Marketing Ganga

Author: Shabbir Chunawalla

  • Birkin and Kelly Luxury Bags — Bindaas Spirit

    Birkin represents bindaas spirit. It is named after Jane Birkin, an actress. It is a 1984 bag from Hermes. It is a classic tote for woman on the move. It is a classic tote for woman on the move. It is irresitibly beautiful; distinctive. Each bag is carefully handmade from the beginning to the end by a single craftsman. Hermes produces only five precious Birkins a week. Its blase shape leaves it free to open unashamedly. It can accommodate an iPad or a pair of evening stilettos with equal aplomb which is why it is the totem of the stylised Business woman. Mrs Nita Ambani carried it to the AGM, June, 2010. Victoria Beckham reputedly owns over 100 of them, collectively valued at Pounds 1.5 million. Birkin costs $8000 for the simplest version.

    Kelly was designed in 1950s for the privileged princesses. They are designed after the Prince of Monaco’s ethereally patrician wife, the late actress Grace Kelly.

  • Creative Commons (CC) — Copyrights in New Light

    In 2007, Lawrence Liang, a Bangalore-based lawyer and Shishir Jha, Associate Professor, Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT-B launched creative commons ( CC ) to popularise the open licensing system. They started copy-left  movement, as opposed to copy-right  law which is restrictive. CC has been founded as NP organisation in the US in 2001. It has six kinds of licenses but all these insist on a need to attribute the work to the creator and seeking permission to share. Some licenses allow remix and commercial use, whereas some do not.

    In many fields such as music and films, the copyrights have been assigned to the recording company, or the producer or the publisher. The creator remains out of picture. The creator is given one time payment or meagre royalties. Copyrights laws give  false sense of security to the creative people. The most important thing is the ability of the owner to exercise his right. This could be done through free licencing too. Even the present copyright law mentions that a copyright without monetary consideration  is acceptable, with a necessary attribution to creator. That endorses the open licensing in spirit. However, the amended copyright law with monetary considerations specified would not be conductive to free licensing.

    In the IT domain, the concept of CC is very much in use. Free licensing is about the flow of ideas.

  • Sarees – An Elegant Indian Garment

    Sarees are described as elegant, proper, eternal or timeless and classic garments which are 3000 years old and sell more than any other garment in India — a market of Rs 54000 crore, showing a growth rate of 8.8 per cent between 1998 –2006. It is a six-yard of unstitched fabric that adapts itself to the personality and anatomy of one who wears it.

    According to Shobha De, a saree reveals the mid-riff, the neck, the back and still remains proper. These days sarees are stitched and they become pre-pleated skirts. They are attached to petticoat and their waist is adjusted to the buyer’s size. Sarees are worn with blouses. Blouse per se did not exist before the 19th century. Prior to that, a kanchuki was wrapped around the chest. It was a single piece of cloth. Many did not wear even kanchukis and remained bare-breasted. The saree-blouse combination since then has come a long way. In the 1940s and 1950s, there were puffed sleeves. In the 1960s, the tight blouses went sleeveless or had cap sleeves. In the 1970s, there were 3/4th sleeves. In the 1980s and 1990s, the saree-blouse combination made fashion statements. Blouses have different neck-cuts. Thhey could be backless or nearly backless. They could be collaredThey can be full-sleeved or 3/4th-sleeved.Deeply scooped necklines are trndy. Pallus are draped in such a way that they cover the right breast but leaves the left choli-covered breast as it is. Blouse has the potential to become a coutre garment. A blouse is a highly customised garment and so ready-made blouses have no market in India.

  • Peshavari Actors in Hindi Films

    Dilip Kumar

    Dilip Kumar was born as Mohammed Yusuf Khan at his family home at Mohalla Khudadad in the famed Qissa Khwani Bazar of Peshavar on December 11, 1922. The ancestral house is a three-storey building with six rooms. It is being converted into a heritage site. His father Lala Ghulam Sarwar was a fruit merchant who owned orchards in Peshavar and in Maharashtra.

    Raj Kapoor
    He is the son of the acting legend Prithviraj Kapoor. He too was born in Peshavar in 1924. His ancestral house is at Dakhi Nalbandi, Peshavar’s highest point. It collapsed yers ago but 60 rooms still survive.

    Shah Rukh Khan

    Shah Rukh Khan’s some relatives still live in Shah Wali Qataal area of Peshavar.

