Month: June 2008

  • First Life

    MMOGs have always fascinated me, but I have never managed to get hooked on to Second Life. And I’m yet to read Neal Stephenson’s Snowcrash, though its been on my shelf for sometime now. But yes, I insist that I am interested nevertheless and still play a browser game set in the middle ages. 🙂

    So, when Wipro became the first Indian brand (or is it VR1? ) to get into Second Life, to me, it was a kind of defining moment. But then, Wipro, to me is a very tech organisation and less connected to a normal consumer inspite of the bulbs and oils. So i wasnt surprised with a “Offshore Development Center (ODC) model campus with facilities like Client engagement center, Learning Center, 3 floor ODC setup with cubicles….Admin, Data center and Library.” presenceon the virtual world. But it was also mentioned that resumes could also be submitted at the virtual campus, wonder what stage that is in.

    And a few days back, Amul also decided to get a life.. a second life. The popularity of Amul’s hoardings is legendary, which is why it was surprising when Amul’s presence was stated to be “…a simulation of its production and distribution facility.” But thankfully, there also seem to be plans for having ice cream parlours which, other than the products, would also feature communication.

    But honestly, I’m still not convinced. Amul is a consumer brand- the taste of India. Also, its no secret that the ‘utterly butterly’ babe on the hoardings played an integral part in building the brand. Isn’t it logical to carry the two components into a virtual platform? Billboards on Second Life showcasing the unique Amul perspective on issues. Isnt it perfectly placed to be a sort of spokesperson for India on global issues? For example, when Bush makes his trademark absurdities (like how India’s prosperity led to a global food shortage) Amul can be the champion of India’s cause, with a trademark oneliner. While I understand that the Bush channel is soon to be closed, and there need not be an Indian perspective on everything, the perspective can be on anything – sports, movies, politics. All of this and more interest the Indian audience. By doing this, Amul becomes the ‘Voice of India’ (not the show, though that can also be done virtually..after all the world does go gaga over Eendian music 😀 ) and is able to showcase itself as a vibrant brand.

    Ah well, for the second life to be good, there should be clarity on the first life. Most brands are yet to reach there. I, for one, would love to have Amul play a much larger role on Second Life, not strictly related to its product range, but more as a brand, with an utterly butterly babe avtar to boot. Whatcha think?

    Meanwhile, this one’s a must read, especially for those of us who are hooked on to 2.0

    until next time, life’s like that?

  • Prisoners of birth?

    “They’re both oaks, even if they were planted in different forests. But then, m’lord, we all suffer in our different ways from being prisoners of birth.”, thus spoke a wonderful character called Mr. Munro in Jeffrey Archer’s ‘A Prisoner of Birth’. Profundity !
    I wonder how many of us are able to grow into oaks, irrespective of which forest we’re planted in. No doubt, a few do manage, but the majority live a life that derives a lot from the forest it grew up in. Getting set into patterns and stereotypes that somehow define us irrespective of what we are and what we attempt to be. From the name that reveals your nationality, religion, to the tags that make you middle class/ cosmopolitan/ south indian and everything in between.
    And by the time we pause for breath, and care to reflect on where we have reached, we can only wonder how life might have been different, if the settings chosen had been different. And sometimes we look around and end up thanking the higher power for the setting. The place, the time, the parents, the economic conditions which perhaps make up the where, when, who and what, but leaves us holding the one question that we’d love the answer to – why?

    until next time, the path to freedom…

  • Freescale?

    Yesterday’s post made me think about scale- Air Deccan certainly had that, but it did not help them much in the long run as far as profitability goes, as the UB group with its financial clout just gobbled it up.

    I also read a post yesterday on the evolution of service, which talked about technology making mass distribution of services easier, and the importance of personalisation of services. There was another interesting post and a discussion here, which was triggered by the launch of Yulop’s WAP site.

    Yulop is essentially a Bangalore service, and I was wondering how important scaling up (in terms of other cities) was to them, in the long term. if personalisation and attention to details is increasingly becoming an important trend in products and services, could it be that even with a limited geographical spread and a set of users who are extremely happy with what they’re getting, a product/service can manage to be financially viable? The answer would possibly be quite dependent on the critical mass that the product/service requires.

    To put the question in a different way, is it possible for a brand to retain its personalisation/attention to detail capability as it scales up? What are the brands that come to your mind when it comes to attaining a perfect balance of customisation and scale?

