IIPM - Live: August 2010

Friday, August 27, 2010

IIPM Press Release - IIPM Ahmedabad Convocation Ceremony mentioned in the Press.

IIPM, Ahmedabad conferred Diploma Certificates to students of batch 2007-2009 on the successful completion of their Post Graduate Programme in Planning & Entrepreneurship and also the Post Graduate Degree in Management from IMI, Europe.

Below are two press reports covering this event.

Ahmedabad Mirror:

Divya Bhaskar

Thursday, August 26, 2010

IIPM 4Ps Business & Marketing - Nutrivita PRESENTS 100 MARKETING BRAINS THAT MOVE AND SHAKE INDIA

Ricardo Fort

VP – Marketing, Coca-Cola India

The most exciting project I have managed was the global activation of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. Coordinating a network of more than 150 countries to jointly develop advertising, promotions, package and point of sale material design, et al. was a great challenge. The project lasted almost three years and it was the greatest global initiative the Coca-Cola Company ever implemented. The result was the consumer recognition and the FIFA research validation that Coca-Cola was the brand that best leveraged the event to drive preference and consumption. Papers around the world reported that the great performance the company had on the second quarter of 2006 was a lot because of the implementation of this initiative.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
“We will change your outlook” - The Sunday Indian on B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED! A must read...
The Sunday Indian:-
B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED!
For Exclusive Footage by Sunday Indian Click Here

Outlook Magazine's B School Ranking Scam Exposed
Business Standard Exposes the Outlook Magazine Money Editor
Don't trust the Indian Media!

IIPM enters into media education
IIPM makes record 10,000 placements in five years
TSI exposes b school ranking scamsters Mahesh Peri of Career 360 and Premchand Palety of C fore. - For Complete Sting Operation Video Click Here
Pioneer Exposes the fraud called Mahesh Sharma and Mahesh Peri of Career 360 and Barbel Schwertfeger of mba-channel.com
IIPM: An intriguing story of growth and envy
Prof Arindam Chaudhuri of IIPM on MF HUSAIN‎

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

IIPM 4Ps Business & Marketing - Nutrivita PRESENTS 100 MARKETING BRAINS THAT MOVE AND SHAKE INDIA

Punita Lal

Executive Director Marketing, Beverages, PepsiCo India

Punita Lal’s journey from the creative environs of advertising transcended to the strategic wide screen of marketing when she joined PepsiCo in 2002. She oversaw the Absolutely Mangolicious campaign of rebranding Slice in 2008 and led from the front in the launch of packaged lemon juice Nimbooz before last summer. The unique highlight in her stint at Pepsico is important role in strategizing the advertising and launch of the Give Us Your Dillicious Flavour campaign for the India’s highest selling potato chips, Lays. Apart from the star performances, the rebranding of the Youngistan campaign and the launch of the ‘Smart Choice’ Cafes in select cities of India also add to his multidimensional visions and marketing insight.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Nutrivita PRESENTS 100 MARKETING BRAINS THAT MOVE AND SHAKE INDIA

Nadia Chauhan

Joint Managing Director & Chief Marketing Officer, Parle Agro

Though there are many moments, one of my most recent best marketing moments would be when people from all across the country were talking about Hippo a week after the product launch without a rupee spent on media! Not by default but by design. A packaging design and distribution driven strategy. In fact, the initial marketing strategy for Hippo was focused on distribution, retail visibility and consumer sampling. The TVC was rolled out only after completing a pan-India roll out of the brand. But the brand had huge recall even without any advertising. Further, for Hippo, we kept a very clean look with simple yet attractive colours. The colours and the character did wonders to the packaging. Bright colours made the pack distinctively attractive, while the Hippo character made the packaging adorable. Hippo packs drew consumer attention and gave the brand a high shelf visibility.

Friday, August 20, 2010

GOOGLE BLINKS

It was rumoured for quite sometime that Google would launch a TVC. It all started when CEO Eric Schmidt implied in a Twitter post that there could be one ad during the third quarter. Apparently, all the rumours were true. Google made its first major push into TV advertising. Google took this bold step by running its commercial during the third quarter of the Super Bowl Games. The ad called ‘Parisian Love’ is the story about a grad student who goes to study in Paris, falls in love and marries a highly literate Parisian beauty, told beautifully in the language of ‘Search’, synonymous with Google. As it turns out, the ‘Parisian Love’ ad has been on YouTube since November 19, 2009, as part of Google’s ‘Search Stories’ ad campaign; but this was online only until the Super Bowl. The ad had chalked up over a million views on YouTube. Evidently. Google’s ads could be a response to newer players like Bing (from Microsoft) coming up stronger than expected.

