Learn a new word in English

This is Ramadan, the holy month for Muslims all around the world. So it is a custom here in the UAE to have tents / facilities in all major roads / streets where people who are fasting could break their fast in the evening or have their Iftar.

"Faster breakfast tent"

This one is a big sign board on one of those tents along the Emirates Road, which is an express way that connects all the emirates.

“Faster” the one who is fasting

“Breakfast” the meal that breaks the fast Iftar

Was wondering if it would have made good if it just read “Iftar tent”.

I am sure everyone in this region knows what Iftar is.

Me in Campaign ME - The Link

There seems to be a problem in the link for the original article from the previous post. I believe one must subscribe to CampaignME and log-in before you access the article.
To make lives simpler I'm putting up here snapshots (taken from the CampaignMe website) of the Brand Healthcheck and Diagnosis sections.

Me in Campaign ME

I had written a letter to the Campaign ME editor on something I read in their September 03, 2006 issue.

They have a section called Brand Healthcheck. Here, they take a brand and discuss about its health in terms of how it is currently doing in the market and what its marketing plans are. At the end of which they have another small section called Diagnosis where someone from the industry suggests remedial action / course correction to improve the brands visibility / market performance.

This letter I wrote to the editor was basically a rejoinder with respect to certain remedial actions this person had suggested for Land Rover / Range Rover in the Diagnosis section. Take a look at the article here.

I am grateful to the folks at Campaign ME for having published my views in their September 24, 2006 issue.

A roundtable, coffee, biscuits and needless discussions

I have been feeling for a while that meetings are a waste of time. It only provides you an opportunity to sit around a table, drink coffee, nibble biscuits and have some directionless conversation. What makes this more sickening is the fact that one needs to waste more time drawing up a minutes for this wasted time.

I think emails and phone calls serve the purpose more than having a meeting in person.

This observation of mine doesn’t hold good when there is some real pressing need for having people across the table or when you are meeting a genuinely concerned person who wants a solution for his problem. For example an account review, finalizing a campaign, putting together the annual plan, budgets etc.

I wanted to validate this observation of mine by collating some data on the meetings I have been taking for the last one month. This includes the time spent on meetings internally as well as with the clients (leaving alone the joblist reviews and other trivial meetings).

Then figuring out the purpose of the meeting, how much time did we have the meeting for, did we come to any useful conclusion at the end of the meeting and most importantly was the conclusions reviewed and the action taken.

I found that I have taken 14 meetings in the last 31 days.

The average time I have spent on meetings is approximately 42 hours

Of this 42 hours only about 7.5 hours were productive. This means we discussed business only 7.5 hours of the 42 hours of sitting around a table.

So what the hell were we doing in the other 34.5 hours?

a) Waiting for someone to join us
b) Waiting when someone part of the meeting took a washroom break
c) Waiting for someone to finish a call
d) Discussing about biscuits, toffee and the coffee that was being served
e) Discussed about George W Bush, C Rice and Saddam
f) Discussed music, record labels and chart busters
g) Discussed countries and economies
h) Counting the number of mechanical cranes in Dubai
i) Discussing about the metro project in Dubai
j) Postmortem on the Football world cup and a curtain raiser on the Cricket world cup
k) Sharing some stupid jokes and pretended to be laughing
l) Meaninglessly digressed off topic
m) Worthlessly debated a non issue

Well, these are only some I could take note of. There were many other very important moments as part of this 34.5 hours.

Of that 7.5 hours, we had these two almost an hour long meetings. These are the ones I would remember from the last 31 days as meaningful meetings where we arrived at a decision and have actioned it since.

So, only 2 out of 14 have been productive meetings overall. Except for those few minutes of productive time from the others.

So what could we infer from these statistics?

1) Never gather a large crowd for meetings
2) Like a parrot keep saying “What we are discussing in this meeting is…” every 10 minutes
3) Try and close trivial things over phone or emails
5) Take meetings if and only if it is of extreme importance. Say, while starting something or closing a deal
6) Try and levy a fees for meetings. “An hour of mine costs $ X”

This is what I could take out from the last 31 days. Hope I learn from the mistakes I have committed in the last 31 days and correct them soon.

But I am sure I can never avoid this, but maybe I can try reduce the amount of time lost.

Sharjah by nite

This is the view of Sharjah from my bedroom window.

It is Ramadan

Today is the second day of the holy month of Ramadan.

There would be very less or no activities this month apart from prayers and evening fast breaking get-together during the course of this month. That said all the marketers in the region would spend the month planning and would go full blast post Eid ul-Fitr or the festival of breaking fast, the day that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Why is the month of Ramadan considered holy?

