Marketing Ganga

Author: Shabbir Chunawalla

  • Halal Cosmetics

    Halal is an Arabic word which means ‘ that which is lawful or permitted.’ Halal cosmetics are good not only for Muslims but also for all those who are averse to chemical-ridden products and aspire for healthy living. A halal product does not contain alcohol or animal ingredients and harsh chemicals. It is not also tested on animals.

    Cosmetics market is driven by MNC products which use animal-derived ingredients and harmful chemicals in cosmetics. There is a potential for natural and ethical cosmetic products. Perfumes with alcoholic base interfere with namaz or prayers. Lipstick may contain pig fat, and that is the reason why many women avoid them. There was no other option and that left the women using the existing products to compromise their beliefs.

    Halal certification in India was restricted to food products and there is potential to extend it to cosmetics. Ecotrail Personal is a company in India that works in the area of halal cosmetics.

    Halal cosmetics are devoid of animal derivatives, and are not tested on animals. They are also alcohol-free. They are devoid of animal fat or colours sourced from insects. They are devoid of milk derivatives and beeswax.

    Halal denotes a clean supply chain and covers everything from sourcing to fair trade practices. Halal goes beyond religion. Halal concept has to communicate this to the audience. Halal extends to storage. Can there be halal and non-halal products warehoused together ?

  • Most Popular Coffees of the World

    A popular drink with a stimulating effect. Brazil, Vietnam and Italy are the producers of coffee. Here we describe the various coffees consumed the world over .

    Cappucino is a combination of equal parts espresso steamed milk and milk froth. It can be sprinked with cocoa powder that is not sweet or dark chocolate that is grated.

    Vietnamese is drip coffee made in a filter. Coffee and hot water are put in the filter. It drips in the cup below. The filter used is smaller to what we use in South India. It is generally taken as black coffee with condensed milk. However,it can be made by adding milk.

    Turkish coffee is strong and flavoured. A small pot or ibrik is used to make it. Such a pot was traditionally put in the hot sands of the Mediterranean. Though preferred as black, you can add milk

    Americano is espresso, single shot added to hot water. You can have it as iced coffee in hot season. It can be taken with milk just liked brewed coffee. Sugar may or may not be added. Milk is, however, used sparingly to retain the flavour from Espresso.

    Caffe Mocha is cappucino or latte with chocolate syrup or powder added.

    Caffe Latte is a single shot espresso added to three parts of steamed milk. Latte can be enjoyed with cake.

    Espresso is strong black coffee. It is made by forcing steam through dark-roast aromatic coffee beans at high pressure in espresso machine.

    A perfectly brewed espresso has thick golden-brown crema or foam on the surface. This makes the sugar float on the surface for some time before it sinks to the bottom. Espresso acts as foundation for cappucino. Espresso can be had as it is or with sugar. You can have it short, i.e. with less water in concentrated form, or long, i.e. with more water though it does not taste strong then.

    South Indian coffee is filter coffee made by using a percolater consisting of two cylindrcal cups, one of which is perforated that stands on the top of the tumbler below, which receives the brew. Hot boiling milk is poured nto the coffee decoction and sugar is added.

  • Transformations Envisaged by Taleb

    At ET Global Summit, New Delhi Taleb is to deliver a lecture on the topic Scripting Economic Change on Jan 17, 2015. Taleb recognises that the present day interconnected world has its pros and cons. A single disturbance at one place affects so many other places very rapidly — a cascading effect could be seen. An interconnected world is a better place to live in, but it has its vulnerability. Secondly the institutions that serve us well in favourable climate are not adapted to serve us under  new conditions. A tablet may crash, but a book does not. It is anti-fragile and whatever is anti-fragile can benefit from disorder.

    Centralisation is considered far more efficient. Of course it is for certain things like the military decisions. However, in many other things, if we increase the number of decision making units, the decisions become more efficient, more responsive, more timely. Centralisation does not serve at the time of crisis. It is good if public administration is more decentralised. Decentralisation leads to smaller, more adaptable companies. It reduced the possibility of coups.

    Instead of formal higher education, there should be focus on technical skills which are real and useable. Many IT stalwarts are college drop outs, and if they would have completed their education, they would have become lawyers or consultants. According to Taleb, higher education increases the  income of a family but it does not increase that of a country. Medical practitioners education is geared to skill developing apprenticeship mode.

