from the Facebook audiences and seek newer avenues. The brand makers can measure the success of their ads at every stop. And with the product and ad aligned to the end user’s need there is hardly a chance of failure.

 How Can You Benefit From Online Ads?

Whether you are a publisher or an advertiser or an end consumer the online ad arena can offer rewarding results in no time. The mileage and speed at which a dedicated and targeted ad campaign hits the online customer is phenomenal.

The customers can research the product online before investing in it. The advertisers can earn from the ad network revenues while the advertiser can measure or assess the effectiveness of their campaign in a cost efficient manner. Isn’t that what they call a win-win scenario?

It is worth noting that businesses which flaunt a website and communicate it in their ad campaign tend to win more customers online. In fact Brand Green recommends that a website is a must have for any size of business that you wish taking to the online channel.

The not so noble professionals are making merry in the inflationary times than a classy and flashy MBA’s. The recent encounter with a Paanwala in Chennai made me ponder on starting a Pan delivery startup!

The Ground Realities – My Paan Shop!

• Pan’s favorite variant – “Mitha Paan” sells at INR 10-15 in Delhi, Mumbai and other leading metros
• The vendors choose their shops strategically generally corner shops and mostly mobile shops. The overhead of carrying the mobile shop from a Point A to Point B is next to nil
• A hard pressed Pan vendor sells 100 Pan’s a day and other Tobacco ingredients that promise to offer kick!
• The per day income may range anywhere in between INR 8,000 to INR 25,000 or even more.
• Apart from conversing fluently in multiple languages these chaps eventually generate good contacts too
• Marking out other leakages in the form of bribes to Police and local goons, they still make more in a day than cumulative monthly salary of an MBA.

The Ground Realities for MBA’s – The Boring Job!

• MBA’s favorite variant – Marketing or Finance MBA can be bought from B-schools from 1 lacs to 15 lacs at an average. The cost of doing an MBA from a good league school is anywhere in between 8-11lacs. The MBA folks are being underpaid in India by a fair margin when compared to the annual tution fee and their foreign counterparts. India is growing but are Mother India’s MBA?
• The Job aspirants are beggars in some cases and some beggars are lucky enough to choose on what they beg. Generally, overheads are high in this stream. The stiff competition, management jargons and bureaucratic culture can make them week. Luckily they have Revital! Yuvraj Singh endorses the medicine, looks like cricket and MBA has some similarities.
• The MBA’s in industry are hard pressed and some are not even used. The more they work or don’t work at all they know that every 30^th of the month will bring Joy and the sweet they get on this day would be savored till the next 30^th.
• The per day income for an MBA? well Not applicable. Most of them lack entrepreneurship and crib about their managers and work culture at no other place but the Pan Shop
• Multiple languages well yeah MBA’s are not bad at this at all. The emergence of Facebook and short messaging service has enabled them in speaking English versions such as “Mah job is cool”!
• Fortunately, MBA’s need not give bribe to the Goons or Police to get their salary. On every 30^th they look into the sky with open mouth like a bird who is waiting for a single drop of water in draught affected Orissa.

It is believed that the universe keeps trying to talk to us, giving us clues of things to happen.  But are we listening?
 
After the 9/11 incident, people observed a pattern in numbers. The twin towers standing next to each other resembled the number 11. The tragedy took place on the 11th of September -> 9+1+1 = 11.
Incidentally September 11th 2001 was the 254th day of the year -> 2+5+4 = 11 again! 911 is the US emergency number. ‘New York City’  has 11 alphabet , so does ‘George W. Bush’ and even ‘The Pentagon’ ! Bin Laden was killed exactly after 9 years, seven months and 20 days after 9/11 -> 9+7+2 = 9 (Number 9 represents endings in numerology).
 
Few years later, people found hidden images in a $20 note. A $20 note, when folded in a particular way, formed an image similar to the burning twin towers. A different fold revealed the name ‘Osama’.
Again it is interesting to observe that 20 = 9 + 11 ! 