Muslims believe that during Ramadan, the revelation of the Qur'an to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) began.

What happens during this month?

The Muslims fast from dawn (fajr) to dusk (maghrib). They don’t eat, drink or smoke during the fasting period.

More on Ramadan here

Another interesting cabbie I met

This time, it is a Sharjah Taxi cabbie with whom I traveled from my house at Sharjah to my office in Dubai.

Mr Khan is from Peshawar in Pakistan. So, as usual the talk started with the Indo-Pak relations and ended with Cricket. The most interesting thing was to be told that he is Pak cricketer Shahid Afridi’s cousin.

It was nice talking about cricket (with special reference to Pakistan, Imran Khan, Javed Miandad & India – Pakistan matches) with Khan.

Good 2 hours spent.

Goodbye Croc Hunter…

We lost a famous son of Australia Steve Irvin to a sting ray barb accident starting this month. This one is a piece from his memorial service in the Australia Zoo. His 6 year old daughter Bindi Sue Irvin’s tribute to her illustrious father.

It is touching, her opening line sums it up all…

Steve was sure a hero to people like me who grew up watching him grapple with crocs, snakes and lizards.

Steve, Bye Bye. Rest in peace.

End of the hiatus...

Well it is almost 20 days since I wrote something.

I was looking for 3 good reasons why I was not posting, here they are...

1) I was busy with my office

2) I was busy with my office

3) I was busy with Anirudhha

Ok... Here I am back in action after the "post nelson" (the 111th post here) break.

Cheers!!

Debonairs Pizza

On Thursday, me and a couple of my colleagues went to this joint in Dubai for lunch.

While we were amused by the name, Debonair which is quite unusual for a Pizza joint. The stuff they had to offer was great, and had a distinctively Indian flavor.

I was told that the owner of this joint is an Indian. The strongest possibility is that his name is Debo, a Malayalee “Nair” (a clan of people from the South Indian state of Kerala who are found in abundance in the UAE and the Persian gulf).

This is a list of what we managed to sample that day. Chicken Tikka Pizza, Mumbai Masala Pizza, Hot Chick Pizza etc. All these come with a generous dose of Indian herbs and masala.

We had a good meal for about Dh.70.

Thank you Mr Debo Nair.

God bless.

PS: I just found that Debonairs is a South African chain operating around the globe. Hence my wishful thinking about Mr. Debo Nair wouldn't be true. But Mr. Nair might as well be the franchise for Dubai!! More about Debonairs here

Genie in the cupboard

I snapped Anirudhha sitting inside one of our cupboards and enjoying himself while we were shifting houses. It was quite a sight to watch.

The role of software in a CRM program

In the last couple of weeks I have been part of many discussions on CRM programs and the scope of software in CRM. Being part of the industry, I think it is my responsibility to clarify (again) that CRM is not a piece of software as most of the people think.

Even some of my learned colleagues from the Direct Marketing & CRM industry think otherwise, such is their knowledge and awareness about CRM.

And hence I thought it would be useful if I tried clarifying the role of software in CRM and try illustrate what happens to CRM if we don’t have a software system with some examples.

Data collation

This is the first step of any CRM program.

The data helps us understand who our customers are and what their needs, wants & preferences are.

We used to fill in sheets of papers before technology made our lives simpler. Now we use online forms, web based data capture forms, touch screens etc.

Advantages of technology

1) The time and effort needed to decipher handwriting and collating all the data into one platform is minimized

2) Capture errors are minimized

What if we didn’t have technology?

There wouldn’t have been any change, except an additional few hours capturing data from a sheet of paper and standardization.

Therefore technology or no technology a CRM program can be initiated.

The technology is only meant to make our lives simpler.

Now that you have collected data and know your customers / prospects, what is the next step?

Using the data to offer what the customer wants.

And hence building a relationship with the customer.

What do we do? (some examples)

1) Send communications in the language a customer has requested for.

2) Send him the offers he had requested.

3) Leave those customers who didn’t want to be contacted alone.

4) Send the customer an invitation for the category he / she is interested in.

What if we didn’t have technology?

An office boy and an account executive from the direct marketing agency would be sorting all the feedback forms from the customers and arranging them up in piles according to preferences.

This sorted / standardized pile would be used for the exercise they are planning to undertake.

This is a manual process and hence the process needs to be repeated for every exercise the brand wants to do.

Therefore you don’t necessarily need a data warehousing or reporting software for a CRM program. You need two patient people with two good pairs of eye to do the job.

