Say Yes

My uncle was telling about his marriage today. Jokingly he said the reason why he said YES to my aunt was that she made him wait on a Paradise Biryani and said he could eat only if he said yes. Though a joke this made me think. Remember the McDonald’s Ad?

Next time try this. When you need some approvals, seek people right after their lunch. People argue less on a full stomach. No wonder all meetings are timed around lunch. See Bingo Chips ad, Kurkure Ad and many more use this in their advertising. Should work. No harm in trying.

Thought

There is a lot more beyond the glasses. Just scroll them down and try to bring a smile to a poor child. You will stay happy for a day.

Dasavatharam Advertising

Most of the posters of Dasavatharam featured Kamal as an Indian. This is to attract the common man. The same role is shown on local TV channels. The classy ads like the one where Kamal is racing or working in a lab are shown in malls, supermarkets and channels like MTV, Zoom and so on.

The objective is to reach out to the audience according to their tastes and preferences. Dasavatharam is therefore doing a good job.

Top 10 Hollywood Movies

The top 10 hollywood movies this weekend are:

1. Kungfu Panda
2. You don't mess with the Zohan
3. Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the Crystal Skull
4. Sex and the City
5. The Strangers
6. Iron Man
7. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
8. What Happens in Vegas
9. Baby Mama
10. Made of Honor

Listed here.

Emotion plus Driving

Mixing emotion with driving is dangerous. Infact when feeling either high or low emotionally take a minute out and wait. Dont drive. A survey conducted by Readers Digest said that more than 90% of the accidents occur when emotion mixes with driving. The same applies to the other decisions you take in daily life - at home or office. So next time you feel bad or good thin before you act.

The driver in the pic above wanted to take a right turn on a flyover in the wrong route. This happened at Paradise Circle, Hyderabad.

Indian Children Sleep Less

Indian children are going to bed much later and are getting lesser sleep. Of the children studied, 3,892 were from India.

"This study is the first to look at sleep in infants and toddlers cross-culturally and the results are astonishing," said Dr Mindell. "We found vast differences in amounts of sleep and parents' perceptions of sleep problems across countries. It needs to be investigated if these differences are simply the result of differing cultural practices and what is the impact, if any, of these vast differences."

Read full story here.

Quote

Failure is Success if we learn from it.

--- Malcolm Forbes

Change Your Vision

There was a millionaire who was bothered by severe eye pain. He consulted so many physicians and was getting his treatment done. He did not stop consulting galaxy of medical experts; he consumed heavy loads of drugs and underwent hundreds of injections. But the ache persisted with great vigour than before.

At last a monk who has supposed to be an expert in treating such patients was called for by the millionaire. The monk understood his problem and said that for sometime he should concentrate only on green colours and not to fall his eyes on any other colours.

The millionaire got together a group of painters and purchased barrels of green color and directed that every object his eye was likely to fall to be painted in green colour just as the monk had directed. When the monk came to visit him after few days, the millionaire's servants ran with buckets of green paints and poured on him since he was in red dress, lest their master not see any other colour and his eye ache would come back.

Hearing this monk laughed said "If only you had purchased a pair of green spectacles, worth just a few rupees, you could have saved these walls and trees and pots and all other articles and also could have saved a large share of his fortune. You cannot paint the world green." Let us change our vision and the world will appear accordingly. It is foolish to shape the world, let us shape ourselves first.

Lets change our vision..!!

Dasavatharam

Some people derive acute pleasure by feeling that they have been hurt and create a lot of trouble.

Dasavatharam did not want any of this and so brought in the top brains of the country in history from IIT, Tanjore University etc. and made sure that the script is foolproof.

Yes some people really enjoy creating trouble. These people have nothing worth to do and live of others. They exist everywhere and seek attention and publicity. Remember nobody likes them. The best solution is to avoid them.

But are you one?

BRIC

BRIC, an acronym, is coined by Goldman Sachs & consists of Brazil, Russia, India and China.

The BRIC countries are home to 40 per cent of humanity, three times as many as the G-8. Their combined gross domestic product (GDP), measured in purchasing power, is only half of that of the G-8 and is expected to overtake it by 2020.

Sustainable development of the global economy in the long-term perspective, as well as finding solutions to the acute global problems of our time, such as poverty, hunger and diseases, are only possible if due account is taken of the interests of all nations and within a just global economic system.

