Why Watching BIG BOSS is good for you?

I am happy. BIG BOSS (BB) is back. I openly acknowledge it to be my favourite show. In fact it is our family’s favourite show. I see eyebrows going up. I see a faintly sarcastic smile spreading and then freezing at the end of those twinkling questioning eyes. The stiff jacketed pseudo profile conscious audience feel suffocated in their inability to openly accept it. They like BB, they talk about it, they follow it and many of them watch it. But accepting it in social forum is a big no. I must give them a benefit of doubt. Maybe they really hate it and that’s why they watch it.

There is a case for planners to segment consumer’s basis their choice of programmes. I do not know if it already exists. I am afraid of the tag they may use to define my family. The people who like BigBoss, Khatron Ke Khiladi, Jhalak, Dance India Dance, India Got Talent. Have subdued conversation during Splitsvilla and Emotional Atyachaar. Laugh along with kapil, Krishna, Sidharth, Bharti and Archna on which ever channel they are on. See Savdhaan India as an education programme. Bridge the gap with any programme on SAB TV, And Miss ‘Iss Jungle Se Mujhe Bachao’ but not for Kashmera, Nigar or Shweta. Maybe it is too compelx to understand.

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Capitalism’s War On Ethnicity?

The War Capitalism wages on ethnicity?!

Why do we look at finding similarities rather than celebrating differences? While at a human level familiarity breeds comfort and hence we deploy the “They are like us in this”. Example: Georgians are like Punjabis. There’s comfort in that, while spotting similar traits gives you comfort, the differences make things exotic.

They question our faiths, belief systems and loosen our hold on what our self-image is. That’s why we travel, that’s why we seek the different.

Because beyond a point, we frequently want to cut away from ourselves and from becoming more of ourselves.

To re-define our context so that we re-discover a bit of ourselves when we travel, experience something new, when we push ourselves out of our own contextual comfort zones.

Ethnicity is the breeding ground for mass-individualization. It challenges us when we experience different ethnicities. Ethnicity is bred out of specific geography, tradition, culture etc;.

Marketing as currently defined on the other hand operates by diluting ethnicity and introducing new mass-identities. The problem is that the individuality within this definition is missing.

Mass—identities, which are urged to forget their individuality and conform to a marketable definition of who they are – based on consumption. Re-organization of people into marketable tribes via mass media propaganda is the greatest disservice to human kind, It is being Human Unkind.

The advent of social media has led to optimized human-expression, a natural order of reorganizing themselves into new ethnic tribes based on passions, likes, interests & convenience. But this is the natural order of progression.

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The role of the humble Namaste in greeting one another!

Greeting another individual is probably the most routine of rituals when it comes to interacting or socializing with one another among human kind. However it is no secret that ‘shaking hands’ is the preferred choice of greeting another individual the world over. According to Wikipedia, the handshake is thought by some to have originated as a gesture of peace by demonstrating that the hand holds no weapon. Antiochus/ Theos of Commagene, shaking hands with Heracles 70–38 BC, Arsameia.

With that backdrop can we compare it with a boring cousin which is the more traditional and Indian style of greeting, the ‘Namaste’. Again quoting wiki, ‘The Namaste is widely used throughout India, Nepal, parts of Asia and beyond where people of South Asian origins have migrated. Namaste or Namaskar is used as a respectful form of greeting, acknowledging and welcoming a relative, guest or stranger. It is used with good byes as well. In some contexts, Namaste is used to express gratitude for assistance offered or given, and to thank the other person for his or her generosity.

This further led me to ponder over the pros and cons of these two styles of greetings. While a google search on this comparison will lead you to various reflections inspired by religious definitions, I for one believe there are many more functional benefits to it.

One will remember the SARS virus that drove humanity into a frenzy a decade ago. Any such virus that can spread through personal contact can also result from the shaking of hands. Reflect on this scenario with the role Namaskar can play in averting such situations and think about the immense positives of this humble practice.

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Diary of a Girl Cut Loose: Day 21 by Priyanka Gothi

Day 21: The List.

So maybe this should have been one of the first things I should’ve done- make a list of all the things I want to try and do this year. But I guess I was so excited with the prospect of flying that I simply plunged off the cliff without too much of a thought.