These are some examples to prove that a good CRM program would survive without any software support.

To sum up

1) Any CRM program starts with understanding who our customers are, without C there is no CRM.

2) A software program helps us minimize time and save costs.

3) Software is not and cannot be, the be all and end all of any CRM program.

4) CRM is a dynamic environment, you can’t have a one size fits all solution.

5) Software works on algorithms, a customer doesn’t . He relies on his experiences with the brand, his impulses and his needs & wants.

6) Customer Relationship Marketing, as the name itself suggests starts with building relationships with your customers. A software can’t build relations, only humans can.

Touchpoints and Moment Of Truth

This is going to be a tricky post. Simply because 2 out of the 3 terminologies mentioned here have been spoken about at length by the executives of my alma mater OgilvyOne and are their properties. So I need to tread the thin line between plagiarism and quoting someone

What is a Touchpoint?

Touch points are the occasions when a brand gets closer to its customers in order to create a positive brand experience.

Touchpoints can be any attempt a brand makes to contact our customers.

I tried dividing the Touchpoints into two categories, and here is what we have

1. Common touchpoints
2. Creative touchpoints

What is a Common touchpoint?

The basic of touch points, it is a hygiene or rather a mandate that any brand does these. These are the starting point of any customer's relation with a brand. And they are mostly “Me-too” replicated by others.

Example 1: A poster or any Point of Sale material at the shop floor. This definitely makes the customer look-up to the brand and is surely a touchpoint. But unfortunately almost everyone does it.

Example 2: A welcome kit or a starter kit with consumer durables or automobiles. You must have some form of communication to ensure that the customer enjoys using the brand. And therefore to make him understand the basics of the brand you use this medium.

What is a Creative touchpoint?

This type of touchpoint is mostly data dependent. There is a lot of thinking and strategy involved to arrive at this. This type of touchpoint ensures that the brand produces a WOW effect on the customer.

This basically is a touchpoint hitting the customer at the right time at the right place. This is what in OgilvyOne terms is called the Moment Of Truth or MOT.

Example 1: You have run 25,000 Kms in your car. It is time for a service. How would you feel if your dealer calls you now and requests you to bring your car for service?

You will surely feel flattered when you are asked to come for a service just at the time you are starting to think about the service.

Example 2: We had a new business pitch and I had to work 2 full days to complete the presentation and the related collateral. I was completely worn out when the pitch was over, I was thinking about taking a day off. That was when my boss called me and gave me a days leave of absence.

I didn’t expect it, but I wished I had a day’s leave. I felt flattered and my loyalty to the organization and my love for my boss slightly increased for the time being.

Increased contacts with the customer or more touchpoints would increase the loyalty and create a better bond with the customers for a brand.

Now let us see an example from the automobile industry and let us count the number of occasions the brand is in touch with us till one buys a car.

1. You hear about the brand through your friends or somebody you know.
2. You get brochures and literature about the brand and read them
3. You see advertisements / outdoor / signages
4. You go to the showroom
5. Speak to a salesman
6. You take a test drive
7. The salesman calls you back with a deal for you

Here we have counted 7 occasions where the brand would be in close touch with you. This is just a count of the minimum, this is bound to increase in a real life scenario.

In the OgilvyOne lexicon there is one more terminology. They call this the “Critical Loyalty Drivers”.

This is defined as a touchpoint that can lead to a customer opinion (about the brand) being formed.

A Critical Loyalty Driver is not necessarily a Moment Of Truth. But if strategically timed it has the potential to make or break a relationship the brand has with its customers. And a Critical Loyalty Driver could turnout to be an important Moment Of Truth.

Example of a positive Critical Loyalty Driver

I go to a bank for getting an account opened. There is a long queue standing before I could get my job done. Now imagine a customer service executive offering me a cup of coffee and a warm word “We are sorry for the delay. But I’m sure that you would have your turn by the time you have this cup of coffee”.

This makes me think that I have landed in a very safe, caring, proactive bank. I have a good opinion formed about the bank.

While this may or may not be a MOT, this is surely a touchpoint at a crucial juncture that would have made or broken the relationship I was supposed to have with the bank.

Example of a negative Critical Loyalty Driver

My monthly bank statement has just arrived. And I can’t believe that they have wrongly debited $200 without any reason. I am pissed and uncontrollably angry.

The bank statement is a routine touchpoint. But this touchpoint takes the shape of a Critical Loyalty Driver because of my experience with the brand in this particular touchpoint.

This experience may even make me close my account with the bank and end the relationship.

