Reflections

Game of Blogs was an initiative undertaken by Blogadda , wherein teams of bloggers were created, and tasked with crafting a story around a set of predefined characters. Each member had to write perforce, and the basics of each character were also laid out. It was an interesting exercise, challenging and productive, while being educative in writing fiction, team building in distributed teams and coordination. I was part of Team Supernova, who made the cut but not the prize... THE CHARACTERS : Shekhar Dutta – Stay home Dad, freelance writer, Hindu, Stays in Mumbai French beard, bald, average height, fair, thin specs, lean, wears t-shirt & track pants generally, ever smiling. Tara Dutta – Shekhar’s wife, Media professional , career oriented woman. Fair, short hair, tall, prim & proper dressed, wear formals & high heels. Roohi Dutta – 9 years girl, Shekhar and Tara’s daughter. Fair, healthy, notorious, 2 ponytail, wear frill frocks. Jenn

Today’s Indian Express carries an interesting article on the rural landscape of India, bringing to the fore a superbly balanced presentation of the farm gate prices issue: should farmers be able to sell as per their choice, and not just through the APMC-demarcated regulated market   yards and auctions. This raises many questions, as we shall see. But first, the article in question: APMCs were originally established with a view to prevent exploitation of farmers by intermediaries, who compelled them to dispose of their produce at the farmgate at very low prices. By mandating all farm produce to be brought to regulated market yards and sold through auctions, the APMC mechanism was meant to ensure fair prices to farmers. But in many cases, these bodies have themselves become dens for cartelisation by traders, who control prices and charge hefty commission fees on produce transactions. An extreme case that surfaced recently was of Devidas Maruti Parbhane. This farmer

How does one create a Brand? Traditional Brand Management looks at concepts like the marketing mix, brand loyalty, awareness, personality, equity, positioning, attributes etc; all these and more are admittedly  core concepts with a range of practical ramifications and uses. The difficulty I have as a marketer in relating to these is due to the excessive focus on one element in the mix : promotion, and specifically advertising. No Marketer can deny advertising its rightful place; it is through the medium of advertising that company products reach the consumer, and make the consumer aware of the same; it also helps build loyalty, creates differential & preferential demand, builds strong associations and all the rest of it; that is pretty much beyond argument. But the problem is that, in tandem with these steps, a host of other steps are needed to provide the base from which promotion can build. Further, these other steps provide the superstructure as well as stability.