Imajination

This column is a tribute to the Real Entrepreneurs – as per wikipedia, an entrepreneur is a person who has possession of a new enterprise, venture or idea and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome. For Babar Ali, aged 17, this definition means service to a whole society who does not have the basic access to good education. Entrepreneurship does not mean money or profit to him; it just means sharing whatever knowledge gained.

Knowledge shared is knowledge earned – this, in the modern era, does not mean much, But when we stumble upon people( or should I say angel) like Babar, we do realise that this quote does mean a lot even now.

When I dug further for Babar Ali in Google, I found the following. Babar Ali has been touching childrens’ life through his school Ananda Shiksha Niketan in Gangapur village in Murshidabad district since 2002. Since then, he has been teaching children from migrant labourers, bidi workers and weavers who are extremely poor to afford formal education. He started the school when he was nine along with attending formal education. Today Ananda Shiksha Niketan has 800 students, even more than most formal schools.
The state government has recognised the school and promised to extend all necessary cooperation. A blackboard was installed in 2005, and a shed added last year to provide shelter from the rains. But for Ali, his dream is to make it autonomous. For him, this would break the way of working currently and would defeat “the principles on which the school is built”

Reading about Babar Ali makes one proud of this Real Hero – whose passion in life is Education for All. Salute You!

Hindustan Unilever (HUL) gave Procter & Gamble (P&G) a classic ambush – when it conquered the skies of Mumbai and other major cities with ambush advertising. It started on July 23rd when the cities woke up to a hoarding which read loud –

“A Mystery Shampoo!! 80% women say is better than anything else”.

This was P&G’s teaser campaign for its launch of new Pantene. But the marketers at HUL saw an opportunity and decided on an ambush. The quickest turnaround from planning to execution for HUL saw another hoarding on Jul 28th which screamed

“There is no mystery. Dove is the No.1 shampoo”….

Well Dove is one of the 4 brand’s in HULs shampoo brand portfolio. This sweet campaign was handled by Ogilvy & Mather India.

Some of the other ambush campaigns have been that of Jet and Kingfisher, Coke and Pepsi etc..We will speak about that on some other post. Industry experts say that with tight spending nature of consumers due to food inflation, there has been a serious cut in consumer spend on other relatively low discretionary purchases such as shampoos.

Brands and brand wars are always exciting and we will watch closely on what P&G has to return in the days to come….Keep watching this space!!!

Recently I went to Cochin to my in-laws’ and received a very old, close-to-worn-out piece of paper from my father-in-law. This aeging piece of paper had the following extract which is one of the best messages I have come across. Am reproducing it for the benefit of all you folks….

THINK
If you think you are beaten, you are,
If you think you dare not, you don’t,
If you like to win, but you think you can’t,
It is almost certain you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost,
For out of the world we find,
Success begins with a fellow’s will
It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are,
You’ve got to think high to rise,
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.

Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But sooner or later the man who wins
Is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN!!!

Hope this is had an effect on you as much as it had on me….

One of the Indian brands that most Indians (including me for a very long time) choose to ignore is Videocon. For all those like-minded sould, would advise you to visit the Videocon site and Experience Change – change in your mindset about this young and aggressive companyand also on the sheer portfolio of products that these ‘Swadesi’ company churns out.
Last July (2009), this Indian multi-national committed on a mission to change – or bring about a change of perception from the consumers. This was also to welcome their foray in to an assortment of other services – DTH and mobile phone operations. This is apart from their flagship consumer durableslike Colour Televisions, Washing Machines, Air Conditioners, Refrigerators, Microwave ovens and many other home appliances. This 2.5 billion dollar Indian company had also grown inorganically – through acquisition of Thomson picture tube business (emerging as one of the largest Colour Picture tube manufacturers in the world operating in Italy, Poland and China, continuing to lead through new innovative technologies like slim CPT, extra slim CPT and High Definition 16:9 format CPT). Also, Videocon is one of the largest CPT Glass manufacturers in the world with a high level of experience and technical expertise operating through Poland and India.Another diversification for the group is in Oil and Gas. According to the site, an important asset for the group is its Ravva oil field with one of the lowest operating costs in the world producing 50,000 barrels of oil per day.

The vision of the group – a reflection of continuity and change is captured point-on by the new refreshing logo and rebranding.

The new rebranding exercise was coupled witha series of television advertisements with the two characters – Chow and Mouw. “The new logo is apparently ‘at the heart of the new brand identity. The new ‘V’ is composed of two animated green, lava-like shapes — represented aptly by the two characters, with distinct identities of their own.The Fluid lava reflects the brand idea, ‘Experience change’. The color reflects the philosophy of the revived and strong entity. Also this vibrant green is symbolic to Videocon’s ecology drive’”. The new logo has been designed by one of my favourite brand agency – Interbrand Singapore. The ‘V’ in the new Videocon logo is representative of the new identity of this leading consumer durables brand – an identity that is fresh, dynamic, and has been provided a life of its own.
McCann Erickson, Delhi decided to give life to the animated characters in the TV commercials. The agency has conceptualised a series of five films, each telling a simple story while reinforcing the brand’s new positioning statement, “Experience Change.” According to McCann, the first film titled ‘Hot’ shows the two characters flying up to the cloud and making it burst to help water a flower that is drying up. “The other films: Bird, Doll, Moon and At Sea also express a feeling of happiness and exhilaration felt by everyone involved as they ‘experience change’ brought on by the good deeds of Chouw and Mouw,” .