Marketing Ganga

Author: Shabbir Chunawalla

  • Shagufta Rafique — Screen Writer

    Once a singer at bars, Shagufta is a screen writer for hit films from Vishesh Films, a company promoted by the Bhatts. Her hits include Woh Lamhe, Raaz, Murder 2, Jannat 2. She is working on sequels of Raaz, Murder, and Ashiqui. She is writing dialogues for Jism 2. She got a break in Kalyug (2005) for which she contributed two scenes. Mohit Suri asked her to write the script for Woh Lamhe based on the relationship between Mahesh Bhatt and Parveen Babi. She always tries to break new ground and would not like to repeat that has been already done. When sequels are made, attention must be paid both to nostalgia and novelty factors.

    Kapil Chopra claimed Jannat 2 was similar to the script he made and filed a court suit. Since then the producers agreed to give him the credit as the writer of the film. (HT Cafe, Nov. 28, 2012).

  • Chinese Cuisine

    According to Vir Sanghvi,  given that China is bigger than India and contains even more people, the range of cuisines is vast and diverse. The Muslim minority of the north China likes its cumin, the people of Chengdu like their Sichuan peppercorns, and the people of Hunan love chillies and so on.

    The Chinese food being served now is Sino-Ludhianvi. Till the early 1980s, it did not exist. It was invented after the Taj famously opened the House of Ming ( Delhi ) and told North Indians that Chinese food could be teekha. Once that message sunk in, then every thelewallah worked out that if you mixed ketchup and chilli sauce, you could create your own kind of Chinese menu.

    In the West, ( till the 1970s at least ), the menu of every Chinese restaurant in the English speaking world had originated in America ( not China ). Many dishes were invented in America ( such as Chop Suey and later Mooshoo Pork ) but were based on Cantonese cooking, among the mildest of China’s many cuisines.

    In the seventies the Taj introduced  Sichuan food to India. Nelson Wang who runs China Garden invented Chicken Manchurian. Others did their own kind of Sichuan food by putting Indian masalas.

  • Factors Influencing Identity

    The following factors influence  identity of a company.

    1.Loyalty of customers is an indication of how good the identity is. Low loyalty points out to the need for developing an attractive identity.

    2.Outdated identity which is not in sync with the present times requires up-dation of identity.

    3.Identity should be consistent all over the market. Inconsistency requires proper identity management.

    4.Addition of new products and services also require identity management.

    5.Competitor’s identities do affect our own identity.

    6.A changed customer profile require changes in identity.

    7.When a company enters new markets, it must review its existing identity.

    8.In slow downs of economy, identity is neglected. Later when time improve, we should pay more attention to identity.

  • Indian TV Content on Pakistan Channels

    TV channels can sell the rights to their content to foreign channels. Pakistan TV networks are the big buyers of Indian TV content. All the Pak channels are free-to-air, and so the revenue generated is only from-advertising. The advantage in buying Indian content is that whatever works in India works there too, as the sensibilities are more or less similar. Indian content forms 15-20 per cent, while the rest is local or sourced from other sources like Turkey and Egypt. Indian content is ready to be telecast as there is no need to translate, dub or sub-title it. Most content is thus shown simultaneously, but if logistical problems exist, there are exceptions and content is shown after sometime. The regulatory authorities in Pakistan restrict the number or percentage of Indian content. All channels such as Colors, Zee, Star and Sony contribute content to Pakistan TV networks. The total syndication market for India is Rs. 170-Rs. 180 crore across 125 markets. Of this, the share of Pakistan TV networks is Rs.40 crore across 7 to 8 channels per annum. It is growing at 10 per cent per annum.

  • Facebook Commences Direct News Hosting

    May 13, 2015. Facebook commences hosting articles from news organisations. Facebook and publishers had long and delicate negotiations prior to this. What has begun as a bunch of few instant articles will soon expand to cover more. Theses articles will load faster. In fact, Facebook has gone to great lengths to woo the publishers. To begin, the negotiations had succeeded with nine publishers such as New York Times, NBC, The Atlantic, The Guardian, BBC News, Spiegel and Bild. These articles will carry ads. The revenue will either go wholly to the publisher or will be shared between Facebook and publisher in proportion of 30: 70. The publishers can track the readers who read these articles, using the conventional tools they use to analyse traffic to their site. As print media is being assaulted by the electronic media, this is a way out for them. The social network has 1.4 billion users, and captures attention of the cell phone users. As the audience is shifting to digital media, there is no alternative to such collaboration. This by itself is also a threat. The audience  may tend to forget the original media which provides the content, and may make Facebook itself as a destination. This may slowly erode their own traffic–both of advertising and readers. in other words, the use of social media may mean losing control over the distribution.

  • Copyrights of Arthur Conan Doyle

    Holmes is under copyrights in the US for nearly 85 years. Conan expired in 1930. Jean, his second wife had three children.The guardianship of literary properties were handed over to them. Denis, their son helped Holmes into screen appearances  – both films and TV before he expired in 1955. Adrian, the younger son inherited the estate. Adrin expired in 1970. The daughter received the estate — her name was also Jean.