JATROPHA: The Future Fuel

Efforts are being made to encourage the growth of plants that will yield biofuels, chief among them being the plant Jatropha curcas, which grows well on wasteland and needs little attention or water.
It is seen as a good source of bio-diesel, and the government has identified 400,000 square kilometers of wasteland – out of the 600,000 sq km of wasteland in the country – as suitable for cultivating the plant. Businesses are seeing its cultivation as a worthwhile investment opportunity, and it is expected to help thousands of the rural poor who own the land, which hitherto has been of little use.

It is well known that ethanol from sugarcane is an excellent substitute. Indeed, 50 per cent of the cars and other vehicles in Brazil run on ethanol or a mixture of ethanol and petroleum called “gasohol”.Incentives can be given, and the money for the switchover can and must be found. In the long run, when our dependence on imported crude oil is either eliminated or significantly reduced, it will have been worth 10 times the investments we make today

Stock Market Explained

“Wall Street never changes. The pockets change, the stocks change, but Wall Street never changes because human nature never changes.” All of them made initial trading losses and these early reversals led them to make an intensive study of the markets, formulate rules of trading and then discipline themselves to stick to the rules and not get swayed by market gossip.

At the same time, all of them realized the dangers of over-confidence and that it was no use fighting the market. They understood that traders were bound to make mistakes and they put in place rules such as stop-losses that would force them to sell if they made the wrong calls. What’s more, several of them emphasized the importance of analyzing and writing down the reasons why the trade turned out wrong, so that they learned from their mistakes.

------- Jesse Livermore

Dasavataram

Kamal in Dasavataram

One Kamal Hassan in the cast is good enough to make a movie more than interesting, here we have 10 Kamals in one movie- the experience will be something special.

New Record

Gambhir's 100 in yesterday's game represents the 150th hundred by Indian batsmen in ODIs. India is the only country in ODIs to have 150 hundreds.

Sachin 42
Saurav 22
Dravid 12
Yuvraj,Sehwag 8
Azhar 7
Jadeja, Sidhu, Lakshman 6
Gambhir 5

Air Deccan

Source

Puttur Medicine

The importance of traditional medicine in our culture and our customs is very high. Traditional herbs have been the source of most medications for ailments during the vedic times. ‘Puttur’ brings to one’s mind the families traditionally engaged in bone-setting and treating similar orthopaedic disorders. The name of the herb used by them – a closely-guarded secret among the families – is now known, with the great grandson of its discoverer making it public.

‘Kasavinda aaku’ or ‘Koalla Thulasi’ (‘cassia occidentalis’ for botanists) is the leaf which is ground into a thick paste and applied on the limb for treating a broken bone or a twitched muscle. Kandalam Gopala Raju of Puttur was believed to have brought the leaf to light and also used it for mass application in 1880.

I have tried this personally and it is better than the doctors medicine for sprains and boken bones.

Read full story here.

Quote

Informed decision-making comes from a long tradition of guessing and then blaming others for inadequate results.


Scott Adams

Fishing Monkeys

Long-tailed macaque monkeys have a reputation for knowing how to find food — whether it’s grabbing fruit from jungle trees or snatching a banana from a startled tourist. Now, researchers say they have discovered groups of the silver-haired monkeys in Indonesia that fish.
The species had been known to eat fruit and forage for crabs and insects, but never before fish from rivers. "It's exciting that after such a long time you see new behaviour," said Erik Meijaard, one of the authors of a study on fishing macaques that appeared in last month's International Journal of Primatology. "It's an indication of how little we know about the species."
The psyche of the consumer is as complex as the universe. The person who knows how to influence it can be a good marketer

Source: Main Article

Remix Tollywood

Chiru in Gharana Mogudu

Many songs have been remixed with youngsters wearing short clothes and doing steps dangerously short of sex. But some good ones have come as well. The latest is Chiru's ultimate performance in Gharana Mogudu. Chiru is all set to shake is leg again in the same Vizag port in his son Ram Charan Tej's new film as a guest appearance. Lets see if he can spin back the magic.

Hancock

Will Smith Plays Homeless Superhero In Hancock

This is what you can do if you want a commercial hit. Show false hopes and let the stupid dumb idiot winning and people flock to be a part of it.

Fuel Price Rise

Third Class Service

Many companies work as if they have this policy

Price : First Class
Ambience: Second Class
Service: Third Class

On the other hand I would choose to go to a place where they would treat me first class. Third class people give third class service. What class are you then?