    There should be a cultural shift in favour of a serial failure. In IT, failure is a badge of honour. And IT performs the best . Silicon Valley respects the maxim ‘Fail fast’. In Japan and France, a stigma is attached to failure.

    Consider 2008 crisis. There was economic volatility. The Federal Reserve prevented fluctuations by rescuing the family institutions. It provided them cheap money. The economic pressures would have cleaned up the dead wood. It would have opened up opportunities for new comers. It is good to prevent an economic crisis, but not so good to prevent the fluctuations by trying to stabilize the system. The stabilization does not work in favour of entrepreneurs, it benefits the inefficient large corporations.

  • Curtains Down : Prabhat Talkies, Pune

    Prabhat Studio of V. Shantaram, Govind Damle and Fateh Lal Yasin created Prabhat Theatre, and that was given on lease to the Damale family. The inangural show of Prabhat Talkies was held on September 21, 1934. Its forerunner was Kibe Laxmi Theatre, which was later named Prabhat Talkies by the new custodians of Prabhat Film Company. The first film that was screened by the theatre was the English film Love Me Tonight. It was now in its 81st year. The lease ended in December, 2014. Its manager Vivek Damle is the grand son of late Visnupant Damle. The last film reel rolled out at the stroke of midnight on Thursday, 25th Dec 2014. They will wind up things and hand over the charge to the Kibe family on January 10, 2015. The Kibes are originally from Indore. Prabhat has screened over 1200 films. The popular Marathi film Maherchi Sadi ran for over two years. Many watched films back-to-back on the last day.

    Kibe Laxmi Theatre

    Prabhat has been shut for the last eight months. It was shut after the expiry of lease between the Kibe family and the Damle family of the erstwhile Prabhat Film Company. The Kibes have announced the completion of the renovation, and it is to be open for public in the next few days. ( September, 2015 ). It awaits the permission from the police. Originally, its construction was completed on Sept 21, 1934. Sardar Ramchandra Mukundrao Kibe, grandfather of Ajay and Suresh Kibe, the present owners, named it in honour of his mother Laxmibai as Kibe Laxmi Theatre. The theatre was then leased to Prabhat Film Company of Kolhapur which shifted to Pune in the 1930s.The company named it Prabhat. It had been screening movies till Dec 25, 2014. Renovated Kibe Laxmi Theatre will be a single screen theatre, competing with multiplexes.

  • Turbulent Business Environment

    In the turbulent environment today, there are uncertainties — both operational and structural, increasing complexity and new business models. These have profound effects on business, as contended by the consultant Ram Charan. Operational uncertainty can be addressed, say in the lean period, by giving incentives, a hotel can raise its occupancy. Structural uncertainty eliminates the demand for a certain kind of hotel. Just as the advent of digital photography eliminated photo films of Kodak or the instant photos of Polaroid. Clayton Christensen talked of disruptive innovation. He visualised people coming at the lower end of the market and disrupting the industry. These days instead of disruptions, there is Schumpeter’s destruction and creation. The forces at work can alter the exiting structure of the market space and industry. The whole landscape is changed. It all may become obsolete. These are long term forces. An industry rides on the wave or gets trampled ( Ram Charan ). Indian companies must conduct an exercise involving its employees asking them to visualise changes so as to generate perceptual equity. According to Ram Charan, companies have catalyst human beings who are driven,  practical and risk taking. These must be spotted and encouraged. Core competencies become irrelevant. The firms have to develop a new model to do the business. Algorithms are used to develop this new model and scale it up. If you cannot cope with this, there is death for you.

  • Digital Advertising and Ad Tech Firms

    Internationally, organisations spend around $140 billion on digital advertising ( 2014 ). Ad tech firms contribute a great deal to generate these dollars. Ad tech firms basically help the targeting — targeting the ads to the right consumers. It is a major shift — marketing is becoming personal once more. Facebook and Google are the lead players who are known to do the targeting with precision and metrics to measure. The other ad tech firms compete with theses two lead firms. However, there are opportunities to collaborate with them too.

    Ad tech firms, whether small or big, have started changing the rules of the advertising profession. The online canpaigns are created and priced differently. The goals set are precise. To illustrate, an advertiser may want to target a Japanese youth between the ages 15 –35 with a taste for Indian food. The budget can be specified, say $ 50,000. Once the campaign is run, the ad tech firm submits the measurable results and any remaining dollars.