  • Singularity University (SU) Programmes

    This university focuses on advances in exponential technologies. They study how the leading edge technologies will affect human beings in the next five or 10 years. The University is located in Silicon Valley. It prepares the timeline of possible technological developments.

    For the next 10 years, for instance, their forecasts are interesting.

    • Tracking of the effect of medicines on human brain will be possible.
    • Cell phone users can have customised AI-enabled assistants.
    • Robotic exoskeletons.
    • Health ville game.
    • Medical tricorders to assess the medical data.
    • Inter-disciplinary effect of exponential changes.Exponentially growing intersections.
    • Self-driving robotic cars.
    • BPOs run by voice-reconition.
    • Biomine to extract metals from discarded electronics.
    • Matternet to deliver food and medicine to remote inaccessible regions through drones.

  • Lambeik, Amsterdam — Oldest Comic Store

    This is the oldes comic store in the world. It is a shop people visit to reclaim the child in them. It was founded by Kees Kousemaker in 1968 and was named after Lambeik, a popular character from theSuske and Wiske comics. The earliest customers were those who could not lay their hands upon comics  due to parental supervision. Slowly a new comic buying audience too emerged. One who runs such a store must have encyclopaedic knowledge and an elephantine memory. Kousemaker passed away in 2010 and his son continues his legacy.

  • Harry Potter Films

    Warner Brothers were sure of the success of Harry Potter’s first picture The Philosopher’s Stone.They searched for the director and chose Spieberg. Spielberg wanted to use animation for which Warner Brothers was not ready. They handed over the direction to Chris Colombous, the director of  Home Alone and Mrs Doubtfire. The film was made in 2001, and it  broke all the records of the Jurassic Park. The second movie was The Chamber of Secrets s(2002). The third was the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004 ). The Globet of Fire was released in 2005, and The Order of  the Phoenix in 2007. In 2009, the Half Blood Prince was released. Recently, two parts of the Deathly Hallows have been released, one in 2010 and one in 2011.

    Rowling, the writer, insisted on having the British actors and picturisation in Britain while selling the rights to Warner Brothers.

    Harry Potter movies have not won the Oscars, but their popularity has far surpassed the Oscar awarded movies.

  • Wallace House, Dum Dum, Kolkata

    HMV, now Saregama of RPG Group, was housed at Wallace House, Dum Dum, Kolkata. This factory made vinyl records, and has now been converted into studios for TV programmes. The audio record studio can still be hired for a song. It has the piano that Satyajit Rai used to compose music for his films.

  • Airbus A380 : Big Aircraft — Small Problem

    A380 is Airbus double-decker wide body aircraft with a capacity to carry 850 passengers. Though equipped with all the luxuriies, it faces a decline in sale. It has been in the market for the last seven years. The situation is so dismal that the company might have second thoghts about continuing its production by 2018.The plans to make the plane more fuel-efficient and a 1000-seater are held in abeyance. The plane took $25 billion to develop.

    Most carriers today prefer smaller twin-engine jets that are more fuel-efficient and can access more airports. A380 is the mainstay of the Emirates and use Dubai as the hub through which it connects major routes around the globe with just one stop. London’s Heathrow puts a cap on take offs and landings and this provides an incentive to use larger aircrafts like A380.

    Smaller airfields lack the infrastructure to accommodate the huge plane. Airlines are adding long-haul service to the secondary cities where the demand is not strong enough to fill an A380.

    Emirates is requesting A380 to upgrade its engines. This may cost Airbus $2.5 billion.In 2000, when the company promoted the aircraft, it expected an order of 1200 planes, whereas the order book today shows an order of just about 300 planes. Japan and China were considered key markets, but they have disappointed. To the Emirates, the aircraft is a big cash generator — they just open the doors and people come.

  • Junior Artists in Hindi Films

    Many people are needed in a film to form a crowd or basti or fair or party. Such people were formerly known as extras, but are these days called junior artists. The work in shifts. They are members of Junior Artist’s Association. The women are members of Women Artist’s Association.For males, the artistes are placed in A and B classes. For women, there is General and A class. These classes are related to remuneration. In A class, the remuneration is Rs 400 per shift. The other classes get less than this. In yester years, these artistes used to assmble at Rooptara Studios, Dadar East to know the availability of work. These days the SMSs on mobile phones serve the same purpose. The ID card from the association enables them to enter the studio and get the work.