Posted in Uncategorized on April 24, 2014| Leave a Comment »
(via forbes)
Long ago Peter Drucker, the father of business consulting, made a very profound observation that has been lost in the sands of time:
“Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two–and only two–basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.”
Posted in Uncategorized on March 20, 2014| Leave a Comment »
The 42 Below Story is a unique one, a touch of genius, raised 15 million in a public listing, capital was used for building a brand, took a Kiwi voice global, created 138 million in shareholder value.
I am listing some key nuggets from the chapter “I hate marketing” by Geoff
Diamonds are made under Pressure
Marketing is really common sense with a dose of good ideas thrown on top.
Marketing is not safe, nothing bold or new is ever is.
The best way to judge an idea “if you react to it with nervous excitement, it is probably right” if you are comfortable then it has been done before and is too bland so it will die alongside the clutter in the massive misspend of marketing wasteland.
Nervousness is a natural reaction when forging in new territories, yet everyone the world over want to remove nervousness, remove risk, – the malfunction of modern marketing.
Great marketing comes from a great culture – a culture where there is a freedom to have a go.
Safe solutions achieve a 1 per cent rise in market share. (helps in getting the corner office and a bigger title)
Marketing is part art, great artists did’t become great because they did something that was five per cent different from the artist before that. They created something totally new.
two sayings from the “B” in DDB, Bill Bernbach
– Rules are what the artist breaks, the memorable never emerged from a formula.
– The real giants have always been the poets, men who jumped from facts into the realm of imagination and ideas.
freedom as a culture, freedom from fear, freedom to fail, freedom from chaos, freedom to succeed.
1 ONE – culture leads everything, your culture needs to know what the fight is.
if you don’t have money you are forced to think.
22 TWO – Brands need real roots and real credentials
With the internet and google, people can check your backyard pretty quickly
42 below was created by people who loved vodka, knew vodka and knew how to make great cocktails.
333 THREE – Listen to everyone, but be prepared to ignore what you don’t like.
another quote from “B”: We don’t ask research to what it was never meant to do, and that is to get an idea.”
” The bees we use to make our Manuka Honey Vodka work 24 hours and we don’t pay pay them a cent. Hell, we even work some of them to death, poor bastards. “
4444 FOUR – At all costs get noticed, Be heard, Stand for something.
please note consumers are subjected to 3000 advertising messages per day, typically absorb 2 of these. that means 2998 of these are totally wasted. Why? because they are boring. In an obsession to inform they have forgotten to entertain. They have forgotten everyone out there is desperately trying to avoid their message.
55555 FIVE – Word of moth is the most powerful medium in the world.
Word of mouth travels without cost. but only a story with enough of a talk factor will travel. There is no formula for a story some travel some don’t.
42 below had stories that travelled
– winning more awards than any other vodka
– being poured at the best bars in the world
– ruffling feathers in the establishment
– vodka university tutorial
– cocktail world cup, cocktails made while bungee jumping
– brand ambassadors with perspex briefcases full of vodka.
666666 SIX – PR builds brands, advertising maintains them
7777777 SEVEN – Sales is Marketing, Marketing is Sales
good marketing people should also be selling. sell a story and also a case
good salespeople need to be able to sell the brand too, tell a brand story that will start a great word of mouth.
to go sell a case and not the story ( and vice versa) is a wasted opportunity.
guess what all the successful people in the world have in common, they be presidents, lawyers, head of industries, leader of charities, Answer they can sell and are bloody good at it.
” All great marketers need to be great salespeople, and Vice Versa”
8888 8888 EIGHT – The power of opposites, anti cyclical thinking.
The power of opposites, “Zig when others Zag”
Being anti establishment is pro growth. whatever you do always be a leader not a follower.
there is power in putting things together, that would typically not go. formal, informal – classic modern. etc
99999 9999 NINE – Pitch it high, Sell it wide, Positioning is different from distribution
If people did not pay our price to stock our brand, then it would not be at their outlet.
10 TEN – Brands have stretch
The best people are vibrant and diverse. SO are brands. Don’t put a brand in a straightjacket, it will become very boring.
