Case Study

Case Study Mumbai Yoga Fest

https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/vUnwDEhTkTvBMR

No medals, high spirits: The Indian psyche.

There's a famous Nike ad that goes, "You don't win the silver. You lose the gold."

As the Rio Olympics draws to its conclusion, India may well finish without a single medal in its kitty. Strangely this hasn't dampened the enthusiasm levels in the country. Most Indians have taken this loss in their stride and are celebrating their athletes who lost.

The people at Nike and their ad agency must surely be scratching their heads and wondering what they've missed and where they went wrong in understanding India. Even as American, Australian, Chinese, German and Fijian athletes weep at the loss of a gold medal, we're happy with nothing. 

"We participated and did our best. It's fine if we didn't win." is the common refrain.

I'm not commenting on the right or wrong of it. I've only been wondering about why we Indians have a different attitude to winning and losing from every other country. The answer perhaps lies in our very philosophy of existence.

Westerners believe life is linear. You only live once. Therefore it's important to make the most of it. Their ultimate ambition is immortality through achievements and deeds that are remembered till posterity for the record they created or broke. Hence since time immemorial they've recorded their achievements for posterity, cherished and awarded them.

But in Indian philosophy we believe that life is circular. I.e we are trapped in this cycle of life and death. Whatever you do, there's no escaping it and you will only return to this world to perform your earthly duty once more. Only those mahatmas who rise above their materialistic desires are freed from this cycle.

So what's great about an Olympics record or a gold medal? For it is not the end of the world. There will be many more Olympics; countless, infinite number of Olympics in the lifetime of the universe, which is still expanding. And in that  infinitude, there will be many opportunities and situations for us to win countless medals. So why fret about this one?

After all we're all just energy that get converted from one form to another, trapped in this same universe. Which itself will expand, then contract into a dot and explode with another big bang again. Then again and again continuously. Forever.

Neither you, nor I, neither Dipa Karmarkar, nor Michael Phelps will escape this. So eventually we'll catch up. For now, lets celebrate. Jai Hind.

Lessons I learnt from R Balki

In the late '90s I was an Account Manager at the Lintas Mumbai office, which at that point didn't have a creative leader, the lack of this critical function subsequently reflected in the work it put out across it six 'units'. The Bangalore office of Lintas though, was seeing a resurgence of sorts in its creative output. This was credited chiefly to its creative head, R Balki.

As the rumblings from our clients in Mumbai increased, it was felt that perhaps Balki could help us out. Given his tight schedules he agreed to drop in for a day to solve the logjams at the various units before proceeding to Delhi where more problems awaited him.

It was one day that I'll never forget. Balki reached the Lintas Express Towers office very early in the morning and began with the first unit on the 13th floor long before regular office hours began. With a notepad in one hand, surrounded by each brand team followed by the next from each unit, Balki began giving creative solutions of every nature for all the problems that were thrown at him. 

Remember this was not a fun exercise. This was real business, real work for unhappy clients, impatient clients, confused clients, accommodating clients. Clients who had trusted us to come up with creative, clutter-breaking solutions for their problems. And Balki patiently, quickly and without fuss, delivered the goods along with each team, resolutely, creatively and to the brief.

This went on, hour by hour, team by team, unit by unit, floor by floor. He didn't pause for a moments break, never raised his voice, never undermined anyone. He simply absorbed the pressure and came up with nothing-short-of-brilliant solutions.

It was late evening when he reached our unit. I expected him to stick with the senior management of our unit, but that was not to be. He insisted that every unit member contribute. In fact when I hesitatingly stated a contrarian view, he championed my cause, telling my unit head that since I was the Account Manager who daily interacted with the client, I was best equipped to provide information about the situation at the ground level.

We were struggling to come out with a script for a TVC. He re-aligned the brief and asked our unit CD to work out one, on the spot, even as he attempted his own. Our unit CD (a phenomenal creative person by all accords) came up with a great script which was based on a different strategy than Balki's own.

For a few minutes they argued over which script was more apt - notice neither evaluated the scripts on their creativity. Then our unit CD, told Balki that he believed in the one he'd written.

I turned to look at Balki, who smiled, tore up the script he'd written and simply said, "I agree, you're right. We'll go with that one. Call me if you need anything." Then he left us, rushing off to catch his flight. The partnership he forged with various creative folks, including our unit CD remains true to this day.

