Perception and the magical world of Advertising

Session by Mr.Prakash Dharmarajan, President, Ogilvy & Mather, Chennai

Mr Prakash said, “I don’t want this to be another mundane introduction between us”, Hmmmm,,,, “Introduce your mate towards the left in three words”

It sent us into deep contemplation,,, gasping on three hammering words! Then one by one an arsenal of words poured out. Everyone had their piece of Accolade, Humour and Truth about their neighbour. The prelude completed, just to realise Mr Prakash had almost every name in his mind. Whoopee! He even completed the Brand Association.

With fun and game infused at the introduction, he played a Vodafone TV Commercial. The TVC ended saying, “Change is good”. Thus delivering a subliminal message of freshness and change.
Let’s travel through his session to just get lost into the world of advertising to decipher branding and marketing communications explained using parables by the wizard in lucid simplicity.
He asked, “What is a brand?” Armed with an existing inventory of words assimilated from brand management course ,we unleashed ourselves. One replied “Promise” and another “Signifier”
Hmmm,

“He paused”,

He gave us an example based on a market research conducted on two brands, both coming from the same manufacturing plant but named differently but yet one brand outsold the other at a ratio of 25:1. Then he delved into why two similar products, with similar standards had different scale in sales so he questioned customers and even the shop owners about why one out-sold the other. Customers replied that the other had better quality than the other. What??? Better quality???

Sir, you said, “It comes from the same manufacturing unit”

“Exactly” He replied. So???, “we asked”
“It’s all about perception”

Bingo! He unlocked the target of an advertiser- The Customer’s Mind. He then went on to write the word “Nike” on the board and asked us to tell whatever we think about “Nike”, we answered and then he erased “Nike” and wrote “Adidas” with just a few words plucked out we understood the miracle called “perception”

Then he went on to say, “Politicians are supreme brand managers too, every person above 18 are their target market and they are to even fuse into their logo once every five years into our minds”. So for budding brand managers there are lots to learn from politicians too. Ha ha!!!
Now he came out with his commandment,

“No brand can succeed if it creates a perception and does not deliver it”

He then went on to educate us on the Hofstede’s Model. Wow!!! I just can’t explain how he took us through the Hofstede. You should have been there. Half the session was complete and not even a jargon uttered we were moonstruck and recovering, he went on to tell the attributes of Super Star Rajnikant. Like rocket, reigning attributes about him were raining. Picking on their attributes and then pooling in similarities he created the Hofstede!!! And through the Hofstede we visualised the brands which can sign up for The Super Star. Oh My God!!! Pure sure bliss to know how practical his example is!

Towards the close of his session he ended with a sweet example. “Sugar”

So, What is Sugar?
A taste definer, Makes its mark clearly visible, transforming et cetra et cetra.

What does it stand for?
Celebrations and special occasions

What does it give you?
Happiness and energy

Now, we drew a Hofstede for sugar and we gave our suggestions.

With the sharing of opulent wealth of knowledge he signed off making a simple, yet powerful impact. What a session it was, powerful concepts and tools with utter simplicity from a top gun. Thanks a zillion Sir.

Contributed by Alfred Christopher Burgess , Marketing Varsity

Loyola College wins Brainiac 09

Wonderful experience, we were for a surprise with the kind of stage we set foot in!” “We had a great time, enjoyed every bit of the quizzing” “The audio, the lighting, even buzzer did the magic for us!”

These were the few of exclamations we got to hear at the auditorium on Tuesday evening by the shy, happy, pleased participants about a first of kind event that was held by Chennai Business School.


If A1, A2, A3, A4 etc are different sizes of paper… What is C1, C2, C3 etc is? Startled, awed? Well such were the questions that marked Brainiac ’09 on April 7, 2009. The evening was started early with enthusiastic participants, audiences started walking in. The stage was set for the teams that would be battling it out for the grand prize and their way to path of fame.

