Room 67: Let us go to Canteen and have some quick snacks?
Room 68: Oh, I just went and come back. BTW you planning to go out for dinner, today mess food is bad :(
Room 67: Let me chk and I will confirm in about an hour.
Thomas L. Friedman has written “the world is flat” where he has mentioned how beautifully the emergence of internet as a means of communication and information exchange has facilitated the birth of Indian IT industry where the projects are executed offshore without jeopardising on the quality but with reducing the costs. I was having this discussion with my friend yesterday about the evolution of Web 2.0 and user forums like mouthshut.com etc. The common starting point is that internet is so easily available that it is the first choice if you want to communicate to your friends, peers forget the unknown people.
The starting of the post is common form of communication between two rooms physically 5 ft away. I was wondering that whether the internet has increased or decreased the distances between individuals. If at one side it has made possible the interaction between two unknown individuals in different continents but at the other side it is replacing the personal communication between other two individuals would have met in person had internet not been in the existence. How do you evaluate the impact of this on human behaviour?
Man is a social animal, a lot is happening on the basis of personal rapport and relations that an individual develops over time, the relationship builds on trust and confidence when you physically meet and talk to someone. Verbal communication is just 1 criteria, you judge an individual by his body language, facial expressions, appearance and related physical surroundings etc. What implications will the internet have on the personal communications with the ‘known’ and ‘near’ people?
Let’s say 5 years down the line I want to watch a movie with my friend and he lives nearby but we do not want to take the trouble of physically going to a cinema hall and stand in a queue, take tickets and then watch the movie with 100 other people. Instead both of us log on to a movie streaming site on internet, enter into the same screen room, connect to the some personal instant message (or voice) window and start seeing the same film at real time and discuss it over the chat/voice window. But what do we do at intermission, I can't tell him that lets go and try some ‘crisy corn sandwich’? Or can I? Well I am talking 5 years down the line and surely we dial the same fast food chain, order what we want to order and it will be delivered over to our doorstep. “Hey do you think that guy has put a little extra cheese in the sandwich today?”
Room 68: Arey, wake me up for 3 pm wala class?
Room 67: Abe kya…. Put an alarm instead na?
Room 68: No bhai, I never know when I will put it off and sleep again, look you don’t have to take any additional trouble, I am leaving my chat window open and speaker on full volume, just ping me until I ping you back saying “yes, I am awake and ALIVE” !!!!
Wait a sec, did you say alive? I mean ALIVE !!
Sunday, 25 October 2009
Thursday, 22 October 2009
Politics and MR
Three of the Indian states have just gone through the assembly elections and I was reading an article which was discussing how the perception of voters is about the different political parties in that states. The article talked about what people expect from the political parties when they are in power, which issue favours which political parties etc. Wait a sec; did I just say perception of political parties amongst voters!
So here comes the question; is there an opportunity to apply the concepts learn in MR to position 1 political party amongst each other on the perceptual space of the voters? Well there is but whether it can be applied in Indian scenario I am not sure. We have national brands and regional brands here (read national parties and regional parties).
The need satisfied is favourable economic environment, job opportunities, social security and availability of products and services at affordable rates. The need manifest into wants and here comes the problem, our votes want the candidate of their caste/religion. I do not think there is any confusion over the needs, they are universal but whereas those needs manifest into a want of suitable, educated, and eligible candidate in a developed world, in India those needs manifest into a want of candidate of own caste/religion irrespective of his professional and personal records at the nearest police station.
If I talk about getting a survey done to identify the current positioning gap in the voters perceptual space and then positioning a political party appropriately depending on which social or political issue is most able differentiate amongst all the parties. However, the question that should be answered first is whether there is a need to differentiate the political parties by using perceptual maps. In India the political parties are not competing on functional aspects but on trivial issues. The consumers (voters) are not evolved enough to evaluate the promise offered by these parties rationally and take a sound decision. Rather the political parties have made sure that the voters who vote remain in the lowest level of their maslows hierarchy of needs and do not look beyond the religion and poverty.
