Marketing Ganga

Category: Uncategorised

  • Synthetic Biology

    Synthetic biology is a rapidly expanding discipline that uses synthesized DNA, the genes of the most living organisms, to create biological functions not found in nature. These genes are edited ( using a computer ) and then synthesized from scratch ( using chemicals). In future, genes could be designed and printed. There are possibilities of finding solutions to problems of environmental pollution, shortage of food and energy. It is expected that synthetic bilogy would create food and fuel, drugs and chemicals. Scientists have found a way to write, erase and rewrite information into the DNA of bacteria called E coli. This ability to programme DNA could one dat let us switch off cells when they become cancerous.

    Artemisin, anti-malarial drug, is currently extracted from plants. Funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the drug is created by inserting genes from various organisms into E.coli. This is a big milestone for synthetic biology, as the plants from which it is extracted are short in supply and grow slowly.

    Viruses are seen as apps of biology providing infinite possibilities for us to credit new living systems. Viruses are chemical codes that add features to organisms they infect. A bacteriophase is a bacterium infected by a virus. Viruses can be used as diagnostic tools, as gene therapy.

    Scaling is a big challenge for every synthetic biology application.Synthetic biology is drawing big research funds.

  • Women Make Up Artists in India

    There is an association called Cine Costume, Make up Artist and Hair Dressers’ Association (CCMAA). It barred the registration of any female make up artist,  making make up an exclusively male domain. In 2014 November, the Supreme Court asked the Association to put an end to this practice which continued for 59 years. The SC felt this is harassment of women in the 21st century which is ‘ inconceivable and impermissible.’ It asked the film industry across the country including regional cinema hubs to ensure equal opportunity for women.

    Charu Khurana who worked as a make up artist of top film stars and politicians broke into this exclusive male club on the strength of the supreme court order. She is the first woman to be registered by CCMAA. Even after the SC order, the association was reluctant to register her, but had to comply after the court threatened to initiate contempt proceedings against its office bearers.

  • IBM — Big Blue Focuses on R & D

    IBM, also called Big Blue on account of its size and the colour of its logo and packaging, is a company with revenues of $ 92.7 billion. It spent a huge sum of $ 5.4 billion on R & D last year ( 2014-15 ). Over the last three years, it spent $ 17 billion. On an average, if spends 6 per cent of its revenues on R & D per annum. IBM has been issued more than 7500 patents in 2014, and it continues its patent registration lead over other US companies for the last 22 years in a line. Arvind Krishna is IBM’s global research head.

    Krishna manages 3000 researchers across a dozen locations in the world. Almost 2/3rd of these are Ph.DS. Some 300 researchers are devoted to mathematics. IBM has nurtured six Nobel laureates and as many Turing awardees in its 104-years history. It has 19 members from American Academy of Sciences, 23 members from the National Academy of Engineering, Fellows from IEEE and other top notch scientists.

    In India, BSE 100 companies spend 1.32 per cent of revenues on R & D. As the process patent in pharma was ended, and product patent was initiated in 2005 by changing the law, pharma has reached up to 10 per cent in research spending in search of the new molecules. Auto companies too have started using 2-3 per cent of turnover on R & D. In retail, R & D will be low, and in FMCG it is to the extent of 0.5 per cent. Indian IT companies are moving up the value chain, and this will lead to more spend on R & D.Infosys has started using 2.4 per cent on R&D and is setting a centre of research. As competition is now global, Indian CEOS will take research seriously.

  • Advertising and Media Terms

    Advertising significantly affects the success of a brand. Advertising profession has its own lingo which a brand manager must understand. Some of these terms are explained here.

    Target Audience

    It is the market segment you have chosen to cater to. It is often described in terms of :

    demography, say our market consists of teenagers or young girls or working women or urban youth. The basis could be age, sex, profession, geographical area etc.

    psychography, such as life-style

    benefits sought, such as tooth decay prevention and bad breath fighting from toothpastes.

    The market consists of several segments each of some homogeneous customers. Out of this total market, we select a few segments and target our product to them. In targeting, we see how far the product and segment suit each other.

