Snapshots from hell(o)

Snapshots from hell(o)

hey here is a secret, an MBA isnt really about restructuring or using payoff matrices or some liner programming. It was really a fun go ride for me and i did enjoy every moment. I came here on the first day on the assumption that an MBA was loaded with the concepts of sumantra ghoshal and aaker to global branding to competing for the future and also marketing myopia but it was a truly different experience which i had when i did make some 11 friends on the first day and then we did get closer to them with the chat till 1.30 in the night. Wrong perceived notions that an MBA was a cornucopia of fast paced people who thought of nothing but strategies and tactics and competitive mental angels were not a word here. The plethora of fun and the ambience of values beliefs and support that the people who were far more experienced did make me cross the extra mile but i also had learnt many things and keep learning. The classes were fun, no serious case studies and hectic assignments which i had really learnt from the other B school guys, but my usual course hasnt started and people were freaky on my readin the seth godin and ai ries but really i must confess old habits do die hard. The enormous advantage i did get by mingling with people with work experience and their worldly wisdom did make me a wise person but still i have miles to go before my sleep a la robert frost ( not much into poetry but who cares). The first time i started doin crazy things in life like washing my clothes, ironing my clothes and also waking up early in the morning unlike hyderabad where i used to get up at 12.12 that too with the curses of people at home including my servant but i am doing good kudos to all your blessings which are ever prevailing. The other important thing about hostel life enabled me to change (change for the good) nothin is really permanent but change. It challenges you to think and put things in a very different way as understanding people from various cultures and backgrounds. The thinking process of having people from agriculture, hotel industry and the media had make me think from various angles and think unbiased in situations a many. The over all process was over whelming and the discussions where the learning process takes make my thirst for knowledge even more passionate. Having communicating in the tenth to inter to graduation to a MBA finally has been a one hell of a ride but the exposure of an MBA seems like damn....the memories the coke can apreciation

Can 'Herbal' kill

Smoking is one of the coolest ways of committing suicide but hey you might have heard a lot about smoking kills and loses weight(one lung at a time) and also cancer but this post might be a blessing for you. Infact i wud probably dedicate this post to all the smokers..Well if you haven't heard of the herbal cigarettes its HIGH time you did.

This my friends is a pack of 'smokeless' 'odourless' cigarettes which actually come as a blessing to your pockets. It dosen't stain you nor it addicts you, nor kills you.. so it wudn't be a way to commit suicide...

When i first learnt about the concept i thought it was a great product and will become an instant success and kill all the other tobacco companies.

Is it poised to kill the MARLBORO man or atleast JOE CAMEL

The Answer seems to be no

This is due to various simple reasons , or i would probably explain this through the 22 laws of Marketing by Al ries and Jack Trout

1 - The law of leadership: Presently the market position is dominated by marlboro and not money, not time can actually beat the marlboro man. The brand has also excellent brand loyalty so much so that it is very difficult to penetrate into the segment

2 - The law of the category: In my words i think this can be a place where the Herbal ciggie's can probably beat the marlboro man, but still there are a lot of category issues, Marlboro is known for its finest taste, pure blend and also the rugged male, so the herbal ciggie's have to be positioned with an different category to a different set of audience and more over target audience of young and middle prefer a marlboro.

3- The law of the Mind - Well the mind set is simple, A person with a marlboro woud not switch to another brand

4 - The law of perception - The perception of a Marlboro is that of a rugged male and the machoism, so the perception of the person to another brand would be unacceptable

5 - The law of focus - Marlboro has this focus since time immemorial and its difficult for the herbal brand to gain focus in such a small time and when it does get focus there will be even more people smoking a marlboro, its like reintroducing the qwerty key board, the cost of marketing it will be too high.

6 - The law of exclusivity - There has to some attributes and herbal brand can actually count on the safety attribute and have it worked but its going to be a fresh battle/

7 - The law of the ladder - The law of the ladder depends upon rungs... For an example if i were to introduce a new coke, first would be coke then pepsi in that order, and herbal brand has to go through a lot of rungs from Davidoff to Camel to Marlboro to emerge top in the rung and its goin to difficult unlike coke there are more than 160 brands to take care of

8 - The law of Duality - This is generally relagated to the long run and this has just been introduced so there wudn't be a question of duality.

