My try on ethnography

In the next post you would see my efforts trying to (re)construct the lifestyle of an Indian, TamBram Software engineer.

Who is a TamBram?

In the Indian state of Tamilnadu, there live many communities. One of the communities in that Indian state are the Brahmins. The Tamil Brahmin is affectionately called TamBram by the Indian diaspora.

The Brahmins are a notified Forward community in India. They are known for their sharp intellectual capabilities, mostly analytical. The Brahmin community in Tamilnadu is supposed to be one of the most educated and well off communities in India. There was a time in the Indian administrative services history when the TamBrams dominated the Indian Administrative & Police Services roll of honour.

The political equations today have made the Brahmin community a virtual pariah in the Indian politico social map. They have moved paces ahead in search of greener pastures and have found refuge in the silicon valley, thanks to their intellect and their razor sharp analytical capabilities.

Three out of five TamBram’s today work in the software industry. If you have a glance at the matrimonial advertisements in the top Tamilnadu based newspapers, you will find that 3 out of 4 are software men looking out for a bride and 1 of that 3 is based at the USA. Such is the impact of the software industry on the TamBram life.

Ps: I apologise to those who don't have an idea / understanding about India, Tamilnadu, TamBram's and their culture. The next post would be a little more than difficult for you to understand. If you still do want to understand and appreciate the post, do leave your message / questions, I would have them answered.

The difference between a creative and reproduction

This is a nice creative that stems from a simple thought, an ants affinity towards sugar. It is a faboulous thought and a very creative ad the first time this was done was somewhere in India, I don't even remember who did it. It was done for some pharma major in the diabates cure vertical (if I remember right).

When you do the same ad, at a different place, using a different media vehicle, in a different size or specification, if it is the same agency which is doing the work it becomes an adaptation.

But this piece I suppose was done (reproduced) by a different agency in the UAE market, for a different client.

So what do we call it?

An eye for an eye...

That was the "Code of Hammurabi".

A monkey for a monkey, that seems the new "Code of Delhi Metro".

Monkeys are a major problem in parts of Delhi, the Indian capital. Now that seems to be the major problem the metro railway system in Delhi is facing.

With monkeys scaring passengers away from boarding the trains, the Delhi Metro has hired trained monkeys to frighten and chase away the wild monkeys.

More on this here

Too much monkey business...

Salvage Garden

That is the salsa disco /pub I have just come back from. It has been quite long since I pubbed. And hence it gave me a strange feeling being in one. It took me more than 45 minutes for that whole feeling of "You are in a disco / pub" to sink in on me.

The summary...

Salsa, Music, Movisque moves, Women, Chisled, Cold, Chilled, Beer, Bravehearts, Smoking-out, Fogged, Fotos, Fantastic moves, Dance floor, Close, Caressing. Kissing

And we were kidding, 6 of us... Ravi and four of his friends from Dubai

What else would I do with a kid waiting back home?

I love this life when I am lying, pretentious.

House hunting – The real estate scene in UAE

Real estate is one of the booming sectors in this part of the world. The real estate prices are ridiculously high, soaring by the day. But still the demand has not dipped.

The amount of development I see around me makes me wonder, how do all these buildings get filled up? And that too at a cost so exorbitant that it eats up at least one fourth of your salaries.

Some facts about the real estate scene in Dubai

1) Large scale construction has made Dubai one of the worlds fastest growing cities, a feat only equaled by large Chinese cities till date (Wikipedia)
2) More than 25% of the worlds mechanical crane population is concentrated in and around Dubai (Wikipedia)
3) In 2005 alone, more than 13,000 residential developments have come up. (buildings completed in 2005, Dubai Municipality 12.04.2006)
4) Average rent per month of a single room residence (decent studio) is approximately Dh. 2,000 upwards
5) Approved increase on rent on an yearly basis is 15% (Dubai Municipality)

Dubai is completely out of reach for people like me, a one bed room kitchen house here costs more than Dh. 50,000 an year. And this, in one obscure corner of the city.

So people started moving to the other emirates near Dubai, like Sharjah and Ajman. Now the costs in these emirates have soared, they would stand up to Dubai any day now. One of my friends is moving to a place in another emirate about 90 kms from his office. More than this distance is the mad Dubai traffic that kills you.

House hunting – Genesis 1.0

The hunt begins today.

The friend with whom I was (am) staying with has decided to move. So I am also forced to move, to a smaller place suiting my needs and most importantly my wallet.

I can’t move to Dubai because of the soaring real estate costs there, I have to stay put in Sharjah. That is at least till a benevolent employer would present me a bonanza.

This makes my hunt focused. I need a house in Sharjah, a single bedroom that can accommodate three of us – Roopa, Anirudhha and me.

Thank you Russell Davies

Russell Davies, the big daddy of account planning has a section called “HIRE THESE PEOPLE” on his blog.

As of today evening (DST) I also occupy that space, sharing it with a bright bunch of wannabe account planners. Russell has been kind enough to have my blog tagged there in that space.

Thank you very much Russell Davies.

Visit Russell here

Circumventing

After three days, YouTube is back for me. I can now access YouTube using www3. But www.youtube.com is still inaccessible due to the government regulations here in Dubai.

I would have access to YouTube till someone in the government figures this out!!

Ask Dr. Z

This is the latest campaign run by automobile major DaimlerChrysler featuring its chairman Dr. Dieter Zetsche. Zetsche talks about the benefits of the company's German engineering capabilities.

To me this campaign seems a little surrealistic. I can't for one, relate to what is being said here. Surely the loser here is the Employee Discount Program, the whole purpose of this campaign. I think that is sidelined to a 3-4 second super in the end.

Secondly when you have the Chairman of a company talking about the technology, performance, fuel saving, safety etc. which is the value proposition of the brand, I don't think it would be a good idea to combine discount and a return if not satisfied message with that.

May be this ad would have been better off without the discount window. Or they must have made an ad for the discount program without Dr. Z.

For more on this read a report from Adage here

Zila Khan

That is the name of the singer who’s caught my fancy these days. She is an Indian classical singer coming from a family of great singers. Her father is Ustad Vilayat Khan, one of the greats playing Sitar (You will for sure know the other, Pandit Ravi Shankar).

I was amazed to know that her family, for the past 4 generations have been recording or recorded artists. A seventh generation artist from the Imdad Khani Gharana or the “House / School of Imdad Khan”.

Her repertoire includes classical Indian, the semi classical genre, folk, gazhal & the Sufi styles of music (and many more). She is blessed with one of the most powerful voices in the subcontinent. Well, the voice would be nothing if the singer doesn’t have control over it. Hear Zila and then you would know what control means. A very well trained voice from one of the great families of Indian music.

If you are looking at enjoying an hour of good Indian music (anytime in a day), then Zila would be a good bet. She has got about 3 albums till date and has also performed a number in the movie “99.9FM” called Kesaria”.

Grab a copy of one of them and I’m sure you wouldn’t be disappointed.

More about Zila Khan here

YouTube is past tense

The government of UAE has restricted access to YouTube. This is mainly due to the concerns the government has about people using YouTube for viewing restricted or inappropriate stuff.

With this decision of the government, from now on there wouldn’t be any video posts on this blog. May be I would save all my videoblog ideas for later and have them posted whenever I get access to YouTube.

So for now, YouTube has become past tense for me.

An interesting piece of communication

I had been to a place called Umm Al Quwain, another emirate about 60 Kms from Dubai. We went to a flat where one of my friends is moving in shortly. This piece of communication was stuck at the entrance of the flat.



As you could see this is for a beauty parlour meant for ladies.

So what is so special about this typographically marvellous poster printed in single color (ink-jet printer)?

1. Saloon (su'loon) is a a room or establishment where alcoholic drinks are served over a counter.

Anyone who knows about the Middle East knows how serious this typographic blunder is. So what should this have been?

It must have been Salon ('salòn ), a shop where hairdressers and beauticians work

2. Read the headline "Woman and beauty are like life and consciousness"

This for me is a great, deeply thought provoking, amazing line (can anyone please tell me what exactly it means?).

3. Now the for the best of copy. They also have this poster done in Arabic and pasted just above this masterpiece in English. Though I don't know to read or understand Arabic, the small addendum using pen on top of the Arabic poster is brilliant.



This reads, "We take orders also"

Let me know what this "orders" must be in case you understand.

Wonderful piece of communication. One should appreciate the courage of the people who designed this marvel.

God Bless!!