When I’d handed in my resignation, my boss asked me ‘what is it exactly that you want to do?’. Perfectly valid question. But the only thing I could manage to mutter was ‘something on my own’.

I really envy people who know what they want to do and are doing it. I know someone who left an FMCG to become a dancer, and someone who left a bank to go to Milan and study fashion. I on the other hand have left with no plan and a billion ideas to choose from.

So here’s a few things I’ve thought of over the weeks that I may dabble in over the next year. At some point of time I may revisit this list. Strike off things done and add new things to do. This is a wish list and task list all in one and will be my guide over the next few months to make sure I’m making most of this time.

Start writing (professionally): this could be content, ghostwriting, blogs, features, e-books, copywriting, screenwriting – I’ll work my way through these and decide which kind I like the most.

Learn photography: read books, online tutorials, photography critiquing forums and ideally apprentice with a photographer in mumbai (anybody reading this?)

Build my photography portfolio: focus on a specific genre of photography and build my folio on that. I tend to bend towards food (but it’s still more theoretical) and I’m bad at doing people portraits so will need to figure this one out.

Start a Start-up: Have a few ideas. Need to prototype. Atleast. Don’t know if I’ll go any further than that. But need to actually stop rejecting ideas in my brain and start rejecting them once they actually fail!

Re-learn a few skills: Like photo editing. Studied this in college when I was doing my mass comm but I’m incredibly rusty now so need to ‘air-brush’ that now

Work on a Bollywood film: don’t know how and in which capacity, maybe write for it? But I really want to, just because I think it’ll be super exciting.

Do storytelling workshops for kids: Build back an interest in reading for kids these days who are far too hooked on to screens all around them.

Bake: I love baking and most of the times I end up making stuff that’s pretty delish. But I always approach it with a lot of hesitation. Need to brush up basics, so that I whip up a cake or a pie without referring to 20 recipes and measuring ingredients to the last decimal point.

Do something good: Do something that’ll help a poor kid somewhere stand on his own feet or live in a better world. As a new mom, I owe it to my kid to help live in a world that’s better than the one we live in today.

See something new in the world: See a battleship, a museum, a new city, an old thing in a new way.

11…

There’s no way this is the end of what I want to do. All I need now is discipline and a glass of wine (ok, even coffee will do at this point) to make this happen

Diary of a Girl Cut Loose: Day 20 by Priyanka Gothi

Day 20: I’m not on maternity leave!

The annoying thing about starting out on your own, soon after you’ve had a baby is that the whole world thinks you’ve taken a break and given up your career to raise the baby.

All my efforts to explain my entrepreneurial efforts are clouded by knowing nods and words to the tune of ‘someone has to sacrifice their career for the baby…’

While they probably mean well, all I hear is the equivalent of the sound when you scrape your nails on a chalkboard.

Now before I’m guilt-shamed into being a horrendous mom, let me try and explain myself. I love my baby, more than any other thing in the world. But that doesn’t suddenly mean that I love myself any less!

Why does it have to be this or that?

I’m not sacrificing my career, intact trying to build a new one from scratch and that takes truckloads of effort… probably a bit more than a regular 9-5. So why does it give the appearance of being easier?

Sure, I now to get manage my time better, which works out perfectly since I have a 7 month old housemate whose childhood I do not want to miss out on.  How is it then, that something that gives me the larger freedom to fully embrace my life,  is still referred to as a ‘compromise’ or a ‘step back’.

I see tons of women making alternate (not lesser) career choices to manage work and home and it’s just fantastic. Now I won’t argue on the exisitential questions on why women always need to make the change and men don’t. Men do, increasingly now and are partners than pack leaders. But there’s no denying that women are natural pros when it comes to managing both fronts and hey, that’s no mean feat.

Also,working from home (which I’m doing at the moment) is far from being a holiday. Especially if you have no family in the city, no nanny and daycare is yet to start (our current situation). Don’t know what I’m talking about, then let me draw you a picture.

I’m sitting on the floor trying to write when the baby who till a minute ago was playing with his rattle inches towards my laptop and hits 10 separate keys which leads my file to close ‘unexpectedly’and also opens a YouTube video (how did he do that?!!)

Then there’s the day when he gets feverish and I need to write and send 3 articles and he wants to be carried all day. Need to comply. So work is literally done single handedly.