Amir Moin

Thursday, August 19, 2010

HOW DOES THUMS UP KEEP STEALING THE THUNDER!...

If Wal-Mart became iconic for ‘Always Low Prices’, there’s no doubt where Thums Up saves its hyperbole in ‘Taste The Thunder’, exemplified contemporarily by an ad campaign of Thums Up where Akshay Kumar (its brand ambassador since 2003) performs the extreme sport of ‘parkour’ to grab his bottle of Thums Up from a suggestively attractive lady. “Taste the Thunder has been the most breakthrough communication campaign for the brand. It stands for masculinity that has constantly been redefined over the years, yet keeping the execution relevant to today’s times,” says K. V. Sridhar, National Creative Director, Leo Burnett (the agency which handles Thums Up’s account) to 4Ps B&M. But then, the acutely bewitching punch-line of Taste the Thunder did not come about so easily. Some would know this, that when Thums Up was launched in 1977, Ramesh Chauhan unabashedly played to the galleries by tagging Thums Up with the caption Happy days are here again that indicated that the market was free from the ‘capitalist international companies’ (PepsiCo and Coca Cola) and an Indian cola was available in the market. That’s when postcards featuring Gavaskar and Imran Khan were released. However, 1980s saw Campa Cola, which was owned by Pure Drinks Ltd (bottling partner of Coca Cola in India) giving tough competition to Thums Up by cornering a staggering 30% market share. That was when Ramesh Chauhan approached Ashok Kurien and Elsie Nanji (partners at Ambience Advertising) to not only devise a new communications campaign for the brand, but also strategise a complete business plan to market the product. And so were born the legendary taglines: Toofani Thanda and Taste the Thunder in 1987. Campa Cola was also launched in the 1970s and had a taste similar to that of Thums Up – strong, fizzy and high on carbon dioxide levels. However, contrary to the taste of Campa Cola, its positioning was that of a drink for good times. Explains Neeta Wali, Director, Brand Talk, “1980s was an era when the Indian youth was more rebellious & flaunting in nature. It believed in showing off its machoism and Thums Up fitted nicely with the then youth ideology as opposed to the ‘fun-time’ positioning of Campa Cola. Campa Orange made the same mistake and failed.”

While Taste the Thunder ran on English channels, Toofani Thanda was shown across Doordarshan targetting the Hindi speaking belt (the ‘thanda’ proposition was later incorporated by Coca Cola in its ‘Thanda Matlab Coca Cola’ campaign). Soon, Thums Up walloped Campa Cola across regions on its way to become the undisputed leader. Things reached such a stage that Campa Cola died an eventual (unknown) death in 2000.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

NOW FOR SOME FARMING

Being a farmer was never an occupation choice for the über. But thanks to Zynga Games’ Facebook application, Farmville, playing farmer has become the latest fad among Netizens. But how about doing some farming in reality? If Facebook’s Farmville has brought out the farmer in netizens, then Nirvana Farms gives a chance to do some real farming, where people can actually own a farm beside their house or engage in community farming at a place not more than 100 kilometers from Mumbai. Conceptualised by Disha Direct, a leading real estate marketing organisation, Nirvana Farms merges the exciting experience of farming with an ideal opportunity to participate in sowing, ploughing and reaping a harvest of choicest variety. Under the able guidance of a horticulturist, the dwellers of Nirvana Farms can participate in farming a crop of their choice. Apart from availing self participation in the initiative, the dwellers are also entitled to the option of receiving fresh farm produce free for five years. Who said innovation is dead in real estate?!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

ROADBLOCK IS THE NEW WEAPON

What is the jargon used to describe the manner in which your favourite channel on the idiot box is bombarded with ads after ads of the same brand? What is the term used to explain the ads of the same auto brand plastered all across the first few pages of your daily newspaper? 4Ps B&M adds a word to your marketing dictionary. Call it ROADBLOCK! PRONUNCIATION –ROHD-BLOK NOUN – ACTION USING A MEDIA VEHICLE TO OBSTRUCT EXPOSURE TO RIVAL BRANDS

Industry veterans feel that Roadblock advertising works best in two situations: (a) When there is a major shift in the communication strategy of a brand; and (b) When a new brand (product or service) is launched or when a brand enters a new market.

The best example of Roadblock advertising in the first case (i.e. to convey change in the communication strategy) was the campaign to announce the rebranding from Hutch to Vodafone in September 2007. The day-long roadblock advertising that ran across 13 channels on Star network brought-in 90-95% brand recall for Vodafone. Similarly, in March 2009, Aircel’s Roadblock on the day of launch of its services on Red FM (Mumbai) was memorable as far as adding the spice of innovation to this practice goes. There was a complete overhaul of the station format, to fit within the brand template; for instance, the usual ‘Fevicol ke char gane chipakke’, became ‘Aircel ke paanch gaane chipakke’ alongwith Aircel’s launch campaign’s tagline – ‘Your world of possibilities’.