While these facts/conspiracies continue to haunt us, let us take a quick look at some recent local events …
 
September (9th month) 3rd 2010 – Andhra Pradesh (A.P) Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and four others were killed when his helicopter crash-landed atop the Rudrakonda hill in the Nallamalla range, about 40 nautical miles east of Kurnool. He was flying a 11-year-old Bell helicopter.
 
Today (4th May 2011 – 4/5/2011 -> 4+5 = 9 ) the ministry of external affairs confirmed that Arunachal Pradesh (A.P) chief minister Dorjee Khandu has been killed in a chopper crash. He was flying   The Pawan Hans AS350 B-3  (3+5+3 = 11) helicopter.

As always, the Universe has been trying to tell us something. But are we paying enough attention?

What’s next? 

For those of you who assume the role of a conspiracy-buster (by birth ), this article is purely for your reading pleasure!

About Author

Harsha D.works in a leading IT space company. The perspective presented by him on Brand Green is unique and worth noticing. Connect with Harsha D. - nik_harsha@rediffmail.com

Marriages are made in Mother’s Womb

The pregnant mothers in India are curious about whether it’s going to be boy or a girl. However, deep within they even imagine their kid in various avatars – Doctor, Engineer and there is no third profession generally to speak off (rest are termed as “Vella Panti” – useless ) There is one more aspiration whose germination has taken the very insemination with a bang (Oh no! what does it mean?)

They also think about their son or daughter being married and leading a healthy life. And one more intriguing combination to the illusion is what if in case of twins? Some prospective mothers are too particular about their twins though. Apart from buying same color combination clothes they’d like to get them married on the same day too. Anyhow now you would second the thought that Marriages are made in mother’s womb.

When The Trouble Does Starts?

Life is full of pressures; ironically it’s just not the bloody pressure cooker which takes the burden for making an Indian meal daily. The “Mango” man has to deal with his set of personal and professional circumstances too. The real tension train starts running faster if your peers and friends whom you have grown up with and completed schooling starts getting married. The early birds to marry are always foolish and total crap (that is how we all have referred to ones getting married just right after marriage). The ones who marry after a couple of years are a surprise to us but then again contribute to tension mounting if you are not married. The laggards are the ultimate Bastards (ditto- that is how we all have referred.. )

Out of Context

A noble laurel once said – “iloveyou and Bullshit have same number of letters”. The phrase is still under R&D phase to draw in further conclusions.

The world was definitely good when things were simple. This generation is “Emotionally Atyachari” where the meaning of togetherness has taken a back seat. Even the married couples stay away in different cities or countries because of work pressures, leave apart the free birds.

1. Air India Ad

2. Patil Hospital, Mumbai

3. Dr Morepen, Adam Extra Long Condoms- Coconut Tree

4. Dr Morepen, SAT-ISABGOL-  Cheating – Natural Laxative

5. Mysore Maharaajas- Cricket King Size

6. Tata Indicom 50p Per Minute

Lateral Thinking – What is That? I know About IBM Think Pad Only..

Gene Entrepreneurship is assertive contrasting to a typical worker who is confused more often than not. The sheer pleasure of working in a 9 to 6 environment is the aftermath of standard approach taught in schools. However, there is no scope for lateral thinking. Till date there is no course in any B-school called “Lateral Thinking” or “Become Entrepreneur while you are a student”. Ironically, the growth of B-schools have is on an exponential line. The industry alliances with banks/manufacturing giants or IT sector leaders have ensured in introduction of aligned curriculum. Interestingly, the punch line of several B-schools in India remain centric on Leadership – “Creating Leaders for Tomorrow”, “Let the Leader Shine In You” and so on.

You Are The Chosen One – Talented Slave

Probably, if you have finished a management course in India you’d realize there is too much focus on Leadership and Entrepreneurship with little or no practicality to it. The course credits are kept high with theoretical subjects leading their way out. Mugging up the books and help guides is still the concern amongst students though publishers, B-schools and writers have been earning decent royalty from their so called black books of management.

The pass out students are not good managers at the onset and are victimised to 9 am to 6 pm work ideology. Certain employers demand employee support 24X7 and often beyond the regular work hours.

7 Useless and Common Habits of 9 to 6′ers

• The day starts at 6 am if the family has a kid else the alarm never works fine and the subject wakes up by 8:30 am. Snoozing the alarm clock is the prime habit of this segment.

