It started with a rivet. Born in Germany this man migrated to USA, settled in San Francisco and became a trader. Jacob Davis a tailor, started buying cloth from him to stitch pants. One of his customers kept ripping his pockets on his pants & Jacob had a tough time repairing it time & again, till he came upon the idea of putting copper rivets at the stress points on the pocket corner. His “riveted work pants” very quickly became a craze. Worried that someone would steal his idea, he called on his friend, the trader. Together they patented his invention. For twenty years Jacob and his friend Levi were the only company allowed to make riveted work pants. This is how the story of Levis “jeans” started – with a rivet.

In today’s world too, its “riveting” stories that bring success. Every time you look at a Levis jeans you remember the rivet story. Good stories stick on and make the brand name stick on too.

Stories don’t just save lives
There was woman named Scheherazade who was one of the many slaves of the Sultan. The Sultan was known for beheading anyone who displeased him. The intelligent woman found a unique way to save her life… every night she told him a story, but would stop at the most exciting part and make the Sultan wait until the next evening to hear the end. For 1001 nights she did this. It impressed the king so much that he not only granted her life, but also married her.

A great story is what is responsible for the survival of great brands too. We all love stories. We love to listen to them, narrate them & we all love great story tellers. Great stories never die – look at the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Similarly great brands built on great stories live on.

“Intel Inside” is one of the shortest, yet one of the most successful stories ever told. Not many know or understand the benefit of an Intel processor in their computer, yet it’s these two words that make them feel confident that they have made the right choice.

According to some thinkers what really turns a product into a “brand” is intelligent “PR” (Public Relations). You need to let out an interesting story to the media, for people to notice you. Later on, advertising can be used to sustain the brand & survive. One company that used it the best to its advantage was the UK-based “Innocent” brand of smoothies. There was a “story” woven into every ‘P’ of marketing, right from the name – well chosen, to represent that everything in the bottle was “fresh and unadulterated” to the packaging. Short on budget, they launched the drink from a stall put up in a little music festival in London. On top of their stall they put up a sign which read thus: “Do you think we should give up our jobs to make these smoothies?” and put two bins labeled “Yes” & “No”. If you liked the smoothies you had to put the empty bottles in the “Yes” bin. At the end of the weekend the “Yes” bin was full. The two friends resigned from their jobs, and “Innocent” was born. Not just the brand name, even the logo & the packaging was designed in such a manner as to tell the story of their company’s philosophy. Their aim was to design the packaging such that it told a three word story i.e. the contents are “home-made, natural, and posh.” This helped them differentiate from the hundreds of “fresh juice” brands crowding the marketplace. The space behind the logo on the bottle was used to put down a “banana phone” number where you could call and let the company know what you thought about smoothies. You could even mail them. The unique way of telling your story via the packaging caught the fancy of consumers & shook up the beverage market. The company showed it was a good story & not big budgets that was required to win over customers & market share.      Read More....

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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
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He is more popular than Jesus… well, at least on Twitter and he is just 16 years old. His mom posted a video of his on YouTube, which triggered a series of events and shot him to fame. Today every girl from the age group of 7-16 dreams of how it would be to be his girlfriend.

She did in 18 months what Madonna took nearly a decade to accomplish. She is 23. She features in the 2010 Time Magazine’s listing of the 100 most influential people in the world. Who are these people? How will they affect business?


Get to know them better
Welcome to the new world. Generations come and generations go and they leave their impact on the world. The generation of ‘Baby Boomers’ is retiring and a whole new, and totally different one is emerging, ready to take on the world. Look around you they are everywhere, in sports (Maria Sharapova, b.1987), in business (Mark Zuckerberg, Founder Facebook, b.1984, Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump’s daughter, b.1981), in music (Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus of the Hannah Montana fame, b: 1992, and of course Justin Bieber, remember he is more famous than Jesus, and Lady GaGa, who beat Madonna in her own game) in Hollywood (Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame, Megan Fox, b.1986 , Hilary Duff and the very pretty Scarlett Johansson, b.1984). They are even the new face of Royalty! Move over Lady Diana, it’s time for Princes, William and Harry. These are the people who are not just bringing the gold medals for sports, but also the Oscars, and the moolah for businesses.