I am also reading and would continue to

I landed a copy of Stephen King's 1974 JWT Planning Guide, along with a 1972 Jeremy Bullmore’s speech to Kraft. Thanks to Russell Davies.

It has been two months since I landed these invaluable piece of work by two towering personalities through another. I have just finished reading Jeremy Bullmore’s speech and am going to finish reading the Planning Guide.

Reading these masterpieces you would find whatever you are doing / learning now (in terms of planning) has already been experimented and done about 2-3 decades back. It also makes you enjoy this “from the horses mouth” feeling.

Let me know if you are seriously interested in reading these masterpieces I would have them sent to you or direct you to a place where you could get a copy.

Thank you very much Russell Davies, the big daddy of planning.

Lost and sold

There was this interesting question about sales that a person had asked Tim Harford on one of his “Dear Economist” columns.

The question “I want to sell my lost bicycle in its lost state and I couldn’t. How do I do it?”

Well it is a bicycle lost, meaning you don’t anymore own possession of. So how on earth would you want to transfer ownership of something you don’t own (at least at the moment) to another person?

Now, for Tim’s answer…

“Economists are always looking for new ways to broaden and deepen the world of markets and there is no doubt that this market should create value by shifting ownership of the missing bike to someone willing to bear the risks.

You presumably need one bike with certainty, and only one, and so are unlikely to value ownership of a contingent bike. On the other hand, some investors might well welcome the opportunity to buy the right to a thousand missing bicycles for just ₤30.

So - if eBay will not support your sale, what is the appropriate market? Perhaps you should try to sell the bicycle to the police. They are well placed to increase the possibility that the bike is found, and so they should be willing to pay a decent price...”

I was reminded of the independent debt collectors for the multinational banks back in India.

In India the multinational banks appoint independent agencies (normally the thug or ruffian types) to collect their bad debts (before they are declared so in their account books) or to simply put it, collect their debt from the rouge customers who don’t pay-up. These agencies get paid a commission every time they collect monies from these rouge customers. This model / concept is pretty similar to what has been spoken about by Tim in the bicycle case.

Here you transfer the risk to another entity, if at all he overcomes the risk factors and manages to gain possession of the bicycle it is his. So if you have independent entities (a quasi-police) who take ownership of lost items, find it and do whatever they want (sell, gift or use the object found).

But again this sounds good as long as the item you have lost is something you wanted to sell-off for long and you couldn’t. What if you loose your degree certificate or something else that might be of some use to you.

So don’t be shocked. Just in the near future you might be asked to sell the mobile phone you had lost for a negative premium (less than face value). And the person who bought the lost phone from you would take the pains of finding the phone for him.

About Tim Harford

Tim Harford's is the author of the best-selling title ‘The Undercover Economist'. He writes the 'Dear Economist' column for the Financial Times, in which readers' personal problems are answered, tongue-in-cheek, with the latest economic theory.

For more on Tim Harford go here

What I am going to read from today

I am going to start reading All Consumers Are Not Created Equal: The Differential Marketing Strategy for Brand Loyalty and Profits by Garth Hallberg.

I would post a review once I am through.

In case you want to buy this book go here

Brands in my life

Continuing with what I had started a couple of days ago, I find suffocated by brands all around. Once I leave home for office there are brands everywhere, surrounded by a sea of brands. I tried putting them in order, in vain. There must be easily over 250 brands, a combination of those voluntarily consumed, consumed out of compulsions, those that spam me or ambush me from over various quarters.

Given below is a small list of those brands that bother me in my daily life.

Eppco petrol pump
24+ car brands ranging from Corvette to Corolla
Hoards of hoardings, may be around 40+
Gulf News
Bottle of Masafi water
Sony CD-R
Casio calculator
Pelikan markers
Edding whiteboard marker
DaimlerChrysler
Chrysler
Jeep
Dodge
Mercedes
Hansgrohe
3M stationery
Advertising Age
CNN.com
Agencyfaqs.com
Yahoo.com
Gmail.com
Google.com
Mcdonalds
24X7 utility store
Coca-cola
Grohe bathroom fittings
Lexmark printer
Microsoft Office
Lipton Tea
Cisco telephones

The dynamics of today dictates that I as a consumer take what I want and leave others. The irony is that I don't even have the freedom and control I have over my mailbox, where I mark a mail spam, it would be automatically filtered the next time it reaches my inbox.

Here the only way is to try closing your eyes, ears and nose. You might avoid, but you will in all probability still get the spam you wanted to avoid.

The time mess

I have been noticing for long that I had to manually change the time to DST everytime I post something.

It was just now I discovered that my blog setting was configured to somewhere in the Americas. I dutifully reset the time to DST to notice that the time setting on all blogs till date have gone for a toss.

This means that the timestamps you see on all the blogs are a farce.

From this post on, you will get to see the REAL timestamp.

Brands in My daily life till I left home for office

Being on the bed for a couple of days gave me time to think about some fascinating stuff. One of those was to list the number of brands I consume on a daily basis. It turned out to be a very long list, so I decided to break it into capsules, this is the first of those. Just see how many brands I consume in my first 1 1/2 hrs of every day.

Three unbranded things I could think off (which I see in the morning) are Roopa, Anirudhha and the mirrors in my bathroom and on my wardrobe. Except for these everything else is branded.

I wake up in the morning to my Nokia 9500’s (1) alarm.

2) Tenby switch fitting
3) GE light bulbs
4) Dynair exhaust
5) Oral B brush
6) Close-Up
7) Ideal Standard bath fittings
8) Gillette shaving foam
9) Gillette Mach 3 Turbo
10) Old Spice aftershave
11) Rapetti water jet fittings
12) Dettol soap
13) Head & Shoulders shampoo
14) Westside Towel
15) Dermi Cool prickly heat powder
16) Jockey inner wear
17) Dockers trouser
18) Louis Philippe shirt
19) Sonia Rykiel’s Rykiel Homme “Grey” perfume
20) Maggi noodles
21) Oasis water
22) In an Arwa bottle
23) Horlicks
24) Panasonic TV
25) NDTV
26) CNN
27) BBC
28) Citizen “Blue Angels” Navihawk
29) Emirates Air Wallet
30) Ray Ban sunglasses
31) Marlboro Lights
32) BIC lighter
33) DaimlerChrysler Pen
34) Hushpuppies shoes
35) Fujitsu Siemens laptop
36) Hyundai elevator
37) Nissan Pathfinder

Thirty Eight brands consumed within a span of an hour and a half. This is mindboggling. Then imagine the amount one would consume in a day (today).

My next exercise would be to list down the brands I consume till lunch break on a working day. Let’s see how many.

Why was I quiet for 4 days?

Looking BACK, things ain't alright.

Yes indeed, I am back to my breaking normal. This time it is my back which has given way (L2, L3, L4). My doctor suspects that I may have a slipped disc. Am currently under medication, very heavily drugged and physiotherapy.

This should continue for the next couple of weeks when my ortho would suggest the next course of action.

It is rather painful and I am not quite enjoying it (both the pain as well as the drugs & physiotherapy to kill the pain)

Hope I get up & running soon...

Looking beyond the worldcup blogs...

I just figured that the football worldcup kept me a bit too busy blogging. Never before as you could notice have I blogged more than 2 times a day. But I suddenly got football crazy, starting the semifinal stage and I notice that there have been days when I even posted some 4-5 blogs.

The football made Wimbledon look like a poor stepchild, not only on my blog but everywhere. I noticed that nobody in my office spoke even one word about tennis.

There were no junk mails of those tennis starlets in their fabulous attire, mind boggling which are prevalent during the tennis season. May be the Anna Kournikova's are gone but there still are a couple of players who are worth a few junk mails and a couple of good, visually appealing JEPG's.

I even got a couple of junks about the dangers of driving without a seatbelt during this time, but tennis was surely missing. Thanks to football.

The mood even reflected in client meetings. Who will win?, Who would take home the Golden boot? have been FAQs. No meeting during this time started or ended without a 15 minute worldcup talk / analysis. Thank god meetings would be meetings from now on. Lots of Coffee, biscuits and some business.

Even the household chores changed a bit. There wasn't a morning when my wife didn't ask me if I were coming back for dinner or I am going somewhere to watch football. And there wasn't a night when she forgot to ask me who won, who scored and who was sent off.

Roopa is now football savvy, she knows exactly why Zidane got his red card, How Italy won and more importantly she knows that a person red carded can't be present during the prize distribution. Such has been the power of football.

And now it's time for us to move ahead, Germany is gone and South Africa 2010 is a while from now.

