All of us have heard about Maggie’s 2-minute noodles, and Ujala, char boondoh wala. Numbers are being used as USP for a wide variety of products. There is a tea with paanch ayurvedic tatva, and a fridge with a ‘sixth sense’. There are pastes which can fight a certain number of problems, and pain balm that can act a certain number of ways. Numbers put forward a quantitative claim and lend credibility to advertising. All fairness creams make a difference in a week or a fortnight. Numbers communicate the strength of a product. Cosmetics stress a certain number of ingredients, each contributing to its overall efficacy. Though claims are made, these should be delivered too. There should not be too short or too long a duration for fairness cream to act. Too short, and it becomes miraculous and too long, and consumers tend to lose interest. Numbers should be put in context so as to make them symbolic and evocative. Britannia cheese says its one slice is equal to two glasses of milk. Personal care products become credible if numbers are used. However,as we have already observed, if product fails to deliver, you lose all the credibility. Using numbers is thus a double-edged sword.
Author: Shabbir Chunawalla
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Animation Career
There are several specialisations in animation — 2D, 3D, character animation, sketching, modelling, rigging and so on. The coming years will see a big demand for character animators. Many 2D artists may cross ever to character animation because their expertise in 2D helps them understand character animation better. There are different shapes in animation — modeling, rigging, texturing, lighting and finally character animation. For example, rigging is like creating bones for a character, and to be good at rigging you need to know some nuances of anatomy too. A character animator knows a bit of rigging so that he can guide a rigging artist about the desired action and structure.
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Invention — New Definition
The definition of the word invention was amended in 2003. Earlier an invention meant any new and useful (i) art, process, method or manner of manufacture ; (ii) machine apparatus or other article ; (iii) substance produced by manufacture and includes any new and useful improvement of any of them and alleged invention
Invention, according to the new amendment, means a new product or process involving inventive step and capable of industrial application. Inventive step means a feature of an invention that involves technical advance as compared to the existing knowledge or having economic significance or both and that makes the invention not obvious to a person skilled in the art.
Any drug or medicine that results in a new product that can cure a disease is patentable. However, the products of Ayurveda, though inventive, are not patentable as that is considered traditional knowledge.
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Local Branding
We know brands become so popular that they become generic e.g. Xerox, Surf, Bisleri. Sometimes the generic name is adopted as the brand name e.g. Manjal ( which stands for turmeric in Malayalam ), Chandanam (sandalwood in Malyalam ) and Mullappoo ( mogra in Malayalam ). These are all soap brands and have an annual turnover of Rs. 10-12 crore. Manjal was aqcuired by Marico from Oriental Extractions in 2006. Oriental then created Chandanam and Mulappoo brands. These brands represent the benefits of a category. They phonetically represent a category or benefit they stand for, e.g. Frooti and Mangola. Beyond a particular region, the same generic names will become pure brand names.
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Hair Salons in Mumbai
Once the only popular salon was Madame Pompadour salon at the Taj Mahal Hotel. In the 1970’s, Hakim Kairanvi came on the scene. Next came, the Nalini and Yasmin salon at Bandra. Hair styling became big business with Touch of Joy, Scissors and Comb, Be Blunt. These days, chains like Toni and Guy are ready to hit the city of Mumbai. Some frontline names are Hakim Alim, Kanta Motwani, Adhuna Bhabani Akhtar, Dilshad Pastakia, Sapna Bhavnani and Nalini Naigaonwala. Some well-known hair stylists are Javed Habib, Ehsaan Khan and Savio Pereira. At a modest estimate, there are 3000 salons in the nooks and crannies of the city and suburbs, and more and more are coming up. Pantaloon, Spykar and Gold’s Gym are expected to set up salons. It is a Rs. 5000 crore industry, with an annual growth rate of 40 per cent. Globally celebrated names — Wella, Loreal and Toni and Guy — have forayed into the Indian market with their products and services. On a good day a decent salon can make Rs 3 lakh. On a bad one, it could be Rs. 80,ooo. Indian salons are not as expensive as those operating abroad. Over 700 hairdressers and stylists have come together to form an association called Hair India People.
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Rebranding
Rebranding is a response to an important marketing issue. Either the brand is facing new challenges or is not able to exploit new opportunities. Perhaps the brand image has become outdated and lost its relevance. It may have to reposition itself in the present context. Perhaps the brand must cater to the newly emerging segments. Maybe there is a decline in sales, though this could be attributed to multiple reasons.
Rebranding focuses on contemporising the brand image. It creates a modern brand identity. It is just not tinkering with the logo, package, colours, typography and slogan. It is not just a new ad campaign. It starts with the change in brand’s fundamental idea. It continues over a long period across multiple consumer touch points.It involves change in the brand behaviour.
According to Harish Bijoor, each brand is dictated by the whims and fancies of its customers. Rebranding is a need for alignment in the life cycle of a brand. Hence companies like Godrej, Bajaj Electricals, Shoppers Stop and VLCC have changed their appearance to reposition themselves in the new environment. The 112-year Godrej logo is now a vibrant mix of red, yellow and blue. Ceat has abandoned the rhino running next to its logo for the last 50 years to show a shift in expectations of the tyres — they were to bear load formerly, but are now expected to provide mileage, cushioning, speed and cost effectiveness per kilometer. Bajaj Electricals has a new logo indicating its multi-coloured profile. Shoppers Stop does not have now an apostrophe in its name, and the circle is replaced by a new classy box. The tag line has changed from shopping and beyond to start something new. VLCC’s new logo is green to highlight its association with natural products.