In fact, they seem to be popping-up just about everywhere. Look at more characters being modeled behind them. In the fi lm ‘Up in the Air’, the young recruit changes the whole work place and shakes up George Clooney, as he gets a close view of the way this generation functions. He realises that they nowadays use SMS to even break up a relationship. Look at movies like the Devil Wears Prada, (500) Days of Summers etc. and you will get to understand them better. The latest ad of Intel in some way mirrors this new generation’s thought process. The tagline goes – “they come from around the world. Then they go out and change it”. Intel: Sponsors of Tomorrow. The copy of the advertisement goes on to explain how the company uses these young minds to solve tomorrow’s biggest challenges. Look, even scientists are getting younger. Mover over, old, wild Einstein, the image of a new scientist is a smart, cool, kid! These are the “Millennial”. Just a few years ago, you watched them zip by in cars driven by their parents with the ‘Baby on board’ stickers on them. You fought with them across the dining table to fi nish the vegetables on their plates. Today, you are meeting them in the boardrooms, and in the market place, and you cannot ignore them, for according to a survey done by Pews Research, this is America’s most educated generation, and the one with a large spending power. This is the first generation that grew up with computers, mobile phones, and got iPods & Nintendos as Christmas gifts. They are multi-taskers, they live on the Internet. They don’t go to the stores to buy things – they first check the website. This is also a generation that grew up in stable homes, is closer to their parents, who are more like friends (remember it was Justin Biebers’s mother who posted his first video on YouTube & is the one who travels with him and he is proud about it). This generation likes large families and is more tolerant. Most importantly, it’s very hard working, talented, confident, connected and open to change. It even voted for “change”. Don’t forget this is the generation that made the impossible happen and voted Barack Obama to power. And yes, he may not be Elton John, at least not yet, but 16 years old Justin Bieber got to perform at the White House.     Read More....


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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
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American Airlines spent tons of money reupholstering seats in their entire fleet and then of course spent more publicising this fact. They ran ads in all leading newspapers and magazines with the headline “Fly in leather”, for now they knew they had an edge over their competitors. Excited by their terrific ad campaign they decided to take it across borders and share it with their potential Spanish speaking customers. Of course, this time they translated it in Spanish, so that it would have a wider appeal. However what they got was rather unexpected. A lot of Spanish speaking people complained about these advertisements. Much to the horror of the airline, when they looked at the Spanish advertisement & translated them back again in English they realized, their snappy headline “Fly in leather” had changed to “Fly Naked”!

Don’t Translate
Just because you have a great ad-campaign, does not guarantee success in all markets. Since business today is done in multiple markets, each different from the other in terms of culture, language, religion et al, it makes sense to be ‘culturally sensitive’ while doing business.

As a starter – don’t translate – if you want to avoid global mishaps and embarrassments. The Dairy Milk Association learnt it the hard way. After its hugely successful campaign “Got Milk” popularized the benefits of milk in US, the company decided to continue its victory march to Mexico with the same campaign. However it had to beat a hasty retreat after it realised that the Spanish translation actually read – “Are you lactating”. Wrong translations landed Parker Pens in trouble when the ads which were supposed to say “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you” turned into “It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant”. Coors beer wanted to show you how you could let your hair down and have fun with Coors, when it made its tagline “Turn it loose”. The Spaniards were not pleased when they saw a beer that helped you “Get loose bowels”. The Chinese too got really suspicious of this drink which promised to “Bring your ancestors back from the dead”. The various Chinese characters had distorted the phrase “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation!”. Unfortunately, no one in China (which is already heavily populated) wanted to bring their ancestors back!

Today, every brand is on the lookout for broader markets – mostly international. Many times, it is the language barrier that can harm a campaign & even the overall brand. To reach new markets, mere “translations” never work. From the obvious, hilarious faux pas, to the serious marketing blunders, everything can be avoided if we look beyond translation.

We need to look beyond the language and into the cultural differences in languages. We need to “transcreate”. Quickly defined, it would mean “not just translating content, but ensuring it is culturally relevant as well”. Such a measure will take care of the cultural differences & language nuances.     Read More....


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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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There is more IPL action happening on the front pages of newspapers than the sports pages. The controversies, the money spent on buying “super players”, $2.75 million on Kieron Pollard, $1.3 million on Shane Bond, got me intrigued. Does stacking your team with the best players guarantee success?