• Their company’s management is never right and they can author a mini-book in a day on aspects that need improvement.

• Never ever in their employment history they are able to find an ideal manager. Often they discuss amongst their peers – This Ass knows nothing. Who made him manager?

• They are happy with their regular income packet and wish to control expenses in that. But still credit card dues are substantial.

• They are loaner! They take loans to full fill aspirations and partners often live separately to earn more. So a loaner either ways.

• They are aware of latest gadgets and often buy these to highlight their upper class.

• And most importantly they share Useless Facebook updates –  

   Wow – What a day (nothing after that – It will receive 20 likes and 35 curious comments)

  What Am I doing late in office? (Looks like no one is in the office and 9 to 6 timer is workless but still duty requires him to stay late. That’s why they earn peanuts for doing nothing)

  I hate Monday morning blues

  Need a break and so on..

The Days to Remember for a Typical Employee

• The Best Day: Joining Day
• Worst Day: Appraisal Letter Release
• WoW Day: Getting a Better Offer in Another 9 to 6 set up
• Boxing Day: The new 9 to 6 set up proves to be worse than the earlier one!

Since high school, when I started reading newspapers and magazines, I used to wonder that only experts can share their views and comment on the current events. But, in the last decade, blogs have parked themselves in everyone’s daily routine and have made discussions open for the whole world.

What made it happening??

It had a slow start in 1999 but gained popularity very rapidly. Initially, I was not aware and heard about it in celebrities’ interview. Then, I could notice people coming up with odd things in blogs like “I am feeling sleepy” and “I bought a new heel”. Eventually, this answered to all my doubts and paved the way for me to express my views.

Oh Yeah! I don’t read Newspaper Anymore

With time, I could notice newspapers and news channels loosing their share as blogs were covering majority of recent events along with thousands of views and comments on them, an additional advantage.The interesting part is that a blog combines text, images and links, which is very attractive and convenient. This is the reason that these sites started attracting more traffic than other online sites, including entertainment portals.

As far as their business model is concern, they are largely dependent on the advertisements posted by different vendors. Don’t forget, Facebook started as a Harvard connecting platform and very rapidly grew to a $50 billion company, owing to people acceptance of this concept and trust showed by advertisers.

Brand Green It’s Different!

Now, I have my own friend coming up with such a platform, it seems like a dream sanctioned. BrandGreen.org is another brand in the sequence, which has a sharp focus on branding prospect of life. It actually respects the views and unique perspectives presented by an author, as said. It is open to all and encourages talent who are interested in providing a perspective on any brand. It’s a consumer generated online advertising where a consumer may come up with his experience with a brand.

It’s altogether a new concept where communication is directly between the business and the consumer and advertising agencies have lost their role. I think, this has edited the conventional advertising model and advertisement agencies now need to be an expert in blog advertising to survive. This is what I have experienced is with Brand Green.

About Author

Senior Research Associate in a leading KPO in Gurgaon. Brand Green respects the views and unique perspectives presented by the author.

The festival of colors is just round the corner, falling on Sunday March 20,2011. Brand Green wishes its valued set of audiences with warm Holi Greetings – Happy Holi! Celebrate Holi festival with colors, sweets and be safe. We at Brand Green pledge you to use natural colors and celebrate green Holi this time round!

Stay conencted to our hub in order to apreciate the best breed marketing efforts.

What’s the Story?

Apple has changed the way people have perceived gadgets especially in the last few years. Brand itself has adopted newer set of ideology from being operative under secretive and closed vision to a new set of open environment. Those were the days when Bill Gates guided the growth of PC desktop and laptop industry by launching Windows 9x, Win XP and Vista back to back. However, nobody seems to be talking about the brand Microsoft these days. Marketing strategies and innovative product launches are the brainchild of Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs. He changed the rules of the game by launching iPhone 3GS and backed it by even finer device in 2 years time by re-launching new and improved iPhone 4 in 2010. The sales numbers increased and nobody knew that June, 2010 would witness another game changer gadget. This time round it was iPad, popularly termed as the laptop killer at that point in time. Apple had a momentary monopoly in 10 inch tablet segment until Samsung introduced lame Galaxy Tablet followed by Motorola, Sharp and Dixon etc. But none had the promise that iPad provided.