Never in an office have I had to carry a colleague and make a presentation at the same time. Ever.

So if anyone dares to call my work from home, a ‘break’ again, dare I say the only thing that’ll break, is their neck. (Hmmm.. but I’m passive aggressive so I’ll probably just give them a cold shoulder :))

Who owns a brand?

The answer that most would give is the company that owns the rights to it. And to some extent they would be right. After all Apple owns the i-Phone brand, as does Tata Motors the Indica brand and the iconic Jaguar and Land Rover brands too. So yes the brand is officially “owned” by its parent company.

But then what of Stephen King’s famous statement about brands – “A product is something that is made in a factory; a brand is something that is bought by a consumer.” So are brands owned by their consumers? In today’s marketplaces where people know far more about brands and the companies that own them than ever before courtesy the Age of Information and the internet, many believe that ownership of brands have actually moved to those that choose them – their customers. Many examples of this abound – the new Coke debacle showed clearly that the Coca Cola company did not have the right to change the formulation of its iconic beverage. Harley Davidson owners are critical to the company not just as customers but as the inspiration behind the core of the brand’s identity. The annual gatherings of the Apple faithful clearly show who actually holds the reins to the Apple brand. Or do they?

Creating and nurturing a brand is very like bringing up a surrogate child. You seem to make all the effort, you strive to protect and care for it, invest significant resources – time, money and talent, to make it strong, resilient and distinctive. Yet it never entirely belongs to you. It exists outside the premises of your offices and factories. It thrives in an intangible ecosystem.

If the real value of the brand lies in the minds and imaginations of those who choose to buy it, don’t they own it, since if it were to “disappear” from their minds it would immediately cease to have any value at all?

Actually both answers are true. Parent companies do own their brands but so do the people who choose them. Often when it is said that brand ownership has shifted to consumers, the examples used are often those brands with a long heritage, luxury brands, or the few examples of iconic brands. Yet there are many successful brands which do not fall into any of these categories and yet are successful. Who truly “owns” these brands? Also when brands begin to lose their sheen either due to inherent problems or due to the category itself coming under threat, who owns them then?

The model that seems to fit the environment of brands today seems more like a Joint Venture. This has very significant implications. Today and going into the future, the most successful brands will be in the nature of a joint venture between the brand and its customer base. Like any successful joint venture this one too has to have certain critical factors to ensure its continued success. If the customers who own them gain the upper hand it would usually mean that the brand is not doing enough to keep ahead of their customers’ expectation curve. In such a situation the brand would inevitably begin to suffer from consumer ennui.

If the reins remain firmly in the hands of the company that owns the brand then, while initially it would be a beacon and perhaps continue to be so for a small niche audience, scaling it up would become difficult. And the risk of alienation in the age of hyper-informed activist consumers would be very great indeed. Successful brands need a sense of ownership by its core audience.

So what would make a truly successful joint venture brand partnership? The answer lies in the key factors that drive any successful joint venture. These are mutual interest, mutual respect, a truly symbiotic relationship, continually refreshing the relationship and sharing the success of the partnership. While many brand owners do espouse the cause of greater consumer involvement – how many view it as a genuine partnership?

Each one of the six key factors has important implications both in terms of strategy and practical ground level activities.

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Diary of a Girl Cut Loose: Day 19 by Priyanka Gothi

Day 19: Of Designations and Grades.

Its funny how when you’re working for a company, everything about you is defined by it. Your office desk, your friends, your pay check and hence your car.

And designations have a huge role to play in making these definitions. Each promotion is a promise of incremental seniority and each pre-cursor to an existing designation enhances your worldly perception by leaps and bounds.

There is a thrill in being elevated to Senior Manager from Manager or Executive Vice President from just a regular old Vice President.

Now, I’m not pretending to ignore the importance of these titles, even though they strongly remind me of titles for princely states in pre-independent India, which were bestowed largely as favours to soothe egos and reward loyalty than for any other larger administrative reason.

Titles are important and should define what you do for the organisation, not who you are. They should be verbs and not nouns. Simply because if we are cogs in the wheel of a larger machinery, we should be known for what we do to make it work.