The myth of the Lone ranger
Personal leadership is the most studied, researched topic in American life. However romantic the idea of a larger than life individual working alone and accomplishing great things may sound, the fact remains – seldom can success be attributed to one individual. Most of the times, it’s not great men or great women, but great groups that have been responsible for success.

Great groups are formed not by putting extremely talented people together. In fact, talent alone can never result in success. The fact is that even Michelangelo worked with a group of 16 artists to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel – one of his most famous works. The lone ranger can only achieve as much, while a great team can break all boundaries and even do the impossible. What makes a team truly great is the fact that they are bound to each other with a “Great Dream”. Henry Ford once said, “Coming together is a beginning, working together is progress, achieving together is success.” The feeling of togetherness comes when you have a shared goal.

Last month, an interesting documentary hit the theaters. It was titled “Waking Sleeping Beauty”, by director Don Hahn. He explains the second coming of Disney studios, which had been left far behind after Pixar entered the business. Hahn, a Disney producer himself shows how the Magic Kingdom was staffed with the best talent in 1984 with young, very energetic & extremely creative people, yet, every production bombed. It took two great team players – Michael Eisner, and Jeffrey Katzenberg to turn this creative chaos into a movie-making powerhouse. Then in the 90s, due to ego clashes and various other reasons, they stopped playing as a team and the downward spiral started again. As Hahn himself says, “I can’t look at animation as anything other than a team sport”. This is true for most business – and good leaders know that.

A lot of us may feel we are good team players, for we are helpful, friendly and are actively involved in the happenings of the company. This is passive leadership. The real “team players” are those who not just bring out best in themselves, but have the knack to identify the true potential of their team members and charge them up and stimulate them so much that they go ahead and do the impossible.

Often, superstars come with ‘super egos’, but ‘super team leaders’ are ‘super ego mangers’ – and that’s what success is all about.     Read More....


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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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“Team sunegi, duniya dekhegi;” it’s your chance to tell Mumbai Indians how to play. And if that’s not enough, then for a cricket crazy nation there is more. You can help Kolkata Knight Riders by actually coaching them, for this time, Shahrukh is asking for your suggestions & making you a coach of his team. “Main bhi coach,” sums up the Indian mentality where everybody sitting in front of their TV sets knows the exact “winning mantra” for each match. This time, a lot of IPL teams are asking you, and rewarding you too for your suggestions. Why?

“You” – the new advertising guru

The chocolate bar ‘Picnic’ seemed to have run-out of an ad agency, when in February this year, it invited consumers to create their own advertisements, where they had to film themselves attempting to eat a Picnic in 30 seconds flat. The best films would be the new commercials for the brand and would be aired on TV. Seeing the super success of involving the crowds, Australia’s bankrupt radio station FBi 94.5FM asked its listeners to come out with innovative ways of asking music-loving billionaire Richard Branson to save the radio. People came up with the most creative ideas… from baking 5000 cupcakes with Branson’s face, to one enthusiast even swimming up to Branson’s private island to ask for his help. Branson finally called up the radio station & gave a donation last month. A great campaign more-so, considering the client was already bankrupt!

The mob can do magic if you hit the right spot. In 2006, Doritos asked people to make their own ads of the chips, upload it on the Doritos website and the most voted ad would be aired during the Super bowl, with the winner taking away $10,000. Last year (2009), the prize money went up to $1 million, but that’s not the point; for the first time in 10 years the king of beers, Anheuser-Busch was dethroned as the king of “Super Bowl Commercials” by the Doritos ad, made by an amateur on a measly $2000 budget. Not only did this show that just because you are a big ad agency, you have the best ideas, but that a great idea can come from anywhere, so just don’t forget the mob.

In February last year, Bingo asked people to create games, quizzes et al, around the theme “Bingo har angle se mmmm...” It got the wackiest of responses from someone suggesting George Bush should say “M sending Bingo Chilli Dhamaka to Iraq”… and not bombs to a blind man seeing with his mind’s eye how “yumm” the chips were.

Lays went a step further. Forget an advertisement, now you could create your own flavour and win Rs.50 lakh + 1% of the product’s sales revenue. “Be a little dillogical”; well, nobody was complaining even though the award seemed “illogical” or rather too good to be true!     Read More....