There is going to be some cricket in a while from now (and lots of it in the coming months), there would also be other interesting stuff that might pop in from time to time.

So bye, bye football. See you later.

A grass act

It is Roger Federer again, in all the heat surrounding the worldcup football we forgot this champion player who won his fourth successive Wimbledon championship.

If that is quite a feat to accomplish, then how about winning 47 matches on the trot on grass courts.

The man Federer beat in the finals is no less than the Clay court master Mr Nadal. A great match between two champion players ended with Federer winning 6-0, 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (2-7), 6-3 in four sets.

Federer missed a milestone created by the legendary Bjorn Borg in 1976, winning the title without dropping a set. Nadal did well to take the third set to tie-break and win it to deny another feather in Federer's cap. Want to know about more on the champ? Go here

Game, Set, Match, Federer

"It is a reckless act of idiocy"

That is how the commentator described Zinedine Zidane's red card winning effort.

It was probably a moment of grave disgrace for the game of football, the world cup 2006. It was a shocking end to what is supposed to be a momentous career of one of the finest footballers of all time.

I heard one spectator saying on TV "I was looking up to this guy in the league of Pele & Maradona and now..." Ironically he was a France supporter.

For me Italy winnning the cup was completely overshadowed by the dard clouds of Zidane's red card.

Which champion player on earth would loose his cool on field to head butt an opponent? It was appalling to see a player of his caliber do this and choosing the worldcup finals as the stage to do this act is distasteful.

Zidane's antihero act overshadows the fitting winner of the Worldcup 2006, Italy. They worked hard, improved by the game to give a superb performance in the finals, first to equalise France's goal by Zidane (by a debatable penalty) and then take the game to penalties past the extratime and win it.

In the end it was very well done World champs Italy,
And disgrace to Zidane

Bye Bye Mr Luis Figo

Figo one of my favorite footballers retired with Portugals 3 - 1 loss against Germany. While he would have liked to retire on a winning note, destiny dictated otherwise.

The match also marked the end of the Kahn era for Germany. One of the great goalkeepers of the modern era, King Kahn fittingly retired with the captains armband and a bronze medal around his neck.

So Germany wins the Bronze medal and the Portugese are to be content with a fourth place finish for this time.

It's Amelie...

Amelie Mauresmo has won her first Wimbledon Championship beating Justine Henin-Hardenne 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

It was a keenly fought final.

This means Justine Henin has to wait for an year more to try win her first Wimbledon Championship. This is her second runner-up performance (first in 2001 against Venus Williams)

To know more about Amelie go here

Home coming

I felt at home when I met them. It was at least 5 years ago since I had missed them.

I was his cricket captain and drinking partner for a while. They got married and had left to Dubai in search of greener pastures. They made an ideal couple, a practical husband and a pragmatic wife. The moment they moved to Dubai and I lost touch. I moved to Dubai an year ago, I had forgotten they were here.

It was a couple of weeks ago when this long lost friend figured I was in Dubai. He gave me a call, abused me for not calling him (a little too much, and for a while) and not even trying to figure out where he was. This in spite of me knowing he had moved to Dubai. And then we made up and decided to meet, this meeting has been happening for the last couple of weeks before it materialised & we decide to meet, today (07.07.2006) . And when we did meet, it was a memorable occasion (meeting) on many counts.

Thank you, Prince & Ann. It was quite an experience meeting you guys.

This meeting made me aware of your daughters birthday (she’s going to be 2 next week), tell you that I’m married and I have a son who would be 1 a couple of months from now. This meeting also made us reminisce about our days back in JWT and Wunderman (and Ogilvy) and talk about all and sundry (including those couple of your classmates / college mates I met there).

I am privileged to have been invited home with (my) family. I’m keen to meet you guys home.

Thank you very much Prince. It was so kind of you to have called me on for a meet (and a drink).

I have off late, been in love with having a picture with every post here. I rue myself to have not taken a picture of the couple to post.

Hope I do that at least the next time I meet you guys.

Ladies singles finalists

Amelie Mauresmo will play Justine Henin-Hardenne in the ladies singles finals of Wimbledon Championships 2006.

This would be a good match as both the players would have a point to prove. Both have their first Wimbledon Championship title at stake when they clash in the finals. Justine Henin has once been to the finals of the championships (2001) and for Amelie semifinal is how far she has been to in Wimbledon (2002, 2004, 2005).

Overall this would be a very keenly fought finals.

Strawberries and Cream

While we have been busy attending our football fever, Wimbledon '06 has progressed past the usual rains, upsets and bowls of strawberry & cream. On day 10 of this illustrious tournament we have the ladies semifinals being played. Both the semifinals should be keenly contested and gripping.

We have Amelie Mauresmo facing Maria Sharapova in one and Kim Clijsters facing Justine Henin-Hardenne.

The second one will be a match not to miss out on.

See you on Saturday

The next is the third place match between Germany and Portugal in Stuttgart.

How is this for an embarrassment?

You are sitting in a meeting at your client’s.

The head of marketing and an array of other executives are lined around the table in the clients conference room.

You are discussing an important point with the client as you are having your cup of coffee.

Suddenly the coffee gets in to your windpipe badly asphyxiating you.

You are forced to spit the coffee allover the conference table at the full glare of your top client and 4 of his counterparts.

You take 15 minutes to get over the choking effect you undergo. Coughing, tears flowing and sweating badly.

One you get over with it, you realize where you are and what you have done. There is a stunning silence around.

You are EMBARRASED.

Then, when the meeting gets over the client says “Thank you very much for coming, And thank you for spitting all over my table. It was nice having you here.”

This happened to me today. It happened to me at one of the most valued & important clients place. During an important meeting.

At the end of the meeting I thought I recovered well to respond to my clients thank you note saying “Thank you very much, I’m extremely sorry for what happened. I’ll make sure I do it better next time.”

Portugal will go to Stuttgart

France go to Berlin for the finals and would play Italy.

The final score, 1 - 0 for France. It was a Zidane penalty kick in the 33rd minute. Seemed like Henry was fouled inside the Portugese box and the referee showed the dreaded spot. The replays were inconclusive but the referees decision as we all know is final and 1 - 0 is the final result in favor of France.

Figo's Portugal played very well, in fact they seemed better in all aspects of the game but finishing. Figo himself was to blame when he missed a simple second half header to level scores. Overall it was a good game of Football and someone had to go to Berlin and France prevailed.

The Portugese tried some opera like stunts to grab the referees attention and get a few penalty kicks as reward. But the referee today was stern and watchful. Scolari as usual was animatedly superb, unfortunate we wouldn't see his antics in Berlin.

I for sure would miss Figo in Berlin. But I'm pretty sure Zidane, Henry & Thuram would make-up for that loss.

Well done France.

Who will play Italy in Berlin?

In another 7-8 hrs time we would have a team from Munich that will go to face Italy in Berlin. France are playing Portugal in the second semifinal of the football world cup 2006. My personal favorites are Portugal, I am a Figo fan.

This match would be no less nerve-wracking than the first semifinal yesterday. This is going to be a fabulous match-up between two very good teams in the football world today. Both the teams took some time to find their touch in the tournament and are now in the peak of their form.

May the best team win (Portugal!!)

And the winner is...

It was a match dominated by the Italians. The Germans held till the 119th minute, then they started crumbling. Conceding 2 goals in the span of 2 minutes.

Italy goes to Berlin...

Fabio Grosso opened the account for the Italians in the 119th minute.

Alessandro Del Piero who came in by the second half of the extra time extended the lead by scoring in the 121st minute.

Italy 2 - Germany 0

Thriller?

At the end of 105 minutes of play (i.e.) two halves of play and one half of extra time the score remains 0 - 0.

Seems like this match is going down the wire.

It is fulltime

The fulltime whistle goes off. After 90 minutes of play it is 0 - 0. Italy were dominating with 57% ball possession through the two halves.

We now move on to the extratime.

Will a golden goal decide who goes to Berlin?

Or will we see penalty kicks deciding the finalist today?

What will happen in Dortmund?

It is halftime and the score is 0 - 0

Will the Germans win?

Are we in for an Italian shocker?

Did I say it would be 3 - 1 for Germany?

Well it has been a disappointing first half, at least for me who said the Germans would win 3 - 1.

35 minutes of first half play is over as I write this blog. The scoreline is 0 - 0.

But my worry is the state of affairs till now.