I feel that these politicos understand the management more than us, i.e. we always talk of moving the customers up the value ladder but the politico has rightly identified that the best way for their survival is customer remain in the most basic level of their needs and only look for the core product offering. So I think MR has its application in Politics but we do not require it in Indian scenario.
So here comes the question; is there an opportunity to apply the concepts learn in MR to position 1 political party amongst each other on the perceptual space of the voters? Well there is but whether it can be applied in Indian scenario I am not sure. We have national brands and regional brands here (read national parties and regional parties).
The need satisfied is favourable economic environment, job opportunities, social security and availability of products and services at affordable rates. The need manifest into wants and here comes the problem, our votes want the candidate of their caste/religion. I do not think there is any confusion over the needs, they are universal but whereas those needs manifest into a want of suitable, educated, and eligible candidate in a developed world, in India those needs manifest into a want of candidate of own caste/religion irrespective of his professional and personal records at the nearest police station.
If I talk about getting a survey done to identify the current positioning gap in the voters perceptual space and then positioning a political party appropriately depending on which social or political issue is most able differentiate amongst all the parties. However, the question that should be answered first is whether there is a need to differentiate the political parties by using perceptual maps. In India the political parties are not competing on functional aspects but on trivial issues. The consumers (voters) are not evolved enough to evaluate the promise offered by these parties rationally and take a sound decision. Rather the political parties have made sure that the voters who vote remain in the lowest level of their maslows hierarchy of needs and do not look beyond the religion and poverty.
I feel that these politicos understand the management more than us, i.e. we always talk of moving the customers up the value ladder but the politico has rightly identified that the best way for their survival is customer remain in the most basic level of their needs and only look for the core product offering. So I think MR has its application in Politics but we do not require it in Indian scenario.
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Social Loafing and Diminishing rate of return
A very strange title, it may not make someone read the whole post; or will it? Well, to make people read it, I am keeping it short. Without referring to anything specific I want to tell you that I encountered the two concepts recently. Let’s say you are required to do a job for a social cause and you want to do it (so you had committed yourself to it) but then you know there are many who are volunteering to do the same job, your effectiveness decreases. OB guys will say social loafing and economist will say the marginal production (incremental job done) curve follows a diminishing rate of return. Do you know Tragedy of the Commons?
Take another example, Mr K usually gets numerous opportunities to attend conferences and he may substitute the next opportunity of attending a conference with a weekend retreat. Mr Y who usually does not get a chance to attend any conferences may compromise on his regular business and even willing to travel moderate distance to attend the same conferences. The utilities of both the events are different to both the individuals. Sometimes I feel (privileged) people have a tendency of discounting the true value of the most basic things in our life. Or continued success may give someone a false impression that one is fully equipped to overcome any sudden changes in the environment. No wonder strategist’s have modified five forces of Porter to include ‘Complacency’.
Take another example, Mr K usually gets numerous opportunities to attend conferences and he may substitute the next opportunity of attending a conference with a weekend retreat. Mr Y who usually does not get a chance to attend any conferences may compromise on his regular business and even willing to travel moderate distance to attend the same conferences. The utilities of both the events are different to both the individuals. Sometimes I feel (privileged) people have a tendency of discounting the true value of the most basic things in our life. Or continued success may give someone a false impression that one is fully equipped to overcome any sudden changes in the environment. No wonder strategist’s have modified five forces of Porter to include ‘Complacency’.
Sunday, 27 September 2009
Songs – melody or contextual melody
Which one has more effect on you, the melodious songs or the songs with a context that you are familiar with? Which songs do you frequently listen, songs with some history (about the singer, band, or movie) or song that you just like listening? Is it only the song OR the associated video that makes it more interesting (Yes, i do not like the second half of chiggi-wiggi)? Sometimes you like a song from a unknown language so context is out of the question (remember las ketchup or Alizee); or is it not? You may be influenced by what others have said about that song, the stories that you hear about that band, that singer (the whole fuzz about Attaullah Khan, created by T-Series), does it not affect you? Sorry, for asking too many question but this is what I have been thinking for a while.