9- The law of the opposite - Generally the law of the opposite says that u should always do opposite of what the competitor does and it can pose a good challenge

10 - The law of Division - The law of division says that the product can be divided into a number of products but this is just the beginning

11 - The law of perspective - It takes a very long approach to gain a perspective and that should be done by proper marketing and propeling a good image

12 - The law of line extension - The law of line extention would not be applicable as the herbal brand cannot extend its line just like ITC or Virgin did.

13 - The law of sacrifice- No comments

14 - The law of attributes - Like BMW attributes itself as an ultimate driving Machine and Volvo as the safest in the world, this herbal can also pick up a very good atttribute.

15 - The law of Candour - The law of candour says that when u market a negative it turns out to be positive, Listerinr came up with a campaign like "the taste u hate twice a day'' picked up a positive approach.

16 - The law of Singularity - This means in a situation only one move will produce substancial results

17 - The law of unpredictability - This means unless you write your competitors plans, you cannot predict the future and so the herbal brand has to be on the look out for oppurtunities

18 - 19-20 deals with the law of success and the law of failure and the law of hype show the revolution about how to make a global branding.

21 - The law of acceleration - This says that it has to be based on trends and thus the trend would be now

22 - The law of resources - There is no way the resources of herbal brand can defeat the Marlboro

And last not the least i had a Davidoff while writin this post and i am not switchin either.....die in the most coolest way:)

A'SEX'sory

The iPOD revolution started with the iPOD shuffle and the iPOD nana to the iTUNES and the immortalisation of 'Podcasting' has unvieled a message as to how innovation and marketing can cause cult status. I am not here to talk bout the iPOD cult or revolution as there as thousands of sites which have already done that...I am goin to talk about the new innovation and development by Apple to its iPOD ...the OhMiBod

Well this is a one-of-a-kind new product development where there is an iPOD along with a vibrator, this unique creation says that it vibrates to the tunes and beats of the music.. too much for heavy metal and rock shock.

Well this has already been launched and its creating waves in the music...err.. the sex industry too. The number of people who are actually buying this product is awe-striking as Apple has also added more number of features to it.

The question is whether the OhMiBod will really work in India wouldn't be a nice way to question because the company actually sees the political order and the censor board as a major hindrance to the OhMiBod

Well it dosen't matter much to me whether this comes to India or not but this blog shud't be removed just because i was just voicing my views...Here is the web site for the new developments to the new OhMiBod ..cioa

http://www.ohmibod.com/ohmibod.html

Gimmically your's

Wearing a John Players i went to the pan dabba and took a sutta (the very term immortalised by zeest), took a wills ultra milds and am Aim match box and lit the cigarette and took a mento fresh and went home... Guess what connects all of these.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
ITC, Just in case u answered that right treat yourself a cookie and send me one too;).(Don send me one if you are a business quizzer) This concept came to me when i was researching on business ethics for my B.com(hons) project and i came under a concept called surrogate advertising which is rather a jargon for Negative Advertising. The way ITC has emerged into a FMCG major from Tobacco to biscuits to incense sticks to safety matches to soaps now and also perfumes. Thats pretty big business and also the rural e-choupal scheme is benefitting farmers and the rural folk as their corporate social responsibility programme. In the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing Al Ries Examines the Product Diversification strategies, the book is all full of examples right from Virgin to Xerox to chiquita(business quizzers that banana's). Xerox was known for its printing equipment and failed in its business machines and chiquita for is banana's and whatever fruit they do introduce will be a unmixed blessing. I have even seen a Bic Underwear (though the company was known for its use-and-throw-stuff) and coming to Volkswagon sold 65000 of its bettle in the United States, it did sell its big cars also but it never moved because the mindset was that Volkswagon sold small cars. Seth Godin in his best seller "All marketers are better liars" explaines how wine tastes better in a 200$ cup rather than a 20$ cup and a Nike shoe better than no-name shoes and also how a 85000$ porshe is better than a 35000$ Volkswagon Touareg and hey a similar incident happened when i was having pani puri, that guy kept puttin the thing without stopping me....say somethin like the permission marketing again... I say marketing is not about products, its all bout PERCEPTION