Treating People

If we treat people too long with that pretended liking called politeness, we shall find it hard not to like them in the end.

--- Logan Pearsall Smith in All Trivia

Drop in the Ocean

Today I was watching a documentary on Mother Theresa’s live and this quote made me think. What I do may be a drop in the ocean but the ocean is not complete without me. How true? Whatever position you may hold in your organization you ARE important and without you working the organization is not complete. So are you making your organization proud?

Napoleon used this principle to perfection. He bestowed his attendants with high sounding names and call them by name to make them feel special. The servant who changed the sheets on his bed was called ‘The In charge of Royal Chamber’ or ‘The Royal Chamberlain’. He was given a purple dress and decorated with medals and was allowed to eat at the Royal Table. No wonder people loved to work for him. So how many people know you by name. How many security people wish you? How many housekeeping staff do you know by name? Does your team love working for you or sulk at your sight?

Time for some amendments.

Pic: http://croatia.org/crown/content_images/2008/mother_theresa1.jpg

CSR + Advertising

Sarah has an excellent idea for advertising and CSR activity. Chalk a traffic route from one point to another in the city and help the traffic police maintain the traffic. These volunteers will carry placards which will advertise and give a continuous message to onlookers. Also they will treat the violators of the traffic by giving flowers and chocolates.

This would solve a two-fold objective: free advertising space and CSR. I suggest get enough coverage in the press. Talk about safety, promote helmets and seatbelts. Hyderabad needs initiatives like this. It should work in your city if it has traffic like Hyderabad. Gandhigiri anyone?

Pic: www.barackobama.com

Motivational Messages

You must have seen motivational messages in your organization. At DHL where I am an intern now the doors have the following labels.

PUSH for Targets
PUSH for Quality
PUSH for Growth

PULL the Customers
PULL for Excellence
PULL for Efficiency

An art called Lying

Telling a lie is a fault for a little boy,

An art for a lover,

An accomplishment for a bachelor,

A Matter of Survival for a married man,

And Business for a marketer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3coytl081c

Remember the movie 'Lair Lair'?

Sensex will go down to 14500

According to the analysis being done in Yahoo groups: Indian Stock Market, the sensex will further go down to 14500 and may even go as low as 14200.

Traffic 2050?

Toon: Kashif

Orissa wants to be called Odisha

Orissa wants its name to be changed to Odisha and the state's language from Oriya to Odia.
The state cabinet has passed a proposal to introduce a bill in this regard during coming monsoon session of the assembly, chief secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy said.
It will require making an amendment to the Constitution, he said on Monday.
According to Home Secretary T K Mishra, the state's name has been wrongly spelt in the Constitution. Ever since the BJD-BJP government came to power in 2000, it has been demanding the change.
Mishra said though the state's name is written as Udisa in Hindi and Orissa in English, the real name is Odisha.
Similarly, the state's language is written as Udiya in Hindi and Oriya in English while it should be Odia.
"We hope that the Constitution will be amended accordingly to effect the changes in this regard by end of this year," Mishra said.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/004200806101310.htm

Hosting anyone?

Taare have come down to silver screen. Many stars have started hosting. Amitabh, SRK, Karan, Salman and now Adnan Sami. Seems they are raking enough with this. Also the promotional activity comes free with the hosting. People now see you as a family member and not a star.

People dont have time to watch you for 3 hours. So to stay in their memory you need to be more flexible and walk in to their houses and ensure you stay in business.

Recall value is important.

Pic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shailphoto/1637118119/

MMTS

With the hike is the price of fuel, people are shifting to alternative transport systems. In Hyderabad the people commuting by train from one part of the city to the hitech city where many offices are located has increased a lot. MMTS tains are no longer free and are clogged with passengers. And the trend is increasing. The Hyderabad Municipal Corporation is planning to increase the frequency and the number of bogies. Hope the traffic vows come down and accidents become history.

Pic: Hyderabad Times

Taste of victory

The taste of vitory cannot be comphrended. But it is definitely good. The passion, toil and sacrifice shown to achieve it makes it even better. So dont be disheartened or feel bad about the effort you are putting in as you will reap the benefits for sure.

Pic: Google Associated Press

Treating Customers

Don’t you love to get all the attention when you go around? You must have seen many doctors in your life but which one do you remember? Which shop comes to your mind when you need something? Why do you feel happy when you talk to your mom, your love, your child?