So let me give you a clearer picture. This is about my liking for songs, I feel that I am more likely to like a song if I see the corresponding movie (ehh may be applicable to bollywood movie). Though I am not sure if the vice versa holds. To give you an example, when I first heard ‘Love Aaj Kal’ songs I didn’t like them, but then after I have seen the movie, I started liking the songs. So there comes the question of context? Is it that after I know the context in which the song is being played in the movie, I start to move in the FLOW of the song.
Again is it only the context or just because I have heard the songs so many times now, I have developed an affinity to them, and I started liking them. I say this because I liked so many English songs after hearing them for over 100 times! This happened during my graduation, as it was the time when I heard English songs for the first time in my life. There are songs which I did not like in the beginning and then as I heard them every day (Thanks to my neighbours) I developed a taste for them. Most of my English songs collection has the same story. The context is not there, but there is a ‘late’ melody. I mean I did not found the songs melodious in the first 10-15 hearing.
And then the context can also have two meanings, the context of the movie and the contextual situation when you heard the songs for the first time. The songs may pop up good old memories in you whenever it is being played. For e.g. Asoka and DCH songs remind me of my first semester at IIT and Fashion songs remind me of my Summer Internship when I was on my way to Pune from Mumbai (I watched that movie in the bus). Why am I writing this????
Well I am not really sure what made me like the ‘Love Aaj Kal’ songs when I first disliked them and I kept thinking, unable to reach conclusion, I thought why not confuse others :) Do you really know why you like a particular song?
So let me give you a clearer picture. This is about my liking for songs, I feel that I am more likely to like a song if I see the corresponding movie (ehh may be applicable to bollywood movie). Though I am not sure if the vice versa holds. To give you an example, when I first heard ‘Love Aaj Kal’ songs I didn’t like them, but then after I have seen the movie, I started liking the songs. So there comes the question of context? Is it that after I know the context in which the song is being played in the movie, I start to move in the FLOW of the song.
Again is it only the context or just because I have heard the songs so many times now, I have developed an affinity to them, and I started liking them. I say this because I liked so many English songs after hearing them for over 100 times! This happened during my graduation, as it was the time when I heard English songs for the first time in my life. There are songs which I did not like in the beginning and then as I heard them every day (Thanks to my neighbours) I developed a taste for them. Most of my English songs collection has the same story. The context is not there, but there is a ‘late’ melody. I mean I did not found the songs melodious in the first 10-15 hearing.
And then the context can also have two meanings, the context of the movie and the contextual situation when you heard the songs for the first time. The songs may pop up good old memories in you whenever it is being played. For e.g. Asoka and DCH songs remind me of my first semester at IIT and Fashion songs remind me of my Summer Internship when I was on my way to Pune from Mumbai (I watched that movie in the bus). Why am I writing this????
Well I am not really sure what made me like the ‘Love Aaj Kal’ songs when I first disliked them and I kept thinking, unable to reach conclusion, I thought why not confuse others :) Do you really know why you like a particular song?
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
Ulta-Pulta
Wonder which one is the correct news.....!!! and yes, the shortest post ever by me. Date is 16th September 2009.
Saturday, 5 September 2009
Generation GAP and Cinema
I had a course on Consumer Behavior (CB) this term and in the end-term examination of that course there was one question “Write and explain 5 values of Indian youth and what implications do they have on product consumption?” I remember in the course there were several chapters on how the consumer attitudes are changing with time and all sorts of terminologies have come up over time, ‘Baby Boomers’, Generation Y and Generation X etc. Though these terms are used for US population in general but the notion of changing customer attitude towards cannot be denied in Indian scenario and its implications are quite visible.