The Me Too Syndrome

The stage was set for gadget geeks, professionals, students, medical professionals and even home makers to leverage from the capabilities of product suite of Apple – iPad, iPhone 4 and Laptops. However, Apple was in a hurry in 2010 and released iPod Touch. It had all features of iPhone 4 except the typical phone capabilities. So an end user who had iPhone 4 found zero value in iPod Touch as the former proved to be a superset of latter in terms of features.

However, some tech analysts believe that iPod Touch was categorically launched in order to cover it up for Asian countries where iPhone 4 was not available like India, China (iPhone 4 was released in China in November, 2010) and other Malaysia etc. Ironically, iPhone 4 has not been launched in India and if you are wondering about the iPhone 4 release date in India then you should re-consider as Apple is all set to release iPhone 5 in couple of months time.

In long run too many and too frequent product launches can back fire for Apple. People who already have an iPad didn’t expect a new iPad 2 to be released so soon (iPad 2 pre-booking already kicked off from March 11, 2011). The users in US and Canada have one more year to go for their iPhone 4 contracts and soon Apple would re-introduce new iPhone 5 in San Francisco.

iPhone 5 Release Date in India

Trust me folks, this is a distant dream if you are wondering about the iPhone 5 India release. iPhone 4 has been successfully launched across the international frontiers. However, No one is sure about what went wrong in introducing iPhone 4 in India in 2010-11. Probably the prime factors that could have attributed are –

• The service providers (Tata, Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance) were not ready to make micro-SIM cards to make them compliant with iPhone 4.
• In India cheap and best is the buzz mantra. Hong Kong’s equipment manufacturers such as GILD are dumping their imitations of Nokia E63 in INR 1,600 ($40) then Apple’s iPhone 4 is too pricy. At this price 16 of such phones would be equal to 1 iPhone 4. The local low cost competitors such as Micromax, Karbonn and few others are already posing threat to regular league equipment manufacturers.
• Nokia is facing the heat and dwindling sales numbers in North America because of lack of Innovation while in India there are too many cheaper options available, so any which way you look at Nokia is in deep trouble unless they innovate. They recently released E7 in market. If you read through E7 review you’d notice that it’s yet another bulky and regular league phone from Nokia.

iPad 2 the Laptop Killer

iPad has been tagged as a potential laptop killer and it certainly holds the stand firmer than people anticipated in the beginning. iPad 2 has minor changes over maiden iPad release. A5 processor, dual mode camera and sleeker iPad design would be released by Apple in the new iPad. And the rest of the feature set being same.

Apple’s last quarter was most profitable. They sold more iPhones and iPad’s than laptops. However, something strange has happened while Apple was trying to be pro-active in the tech business. At this juncture there is a product conflict concern that Apple is facing. iPhone 4 seems to have all features of an iPod touch, Mac Laptop and iPad except a large screen. Same holds good for iPod touch and iPad 2 which are specialised in only one feature set with rest as ditto to which the comparison is being made.

Mac Book Pro Laptop Went Unnoticed

Apple has realised that going forward the market potential is for leaner, sleeker and feature enabled gadgets. As a result, an increased focus is towards the tablet and iPhone segment than laptops. Ten days before the launch of iPad 2, Apple showcased new Mac Book Pro laptop on their official online source. However, it was given only 10 days of slot while the iPad and iPhone 5 would occupy substantial time as a featured product on their index page.

What’s next?

Apple is slowly becoming a me too brand similar to Microsoft with too frequent product launches. At this point in time, a layman gadget enthusiast would also be able to make complimenting products in their product line. A new iPod touch and new iPhone 5 are already in line of launch. Probably they’d release iPad 3 in 2012. The key success factor for Apple has been supreme quality promise and innovation. If these take a beating then their bottom line would take a toll in quarters of 2012-13. An idea such as low cost iPhone or a low cost iPad would certainly be recommended for longer term sustainability perspective.