Four Eyes and Two Lenses

We read several articles written by businesses on the best practices to communicate to customers during an adverse situation or a pandemic. But we saw only a few businesses walking the talk, that they preached earlier, during the recent COVID-19 situation. It showed us the reality of many businesses and their character beyond the P/L statement to help humanity and literally act as humans for humans. In all of this comes a human, who is popularly known to play villain roles in Indian cinema, who is now making businesses take notes on how to share the pain of customers and convert the whole situation into a positive one just by compassion and communication. Mr. Sonu Sood needs no introduction to you as his actions, in real life, not only have given a new meaning to hope but also have shown that how a single person can bring the change. His response, by helping people in times of crisis, teaches us the very basics of business communication and personal branding that many busi...

My fascination for political marketing was rooted in 2014 when Mr. Narendra Modi came to power. It was the first time when I witnessed the real power of a brand. Back then I was not a student of marketing but always had an appreciation and aspiration to make a career in it. I always wondered about the kind of creativity one requires to come up with ideas of portraying the products, services, or anything a customer wants to buy. Fast forward to today, 6 years of Modi government and 6 years of me trying to decode his way of communicating with the masses. Although, in these years, I learned marketing basics in my MBA class but saw live examples in form of BJP's political campaigns. The importance of 5W1H ( Why, Who, What, Where, When, and How ) was clearly visible, the art of storytelling and gamification was aptly used, and the use of technology and social media was smartly leveraged. It was something out of a playbook to win masses. It was surreal to see the magic Mr. Modi had on ...

When I think of Congress I think of a party where there are several wanna-be leaders who boast their knowledge on the public platform and hope to become a leader someday. Although this is a good thing and can be pursued by anyone, what I see is that they don't care about or support what the other person is actually doing for the party, as they speak for themselves and always want to be known among the public for their thoughts and actions rather than of the party. Though, they do associate themselves with the party name but do not acknowledge or promote things done by other party members. They are focusing more on individual branding and achievements rather than collective branding and achievements. And, this is not just limited to bottom-level party members but can also be seen in the top-level party members of Congress. They like to play solo but within an umbrella of several solo players. And this has brought problems for Congress in the past and will continue in the futur...

A few days back I was challenged to assess the Mahashivratri festival and write about it in terms of its Marketing significance. On first thought, it looks like a bizarre combo and a headline, but on second thought one can actually realize that marketing is such a domain to which one can relate to everything. Marketing, itself, is a broader term that holds several concepts and thoughts at different walks of life of a human. Be it awareness, or consideration, or be it choice, marketing influences everything. So is religion. For many, religion is one such area that is untouched by what I am trying to put my words here, i.e. marketing. But if we closely look, from time immemorial, religion or spirituality has always gone through, what we know today as, the Marketing Funnel (Awareness-Interest-Evaluation-Trial-Adoption) . On another note, we can also see that marketing and religion both serve the same purpose of fulfilling the needs of a person. Though the needs can sometimes ...

Chennai has always been close to my heart. It has given me 6 years of memories, countless experiences, 2 educational degrees, and some very good friends for life. I remember the time when I stepped down at Chennai Central from Sanghmitra Express on a ‘not so very’ hot day in 2010. I was excited to jump into the Bay of Bengal at Marina Beach. At the same time, I was afraid of the language barrier that I might face in a city where I am coming for the very first time. Having a mixed feeling in my mind I moved forward to explore the city offerings. onn, rend, moon, naal, annj, aar became my new numerals. Idli-Vada-Dosa-Sambhar became my new staples. ‘ippdi irka?’, ‘saptiya?’, ‘inge vaa’, ‘evlo?’ , became my new daily phrases. It was fun exploring and experiencing the south-Indian culture. T.Nagar, Broadway, Spencer Plaza Mall were some of the places I frequently visited. 19B, 570 became my favorite bus numbers. Being a food lover, I got adjusted to the southern cuisine like a fish adju...

I remember the time when he used to draw snowcapped mountains, sun, birds, clouds, a river flowing out of it, a small hut with a tree beside it. The small kid wished to visit such a place someday. Little did he know that going to such a place would be a wish for him even after 20 years. He is now engulfed in city traffic. He now covers his face to get away from air pollution, puts on earphones to beat the noise pollution. Mere a sight of birds going back to their nests in the evening transports him back to his childhood. He gets sad when he remembers how plastic pollution is killing these beautiful birds. Pollution kills Dreams. Pollution kills Life.

Below was my response to a LinkedIn post where the author was asking people to pay $15 as an upfront cost to access the course only to get it refunded at the end of the course (If they cover at least 80% of the course). The author had an intention to get full participation from the ones who are accessing the course and not to leave the course in between. Though this strategy would certainly clear the junk participation unless the content is good, the strategy might backfire in the future. Below is my response. "1. Those who are interested in doing the course will only be applying for it. The junk will be out. (Though there is no guarantee of 100% participation) 2. Looking back at the earlier scenario, people must have their reasons for leaving the course midway. (The quality, of course, can be one among them.) 3. Now, even if those who are interested in the course, give $15, access the course but realize that the course is not worth investing the time, would lose $15. 4. So, ...

Lessons learned during Elections 2019* > KG students are better behaved than our politicians. > Politicians complaint more to EC than the KG student to CR. > The life of actor-turned-politicians outside their home is equal to the number of the election campaign days. > India is not a poor country. Thanks to the billionaire politicians. > The amount of money in your bank account has nothing to do with your educational/entrepreneurial qualifications (actually, it is inversely proportional). > We can see a lot of jumping jacks during election time. Jitendra (Bollywood actor) is not the only Jumping Jack. > Unpronounceable (and obviously uncountable) figures of money can be seen in this season as well. (after GATE season) > Criminals can be found using TikTok inside the jail to spread their love for the country (and for the people, of course). > News channel anchors grow a new pair of ears to listen to everyone politely proving his/her point during the...