I was listening to Hindi songs after the CB exam and I generally keep my winamp on random mode with the entire hind songs collection put in the list. The songs that was played was ‘papa kahate hai’ from QSQT. The next song that the winamp played was ‘Koi kahe Kahata Rahe’ from DCH. ‘papa kahate hai’ start with “……Doston…. Shukriya…..party…..humare liye college ka yeh aakhri din hai aur mein jaanta hoon ki aane wali zindagi ke liye sabne kuch na kuch soch rakha hai……’ and then the songs starts with ‘papa kahate hai’ which says that ‘koi engineer ka kaam karega, koi business mein apna naam karega’. Now recollect the starting of ‘koi kahe kahata rahe’ from DCH, it starts with “….. who the hell cares where the hell we land up……”. Recollect that just before these lines the hero starts by saying that college passouts will go for higher studies and some will join their family business, some with start their own ventures and the response that the hero gets the crowd is a BIG BOOOOOOOO, he suddenly change the track and says “….who cares where the hell we land up…. Lets party……..”
Now let me talk about the commonalities in the context of these two songs, both the songs have a background of college graduates in their final graduation party and partying ways from their friends. Apart from diametrically apart attitudes of these two generations there is another thing common to these two songs which rather struck me a little late, and I want you to think of it till I finish my main story. So the main story is how cinema is sometimes a true reflection of a society or as the CB book put it cinema forms a part of cultural gatekeepers who screen the fashion and decide which trend gets a representation in the wider communication to public. The attitude towards life is definitely changed over the period of time. From ‘papa kahate hai’ to ‘koi kahe kahata rahe’ Indian youth has become more adventurous and risk taking, do not want to really lose their freedom so early by committing to job and increased responsibility. You can find out several contrasting themes from early 90s to early 2000s in Indian cinema and figure out yourself how the contemporary Indian youth is very different from its previous counterpart. These differences results in changed preferences towards many products, need for new products and services which the marketers constantly look for. Now that was a part of my answer that I wrote in the end-term examinations and I surely do not want to pen it down here.
Well, before I end the post, I hope you figured out the other similarity between the two songs I mentioned in the beginning of this post. Yes, both songs feature Aamir Khan!
I was listening to Hindi songs after the CB exam and I generally keep my winamp on random mode with the entire hind songs collection put in the list. The songs that was played was ‘papa kahate hai’ from QSQT. The next song that the winamp played was ‘Koi kahe Kahata Rahe’ from DCH. ‘papa kahate hai’ start with “……Doston…. Shukriya…..party…..humare liye college ka yeh aakhri din hai aur mein jaanta hoon ki aane wali zindagi ke liye sabne kuch na kuch soch rakha hai……’ and then the songs starts with ‘papa kahate hai’ which says that ‘koi engineer ka kaam karega, koi business mein apna naam karega’. Now recollect the starting of ‘koi kahe kahata rahe’ from DCH, it starts with “….. who the hell cares where the hell we land up……”. Recollect that just before these lines the hero starts by saying that college passouts will go for higher studies and some will join their family business, some with start their own ventures and the response that the hero gets the crowd is a BIG BOOOOOOOO, he suddenly change the track and says “….who cares where the hell we land up…. Lets party……..”
Now let me talk about the commonalities in the context of these two songs, both the songs have a background of college graduates in their final graduation party and partying ways from their friends. Apart from diametrically apart attitudes of these two generations there is another thing common to these two songs which rather struck me a little late, and I want you to think of it till I finish my main story. So the main story is how cinema is sometimes a true reflection of a society or as the CB book put it cinema forms a part of cultural gatekeepers who screen the fashion and decide which trend gets a representation in the wider communication to public. The attitude towards life is definitely changed over the period of time. From ‘papa kahate hai’ to ‘koi kahe kahata rahe’ Indian youth has become more adventurous and risk taking, do not want to really lose their freedom so early by committing to job and increased responsibility. You can find out several contrasting themes from early 90s to early 2000s in Indian cinema and figure out yourself how the contemporary Indian youth is very different from its previous counterpart. These differences results in changed preferences towards many products, need for new products and services which the marketers constantly look for. Now that was a part of my answer that I wrote in the end-term examinations and I surely do not want to pen it down here.
Well, before I end the post, I hope you figured out the other similarity between the two songs I mentioned in the beginning of this post. Yes, both songs feature Aamir Khan!
