Yes I am talking about the movie “Wake Up Sid”, but not about how good or bad is the movie, it’s something else. It’s about marketing; not marketing of the film but marketing in the film.
As I was watching the movie, my marketing mind was stimulated with something really interesting. The stimulator was the brand of products, services being used by the protagonists in the movie. Everyday there are movies getting released and in each movie the character is shown using products/services, be it a car, camera, laptop, mobile phone, eating pizzas, dining at the restaurants, going to discs. Have you ever wondered what brands are they of? Does use of particular brand of product convey any meaning regarding their positioning in consumers mind?
I think the answer is a big YES. Let me explain how this works. We several times try and portray ourselves as a famous character of a movie. We try to see ourselves as Aamir Khan of DCH or Hrithik of Lakshya or any other famous character which relates to our lives in one way or the other. Further we do like to use the brand of product our heroes use to portray the movie character of our interest.
This concept is appropriately tapped in Wake Up Sid. The movie starts with ‘Sid’ a rich, easy go lucky guy clicking pics of all unique and innovative things with his digicam of brand “Nikon” and that same camera helps him become photographer for the famous “Mumbai Beat” magazine. Clearly indicating Nikon positioning as a camera which can turn an amateur into a professional photographer. The same creative lad is shown using “AppleMacbook” in sync with Apple’s positioning of being innovative, creative and trendy. One more instance is that of “Jazz By the Bay” shown as a place for all creative people to relax and enjoy their dinner alongside Jazz music played by prominent brands. When Sid is hungry he orders Dominoes pizza, a 30 min delivery specialist. The movie shows if you are hungry and dying to eat something, think of pizza delivered to you in 30 mins.
There are many more such instances all throughout the movie. It surely goes a long way in enforcing the positioning of brands in consumers mind.
Probably such instances provide a sea of opportunities for marketers to indirectly promote their brands. However this path needs to be tradedwith a word of caution, because without a proper selection of right character for your brand the complete exercise may go haywire. I am not sure whether movie with Govinda shown using Apple Macbook would convey the same meaning or not.
So what do all of you say.....??
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Saturday, September 5, 2009
It Would Have Been 2 Years a few days Back (29th Aug 07 to 29th Aug 09)
You might be surely wondering what these two years are all about. Let me clear all your doubts. I would have completed 2 years in a wonderful company called Mastek Ltd on 29th Aug 09, but destiny had other plans and with heavy heart and a positive outlook I moved on just 3 months before this day.
I joined Mastek on faithful day of 29th Aug 07 in Mastek’s SEEPZ office and it definitely was a turning point in my life. After all Mastek was my first company and first employer always remains a special one.
Looking back at the 21 months journey I am reminded of many friends, colleagues, superiors and the moments spent with them. Let me take you through a flash back ride, not of 21 months, but of my first 3 months spent with my training batch.
To begin with, the first people I met in Mastek, (yes, after the HR representative) were my training batch colleagues fondly titled as “Warehouse ke tantriks or Warehouse ki Khoj”. I say colleagues because we migrated from training batch colleagues to good friends. We were 21 of us, all freshers, coming from various parts of India , joining Mastek on the same day & getting trained together. Initial few days were very formal ones, as we were just getting to know each other, but the “Campus to Corporate” programme acted as the real Ice breaker and there was no looking back there after. I vividly remember the days we spent playing carrom and watching T20 world cup matches in office cafeteria, playing dumb charades etc.... But two things still remain very fresh in mind. One was the 2 hour long evaluation viva, which had left us terrified for almost a week & made us to study for revaluation even before the results came and the second one was the dandiya/garba fun we had especially with Ashsih Joshi showing his maverick dance steps. We had shaped into a group open to fun & masti and as the tradition goes we decided to create our own community in Orkut. We finalised on “Warehouse ki Khoj” as the name of the community. Warehouse ki khoj? Why such a name? Because we were the only batch that got trained in Data warehousing and strangely though none of us are currently working in data warehousing. The khoj is still on...
But as they say all good things come to end, so was the training period in Mastek and soon we migrated to different projects. But end of one good thing leads to start of another. Yes, we made it a point to meet together at lunch table and celebrate each other’s smallest of achievements with ice cream treats, birthdays with cake cuttings and many more things...
Oops.. I am running out of time need to get in time for lecture......long live Warehouse Ki Khoj...Congrats to warehouse ke tantriks for completing 2 in Mastek.
Bye for now. Will be back soon.....
I joined Mastek on faithful day of 29th Aug 07 in Mastek’s SEEPZ office and it definitely was a turning point in my life. After all Mastek was my first company and first employer always remains a special one.
Looking back at the 21 months journey I am reminded of many friends, colleagues, superiors and the moments spent with them. Let me take you through a flash back ride, not of 21 months, but of my first 3 months spent with my training batch.
To begin with, the first people I met in Mastek, (yes, after the HR representative) were my training batch colleagues fondly titled as “Warehouse ke tantriks or Warehouse ki Khoj”. I say colleagues because we migrated from training batch colleagues to good friends. We were 21 of us, all freshers, coming from various parts of India , joining Mastek on the same day & getting trained together. Initial few days were very formal ones, as we were just getting to know each other, but the “Campus to Corporate” programme acted as the real Ice breaker and there was no looking back there after. I vividly remember the days we spent playing carrom and watching T20 world cup matches in office cafeteria, playing dumb charades etc.... But two things still remain very fresh in mind. One was the 2 hour long evaluation viva, which had left us terrified for almost a week & made us to study for revaluation even before the results came and the second one was the dandiya/garba fun we had especially with Ashsih Joshi showing his maverick dance steps. We had shaped into a group open to fun & masti and as the tradition goes we decided to create our own community in Orkut. We finalised on “Warehouse ki Khoj” as the name of the community. Warehouse ki khoj? Why such a name? Because we were the only batch that got trained in Data warehousing and strangely though none of us are currently working in data warehousing. The khoj is still on...
