Is "jai ho" the best one from A.R.Rahman

Slumdog millionaire made every indian proud by bagging 8 oscars including best film also.Indian pride was further served by a double Oscar win for “Slumdog” composer the “Mozart of Madras,” A.R. Rahman who bagged the best original score and best song statuette at the Los Angeles awards ceremony."jai ho" is rated as the most searched word along with slumdog after the phenomenal success of the movie.I am sure the success of the movie willboost indian movie industry as well tourism industry also,which is a good sign for Indian economy.But what haunting me is that -Is jai ho is the best creation of A.R.Rahman? I certainly feel no,the song is awesome but the master has already produced so many classic ones.Songs from Roja,Bombay,Lagaan,RDB and Dil Se are class apart,magic composition of the master.Roja,Dil Se,Bombay were not nominated for oscars and Lagaan and Rang De Basanti though were nominated but as best foreign film category.So the master did not manage to get oscars for its best creation.As because slumdog millionaire was directed by an foreign director and producer it got a chance to be in the mainstream of oscar nomination.Anyways talent like him do not need award to prove his class,if he would have been to hollywood then so many oscars should be his only

Banks going FMCG way in advertising

From last few days I am observing that State Bank of India(SBI) is advertising heavily in print media as well as broadcast media.In most of the major newspapers you can see the" SBI customer"comparison Ad.It describes that all income class people can be a SBI customer.He may be a driver or may be a top business man. He may be a mechanic or the owner of the vehicle.Though State Bank of India has already created a brand equity among Indians but still its preemptive strategies are customer oriented.But what i can say is that now banks are spending on Brand Building like never before.The reason behind it what I believe is banks are the most commoditised brands in the world now.They not only try to position themselves differently but also try to create value to the customer and achieving customer's faith.So banks are going the FMCG way in advertising.According to media monitoring company AdEx India ,banks were the third largest among advertisers in the first half of 2008. HDFC Bank topped the list with an spent of Rs 307 crore in the financial year of 2007-08. Citi Bank and ICICI Bank were the other major spender.Union bank is going to spend Rs 75 crore on advertising this year. So on an average banks have raised their promotional expenses by about 40 percent in the last two years.Celebrity endorsements are more frequent now. Royal Bank of Scotland roped in Sachin Tendulkar,Sania Mirza for Deutsche Bank,SRK for ICICI Bank are some examples. In their advertisements they deliver certain Brand Promises like the private Indian banks claim world class efficiency,foreign banks claims to be more Indian's type and the public sector banks claim to be more modern in operation. But whether it is Sachin or SRK,banks need to make sure they inspire trust while building brands.

YOU COULD GET EVEN LUCKIER

Readers please don't get confused. I am not an astrologer or not selling any product on which i am giving an extra gifts. "YOU COULD GET EVEN LUCKIER" is the latest scheme of AIR INDIA. The airline industry is facing the downturn,volatile ATF price and reduction of passengers. So to sustain in the competitive market, all carriers are planning different moves to reduce the cost of operation.We know travelling agencies and ticket booking agents usually share some amount of money with the companies.To avoid that carriers have shifted to e-Ticketing or web ticketing,but still competition is intense.there also.Few days back I saw a print Ad of AIR INDIA. It read like this"You could get even luckier.now,every 100th online booking made at http://www.airindia.in/ gets you a free ticket ! Not to mention the best domestic fares that are yours the moment you log in . Get online between 17th Feb and 31st March 2009. Get lucky!"This is a nice strategy to promote the online ticketing where the middleman's share can be avoided and a competitive edge can be attained over other carriers also. By providing 100th,200th,300th(n*100)th ticket free it will certainly generate curiosity among the customers and definitely they will give it a try.So go online,give it a try and you could get even luckier!

" COKE vs PEPSI"- it's more intense now

The rivalry between these two companies is no longer new for us,but this time the rivalry is more intense in India. From last two days newspapers and news channels are feeding this news. The two giants are trying to to sign sponsorship deals with the eight teams that are part of the Indian Premier league.Pepsi which is emphasizing on younger generation for its "Youngistaan" dropped Shahrukh Khan after having a decade long association with the superstar. But King Khan 's team Kolkata Knight Riders recently tied-up with Coca Cola -brand "Sprite" to be specific for next two years. Coca-Cola also edged out Pepsi by signing deal with Delhi Daredevils and Gautam Gambhir and is all set to renew the deal with King's Eleven Punjab. Most important thing is that Virender Sehwag and Ishant Sharma who had already signed deal with Pepsi are in Delhi Daredevils and KKR respectively. So again it seems Pepsi's loss being coke's gain. While Pepsi is already with Chennai super kings and planning to roll out co-branded cans for IPL edition. It also cancelled its on ground sponsorship with BCCI three months ago and IPL is owned by BCCI. Here also coke grabbed the opportunity,it has already signed the on-air sponsorship with SET (Sony Entertainment Television) MAX and in talk for ground sponsorship also.So let's see who is going to win the race

Rajasthan Royals a Big Brand to reckon

Rajasthan Royals became the first champions of IPL, arguably the most spectacular and commercially successful consumer product launched in recent times. It was the most low profile team of last years inaugural edition of IPL(No big names, Icon players and Bollywood brand ambassador). It is the only team that manages to earn profit from IPL,while other teams stumbled severely. In management term it is the only team that attained break even in his first year of operation. It yielded the highest return on investment,that is 3733% to its stakeholders(source:The Economic Times) that made it the hottest flavour of this season also.So many brands are now interested to tie-up with this team for this season. Consumer products maker GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare India Ltd (GSK) is already associated its name with Rajasthan Royals,which product Boost was one of the sponsor last year.But this year it is coming up with something new to the market.GSK and Rajasthan Royals are now working on a co-branded drink,which is being exclusively formulated by Rajasthan Royals’ physiotherapist John Gloster for GSK to create a demand during the IPL second season.It may be a FAD and may be launched under Boost brand name.As we know many companies had previously tried to encash the popularity of cricket in a cricket frenzy country like Pepsico launched Blue Pepsi during World Cup 2003 and Pepsi Gold during World Cup 2007 .The products were withdrawn from the market after the World Cup.So GSK may adopt similar strategies to ride on the success of IPL and Rajasthan Royals.Recently bollywood star Shilpa Shetty also became the stake holder in the franchisee. Don't you think Rajasthan Royals is a big brand to reckon now?