Similarly, the best example for the second case [i.e. a brand entering a new market] was the aforementioned print roadblock by Volkswagen in The Times of India, with each of the sixteen editions of ToI featuring Volkswagen ads, and Volkswagen ads only, on the D-day. Justifying the cash spent on the advertising warfront, Lutz Kothe, CGM – Marketing & PR, Volkswagen Group Sales India affirms, “We have witnessed a huge rise in the awareness for the Volkswagen brand within a very short time period in the country post the campaign. Apart from increasing the sales of the New Beetle and Touareg, the Volkswagen brand received a huge number of Internet hits, which clearly signifies the rise in the brand awareness for the Volkswagen brand in India. In fact, the campaign has also resulted in huge motivations amongst the dealers and employees of the company.”

Roadblock advertising can be segregated into two broad categories – Vertical and Horizontal. Vertical Roadblock is when a particular media network [a channel or a newspaper] is blocked by the marketer for a single day, while Horizontal Roadblock is when different media networks are blocked for a single time slot by a particular brand. Of course, while both have their own advantages, the company should be extremely careful about its choice in this regard; afterall airtime in either the Vertical or the Horizontal plan cannot be just bought with a few precious dimes! Therefore, which amongst the two should be used depends completely on the objective one wants to achieve from the campaign as MTV’s Swamy advises, “Vertical should be used when you want to maximise frequency of your advertisement(s) & Horizontal is to be used if you want to maximise the outreach of your mass communication.”

Monday, August 16, 2010

CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS RE-VISITED!

Are celebs paid monster-bucks for their glamour, star attraction and red-hot performance curve in their area of showbiz, or snow-white morality and politically correct image in the public space?

Ad film-maker Prahlad Kakkar insists that “How hypocritical and corny can society get? I think most of the men could secretly wonder how better endowed the Golf Superstar is compared to them, to rattle-up such a fantastic score-card! I would advise Tiger to immediately relocate to France, the one place on earth where girlfriends and mistresses are perceived as trophies and winning advantages! Jacques Chirac at age 80, is still on the job [if reports are to be believed], so Tiger could be a God there!” Media Entrepreneur & Chairman of PNC, Pritish Nandy dismisses it disdainfully as he says, “It’s a reflection of the double-faced and hypocritical times we live in. We’ve had far more scandalous goings which have not been talked about.” Nandy points out that the Western Media – US especially – believes that celebrities should lead sanitised, squeaky-clean lives and be held up as models of virtue and values. “Do you know that reports and statistics have indicated that nine out of ten marriages collapse in the US because of infidelity? Which planet are they living in?!” questions Nandy.

Chicago-based ad-person Namita Sen, however, is hopping mad! “It’s a disgrace! Sure the sponsors pick up a celeb for skills he/she exhibits in his/her chosen field, but not at the expense of immoral and irresponsible behaviour! Once you are in the public domain, revered, idolised and hero-worshipped by your zillion-fans, you have a moral obligation to not ‘be seen’ doing anything that would tarnish this image. Agreed they are also human beings with their share of weaknesses, but for gawdssake, at least be discreet.” Mumbai-based housewife, Suman Mehra agrees, “It’s shocking! I loved Tiger Woods. He was cool, sexy and charismatic with a gorgeous wife and lovely kids. What a creep he turned out to be! He’s bad news as a brand ambassador. A brand is about reflecting core values.”

Friday, August 13, 2010

“Our concern was – How do we manage our rate of debt?”

In the midst of the general concern and uncertainty in the market regarding the realty sector and companies like DLF, the company’s Group Executive Director Rajeev Talwar is optimistic of a more evolved market & consistent supply in the coming years. In this exclusive with virat bahri of B&E, Talwar talks about DLF’s downturn adjustments and future vision. Some excerpts

Therefore your cost of acquisition becomes high. It therefore becomes impossible to give you what is normally called affordable housing or middle income housing below Rs.20 lakh. But Rs.10-20 lakh homes, even below, will be available for the poor. If housing costs Rs.50-75 lakh as mid-income housing in the super metros; in a tier 1 city it will cost Rs.45-60 lakh and going down to a tier 3-4 cities, you will get good homes at even less than Rs.20 lakhs. Since we are not in those cities and towns, I don’t think it will be possible for DLF. Our value housing even below Rs.5 lakh and Rs.10 lakh will be adjunct to the service category of our mid-income and high income group housing in super metros & tier 1 towns. Due to our name, quality, & location in the heart of the town, we tend to be in the upper end, but certainly, we also provide housing for the economically weaker section. Those will also be coming & will be costing anywhere between Rs.5-20 lakh depending on their proximity to premium locations.