The quiz master for the evening Mr. Giri ‘Pick brain’ Balasubramanium kept the participants and the audiences on their toes with questions like who set up the Shram Sadhana Trust or what is the result of excellent and oxide? One could not help but retrieve all the general knowledge they read about or saw!

The quiz kick started with selecting three teams from six teams who were quizzed in two rounds consecutively to select the participants to combat it out for the coveted prize, with each team having two members. The final round included rounds like direct questions, business pixels, connecting images etc where the gusto of different teams was shown each the fiery red buzzer went off. The teams that took chance with negative marking got lucky and went on ahead of other teams.


The battle was intense and each team fought hard but in the end, there has to be just one winner. The winners for the day from the Loyola college took home a cash prize of Rs. 50,000 which was presented to them by the chief guest of the ceremony Mr. R. J Shahaney , Chairman of Ashok Leyland and Chairman, Board of Advisors, Chennai Business School. The runners up won a whopping prize money of Rs. 20,000 which was presented to them by Mr. Mohan Menon, CEO of Chennai Business School. The participants were not disappointed and neither were the audiences who were all each given attractive gift hampers and prizes.

The event was well ended with a note of thanks to all the volunteers, audiences and the participants who were involved in making the event a success! So, quizzing with some fun anyone?!

Contributed by Usha Mariyappa, Marcom Varsity

Brainiac 2009 - Chennai goes quizzing

"You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives."
Clay P. Bedford

Chennai Business School (CBS) an institution dedicated to creating ‘industry-ready’ managerial talent, is conducting BRAINIAC 2009, an intercollegiate quiz competition, which is aimed at undergraduate students across several pre-selected colleges in Chennai.

The format comprises a grueling and highly competitive preliminary round, which tests participants on business trivia, general knowledge and events/happenings. The winning teams from the preliminary rounds, one team per college, will be in for an exciting and thrilling Grand Finale, which will be held tomorrow at the Chinmaya Heritage Centre in Nungambakkam.

What's a great quiz without a great quizmaster?

Quizmaster Giri “Pick-Brain” Balasubramaniam, who is very well- known among both the quizzing aficionados and the audiences for his sharp acumen and keen wit, will conduct the final event.

The winning team in the finals will receive an attractive cash prize of Rs 50,000. The two runners-up teams will receive cash prizes of Rs 20,000 each.

If the action in the prelims is anything to go by, the Grand Finale will be one of the most exciting quiz events in Chennai!

Prof.Nirmalya kumar's Lecture at CBS

Dr.Nirmalya Kumar, Professor of Marketing; Co-Director, Aditya V Birla India Centre; Director, Centre for Marketing, London Business School visited CBS on April 02, 2009 and delivered a special lecture.

Dr. Nirmalya Kumar spoke about the difficulties faced by CEO’s in expanding their markets globally. He spoke about the difficulties faced during marketing decision making due to lack of proper performance metrics which could not be provided by the chief marketing officer due to certain constraints and the risks that have to be taken if an accurate estimate could not be given. He explained the measure of return on investments in production or operations, where the metrics are clear and compared the same with that of marketing.

He also emphasized that product differentiation would be the best way to compete in a highly competitive market than waging a price war. He also emphasized the fact that marketing teams must be able to adapt to the ever changing global scenario and companies must be in a position to exploit new markets quickly to establish themselves as market leaders. He also discussed a new terminology in segmentation called “cross national segmentation” wherein a company which wants to have a global presence tries to segment the people across countries using similar parameters by which the company would be able to sell the same product across different nations. But, In order to capture the market it is necessary that you have to feel the nature of place, culture, behavior, etc in order to capture the market. It won’t work if the key policy and decision-makers are somewhere in USA and they have to win over in China. There is a necessity that they have to gel with the population of the particular country in order to promote their product.

He underlined quite some impressive management insights like the decision-making in P&G where the decisions are not short-term, but one that will cater to the sustainability of the company for the next one century at least. Overall it was an excellent session that highlighted the need to differentiate and quickly adapt to changes to tap global markets.

Contributed by Anand Santhanam, Marketing Varsity