Italy has had a greater share of ball possession, 59% till now. They have also had "3" shots on the goal as opposed to "0" by the Germans. Italians till now have forced "4" corner kicks as opposed to "1" by the Germans.

As I finish this post in the 39th minute, Italians have forced another corner (5 overall) and they have had a freekick.

Germans need to improve a lot to win this match.

Italy dominating.

The football is back after a short break

Germany is going to Berlin. But I don't rule out a shock win for the Italians. Should be Germany by the end of the day (night here in Dubai). 3 - 1 is my final score, for Germany.

Let's wait and watch...

No football? How about some cricket?

India completed a historic series win over the West Indies, in West Indies. The four test series ended with a win for India at Sabina park, Kingston, Jamaica. This is India’s second series win in the Caribbean, 35 years after Ajit Wadeker’s team won a series. This win would also add some sanctity to India’s not so impressive away from home wins record.

It was a roller coaster of a match, with both the teams dominating in short bursts. In the end India prevailed by the end of the third day. It was a great match of test cricket and in the end the Indians definitely proved that they are a far better team.

Day 1

Rahul Dravid, the Indian captain won the toss and chose to bat
Jerome Taylor, the fast bowler from West Indies picked up 5 to reduce India to 200 in their 1st innings

Day 2

It was Harbajan Singh’s turn, he picked 5 West Indian wickets to reduce them to 103. A lead of 97 for India.

Day 3

Cory Collymore picked up 5 Indian wickets to end the Indian 2nd innings at 171. The West Indians needed 269 to win. They had more than 2 ½ days to win the test and wrap the series.

Kumble, emerged the hero for the Indians with a 6 wicket haul. And India won the test by the end of the third day by a margin of 49 runs, with 2 days to spare.

Positives

India

Batting – Dravid (as usual), Shewag & Laxman (back among runs), Wasim Jaffer (showed lots of temperament and promise), Kaif (should hold his place for another couple of series with that 100)

Bowling – The young ones did extremely well (Sreesanth, Munaf & VRV), Harbajan (among wickets again) and the old war horse Kumble (dependable as usual)

West Indies

Batting – Lara, Sarvan, Ganga & Ramdin (the wicketkeeper)

Bowling – Jerome Taylor (he was brilliant), Collymore (you could depend on this guy) and Collins (a modest comeback series for him)

Bravo scores full marks for living up to his allrounder reputation

No football for 2 days

Next game: Germany (Vs.) Italy in Dortmund on July 04, 2006

The Srilankan whitewash

The football worldcup euphoria subdued a fantastic game of cricket in Headingley, Leeds.

It was the fifth and final oneday game of Srilanka's tour of England. England scored 321 - 7 in their allotted 50 overs. The Srilankan's took 37.3 overs to maul that with 8 wickets to spare.

At one point in time I thought the Srilankan's would finish the match off well within 30 overs. Both the Srilankan openers, Jayasurya & Tharanga scored 100's. Jayasurya went on to bag the man of match as well as the man of the series awards.

In the end Srilanka had completed a 5-0 whitewash of the English in the onedayers. This, after a very closely fought test series where the Srilankan's came back from a 1 - 0 deficit to level the series 1 - 1.

While Mr. Moody, the Srilankan coach will rejoice welcoming his good times. Finally fortune smiles on him after a very bad run since the day he took over.

And Mr. Fletcher, his English counterpart has lots of introspection to do. With Ashes down the corner, this drubbing would only add to England’s miseries of injury and indifferent form.

Who’ll go to Berlin?

We have four teams now, was wondering who will play in the finals and who might win.

And this is what I have got to say.

Semifinals

Germany (Vs.) Italy – Germany 9:2
Portugal (Vs.) France – Portugal 3:2

Final line-up, winner and odds

Germany (Vs.) Portugal – Portugal 3:2
Germany (Vs.) France – France 5:4

Italy (Vs.) Portugal – Portugal 1:4
Italy (Vs.) France – France 4:9

In my opinion there are only three teams now running for the cup (in the same order).

1) Portugal
2) Germany
3) France

Italy’s odds are a bit too high at this point in time.

So my pick, it will be Germany (Vs.) Portugal in Berlin. And it will be a closely fought final, must be physical as well.

Vinay M says Germany. I say Portugal.

Let the best team win.

Fittingly the fourth qualifier

France it is…

And I did spell a Nostradamus. Incidentally, I had also predicted the final score for a couple of my friends. I told them it would be 1 – 0 for France, fulltime.

So, France is the fourth team to qualify. Thierry Henry scored for France in the 57th minute.

They now face Portugal in Munich on July 05, 2006.

Thank you Vinay M for acknowledging my astrological prowess through a text message. But there was nothing astrological about my prediction.

I repeat France definitely are a better team and Brazil were grossly overrated*.

* This inspite of me claiming to have spelt a Nostradamus!!

Three of four

Portugal I had predicted and Portugal it is…

A good game of football with both the teams having their share of chances and half chances.

To make things worse for England, Wayne Rooney was red carded in the 62nd minute. It was 0 – 0 fulltime and after a series of eventful hit and miss penalties it was 3 – 1 for Portugal finally.

So as I had predicted Portugal goes to Munich.

Opinion: France from Frankfurt

It will be France from Frankfurt (that is my prediction for todays second match). Brazil in my opinion are a bit too overrated and quarter's is how far they would go this time.

So France goes to Munich...

Hope I spelt a Nostradamus on France. We will know it tonight

Who will triumph in Gelsenkirchen?

In my opinion it will be Portugal, even if they are without a couple of their stars. But I also like Sven-Goran Eriksson's England.

What to do? At the end of two 45's only one team can win and I think Portugal will go to Munich.

Two of four...

Italy is team number two in the semifinal lineup.

They made a short work of Ukraine, 3 – 0. Gianluca Zambrotta (6th minute) & Luca Toni (59th and 69th minute) scored for Italy.

But for excellent goalkeeping from Italy’s Gianluigi Buffon the match could have been close.

It will be Germany (Vs.) Italy on July 04, 2006 in Dortmund. Let’s see who goes to Berlin from there.

One of four...

It is Germany. The German's become the first to qualify for the Semifinals beating Argentina on penalties, 1 – 1 (4 – 2).

Jans Lehmann the hero saving two spot kicks and Roberto Ayala & Esteban Cambiasso, the antiheros for the Argentinians.

All said, it was a hardly fought match, with both teams locked 1 – 1 in fulltime. Miroslav Klose of Germany equalized ( 80th-minute) Argentina’s opening goal from Roberto Ayala (49th-minute).

Seems like Jurgen Klinsmann’s decision to choose Jans Lehmann as his number one goalkeeper ahead of the experienced Oliver Kahn is vindicated.

Let’s now see how far the hosts go in this tournament.

Great Idea, Great Execution... I love it

While I don't understand the language I could relate to the action perfectly. I was reminded of my childhood days when I played tennis ball cricket in our streets.

Though I didn't have the luxury of calling out for the stars and getting them play with us like these kids do, I did most of the other things the kids here do, like...

1. Fighting with the opposing captain (kid) to select the team with the best of the resources available among us.

2. Fight for the boundaries and wickets, cry foul when you don't get what you wanted.

3. And most importantly... pull off, with your stumps, bat and ball when your mother calls you in, leaving the other players high and dry...

I love this commercial. Amazingly planned and superbly executed. Great work, I would have loved to do myself.

I am reading this book now...

Impulse controls my reading habit more than anything else. Whenever I notice someone having / reading a book, if the title is enticing enough I keep note of the title. Whenever possible I don’t forget to try grab the book (physical or on the net) and take a look at contents page. I then move on to the back cover or the inlay to read about the author. After this exercise if the book still interests me I go on to the tried and tested http://www.amazon.com/ to take a sneak peak on to a couple of pages of the book before I order online.

This time I noticed a book in the hands of Greg Chappell, the Indian cricket coach. This book attracted my attention for two reasons. One, the name of the book and its cover design. It had a photograph of a very attractive man with magnetic eyes. Two, I wanted to see what made Mr Chappell read this book.

Cut to amazon, I did my initial two pages reading. I also got an additional information that a 15 CD audio book edition was available, as read by the legendary Ben Kingsley. This interested me further. While I have placed an order for both the book and the audio book, I surfed the net and found a place where the book was available for reading, free of cost. I have finished more than half of this great book in 2 days. I’m sure I would finish reading in the next couple of days.

The book I’m reading “Autobiography of a yogi” by Paramahamsa Yogananda. Believe me this book is not about religion or meditation. It is an experience reading this book. Here are a few excerpts from the book, some golden words we could apply/use in almost all contexts of life.