    Search targeting is the simplest, say track what a customer searches. The ads correspond to the searches being made. However, a person searching hamburgers in Pune may not be interested in the hamburgers being delivered in Chicago. Here the geographical targeting comes in. Demographic targeting is based on demographic data such as your age, sex, education etc. These are conventional methods of targeting. But today a combined multi-level targeting is possible — all possible data signals are factored in.

    If against ad spending of Rs. 5000, you want 50 pizza to be delivered, these results can be obtained by ad tech firm by targeting the ads to the suitable audience.

    Ad buyers such as eBay put several million of such ad bids, and all these cannot be handled manually. They use a bid management system. The ad impression and the appropriate ad are dynamically put together, and it takes 100-150 milliseconds. The tools enabling this are provided by the ad tech firm.

    Ad tech firms are evolving in sophistication. Some of them are targeting the ads on cell phones and desk top.They are doing proprietary data work. There are so many different types of ad tech firms. The key is optimisation of the various parts of the business.

    E – commerce sites have the data of the shopping behaviour of millions of people. They have billions of page views. They require the context of some level such as Facebook and Google.They also need teams to build their own ad propositions to the customers.

    In the final analysis, there are two types of ad tech firms — those which capture the intent of the user, e.g. Google and those who can present ads after knowing the users e.g. Facebook. There are many possibilites in-between. Smaller firms build capabilities in which these larger firms are interested. The cell phone is the next avenue of advertising, since the user location and behaviour can be predicted. The prediction could identify the anatomical position of the consumer — whether siting or standing. It is a complex thing, but full of opportunities. Wearable technology could take ad tech firms to an altogther now level.

    InMobi connects the space sellers such as content sites, apps and game developers with the advertisers wishing to use the mobile platform. Technologically they serve the right ad to the right people. InMobi can do apprographic targeting — targeting based on users’ app preferences.

    When the user engages with the ad by clicking on it, InMobi gets paid. There are metrics such as cost per click (CTC) or cost per mille (CPM). The other payment metrics are — number of downloas for a game, queries of test drive for a car.

    InMobi improves engagement by innovating on how the ad is delivered. The ad could just look like the content.It is an example of one such innovation.

    Komli Media and Media.net are the other ad tech firms operating here.

    The largest marketers in the US are cutting their ad bugets as they shift a larger portion of their spending to digital platforms. In digital, there are cost efficiencies and one can buy more for less.A large portion goes to segments such as video and mobile.Online display ads had the same flat spending. TV and cable TV ad spend increased, and has suffered on the margins.In print the ad expenditure continued to plunge. Radio ad spending declined.

     

     

  • Voice Overs or Voice Artistes

    There is an Association of Voice Artistes ( AVA ). Apart from the ad films, there are in all 28 categories for which voice artistes are required. AVA works towards betterment of the voice and dubbing industry. AVA has 500-plus members and is affiliated  to the Federation of Western India Cine Employees Association ( FWICE ).

    In a car with GPS, a voice helps the driver in navigating the car to the desired destination. There are telephone lines with interactive voice response (IVR ). There are educative CDs to give lessons in various subjects. Corporate functions require special voice artistes to compere. There is tremendous scope for a voice artiste.

    In TV, a commercial may require a voice over. In-house promotion of a channel also requires a voice. Feature films are being dubbed in various indian languages. There are documentaries and telefilms. All these require professional voice. The entry of animation, cartoon and niche have also opened up doors for the voice artiste. Hollywood movies are being dubbed in Hindi. FM radio also requires voice artistes.Internet has also opened up opportunities for professional voices. Voice industry’s growth is related to the growth of the media.Voice industry is unorganised. The remuneration varies from artiste to artiste. The fees are not related to the cost of production. Good professional voices are in advertising are paid Rs.10,000 to Rs. 50,000 per ad film. Theses are master artistes working in Hindi or English. The dubbed version artistes are paid less. Other voice artistes get between Rs.1500-Rs.7500 to a maximum of Rs.10,000. Sometimes the remuneration is as low as Rs 200-Rs 300. The work does not come directly from the producers to voice artistes. There are middlemen who charge a commission from both the producers and the artistes. Besides, voice artistes are given very little time. They do not have the authority to rectify a copy. They are not given credits and recognition.

    AVA is making a CD carrying voice samples and profiles of artiste with contact details. It will facilitate the voice outsourcing. AVA also wants the artiste to be paid a royalty every time their voice is aired akin to book publishing. They want to introduce ‘ slapons ‘ which means payment for as many films as are being made using the same voice over. AVA also wants a minimum fee to be fixed for various categories.