    Meanwhile, I saw a new service which apparently is being tested in San Fransisco –  City Sense. You really must have a look…. and come back 🙂 The potential of such a service is, as the cliche goes phenomenal. The service would, over a period of time, be able to suggest hangouts for you, basis your history. And quite obviously, this can be applied to activities other than nightlife. Imagine its mashup with say, a local social network (of course privacy issues will have to be worked out) and basis a segmentation of interests, using it to bring in more people interested in the same things, and it would just keep growing, quite like a twitter way of following and being followed. Only, in this case, because its segmented by interests, it would be a powerful tool for brand communication and timing and customisation of offerings.

    until next, measuring with scales

  • Dear Departed Deccan

    There was an article in ET yesterday discussing the future of India’s first low cost carrier – Air Deccan. Inspite of the vociferous protests that I have made regarding its in-flight service and flight delays, its a brand that i adore, simply because of its intention – to enable flight travel for the average Indian. I liked the communication too- right from the first TVC ‘The Old Man and the Sky’ to using the ‘Common Man’ as a mascot.

    Kingfisher’s thoughts on bringing Deccan under a unified Kingfisher brand would be a bit ambivalent. On one hand, they would want to go international by leveraging Deccan’s five year existence, and on the other, they would hesitate to kill a brand which is so dear to many indians, especially in the Tier 2, 3 cities. But its slowly moving towards the former course of action. In any case, I quite believe that Deccan is only a small step in Kingfisher’s scheme of things, which would be aimed at trouncing Jet, and then becoming a major player internationally.

    Now, there are a lot of stories about how Deccan really needed money, because of some heavy competition it had been facing for sometime, and because any price rise would take it away from its original platform, and how UB came in, first as an aggressive takeover bidder, and than a strategic investor. This one is a very good read. Its almost like a Balaji serial 😉 . While Deccan kept murmuring about how UB was only a strategic investor, it was quite clear that a complete takeover was in the offing, and it finally did happen along with new uniforms, a new Simplifly logo and a bottle of water. And when those forever delayed flights started landing and taking off on time, I could only smile at the irony.

    After yesterday’s post, i couldn’t help thinking about whether in a social media utopia, Capt. Gopinath would’ve been able to appeal to passengers to accept the Rs.500-1000 increase in fares to keep Air Deccan afloat, and the equity of the brand would be so good that passengers would help. Meanwhile, in the real world, thus will die a brand that defined the aspirations of the Indian middle class, and literally gave them wings to fly.

    until next time, decadent

  • The long tales of brands

    A few days back, I read a post by Seth Godin. To summarise, it was about how people in general, and especially marketeers, put on a show, on purpose. That might be simplifying it, and while he does say that “if you’re transparent about your motivations, putting on a show is productive and highly leveraged”, it doesn’t take away from the fact that the last line in the post is an advice to think about the above, when you’re putting up a booth, answering the phone etc.

    It was a bit disconcerting, because it wasn’t exactly what my notions about social media and Brands 2.0 in general were. After all, how could sharing and collaborating be based on something that’s fundamentally a show? While the audience could accept this in say, an entertainment show, would the same happen when they were dealing with brands and people? Isn’t the ‘brand’ supposed to be a promise to the customer?

    I do agree that it would be naive to believe in an utopian way of functioning, but social platforms and the new ways of communicating could take us quite close to it. Thankfully, i was quite buoyed by another superb post from Chris Brogan. While the post gives more personality examples than brands, it stresses the need to be really ‘you’, and I think, that should apply to brands as well, because in a highly connected world, it doesn’t take too long for the roleplay to be seen as exactly what it is, and the true brand DNA to come out.

    Rather than trying to build a story about a fictional character, wouldn’t it be much better to make the brand’s story interesting with its core characteristics? It is a perspective that would affect the way brands behave, even in a relatively less connected country like ours- the brand endorsements, the blind ‘branding’ without any idea of context, the fine print in communication, the sales guy’s promises, customer service and every thing that creates a brand experience would have to be done keeping the story in mind, and doing it in such a way that the customers believe in that story and communicate it themselves, by choice.

    Meanwhile, less connected we may be, but that doesn’t stop us from having our own brand tags. Do take, part, the results would be fun.

    until next time, what you say can and will be used against you 😉