tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84730553220703714712024-03-06T05:42:31.112+05:30allinthemindMusings on the business of brands with a focus on company brands, life in the Indian corporate space, and ocassional observations of a curious mind...thestorysofarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660828631330803158noreply@blogger.comBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473055322070371471.post-76803684804555576072009-05-05T15:14:00.003+05:302009-05-05T15:22:46.403+05:30My new blogHave just initiated a new, more specialized blog on wordpress called CompanyBrands. This one will strive to be more professional, serious content oriented and will bring together content around the idea of company branding in one place.thestorysofarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660828631330803158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473055322070371471.post-47463715703862226972009-03-27T17:30:00.005+05:302009-03-27T18:05:44.529+05:30Twitter vs. FacebookAm getting sucked into it kicking and screaming, but just can't avoid trying these guys out...afterall being in touch with the latest is one thing our clients expect out of us...Here is a wonderful interview with Chris Brogan that explains a whole lot about how the world of blogging/facebook/twitter etc. works.Particularly like this bit below drawing the differences between facebook and twitter--thestorysofarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660828631330803158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473055322070371471.post-67292725816807953752008-11-29T07:51:00.002+05:302008-11-29T07:55:34.646+05:30A home for your hobbiesA well executed service concept can be a great inspiration and Pidilite Hobby Ideas is one such. Recently walked into one their outlets (Bangalore) and besides the amazing range of goodies that Pidilite has put together from across the world, one is struck by the overall service experience. Hobby ideas is an upstream stationery shop which caters to a host of pastime pursuits – from the regular thestorysofarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660828631330803158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473055322070371471.post-4815318562703225512008-11-16T08:30:00.004+05:302008-11-22T08:57:17.604+05:30Bharti’s New IdentityBecause this blog’s central focus is on brand building for ‘organization brands’, every time a significant corporate brand undergoes a facelift, I am tempted to add my two bits. The Bharti Group being the latest one to go in for a new garb. Frankly, more often than not I have felt that the visual identity changes tend to be taken up without any real change on the ground. In fact, one gets the thestorysofarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660828631330803158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473055322070371471.post-89834017035553036942008-09-21T11:19:00.005+05:302008-09-21T11:34:53.539+05:30Jaagore Ideas!Have been privileged to be associated with TATA Tea's initiative onebillionvoters in collaboration with Janaagraha. A simple idea of getting youth to register as voters. The idea is simple and backed by two inspiring parent brands...looks like a winner from the start. But to me the bigger story is the team behind it. A bunch of youngsters, all in their 20s, most of them from an IIT/IIM pedigree thestorysofarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660828631330803158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473055322070371471.post-60854323132525082992008-08-16T13:11:00.003+05:302008-08-16T13:29:04.714+05:30Kudos for KILBAEGON-Religare's KILB campaign is a wonderful usurping of a generic benefit of insurance i.e. risk protection, that has been lying unclaimed for many years now. I was fortunate to do a little bit of work almost 6 years ago on the category and at that time only Max New York Life was talking this language. I still remember the first question their advisor asked me- If you die today, how much money thestorysofarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660828631330803158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473055322070371471.post-64974957246234817242008-08-16T13:05:00.002+05:302008-08-16T13:09:57.853+05:30DNA of a Newspaper LaunchOff late Bangalore has been plastered with gigantic hoardings announcing the arrival of DNA, the newspaper initiative of the ZEE-Bhaskar combine. The campaign, which had an elaborate teaser phase, is now carrying ads which are supposedly insider’s take on what makes Bangalore a place to be proud of. There are references to cult eateries like Koshy’s, lots of software lingo etc. to mention a few.thestorysofarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660828631330803158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473055322070371471.post-41037510292202031762008-08-03T13:52:00.003+05:302008-08-03T14:19:31.047+05:30Positioning IndiaHave been a big fan of Sunil Khilnani's The Idea of India and frankly, haven't come across a piece of writing that packs so much punch in as few as 200 pages. The book tries to get to the roots of how the Indian identity got created and deeply established in less than a century. If, about a hundred years ago one had asked any one living on the subcontinent who they were, no one probably would thestorysofarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660828631330803158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473055322070371471.post-55830888073689873632008-08-03T13:33:00.002+05:302008-08-03T13:36:22.302+05:30MAD