Is your brand a Harish or a Harry?
Brands have always segmented horizontally. The masses at the bottom, the elite at the top and the rest in the middle. For years I have been been advocating that we need to segment the pyramid vertically as well. In this article, I will elaborate on the reasons for this vertical segmentation, and argue…
The Art Of Asking For Money
All NGOs need to raise money. Unfortunately most follow the same cliches and “best practices” of raising money with the result that their fund raising strategies often do not work as well as they would like it to. The most popular theme these days seems to have the following structure: “For just ₹…
Business Shouldn’t Be About War
December 13, 2011 This article first appeared in Exchange4media and FirstPost on December 13, 2011. We often think of business as being a war. The only way to win is to make the other guy lose. This article takes the view that businesses will make more money by abandoning this metaphor altogether. Adam Smith, the father of…
How to use the mobile in your marketing mix (Lessons from some brilliant ideas)
This article appeared in Exchange4media.com and FirstPost.com on November 29, 2011. For the articles as they were published, please click on the respective site names. New media usually uses the principles of the old media, before it invents its own. So the first movies were shot with a fixed camera and the actors performing as if…
The business of business is not just business
November 15, 2011 This post appeared on Exchange 4 Media and First Post on November 15, 2011. Click on the publication names to see the original articles. Recently I had the privilege of meeting a couple of committed young people, Apoorva and Diti, who were pained by the spate of farmer suicides in Maharashtra. They decided to…
Conferences Unplugged: The 7 Basic Emotions At A Conference
November 10, 2011 Anger At the long questions from the audience At the long queues in the bathroom At the small font sizes on the slides At finding there’s no way out when a loo break is needed At your name being spelt wrong on your ID card When the phone battery goes…
Plan B to her wallet
October 18, 2011 This is the second episode of my fortnightly blog on Exchange4media.com. You can see the original article by clicking here. Welcome back to the Marketing Unplugged blog. Last fortnight we spoke about innovation in pricing that leads to strong brands being built. Today lets talk about innovation in distribution. The video…
What standing in line @ PVR told me about Consumer Behavior
October 13, 2011 Day : Saturday Time : 8:30 pm Location : Ticket Line, PVR Phoenix Mills The ticketing system at the counter was down for 15 mins so everyone, me included, waited (not so patiently). Standing next to me were the following people: a) A middle aged couple (40-45 years old) b) …
Why didn’t Apple just call it the iPhone 5?
October 6, 2011 My first post for FirstPost.com just appeared. Here is a link to the article. Reproduced below is the article the way I wrote it. It has been slightly edited at the FirstPost site: The Freakonomics blog has a post (click to see the original) where the author wonders if the stock price…
Coke Studio @ MTV: Where Is The Fizz?
August 8, 2011 Everything was picture perfect. The name, the artists, the format, even the studio, and yet MTV Coke Studio has not taken off the way it should have. As a self-professed music lover, I have been intrigued by this question. What really happened? They have the perfect ingredients, yet why don’t…
