I sometimes pity these guys!!
Friday, January 11, 2008
Thursday, January 10, 2008
The New Tata Nano...
The Tata Nano Launch
Following is an excerpt from an interview with Ratan Tata...
Q: If one would really start at the very beginning, what really was the trigger for the idea?
And this seemed like a dangerous form of transport. So, I, to be frank if I might go through the process, I asked myself, what if you put two wheels on the back that will give greater stability? If you build a bar over the top could you save the occupant? I will stop there and come back.
Last year, to my surprise I found that BMW had produced a scooter with the same bars that I had thought about with rubber bumpers on the side so that if they (the riders) fell they wouldn't hurt themselves and the seat there had a seatbelt. And I thought, that's exactly what I had thought about. The fact was that BMW had put this out though it was not successful and they had withdrawn it. But, someone else had also thought of the same thing. It had only two wheels not three.
And if we want to build a peoples' car, it should be a car and not something that people would say, Ah! That's just a scooter with four wheels or an auto rickshaw with four wheels or not really a car and I was reminded of a very interesting concept that Chrysler did many years ago when they developed an Asian car. It was a plastic car and for those who may not know or remember, it was one piece, the whole car from front bumper to back bumper, moulded in one piece of plastic, half of it and the other half. And it was welded together to make the whole car.
Following is an excerpt from an interview with Ratan Tata...
Q: If one would really start at the very beginning, what really was the trigger for the idea?
Basically, just as an Indian, you know, I would be as concerned of my-self as one of the rickshaw pullers in Calcutta running with a rickshaw behind with two people sitting back. It bothered me. My mind will start thinking: Can we put a bicycle there? The same thing bothers me when I visit a plant also. The workers are bending over when the work piece should be raised or maybe they should sit in a pit or what-ever. Because I think human fatigue is something that affects safety.
So in this particular case, you could not help but notice that there were three or four family members on a scooter, the kid standing in the front, the guy driving the scooter and the wife sitting side saddle holding a little kid. And when you're driving a car, you certainly say, Oh my god, be careful, they may slip. Add to that slippery roads and night time too. Any of these reasons can be dangerous for transport. That does not mean that the scooter should not exist because scooters are an evolution of bicycles and it is all the path of prosperity.
Last year, to my surprise I found that BMW had produced a scooter with the same bars that I had thought about with rubber bumpers on the side so that if they (the riders) fell they wouldn't hurt themselves and the seat there had a seatbelt. And I thought, that's exactly what I had thought about. The fact was that BMW had put this out though it was not successful and they had withdrawn it. But, someone else had also thought of the same thing. It had only two wheels not three.
So, I set about thinking, can we make a four wheel vehicle from scooter parts initially and I, in fact, addressed an Automotive Component Manufacturers' Association (ACMA) meeting saying that can we all get together produce an Asian peoples' car. To this I never got very much response. The idea was a really low cost car that Malaysia, Indonesia and India could come together to produce jointly.
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We could produce one part, they could produce another part, and each one would exchange and have the rights. In fact, even for the Indica, I went to ACMA. I said can we have an Indian car because no car has been designed in India. That time I was actually criticised. This time I had no response. So, in this particular case I had no response. In fact, the person who showed some encouragement was Brij Mohan Munjal, but we never really took it further.
And then we found that scooter parts were probably a real limitation. So we changed tack and we said let's take a clean sheet of paper and start thinking and conceiving a car. Why a clean sheet of paper? Because we thought that if we had to do something that was different, then we probably didn't want to have a legacy in any way or form and so we thought we should look at everything from scratch. And, initially I thought we could even have a car made from engineering plastics.
But we found that several of these concepts do not lend themselves to either cost or volume manufacturing and have had to move away from that to a more conventional kind of car. So, that led us to configure a small car which would be not a three wheeler but four wheels. It would be a car, a full-fledged car and we started again in an evolutionary manner and we thought, and if I might say so, it really started with being a four wheel rural car.
But we found that several of these concepts do not lend themselves to either cost or volume manufacturing and have had to move away from that to a more conventional kind of car. So, that led us to configure a small car which would be not a three wheeler but four wheels. It would be a car, a full-fledged car and we started again in an evolutionary manner and we thought, and if I might say so, it really started with being a four wheel rural car.
Do we have rolled up plastic curtains instead of windows? Do we have openings like auto rickshaws have instead of doors or do we have a safety bar? As we went on, we had many early concepts that went that kind of way till we finally decided that the market does not want a half car. The market wants a car.
The most expensive part of any manufacturing unit is the paint shop. So this car with pigmentation with plastic parts, you didn't have to paint it, but no one liked the car because, in my view (I drove the car) it was very nice, but people wanted a real car and not something that someone would say was not a car, this is half-a-car or three-fourths of a car.
