Two decades in the industry, over 300 films to his credit, yet, he feels as nervous every time he directs. Meet Prasoon Pandey, Founding Director, Corcoise Films

Media pundits claim that his moment of glory is the Ericsson cell phone ‘one black coffee’ commercial way back in 1996 (also the first Indian commercial to win at Cannes). But ask Prasoon Pandey, Founding Director, Corcoise films of his biggest achievement and the reply will surprise you. “In year 2001, the ad club had declared a best of the millennium commercial by selecting a total of 10 commercials from their previous year winners. And surprisingly, out of the 10 short-listed commercials, around 8 commercials were my films and the final commercial that won the title was also mine (the Feviquick-fishing rod commercial!).” And since then, Prasoon swears that every single day, everything’s been flowing the same way for him.

The veteran director, who has now over 300 films to his credit, started Corcoise in 2001 along with Cyrus Pagdiwala, his co-worker at Highlight Films. Soon, he got the pharma major, Pfizer as his first client. Nevertheless, though his six years at Highlight grilled him enough to learn the nuances of the trade, he was never interested in the intricacies of numbers. He admits, “The numbers never interested me. Not even when I worked as a creative director at Lintas or Highlight Films.” But the one thing that really triggers him is his own space for creativity. And that was the only reason for which he started his own production outfit. This also allowed him to be very selective at his work, as he says, “My biggest fear is that if I take too much of work, then I will start repeating.”

Undoubtedly, for a man who has been a name to reckon with in the industry, it’s a Herculean task to determine his favourite work. But Prasoon does that job seamlessly and admits that the recent Fevicol- moochwali campaign has been creatively stimulating for him. But simultaneously, he also unraveled his biggest secret and revealed, “Even today, when I start making a film, I find myself as nervous as my first one.” Words of reality many would find hard to believe, but probably that’s the exaggerated mantra, which has made Prasoon deliver the best year after year.


For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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The ex-HUL and Gillette veteran, Anil Dua, currently Senior VP – Marketing and Sales, Hero Honda, takes a tactical look at various strategic manoeuvres over the past years

The company has been able to thrive amidst slowdown blues while the competitors were struggling. What kind of marketing changes you brought in the slowdown phase?
We have been passionate in our journey based on some great foundations. We got some amazing four stroke products that were great on mileage than the other two-wheelers in India in the 1980s. We marketed those products using the perfect marketing mix i.e. all the 4Ps. But times have changed, so upgrading products remains the most preferred agenda.

Simultaneously, the company has put together the rest of marketing mix beautifully i.e. price, distribution and positioning strategy. Since we differentiated on mileage, the product campaign ‘Fill it Shut it Forget it’ became legendary. It was well understood by the customers; one reason that after 25 years, we again used the ‘Fill it Shut it Forget it’ campaign, once again talked about mileage; and consumers do believe that we have given them the best. Mileage is one aspect of this whole journey that we believe must be carried forward. We have adjusted our acceleration level according to the times. If you look at the last 4-5 years; we introduced 8-9 products every year, which were refreshes or new products. Compare that to the initial 15 years, where the company launched 8-9 products in total.

The truth – is it your aggressive approach giving competition a tough time or is it the rising competition which keeps you on your toes?
It’s mainly because of the aggressive approach that we follow but the competition also makes us work hard always. For the last 5 years, innovations are taking place along with the rising complexity of the market which is happening. In terms of segmentation, we have segmented the consumer in a way that every segment has a product to meet the aspirations of the consumer. Our marketing campaigns have been successful since the last 3-4 years. Now we have 5 bikes in the premium category which we typically term as our Diamond strategy. The bikes, Hunk & CBZ, are 150 cc but we have targeted the audience differently.

From a marketing point of view, all the five bikes are different from each other as we have different groups and very sharp group segmentation. We are growing at a rate of 15% in the premium segment which is decent enough to gain market share in this segment.

But companies like Yamaha, Bajaj are much stronger in the premium segment. Do you take it as a challenge to gain the pole position in this segment of the market?
Our share in premium segment was once very small as we had negligible presence in the segment, but over the last four years, our share has more than doubled. We have backlogs on our books as we have been unable to fulfill the demands of the customers because of the limited production capacity. The latest addition, Karizma ZMR, has been an instant hit in the Indian market that has been beating our own expectations. We are trying hard to grow our capacity as we, as a company, do not believe in bookings.


For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM makes business education truly global
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm - Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri (IIPM Dean) – ‘Every human being is a diamond’
Arindam Chaudhuri – Everything is not in our hands
Planman Technologies – IT Solutions at your finger tips
Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri's Portfolio - he is at his candid best by Society Magazine

IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM: Management Education India
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website


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