All major change agents in the world are known by what they do – engineers build, doctors treat, scientists research/invent, explorers discover and so on.

It describes an active, tangible outcome that is achieved only through their actions.

However, when it comes to marketing management, the titles become decreasingly descriptive; manager, president, officer, management trainee etc etc.

These don’t describe a unique action (I bet a scientist needs to manage his team too, but thats not the only description of his work), they are generic and make it tough to define your work to outsiders.

The only thing they do describe very clearly is how many people work for you or how fat your pay check is.

Wouldn’t it be far more interesting if we were called Brand Builders, Campaign Designers and so on. It would bring an active sense of purpose to the holders of these roles, instead of just providing a shiny tagline for Linkedin.

Something to think about, I guess.

Just in case you’re curious about this sudden outburst; I just received my relieving letter.

It stated that my last held position was Manager – Marketing Communications, which was my grade, while my designation was Senior Manager. Panicked and asked for a clarification. Couldn’t believe I was ‘just a manager’ after 8 freakin’ years (Would’ve been a VP in the banking sector by now)!!!

Just made me think about the narrow lens with which we’re seen in the world and how a simple prefix can hugely alter perceptions about individuals…

Talk Back. To Fear

When I was young, many many years ago, I would run to my mother whenever I was scared. She would hold my hand and say- Why fear when I am there? And I would run away happily. With the knowledge that someone was there to fight all my battles.

Things change when you grow up. Why is it that the more we have what we want, our fear of losing increases? Why do these demons gnaw at our minds in the dead of the night, when we know that everything is just fine?

Fear is truly our worst enemy. For some of us who have had losses earlier on in life, fear also proves a reason to exist. And makes us think- what if this happens again? What if we lose people who matter to us, yet again?

I have read  and I have been told that fear disappears when we control our minds and do not let our minds take over. I  know that the best way to get rid of these fears is to stop thinking. get a breath of fresh air, divert the mind … there are solutions galore on the Net.

However, Life has taught me the hard lesson. That the best way to fight the battle of fear is not to divert, not to ignore, but to face it. Head on.

To have the courage to actually talk back to Fear instead of being scared and say- Yes, what if I lose all I have today? It still brings those silly tears to your eyes. It still makes the heart go cold.

But along with that, we will also get the answer.

That Life goes on. And that with time, everything heals. And we all move on. Discovering new strengths that we never knew existed, uncovering new potential that lay dormant all the time.

Why Mediocrity Wins Over Passion

The Battle Within – Who’s Winning?

Long time ago a friend of mine had frustratingly blurted out ‘Why do most people want to remain mediocre?’

And that question has been very irritatingly pricking the back of my mind ever since. While I remember defending the so-called ‘mediocre’ people then by saying maybe most people donot know the greener pastures beyond, maybe the demon of passion has not awakened in most people, maybe….

The moment passed but my brain has been restless ever since. As long as I can remember, I have been quite intolerant of inefficiencies, ‘settling’ for anything less than exceptional – I remember my bosses telling me that my benchmark is very high and I perhaps need to lower my bar. And my response was that if somebody is holding a particular position (including me), s/he better live up to excelling in that position otherwise they better make way for others.

The idea of just doing enough or lowering the bar never occurred to me. Years later when I quit my job to rediscover my career into something I love, I felt so much more fulfilled and meaningful about my work but that excelling part of me started thinking perhaps I need to look at defining excellence in my current role. And then this other voice within me tells me ‘You have just rediscovered your career. If you wanted to run the rat race, you would better have remained where you were’. And that was the voice that told me to take things easy. That was the voice that told me that I deserve to ease off after all the hard work I had done. I had paid my dues and now is my turn to sit back and relax. Be happy with a few clients (that I have chosen and that I want to work with) and make small changes – one step at a time!

And hello, hello, I was right then and there introduced to my mediocre self while my passionate self was still waking up.

By now if you are jumping or itching to jump to the defence of my ‘mediocre’ self, hold on for some more time until you finish reading the rest of the article.

All of us have 2 identities – the mediocre self and the passionate self. Here, I want to redefine passion.

Passion is not just high energy or barely controlled emotion, it is actually the willingness to suffer for that something/someone that we are passionate about.

So, what is the difference between the two selves?