B&E: Downturn increased debt levels significantly. How have you managed them over the past year?
RT: Some time after 9/11 in the US, everyone thought there was no end to the upswing. When it did come, it caught everyone by surprise. They weren’t unmanageable levels of debt for us but the only concern was how do you reduce the rate and increase the tenure. There was so much commercial paper in the market prior to that. Anywhere from 120-180 days seemed to be a long cycle till the time we realized that a good long cycle commercial paper or debt is of a period from 3-5-7-9 years. The second lesson was to reduce the interest rate. Our debt from under 1 year has increased to 3-5 years in tenure and also has portions of 7-9 years. At the same time, from 11.98% interest level, we have already come down to 10.5%. In real estate, people ask whether your debt levels are high or going higher. The fact is that there is so much of embedded value in your assets that debt is not something that you are normally so worried about, till the time a company is so highly leveraged that it cannot meet its development requirements (front flow) or its overhead costs for its normal cash flow. For us, thanks to various policies before and therefore very far-sighted policies even to take care in a downturn where you have a steady rental inflow of income, we have been through that much more easily. It’s already established that whatever overhead developmental costs or interest costs we have are well met from our usual leasing and launch businesses; so DLF doesn’t face pressures that some other overleveraged companies may face.

B&E: As far as divestment is concerned, which are your prime targets?
RT: Hotels seem to be an obvious choice, as we don’t have the expertise to run hotels. There are other businesses also where we got into aggressive banks of land. If they don’t fall into our pipeline visibility of 5-7 years for development, there is no sense in holding these and adding to holding costs. We have been withdrawing from projects of very long gestation. If they are large enough projects and if there was money committed to it, we said that if they have not been launched to the public, then might as well get back.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Is your work killing you?

Working non-stop could be the ladder to a promotion and a host of health problems...

Most urban Indians are caught-up in a fast-paced lifestyle where home is a place to quickly gulp down dinner, exchange a word or two with the children and other members of the family, and then either pin the phone to the ear or start punching the keys of the laptop. Not that you’re to be blamed; yes, the times are such, but while you flow with the rapids, it’s also important to be wary of the rocks along the way. And stress happens to be the harmful side-effect of overwork, which can lead to various health issues. A survey conducted by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy reported that one in every four employees is risking their health by working continuously without breaks or by reporting to duty while ill and working for long hours with no space for exercise in their schedules. In our country, people employed in the BPO sector suffer additional stress as their body clock goes for a six as their work begins at night and ends at day-break.

Dr. Ajay Pal Singh, Consultant Psychiatrist at Max Healthcare, agrees with the findings of the survey and adds, “It’s only in the last couple of years that cases of health issues due to stress have started pouring in. I have seen patients struck with depression, hypertension, loss in immunity, obesity and back and joint problems due to overwork.” In this competitive environment, overwork is inevitable. “But by accommodating some exercise like half-an-hour walks daily, healthy and timely eating habits, and taking a vacation once in a while, will reduce the risk of health problems”, said Dr. Singh.

In India, to a very large extent, men are still considered the bread-winners of the family. And as most of the men reach their 30s, they noticeably begin to look much older than their actual age. While women still manage to maintain their beauty and health, men start developing a paunch, their hair begins to grey and many also start experiencing major hair loss. Makes one wonder if men tend to neglect their health and ignore the warning signs, or whether they are simply less aware than women. “Both. Also, men are more prone to health problems because they easily resort to drugs and alcohol. I’ve had cases where wives have come to ask for help for their husbands. But unless the person who needs help does not visit, I cannot even recommend anything! Men, by nature, are more hesitant in taking medical help. Also, women socialise more, talk more and show their emotions more than men, which helps busting their stress. And this is also one reason for them having a longer life-span”, explained Dr. Singh.

Time travelling to a relaxed stress-free world is unfortunately not possible. The world stops for none and there’s little one can do but to keep coping-up with the changing times, but one must remember that this must not be at the cost of one’s health. It isn’t just coincidence that one of the most popular adages about health is – ‘Health is Wealth’!