Summing up

a) Touchpoints are the routine contacts a brand has with its suspects, prospects or a customer.

b) When the customer finds a particular touchpoint important (positively or negatively), it becomes a Critical Loyalty Driver.

c) A touchpoint becomes a Moment Of Truth when it reaches the customer at an opportune moment when the customer was expecting or not at all expecting it to happen. Moment Of Truth are those (most) meaningful interactions a brand had with its customers.

d) To create touchpoints a brand should first understand its customers, their needs and wants.

e) The number of touchpoints a brand has with its customers and their timing would make a touchpoint a Critical Loyalty Driver or a Moment Of Truth.

More on CRM later...

Bonds & Loyalty

What is loyalty?

It is the act of binding yourself to a course of action.

It is this loyalty that makes you love or hate a brand. The extent to which you are loyal to a particular brand may vary from person to person depending on his / her interactions & experiences with the brand.

As the loyalty increases one becomes a bonded customer for a particular brand.

Why do most of the Airlines we know run a loyalty program?

The aim of any loyalty program is to induce repeat purchase by rewarding the customers. Most of us get flattered by the smallest of rewards and become bonded to a particular brand for life.

What are the different types of loyalty?

There are two types of loyalty

1) Behavioral loyalty
2) Emotional loyalty

Behavioral loyalty: This is all about actions, behavior. A behaviorally loyal person cannot attribute any reasons as to why he or she has chosen a particular brand.

An example would be the telecom scene in the UAE. Everyone here has an Etisalat mobile connection. It is not because everyone loves the brand, but because they don’t have a second option.

Behavioral loyalty comes simply out of habit or because of a reason that there is no other option.

Emotional loyalty: This is about a combination of feelings and action. An emotionally loyal customer goes any length to buy his brand. He either buys his brand or doesn’t buy at all, such is Emotional loyalty.

A hardcore Harley fan doesn’t even touch other bikes. He or she is Emotionally loyal to the brand Harley.

The greater the emotional loyalty, the greater the sales… The real payoff for a brand
comes only when the customer gets on top of the emotional loyalty pyramid
– Garth Hallberg, All consumers are not created equal (John Willy & Sons, 1995).

What is a bond?

1) A connection that fastens things together.
2) Stick to firmly.
3) Come together for a common cause.

A customer’s bonds with a particular brand is the result of the emotional loyalty he / she has towards the brand.

Simply put, as the emotional Loyalty increases the customer bonds with the brand. The brand becomes the customers favorite.

There are three types of bonds

1) Financial Bond: The simplest and the easiest of bonds to understand, the name explains what this means. This is a bond a customer develops with the brand because of “monetary offers”. This could be a voucher which the customer redeems for a product, a discount coupon, scoring rewards points etc.

I use my Citicard because I get more points compared to the other cards I own (this is an example and I don’t know if this is true!!)

2) Social Bond: This is when the brand creates a sense of belonging among its customers. The customer is made to feel as a part of the brands family. This bond works well in cases where the emotional loyalty is extremely high.

A good example of this would be the HOG (Harley Owners Group). The Harley owners feel part of the Harley family & culture and they feel proud about it.

3) Structural Bonds: This bonds comes into play when a customer has a formal, contractual relationship with a brand.

I have a service contract on my car with Arabian Automobiles (a dealer in Dubai). Therefore I am obligated or bound to go to them for getting my service done. I am structurally bonded with the dealership.

Amazon.com is one example of a brand successfully exploiting all three bonds to create a mutually beneficial relationship with the consumers.

1) They have you registered with a username and password – Structural Bond

2) They feed you with exactly the information you would need. If you are looking at buying or bought a fiction, they start feeding you with more fiction titles every time you login and they also throw in reviews from likeminded people – Social Bond

3) They also present you a free shipping option based on your purchase value etc. – Financial Bond

These bonds have their own strengths and weaknesses.

a) The Financial Bond is a double edged sword. This can easily be copied and bettered by your competition. But it gives you quick wins. In the long run it would be difficult for any brand to survive based on the strength of the financial bond it has with its customers.

b) The Social Bond tends to create a great amount of emotional loyalty. But a Social Bond can’t be a substitute for a substandard product, pricing or distribution.

c) The Structural Bond is very strong. But remember it can be broken once the structure collapses. In other words this bond ends when the period or tenor of the agreement ends.

Summing up

1) No one bond is greater than the other (even James Bond!!)
2) No bond is standalone. They have to be combined to produce a better result
3) The bonds are not a one time offer. It is the sustained effort a brand takes to foster a mutually beneficial relationship with its customers

Having spoken about loyalty and bonds we have to look at how we initiate a conversation with the customers first place.