The mediocre self wants the usual things – comfort, happiness, family and friends around while the passionate self also wants the usual things – live life unfettered, wants to unwrap the gift and unleash that on the world, not restricted to family and friends.

The mediocre self says I donot want much, I just want to be happy; The passionate self says I want all of myself (100%) and I want to make a difference.

The mediocre self says I just want you to be a good person and a good parent; The passionate self says you are more than a good person and a good parent, I want you to excel in your role on earth in its full form.

The mediocre self says I want your dreams to be realistic, I am afraid you will disrupt the ‘good’ thing going on; The passionate self says I want your dreams to justify your gift, I am not afraid of disruption in the process.

The mediocre self says I donot want you to be disappointed, I will watch out for you and protect you against disappointment, play small; The passionate self says there is nothing called disappointment, I want the light within you to shine bright, I want the music within you to be loud, play big, don’t be afraid.

The mediocre self says I am afraid of suffering, but our world of mediocrity is so crowded that we are bursting at the seams, we will have to find a way to breathe in this super crowded place; The passionate self says I am not afraid to take suffering head on, our world is spacious and elitist and there is joy.

The mediocre self says Look at me and stay with me, I will try to give you happiness; The passionate self says It’s your choice – if you choose me, I will give you fulfillment, joy and peace.

This tug of war between our mediocre selves and our passionate selves is what creates the frustration and the so-called ‘mid life’ crisis – that’s when the passionate self is stirring and waking up after years of domination by the mediocre self.

But sadly, most times we still succumb to the mediocre self because it is loud and promises no pain (though it does not necessarily deliver on it). Remember passion means the ‘willingness to suffer’ and the mediocre self says ‘Is it really worth it? Why not just remain small and die small? What difference will it make?’

And that’s the question that we all need to answer – what difference will I make if I breathe oxygen into my own fire that is called passion?

I am curious, who is playing a larger role in your life at this moment….

The biggest myth is that the mediocre self provides for less(er) suffering, less(er) pain than the passionate self. What is true?

If you like what I write, I would like to hear from you. Do comment or write to me at [email protected]

As an entrepreneur and an executive coach with 2 ventures (Progress-U and 6point14), I work with senior leadership, top notch sales professionals and aspiring (& inspiring) women. I enjoy the regular exchange of ideas – do connect with me with your thoughts as well.

Patriotism as a Brand Tactic

The idea of patriotism in brands is quite interesting.

While I don’t think we have ever had a study of   patriotic brands in India, in the US study brands like Jeep, Hershey’s, Coke, Levis, Ford, Wal-Mart, Campbell’s and others stood out as patriotic brands. The research found out which brands were most associated with the value of patriotism. Quite often when we say American icon I guess what we are really referring to are patriotic brands. Largely it has to do with being an American company or really being made in the U.S.A.

When brands have felt that stirring up patriotism might benefit them, Chevy in the late 80s ran their famous campaign ” The heartbeat of America”. We were not far behind when we did an Indian version of that for Hero Honda ( now Hero Motocorp ) in the early 90s  with Desh ki Dhadkan. Or when GM wanted to launch a small car in the late 90s in the US  their research said that Americans wanted to buy American made products if they could trust them.  So they launched their campaign ‘Malibu : the car you knew America could build’

If we go back into our socialist past which forced people to be Indian and buy Indian, brands like Amul ( a brand which is a year older than independent India ) stirred patriotic feelings and much later of course summed up their brand as the Pride of India.  So did Bajaj with Hamara Bajaj ( buland Bharat ki,  buland tasveer ).  I think in post liberalised India brands still try to stir up patriotic pride e.g. Tata Salt with Desh ka Namak and to a lesser extent Tata Tea with Jaago Re.   If you look at Tata as a brand they are in the best position to do so being an old, trusted Indian brand.

When PM Modi declared International Yoga Day I couldn’t help feeling that he was laying claim to an Indian (unfortunately generic) brand that had become more popular overseas than in India.  By declaring it as International Yoga Day he was bringing back the equity to India and forcing Indians to recognise Yoga as their own. Similarly when Modi announced Make in India he again stirred up national pride in transforming India into a global manufacturing hub.

