• 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 😉

  • Child Talk

    She had been visiting the park for years now, to watch the children play. So many years, that now some of the ‘children’ could be seen with toddlers oftheir own. And in the last couple of years, she’d made a new friend. A young girl, who also loved to watch the children play.
    There was something she wished to ask her new friend, she thought today would be a good day. So, after she came and they had dispensed with their usual small talk, she asked the girl about her plans to have children, now that it had been a few years since her marriage.
    “Well, tell me your story and I’ll tell you mine. Why didn’t you have any kids” asked the girl
    “My husband and i began seeing each other quite late, and by the time we married, we were too old to have children. So you see, we met too late. And that’s why i asked you, to advise you to not put it off for too long”, she said
    “Hmm, well, as you know, we met when we both were not even twenty. So its as though we have known each other forever, and know each other inside out. Perhaps that is the problem. You see, we’ve already started our divorce proceedings. Maybe we met too early”

    until next time, not just a matter of time

  • Tangerine

    The disclaimer is that this is by far our favourite sizzler joint in bangalore, and while the review might be dripping with this enthusiasm and affection, most of it is justified. 🙂

    Its located on 100 ft road In Indiranagar towards its Old Madras Road end, the place where the metro construction is happening. When coming from the CMH road side, you’ll find it on the left, after Domino’s Pizza, and in the same building as Cafe Beanstalk. Parking of 4 wheelers might be a small problem, you might have to walk a bit, but 2 wheeler parking can be found right in front.

    Its not usually very crowded till about 8.30, so you can choose to reserve accordingly. The windy outside we came in from prompted us to go for a soup rather than a starter, though there are enough options for the latter too. We ordered a Spicy Chicken and Corriander soup, and that’s how I now have a new favourite soup. Its a thick soup, and as the name goes, it is spicy and has chicken and corriander, but what brings in the real flavour are the green chillies and the coconut cream. Its absolutely scrumptious and highly recommended.

    The extensive menu spoils us for choice, as far as the main course goes. After rounds of discussion, we finally settled on a Chicken Torreon and a Sliced Chicken Citronelle. It has to be mentioned that there are some excellent options in fish, lamb and beef as well. The Chicken Torreon is diced chicken, done in a mexican style and served on a bed of rice. As with everything else I have eaten here, it has a unique flavour, this one, a tangy, spicy mix. The Sliced Chicken Citronelle is chicken in an unusual lemon, chilly and coconut milk sauce, and served on a bed of rice. This one would’ve been bland but the excellent sauce gives it an absolutely awesome flavor. Another absolute must have.

    The unfortunate part is that all of the above left us no room for dessert, for which again, there are lots of options. From an earlier visit, I’d recommend the beer mousse. Its not something I’ve seen anywhere else, and is worth a try.

    All of the above cost us about Rs.650, and its a no brainer that we’ll continue to be regular visitors here. 🙂

    Menu at Zomato

  • More Web 1.0 please

    WATBlog has a post today that gives details on the JuxtConsult India online report. Keeping in mind the ET report that I had quoted from yesterday, which stated that the usage of the internet was evenly spread across SEC categories, it is extremely interesting to note that most internet users have Televisions and Mobiles. Hmm, even SEC categories ain’t what they used to be, though that archaic system of classification is exactly that – archaic.

    The other interesting point is that around 51% of net users are from the corporate salaried class. Also, quoting from the ET article “The democratisation of the net continues, with higher SECs A and B now accounting for just over 50% of all users, down 6% from last year’s figure of 56%. In contrast, lower SEC C, D and E in urban areas now account for around half of all users. It’s same in rural areas too, with the top two rural SECs R1 and R2 accounting for just 41% with the rest coming in from the bottom-of-the-pyramid consumer in SEC R3, R4 and R5.” Figure that out, so much for even distribution across SECs.

    Out of the top 3 uses of the internet, 2 are based on communication. Job search is the only exception. I’ll add one more info from the post before i discuss what I’m getting at. A large number of users have a bank account but only about 1/3rd of those users have a credit card.

    While the general complaint is that internet penetration is just not happening, I’m wondering if the net has given enough reason for the average Indian to go online. Before the advent of web 2.0 (whose users, in an Indian context, i consider advanced) the reason for me to get online was convenience – a faster way to communicate, a better way to gather news, and such uses that gave a tangible value add to my life scenario. Web 2.0 is a bit more involved process, whose tangible gains are yet to be correctly worked out. (at least as far as I am concerned)

    The average Indian, who relies on India Post and maybe courier companies and now the mobile for communication, on brokers for marriages, on real life friends and relatives for social needs, whose news requirements are adequately met by newspapers, an average Indian who really doesnt need the web. The other entities he interacts with say, a state run bank, a local theatre, book or music store, bus services etc may not be bothered enough to help him take the baby steps on to the internet. IRCTC is perhaps an exception in some respects. To state the obvious, the internet speeds up communication, hence thats the most popular usage. Tangible benefit.  See the drift, thats also why only 1/3rd of the banking population has a credit card. They have no use for it.

    And so, we get back to the fact that there has been no ‘killer’ application that would force India to get online. And that perhaps is because most of the production and consumption is restricted to the top of the pyramid. And we adopt the net because it is convenient. I still wouldn’t buy groceries online, or order food online, because to me, there is no reliable and convenient method to do it. (Yes, I know about hungrybangalore) I can imagine the mindset of the lesser priveleged sections of the society. So, I won’t even get into the infrastructure costs here, and at the risk of sounding regressive, all I’ll say is Web 2.0 is cool, but can India have some usable web too?

    until next time, imagine a billion net junkies 🙂