We have to create touchpoints and more importantly create them at Moments of Truth (Something I learnt at OgilvyOne)

More about this in my next post…

I again have to thank OgilvyOne for making me what I am today, as far as Direct Marketing & CRM go...

And finally...

After having disappeared for 13 days, I am back in circulation.

In this two weeks,

1) I found a house in Sharjah. A two bedroom, hall, kitchen flat to end my house hunt

2) Shunted between the Sharjah Municipality and Sharjah Electricity & Water Authority to get my contract with my old landlord cancelled. Get the deposit refunded

3) Vacated the old place, which was the very tough job that took me and Roopa 3 ½ days of packing

4) Shifted the base and unpacked. The unpacking is still not over

5) Finished truck loads of work at office

6) And had my car serviced

To add to my woes my bad back and the slipping L2, L3, L4 gave me lots of trouble.

I was reminded about Jerome K Jerome’s “Three men in a boat” while packing things up.

To end, let me quote Jerome K Jerome…

"I like work. It fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours."

And add my own one line…

“But when I do, it hurts.”

We grew up seeing this on TV

Those days (the 80’s) back in India there was only one television channel, the state run Doordarshan. This musical documentary used to run as a filler between programs.

Back in the 80’s television had just arrived and was getting popular.

This musical documentary made by the Film Division of India had its cult following in India, kids and elders alike. Everyone simply loved it and longed to see it again. In those days animation was something everyone loved to watch and it was a rarity if you didn’t count the Disney animations. This one hence, was something new to India (animation), with a fantastic jingle and an unforgettable storyline.

This is a take from the famed Aesop’s fables talking about the power of many. The Indian version was more about India’s “Unity in diversity” theme, how you can’t be defeated if you are united.

As you could see this documusical starts as a conversation between two characters, an elder sister and her kid brother.

The sister tells her kid brother the difference between one (Ek in Hindi) and many (Anek in Hindi).

So the jingle goes like this…

There is one Sun
There is one Moon
One, One, One… Adding up stars become many…

And it moves on to other examples and then comes the power of many, the famed Aesop’s fable.

One of the most power piece of communication I have ever seen on the Indian TV scene till date. This documusical had a cult following among the children of 80’s. And I have recently noticed that this is making a comeback as viral e-mail attachments and ringtones.

Simply unforgettable

Customer Relationship Marketing in action

In my last post we saw what CRM is. We know CRM starts with compiling a database. Now the question is how does it work?

In a purists sense CRM is something done for customers, but it actually starts right from the prospecting stage. Many companies effectively start using a CRM program right from the lead generation stage.

First let us see the various stages in the lifecycle of a customer with a brand.

(I have been experiencing some problems uploading the JEPG file I have created illustrating the customer ownership cycle and hence it can't find a place here... those who want to get a copy of this can reach me at "raja dot baradwaj at gmail dot com" else the following is the best I can illustrate, please bear with me...)

Market--> Suspect--> Prospect--> Customer (A bonded customer if he gets too close)-->

Churned Customer (If a Customer doesn't come back or he has Churned out of the system)-->

The Churned customer goes back to the market to become a Suspect again (And this cycle continues)

Lead generation

1. Identifying suspects
2. Segregation of prospects
3. Addressing the prospects / calling for action

Acquisition

1. Welcoming the customer into our fold
2. Making the customer familiar with our systems and processes

Retention

1. Enhancing the product / buying experience
2. Redressal of problems
3. Sustained, relevant communication throughout the buying cycle
4. Rewarding loyalty and repurchase

Win back

1. Getting back those irate / dissatisfied customers into the fold

A CRM program would broadly encompass the four stages of the customer lifecylce. The program focuses on being in touch with the customers frequently and making sure they have a very happy brand experience.

The contact the brand has with its customers is called “Touchpoint”. In any customers lifetime with a brand he is bombarded with various touchpoints. The more (interesting) the touchpoints the better brand experience & feedback the customers would have.

Let us see an example of CRM with an automobile manufacturer

Who does he sell to?

1. Individuals like you and me
2. Companies who own a large fleet of cars

Lead generation in this category is usually facilitated by various media including the mass media like newspapers, TV, Radio, Outdoor and also focused media like web, road shows, direct mail. But whatever the media used, there is a definite call to action – asking people to walk in to a showroom or call a number for more details.