AND DEVINE by SUDHIR KAKARJust picked up Dr. Kakar’s latest titled Mad and Devine-Spirit and Psyche in the Modern World and am riveted by it. The book looks at the interplay between the spirit and the psyche and aims at distinguishing between the psychic and the spiritual phenomena. Besides insightfully articulating something as abstract as that, his brilliance lies in the ability to infuse poetry into the subject matter.thestorysofarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660828631330803158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473055322070371471.post-57907934303457102112008-07-21T06:50:00.004+05:302008-07-21T07:14:25.374+05:30Distinguishing Infy!My obsession with Infosys continues :-)...for years i have been informally asking people in the IT industry on what they feel are the real differentiators between the Big Three of Indian IT- TCS, Infy and Wipro...and everyone has their take on it. There are those who believe that TCS scores with its years of domain knowledge and Infy is good at customer relations, Wipro has strong R&D and pricingthestorysofarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660828631330803158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473055322070371471.post-55026474437874846432008-06-28T11:39:00.005+05:302008-06-28T12:10:17.563+05:30Actions do speak louder than words in the brand world...Gareth Kay writes about Brand Defining Gestures on his blog and the idea that brands need to go beyond the so called 'communications' or 'marketing' and provide a proof of what they are committed to. A similar thought has been building up in my mind since i first read about 'signature policies' as a brand building tool for service brands in Stephen King's classic Brand Building in the 1990s. thestorysofarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660828631330803158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473055322070371471.post-40579202515014581972008-06-14T08:20:00.006+05:302008-06-18T07:28:34.359+05:30Method in madness...This one seems to be taking a life of its own. Continuing in the spirit of my previous post about innocent drinks and help remedies, here is another cute, soulful, passionate and transparent FMCG firm called method -, into household cleaning stuff. According to their website, they are the fastest growing FMCG company in the US and their mission is to give face lift to the household cleaning thestorysofarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660828631330803158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473055322070371471.post-75739366726715749122008-05-31T07:41:00.002+05:302008-05-31T07:50:14.857+05:30A couple of charming little gems...Talking of company branding in the FMCG space, Gareth Kay has introduced me to two little gems- a health drink company called innocent out of UK and Help Remedies, a company into the making of health products like headache pills and bandages (as of now). Both strikingly authentic, accessible and cute...check them out for a unique brand personality that seems to indicate to the kind of values the thestorysofarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660828631330803158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473055322070371471.post-43413447460989861612008-05-15T11:20:00.007+05:302008-05-15T11:45:54.601+05:30A Remarkable Turnaround!Not sure if its just me, but Simplifly Deccan (formerly Deccan Aviation) seems to have pulled off a miraculous turnaround in its service quality in just a few months of Mr. Mallya taking over. The last two times i have travelled, the service quality experience has been outstanding. Right from adhering to time, to keeping travllers informed, to providing water, newspaper and magazine (not the thestorysofarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660828631330803158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473055322070371471.post-4754485686185141902008-05-15T11:09:00.004+05:302008-05-15T11:19:50.351+05:30The Mother of all Logistics...Happened to study a little bit about the logistics business in the context of a new business lead over the weekend. The logistics of logistics are quite overwhelming- eg. UPS, which has developed a new strategy for reinventing its brand for the future will take 6 years just for the visual identity change to take place because it involves 88,000 vehicles, hundreds of airplanes, over a million thestorysofarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660828631330803158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473055322070371471.post-56311613628081442722008-05-03T11:25:00.003+05:302008-05-03T18:52:42.350+05:30The Summer Collection...The recent spate of rebranding initiatives clearly indicates the state of mind of a lot of managements in the country. Brand is high on priority but low on understanding. However there is some interesting work some not so great. On the whole, here is what I felt of the 3 that I have noticed. Shoppers is a pretty neat job of making the retailer future ready. The new logo has all the understated thestorysofarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660828631330803158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473055322070371471.post-64285076743577440902008-05-03T10:37:00.002+05:302008-05-03T18:52:42.351+05:30What's in a Name!The amount of agonizing I usually see over naming issues in companies makes me wonder if it is all