Any Indian discourse can be traced back to a cow. Known as Kamdhenu, or the giver of all desires, the cow is the most sacred of all animals in Hinduism. In the Mahabharata, Bhishma observes that the cow acts as a surrogate mother. She provides milk to human beings for a lifetime making her the […]
“Who do I call – a digital agency or a creative agency?” The economy is flat, supply side efficiencies have been maximized, consumers are becoming demanding, the competition is getting fiercer and quarterly revenue performance pressures are only rising. No wonder then, at this very moment in history, a creative renaissance is under way in […]
Quick, name one place on earth where there is an annual congregation of over 100 million people, both women and me, living in media dark areas, driven by faith and with money in their pocket. No prizes for guessing the Kumbh Mela. With such a potent combination, no wonder that marketers are attracted to the […]
‘Whenever you see colour, think of us’, went the erstwhile by-line of a famous paint brand. Allow me to propose a slight, yet significant, philosophical correction to this thought. I would rather that, ‘Whenever you see colour, think of prejudice’. Boys are blue, girls are pink, virginal is white, festive is marigold, dirty is brown, […]
It was the summer of 2005. It was also the summer when I escaped death. I was 37 years old, a regular drinker and a chronic smoker. I blamed these habits on my work pressures. No surprise, I landed up with an acute asthma attack in the ICU. After ten days there, with the help […]
This is a story of the year and a half just gone by. Sometime in April 2014, I had moved to Kuala Lumpur as the National Planning Director of Geometry Global (a division of Ogilvy & Mather). I was in charge of a team of three strategists who were responsible for communications strategies for all […]
The first, and quite likely the most obvious, reason why I wish to immerse myself into teaching is that I ‘like’ teaching. Over my career, I have conducted many seminars and given several guest lectures. Audiences in these forums have included people from professional bodies and university students. Mostly, the subject matter has been about […]
The author can place a safe bet that you ‘googled’ for something yesterday, if not several times today. The free Internet, with Google and Facebook at its pinnacle, has helped us in so many ways – finding a restaurant or a recipe, planning our holidays, rediscovering offbeat music, connecting with long lost friends, and of […]
Enough has been written about the miasma of commoditized product offerings in crowded shopping aisles with increasing retailer arbitrage and reducing margins. Equally, there has more hard evidence than ever before on the shifting power equation from omnipresent brands to digitally connected consumers. The consequent workplace tensions of being forced to work within old world […]
Every marketer wants to influence people to think favorably about his brand (in the hope that this favorable thinking will ultimately convert into purchase). In an earlier dinosaur age, this influence was through advertising on mass media. This influence now seeks to transition to social forums. And the reason is simple – the viewers have […]