The Fair Opinion

Let me begin with the disclaimer that neither I am in support or against AAP or its philosophy.  Recently the Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal announced his government's intent to fight pollution in Delhi. The announcement of plying odd-even number cars on alternate days has brought in mixed reactions from citizens and experts from all over. Social media has been flooded with jokes mocking the government's decision. However I think rather than mocking the government its time that Delhites come together to save Delhi else soon you will have to find new places to live.  The day this plan was announced it became a trending topic on Facebook and Twitter, with maximum people mocking this announcement. Whatsapp jokes started to be exchanged. But no one lauded the government's intent to announce a bold measure to tackle a grave problem. Had people done shown some support to the government's intent and pledged to support the government; it  would have contributed in a lon

PM Narender Modi’s PMJDY scheme reached out to the Guinness book of records which is fantastic. The government’s motive of bringing financial inclusion is a fillip with PMJDY, with more than 125 million new bank accounts being opened from August 2014 to January 2015; a big enough number to make a pat on the back. But on analysing the numbers I am astonished to see that 72% of these accounts have zero balance. There is another stat which baffles me, which is that according to World Bank 43% of bank accounts in India are dormant, what can be the plausible reasons for such high dormancy. How can we increase the activity of people in banking? Merely opening a zero balance account won’t help in solving the problem of financial inclusion. People should also use the facility. A recent article in The Hindu by Ms. Jayshree Venkatesan dated 17 th August 2015, describes how a poor maid was denied banking facilities even under PMJDY. This is not a lone case but lot of poor are

If you are developing a new product or evolving your existing one you should be careful about getting swayed away by product features and functionality - this lure of product features is show the Red path in my product management triangle. This Red Path is the path of getting trapped because this is when the business owner or the product manager falls in love with their product. While the Green path is the ideal path to follow because your product needs to test the waters as soon as possible. When i say that Red is danger it is because when you are developing your product you don't know how will the customers or users respond to it, you might think that you are making an amazing product and take months and months to add awesome features but the truth is that those features have not had their moment of truth so you don't know if the product that you think is awesome is actually awesome for the users or not. After some months of development when you realize that its high

Just read a fantastic writeup on TV Advertising by Indian Startups written by Mr. Nitin Sharma, Principal at Lightbox Ventures -> You can read it Here . I think it is an insightful article for anyone who is curious to learn why internet companies are spending big bucks on offline marketing rather than on creating call to action online campaigns. Apart from well funded Indian startups the western internet giants  such as Amazon, Foodpanda, Expedia,  Google and others are marketing on TV in India which they may not have done in the US or other countries - If you are a marketeer looking to take your brand international this is a noteworthy example of localization of marketing strategies where you choose a communication medium which is a social phenomenan to create brand and concept awareness. TV is a social habit in India and thus internet companies advertise on TV.  There are certain things that i think can be food for thought about TV ads, startups in India and where should

2014 A year when folks were busy calculating their monthly expenditures, reading about inflation, high taxes and low consumption, a silent revolution was on in the streets of Goa. October to June is the season when the fisherman can row their boats into the deep Arabian Sea for their daily bread. But what about July to September? Shyam Nagwenkar, father to two children, husband to an accommodating wife, and owner of a property in Calangute, Goa, lived a life which was only slightly more cushioned than a hand to mouth existence. While pennies weren't exactly being pinched, the want for a greater level of comfort, which only money can buy, was not unjustified. In a decision that would change their lives, Shyam who was on the verge of putting the property on sale, stumbled upon a definite plot point in (t)his story. Enter Roomnhouse, Shyam met with Rakesh Singh, founder of  Roomnhouse , in a manner so casual only a Goan could pull off. Rakesh convinced him to rent out extra

India - Pakistan always a thriller With India picking up steam in the cricket world cup 2015 so is the star sports ad resonating well with the audience. This type of advertising leverages the advantage of appropriate timing with world events.  Star sports used the ‘Mauka’ of India Vs Pakistan match to their advantage & promote the ICC World Cup tournament. This recent ad by Star sports has already got 1.9 million views in 2 weeks . So what makes this ad so interesting is that it involves the two nations always known for their love & war. This same war has been for ages on lands of both these nations. This WAR is just not limited to border but on the field of the game which is followed as religion in both the country. Game of cricket has been the only source of patch up for these two nations India & Pakistan . The beauty of this ad is that it doesn't aim to promote the channel , it’s a short term ad meant to promote the ICC World Cup 2015 . Star sports wan

