Brands: The intangible way

One of the most over used term in todays world is BRAND. We have all kind of stakeholders involved in the business of branding, right from agencies which specialize in creating a brand to the companies which believe that everything that they create is a brand.

So how you define brands?  What are they? 

Brand as a term is an intangible property which is being created in the minds of your stakeholders. Brands are not products. They are not services either. They are not something your customers can touch. Brands evoke sensory experiencing, feelings that are conjured in the minds of your client when they see or use your product/service.  For example, when you take the name of Rahul Dravid, as a product he is the batsman in Indian team. But as a brand the kind of emotions/adjectives that his name will spark in your minds are rock solid, trustworthy, his defense can’t be breached, etc. So when I as a viewer can think of adjectives for a product, the product/ service has scaled up to the next level. It has become THE BRAND.

How to create Brands?

Consistency is the name of the game. Day in day out, product churns out messaging which is able to evoke an intended feeling in the minds of your customers. Your marketing team does events, releases advertisements communicating a single message, hoping to evoke a particular adjective in your brain. For example, Coca Cola tries to evoke a sense of happiness. How it does? Coca Cola recently put two vending machines of Coke one in Delhi and another in Karachi. The machine allows you to see across it such that Indians can see Pakistanis standing on the other side and vice versa. People across the borders can dance, make faces, smile, tease with their counterparts from across the border. This simple act of Coke not just brought smiles to many people who were at the shopping mall but also to the million sof viewers who saw this on Facebook. Thus, Coke aroused the feeling of happiness through these marketing gems. Thus, Coke is synonymous with happiness and smile and laughter. Hence, by being consistent in their messaging, they have created an intangible property in the minds of their consumers which is BRAND COKE.

Have a look at the ad here:

 Another branding brilliance came from technology giant IBM. In its effort to create "smarter planet", look what they did.

IPL's Camaraderie

Did anyone ever expected Saurav Ganguly and Mr. Ponting playing together for the same team for the same cause? Did anyone ever expected Shane Warne to say ,"Graeme Smith is like some rock for our team at the start?"

After all the ruckus and confusion over the money IPl generated for the star layers, BCCI, and the bosses of the respective teams one should look at the greener pastures of the biggest prime time event to be held in the recent past. What this mega event has done is that it has created a fraternity, a fraternity of people who used to distrust each other; at least for sometime there was only cricket talked about in the sports page; at least for sometime there only scorecards and not slangs and stings from one team on the other as a part of their so called "mental games." Cricket was the clear winner in this IPl; batsman hitting the red cherry out of the park, bowlers uprooting the stumps and fielders flying and aiming at the stumps; if this ain't cricket then what else one can call cricket to be.

Ask Swapnil Asnodkar that did he ever expected to open innings with Smith and Smith patting his back for him playing some great knocks? Did Dinesh Salunkhe ever expected to learn from Shane Warne? Ask Manpreet Gony how he felt when asked to share opening spell with Makahay Ntini. Ask Harbhajan whether he ever thought Ricky Ponting hugging him?

IPL has emerged as a great learning platform for young cricketers to share locker room with the legends and learn straight from the horse's mouth.  IPL, at the same time, has also given a means of employment to lots and lots of young cricketers which erstwhile were just playing cricket and not contributing to their family's earnings.These young cricketers can go on and start their own business with the money that they garnered from the franchisee.

I agree IPL has its downside too, betting, money laundering, underworld associations. But in today's world these are harsh realities that we should accept and find a way to diminish them but not at the expense of something good. Everything in this world has two sides. It is up to us which side we want to see. And it doesn't effect us to look at the brighter side of the things. Whether we call it business, money churning machine or some other slang, but clearly IPL has created a camaraderie in otherwise fiercely fought 22 yards of cricket.

This image clearly sums up what IPL means to me and what sports is all about:

Hire a leader, not a boss!

There is an age old adage that employees leave the bosses and not the companies. Why?

Most bosses only think about the growth of the company and targets attributed to them and forget totally about the team which will help him/her to achieve company’s objectives. But when Mr. Vineet Nayar said, “employees first” he meant understand your team, help individuals grow and they will reciprocate with great work and help your company over achieve its goals. Thus, after 2 years odd in my job and on my 3^rd assignment, I started to believe in the importance of having a boss who is a LEADER and not just your boss/manager.

Being an Indian engineer and an MBA, I can assure my boss of doing any job whether I have requisite skills for it or not. But what is more critical is having a leader who understands my strengths, makes me do the work I am good at and complement my weaknesses with other team members’ strengths. For me that’s a leader. For me that’s how bosses should be. For me that’s an ideal place to work. For me that’s team work!

Sometimes it is critical for the employees to don the role, which he is not good at, simply in the overall benefit of the team, the company. For ex: Rahul Dravid keeping wickets, but that doesn’t mean that he will give up his batting. It only means he will do that extra for the benefit of the team. But it will be stupid to think that he will start concentrating on keeping wickets and not practice his batting skills. Having said that how stupid a decision it can be is evident when Irfan Pathan was asked to concentrate on his batting skills and coach wanted him to be an all-rounder rather than becoming more lethal as a bowler. A good coach/a leader is thus very critical in analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of his team mates.

