Its a high speed ride: Are you ready ?

The speed at which the changes happen in this globally connected world is astonishing. It took several decades for TV to reach India after it came in US markets, mobile phones took much lesser time and nowadays you see launches of all the products and services happening globally. There are new technological innovations happening in the various markets which gets quickly integrated in the world markets.

The Good..

1. Innovation improves efficiency of the system, if production of particular product was taking 2 resources before, it is now taking less than 2 resources.

2. It brings bigger market for the companies. They can produce more, sell more. It might also affect the economies of scope and scale and make products cheaper. A lot of companies are getting into backward and forward integration which is improving both the margins and also reducing the cost for consumers.

3. Better products and services for consumers.

The Bad ..

1. The companies find it difficult to sell their products, specially if they are not the most competitive or do not have the quality or pricing as per world standard.

2. In a highly competitive world, the jobs will either be mechanized, outsourced or become redundant hence one has to keep improving their capabilities as per the new requirements of the market.

The Ugly ..

1. Due to higher speeds the business cycle times have reduced and the boom and bust are happening a lot faster than they usually happen. This is making a lot of people vulnerable, specially who are not financially secure.

2. Doing business becomes more difficult as the markets are moving towards perfect competition and margins are eroding very fast. Technologies gets copied very fast and companies find hard to protect the intellectual capital.


With the world changing at the fast pace, this speed is only going to increase in future as their are no breaks in this system.

What should you be doing if You are Anna's supporter ..

Supporting Anna ji might be the new " Cool " amongst the young population, but it should be done with some sanctity so that it reflects well on the us as the aware citizen of our country.

1. Don't Abuse anyone: The basic Gandhian policy is based out of respect for all. Even the adversaries must be given full respect.

2. Do not break the rules of the land:  I have heard people are openly violating traffic rules etc as they are Anna supporter and can walk away doing it. It wont please Mr. Hazare for sure.

3. Lead the Initiative: Keeping just Face Book or Gtalk messages will not make the country corruption free.  Be the change you want to see in your country.

4. Make informed choices: If you feel that some of the clauses in the Jan Lokpal are difficult to implement and can be problematic, you should clearly say that. Application of individual judgement is important as all human can make mistakes.

5. Respect the National Symbols and Flag: National flags and symbol should be treated with respect and no one is above it. One should keep follow it in all the rallies and places whee national Flags are used.

Try to hold fast for a day and feel what its like to be hungry, it might make all us empathize with Anna and also with the countless children who sleep empty stomach every day.

Understanding Marketing Plan: Anna Hazare Campaign

Understanding Marketing Plan: Anna Hazare Campaign

This is just an attempt to explore the Brand Anna and the magic of his Campaign which is making waves in the country. What could have made it work? Without any prejudices just tried to think about it and found out.

Campaign : An corruption free country.

Timing of the Campaign:  Country caught in series of scandals like Common Wealth Game, 2G etc. The people of the country want to change the country, hence an opportunity of easily finding takers of the idea.

Market Research for designing the campaign:

•        More than 50% of the Indians are below 26 years of age.
•       Less than 1% of the people are super rich. Big emerging middle class, which wants to be socially conscious, uses internet and mobile phones and largely stays in urban India.
•      The young India wants to do something but don’t know what to do when it comes to showing their contribution towards the nation building.
•     Talking against corruption is considered cool in present scenario. The louder you speak; you are looked as more patriotic and socially aware citizen.
•    Earlier effect of movies such as RDB and how it has affected the educated masses. Use the frustration of people as a tool of creating a mass uproar against the establishment.

Segmentation

•      Simple demographics based segmentation of marketing based on the size of population in various age groups, education back ground and ease of passing information to them.

Targeting

Targeting the people who are :

•          In age bracket 18-30, which comprises majority of the population of the country
•         People who have read about Mahatma Gandhi in NCERT books, and want to contribute to something for the country.
•        Educated people, using social media, who likes to express their opinions who can be the flag bearers and the early adopters.
•        People who have time but also who does not like full time commitment.

 Positioning: Anti-Corrupt India

• The positioning is neutral in nature, not to entice any religious feeling, any regionalism, try and make it global in nature where all global citizens can participate. Some thing most of the people can easily relate to or face in their life.

Brand:

• Anna " Curroption Free"  has been used as a biggest brand in the whole campaign like Richard Branson for Virgin or Mr. Mallya for Kingfisher. The reason is the spotless past which very few people in the country can boast of, a history of leading movements and an innocent and aged persona which brings respect for the brand.  The campaign main tag line is “I am Anna Hazarre” which is clearly used to make people live the brand Anna Hazzare.

Communication Strategy: 

• Crowd Sourcing, using the youngster to become the voice of the campaign. The young India which changes status messages 2-3 times a day to become the brand advocator. The people can easily pitch in by not fully committing themselves but can do their bit.
• Largely using modern technology communication like mobile phones, internet and Social Networking. Creating news and being capturing by 24 hour media channels to directly go to the masses. 

Metro Trip via Indralok ..