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Anant Pai (Uncle Pai), Amar Chitra Katha (ACK)
Anant Pai was a double graduate in chemical technology from Mumbai University. He worked with the Times of India in mid-1960s.He was with the Books Division which published Indrajal comics. He was spurred to create the mythological comics after watching a TV quiz show in which young participants answered quisions about Greek mythology with ease, but could not answer when asked about the name of Lord Rama’s mother.
Pai launched ACK series in 1967, with publisher G.L. Mirchandani, IBH. The first books were called Illustrated Classics. The name Amar Chitra Katha starts with number 11. It has sold more than 100 million copies of about 440 titles in 38 languages.
He led a band of loyal illustrators like Ram Wareekar, Dilip Kadam, Sanjeev Wareekar, Souren Roy, Pratap Malick, P. B. Kavadi, Yousuf Lien and Jeffery Fowler. He stayed at Shivalik Apartment, Prabhadevi, Mumbai.
He was given the first Annual Indian Indian Comic Convention ( Comi Con ) Life Time Achievement Award in February, 2011. He is survived by his wife Lalita. The Pais were childless.
To begin with Pai scripted his comics and used to get them scripted by Pradeep Pau and Yagya Sharma.
He sought the advice of Moti Chandra, the then curator of Prince of Wales Museum regarding costumes and architecture.
Govind Kotwani was employed to assist him. His team of Dennis Olivia, Subba Rao and Nira Benegal for Tinkle magazine too assisted him.
Kamla Chandrakant, a youn woman was employed to assist the scripting work. The other script writers included Gayatri Mada Dutt, Toni Patel, Rajendra Sanjay, Bharati Vyas, Debrani Mitra and Luis Fernandes.
The younger artists Vasant Halbe, Harishchandra Chavan, M V Nangare, G R Naik, Dilip Kadam and Pradeep Sathe joined the team.
The ACK comics were edited a number of times, and finally got okayed by Pai.
Though ACK comics were popular, they were at times politically incorrect. The heroes were always fair or blue-bodied. The villains of other communities were shown in bad light. Such prejudices do not take away the credit of good work done by Pai. After all, he was a product of his times.Othe comics elsewhere were also prejudiced. Tintin comics were showing Africans and Arabs in bad light. ( See Tintin in Tibet, Cigars of the Pharaoh ). Enid Blyton’s stories were accused of subtle racism, and were frowned upon in the UK.
While reissuing the ACK comics, the editors can make these comics free of the biases.The publication has been taken over by the Future Group of Kishor Biyani in 2011. The publication has recently featured eight legends posthumously. Among them are
- Jim Corbett
- Anant Pai who created Amar Chitra Katha
- Salim Ali, ornithologist
- Verghese Kurien, Amul man
- S Ramanujam, maths wizard
- M S Subbalakshami, classical singer
- Dhyan Chand, hockey legend
- Tenzing Norgay, first Everest conqueror
Amar Chitra Katha has more than 400 comics in over 20 languages and has so far sold 90 million copies. It proposes to do a volume on Sarav Ganguly, first living hero to feature in Amar Chitra Katha.
Lalitha Pai, 76 in 2015, widow of Anant Pai has launched a scholarship in memory of her husband. It is open to children in the age group of 10-15. The applicants will be judged on the basis of multiple-choice questions and an essay. The national winner will be getting a scholarship of Rs 11 lac. They will be choosing seven special metro winners and 71 city winners.
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Equal Pay for Equal Work Not Applicable to Film Industry
Film industry does not honour the principle of equal pay for equal work. Male stars command a high price for working in a movie. Their female counterparts are just paid one fourth of what they get.Of course, the girls are highly talented and qualified. Still there is discrimination.In credits too the name of the hero comes first, though Shah Rukh set an example by changing this in one of his recent films. A male star has a say in casting the female lead.At times there are changes in the casting at the instance of the male star.Here what we need is a change in attitude.Even the female stars will have to assert themselves.Society too has to evolve and become more gender sensitive.
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Core Business
Andrew Ross Sorkin, journalist , New York Times, and author of Too Big To Fail : Inside the Battle to Save Wall Street quotes the conversation of President Bush and Paulson, the treasury secretary and Ben Bernanke to emphasise over-extension of AIG beyond its core business of insurance into exotic derivative products such as credit default swaps. President Bush asks,’ An insurance company does all this ?’ Well, this one did. If you had asked 99 per cent of the world, ‘ What does AIG do ?’, they would have replied that it is an insurance company. But it was really into so much more. And that was a big part of a problem.
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Innovation — Scott Anthony, MD, Innosight
According to Scott Anthony, MD, Innosight, innovation is very simple to define. It is something that has impact. innovation is different from invention. It is not just the creation of something new. It is the application of something new.
Innovation has three requirements :-
- Inspiration or insight : There is an opportunity to do something different.
- Idea or plan to capitalise : There must be an idea or plan to capitalise on that insight.
- Turning plan into a real product/service : The plan is on paper. It must be converted into a real product/service or business.
Godrej had an inspiration some years ago. They wanted to reach 90 per cent of Indian homes which do not have refrigerators. It developed a plan to create low-cost, top-loading refrigerator. It launched the product called chotukool in 2009.
According to Scott Anthony, MD, Innosight, large organisations like IBM, Apple and the Tata Group could take advantage of ‘sustaining innovation‘ by making what exists somewhat better. Sony can improve its TVs by intoducing HD and 3D TVs. Large companies find it difficult to introduce disruptive innovations — innovations that transform existing markets or create new ones. Sony missed the bus when Apple introduced iPod in the music industry.