    The target audience is reached by a mix of media. Each media has its own target audience, say Femina is read by women of substance, and some men too; Living Digital is read by techies. We have to match our target audience to the media’s target audience as far as possible.

    Reach

    It is a measure of how many of the target audience views or hears the ad.

    Frequency

    It is a measure of how many times the audience reached by an ad during a specified time period. If an ad of a car is seen by 50 percent of audience, its reach is 50. If this ad is seen 3 times during a week of the flight by the audience, it has a frequency of 3. If we multiply the reach by frequency ( 50×3 ), we get rating points ( 150 in this case ). Ad flights cover specific time periods.

    Advertisers also talk in terms of Gross Rating Points ( GRPS ). Gross rating Points are measured by how many people of the general population ( rather than target audience ) in total saw the ad and how many times on average they saw it. GRPs have nothing to do with our target audience. Rating points calculated with reference to our target audience are called Target Rating Points ( TRPS ).

    Advertising cost is measured in terms of cost per thousand ( CPM —cost per millenium or thousand ).The less it costs to reach, the more attractive it should be but not always. The cost varies considerately for different media because of the nature of audience being reached and the quality of impressions.

    Brand managers must also understand whether the organisations wants to sell directly, or tie into retail promotions with super markets. The objectives of promotion must be understood — to build brand awareness, to create brand preference and loyalty etc. The objectives affect the content of the advertising and its execution.

    Share of Advertising ( SOA )

    It is the actual measured share of advertising rupees spent for competing product going after the same product customers in the same media markets. In a nut-shell, it indicates what share of the ad media spending is ours.

    Share of Voice (SOV)

    It is the measure of viewership shares as a result of longer term campaign. To put it differently, it indicates how much voice of all the advertising run against that product and market our advertising gets.

    Share of Market ( SOM )

    It is the bottom-line based on actual sales outcomes. To simplify, it means who sold what percentage of a given category of product in a specified market segment over a specified time period. This is what advertisers want to achieve. Share of Market is where the money is made. Other measures just show how much is being spent for how much relative noise it makes.

  • Print Copy — Headlines

    Copywriters put every word that one finds in an ad, whether it is a headline or the body copy or the fine print at the bottom. Copy has three major components — the headlines, the body copy and the slogans.We shall consider headlines here.

    Headlines

    As the name indicates, it is the line that appears as heading in an ad copy. It is a dominant line which appears in bigger typography than the rest of the copy. Though generally it appears at the top of the ad, there are no hard and fast rules about its placement. It can run across the ad in the centre, or diagonally or even at the bottom. Though headlines are economical in the use of words, it is still the most important part of the copy. It is an invitation to people to read the ad. Maybe, many people may ignore the rest of the ad, but they do see the headline and the message they receive is exclusively from the headline. Headline may be supported by sub-heads or secondary headlines to move the reader from the headline to the body copy.

    Types of Headlines

    Copywriters use a wide variety of headlines, each functionally different from one another.

    News Headlines

    These convey some new information. It can be an announcement of sales promotion scheme or a new location of a retail outlet or discounted prices. It is a very common head-line, as it conveys the changes to the customers. In local media, such ads generally come from the retailers.

    Benefit Headlines

    It states the key customer benefit. Dove is the soap with 1/4th moisturizing cream to keep the skin soft and glowing.

    Emotional Headlines

    It represents the emotional appeal. ‘Mamta Ki Kausauti Par Khara ‘ is Dalda’s endorsement by mother who are careful about the nutritional value of the cooking medium for their loved ones. It is an emotional appeal.

    Off-beat and Curiosity Headlines

    We can divert traffic to our ads by using humour, wordplay and mystery. Lactocalamine lotion and skinnocence is wordplay.  Kuchh paney ke liye,  kuchh dhona bhi padta hain  where a husband is shown washing clothes, is an example of hunour. American diamonds are construed as real diamonds — this is curious.

    Directive Headlines

    These headlines direct the readers to do something. These motivate to action. These headlines are hard-sell. They can be loud or subtle.Open a saving bank account is a loud directive headline. Feel the experience at Shoppers Stop is a subtle directive.