So, with that kind of experience in mind, we decided we would do a car that would really pare the cost of a fair car. It has obviously been a long journey. It has been a longer journey than it should have been. I think we have easily taken two years or 18 months more than it should have been.
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A Bigger Brand Idea: SRK or Aamir?
With both Taare Zameen Par and Om Shanti Om doing well at the box office, a new debate is ensuing the Indian audiences' and brand management team's minds as to who is a bigger brand-SRK or Aamir.
SRK ,with his latest release which he himself,i think, considers not to be a master-piece or for that matter a well scripted movie, is surely having the last laughs . While others need to have good scripts and seasoned actors to achieve success at the box-office, SRK has done it without a good script or actors.Call it s great marketing campaign or anything else but no one can deny he's the King of Bollywood!
Aamir on the other hand has matured as a actor. His recent movies are not your run of the mill movies. Whether it's Lagaan,RDB or TZP he broken new grounds with each movie. And Aamir consistently produces quality movies year after year.
So who is bigger brand.Below is an article from ET. Lets read...
Aamir is the biggest brand idea
Aamir Khan is the big, bigger and the biggest brand idea. No questions. Let me give you the full alphabetic Monty. Tried, tested and effective.
Ability: Aamir can act––for brands, and not for himself. SRK unfortunately cannot assume a brand’s genes. He overpowers every brand, and keeps cloning himself. Branding: Something about Aamir reassures me that the brand will come first. Bigger than him.
Communication: Aamir effortlessly connects and touches people every time. It’s a craft that amplifies brands. Dexterity: Aamir can bring alive any advertising character. That’s because he also knows a brand isn’t a stereotype. Sadly, SRK only delivers repetition. Empathy: As consumers warm up more to Aamir, brands get to yank more heartstrings and purse strings.
Friendliness: Aamir effectively removes barriers, while Shah Rukh inadvertently builds them. Consumers must get intimate with brands, not be intimidated. Grace: Aamir is elegance at work. Not sculpted artificiality. Honesty: Aamir is genuine and trustworthy. Not a Botox spectacle. Intensity: As relationships are cardiac, consumers will see a brand’s sincerity in Aamir’s depth. Jest: Aamir has a wonderful lighter side. People love someone who can laugh at himself.
Knowledge: Aamir has grey cells in abundance as most brands hate brawn overdose. Leadership: He redefines benchmarks with every film, and so can he with brands. Machoness: Aamir isn’t about mean moustaches, he overtakes SRK with intelligent muscle. Newness: Aamir refreshes. SRK repeats. Simple. Originality: With constant newness, Aamir brings freshness to advertising.
Patriotism: With unbridled Indianess, Aamir keeps rousing the nation.Quality: Aamir also brings a rare uncommonness. Much like many brands, I don’t ache for mass mediocrity. Respect: As acclaimed by critics, only Aamir can transfer his standing to brands. Softness: As all brands don’t need six packs, Aamir makes brands warmer. Talent: Aamir is multi-dimensional, multi-persona. SRK is monochromatic. How many more dancing brands do you need? Uniqueness. Instead of a rampant SRK, Aamir is as special as any brand.
Value: Carefully under exposed as he is, Aamir is full bang for the advertising buck. Wisdom: Aamir’s marketing acumen and creative judgment are legendary –– right up to the Oscars. X Factor: Aamir is the multiplication factor. Youth: Aamir’s zest defines India’s bristling youth. Zeal. And as brands need to evolve, only Aamir brings that advertising resolve. So who’s the bigger brand idea? Aamir who can become your brand, or Shah Rukh who can only be his own brand?
And that’s why he is a big brand idea. Amitabh’s Vijay was the voice of the marginalised section of the society. Shah Rukh’s Rahul is the voice of the mainstream youth. The youth which has got well accepted in the society and is driving things forward. Rahul undoubtedly is the biggest social brand idea post Vijay.
SRK ,with his latest release which he himself,i think, considers not to be a master-piece or for that matter a well scripted movie, is surely having the last laughs . While others need to have good scripts and seasoned actors to achieve success at the box-office, SRK has done it without a good script or actors.Call it s great marketing campaign or anything else but no one can deny he's the King of Bollywood!
Aamir on the other hand has matured as a actor. His recent movies are not your run of the mill movies. Whether it's Lagaan,RDB or TZP he broken new grounds with each movie. And Aamir consistently produces quality movies year after year.
So who is bigger brand.Below is an article from ET. Lets read...