    Darpan Mehta conducts speaking seasons, seminars training programmes and workshops in various citiesof india and UAE. He is also the founder and managining director of SugarMedia2, and integrated learnig outfit. It has recently launched the Radio School which offers four different programmes.

    Khodas Wadia is one of the best trainers in the industry and conducts one-on-one sessions with the participants. He can be reached at 09820022164. Neeraj Mehta runsa professional website for all voice artistes and can be reached at www.voiceartistes.com. Anil Maani is also a leading VO artiste and a great trainer and can be reached at www.voicebazzar.com, Chetanya Adib, better known as Anandi’s bapu in Balika Vadhu dubs for movies and has recently dubbed for Hollywood movie Eclipse for the the lead character Edward Cullen played by  Robert Pattinson.

    Voice Cosmeticians

    Nagesh Surve and RupaliSurve, the father-daughter duo whistled signature tune for Dhoom II They also whistled for Fanaa and lots of advertisements. Meena Gouldas is another voice cosmetician. Surve has whistled for 1400 songs so far. Goculdas dubbed for an animated parrot of Main Prem Diwani Hoo.She has dubbed for an eagle (Chandrakanta), goat ( Mr and Mrs Khiladi ) and puppy (Halo).

    Voice Overs

    Piyush Pandey, the Executive Chairman and Creative Director of O & M, lent his voice to Fevicol lagao lagao, aur zor lagao, SBI Life Insurance ad taaki rishton ke beech dooriyan na aaye, and Asian Paints ad har ghar kuch kehta hai. His baritone exudes both warmth and conviction. Raghuvir Yadav’s jingle for Pepsi umar ghumar ke became very popular.He can make a voice over sound unique. Rich Nigam’s voice is husky, grainy and imperfect but that was converted in Lever’s daag achche hai. Soniya Nair can deliver a sophisticated voice over in English. Piyush Mishra has sung roko mat, toko mat for Parle G.

     

  • Proposed New University for Communinication

    The Government proposes to set up a dedicated university to run the journalism and media related courses of world-class quality.There is one such institute in China called Communication University of China. There are many institutes right now but their courses leave much to be desired. What they lack is the depth and vision.Such a plan also is likely to be objected to especially as regards the autonomy such an institute may have.It is to be seen whether the thrust of the curriculum is on technology alone or on inter-disciplinary approach.The overall structure of the university will be arrived at in the next few days.It will also indulge in consultancy projects.

  • Designer Babies

    Mitochondria, small cylindrical structures in the cells, are transferred from a mother to a child. They are responsible for the energy production and carry out the functions such as the storage of calcium. They mediate in cell death.If mitochondria malfunction, there are diseases of the muscles and nerves. If the defective mitochondria pass on to the children from mother, these children inherit diseases. If father’s mitochondria are defective, children do not inherit them.The symptoms of these diseases are treated by vitamin and other supplements and anti-oxidants.There is no treatment  that can cure the problem. Doctors advise mothers with defective mitochondria not to have children.

    A new technique has emerged that takes care of the defective mitochondria. Sperm from father and ovum from mother are fertilised in a test tube. The nuclei from both of these are removed before they fuse.An ovum from a donor woman is taken, and its nuclei is removed. The parents nuclei and the ovum without nuclei from the donor woman are put together. The fertilised egg retains the mitochondria of the donor woman.In February, 2015, the British parliament has given a nod to the law to allow this three parent baby, thus taking the first small step towards the designer babies. Britain’s three parent baby could be born as early as 2016.