After eCommerce and FMCG, we enter Telecom domain reviewing the Airtel ad.       Airtel has setup benchmarks in advertising specially with creating jingles that became part of life. Airtel's        advertisements have focused on human relationships and building bonds. With this post we review the            latest ad of Airtel - Parameters Analysis Does advertisement align with intended strategy? Yes, the advertisement is inclined towards promoting unlimited calls & internet during night targeting young generation ‘Hero’ portrayed in the advertisement Airtel has been shown as the ‘hero’ or ‘savior’ of the young generation which likes to talk maximum to maximum at night time Is the Brand's points of differentiation being leveraged Unlimited calls & Unlimited internet has been leveraged in the advertisement End-result benefit The ad basically gives a relief to people who are ad

This post is a fairly technical post regarding the use of inattention blindness in advertising. You must have encountered situations of optical illusion in ads this is primarily that. This post has been written by our very own geeky - Zaid Ahmed Inattentional blindness also known as   perceptual blindness is a psychological lack of attention and is not associated with any vision defects or deficits. It may be further defined as the event in which an individual fails to recognize an unexpected stimulus that is in plain sight. Inattentional blindness is a phenomenon discovered by psychologists Arien Mack and the late Irvin Rock. They conducted experiments which proved the inability of human mind to process anything that is not the specific and direct focus of attention at that moment and people who had their attention focused on one thing often failed to notice an unexpected object, even when it appeared right in the middle of their field of vision. So to understand it clearly

Surf excel's - Daag Ache hain, probably a very cute ad for the viewers.  Here we try to dissect the ad rationally to see if it really was en effective ad from marketing standpoint Parameters Analysis Does advertisement align with intended strategy? Yes, the advertisement tries to instill the trust in Surf Excel by explicitly conveying message that as brother cares for his sister in the same way ,surf excel cares your clothes. ‘Hero’ portrayed in the advertisement Surf Excel has been clearly portrayed as the ‘Hero’ in its advertisements as in movies, presence of hero is enough to fight from bad elements ,in the same way, surf excel is there to prevent the clothes. Is the Brand's points of differentiation being leveraged Removal of toughest stain by surf has been leveraged effectively and repeatedly talked about. End-result benefit The ad instigates consumers not to fear from du

Through this post we analyse Flipkart's first TV ad based on 10 parameters below -:  Parameters Analysis Does advertisement align with intended strategy? Yes, the advertisement tries to instill the trust in Flipkart by explicitly conveying message both in speech and pop-up. ‘Hero’ portrayed in the advertisement Flipkart has been clearly portrayed as the ‘Hero’ in its advertisements throughout the run time. Is the Brand's points of differentiation being leveraged 30 days return policy of the brand has been leveraged effectively and repeatedly talked about. End-result benefit The ad instigates consumers towards using online shopping at the same time communicating Flipkart to be the preferred retailer. Is the ad's main illustration interesting Main illustration of the advertisement, using kids (enacting adults) as the protagonist it tends to signify the easiness

Hi, we welcome you to our blog. Let me first introduce ourselves to you - We are 5 MBA students in our final year of B-School. We have made this blog to write down our thoughts on various subjects surrounding you and us. For starters and as a part of our IMC course (integrated marketing communication ) we would start with the theme R.A.I.D - Reviewing Ads Indifferently, wherein we will be critically examining the advertising campaigns of various company's.  Know more about us -: Arjun Sarin aka "Sarin"- A startup enthusiast, he truly believes in "Stay Hungry,Stay Foolish". He is always on the quest for learning.   Anshul Prakash aka "Biradar"- He is an automobile encyclopedia and knows nuts & bolts of cars like the back of his hand.  Amit Sharma aka "Panditji"- If not MBA, Amit would have been rubbing shoulders with Viraat Kohli on the field. When on the cricket field he makes the bowlers go bonkers.  Zaid Ahmed aka &q