SRK impact visible beyond films
A ‘brand idea’ becomes big when it starts to create an impact beyond the category it operates in. Shah Rukh as an idea impacts much beyond his films. The genesis of brand Shah Rukh lies in the way mainstream urban youth of India started to view themselves. Focused yet happy-go-lucky, politically incorrect, not 100% perfect but at ease with their imperfection and most importantly increasingly recognized as the centerpiece of the society. That was the birth of ‘Rahul’. Due credit should go to the brand manager Karan Johar for crafting the brand and sustaining it. But ‘Rahul’ was the most marked arrival of brand Shah Rukh. He may have acted in blockbuster movies before that but Rahul made him a strongly identifiable social force. Unlike Aamir, you consume Shah Rukh as Shah Rukh in every movie he acts in. You consume a certain sense of optimism, you consume a disarming charm, you consume a sense of self-confidence. In other words, through brand Shah Rukh, you every time end up consuming the spirit of mainstream urban youth of today’s India. Well, Rahul has undergone changes –– in brand management cliché ‘the brand has evolved’. There’s a change in the brand management team as well –– Farah Khan has joined the team. But somewhere the core of real urban youth has remained unchanged. In the evolved avatar, brand Shah Rukh has acquired some other traits which are extremely identifiable –– internationally competitive, comfort with global citizenship, the new-found confidence of reverse colonisation etc. In many ways, brand Shah Rukh keeps on reflecting the deeper motivations of today’s young India and the youthisation attempt rest of the country is going through. The impact of the brand idea Shah Rukh comes alive in the way KBC 2 got reinterpreted. From the awe-inspiring, shudh-hindi speaking, patriarchal Amitabh the show became comfortable, Hinglish speaking and an active encouragement for the participants to go for the biggie. That’s the impact of youthasiation in the society. There’s an active encouragement to go for any goal and brand Shah Rukh embodies the spirit. Shah Rukh doesn’t have a trademark hairstyle, he doesn’t have a trademark voice––the typical things that used to create fan following. Ask anyone, they can’t pinpoint any reason why they like Shah Rukh. Some will say his dimpled smile, others will say his personality. This actually makes me believe that what people are interested in is the idea and myth of Shah Rukh rather than the physicality of Shah Rukh. | ||
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| Prathap Suthan National Creative Director, Cheil Worldwide, SW Asia |
Aamir Khan is the big, bigger and the biggest brand idea. No questions. Let me give you the full alphabetic Monty. Tried, tested and effective.
Ability: Aamir can act––for brands, and not for himself. SRK unfortunately cannot assume a brand’s genes. He overpowers every brand, and keeps cloning himself. Branding: Something about Aamir reassures me that the brand will come first. Bigger than him.
Communication: Aamir effortlessly connects and touches people every time. It’s a craft that amplifies brands. Dexterity: Aamir can bring alive any advertising character. That’s because he also knows a brand isn’t a stereotype. Sadly, SRK only delivers repetition. Empathy: As consumers warm up more to Aamir, brands get to yank more heartstrings and purse strings.
Friendliness: Aamir effectively removes barriers, while Shah Rukh inadvertently builds them. Consumers must get intimate with brands, not be intimidated. Grace: Aamir is elegance at work. Not sculpted artificiality. Honesty: Aamir is genuine and trustworthy. Not a Botox spectacle. Intensity: As relationships are cardiac, consumers will see a brand’s sincerity in Aamir’s depth. Jest: Aamir has a wonderful lighter side. People love someone who can laugh at himself.
Knowledge: Aamir has grey cells in abundance as most brands hate brawn overdose. Leadership: He redefines benchmarks with every film, and so can he with brands. Machoness: Aamir isn’t about mean moustaches, he overtakes SRK with intelligent muscle. Newness: Aamir refreshes. SRK repeats. Simple. Originality: With constant newness, Aamir brings freshness to advertising.
Patriotism: With unbridled Indianess, Aamir keeps rousing the nation.Quality: Aamir also brings a rare uncommonness. Much like many brands, I don’t ache for mass mediocrity. Respect: As acclaimed by critics, only Aamir can transfer his standing to brands. Softness: As all brands don’t need six packs, Aamir makes brands warmer. Talent: Aamir is multi-dimensional, multi-persona. SRK is monochromatic. How many more dancing brands do you need? Uniqueness. Instead of a rampant SRK, Aamir is as special as any brand.
Value: Carefully under exposed as he is, Aamir is full bang for the advertising buck. Wisdom: Aamir’s marketing acumen and creative judgment are legendary –– right up to the Oscars. X Factor: Aamir is the multiplication factor. Youth: Aamir’s zest defines India’s bristling youth. Zeal. And as brands need to evolve, only Aamir brings that advertising resolve. So who’s the bigger brand idea? Aamir who can become your brand, or Shah Rukh who can only be his own brand?