The first one reminded me of my school and college days…

"FAITH in God can produce any miracle except one—passing an examination without study."

"In shallow men the fish of little thoughts cause much commotion. In oceanic minds the whales of inspiration make hardly a ruffle."

"What a person imagines he hears, and what the speaker has really implied, may be poles apart,"

"Try to feel the thoughts behind the confusion of men's verbiage."

These are some lines from the book that made me sit up and think. This book is full of these. Overall it is a wonderful book to own and more importantly read.

A good brief…

I saw this movie Munnabhai MBBS again, in Hindi. This is probably the 20th time I’m watching this movie in any language. It was fantastic as usual. But this time I looked at it in a different perspective, as a creative product from an agency.

So I had a question for myself…

What would the brief have been for this creative product?

The answer I had

"There are human beings and there are doctors

And here we have, a humane doctor who is not qualified…"

(almost all of us think doctors (medicos) are somewhat superhuman, if not explicitly at least within ourselves, subconsciously)

Supporting this proposition (I cooked) is one dialogue in this movie, almost towards the end of it…

“You might not be a doctor, but you showed people how to live”

Most of us should be agreeing that the moral of any story (the proposition) comes towards the end (of any story / movie). I hope I am justified, let me know your views.

The Football crazy cabbie

I was pleasantly surprised when this cabbie joined me and Francis discussing about Germany 2006. Francis was telling me about an article in one of the Indian portals. It carried a story about Vikash Dhorasoo, the man of Indian origin from Mauritius whose parents migrated to France long ago (It is a wee bit confusing!!). As the conversation moved on, I told Francis that I was feeling sad about the French drawing their game with Switzerland, I thought the French would easily win.

The cabbie quietly slipped into the conversation with one comment “Sir, Brazil will win this time too”. I considered it a regular smart ass comment about the football world cup. Ask anyone, they know about three teams for sure – Brazil, for whatever reasons. Germany, for they are the hosts. And Saudi Arabia, because they are our neighbors. But this man proved me wrong with his subsequent comments. He knows the game, in and out.

“Sir, this year it is either Brazil or Portugal. You know why?”.

Francis and me meekly nodded our head indicating we don’t.

“Because both have a Brazilian coach. And you know the man coaching Portugal has already won the cup with Brazil. I forgot his name…”

“It is Felipe Scolari” said Francis

“No I forgot the name but he is a good coach, even their captain is a good player. His name is…”

“Figo” said Francis

“Yes, he is a brilliant player and they have a couple of good forwards. The Brazilian coach, he is also good. He has a long name a passenger told me his name yesterday. I forgot that name it has 3 names, a very long one and difficult too”

“Carlos Alberto Parraira” Said me

“May be, I forgot. Today I wouldn’t drive in the evening, you know why?”

One dead nod of no from us

“Because Saudi is playing their first match. Against Senegal, it would be a good match because they are also a good team. But Saudi beat Australia 3-0 in the qualifiers to go to Germany. Did you see Australia winning 3-1? Then it is quite natural Saudi would also win comfortably. They have got some good players you know?”

Another nod signifying you have enlightened us buddy

“So I am going to park my cab in front of this shop there in Sheik Zayed, they have a big two side TV. You can watch it from both the sides, they show the match. All the big people watch from inside the shop. We sit outside and watch the match, it is good fun. I am not going to miss this match”

This is probably the first time I am seeing a cabbie so intelligent, committed to watching a game of football armed with abundance of game knowledge.

It was pleasure riding your cab buddy. God bless.

Ps: Saudi has just drawn their game with Tunisia. It is a 2 – 2 at fulltime, my cabbie friend would have been disappointed.

Very urban spam

I saw this in front of me in one of the taxi I traveled in Dubai (this faces the passenger seat). It is a small screen supported by a DVD full of spam. This has a volume control which would enable one to listen to the spam according to his / her decibel specifications but not so surprisingly this doesn't have a mechanism to have it switched off.

What you see are three parts of this spam. Two static spams on the sides and one dynamic DVD spam screen in the middle.

You could call it the 3-in-1 Spam effect.

King of Clay

It is 1 - 6, 6 - 1, 6 - 4, 7 - 6 (7 - 4) for Rafael Nadal in four sets. With this famous win, Nadal has extended his winning streak on clay to 60.

It was a wonderful game of tennis. Federer fought well to force Nadal into the fourth set tie-break, but couldn't hold on to the mini break he had in the tie-break.

I would have loved if my favorite Roger Federer had won the French Open this year. But I had to be content watching a fantastic tennis match, befitting a final.

Another memorable Roland Garros moment.

Time for a doctor...

Am down with a viral flu. Pretty bad, having to sleep inside 2 thick blankets in this hot 40+° Dubai summer heat.

Wish me well.

365 days of the Dubai air

With today I complete an year in Dubai. It has been a good year overall, hope it continues to be.

It's time for a beer. Cheers!

Good idea, great execution

This is one of my favourites. This won a Lion at Cannes a couple of years ago. Brilliant execution.

A grand opening and half a dozen goals

It is 4 - 2 for Germany. But for the Costa Rican goalkeeper's splendid efforts it could have been half a dozen for Germany. A good beginning to what promises to be a great world cup.

Guy Goma on a Friday night show

This is how famous one could get. This is a friday night show with Jonathan Ross.

God bless Congo.

Guy Goma interview on GMTV breakfast show

Second time lucky. But this time he is interviewed as Guy Goma in this GMTV breakfast show.

What a way to get famous!!

One more on Interviews

Meet Mr Guy Goma, he went to BBC for a job interview as a Data support cleanser. But was lucky ending up commenting on the Apple (Vs.) Apple case. It was a case of mistaken identity when this Guy was picked up for another guy, Guy Kewney, an IT expert.

While he wasn't too comfortable answering the questions asked, he managed. But this Guy managed really well to become an instant celebrity.

Check out... The BBC story

Anirudhha is getting photo savvy

My 8 month old son is getting savvy of facing the camera. While I am not a great fan of mobile phone cameras, I tried clicking a few pictures impromptu, yesterday night and this is how Mr Anirudhha had to react.

It is amazing seeing the kid grow. God bless.

How mobile savvy is the UAE?

Come 10th of this month I am completing an year in Dubai. I was chatting up with someone who has been here for the last 18 years. The discussion was about mobile telephony, this man was proud to say that UAE is one of the most evolved markets as far as mobile telephony goes. According to this friend, people here exploit the technology available to the fullest and they have a great deal of understanding about things.

Having had the opportunity to work with a couple of mobile telephony service provider brands back in India, I have my own opinion about this market. I thought it would be better if I had my opinion validated. So I started doing a dip-stick on this market, its expectations from the mobile service providers and more importantly the level of understanding the subscribers have about mobile telephony.

I have also tried checking some secondary data sources like a recent interview among people here about mobile phones (instruments) which appeared in a leading lifestyle magazine here and some reports I found on the net. I have also used some of my own understanding about this market.

Why this study / post now?

UAE is getting a second operator in the next couple of months. So I wanted to see how prepared this place is in welcoming a new operator, what do the people expect, what the operators have to offer now and what they must focus on for their better future.

All this said, there are still some people in the UAE who believe that we are moving from monopoly to Du-poly situation with the launch of the new operator Du. This is mainly due to the reason that Du also belongs to the government, Etisalat and Du have reached an agreement already – they wouldn’t compete on cost.

Do let me know your comments / feedbacks.

Special thanks due to Vinay M for helping me collate responses for the research.

The United Arab Emirates market

It is a monopoly as of now. Etisalat, the sole operator in town has been in business for 30 years now. It was established initially in 1976 (the Federal Act 1 of 1991 made this industry a monopoly). UAE is one of the first countries to introduce mobile telephony way back in 1982. Digital GSM service is operational since September 1994. People would be surprised to know that Etisalat is the second largest revenue generator for the government after the oil sector. Though Etisalat is a government owned company it is very active pitching for business in the neighboring countries including Saudi, Pakistan etc.

So here we are talking about a government controlled monolith, in monopoly.

Mobile penetration

The global standards say that the developed countries have about 34% mobile penetration and in the developing countries the penetration is about 5%.

In UAE the mobile penetration is at 79% compared to a 30% fixed line penetration. This figures would show us how dynamic the UAE market is and its wealth & its ever increasing expatriate population.