Once you see this communication, if you are interested
1. You call the showroom to know more details
2. Walk-in to the showroom asking for more details
3. Search the website for more details
4. Ask for a test drive

Whatever your mode of communication is, your data is captured and the lead is passed on to the relevant sales team for following-up with you.

The sales team takes over and tries selling you the car of your preference.

Assuming you have decided to buy the car. And you have bought, now what happens.

You go to the showroom to take delivery of the car. The dealership makes the process of registration, insurance etc. simpler by helping / guiding you do it.

They fill enough petrol in your car to ensure you are safe for at least the next couple of hours.

Some dealerships give you a small gift, some have you photographed receiving the car and they even frame it nicely before they hand it over.

A guy from the dealership then has a small chat with you, explaining what is what in your new car as you sit in it to drive out of the showroom.

After a day of owning your car you get a call from the dealership asking you about your experience with your car.

Three days from then you receive a welcome pack from the distributor. This also has the details of your contacts in the showroom & service center you might need in the future.

Two days from then you receive another call (only a few receive this). This time it is a survey checking how your buying experience has been.

From now on it is a set calendar that is followed…

a. Service reminders
b. Offers on accessories
c. A newsletter / magazined. Service offers
e. Birthday cards / greeting cards
f. Registration / insurance renewal reminders
g. Service feedback calls
h. Special offers
i. Referral programs
And many more

This continues for about three years, then comes the next phase. This is when one might start thinking about buying a new car (in the Middle East market people as seen to change their cars once in 4 years).

So by the third year you would be informed about the new model launches, buyback schemes, offers on price etc.

While the other communication would also continue, the focus would be on retaining you by selling you another car.

By the fourth year the dealers effort of selling you another car intensifies, I have noticed that more often than not people remain loyal to their car brands. And this is provided they didn’t have a really bad experience with their car or the dealership.

For those people who don’t buy again, they call you to find what you have bought and then keep in touch with you at regular intervals to see if you could come back to the brand again.

To conclude

How happy a customer is with a brand depends on the kind of bond the brand has forged with its customer(s).

This bond determines how loyal the customer would be to the brand and also enhances his experience with the brand.

More on bonds & loyalty later.

An introduction to Customer Relationship Marketing

Fondly called CRM, most often it is mistaken for a software package. Thanks to the huge advertising spends of the software majors, even seasoned marketers think they can buy a CRM package off the shelf and immediately implement it ensuring a manifold growth of their business.

But unfortunately, most of the time these kinds of quick fix solutions don’t work and many discontinue their endeavor to implement a CRM program half way through. Now let us try understand what CRM is.

The starting point of any Relationship Marketing exercise is data. Let me tell you a simple example...

When I say my son’s name is Aniruddha, what does it mean in relationship marketing terms?

1. In my mental database, I have fixed who Anirudhha is
2. I know where he lives, what he likes and what he dislikes. Meaning I have a full demographic and psychographic map of this person
3. I also know his family and friends

Now based on what I know about Anirudhha, I can give him what he wants and please him. And not give him what he doesn’t so that I don’t piss him off.

So database is the starting point of any relationship marketing activity. Beyond this database you need a human intervention to create and nurture a relationship

What is Customer Relationship Marketing?

CRM is the process of actively deepening your knowledge of your customers over time, and then using that knowledge to customize your business to meet customer’s individual needs...
(A definition I learnt during my OgilvyOne days)

The knowledge mentioned in this definition is acquired by building a database of information about the customers.

While a software package would help you compile a database. You need human intervention to compile the data, tell the software what it should do and carry on with it beyond the software to your consumers doorsteps.

This human is not simply a programmer who gives command or writes codes. This is somebody who knows marketing first place, has lots of commonsense, understands what the consumers need and plans the marketing activities accordingly.

To conclude

CRM is a dynamic environment. As the definition suggests you need to keep deepening your knowledge about your customers and then customize your business based on the customers needs and wants.

The CRM software packages are like the files you use in your office. The files would help you arrange your papers properly and store it safely. But the conduct of your business depends on how intelligently you make use those papers filed.

Quite often than not the files get old and you need a replacement.

Remember

CRM is driven by data, but it is only the starting point.
The software you use don’t create relationships by itself

More about CRM in my subsequent posts…

An introduction to Direct Marketing

Direct Marketing is an interactive system of marketing that uses one or more advertising media to effect a measurable response and / or transaction at any location, with this activity stored on database. (Source - Direct Marketing Magazine)

So direct marketing is not just

a. An invitation or a statement that comes to you through post / courier
b. “Take a look at our catalogue and call 1-800 to order”
c. It is not a “cut this, fill in your details and win a gift” on a magazine or newspaper
d. 40% off between August 01, 2006 and September 07, 2006, rush now...