When I was growing up we didn’t paint our faces with the tri-color while watching a cricket game maybe because somehow it still seemed as if it was still a game invented by the British that we were still playing. Over the years it has become an Indian game and it stirs up patriotic feelings like no other. Which is why it is so common for people to paint their faces or wave the tri-colour in other forms at a cricket match.

We still feel the flush of patriotism when we see an Indian born making it to CEO of a global company. While for all practical purposes the person in question might now be a citizen of another country we have every Indian including our Prime Minister swelling with pride.

March forward! Brand India!

The Democratization of Celebrity

There was a time when celeb-dom was about being inaccessible – a luxury good in short supply, unattainable to most and therefore not only to be coveted but to be revered and put upon a pedestal. What celebrities did, whom they met, what or whom they loved and the details of the gilded lifestyle they led were all unavailable except in the realms of speculation.

However today, the world of the celeb is very different. What they do, whom they meet, what they wear, eat and in fact every thought they think is now available for consumption over social media. We see them more often, on pages of daily newspapers, TV shows, ads and what not.   We even know, for instance, that Sachin Tendulkar, if anyone was interested, was cooking baingan ka bharta on the 31st of December 2014.

As a result, the distance between the celeb and the ‘worshipper’ has narrowed. Added to that the Andy Warhol-ised world where anyone with a youtube or twitter account can be guaranteed 15 seconds of fame, if not 15 minutes. Moreover, today, the celeb lifestyle is not only no longer hidden behind the veil of mystery but is accessible in various ways.

Whether it’s Humpty Sharma ki Dulhaniya who wants to get married in the lehenga that Kareena Kapoor wore or the car brands they drive, restaurants they eat at, hotels they stay at – a combination of growing consumer incomes and growing familiarity with celeb lifestyles has led to the ability to ape the lifestyles of the rich and famous, if only fleetingly. The growing use of celebrities in advertising across product categories has further led the consumer to feel a sense of closeness and familiarity that is removed from reality.  Moreover, many of them today churn out products – from fashion lines to cookware – that bear their names or which they claim to have designed, further closing the gap between them and the common man. Weddings offer the perfect opportunity for this costume drama to play out, and one can see the impact of the celeb lifestyle in all aspects of the celebration today.

At the end, however, the result is a diminished glory for the very celebs we want to imitate. Various surveys have shown that the consumer belief in a celebrity endorsements has come down sharply. People are increasingly cynical about celebs and their proclaimed love for brand x and y, especially when the said brand changes with changing star contracts.

The very accessibility of the celeb lifestyle and the celeb himself/ herself leads to a downgrading of the aspirational value perceived. On the other hand, there is an expectation of openness and familiarity with celebs – the ones who are too stand-offish and restrained, while they attain some sort of cult respect, never end up being popular or taken to the heart in quite the same way.  Quite the conundrum for their brands – which path is the right one to take?

Brand Fatigue: The slow brand- killer!

Fatigue (verb):  cause (someone) to feel exhausted.

As a teacher, I am constantly in touch with the younger generation. The younger generation although full of energy, easily gets bored with things. It is going to be a nightmare for the marketers to sustain the enthusiasm of the next-gen consumers.

When talking about fatigue, it is important to look at – who gets exhausted with the brand. So we need to look at brand fatigue as an internal and external phenomenon. Internal brand fatigue happens when the brand team gets exhausted or bored with the brand. This internal boredom will either result in the unwarranted changes forced to the brand or develop complacency. Both can pave the way to the death of the brand.

External brand fatigue is when the consumers get bored with the brand. Sometimes too much success can create brand fatigue with the consumers. Brands that are in existence for a long period are usually the victim of the consumer side of the brand fatigue. So for a change, the consumers switch the brand and trouble starts for the brand.

Brand owners need to be cautious about both the internal and external fatigues. When the internal brand evangelists get bored with the brand, they tend to overlook the disruptions that constantly visit the markets. The prescription gets paranoiac about the brand and the market. Andy Grove, the legendary CEO of Intel in his book “Only Paranoid Survive” says “The greatest danger in standing still.” This threat of inertia applies to all brands.

Often brand managers tend to change the brand’s critical elements or promotions because they feel bored by the brand. This boredom has often proved fatal. Here it is not the consumer who got bored; boredom was internal. Often brands that are consistent in their communication and positioning often face the issue of internal boredom. This internal boredom can result in an unnecessary change in the brand assets which often result in setbacks.