    Hornblowing Headlines

    These headlines are ‘We are the greatest’ or ‘ we are the best ‘ type. They sound arrogant. These ads show a superiority unrelated to the customer’s needs. Perhaps, the customers feel you lack honesty. Some headlines blow the company’s horn, but also convey an important consumer benefit.

    Slogan or Logo Headlines

    Some headlines are catchy slogans or depict a company logo.  ‘There are certain things in the life which are priceless. For everything else, there is MasterCard.’ Such headlines vibe well with the readers’ emotions. Logo headlines generate awareness about the company and build the brand. Logos must have a link with the product or else they do not succeed.

    Headlines become more effective when supported by appropriate graphics.

  • White-Label Automatic Teller Machines (WLAs : ATMs )

    WLAs or White-Label ATMs are not owned by a specific bank but by an independent entity and can be used by the customers of various banks. About 70 per cent of all ATMs in Canada and half of those in the US are WLAs.

    In India Tata Communications and Payment Solutions is installing 15000 such machines. Muthoot Finance intends to put 9000 WLAs, out of which 4000 will be at its own branches. By 2015, there will be 10000 to 15000 WLAs. Srie Infrastructure Finance and Vakrangee Software intends to enter this field. There will be an addition of 1.5 lac machines in the next three years, as against 1.18 lac bank owned-machines.

    In India, there are fewer than 100 ATMs per million Indians.There are 1390 per million in the US, 530 per million in the UK and 211 per million in China.

    Tata manages 15000 ATMs and 12000 POS, and 55 per cent traffic of all POS. By 2016, it expects to manage 50000 ATMs.

    WLAs get Rs 15 per withdrawal and Rs 5 per balance enquiry from the card issuing bank.

  • 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.

  • 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.

     

  • Search for Planets in Space

    Space exploration through the telescopes is a continuous study for the astronomers.Kepler telescope was a great help in this endeavor but will work for only a couple of years more.It is proposed to launch James Webb telescope.NASA is going to launch Wide Field Infrared Telescope (WFIRST). Europe will launch PLATO.

    Our universe consists of a large number of galaxies, say 100 billion. Each galaxy has 200 to 300 billion stars. You can imagine the number of planets that move around these stars. Some of these planets are just gas giants. Many circle the stars that are too dim.Some are far off from the star.There are some rocky planets but we do not know much about them.But as there are a very large number of planets, there is a probability of finding many earth-like planets with the presence of water, the right temperature and atmosphere. Such planets are conducive for growth of life.But finding life is difficult and finding intelligent life is more difficult.If we study the history of the formation of such planets, we can understand better how the earth itself has evolved.

    The first confirmed discovery of a planet was made in 1992.A planet around a star was seen in 1995.Since then cataloging has started, and 1800 planets have already been cataloged. Another 1000 are being assessed. Bigger planets can be observed directly but the smaller ones are confirmed indirectly. What is noticed is the variation in the speed of a star, when it either moves towards the earth or away from it.When a planet comes between the star and the earth, a star loses its brightness slightly. Otherwise, a planet magnifies the brightness of a star.

    This is an exciting period for the hunt of the planets.

     

     

  • Low Budget Films

    The success of low budget films has prompted big studios and production houses to take a new look at their business models. Some studios make at least 50 per cent of their entire film portfolio as low budget films of Rs 5-10 crore. In 2013, Viacom 18 made almost 80 per cent of its films low budget.There is ami of star-driven big budget movies and content-driven low budget movies. Low budget films are good risk hedgers. Losses can be absorbed if the film does not perform. It is also true that really big money comes from movies featuring big stars. Digital revolution has set in. More than 70 per cent of films are shot digitally. It becomes time saving. Editing is done immediately on location. The crew size is reduced. It saves costs and salaries. There is no need to process the film in the lab after shooting. The film exhibition has gone digital. Digital trnsmission has cut costs. A digital print costs Rs 20000, as against Rs 70000 for an anlogue print. Even low budget films have a success rate of 10 per cent. To cut the risks from low budget movies, most studios prfer doing end-to-end production, marketing and distribution. There is no co-production.