I had traveled a few times in Delhi Metro and liked the easy journey which metro provides to the passengers. So with that in mind I boarded the metro at Rajiv Chowk few days back and contrary to the earlier experience it was a Jam packed coach , may be the office hours effect taking toll of my comfort.

Police Man literally pushed the last man in and somehow managed to close the metro door. So finally I was inside and the train was traveling at a good speed, you can smell all kinds of sweat in the vicinity but the air conditioning was still very comforting and the experience was much better than good old Mumbai Local.

In a Jamm packed train, a lady was trying to help her relative to get down on some station. They were both some distance apart in the train and could not see each other.

So the people were obviously unaware of it.

Old Lady: ( Top of her voice) Sussshila , tu hai na...
Young Lady:  Haan, mai hu .. ( quite Prompt )
Train Crowd : Few murmurs in a otherwise silent setup..

After 5 minutes ..

Old Lady: ( Top of her Voice) Sussshila, Inderlok utar jaiyo ..
Young Lady( Ofcourse Sushila) : Haan, Utar Jaungi ( little embarrassed)
Train Crowd: Laughing, Everyone seems to be enjoying this difficult train journey.

After another 6-9 minutes ..

Old Lady: (the only way she knows to speak) Susshila, Inderlok aa gaya, tu Utar gai ..
Looks like she assumed if she does not responds means she is already out ..
Sushila: Haan uttar rahi hu .. ( deeply embarrassed  ) , murmuring ..chalo sub ka manoranjan ho gaya ..
Train Crowd: Laughing on top of there voices

I thought to myself, Everyone now knows for sure that Sushila has finally got down on Inderlok station :)

Game Shows Mysteries

One cannot help but notice so many game shows and reality shows nowadays mushrooming on every channel. Some of them are good, some not that good but there is something common about all of them.

Emotional Atyachaar:  Why do people gets so emotional on these shows ? Do they think that it will earn them some extra points ? Do the  producers of reality show think it will improve the popularity of the show? Do the audience want to see diarrhea of emotions and tears when they are watching these shows ?

Troubled  History of Participants: All these shows specially the game shows says that they have a very transparent computer generated selection procedure then how does people mainly with troubled pasts and background end up on the show? Is the computer really picks up cleanly or do the producers want to make it interesting for the audience ?

Are Celebrities so intelligent : When these shows call celebrities to be either judge or participants in the shows, they all tend to do really well. I have not seen any of the celebrity participant to make less money on any of the quizzing show or game show. Is it that our bollywood celebrities are best creation of God and they look good, act well ( sometimes ) and even know the name of the president of the Indian Olympic association in 1969 ?

Everyone Believes in Giving : Every one who comes on these shows believe in giving. Whether its the celebrities or the mango man. Why were they waiting for so long for doing this charity ? Are they really going to give away the money or just trying to impress the audience ? Are the celebrities anyway told to donate every thing to charity what they win? Does it feels good to do charity with easily earned money?


Can't be just a coincidence, these things get repeated again and again on these shows. Can someone help me with the answers please?

Aarakhshan

Watched the movie Aarakshan yesterday, first day, last show in a packed movie theater sitting in the second row . I think since the movie was banned in few states in India added the incentive of watching it here in South Africa.

The movie started with a promising opening, showing a glimpse of education system in India, how the reservation era and supreme court decision on reservation divided the masses along the communal lines rather than bringing equity in the society. The movie clearly shows the anxiety of both the sections of society specially the youth who is caught between the politics of reservation and most importantly the teachers who can not be partial about a particular section but are always viewed with suspicion. The initial one hour of the movie was quite entertaining although there is nothing in the movie which you will find new or unheard but the acting of Mr Batchan is captivating to say the least. Some the dialogues in the movie regarding reservation were actually harsh but realistic and I was surprised that they were not scissored by the sensor board.

After the initial one hour, the movie digressed and focused on the role of coaching institutes in education system and also on the personal rivalry between a good teacher (Mr Bachhhan) and a bad teacher (Mr Bajpai)  . It just took the main topic of Aarakshan for a toss and looked to me as a major flaw in the movie. The timings of songs was really bad and they all seemed to be just inserted in the movie and made little sense with the story line. The characters were too strong either very good or very bad which also looked to be the traditional bollywood way of story telling and this aspect also could have been depicted much better by Mr Jha.  

Overall I can say people can go out of the theaters after the first one hour if they have got other important work to do, to make best use of their time or can just remain seated if there is nothing more interesting to do. 

What do our Armed Forces do in Peace Time ?

India boasts of a huge military might, they are all very well trained, disciplined and also inclined towards the development of the country. India has fought 4 wars in last 60 years and there had been minor disputes here and there but what has been the qualified forces will strength of 4.5 million been doing in the peace time ?

India as a country have a long road to travel to improve its infrastructure, to develop our cities and villages . Why cant the qualified people from the forces help the country in achieving its goals. There can be some rotation policy which allows say 10% of the trained force people at a time can be deployed in the developmental projects.

Currently when the country is facing huge shortage of well quantified and trained staff, our armed forces can make our country even more proud about them. The decision has to be taken by our think tank and I am sure the armed forces can be much more useful even in the peace time.