In this year’s IPL when Chennai Super Kings lost their first outing, MSD in a post match press conference made a very remarkable statement. He said, it is a young team and as a captain he is not fully aware of the strengths and weaknesses of each of his team members. Hence CSK lost. MSD by stating this took the entire fault on his shoulders as he is the captain and at the same time implicitly said neither his team nor any player should be blamed for this loss. But once he was aware about his team members, CSK turned around in this year’s IPL. That’s what a leader does.

Hence, it is very critical for any company to hire a leader and not just a manager. Because it is a leader who takes additional pain and has patience of going that extra mile in building an atmosphere of camaraderie amongst the team members.

याँदे

बस याँदे रह गई हैं उन पुराने दिनो की

उस पुराने स्कूल की

उस घंटी की जो हर आधे घंटे बाद बजती थी

उस टीचर की जिसकी क्लास कभी मिस नहीं की।

याद आता हैं मेरा वो कॅालेज

जहाँ सब यार दोस्त साथ थे

जहाँ जि़न्दगी थम सी गई थी

जहाँ रात में सूरज और दिन में चाँद निकलता था।

काश वो स्कूल कॅालेज के दिन वापस आ जाये

काश सारे यार दोस्त एक साथ एक जगह फिर से रह पाए

काश की एक बार जि़न्दगी फिर से थम जाए।

जाने कैसा होगा कल

जाने कैसा होगा कल- अच्छा या बुरा,

जाने मेरे चेहरे पे हँसी होगी या आँखों में आँसू

ऐ वक्त मुझे तू इतना तो बता दे।

जाने बाहार आयेगी या नहीं,

जाने कोई राही साथ होगा की नहीं,

ऐ वक्त मुझे तू इतना तो इतला कर।

कितने और इम्तेहाँ तुझे मेरे लेने हैं और बाकी,

कितने और पथरों से मुझे टकराना हैं और बाकी,

कितने और तूफांनो से मुझे उलझना हैं और बाकी,

ऐ वक्त क्या तू मुझसे रूठ सा गया हैं,

या मुझपे मेहेरबानीयाँ करके ऊब सा गया हैं।

जाने कैसा होगा कल- ऐ वक्त मुझे तू इतना तो बता दे।

Student and Money!!!

Student and money...

One of the shorthand of being a student is mitigated financial freedom. Countering such a drawback, more students in the present generation of scholars are inclined towards earning money while they log in hours in academia. However, going to school and working alongside like any other phenomena has its upside and vice versa.

In order to further arguments, education can be broadly categorized into two major compartments: Schooling and Higher Education. 

During schooling getting a part time job has more advantages than not. Working teaches one the value of money, the power of independence, and the essential freedom to earn one`s own pocket money. But, simulataneously structure and discipline at a job becomes one of the key milestones in defining the youth. One also starts appreciating the efforts and finances invested in one`s future. The flipside would constitute the lure of money which can deviate the focus of the student from the core of his attention which is education in primary years of one`s life. Unmonitored usage of the money could result in misuse of finances. With appropriate vigilance form the guardian, these activities could be controlled but not eradicated. 

Dwelling into higher education, wherein a candidate is studying to further his qualification and earning to either support himself or to earn a living, proposes a balanced set of advantages and otherwise.

If the job at hand is related to the course one is following, it becomes a practical application of the learning. The job makes one financially independent, an advantage which pervades from the schooling years of a candidate. Working while studying also reinstates one`s confidence in himself about his credentials and qualifications. The inner satisfaction of being able to be independent and not losing out on years of job experience also plays a major factor in the psyche of a candidate. Disadvantages at this level are important to consider which include mismanaged time, lower concentration in studies, fatigue, performance degradation at work as well as studies, and loss of perspective if the job is not relevant to the education. 

Like everything else in life working while studying has pros and cons. If we are aware of the pitfalls we can play this to our advantage otherwise fall prey to its clamor. Striking an intelligent balance between the two is the key to be noted and followed.

मुसाफिर

चलता जा रहा हू्ँ, चलता जा रहा हू्ँ,

रास्तॊ कॊ ढूँढतें, मंजिलो को तराश्ते,

साँसों को साँसों की डोर से जोङते,

चलता जा रहा हू्ँ।

कभी इस पर्बत के सहारे थम गया, कभी उस कंधे से सिर टिका दिया,

कभी आँसुऒं ने आँखओं को भिगा दिया, कभी हसी ने चेहरे को सूरजमुखी बना दिया,

ना आज रात नींद आई, ना दिन की शाम हूई,

बस कदमो के सहारे चलता जा रहा हू्ँ, चलता जा रहा हू्ँ।

कुछ मुसाफिर थे जो साथ चलने का वादा करते थे, कुछ राहगीर हैं जो साथ चलने की कसमे खाते हैं,

आज दिल में इसकी चाह हैं, आज दिल में ना जाने किसकी चाह हैं,

बस चलता जा रहा हू्ँ, चलता जा रहा हू्ँ।

किसीकी तलाश में, किन्ही आँखों ढूँढतें,

किसीको अपना बनाते, किसी सपने को पराया करते,

चलता जा रहा हू्ँ, चलता जा रहा हू्ँ।