Spriha Srivastava

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Dr. Manish Gupta

Director, IBM Research - India & Chief Technologist, IBM India/South Asia talks at length with virat bahri of B&E on IBM’s Vision 2015 and the future of business analytics

B&E: IBM has established a new vision for 2015 based on smart world technology. What is the smart planet concept all about?
Dr. Manish Gupta (MG): Technology is now becoming an enabler of fairly profound changes that we can make happen, in not just what was traditionally the field of IT but also to solve some of the long standing problems affecting society. A lot of it is behind the so called smarter planet vision that we have. With the cost of transistors having dropped to say fractions of a paisa, it has now made it possible for us to build sensors very cheaply. And the sensors can be essentially embedded anywhere, which lets us measure the exact condition and status of practically anything. We used to talk of the internet where people would interconnect. It is now evolving into what can be called the internet of things. These sensors or these objects are now available on the internet. The status of what’s going on, like the traffic situation on the highway or where my goods are at a given time through RFID tags; all this is potentially available on the Internet of things. Earlier, the concept was sense and respond, now we are reaching the stage of predict and respond. For example with smart transportation systems, you don’t want to wait for the traffic to build up before doing something; you want to predict before the build-up of the traffic and then plan how to prevent the build up.

B&E: Tell us some practical implications and the business potential that you see with the smart planet vision.
MG: A study done by the IBM institute of Business Value revealed the following. The entire world economy is estimated at $54 trillion and $15 trillion of that is wasted. Examples are billions of gallons of fuel wasted every year in cars stuck in traffic. Another estimate says that in Delhi alone, we waste 3 million litres of petrol daily (essentially vehicles). We estimate that roughly half of the food supply produced by the world is not reaching people. There are a lot of cities, where again upto 50% of the water could just be getting lost. A lot of sub-optimal decisions have to be taken. In any industry, you can see a lot of inefficiencies and the estimate is that around $4 trillion of inefficiency can be removed using IT. That, in a sense, is the kind of market for smart planet. Also, any business that is able to sense or predict some of these changes in environment, supply chain, demand, businesses have and meaningfully act upon it in real time will have a significant advantage. IBM has launched Business Analytics & Optimisation (BAO). We believe that globally it is a $100 billion opportunity today and growing very fast, at around 8% per annum. We believe that business analytics will be bigger than ERP.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

An electric shock or a safe recharge?

Despite promises, Reva has been struggling over the past decade to strike gold when it comes to sales. But with M&M acquiring a controlling stake in the electric carmaker, much is expected to change in the near future. So has Anand Mahindra placed an electrifyingly winning bet? by Pawan Chabra

He was all of six when he surprised many by winning an award for having designed a remote-controlled toy car during one such competition at school. Chetan Maini’s love for machines had just started bearing its first fruit. Much water has flown under the bridge since then, but what has remained unchanged in the past 34 long years has been Maini’s (today the Chief of Technology & Strategy at Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicle Company) love for machines. He started Reva in 2001 and nine years later, has witnessed the change in ownership at the electric car manufaturing company. And just like every other journey, there have been times of thirst for Maini too. This mechanical engineer (from Stanford University) turned entrepreneur’s has been time and again running after banks to finance his business plan. He finally seems to have found solace in Anand Mahindra’s cash-loaded arms. On May 26, 2010, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) bought a majority stake (55%) in Reva. [Post-sale to M&M, Maini’s family will hold just 31% in the new Reva. It’s now called Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicle Company. The other large shareholder will be Lon Bell, the other co-founder, who holds 11%.] So, the question bothering many a well-wishing heart is – Is this really the end of problems for Maini? Seemingly, yes. But chances are, the Oracles might just be proven wrong this time.

Interestingly, for the lesser informed, Reva had joined hands with GM India in December 2009, for developing an electric version of Spark for the Indian roads. The final product was to hit the market in December 2010, and was to be sold via GM’s sales & distribution network. GM however called off the deal (most likely for information security purpose) once M&M entered the scene. So, while many are grieving over GM’s loss in the process, the more pertinent issue to mull over would be to question what the transaction brings to the table for both Reva & M&M.

“The deal between M&M and Reva is beneficial for both the parties in their own ways. While Reva will benefit financially, Mahindra can add Reva’s technology to complement its vast existing portfolio,” says Pankaj Karna, MD, Maple Capital Advisors. So for now, Maini’s footsoles can take some rest from rambling about in search of fresh fund infusion, as the stake purchase by M&M brings-in close to Rs.450 million for the electric carmaker. For M&M of course, the case is stronger. It gives it the much needed hybrid edge, something which it would have been eyeing for long now. Maini’s brainchild would further strengthen M&M’s electric vehicle portfolio, that as of now consisted of only a three-wheel vehicle called Bijlee apart from a yet to be launched ‘Maxximo’, an electric-powered mini-truck.