Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Hutch: S, M and L. Choose your talk size.

Strong ad and everybody loves the ad. The Brand manager is a king. He picks up a few addie awards and he makes more money.

Cut to Dhruv Sagar, subscriber of Hutch. He enjoyed the ad, saw the ad on his billing envelope, read it. It said the same: Hutch: S, M and L. Choose your talk size. It never told him what the heck is it. He read it and moved on.

So Hutch spent tons of money, paid more to the brand manager and result: no more subscriptions, which it realizes a year later.

Cut to the brand manager, working on a different concept, a different idea and more money down the drain.

Think about it, how common is it to remember the ad and not the product?

Moral of the story: Dont make interesting ads. Sell products.

"We are starting a party because the king has ordered us."TSHERING TOBGAY, a former civil servant in Bhutan.

Funny? No. I met a few people from Bhutan and to say the least they are happy. Not ecstatic. Just happy. They need less. They are happy with what they have. They are less ambitious. They trust their rulers. Happy.

People like me (and most of you), living in one of the fastest growing economies, where ambition and drive and initiative and having an unlimited set of desires coupled with the 'right attitude', will never want less and will never be satisfied with anything. We live by a baldies word who said, "Only paranoid survive".

So we love to live unfulfilled, just gives us another avenue to crib. Happy? Never.

May be we should have a sabbatical in Bhutan.




And then, we will screw up Bhutan as well.

"We are starting a party because the king has ordered us."TSHERING TOBGAY, a former civil servant in Bhutan.

Funny? No. I met a few people from Bhutan and to say the least they are happy. Not ecstatic. Just happy. They need less. They are happy with what they have. They are less ambitious. They trust their rulers. Happy.
People like me, living in one of the fastest growing economies, where ambition and drive and initiative and having an unlimited set of desires coupled with the 'right attitude' will never want less and will never be satisfied with anything. We live by a baldies word who said, "Only paranoid survive". So we love to live unfulfilled, just gives us another avenue to crib. Happy? Never.

May be we should have a sabbatical in Bhutan.



And then, we will screw up Bhutan as well.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Banks plan rival to Visa, MasterCard

Banks plan rival to Visa, MasterCard: "Banks plan rival to Visa, MasterCard

Shriya Bubna / Mumbai April 17, 2007

Banks are considering setting up a domestic card payment settlement company, called India Pay, that would rival global payment systems Visa and MasterCard. "

Interesting, I wonder why we paid Visa and Master for domestic transactions.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Another product crib:
Whats with the head rest on the drivers seat?
Have you ever seen anybody driving with his/ her rested on the head rest? The head is always hanging with more than a few inches to spare. And this is not small car or big car specific, everybody is guilty of this.
I am sure if it had been in use, it would be the dhobi's (laundry) most often washed textile, with all the oil that we use. (not me, me ran from oil sometime after I started making money and living on my own, which is by 2050)
I am surprised after millions of cars, the auto manufacturers haven't really made any attempt to either make that little "jutting out thing" useful or take it out completely. I am sure the origin of the head rest is some funky racing car design or a extremely high end bucket seat car, where you actually sink into the bucket and seat almost eats your butt and gets the head rest close enough in the leanable range for your head.

All you automakers, can you please do something about it? Or take the damn thing off?
Actually wanted to take some pics and post em, but the thought of shooting people driving away to spot the gap with the head and rest was a little funny!