    Nina, widow of Denis, fought for the control of properties and purchased the characters. She established Baskvilles Investments Ltd which fell into financial disarray. The Royal Bank of Scotland took receivership of the company. In 1976, they sold Conan Doyle rights to an American producer, Sheldon Reynolds who made Sherlock Holmes TV series in 1954. Reynold could not exploit the rights for long. In 1980, Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle’s other works entered the public domain in Britain. In the US, the Copyright Act of 1976 was passed. It gave an author or his heirs a chance to capture lost rights.

    Jean Conan Doyle, a retired air commandant permitted the licensing of his characters for off-beat films. She expired in 1997, and bequeathed her father’s copyrights to the Royal National Institute of Blind People. The Institute sold the rights back to the Doyle heirs who transferred them to a family-owned company.

    The estate has licensed the characters. In court cases in 1990s, Andrea Plunket, the ex-wife of Reynolds filed law suits against the Conan Doyle estate alleging violation of her rights. As her family had financed the purchase of Conan Doyle properties from the Royal Bank of Scotland, and after her divorce, she claimed these rights were hers.The courts have not favoured her contention. She may still own derivative properties created by Reynolds like Sherlock Holmes series for Polish TV.

    Sherlock Holmes remains under copyrights in the US through 2023, and any new properties involving the detective should be licensed by the Conan Doyle estate. The estate is silent about its plan when Holmes falls into public domain in the US. The estate can observe how other properties like Mickey Mouse (88) years and Tarzan are dealt with.

    There are nine surving heirs of Conan Doyle. None is a direct descendant of the author.

  • AIDS Remedy

    RANTES, a naturally occurring protein in the body, is a part of the immune system that protects calls from viruses. It cannot be used as drug as it causes harmful inflammation. A small fragment of  RANTES is responsible for blocking HIV entry into cells. The desired section and the undesired section could be separated. The desired section was stablised, keeping its protective effects intact. The molecule was further refined, and was virtually modelled to get a peptide with a high potency against HIV, arthritis and lupus ( posriasis ). It could also be used for prevention of transplant rejection.

    So the steps are :

    • take a protein apart
    • remove the harmful portion
    • stabilise it
    • modify it

    The same steps could be used for developing many other drugs. We’ll be able to design smart anti-HIV drugs aimed at right target.

    The whole research is based on figuring out the molecular details of how the virus enters cells, and the exact chemical structure involved.

  • Innovation

    Vijay Govindrajan, Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, shatters several myths about innovation, and proposes a book in collaboration with Chris Trimble on the same topic. According to Govindrajan, a creative idea is just the beginning, the rest is execution. Innovation is not limited to creativity. Further, innovation does not require a great leader, but only an above average leader who co-exists with the bureaucracy. Innovation project can be conducted independently since it requires some space of its own, but there cannot be total disconnect with the organisation whose resources are to be leveraged. The project team has to be accountable to some extent. While innovating, there should not be wholesale changes in the organisation as it disturbs the business-as-usual. The changes should be made only in that part of the organisation where innovation is being cultivated. Innovation is chaotic only to a limited extent.Most work on commercialization is pretty disciplined. Innovative culture must pervade the whole orgaisation. It is not just a top executive job. Innovation implies customer-orientation, but extreme care is necessary to identify who the customer is.  A luxury car customer would never say that he needs a $2500 small car. Even non-users or future customers must be considered. Business planning in an ever changing environment is necessary to create a capacity to respond to surprises. Many innovations are not new products, they could be a method of delivery, e.g. Mumbai dabbawalla’s delivering IPO forms and collecting them back along with tiffin or Apple iPod which is a hand-held drive. Lastly, innovation comes in different forms and requires a nuanced approach. Innovation could be dsetroyed if you apply general principles to it.

  • Sport Marketing

    In Pretty Woman, a corporate polo match was shown. Tag Huer sponsors golf tournaments. LVMH is signing a sponsorship deal in cricket in India. Omega and Rolex sponsor polo in India. Cartier SA too promotes polo internationally. DLF and Emmar promote golf. In Mumbai, luxury brands associate themselves with a boat show. Internationally, Oscars and Cannes lend themselves to associations with luxury brands. As in India such sponsorship opportunities are less, most of the promotion of luxury brands is directed to advertising in fashion magazines and in – store events. Sponsorships provide a tool to bring the truely memorable experience of the luxury brand to the consumer. Here the consumers get a participatory experience. Women’s golf has received a boost on account of sponsorships. Luxury brands are going beyond traditional events to art and architecture.

  • Difference between a Sedan and Hatchback

    A sedan is a three box car.

    • the First box is the bonnet which contains the engine other ancillaries
    • the Second box is the passenger compartment
    • the Third box is the boot

    A hatchback is a two-box car.It does not have boot space or the so-called dickey.