Marketing Ganga

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  • Amul and Manthan – A Shyam Benegal Film – The Churn Continues

    Manthan, a Shyam Benegal film of 1976, was about the churning of the agrarian society and a promise held by the milk co-operatives for them. Amul is the representative of this churn — it has farmer membership 3 .3 million. Its 85 per cent membership is of small and marginal farmers. However, the recent members who are joining the movement are the affluent farmers with big herd size of 30-50 animals, and having an automated dairy unit. This transition is being encouraged. They already have 5000 such large commercial farms.

    The NDDB estimates milk demand to rise to 180 million tonnes by 2022, as against 140 million tonnes today. Thus there should be an increase of 5 million tonnes per annum over the next few years to meet the demand.

    Instead of transporting milk to deficient states, the thinking today is to source milk there itself.

    In order to retain voting rights, farmers must bring at least 400 litres of milk per cow to the co-operative and the rest they have the freedom to sell anyway they like.

    Many families are dropping out of the system. Marrying into a family keeping animals is not attractive for the girls. The sons in the farmer’s family is gravitating to the jobs in the urban area. There is no life in dairying.

    The churn continues.

  • Telecom Malware

    As we import telecom equipment, it must be ensured that it does not pose a threat to the country’s security. Malwares such as virus, worm, trojan horse etc. spread through public Internet i.e. cyberspace, and try to attack network elements having an IP address. Telecom systems are generally not affected as they are largely isolated from the public Internet. However, there is always the possibility of malware being embedded in the systems being imported from hostile states.

    The ‘Stuxnet’, it is believed by cyber expert, was used to sabotage the uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, Iran where the Scada — Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system was deployed obtained from Siemens. The student attack disrupted the functioning of the PLCs (  programmable logic controllers ). The speeds of thousands of centrifuges were dramatically changed; thus damaging them. Their operational capacity dropped by 30 per cent. It was officially admitted. It is speculated that the supplier of Scada and outside agencies must have collaborated in this attack.

    There are instances of sabotaged industries plants and other high value infrastructure — power plants, nuclear installation, defence equipment.

    It is easier to detect computer worm affecting the Windows operating system. It is difficult to do so for malware hidden in large volume of software/firmware designed for industrial control systems such as telecom which do not employ well-known operating systems or programming languages.

    The Home Ministry banned the import of Chinese telecom equipment in 2010. To ensure the equipment is free from hidden malware, it was proposed that the source code ( running into millions of lines ) be deposited in on escrow account. The Chinese MNCs Huawei/ZTE agreed to meet this requirement. The European and the US MNCs refused to comply. Their plea was that it is proprietary software. The Chinese companies felt that it is next to impossible to detect a few lines of malicious source code—malware written in a low level programming language. Besides just like ‘star war’ programme, the telecom was real time software. Even if we have the initial version in the escrow account, it does not solve the problem. Software is never frozen. It keeps on evolving. Patches for upgrades are usually received by the telecom operators. Even these can carry malware. Due to protests, this stringent requirement is now removed.

    The Chinese equipment has been supplied to telecoms even in the public sector ( BSNL/MTNL).

    DOT is finalizing a telecom security policy. It is proposed to set up a Certification Centre to test imported equipment. It is proposed that a centre can be set up at IISC, Bangalore in collaboration with an MNC.

    It is a matter of concern that many private licensed operators have outsourced to MNCs the functions of operations and maintenance.

    Telecom systems are operated through hundreds of man-machine commands. Some of these commands are also given by foreign engineers from remote terminals. Hidden malware can be activated by these commands. Alternatively, it can be activated by an internal process triggered by a time stamp. A patch could be used as input to transfer the malware. 2G-3G operators treat telecom systems as ‘black boxes’ and depend totally on equipment vendors for technical problem solving.

    A multi-layered approach called ‘defence-in-depth’ is proposed. The layers include.

    *  policies and procedures

    *  awareness and training

    *  network segmentation

    *  access control measures

    *  physical security measures

    *  system hardening e.g. patch management and system monitoring.

  • Pinning Images : Pinterest

    It is the third most popular social media platform after Twitter and Facebook. It has a message for the media: a picture is worth a thousand words. It shows the rise of the visual web. It allows its users to share images by ‘pinning’ them. Instagram, acquired by Facebook, is another example. Facebook’s timeline feature is heavily driven by images instead of text. Printerest does not have ads on the site but publishers and brands can use the images to link to their own websites. It encourages companies to pin from various sources and to create pin boards for different types of material,

  • News of the World Scandal

    British judicial enquiry examined the Murdochs about News of the World scandal. Rupert Murdoch apologized for failing to take measures to avert the hacking scandal. He cast himself as a victim, and said that the scandal was hidden from the  owners‘ top executives. He seemed to blame the subordinates for not alerting him to the practices being used at the newspapers to secure its scoops. He predicted that the news business would be ‘purely electronic ‘ in five, 10 or 20 years. He cautioned the judge regarding regulatory measures envisaged consequent to the scandal. He said the press guarantees democracy, and we want democracy rather than autocracy. The Committee in its report indicated Murdoch by saying that he is not fit to exercise the stewardship of a major international company. It is now left to the House of commons to decide whether News International committed contempt of parliament, and if so what punishment should be imposed on the organisation.

    The work style of Murdoch has always remained a matter of debate, admiration and criticism. Prof Daya Thussu, West-minister University, UK has written about such working style. Some features of this style are

    *  focus on commercial interests

    *  ownership of the different type of media, and aggressively work towards it

    *  use political contacts regarding the ownership rights against the promise of good publicity.