Because they treat you as special. They know your name, taste, mood and care for that. They know what you want. They smile at you. They TALK to you. They treat you well. That makes you come to them, think about them, prefer them over others.

The same applies to marketing. Treat ordinary people with extraordinary care. Let them know that you treat them as special and dear. You have won yourself with a life time customer.

The same applies to PR skills. Smile at your customers, smile while talking on phone. Smile when you serve. Smile when the customer is irritating. Smile when you are tired. Smile to the people who talk to you. Wish people. Remember Birthdays, anniversaries, occasions, etc. Let people know you actually are noting all this and making an effort to let them feel special. The same will be reciprocated.

That’s why you remember the particular doctor, go to the particular shop, love eating chat at the same tela, go to the same theatre, talk to the same people and buy the same brand.

So are you going to make some people feel special today?

Vodafone Chota Credit

What an idea?

When you are stuck with no balance on your mobile your operator comes to your rescue by providing you a small credit for that one call for help. Nice idea. I think this campaign is better than the pug ads. Perfect definition of ‘Happy to Help’. Give what the customer needs.

What do you define as the good Customer Service?

Ohris at Banjara Hills at Hyderabad entertains the best of the late night crowd who can afford 50 bucks for a glass of 200 ml coke. A decent lunch here for two would cost you about 600 bucks. Last Sunday we were here catching up with my friends. We had ordered for Hot and Sour Chicken soup along with a few other items. After what seemed like eternity and reminding about 10 times we got Sweet Corn Chicken soup and the waiter kept insisting that we ordered the same and not the Hot & Sour version. The manager arrived and repeated the same. The pain was not that the soup was not being exchanged but the blame was thrust on us! Now that is what a customer can never accept, even if he is to blame.

You don’t blame a customer and call him wrong. If you are wrong apologize as its mistake. If he is wrong again apologize as it would satisfy his ego and save a scene. Good customer service aims at understanding a customer and providing what he needs. Not sticking to the rules and showing your power as you have the rule book supporting you. And yes we got a free soup.

Mobile addiction

“She checked her phone for any new SMSs. She didn’t need to as her phone beeped louder than a fire alarm everytime there was one.” --- Page 88, The 3 mistakes of my life - Chetan Bhagat

How many times do you click on send/receive button in your inbox? How many times you check the scrapbook of your Orkut account? How many times you unlock your mobile to check for the missed calls or SMSs? Scientists have estimated that you waste about 30 minutes everyday doing this. Just imagine 30 MINUTES! This is a syndrome. Catch some fresh air man. You will not get a mail, scrap, SMS that will change your life and will not get deleted just like that. This is pure addiction! So stay away.

As a marketer these people donot read junk mails or spam mail. They always check for interesting small well framed information. So you know what to do.

Bed of Roses

For many, life is not a bed of roses. We normally turn a blind eye to these realities. This kid sells cane juice on Kukatpally main road opposite to Swagat Restaurant. He is 7 years old and studies in a government school. He stands second in his class and you can see his 20 teeth when he says this. His dad lost his right palm in the same machine about a year ago and is on the left side. So the son helps him. This is a very straining, hazardous job and he has no qualms about it. He said he likes it because he gets to help his parents and a 3 year old sister. What does he do for fun? He plays marbles, plays with his sister. He plans to land a government job some day. That’s some knowledge.

Next time you find some one like this just talk a little. You will see them opening up. After all these are all stars… Taare Zameen Par. Also check if you can sacrifice your burger, coke for a day? Or am I asking too much? Life is not always about minting money.

MBA vs Self employment

You must have seen many people self employed like this. This is just to prove a point. This water melon vendor is operating for the last 20 years and is well known in Hyderabad. The mint road melon as it is called is a tela on which he sells them. The old man and his two sons work from 10 in the morning till about 6 in the evening. They sell about 500 melons every day in summer. In other seasons they sell other seasonal fruits.

Let’s take the melon sale for calculation. Each melon will be cut in to 20 – 30 pieces depending on the size of the melon. Each piece costs Rs. 6/-. So that is 500 melons * 20 pieces * Rs. 6 = Rs. 60000/- per day. Now the season lasts for about 6 months but the sales do vary. Lets say the serious season is for 4 months i.e. 120 days. So the earning is 120 * 60K = Rs. 72 lakh at the minimum. I am not even counting other seasons and the earnings.