DTH-the new meaning of entertainment in rural India

The dream has come true.The globe is now at the corner of the small village huts. Thanks to DTH(Direct to home).This has been triggered by the rapid penetration of DTH into rural India. If we look into few years back then rural audience were mostly restricted to DD1 or cable operator's service and had to bear the low service quality,monopolistic price and poor customer service. But the advent of DTH has changed the whole thing. DTH players like DD Direct,Dish TV( Zee Group),Tata Sky,Reliance Big TV,Air Tel Digital TV and D2H from Videocon are going at full pace to lure the customer in rural areas. According to survey the market in rural areas will reach 10 million subscribers by 2010 and the players are not leaving any stone unturned to grab the king's share. They are charging minimum price as monthly rental,customizing the channel package, offering movie on demand and various innovative offerings. So rural people are finding it more worthy than the cable operator's offering as service quality is good and no more technical glitches.So if you will visit to a village now-a-days then you will surely notice the increment in number of DTHs than before.DTH antennas are common now on the roof top of houses in most of the villages .The only concern is that most consumers do not have adequate knowledge of the benefits of DTH.So service providers have to use different media including television, print, and outdoor in rural areas of the country to educate consumers so that they can tap more customers using their service.Overall I feel it is a very lucrative field and it has changed the meaning of entertainment for rural people.

"Relationship Marketing" building customer loyalty

Marketing has made a paradigm shift from transactional approach to relationship marketing over the last decade.We are living in a globalized world,where competition has become an unavoidable element of business and customers have become scarce.So scholars have identified that the challenge of a firm is to attract and retain loyal customers.Relationship marketing is a form of marketing developed from direct response marketing campaigns which emphasizes customer retention and satisfaction,rather than a dominant focus on 'point of sale' transactions(Source:Wikipedia).There is a principle in marketing called "20-80 principle".It says that 20 percent of the customer usually generate 80 percent or more of the company's profit,that means they are the profitable customers who should be carefully treated so that re-purchase will be done by the customer.Relationship marketing aims at building and maintaining long-term relationship with customers .Customer relationship management is a potential weapon for every company now-a-days.Maintaining customer database,wishing them on their memorable days,intimating them about new products n services are the latest practices in the cluttered business environment.When a company do the relationship marketing it touches the emotional aspects of the customers and win the share of mind as well as heart also.So the customer feel so inclined to the particular product or company and turn up as repeat customer.In this way company attains two primary objective.First one to retain the customer and second one to build loyalty among the customer.

Mahindra Xylo-the great Indian travelling machine

After the success of Scorpio,Mahindra and Mahindra the market leader of utility vehicle in India successfully launched the new "XYLO" recently.The first true MUV code named Ingenio.Xylo has been priced very competitively as compared to the Chevrolet Tavera & Toyota Innova. Though the quality of Innova is still much better than the Xylo but Xylo's finish is the best in comparison to other Mahindra products - Scorpio & Bolero. Moreover, the Mahindra XYLO offers class-defining lavish space all around such that even a 6ft tall person can stretch in comfort on the 3rd row seat. The XYLO offers an extraordinary level of luxurious comfort at a very cost-effective price for prospective sedan buyers.

Xylo's unique features includes flat bed front seats, Digital drive assist system, Foldable flight trays, Surround cool dual ACs and Captain Seats which makes the vehicle a real steal.The Xylo is a competitor to the other MUV in the global market due to its high end technological advancement also.The XYLO is the 'Great Indian Traveling Machine' and will redefine the future of road travel in India," said Anand Mahindra, vice chairman and managing director, Mahindra Group.True because the product is very customer centric and priced properly,as Indian customer are bit price sensitive.So its promotional campaign saying that the era of sedan is justified to large extent.Let's see how it unravels on the road.

New destination for apparel exporters

For a long time China has been considered as production base for Indian apparel expert companies.But the scenario is changing very fast. China's on going tryst with labour reforms and shifting focus on value added products has created a different environment for the export industry. It allows countries like Cambodia, Vietnam and Bangladesh to become key players.Generally cost pressure compels the Indian companies to shift their production bases to other countries.One of the biggest advantage of these countries is the availability of cheap labour which accounts for nearly 50% of the costs for apparel exporters.Companies like House of Pearl, United Retail and Orient Craft is already operating in these countries.They all are having good price deal there which is encouraging other players to foray also.Vietnam and Indonesia saw exports go up to 4.82% and 3.95% in Nov 2008 from 3.94% and 3.73% in Nov 2007 respectively.Higher level of automation makes production faster and cheaper in these countries .Industry observers say that the cost of labour is nearly 30%-50% cheaper in these countries.Huge employment opportunity is generated in these low economies which is also a good indicator for global economy.During this tough economic condition apparel exporters are trying to sustain in the competitive market where profit margin in wafer-thin.NIKE adopted the same strategy long back to gain the competitive advantage over other rival companies and by minimizing cost of production, it gain market leadership.