So what is it?

It is another stream / way of marketing

As the definition above suggests you are a Direct Marketer if

1) You use any one or more media vehicles
2) Communicate with a select target audience
3) Measure the response / transaction by the media vehicle used
4) Track this activity using a database
5) And most importantly use the database so generated for your future marketing activities

An example we all know & have seen…

“Call 1-800-183939 to get a home loan at 0% interest” This is an advertisement we all see on newspapers, hear in our radios, see on the web as banners and so on, frequently.

If you are interested, you call the number specified. The person there teases you with some information about the product and asks for more details about you. So you give them information on who you are (contact information) and much more (including some details like your salary, your age etc.)

After this conversation there are two possibilities.

1) The lady who speaks tells you that you are eligible for the loan and says that she would ask someone from her sales department to get in touch with you
2) She says “Sorry sir / madam you don’t qualify (because of some reasons she would explain)”

In both cases your details are retained with the banks / financial institutions database and they would definately use your details for some future marketing plans they might have.

So what can Direct Marketing do?

1) Identification of a suspect (a prospective consumer)
2) Target the suspect, convert him into a prospect
3) Obtain more information from a prospect, generate a lead
4) In some cases enable a sale, convert the prospect into a consumer – Acquisition
5) Be in dialogue with the existing customers, keep them in the flock – Help retain people
6) Get in touch with those who are not customers anymore – Try win them back

In a nutshell, a Direct Marketing agency formulates strategies (for its clients, obviously) for

a) Lead generation – Generation of prospects
b) Acquisition – Getting new customers
c) Retention – Keeping in touch with the existing customers
d) Win back – Getting those who left us comeback

So what is the difference between advertising, sales promotion and direct marketing?

Advertising: It is the usage of mass media. You speak to people en masse, you never know who exactly you are speaking to and in general it doesn’t call the target audience to take an action immediately.

Sales promotion: A short term route you take to immediately hike your sales up. While the means used might tempt us to call this direct marketing, it is not. Because it usually is a one time effort and there is no follow-up or a sustained contact.

Direct Marketing: It is cyclic process. Using this you give birth to a consumer, give him a name & identity (building a database), hold this persons hand throughout his lifetime (sustained communication) and also be the good shepherd who brings in the consumers who go astray (winning back).

To conclude

Direct Marketing is sustained personal and relevant communication by generation of a database of information on the suspects, prospects & consumers.

I am very grateful to Ogilvyone Worldwide for whatever little I know about direct marketing today

What do people think of Direct Marketing & CRM?

I had met a couple of my (very) old friends for lunch over the Dubai weekend. Some of whom I had not met for the last 7 years. It needed a lot of reintroduction from all sides to get familiar with what we are and what we do today. There were two Charted Accountants, a Sales Manager and one from the Airline industry.

As usual when it was my turn I told them proudly that I work for a Direct Marketing and CRM consultancy. They mistook me for someone who sells CRM software, an Oracle, a SAP or a Siebel (now a part of Oracle).

Well this was not an unusual mistake, almost two out of three people I meet don’t know what Direct Marketing is or they mistake CRM for a software package.

Here are a list of FAQs when I say I work for a Direct Marketing & CRM consultancy.

Direct Marketing

1) Oh, OK you are the guys who enable dropping of leaflets and you also do newspaper inserts right?

2) Is it door to door selling?

3) You pack material, stick labels and courier it…

4) Another name for a logistics company

5) You are working for a list rental company?

CRM

1) You sell software related to inventory management & finance

2) Ok, you are a vendor for people like Oracle, SAP etc.

3) Are you a software engineer?

4) You work for the marketing department of a software company?

I am more amused than frustrated listening to the various definitions people offer me about Direct Marketing and CRM. I have decided I should write a small note on what I do for living and carry it along wherever I go. This would help quench the thirst of all those inquisitive human beings who want to dissect the industry I work for.

That is the little I can contribute to this ocean of an industry I work for, Direct Marketing & CRM.

The next post would be the little note I am going to carry with me henceforth, do help me with your inputs to make my endeavor a success.

The lifestyle of a TamBram software engineer

For a better understanding of this post, please read the previous post before proceeding further...

What does he speak?

Tamil obviously, very difficultly anglicized – Trying to be as near as he / she can to the American accent. Overdosed with “Ya kno”, “olrite” and “I mean”

With strangers the conversation mostly veers towards “Ya know back in America, when I was there…”

When it comes to people they know, it is mostly Tamil, difficulty anglicized in the American Accent. Invariably all conversations would have a mention of America, their economy, dollars, the American roads & infrastructure and the Indian behavior.