Whats more this is not taxable, at his own choice, no boss, and office and so on.

Compare that to my MBA salary :(

The 30 second test

Here is a test to see if the person is disciplined or not. It might work for you as well.

Look at all the people standing at the red signal. You will find that some people going bersek and crossing the red light. Now I have a question. Were you taught to wait at th ered signal or not? If yes and you know and still croos it what would I undertand about your discpline? It is understood that none of these prople are the heroes or 007s who have a world to save.

So next time you feel like crossing a signal ask yourself this : Are you mature enough? Grown up? Sane? Disciplined? Trustworthy?

McD's SMS campaign

Last weekend we went to McD’s. Once the bill was paid we got a coupon announcing the cash back offer. All you had to do was to SMS the number given in the coupon to 5888 and you could stand a chance to win some cash back (ranging from 500 - 500000). In miniscule font it was mentioned that the SMS would be charged Rs.3. The entire crowd was standing there and texting right at the counter unmindful of the fact that their burgers and French fries were getting cold. I didn’t but my friend did and as expected he didn’t win. What a strategy to make extra bucks by McD’s.

See this logic.

The no. of footfalls in an hour ranges from 100 to 500. Let’s take the average of 300 per hour at 10 hours per day. That makes it 3000 customers and lets say 80% SMS for the offer. That is 2400 customers * 3 Rs = 7200/- If 2 rupees are paid to McD’s per SMS sent, then the earning per day still is 4800 while they give away Rs. 5000.

Now this is a worst case scenario. The footfalls on weekends are more as we saw this time. The executive said they could raise up to 800 bills just before the movie starts and considering there are 5 theatres and 3 shows on the weekend the no. of bills rise to 2000 – 4000 bills on a weekend converting to about 15K earned in a day while they still give away 5000 in gifts.

And some stats now. Assuming that you SMS, the probability of you winning the offer is about 0.002 - 0.0033. So do you still wanna SMS?

Fuel Price Rise: The Snowball Effect

The fuel price is going to rise today. If you think you are only affected only in the fuel expenses, you are mistaken. The entire transport system is going to get effected which will lead to inflation and you end up paying extra for everything you are buying or using. Let’s see how.

Fuel price increases transportation costs resulting in the rise of prices of goods like milk, packaged water, food, consumer goods, imports, construction, etc. and services like air travel, courier, medicine and so on. The common man may try to avoid the fuel price rise but he would be burdened.

How do the fuel outlets fight this out? Well Club HP outlet in Hyderabad has found a way to please its customers. They are giving away Dettol soaps for every 200 rupees fuel purchased. Now that’s smart.

Haloed Brands

I was driving in traffic this morning found everyone avoiding a particular vehicle. There was a 2 feet gap around the vehicle as if there was a hole in the traffic. As I moved on I saw the reason. It was an black Audi A6 with the numbers APxx x 9999. Then I remembered the tag line of Sarkar Raj : Power is holding someone else’s power in your hand and showing it to them! How true!

Some Brands evoke respect, some power and some even fear. Either ways people acknowledge. No one wanted to go anywhere within the touching distance to the Audi as they feared it. May be a dent would cost my Pulsar? Your value is determined by what you have and is visible to others. It was the price tag, the brand that gave the Audi the halo. As my Professor Ray says, “The best thing you would ever sell is YOURSELF”

Why I hate Nike!

The other day we walked into Nike store in Begumpet, Hyderabad to buy a Tee as a Bday gift for a friend. The store was empty and the salesmen were looking at each other but none made an attempt to walk forward and usher us in. It was a weekday and we were the only customers in the store. So what would you expect if the store was full!

Finally one of the salesman came along. It took a good 5 minutes for him to be pushed towards us. By this time we reached the Tees section in the corner of the store. The lights were not yet on in this corner. The salu didn’t wish us and looked tired and dis-interested. He was shabbily dressed and unshaven. There was no price tag on a particular Tee we picked up and when we asked about the price he went on to ask for the size we needed! When my friend mentioned ‘M’ he smiled sarcastically and said, “M!!? You would need an XXL!” This was where the threshold was reached and we walked out.

Customers don’t expect you to be sarcastic at them. You need to be polite, smiling, welcoming and more than happy to serve. After all customers are the people who GIVE you the business and not the other way round. The way you dress, talk, look MATTER. The way customer is ushered in, helped and enquired decides whether the customer will comeback or not.