And that’s why he is a big brand idea. Amitabh’s Vijay was the voice of the marginalised section of the society. Shah Rukh’s Rahul is the voice of the mainstream youth. The youth which has got well accepted in the society and is driving things forward. Rahul undoubtedly is the biggest social brand idea post Vijay.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
VJTI Boys Crack the Cat..
Heres the Times Of India's 9th Jan's article on CAT. In the photo posted below are guys from electronics whom i shared classes with and guys who make VJTI and me proud....Congo to them..One more thing 11 students from VJTI received IIM calls.Truly remarkable!!
COOL CATS OUT OF THE BAG
Mumbai Lad Is One Of 10-Odd Students Across The Country To Top One Of The Toughest Indian Entrance Exams
Hemali Chhapia | TNN
Mumbai: Gourav Bhattacharya of Mumbai has shown what it takes to bell the CAT. He — like only 10-odd other management aspirants all over India — has scored a 100 percentile in the entrance examination to the Indian Institutes of Management (this means that Bhattacharya and the others like him have scored better than everyone else, topping the exam).
On Tuesday, as the Common Admission Test score flashed on his cellphone, Bhattacharya allowed himself a smile. A few other Mumbaikars, who scored above 99 percentile, were smiling along with him but it was Bhattacharya’s feat that was being talked about across campuses. Management coaching centre TIME (Mumbai) director ARKS Srinivas confirmed Bhattacharya was among the 10-odd students across India who scored 100 percentile.
What makes Bhattacharya’s feat even more creditable is the fact that the metallurgical engineering and material science student at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay has achieved it without any coaching. “I did not even study specifically for CAT,’’ the 21-year-old, who scored 99.9 percentile in Maths and Data Interpretation and 98.9 in the Verbal Ability section, said. So was it luck? “I took the MBA mock tests and
those helped me a lot,’’ he said. Bhattacharya recently took his GRE, too, and scored an impressive 1590 out of 1600.
Bhattacharya does not feel that management studies are only for engineers. “A management degree lets a company offer a wide range of job profiles to the candidate,’’ he said. This, actually, is one question IIMs ask every engineer they short-list in the personal interview round. So one could say Bhattacharya is half-prepared for his next round. But the 21-year-old was not allowing worries about the group discussion and personal interview to cloud his day.
Following Bhattacharya closely were Amogh Bhole and Srikanth Viswanathan from the electronics engineering department of the Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI); they scored 99.96 percentile and 99.5 percentile, respectively. Though both registered themselves with a coaching institute, it helped them little, they claimed. “I feel CAT does not involve learning. You basically need to align how you think,’’ Viswanathan said. Both of them, like many others at VJTI, took the exam in the middle of their final-year semester exam. But they were confident of success.
Ashish Makhija, who scored 99.88 percentile, was another confident IIM aspirant who started preparing for the group discussion and personal interview as soon as the written exams were over. A jubilant Makhija trekked to Siddhivinayak temple in the evening on Tuesday. His parents stay in Iran and he stays in the city with his grandmother. “CAT is one exam that requires more smart work than hard work,’’ he felt.
But some felt help from a coaching class would get you started. Ninad Rajpurkar, a student of Career Forum who scored 99.4 percentile, believed that it was “proper mentoring and clarity of concepts’’ that helped him get to his target. “I also feel the practice tests help tremendously,’’ he added.
WHAT NOW
Candidates who have cracked CAT will get couriers from the Indian Institutes of Management, telling them the date and venue of the group discussion.
The IIMs will release the final list of candidates selected to study in these institutes on April 11. THE OTHER ‘CAT’ COLLEGES
124 other institutions also take in students on the basis of CAT scores. Each of these institutes pays
Rs 75,000 to the IIMs plus Rs 100 for a student’s score-card.
A JOB WELL DONE: Srikanth Viswanathan, Ashish Makhija and Amogh Bhole (left to right) chat after getting to know their CAT scores. All three scored more than 99 percentile
Indian Ads..
Some of the recent indian ads which have captured audiences' attention. The best thing of these ads is that you remember the product these ads were trying to advertise and what they wanted to convey. Their plus point is they dont use any big stars for promotion(maybe IDEA Cellular which has AB).
The Happy Dent Ad
Another Happy Dent Ad....
The Idea Cellular Ad
A sim card company in India called idea, uses villegers and riots among different castes as a theme to sell their product...featuring leading actor of Bollywood called Abhishek as a political leader of that village.
Nike Indian Ad..
The Happy Dent Ad
Another Happy Dent Ad....
The Idea Cellular Ad
A sim card company in India called idea, uses villegers and riots among different castes as a theme to sell their product...featuring leading actor of Bollywood called Abhishek as a political leader of that village.
Nike Indian Ad..
Thursday, January 3, 2008
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