The critical checkpoints before getting to act are

Market conditions: Is the brand facing a serious disruption in the market?

Consumer demand: Is there a shift in the demand? A good measure would be to look at the new consumer adopting the brand.

Is your consumer bored? : This is the critical checkpoint before venturing into a major change in the brand’s position.

Regarding the external boredom where the consumer getting bored by the brand, the reason can be predictability, dullness, over- exposure and lack of innovation. Here again the silver lining is that brands like Pepsi, Coke, Nike, etc. has shown the way. They have sustained interest in the market through calibrated strategies be it in product or communications.

In both the case of external and internal fatigue, the ultimate test is what the consumer and market are signaling.

Conversations with my father that changed my life!

I have always been very condescending towards the concept of these so-called days! I feel they have been forged for the Western world, where one meets their parents a few times in a year. I don’t think this makes sense in India, where most of us either live with our parents or speak to them almost every day. Although we foresee that all good things don’t stay forever, the vacuum created when we lose our parents to the Maker never gets mitigated. Today, this day, dedicated to all the benevolent fathers of the world, gathers me a new meaning as this year, my father keeps afloat only in my memoirs.

My father was 86 when he walked his last mile. He lived the whole nine yards of life; he carried on with zorbing even at 84. He played along with us in Disneyland, Japan, at 85; proactively pursued new lessons until he met his maker.

A cup of tea with Dad before office every morning had become a part of my daily exercises to cope with the pace and hurdles I faced in my survival. I can attribute a major share of the knowledge I possess to those routine conversations that I had with my father all through my growing years and till the last few days of his life. Even at this juncture, his advices serve as my lexicon for success.

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Somewhere between before and therefore

It’s complicated.

I guess this is no different from most other fathers and sons, especially the elder son. Wonder if Freud had something to say about this?

In the ages that mattered, I mostly fought with him, rebellious, questioning, never agreeing. And by the time I mellowed, he was in a prison of his own making.

Age dulls the average memories, but sharpens the extreme ones — both good and bad.

The very first memory is of my father and me, stranded due to flash floods on the roof of our flat in Patna, waving at a helicopter, begging the soldiers to throw us some food. It was

a hard way to discover that my Dad was not really a super hero. But then, I also remember vividly that he was constantly smiling throughout the nightmare, never a crease on his forehead. Was it only to reassure his family that everything would be all right? I will never know.

And, the last? Me holding his hand tight in a hospital ICU, telling him that everything is going to be all right, all the while knowing that I was speaking to myself rather than to him. Along with the notion of heroism, there went the notion of immortality. The harsh glare of death anesthetized the immediate emotions, much like the headlights of an oncoming car. That anesthetic would not wear off for a long time, because boys are not meant to cry.

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An Honest Conversation With My Dad – Ruma Biswas

“Dad, what is your purpose in life? What do you want to be remembered for?”

It took me 40 years to ask this question to my father. Why so long? Seems like a harmless question, anyways.

Looking back, my dad was the role model in our house and in our neighbourhood – everybody wanted to be like dad. He was handsome (was called a rajkumar – “prince”, I was told) and he was well liked by everybody and as a kid I would swell up with pride if anybody said “Ruma is like her dad”. That, for me, was the ultimate compliment anybody could ever give me.

And I closely watched my dad and emulated his behaviour as best as I could. Quite early on, I made up my mind never to express my emotions, particularly anger – after all, I have never ever known my dad to be angry! It was my dad who we would go to as kids, who we would hide behind if we knew we had done something wrong, who we would call for when we were sick because we knew he would patiently rock us to sleep, who would cheer us from the audience during the annual parents day event at school. It was dad who introduced my sister and me to rock music – our first music album gifted to us by dad was Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’, and it was from dad I picked up the passion of following sports – I diligently watched every cricket, football and tennis match on television and everything else in between.

I completely adored my dad, so much so, that I think there was an unsaid competition between me and my sister as to who could be more like dad – his patience and his amiability was legendary.

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A Hardcore Talk

A very long time back, my father and I had this most interesting chat that I can never forget. I am sure he still remembers it as vividly.

This was sometime in the early 80s. I was probably 18 or 19. Just out of school and into college.