  • Tamasha — the Folk-Art of Maharashtra

    Sandesh Bhandare has written a coffee table book on Tamasha-Ek Rangadi Gammat giving photographic account of Tamasha — the folk-art of Maharashtra. Every region has its own version of Tamasha  — Tamasha from Konkan, Tamasha under the tree, Tamasha on stage etc. The presentation and the season of the different tamashas is different. Tamasha entertains the peasants of the rural areas. A tamasha troupe has artistes, instrumentalists, cooks ,stage designers, porters. They travel in a vehicle. On reaching the destination, they start unloading. They start searching drinking water. Some attend the call of nature. They start bathing, washing clothes, drying them. They apply for police permission. Some start erecting a pandal. The stage is made of wooden planks. Electricians, workers, tailors all contribute to the management. They finish the lunch by 4.00/4.30 p.m. Artists then take rest. Others give finishing touches to the work. Artistes wake up by seven in the evening. They start putting rogue on the face. Instrumentalists set the instruments. Female artistes check up with make up, jewellery and hair-style. All this continues up to 9 o’clock. When the crowd assembles, the curtain is raised. The show starts with dholki tappings. It creates the ambience. They are usually dressed in gold-bordered nine-yard saris with their hair tied up into flower-adorned buns. Even spectators get the zing. The dholki player’s fingers get bruised. The tamasha continues till 4 in the morning.In the small hours of the morning, they take the dinner. The vehicle drivers who were asleep during the progress of the tamasha get up. The planks are adjusted in the vehicle to make room for sleeping. They start loading the luggage. The troupe moves out, and heads for another destination.

    In smaller troupes, an individual has to do multiple tasks. There are problems in getting permission. They have to face the rowdy crowd. They have to ensure traffic. They are not given respect in the society. Tamasha is cosmopolitan. But the troupe is treated as if they are untouchables. The women are thought of as individuals with easy virtue. They are given water by pouring it from above to avoid touching them. The tamasha artistes are a distressed lot, though they entertain the rural society. Many generations have remained devoted to tamasha.What about the future of their progeny? The book has been published by Lokvangmaya Griha, Mumbai.

    Recently, Dr. Kishor Shantabai Kale succumbed to brain injuries on account of a road accident. His biography Kolhatyache Por ( 1994 ) brought to light the lives of the Kolhati community of Tamasha dancers from Western Maharashtra . Most of the artistes are landless labourers, usually from lower castes from villages in Maharashtra. They are indebted to village money-lenders. The commission for a single performance is anywhere between Rs. 8,000-Rs. 10,000 for the entire group, but goes up at times to Rs. 40,000-Rs. 1 lakh, depending upon the popularity of the troupe. The artistes do not perform throughout the year but only on festive occasions or auspicious days at village fairs or private functions. The Hindu month Chaitra is good for business. The Maharashtra State government holds a tamasha festival now, and proposes to elevate tamasha to the status of folk art. The government proposes an economic package for the artistes. In Maharashtra there are 15 big companies and 150 smaller companies. Tamasha is their livelihood. Tamasha is recognised by Dholkicha phad and sangeet bari. It travels across the length and breadh of Maharashtra for seven months — October to May.Each company has 50-60 artistes — 15 female dancers and singers and 35 male artistes and accompanists. There are around 130 travelling Tamasha troupes that perform seasonally and approximately 15 full-time troupes that perform all throughout the year.

    The recent Marathi movie Natrang starring Atul Kulkarni captures Tamasha on the silver screen. To begin with, Marathi cinema thrived on lavani. Between 1960 and1975, Sulochna Chawan has sung some unforgettable lavnis.As Cinema embraced modern themes, lavni was pushed aside. Yamunabai Warkar could cast a spell on the audience in her live performances in he 1950s.Tamasha includes play, song and aaradhana, apart from lavni. Lavni is a dance that combines nritya, adakari and sangeet.Etymologically, lavni comes from the Sanskrit lavanya meaning beauty. It has been left to survive on erotic strain now —  the erotic lyrics have several layers and the dance movements are seductive. It was used to entertain the Mughal armies.It explains the influence of Kathak on lavni. The Peshwas in the 18th century patronised it. It catalysed the fall of the Maratha empire in 1818. Lavni for the classes was erotic and seductive. It was sangeet bari. Lavni for the masses continued with the travelling Tamasha troupes.

    After the fall of the Maratha empire, lavni moved to private kothas in Marathwada and Pune and lavni lost its respectability.Cinema also tarnished its image further. Artists were portrayed as women of easy virtue who corrupted the feudal power centres or village Patils. Lavni which was a folk art degenerated into plain titillation to senses.Even otherwise, the other genres of entertainment provide tough competition to lavni.

    Shahirs are the ballad poets who compose some of the most versatile lavnis full of everyday humour and wit.Some well-known shahirs are Honaji Bala, Parshuram and Pattthe Baburao.

    Vijay Chavan, son of Sulochna Chawan plays dholki in Natrang. Dancers are now drawn from all communities and are not restricted to the nomadic Kolhati and Dombari tribes.

    The readers can also go through the book Dancing Maidens : The Seduction Called Lavni.