In Dubai the usage / penetration is at 90% and Abu Dhabi follows next with 62.5%. Both these centers combined contribute to 74% of the total penetration of the country.

Despite these very high penetration figures the market grows by a conservative 10% an year. This 10% could be mainly attributed to the SMS and MMS services. The market is also known for its frequency of changing handsets (that would be a good study by itself).

The offering

Etisalat offers both prepaid and postpaid services. With WASEL being its very popular prepaid offering. In my estimate (due to lack of support) the skew towards prepaid is about 8:2. This could be mainly attributed to the cost of the postpaid connection, you are supposed to pay a deposit of about $140.

By December 2003 there was a reduction is the cost of international calls, notably to India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Sudan and Yemen. Reduced tariffs have increased revenue, rather than reduced it, since consumers make more and longer calls.

The target audience

Mainly the expatriate population and not to forget the local population. This ranges from a construction laborer to a CEO of a multinational company. It is a very disparate crowd and therefore their expectations differ as per their usage.

Awareness among the users

Recently, in one of the leading publications I saw an article. They had spoken to a few people. All these people looked educated, having a decent job. The question posed was simple “What do you use your mobile phone for?”

And you would see below the kind of response from the people (in the order of importance)

1. Receive / Make calls
2. Send SMS
3. Set Alarm (Check out the BBC report on a Nokia commissioned survey)
4. Take pictures
5. Check time (Check out the BBC report on a Nokia commissioned survey)
6. Listen to Radio / MP3 (Check out the BBC report on a Nokia commissioned survey)
7. Send MMS
8. Connect to the web

Looking at this survey I decided to do a dipstick survey. I decided my survey would be from a service provider’s perspective and ask people about the mobile service usage based questions.

I contacted 15 young men & women with a questionnaire. Here’s what they had to say.

1. All of them have a mobile connection
2. All of them have a postpaid connection.
a. 7 said they have a Wasel (that is the name for the prepaid subscription plan).
b. 8 said they have a Etisalat connection
3. Next question asked was “What is GSM?”
a. 3 of them had said it was “Global System for Mobile communication”.
b. The other 12 had an interesting answer, GSM according to them is a type of mobile phone connection where you get a monthly bill and you pay it month on month. You also get a international roaming with this connection. Interesting!!
4. Three functions you use your mobile phone for frequently. (Services provided by Etisalat, in the order of importance)
a. Incoming
b. SMS
c. Outgoing
5. Do you know about anyother service provider in Dubai? (the reason being an impending launch of another service provider Du)
a. 3 said they knows Du is getting launched shortly
b. The others had no idea
6. What would make you switch to another operator from Etisalat? (in the order of importance)
a. Reduced call charges – International & local
b. Low rentals (the annual subscription)
c. Free international roaming
d. Good network
e. Good customer care
7. Are you okay with switching operators at the risk of loosing your existing phone number?
a. All 15 said yes they will
8. Have you switched numbers at least once? (have you changed your mobile connection ever?)
a. 8 said they have
b. 7 have not changed their numbers

Making sense of the numbers shown above.

UAE has an extremely high mobile penetration level. Mobile phones are more or less commodities here. Some people also have the tendency of changing numbers, the reason being getting a fancy number, a shift in jobs or just for the fun of it. You have an amazing skew towards prepaid connections. This is because of the high deposit / rental factor required for the postpaid connections. Postpaid is seen as a rich man’s connection.

The most important thing is the ignorance of people about their connection. A majority of them don’t seem to know what the prepaid offering of Etisalat is called – Wasel. Even this awareness doesn’t hold Etisalat in good ground as we move on to GSM.

The majority here seem to confuse technology with the offering. For many GSM is the postpaid offering from Etisalat. Even educated, high ranking men and women don’t know what GSM is in reality. Not that they should know the expansion for this acronym, but they should at least know that this a technology that enables you to speak. At least people back in India know this. Another thing to add here is Etisalat’s recent decision to enable full international roaming for its prepaid customers. People don’t seem to know this, they are all under the impression that roaming is available only for the GSM customers (that is the postpaid according to them).

On the usage part, we could clearly see that incoming calls are most preferred. This could be attributed to the high call costs and the amount of expatriate population living here in the UAE. SMS seems to be the next preference, but how many of the expat population are SMS savvy? Outgoing is for emergency situations because it is presumed a costly proposition.

Nobody knows that another operator is coming to town, Du is being launched shortly. But when prompted about this, almost all of the people interviewed say they would want to shift. The reasons that would prompt this decision of theirs is call costs, annual rental and the network (Thursday’s and Friday’s are the most congested days when there is a mad rush of international outgoing calls)

Some learning for the mobile service providers in UAE

1. When your customers crib about costs, it is not necessary that you need to reduce costs. You can create a feeling of reduction by making them feel that you offer more value for their money. Services like Cricket Scores through SMS, Football WC results and score updates, Dial-a-cab, Dial-a-flower, Dial-your-water services make a huge difference. These are some services for which the operator ties up with someone, makes money from this person and offer the services free of charge to the customer

2. There is a reduction in call charges past 10p everyday and on Fridays, but how many people know this? Communicate, may be an SMS to the people on Fridays at least only to those who seem to cough-up monies on making expensive international calls would do wonders.

3. Educate people about your offering. Let people know what your prepaid and postpaid offerings are and what the difference is. Let people know that your company works on a GSM plank and everyone is a GSM user. This should do wonders in a market like this where everyone has a misconception that GSM is postpaid, it would make a definite difference and create a sense of belonging when these guys know they also have a GSM connection. At least for starters.

4. Create more of Emotional loyalty and not the Behavioral loyalty (that’s what you have now). This comes out clearly from our interviews, people are sticking with Etisalat because it is the only player in the market. They would move the moment they have another option. But this option can’t be yet another Etisalat with a different brand name and identity. It has to differentiate itself by the product they offer, the Value Added Services, the packaging and more importantly in pricing (at least visibly)

5. Use the wealth of data you have to increase usage. You know who makes long ISD calls and who is an SMS freak. Offer them some add-ons, make them feel important and this would increase usage.

6. Remember visibility shouldn’t be limited to eyes, you need to take that to heart.

7. This is a service industry, beef your customers service centers up. Get people who understand the problems of your subscribers (at least the common complaints). Make sure all the complaints are addressed promptly.

8. Communicate about your offering clearly. When a person buys a prepaid card or a postpaid connection give him a welcome pack. This should explain him whatever he wanted to know about the connection, facilities and tariff etc.

9. For heavens sake make them use their mobiles for more than setting alarms, checking time and receiving an odd incoming call and make a call or send an SMS once in a blue moon. For a mobile phone’s primary use is not setting alarms and checking time, these need to stop with being value added services from the equipment.

10. As we could see, today a mobile is not just a phone. It is a watch, alarm clock, music player, camera and many more dimensions. It would be adding value if we provide the customer with services that supplement this kind of usage like a music server (like an iTune or a mobile radio station), simple software like the ones used for managing daily expenses etc.

The existing operator here doesn’t seem to have time. They have to react fast, otherwise the watch, clock, MP3 manufacturers are going to suffer a lot. More than that, the existing operators ARPU is going to take a nosedive soon with lots of people leaving out of the network and low usage among those remaining.

Why don't they teach these people some basics before they start giving interviews?

I was checking one of my daily favorites, the agencyfaqs website (Indian advertsing, media & marketing). I found yet another SMART advertising professional. This person is reported to be moving from one BIG agency to another, from being an Account Director to becoming a Director – Client Services.

I was intrigued by the way this person has answered a simple question. The challenges and the headway this person made working on a particular account (a well known brand) in one of this person's previous assignments.

The answer was funny. This made me wonder about this person's wisdom, the abilities of this particular persons handling clients, problem solving capabilities and even this persons understanding of the basics of advertising and branding.

Now over to that intersting answer “Here the challenge was to up the image of “The client” in India and differentiate the brand from the other brands in the market. This was achieved by roping in “A big superstar actor” as the brand ambassador.”

Can somebody try explain me how a brand image is “upped” just by using a celebrity? While one can attempt to try and explain this with some difficulty, the differentiation bit baffles me. May be this person was referring to the exclusivity clause they had as part of the contract with this celebrity and that is the only BIG differentiation I could think of.

This person is badly in need of a good lecture / sermon / coaching on “Brand” first and then on “Brand Image”, “Positioning” and “Differentiation”. This would stand to save the agency this person has joined or is going to join and more than anything save a client and his/her brand(s).