Saturday, 25 July 2009
The abused Advertisement
Consumers are bombarded with a lot of advertisement involving every possible media - The billboards, radio, TV, newspapers, mobiles, movie screens and web. We don’t care whether the ad was for detergent or chocolate. I remember seeing a new ad by Act II popcorn, some quick-cook popcorn product available in the market these days. The ad was without any background music, without any famous personality, forget famous it was without any human, It was only 4 messages one after another. What was the message then, well the message was ‘why do companies make ads’ ‘it is to help you take a break from watching tv’ ‘and go and make a Act II popcorn in two minutes’ ‘come back and enjoy the tv with Act II popcorn’.
Let me ask you 1 question, are we the consumers of advertisement. Do we consume advertisement, yes please refer the book for the definition of consumption.
Imagine a world devoid of any advertisements, also assume that people are completely aware of the brands available in the market so that I do not need to give the trivial answer that advertisements are to teach the consumers and make them aware of the brand or product. How will you feel, nothing to distract you. Moreover you are not required to pay a premium on products as whatever companies are spending on Ads is in-turn collected by consumers by marking up the price.
Nothing will disturb you when you are watching your favourite program on TV but what if you want to take a comfort break, you do not want to miss a part of the program on TV? What if you want to see whether other channels are airing more interesting program at this time? What if you pay Rs 40 for your daily newspaper instead of Rs 4 and Rs 2,000 to your cable operator instead of Rs 300. Shocked! well you shouldn’t be.
Advertisements do more than just subsidising the newspapers and TV costs, in general cost associated with entertainment and communications media. Let me try to put down some (not so thought) utility of advertisements.
Let me ask you 1 question, are we the consumers of advertisement. Do we consume advertisement, yes please refer the book for the definition of consumption.
Imagine a world devoid of any advertisements, also assume that people are completely aware of the brands available in the market so that I do not need to give the trivial answer that advertisements are to teach the consumers and make them aware of the brand or product. How will you feel, nothing to distract you. Moreover you are not required to pay a premium on products as whatever companies are spending on Ads is in-turn collected by consumers by marking up the price.
Nothing will disturb you when you are watching your favourite program on TV but what if you want to take a comfort break, you do not want to miss a part of the program on TV? What if you want to see whether other channels are airing more interesting program at this time? What if you pay Rs 40 for your daily newspaper instead of Rs 4 and Rs 2,000 to your cable operator instead of Rs 300. Shocked! well you shouldn’t be.
Advertisements do more than just subsidising the newspapers and TV costs, in general cost associated with entertainment and communications media. Let me try to put down some (not so thought) utility of advertisements.
- They make you feel important, you know there are companies wooing you everytime, and you easily tell your friends “these marketers do not know how to advertisement, they make such a terrible ads, they do not have any brains”.
- Not only they make you feel important, they provide you a constant source of ‘abuse object’ that you can abuse whenever you want to or whenever you do not have anything to discuss with your friends.
- While you are travelling the billboards alongside the road gives you a hint that a city is nearby, the size and shine will also tell how developed the city will be. Just imagine you are in a complete new city, unknown people and then you see a lot of billboards of known brands (Titan, Nokia, Coke, Adidas etc.), suddenly you feel connected (did you read my previous post on 'shades of journey').
- They decorate your roads, make it interesting, they are a proof that when you are in a city centre, it is indeed a city centre.
- They provide parents with options to show their small child different objects that are used in the advertisements like dog (hutch), leopard (Mountain Dew), jungle (Cadbury perk), stars (Airtel Ad); the child is ofcourse not able to see these things frequently in concrete jungle (yes our housing societies).
- Sometimes they provide you with new ideas, funny moments where you do not have to scratch your head to understand every bit of it. They are some of the simple things you watch on tv.
- Billboards also decorate the big walls of Malls, Cinema Halls and they appeal to your eyes. The actresses/models in those big posters beautify the surroundings.
In all these sorts of exposures, I am not consuming the product but consuming the Ad. And I am paying for this consumption, by purchasing those marked-up products of the companies that use these ads. Tell me, do you consume advertisements?
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