Mostly he is pretentious, cold in his attitude, I know everything look & smile on his / her face.

To summarize the language and outlook – everything is “plastic”

Things he loves talking about

The Meenakshi temple in Boston, The Saravana Bhavan in London, The cousin who works for Wipro, the last time he played tennis ball cricket, what Sachin scored in the last match & Rajni’s next movie, Oracle 9i, data warehousing, HTML, ODBC and other non recognizable software lingo.

Key people / Places they identify themselves with

When it comes to business / their work

Narayanamurthy, Larry Ellison, Bill Gates, Sillicon Valley, Steve Jobs

When it comes to their way of life

His senior in class who bought 3 flats in Chennai & 1 in Bangalore, who also owns a huge house and two dogs in Chicago.

His uncles wife’s younger brothers wife’s elder sister’s son who has X amount of Intel shares with him and $ X millions as deposit in a bank in the states.

When it comes to movies

Rajinikant, Kamalhassan, Balachandar, Bharatiraja, Maniratnam…

Thalapathi, Apporva Sahodarargal, Guna, Baasha, Arunachalam, Baba, Pammal K Sambandam…

When it comes to movies (Other than Tamil)

Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Amitabh Bacchan, Aishwarya Rai, Mallika Sherawat…

Enter the dragon, Armor of God, Bobby (Hindi), Sholay (Hindi)

Favorite dialogues from movies

Paadu Shanta Paadu… Unn Paattai Ketkave Oododi Vanthen… (Konjum Salangai, Tamil)

Basanti, Enn Kuuton Ke Saamne Maat Naachna… (Sholay, Hindi)

Favorite Music

Anything Illayaraja, some A R Rehman…

M S Subbalakshmi (this is for the extremely pretentious)

Music other than Indian

Michael Jackson – Dangerous & Bad (not albums, but songs)

What they like about in games & sports

Cricket, Kapil Dev, Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, World cup, next one is in 2007 in West Indies, Viv Richards’ place

Australia is the current holder, India stands a good chance to win this time.

What is their level of general Knowledge?

Abdul Kalam, Manmohan Singh, Chidambaram, Karunanidhi, Jayalalitha, Sonia Gandhi, Italy, Bofors, Rajiv Gandhi, LTTE, America, Bush, Rice, Iraq & Aishwarya Rai might marry Abishek Bacchan

Newspaper / Magazines read

The Hindu (from sports page on), Kumudam, Ananda Vikatan, All other Tamil newspapers and supplements & magazines when he goes for a haircut.

Favorite book

The 12th standard mathematics book, Chemistry practical records book

Favorite television / program

Sun TV, NDTV (an Indian news channel), BBC, Discovery Channel (occasionally), ESPN, Star Sports, TEN Sports (especially when an India cricket match is on)

50% of the soaps that come in the evening (Sun TV, Tamil), 9pm news in NDTV and any cricket match live on TV when India is playing

Food preferences

Vegetarian in public, but wouldn’t mind a Chicken BigMac when nobody’s watching (occasionally)

Saravana Bhavan (anywhere in the world)

Thair Saadam, Idly, Masala Dosai, Sambar (in copious quantities), Thenga Chutney, Appalam, Vadam

Only bottled water, preferably Aquafina or Kinley

Favorite drink

Fresh fruit juices (Mango). Pepsi or Coke if juice not available

Sweet Lassi

Filter Coffee. The tea from vending machine in copious quantities if in office

Favorite biscuit

Britannia Milk Bikies, Good Day and Marie

Dressing & Styling

Brylcream (two tubs an year)

Any perfume will do, as long as the packaging is attractive

Hushpuppies for formal shoes, Quadies for the casual footwear

A pair of rubber slippers (Hawaii) to go to the temple

All bought from the nearest BATA store

Dressing – Mostly the mother or wife buys it or he gets it stitched with his family tailor (for the last 20 years!!). With fabric from Vimal, Dinesh or Madura Coats.

Prefers a dhoti / shorts (2 years and older) and a sleeveless vest in private.

If not in software, where would you have been?

In a nationalized bank in India as an officer, as a mathematics teacher in a school / college, in some government department

Nicknames

Maths Tiger, Cool Calculus Clan (CCC), Ramayan, Black & White, Fruit Face, Angry Ganesan

Strengths

Software coding, Mathematics

Weakness

Food – Indian, Tamil movies & music

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.