But as they say all good things come to end, so was the training period in Mastek and soon we migrated to different projects. But end of one good thing leads to start of another. Yes, we made it a point to meet together at lunch table and celebrate each other’s smallest of achievements with ice cream treats, birthdays with cake cuttings and many more things...
Oops.. I am running out of time need to get in time for lecture......long live Warehouse Ki Khoj...Congrats to warehouse ke tantriks for completing 2 in Mastek.
Bye for now. Will be back soon.....
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Three Mistakes of My Life
No no I am not talking about my life but about the novel written by Chetan Bhagat. The novel is set in the year 2000 and revolves around three friends living in ouskirts of Amdavad(I know spelling of Ahmedabad but that’s the way u pronounce it). The chief protagonist of the novel is a young boy called ‘Govind Patel’. As the name suggest he is gujju and dreams of starting a business. He ia very good mathematician and had been the only one their locality to score 100 percent in 12. He thinks that being Gujrati, doing business runs in his genes. But he needs to accommodate two of his friends as well. So comes the Cricket Shop “Team India Cricket” with his friends as his business partners. His friends Ishan and Omi. Ishaan is a cricket fanatic, a patriot and best cricketer in locality while Omi is dumb kind of person, with not many dreams to chase. To support their income Govind starts taking maths tuitions and ishaan starts cricket coaching. With the business setting up we have three important people who are the central to the three mistakes made by Govind. They are: a cricket prodigy and a muslim boy “Ali”, math phobic “Vidya”, who is teen sister of Ishan & student of govind and Omi’s right wing hindu fundamentalist mama (maternal uncle) Bitto Mama. These three characters with a heady mix of cricket, politics, religion and love results in an enticing story.
Read it for a good fun and breeze story line. And if you loved Five Point someone then you surely should vouch for it.
Read it for a good fun and breeze story line. And if you loved Five Point someone then you surely should vouch for it.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
CATCH-22: What’s That?
One day while having a Chat with my friend I was amused when he said he was caught in a Catch- 22 situation. I exclaimed "Whats that?".
He was referring to a situation in which he had two choices: But both the choices lead to a lost cause. He was caught in a double bind or a no win situation.
I wondered why call it a Catch-22 situation. So, I decided to explore.
On googling I found good amount of info on this. Catch-22 a term coined by satirical novelist Joseph Keller, in his influential novel “Catch-22”. Now question arises as why to call something as Catch-22? So I decided to get hand on the Novel itself.
The novel follows Yossarian, a US air-force bombardier and number of other characters. Most events occur while the airmen of fictional Fighting 256th squadron are based on island of Pinosa, in Mediterranean Sea west of Italy.
The Catch-22 as it occurs in novel can described in words of Heller as “There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr (One of the characters: a fighter pilot) was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more combat missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane (Of sound mind; mentally healthy) if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to.”
Now what to do in such a situation?
Developing further, Catch-22 is a false dilemma in a rule, regulation or procedure where no real choice exists. Consider one more example. In order to get excused from flying combat missions in enemy territory one must submit an official diagnosis from his squadron’s flight surgeon demonstrating that he is unfit to fly because he is Insane. For this he must approach the surgeon to ask for one. However the catch-22 (twenty second of the guidelines) used by military surgeons suggest that “An insane person should not believe or suspect that he is insane. Thus, to be recognized as insane, a person must not ask for an evaluation, because doing so implicitly shows that he suspects him selves to be insane. But, if a person does not ask for an evaluation, he cannot be recognized as insane because the evaluation is the method by which such recognition would occur. Thus, nobody can ever classify themselves as insane (even if they genuinely are), and thus nobody may ever use an insanity diagnosis to escape flying combat missions.
Quite confusing? Read one more time, it is definitely going to interest you.
So have you even been caught in Catch-22? Think…you probably would have been caught.
He was referring to a situation in which he had two choices: But both the choices lead to a lost cause. He was caught in a double bind or a no win situation.
I wondered why call it a Catch-22 situation. So, I decided to explore.
On googling I found good amount of info on this. Catch-22 a term coined by satirical novelist Joseph Keller, in his influential novel “Catch-22”. Now question arises as why to call something as Catch-22? So I decided to get hand on the Novel itself.
The novel follows Yossarian, a US air-force bombardier and number of other characters. Most events occur while the airmen of fictional Fighting 256th squadron are based on island of Pinosa, in Mediterranean Sea west of Italy.
The Catch-22 as it occurs in novel can described in words of Heller as “There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr (One of the characters: a fighter pilot) was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more combat missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane (Of sound mind; mentally healthy) if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to.”
Now what to do in such a situation?
Developing further, Catch-22 is a false dilemma in a rule, regulation or procedure where no real choice exists. Consider one more example. In order to get excused from flying combat missions in enemy territory one must submit an official diagnosis from his squadron’s flight surgeon demonstrating that he is unfit to fly because he is Insane. For this he must approach the surgeon to ask for one. However the catch-22 (twenty second of the guidelines) used by military surgeons suggest that “An insane person should not believe or suspect that he is insane. Thus, to be recognized as insane, a person must not ask for an evaluation, because doing so implicitly shows that he suspects him selves to be insane. But, if a person does not ask for an evaluation, he cannot be recognized as insane because the evaluation is the method by which such recognition would occur. Thus, nobody can ever classify themselves as insane (even if they genuinely are), and thus nobody may ever use an insanity diagnosis to escape flying combat missions.
Quite confusing? Read one more time, it is definitely going to interest you.
So have you even been caught in Catch-22? Think…you probably would have been caught.
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