Till then god save this agency and their clients…

Aspirations – How dreams take shape

I had the opportunity of reading Abraham Maslow’s theory of hierarchy (again after 8 years of college). It is very interesting, more interesting than it was during college. I tried applying the theory to my life till date, on my progression.

From the dreams of a little boy to the practical family man to the aged head of a family trying to shepherd things, it is one full circle.

I found 6 distinct sections in anyone’s life in a pyramid structure. When I tried placing myself in the pyramid, I find I am in the fifth step. Let us see what these 6 steps are.

Not that I have discovered something new, but it seems interesting and may be we could use it on brands we are working on. Try map out where where the brand is placed on the pyramid and tackle its needs and wants as the pyramid would dictate us.

This seems interesting, the only problem - this is a fairly long post. If you do manage to take some timeout and read this, let me know your feedback, it would be invaluable and I would be grateful.

1) The age of Innocence

This is the time in life when everything around you impresses you, from the street side bougainvillea tree to the wiper blade of your uncle's car . Often you feel like floating on air and you wouldn't be worried about anything in life.

There is absolutely nothing called a cause – effect theory now. You are happy enjoying the all little pleasures in life.

I want to become a train driver!

That was my first aspiration in life. I was all of 3 when I decided I would become one. I was fascinated by the way they stood in the first compartment of a train, the engine. Their blue color bandana and uniform. They operate the horn of the train, I had heard. I wanted to drive my train all around India, meet and carry different kinds of people in my train. And more than anything operate the whistle whenever I felt like.

I want to become a doctor!

When I was 5 I had my first memorable fall. I had to have 4 sutures near my left eye. It was awfully painful. It was a Monday afternoon, I had come home for lunch from my school and I had this fall. My mother couldn’t control her emotions, she was inconsolable, weeping. My father was away at work. So it was my grandfather who took me to the doctor. But I was a brave boy, I didn’t cry, I didn’t growl. But when the doctor was working on my injury I couldn’t tolerate the pain. The pain turned into anger. The person who bore my brunt was my grandfather. I swore I would become a doctor and prick my grandfather with an injection, like how the doctor was doing to me then.

My grandfather took that seriously and began motivating me to become a doctor. My father gifted me a doctors play set. My grandfather had a vision for me – serve the needy and poor. I felt like I had already become a doctor.

I want to be a policeman…

Two years of dreaming doctor came to an end when the people in my colony caught a thief. He was bound to an electric post and was given a severe dressing down by the locals before the police arrived. This policeman incidentally was my father’s student at college. I loved his khaki uniform, starched to perfection. The elegant whistle chord. The stars on his shoulders. The pistol that hung from his belt. And more than anything the bike he rode – A Royal Enfield Bullet, Standard 350. I tried walking like him. I had a haircut like him and I did everything to make sure I looked like him. I wanted to become a policeman.

2) The age of Ignorance

This is an age where your life is driven by what others do. Most of the time is spent being a copy cat. You want to be everything what the boy / girl next door wants to become and is doing. From wanting to join swimming classes to pestering your father to take you to the same restaurant where your classmate went last week.

Most of the time is spent taking all “Word of mouth” at face value.

The engineer in me

I was in my 10th class when I decided I would become an engineer. What engineer god knows, but I wanted to join an engineering college and become an engineer. This was mainly due to peer pressure. It was a custom those days when half the class said they want to become doctors and the other half engineers. I tried asking myself “why do I want to become an engineer?”. The answer was simple Rama wants to become a doctor, Abdul wants to become a doctor, Rajkumar wants to become an engineer and therefore I would want to become an engineer.

3) The age of Adventure

The physiological developments start to take shape. The first love, smoke, drink and all the other little vices get started now. One becomes more careless and even a little arrogant. The mind wavers around, you want to be a hero and you want to do every possible thing to be known a hero. Street fights, fling with many women (read classmates), trying to watch x rated movies when your parents are not at home are common symptoms.

The motto being “I am fearless, I can face anything”.

“The world at my foot” attitude is prevalent.

How about becoming a musician?

Within one year of my engineer dreams I was fed up or maybe I understood the world better. I had realized I wouldn’t become an engineer, given my low marks in my 10th class. And the pressure of the 12th class made me resolute that I wouldn’t become an engineer. I was learning music for the last 5-6 years. I was from a musical family – my mother being a good singer and a Veena player, my father was a music critic writing for major newspapers (that was his hobby) and my sister, also an accomplished singer and she could also play the Veena. I was a bits and pieces musician. I would suddenly be a regular to vocal music classes. The next month I would want to learn playing the violin and then the flute. I would also experiment with the Veena we had at home, when nobody was there.

But some respectable people in the music circles acknowledged my musical abilities. But they also thought I was a crank to learn Carnatic music and also be part of a pop band. It was sacrilege for the puritans. I wanted to be a professional musician. Earn through music. I was serious about this and even grew my hair to look like a modern day musician. Then, it took me exactly 365 days to know the value of money. I was about to finish my schooling. I had to go to college, finish it and start earning for myself and my family. I suddenly felt like a very responsible man, how long would my father feed me. I must feed him someday, he is getting old.

The charted accountant

I had already joined my Bsc in Physics, when this option came to my notice. Those days we had an entrance exam post 12th class. Clearing this exam one could directly take the CA – Inter. Peer pressure again, I decided to take this exam. I had seen a couple of my seniors fail this exam twice or more times. So I wanted to clear this in my first attempt. This was an ego issue for me. I eventually passed the entrance test in my first attempt. I was among the 5 or 10 people who did pass. While everyone decided to take things seriously and take the inter in the next term, I had other ideas. So my dream of becoming a CA came to an end.

I want to play for India!

I was a decent cricket player and still think am one. So during my first year college there came the question – cricket practice or CA classes. I decided on the former. I was serious in my resolve of making it big in cricket. I wanted to represent my university and then the state and eventually the country.

I wouldn’t even represent my college in the first year, same old politics. In the second year I did represent my college but missed out on the zonal squad. The third year, everyone said I would definitely get an university color, but unfortunately I was down with chicken pox. My dreams were shattered. I was already in my third year of college. So I decided I would forget serious cricket and look at my future. Now I wanted to become a software professional. That is where the money was and still is.

4) The age of Realization

One starts understanding life, trying to find his / her foot on something. Money and future become a matter of concern. You try imagining yourself in your seniors / elders shoes.

“My cousin joined Infosys and went to Boston and even I should”.

Will I? Or will I not? Becomes the buzzword.

A soft dream

My dreams of becoming a software professional were shattered within the first 8 months of joining my Msc. I felt like I had gone back to the kindergarten, I had a bunch of nerds around me. I couldn’t stand them and the Msc in computer science. But time rolled fast, I swore that I would definitely not take-up a software job come what may.

Advertsing, management, show business

I had a family friend who was working for a place called BBDO. He said it was an advertising agency. And he was in client servicing. He was a serious advertising guy and he told me about who an Account Executive is and what he does. I was impressed and I wanted to join advertising.

The qualification this guy suggested me was a management degree. So I joined my MBA. I also started reading about advertising – “Ogilvy on advertising” was one of the first books I tried. I finished my MBA training with BBDO and Y&R.

But unfortunately for me advertising in India was faced with an year of recession. I was offered a job with BBDO, but in media planning. I refused because I was resolute to join client servicing and no other department. I could only land a job with a small advertising agency. But I was fixated on advertising and that too client servicing.

Cinema production and direction

The small agency I joined also had strong connections with the film industry. They were also producing a serial for a regional television channel. I was put in charge of this division. My interest in films and television swelled as I started learning about this medium. I was doing well for myself. At one point, I was in two minds to make this my career. At the same time, I also had an offer from JWT, so I consulted a good friend of mine who happens to be one of the goliath's of the Tamil film industry.

But for this person’s advice I would have decided on cinema and television as my career. He took me through some examples in the industry and explained me how the industry functioned. He didn’t ask me to wipe my mind clear of this field but advised me to earn experience and money taking up what seemed my first love – advertising. Advertising according to him was no different from cinema and television. It was all another facet of showbiz. So he asked me to learn more about the business and then comeback to films sometime. I took his advice and joined JWT.

5) Age of Consolidation

Here you have gotten into something you always wanted to. You have found a foothold and now you try and spread your wings. You want to be recognized by the people around you. Everything you do is dictated by this one thought.

Profit and loss accounts on everything you do becomes the order of the day.