    *  exploit rules

    *  put sensational and glossy programmes and news for commercial benefit

    This working style is confined to Murdoch group, but is more less extendable to other media groups too. The strictures passes by the committee are not thus restricted to News Corpn.only. The criticism against Murdoch is quite old. His media expansion in the UK and the work culture were matters of debate. It was alleged that in the UK, there was support from Thatcher and in the US from Regean. The media moghul sobriquet is thus not entirely on the basis of respect.

    The charge is not against an individual but against a type of work culture in the media organisations. It may be a political charge, but political system represented by the parliament has a right to raise it.

    We have much to worry here against the above background. Let alone the media owners, do the political forces here have even the courage to bring to book the errant journalists? How many times the individual rights and the right to privacy have been uphold while doing journalism? Murdochisation is not on decline. The politicians will have to tell the media at times, “ You have erred. You be responsible. “

  • Multiple Screens for  Films

    Previously, an analogue print of the film cost anything between Rs. 50,000 to 60,000. This cost has been brought down by digitisation to Rs. 10,000 to 12,000 per screen, a reduction by 1/5th. This itself is an incentive to a producer to release his films in more theatres. According to FICCI-KPMG Indian Media and Entertainment Industry Report, 2114, approximately 95 per cent of commercially viable screens have been digitised.

    An analogue print was heavy — it used to weigh 40-50 kgs. and was difficult to transport. These days an entire film can be stored in a pen-drive or downloaded directly into cinema hall’s projection room through satellite. Even storage rooms and trunks are not necessary.

    In 2004, Veer Zara was released in 625 screens. Dhoom2  in 2006 was released in 1000 screens. By 2008, Ghjiini was released in 1550 screens. In 2011, Ra.One  was released in 2900 screens. Doom3  had a release on 3800 screens in 2013. Kick  was released in 2014 on 5000 screens. It’s a huge rise in the number of screens since 2004 — almost 9 times.

    Prints are released across the metros and smaller towns at the same time. It reduces the scope of piracy. It enables a producer to exploit a territory commercially immediately. Previously it took several months to do so. The role of audience feed back has also reduced along with the simultaneous release.

    The digital format made a debut in 2007-08. Dhoom3  in 2013 was not released in analogue format at all.

  • Social Media and News Consumption

    The News Feeds stream of updates that we see on the Facebook is governed by a software code. Facebook in the US has become a major source of news—as many as 30 per cent of adults get their news on Facebook. Facebook, along with Twitter and Google News, has changed the news consumption habits of people. There is  an algorithm that predicts what users might want to read. Instead of the whole package of news, the fragments of news reach the consumers. It will be a serious challenge to the editors — the ability of the computers to curate news, the role which was traditionally played by the editor. Indian audience loves its ABCDs i.e. astrology, Bollywood, cricket and divinity. Social media users are expected to spend more time on their services—it is called engagement. More engagement has a positive aspect—exposure to diverse viewpoints and ideas. Engagement has a negative aspect—users create cocoons and filter out coverage they do not agree with.

    Social media has simply become a personalized newspaper.

  • Rap Music

    Rap music has to answer the question – does it reflect the violent times we live in or does it promote misogyny and incite violence ? The lyrics of rap stars are not acceptable. They are derogatory to a woman. At times, they make us uncomfortable. The commonly used terms are bitch, whores, d**k, n**ga, f**k, sh*t, pu**y, and damn. Young minds find an emotional outlet through music. Not all rap music is bad. Some rap music brings about positive changes in society. But bad rap has done better. It has been over-glamorised. Youngsters love rap lingo. They love listening and grooving to it.

  • Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon

    Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon moved the then PM Pandit Nehru to tears when it was rendered before a packed National  Stadium in the capital on a cold January 27 evening exactly 50 years ago ( 1963 ) by Lata Mangeshkar. It was penned by Kavi Pradeep shortly after the China War ( 1962 ). Pradeep presented a handwritten poem to Nehru when he visited Mumbai on March 21, 1963.

    Pradeep was walking on the Mahim beach when the words of this poem occurred to him. He borrowed a pen from a fellow walker, ripped out the foil from his cigarette packet and penned the first stanza. Mehboob Khan organised a fund raising concert at National Stadium and wanted an opening song from Pradeep. Pradeep roped in C. Ramchandra and Lata Mangeshkar, and the rest is history.

  • Organised Retail

    Organised retail has huge potential in India. One principal reason is the demographics of our country. There is a huge urban population of 377 million ( 2013 ). These very people boost the retail sales. There are 100 million working women ( 2013 ) in India. Almost 2/3rd of the population of India consists of the youth that is below the age of 35 years. Quick Service Restaurants ( QSR ), multiplexes and the thirst for new experiences are what will define the next generation of retail.

  • Dr Philip Kotler

    Dr. Philip Kotler is the ‘ Wren and Martin ‘ of Marketing. He is an octogenerian now. His 14th edition of the most authoritative text book named Marketing Management is one of his accomplishments. He is the product of Chicago University and MIT. He was taught economics by three Nobel Laureates  — Milton Friedman, Paul Samuelson and Robert Solow. He did a year’s post-doctoral work at Harvard in Mathematics. He did behavioural science work at University of Chicago. Currently, he is the professor of  International Marketing at Kellog B-school.