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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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It’s a special issue that we hold in our hands today and hence a time to celebrate, and celebrate we will. For as someone said, “Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey.” It’s been an amazing journey for 4Ps B&M. It stared as a dream, an idea, and over the years was nurtured and made grandiose by A. Sandeep, the most witty, dynamic and intelligent Editor of the magazine. He was, is and will be the backbone of this magazine. It’s geniuses like him and Sutanu Guru, Steven and Aditi who have made this magazine so popular and revered! 100 is after all a very special number and our 100th issue very special too. It symbolises commitment, consistency and great quality and trust which our readers have put in the magazine.

“Trust” is the keyword and various instances in the recent past have once again proved that this is the most important factor. No one has realised this more than Toyota. In February 2010, Toyota recalled hundreds of thousands of its cars from America and Japan due to faulty brakes resulting in huge losses. According to a survey, Toyota previously had a flawless reputation, with nearly 92% respondents trusting the brand almost blindly. Post the recall issue, only 66% consumers consider it reliable. In fact, in USA, about 26% judged Toyota to be of a lower quality than domestic brands. In this world of cut-throat competition, this is not good as competitors don’t miss a chance to beat you down... which is exactly what Ford did. It’s the only American car company to have survived the steepest sales downturn in decades – that too without a government bailout. When it comes to winning new customers and their trust and admiration, Ford has taken the lead and its showing in their balance sheets too. In 2009, Ford actually made profits – for the first time after fi ve years and thanks to the once-in-a-lifetime “golden” opportunity provided by Toyota. Ford now says there’ll be no “brakes” on its profitability even in 2010.

It is trust that has made Apple top the charts, third year in a row as “the world’s most admired company.” Apple generates a hysteria around its products. This year, its sales are generating the same hysteria. Just three years old, in the smart phone category and the iPhone has already become the world’s third largest smart phone maker. Apple doubled its iPhone sales last year to 25 million. It is trust built over the years by Disney due to its obsessive focus on product quality that has seen it get ranked No.1 in world class quality by consumers.

Trust is that intangible factor that keeps companies afloat & enables them to beat competition; trust is something we value most. It’s the trust that our readers have put in us that we have been able to reach the “100th issue” milestone. “100” after all is an interesting number. There seems to be a magical ring to it. Ask any cricket lover and he will be able to recount the magical and fastest 100 scored by Shahid Afridi against Srilanka in Nairobi. A 102 runs out of just 37 balls. If one 100 can get people so excited, then think of two 100s and you could even get a Bharat Ratna, if not deliriously happy to say the least! Sachin Tendulkar became the first cricketer in the history of one-day cricket to score a double hundred in Gwalior. Every Indian’s heart swelled with pride.     Read More....


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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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As the world became sure of the rumours that Apple would launch its “much talked- about-tablet” the iPad by January end, NASDAQ went into a tizzy. Apple’s share prices soared. The world was bursting with excitement of what would Steve Jobs do this time! Gawker Media even went to the extent of publicly offering up to $1,00,000 in cash for photos of the Apple tablet a week before the actual launch. Yes, Jobs knows his job very well. He knows how to excite the world and how to very intelligently market his inventions. Moses knew the power of the “tablet” when years ago he descended on Earth with the 10 commandments engraved on it. Steve Jobs did much the same when he demonstrated how the world would change its ways after the iPad!

IPAD GIVES COMPETITION A RUN FOR ITS MONEY
Amazon’s e-reader ‘Kindle’ is definitely going to feel the heat for the iPad. Apart from being a beautiful device, the iPad is much cooler and more fun. It’s colorful, sleek and will come with zillions of applications for the user to download. Priced almost at par with the Kindle, the iPad would definitely be giving sleepless nights to Jeff Bezos (founder of Amazon.com & Kindle). The tablet is going to be the new form of browsing the web.

The iPad, with its new technology, makes browsing super fast, easy and most importantly an absolute delight. We might soon be saying goodbye to our laptops and desktops! The iPad brings along with it the “Tablet Age” and soon we could see a lot of people reaching out for a ‘Tablet’ to do a lot of things!