My journey in advertising

It was in JWT I realized the importance of visibility and proaction. I had to use these qualities all around – within the agency and with the client. An year and a half later was when Y&R called me for handling a big consumer durable account. I felt happy because it was one of the most happening verticals at that point in time in India and there were more monies for me.

Two years there and I got smitten by the direct marketing bug. So in came OgilvyOne. After two fantastic years in OgilvyOne & Ogilvy Activation and setting-up my family I needed to consolidate further, so I moved to Dubai.

And now I am looking to find my feet on to Account Planning.

Maybe this would be the final step of consolidation I am looking at before I move to the next level on the pyramid.

6) Age of Retrospection

This according to me would be the last journey for anyone. This is after one earns enough of monies and respect, after he is seen as a champion of sorts by the world (or whenever he realizes he is seen a champion). This would differ from person to person depending on what his needs and wants are and also based on his movement across the other segments of the pyramid.

The smart Chinese are everywhere.

It was a bit ironic when I found a carton of apples at a restaurant in Dubai. It was a packet of apples, Fuji apples to be precise. The irony was that it was Fuji apples grown in China. I was shocked and surfed the net to find more information, here’s what I got to know.

“Fuji apple is an apple cultivar developed by growers at the Tohoku Research Station in Morioka, Japan in the late 1930's and brought to market in 1962. It is a cross between the two American apple varieties, the Red Delicious and old Virginia Ralls Genet (sometimes cited as "Rawls Jennet") apples.

Outside of Japan, the popularity of Fuji apples continues to grow. Fuji apples account for 80% of China's 20 million tons grown annually.”

I am waiting to see Chicken Tikka made in China. I’m sure that would happen soon or it’s already happening somewhere.

God bless China!

What's in a name? - Part II

We saw some unusual and interesting names found in Dubai & Sharjah in my previous post. In this one lets see the most commonly used names or phrases or terminologies here in this part of the world.

These words go with the name of any company or business. From Stationery to ships or from Laundry to Couture brands. And from eateries to earth moving equipment or from beauty parlor to airlines.

1. Arabian

2. Emirates

3. Middle East, Middle Eastern

4. Gulf, Persian Gulf

5. Falcon (it’s the national bird here)

6. Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Umm al-Qaiwain (or the smaller locales inside these Emirates)

7. Golden

8. Most of the bakers have “Lebanese” tucked on to their name. It is almost like “Bangalore Iyengar bakery” or those “Punjabi Dhaba” back in India.

So if you want to unleash the entrepreneurial virus in this part of the world make note of these little things. These would enable your company / enterprise acquire an authentic flavor.

What's in a name?

Brand names have always been a matter of fascination for me.

Why Levers? Why Procter & Gamble? Why Wal-Mart? Why McDonalds? Why JWT?

* Founded in 1885 by William Hesketh Lever
* William Procter, a candlemaker, and James Gamble, a soapmaker, formed the company known as Procter & Gamble in 1837 (they were brother-in-laws who came together at the insistance of their father-in-law)
* Founded by Sam Walton in 1962
* Began in 1940 with a restaurant opened by siblings Dick and Mac McDonald
* Originally founded by William James Carlton in 1864 and renamed by James Walter Thompson in 1877 to the J. Walter Thompson Company (not many would know about this WJ Carlton bit!!)

Like these every name of a brand / company or commercial establishment has a reason. It signifies something. Some of the names in Dubai & Sharjah found my fancy, particularly of restaurants, internet cafes and billiards parlors.

These are some of those interesting names in Dubai & Sharjah.

1. Traffic Jam restaurant – This place is next to an important junction. It is also a traffic bottleneck. And maybe therefore this name.

2. Decent restaurant – In one of the most congested localities of Sharjah. Next to a big dust bin. May be the owners wanted to stand out of this clutter and wanted some positive energies to flow.

3. Radio restaurant – Another significant name in Sharjah. I told myself maybe they must be only playing radio in the restaurant and hence the name.

4. Airport restaurant – This name is anybodies guess. Yes, you got it right. This is on one of the roads that lead to the Dubai airport.

5. Automatic restaurant & café – I wonder what is automatic here. The preparation? How they serve? The billing? The payment?. It’s an unique name but.

6. Public Cook – Must be this restaurants main business comes from bulk orders - marriages and other functions.

7. Daily restaurant – I am wondering why the restaurant is named so. May be they want their patrons to be back on a daily basis?! Let me know a reason if you could cook one.

8. Golden Finger internet parlor – May be the owner is a James Bond fan! He gave a twist to the old 007 classic and made his parlors name Golden finger instead of the original.

9. Blue Door Ladies Salon – This is situated in a building painted white. But I managed to see a blue door that leads to this salon. May be that is why they have named it so.

10. Eject rent-a-car – A tricky name to have for a rent-a-car business. What happens if the car I rented ejects me out in the middle of Sheikh Zayed Express way. When every one around is moving at 120kmph. Scary!

11. Automatic Technical Laundry – These people in Dubai are obsessed with the word “Automatic” & “Technical”. I leave deciphering this name to your imagination.

May be sometime these grow as mammoth as an Apple or Linux or a Virgin and then people who mocked at these names (including me) would run to do case studies on their success or for having them as one of their clients.

God Bless them!

Following up with Emotion – I'mowshun “Any strong feeling”

Sajan says that this commercial is being pulled off air. Hence I wrote a mail to Sajan trying to explain / reason why this is a good commercial and why it shouldn’t be pulled off air.

The reasons why this is being pulled off air (strictly my version)...

1) This not being a good creative (the clients perspective)
2) The product not being hot enough for people to buy (the agency and the Marcom managers perspective)
3) The Marcom manager never involved me in the making of this commercial (the product managers perspective)

On the product not being hot... The onus is finally on the marcom person to sit with his product guys and try and augment the benefits this product could bring forth...

To put it simply, everyone in Tamil Nadu knows that the penetration of TATA Indicom is negligibly small.

So, what they (the client and the account planners / managers) must have done is

1. Have this campaign as a long term recruitment plan (don't tear the duck off for 10,000 golden eggs overnight!! you would get none!!)
2. Supplement this campaign with grassroot level promotions aiming at new recruitments (possibly groups... aiming at corporates, colleges, self help groups, women’s clubs, clubs etc.)
3. Do a member get member aimed at the existing base with an extra incentive or two for the target audience. The returns – Imagine a 1% return on the existing base, you would clearly see how beneficial this promotion would have been.

While I stand firm on saying that this is a result of a good creative brief and a this is indeed a very good creative. I don't want to accept that it is a bad product.

To give you an example of a similair scenario in FMCG…

1) How many of us remember the Evita soap commercials of 1994-95?

2) And how many of us who remember those commercials know that the product was pulled of the market within 12 months of being launched?

3) And how many of those who knew about the product pull-off know that Godrej scrapped the product (to relaunch it recently, if I am not wrong)?

So was it a dull / dud inferior product? NO
Was the communication strategy wrong? I don't think so
Was the product pricing wrong? May be (it was at that point in time .50p more than the regular beauty soaps, the normal weight )

So what could have been wrong?

1. The timing (as the TATA Indicom case is – Low numbers in Tamil Nadu). This is simply because Evita spoke about Vitamin E and moisturizer's when Lux was talking about woman, pampering and aspirations (using film starlets) and Liril was talking about independence, breaking free and emotional benefits. There was no Dove in the market, the market wasn't educated enough.

2. The woman at that time or for that matter those men who used Lux and Liril to look good, were influenced purely by the celebrity who endorsed the product. He or She didn't mind what is good and what is bad for them. And therefore Evita's product promise of Vitamin E etc. was not accepted or rather not considered at all.

The result... The product wouldn't sell and they had to rollback. Had Evita been launched two years later (97 - 98) or had Godrej sustained to keep the product on shelves for those 2 years, this product would have been a viable Indian competition for Dove. Godrej has woken up now and relaunched this product in a cluttered market, only time would tell how this would fare now.

Taking some morals from this story...

Your product managers and Marcom execs should have balls enough to stand by their product and sustain it in the market for a couple of months before reaping its benefits. I must also say that the people in the agency are equally responsible for the growth or otherwise of the brands they handle. Specifically the planning and the account management team.

If the client didn't foresee these stuff when he briefed, the agency must have gone to him and told him about the advantages and disadvantages of the product and suggested a comprehensive 360 degree communication plan rather than a TVC and some press approach.

All these said I still maintain that this is a good product and a very good creative. Unfortunately we lacked a owner to get the product running and win the race

P.S: Thanx a ton Sajan for permitting me to post this online.