I've heard a lot of young creative dudes subsequently wanting to be like Balki. The only thing I always tell them is that to be like Balki, you must first adopt his incredible work ethic:

1. Hard-work, hard-work, hard-work. Then more hard-work. Never say no to work

2. Involve everyone, listen to everyone. Remember insights come from people and anyone working on the brand can come up with the right one

3. You become a leader by solving problems and taking on responsibilities

4. However good one is, the mark of a true leader is to build the confidence of his team because together we can achieve even more

5. The only attitude worth having is a solutions-oriented one

Mullen Lowe Lintas is a great organization and I'm sure Balki would've ensured it is in safe hands and will continue to grow. I wish him and the team at Lintas the very best.

Consistency Vs Creativity

Why brands succeed or fail : The Persuasion Factor

"Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, the trouble is I don't know which half." So said John Wanamaker.Indeed this question continues to be asked even today by every marketing and communication professional across every discipline as new brand failure rates across category range from 40% right upto 75% in the packaged consumer goods retail categories.

While it is impossible to give one reason to account for all product failures, what is emerging as an important reason for consumer off-take is the extent of Persuasion Factor that a brand has built into it.

A brand's Persuasion Factor is what drives a consumer to finally choose, select and purchase it over all it competitors. Persuasion Factor is very different from the other attributes brands use today in their identity viz. brand values, brand differentiator, consumer insight and brand personality. While all of these are important in defining a brand and in making it distinct, none of them can guarantee that a consumer will definitely buy the brand in question. 

Persuasion Factor as the name suggests, is the indicator of this very critical aspect of consumer selection. Brands with a low Persuasion Factor will definitely not get picked up whereas brands with a high Persuasion Factors have a greater chance of being purchased. Persuasion Factor is not merely a communication variable, it's intrinsic to a brand's DNA, instilled in it during the creation process.

Brands that have a high Persuasion Factor have a clear answer to the question: "What about this brand makes it impossible for a consumer to resist buying?"

If the answer is merely Hritik Roshan or Shahrukh Khan, you know just how little that's going to help.

Similarly, answers that are mundane and given simply to fill up the blanks aren't really going to work in the marketplace e.g It's convenient or It's cheaper.

The answer has to be and sound COMPELLING.

Why will a consumer break an age old habit to pick this?

Why does he NOT BUY a cheaper, equally good option but choose to pay a premium for this brand?

What will make her take the trouble to walk all the way to come to this shop for his groceries?

Persuasion Factor is the sum total of reasons that drives, needles and forces a consumer to undergo discomfort, jump out of his/her comfort zone, take a gamble, fight lethargy, habit, tradition OR change, peer pressure and modernity... to choose your brand.

Where does your brand score in the Persuasion Factor index?

Deja Vu

In 1985 India greeted Rajiv Gandhi with the same enthusiasm that Modi received 3 decades later. Both promised a clean, corruption-free and efficient governance. To effect this, both leaders brought in or supported honest and renowned technocrats to clean up the system.

But it's difficult for a leader to clean a system if he's fed on it to reach the top. The movie 'Guru' hinted at the undoing of Rajiv Gandhi. We all know how Rajiv Gandhi lost his aura, his hold on the people and eventually power.
The removal of Raghuram Rajan as the RBI governor is a sign that once again corruption is winning in India. Rajan's monetary policies may or may not be perfect we'll never know but his intent and action taken to weed out bloodsucking parasites who have mastered the art of bleeding money from the banking system was spot on.

In this honorable effort he clearly stepped on the toes of the powerful businesses backing the ruling party and its leaders. The silence from both the PM and the FM speaks out loud and clear.

India lost again.

How Ideas Lose Luster

In its attempt to provide content for its members, Facebook spawned an entire industry of content creators and curators who flood our pages based on trends, news and interests.
This has had an opposite effect. It's made news feeds more predictable and uniform. Notice the similarity of topics being discussed also among the same set of friends.
It's killed the spontaneity and originality that once forced us to write original posts. Today all we do is share and like. Wait, even likes are defined by love laugh anger emoticons further reducing the effort of conversations and comments.
But in this effort to create an easier world on Facebook, it's ended up making it similar to the real one.
Something tells me that change is staring us in our faces. Something that will lure us with a bold idea and the excitement of creation and connection.