ADAM GIVES IPAD A RUN FOR ITS MONEY.
Yes, the iPad is changing the rules of the game yet again. However, there is someone who might give it sleepless nights too. It’s none other than our very own ex-student from IIPM, Sachin Ralhan, and his friends who have designed the Indian tablet PC, ‘ADAM’! It would be released in July in America and many feel it’s better than the iPad. It has everything that the iPad doesn’t have. It is slimmer than the iPad, it’s cheaper, it’s got a longer battery life, can run a 1080p HD video (which the iPad cannot), and uses NVIDIA’s new Tegra2 chipset (making its hardware sturdier than iPad’s), has USB ports and runs Flash, both of which the iPad cannot! Three cheers to Sachin, to IIPM and India! I’m surely waiting for the ‘Adam’! All the eves, the envious, the curious and various others, let’s together root for Adam!     Read More....


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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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‘When times are good, you should advertise. When times are bad, you must advertise.’ Though some marketers were not swayed by the logic then, they have now realised that the fastest way to set things right is with a powerful dose of a great advertisement

An interesting billboard went up in Manhattan in New York a few days back. The advertisement showed Oracle President Charles Phillips posing with a lady named YaVaughnie Wilkins with a quote below the picture that read, “You are my soul mate forever.” The only problem was, Charles was the only person who knew not that he would be featuring in this ad; for it was Ms. Wilkins – with whom he had had an eight-year long affair – who had decided to make things public after he dumped her! She even put a website address on the billboard: charlesphillipsandyavaughniewilkins.com where, if you wanted, you could check out the couple’s snaps, letters and cards sent to each other! Be it an interesting advertisement, adultery or advertisement of adultery, if done well, they never ever fail to capture the attention of the world. Last year, a lot of companies lost faith in the power of a good advertisement; and due to very bad times, a lot were forced to cut down their advertising budgets. But the fact remains, even though advertising is the tip of the whole marketing iceberg, it’s a very important tip nevertheless. And everywhere, companies are once again putting back their faith in this medium of marketing. For like Ms. Wilkins, they realise – the fastest way to set things right is with a powerful dose of a great advertisement.

ADVERTISING – A MARKETER’S BEST FRIEND
Recession or no recession, all gurus preach that marketing budgets should not be cut. They could be channelised from one stream to the other. Sure, tough times demand decrease in advertisement frequency and increase in use of other marketing efforts like direct marketing, which give more immediate sales impact.

However, nothing builds brands stronger and faster than ‘correctly themed’ advertisements; and this year, a lot of companies are doing just that. Not surprising then, that most researches this year are suggesting an increase in the advertising expenditure by 15-20% in India.

One of the first to join the bandwagon is Naukri.com. Remember its Hari Sadu advertisement. He is back and Naukri says it’s OK to call your irritating bosses names, for jobs are back and you can now switch once again. So fear not and express yourself! The underlying message being bidding goodbye to recession. The ‘bad boss’ brings ‘good news’ this time.

‘Hope’ is the new mantra for attracting consumers this year. Federal Express has launched a new ad campaign this year for India, Brazil, Mexico, Japan and UK, showing the world the power of hope. Its new tagline for ads this year is ‘FedEx delivers to a changing world’. It shows how the economy is witnessing an upturn and FedEx, as always, is one they can depend on to stay in business and survive.     Read More....


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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A good product or even a good advertising strategy alone cannot successfully sell a brand. In today’s cutthroat competition, strategic public relations holds the answer!

Amystery cream was pitted against some well known branded antiaging creams for seven days in a “blind product-trial” campaign in China. One hundred and fifty beauty bloggers in Shanghai participated in this “blind-trial”. The results showed an overwhelming 9 out of 10 women (bloggers) said they would recommend this mystery cream to a friend and a same number said it was better than the well-known, prestige brands that they had used in the past. The surprise result created a tremendous buzz online. After seven days the name of the mystery cream was revealed – Unilever’s Pond’s Age Miracle.

When David Beckham travelled to Australia to play for LA Galaxy FC the world leading style icon was seen using the V8 Lux, the new mobile phone that Motorola was planning to launch in Australia. The world saw Beckham using the phone, what they did not see was the weeks of hard work the agency Ogilvy put into developing media partnership with some of Australia’s top radio, print & TV media to help promote the idea that Beckham too uses the V8 Lux. In a country where its people use their mobile phone as a style statement, for the brand to be perceived as stylish you needed a stylish launch. For a phone that had ensured it was designed most stylishly with its gold plated accents, smooth snakeskin-like textures and subtle details, all it needed was a stylish roll-out (who better than Beckham) and an intelligent public relations (PR) agency to help influence people’s perception!