worth it. Just to qualify, I have nothing against a truckload of creativity in naming a company ( a la innocent, Apple etc.) but when I see massive amount of management time being spent on commoditized businesses running under absolutely bland family names I wonder What’s really in a name?Recently thestorysofarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660828631330803158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473055322070371471.post-59478976945701441512008-03-30T18:35:00.006+05:302008-05-03T19:04:24.384+05:30How it all started for me…One of the peculiar aspects of my life is that if any of my parents, in-laws or close relatives is asked what I do for a living, you will get as many answers as there are people. At best, the commonality in their answers would be that it’s got something to do with advertising. Advertising itself would have been an unusual choice for them but within that broad realm when I carved out a space thestorysofarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660828631330803158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473055322070371471.post-41245618160794833832008-03-22T12:53:00.005+05:302008-05-03T18:45:03.359+05:30Additional Perspectives on Measuring Reputational Capital...In an interesting coincidence, discovered this blogpost by David Hensley which also talks about the challenges in measuring reputation and brings the dimension of risk management to it. The other perspective i found interesting is how parts of the brand management responsibility of a corporate brand gets split across CSR, Corp Comm and investor relations. Read on...thestorysofarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660828631330803158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473055322070371471.post-38500354220212565242008-03-22T08:03:00.003+05:302008-05-03T18:42:29.721+05:30Managing..OOPS...MEASURING the Reputational Capital…As a brand-building advisor one is always striving to tangible-ize the benefits that an organization can look forward through investment in understanding and strengthening their brand/s. And I was wondering about what would be keeping the CEOs of reasonably well-run organizations awake at night and conecting the benefits to those priorities. It essentially came down to profits, revenues and thestorysofarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660828631330803158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473055322070371471.post-6515030217618653072008-03-09T06:31:00.005+05:302008-05-03T18:39:04.147+05:30Mr. Strategy...Michael Porter, talks about his personal journey as well as the importance of strategy in this long but riveting interview- www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV4sisINqYg"thestorysofarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660828631330803158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473055322070371471.post-37781143171336778692008-03-07T15:28:00.007+05:302008-05-03T18:37:42.360+05:30Artificial Limits of Brand ExtensionsBrand Extension has been one of the buzzing advisory space and as i read a neatly written post by Jennifer Rice on How far a Brand can Stretch, i was wondering if the limits we put to a brand are in any way real. I for one believe that every brand name can carry anything under it and it is only limited by its competence. There are no external limits to a brand in terms of consumer perceptions, thestorysofarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660828631330803158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473055322070371471.post-9269774799021211102008-03-07T15:05:00.006+05:302008-03-22T06:57:24.882+05:30The anatomy of results- do Consultants deliver?Was reading an extremely provocative discussion on David Maister's blog on the value consultants bring to the table. I have had violent debates with my colleagues on the extent to which we as consultants can take responsibility for client's result. I have always found it to be an extremely arrogant (if not salesman-like claim) when consultants claim of delivering results (as in growth, thestorysofarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660828631330803158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473055322070371471.post-24620694881581758802008-03-07T11:00:00.004+05:302008-05-03T18:35:22.888+05:30...only one King! To all those looking for some serious theoretical grounding in the abstract, subjective world of brands and communications, JWT has done a huge favor by coming out with the Timeless Works of Stephen King. I have been fortunate to have been exposed to his works by my mentor and we have been studying, not just reading the stuff he wrote during nearly three decades of practice at JWT. The thestorysofarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660828631330803158noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8473055322070371471.post-64001465844464064392007-10-24T23:43:00.003+05:302008-05-03T18:34:44.465+05:30On Great Branding Ideas... Taking the discussion on corporate brands and their communication solution further I want to talk about the notion of the Branding Idea. Stephen King mentioned it first but I haven't seen much understanding of this concept beyond that. When the brand is the corporation, it needs more than advertising, a visual metaphor that can not only go across a host of media vehicles but also captures the thestorysofarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13660828631330803158noreply@blogger.com