It was the sort of time when most fathers and sons never really spoke of anything else other than books, books and more books.

So there I was, hanging around at home on a humid Sunday afternoon. The weather was just right for an afternoon siesta.

Suddenly, my father walked out of his bedroom and sauntered into my room. It was carefully done up in the day’s décor and with typical teenage bric-a-brac.

He looked at me said, ‘You know what, you and I need to have a chat. And I think we need to have that chat now.’

I had no clue what he was on to, and since that was probably the only time that he wanted to have a chat with me, I could sense danger. My alarm bells clang.

What did I do? Did the college Principal tell him about my truancy? Did my class teacher call him about my doodles? Did some girl complain? Did some girl’s dad call him?

Questions zigzagged into my head, and I didn’t have a clue. But I knew my goose was going to get cooked. Just that the crime wasn’t clear.

He walked out of the main door and into the verandah. I followed him. He asked me to sit, pulled a chair close to me, and started.

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Ecommerce: Rise of the empowered consumer

Ecommerce has been in news for various reasons; huge potential it encompasses, various companies which have become rock stars within a few quarters, stratospheric valuations being given, demise of the traditional channels, huge discounts being offered to acquire customers. Once the dust settles down on this euphoria, we will see e-commerce emerging as a major factor shaping the way business is done and in an avatar, which may be different from what is anticipated today. However, there is one aspect which is equally if not more important, how is it impacting the consumer and his/her behaviour. 1. Information at tips: Today the consumer is in much better position to get the best value because of information available. i.e., if I am buying shoes in an outlet, I can easily check what the quality/rating, price options are before I talk to the outlet and get the best deal. Hence, consumer’s bargaining power has tremendously increased. There have been cases where people have ended up buying stuff at prices even cheaper than online, only because they had the online prices as benchmarks to negotiate 2. Multiplicity of options: Sitting in your house, with a mobile, you are able to scan through multiple options, brands, their ratings, prices etc. There are websites which give you a detailed comparison basis your requirements. Hence, not only the options to make an informed choice have suddenly increased but also the ability to find the best deal for the chosen option 3. Emergence of new channels: Ecommerce has spanned a number of new channels which were non-existent some time ago. You have the brand ecommerce sites, vertically oriented category retailers, horizontals like amazon, flipkart etc., deal sites, comparison sites, and even the mobile payment providers like Paytm becoming a channel. It’s becoming important for brands to closely monitor the consumer behaviour across these channels to figure out the right channel, pricing and placement strategy and more importantly, give consistent value across these. 4. Peer experiences: Courtesy the ratings and social media, the buying cycle has significant altered with peer suggestions and reviews playing an important role in consumer decision making. This has made the role of after sale service an extremely critical component and key influencer of decision making process. Success of sites like TripAdvisor is a testimony for the same 5. Quality expectations: With various ecommerce sites offering payment on delivery and return options, this will ultimately impact consumer expectations when they are shopping in other channels too. So, brands will have to see how do they maintain the consistency of experience and deliverables across multiple channels 6. Deal hunting: In order to acquire consumers quickly and build up scale, E-commerce sites are competing with each other in giving offers, discounts and cashbacks. This also is creating a consumer behaviour where buying happens only on deals. It will be interesting to see how brands and e-commerce sites manage this behaviour once the ‘customer acquisition at any cost’ phase is over. 7. Post purchase: With the rise of social media, consumers are increasingly sharing their experiences with the brands after they purchase, and use these. So, the consequences of service or quality are clearly visible after the purchase. This means post purchase service and delivery will become equally if not more important than pre-sales efforts and marketing pull to get the consumers to buy brand.

So, with these increased options and more information, consumer obviously is in a much better position to extract best out of a brand. On one side it presents a huge challenge for brands to navigate this evolving and complex ecosystem, at the same time, it also presents an opportunity for them to help consumer reach the right option quickly and transparently.

I think where brands can really help and cement their relationship with consumers is by providing means to easily sift through these vast options, ensuring consistency irrespective of channel, being transparent and forthcoming in sharing the important information and going beyond marketing to a larger role in helping and building communities in their operating spaces. Also, brands who are committed to providing the promised quality and service will definitely command a huge lead over others.