Pond’s Age Miracle cream’s launch in China through the “blind-trial” using beauty bloggers was also another case of how intelligent public relations can launch a new brand. For a country like China, which is home to over 340 million net users who are online for an average of 16 hours per week, this strategy of using the digital medium to promote a new brand worked wonders for Ponds. The cyber-charm, charmed the Chinese definitely.

NEW YEAR, NEW RULES

Times are tough, and more so last year when everyone was worried about jobs, pay cuts and salaries. A survey done in America by Schneider Associates, IRI and Sentient Decision Science revealed an interesting result. Almost 93% of respondents – the highest level in eight years of the survey – could not name one new product launch from a list of 50 launches in 2009. Why these results were more shocking was because the number of people watching TV, surfing the web or doing both simultaneously had increased tremendously, yet brand recall had fallen. The brand that topped the list of most recalled launches was KFC’s grilled chicken, which proved to be Yum! Brand’s biggest launch ever. Surprisingly, it’s not advertising which was responsible for making it big and memorable but a small “PR gimmick”. Oprah was roped in to distribute free coupons to viewers of her show. Yes, agreed it was a great product (healthy + great taste) and a massive campaign using traditional and modern, digital media was planned meticulously, but it was Oprah who acted as a catalyst, which is what made the launch most memorable. KFC outlets were flooded with people wanting to taste the product and they could hardly keep up with the demand. Oprah made the product noticeable and the launch highly successful. From April to December some 65 million Americans had tried the product, raising KFC’s market share of “grilled chicken” category to 25%.     Read More....


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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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IN THE PRESENT SCENARIO IT’S NOT THE FITTEST THAT SURVIVE. INSTEAD THAT GLORY IS RESERVED FOR THE “ADAPTABLE”. IF YOU ADAPT, YOU CAN ‘FIT’ IN ANY ENVIRONMENT & SURVIVE

“GO ON BE A TIGER” proclaimed the tagline of Accenture - said to be the largest consulting firm in the world with more than 1,86,000 employees and branches in 52 countries, with 96 of the Fortune Global 100 companies as its clients. The advertising campaign was seen as a perfect fit between the celebrity (Woods) and the client (Accenture). Tiger Woods was known world over for his strength, mastery, discipline and relentless focus on winning – much similar to Accenture and its business performance. This was 2003. Last month the tagline took on a whole new meaning when the world came to know about Tiger Woods’ frolic with porn stars. On the night of 13th December 2009, Accenture become the first company to drop Tiger Woods from its multi million dollar endorsement deal. For a company that for years had built its whole advertising campaign around this one man – the move was a strong indicator of how Wood’s popularity had sunk.

Tiger Woods surely knows what it feels like to hit rock-bottom. From being a cynosure of all eyes, the perfect celebrity endorser has become a toxic taboo subject overnight. So has Woods outlived his utility for the brands which he endorses? Moreover, is it time to rethink the celebrity endorsement industry as a whole? Well, the correct answers to these questions are still not clear. What is clearly emerging however is the impermanence of it all. Someone whom the media (and the rest of the world) called the epitome of success was labeled a “loser” in a jiffy. Herein lies the secret of real success. As Winston Churchill once said “success in not final, failure is not fatal, it is the courage to continue that counts.” The world will be watching Woods and how he continues after his fall.

FALL – YOU WILL
The road to success is long and difficult, but if you are determined to succeed and if every part of your being longs for that, then there is no one who can stop you from succeeding. If you have the courage to follow your heart and know what you truly want to become, everything else becomes secondary and every step you take will bring you closer to success. However, with success come great responsibilities and with success also comes undisputed failure. A truly successful company or individual is one who knows how to manage his success and failures equally well. There is no law of nature that states that the most powerful will inevitably remain at the top. Almost everybody faces a fall. But then success is what Nelson Mandela said: “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” It is true for individuals, for corporations and even for kingdoms and empires.

Look at some of the greatest companies. Apart from their ‘greatness’ as a common denominator, they also have one more thing in common – each one of them have taken at least one tremendous fall at some point in time, but found a way to recover. Be it IBM, Disney, Boeing or Xerox, each of them have stumbled but have refused to give up. Each crisis has only taught them some new lessons in leadership.     Read More....


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