11 ELEVEN – Ready, Fire, Aim
” Strategy is fine but doing stuff is better “
Every day you refine, you change, you improve, you add and you delete. the perfect plan does not exist.
You learn more in a day of doing business that day of research. The good thing about doing business is that business makes money. You sell stuff, research costs money.
A brand is like a guided missile, a heat seeker, the target is being constantly being reexamined. the aim is being constantly being tweaked. every second adjustments are being made, you never stop aiming.
Just start
Posted in Uncategorized on December 21, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Food is one area, where one sees a lot of innovation and creativity. I have tried to compile a list of food concepts: food trucks, restaurants, coffee, fresh daily dinner kits, etc. How many of them will succeed and scale only time can answer.
ScratchDC (let’s get cookin)
They create fresh daily dinner kits, that come chopped, measured, marinated and are delivered to cook. All the produce is locally sourced. They have only one dish per day, and delivered to your home from 2pm to 8pm. The bundle comes with a list of ingredients, recipes and also a list of utensils required to cook the dinner. They are becoming very popular in DC area. read more >>>>
Crock Spot (slow cooked gourmet cuisine)
Crock Spot offers the Denver area slow cooked gourmet cuisine. All of our proteins, including our vegetarian options, are cooked slowly to mouthwatering perfection, served over healthy grain varietals and topped with sauce of choice. Thair unique concept offers a Build a Bowl menu that will suit a wide variety of palates. Nominated to be America’s Favorite Food Truck in 2011 by the Food Truck Network. read more >>>>>
Fojol Bros (A “traveling culinary carnival.”)
The Fojol Bros. are more than just food truck chefs. They are also carnival performers. The brothers serve up Indian- and Ethiopian-style food truck classics over basmati rice and injera, respectively. While the fojol bros. may represent something different to each of us, they hope to bring together local communities through a dynamic food experience on DC’s streets. Yet another Washington DC phenomena. read more >>>>
Chipotle Mexican Grill (Can Restaurants Deliver a Higher-Quality Pizza in 2 Minutes)
The ascendant Mexican-food chain known for its mix of healthy-enough, fast-enough food, has the blueprint from its burritos: Make pizza fast, individually tailored and with higher-quality ingredients than low-end competitors. The restaurant’s executives want to carve out a niche between eating pizza at home and heading to a high-end, sit-down Italian restaurant. read more >>>>>
Posted in Uncategorized on October 1, 2013| Leave a Comment »
some super tweets this month
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” ― George Orwell. … @talismanasreen
All your groceries at the click of your mouse >>>>> …. @sjpatil
If you ever want to commit suicide, jump from Barkha Dutt ‘s Ego level to Sagarika Ghose ‘s IQ level. …. brilliant! ….. @iNeelSoni
The lies of Sanjay Jha exposed >>>>> …… @livemint
Only packs of jackals have dynastic succession. Whereas, prides of lions have a fight between rival lions for leadership. @AgentSaffron
Golf is 10 years of hope, 10 years of hopelessness and 10 years of resignation. …. @shiningbridge
A shot of irreverence is an essential ingredient of an innovative and creative society…. @kaushikcbasu
My RSS senior was once told by Guruji that he should bow head only to Bharatmata, God, Parents n Teacher. Learnt it from him. Stuck to this … @jitengajaria
China consumes 3kg of instant noodles a head. Hong Kongers consume 5kg a year … @FT
The dirtiest actions should be carried out by the most honest men. ~ Meir Dagan, spymaster and former chief of Mossad … @abhijitmajumder
An onion can make people cry but there’s never been a vegetable that can make people laugh. – Will Rogers …. @bibekdebroy
Posted in Portfolio, Uncategorized on September 23, 2013| Leave a Comment »
(via CNN) How golf helps drive the U.S. economy >>>>>>
Golf contributes US$ 68 billion to the U.S. economy… World Golf Foundation
President Barack Obama’s love of golf is well documented, one report even claiming he spends more time on the course than in economic meetings. “One, he’s arguably the busiest man in the world with the toughest job in the world, but he can make time to play. He played five times on his recent vacation in Martha’s Vineyard.
The tournaments such as the Masters at Augusta and competitions run by the PGA of America, the PGA Tour, the USGA, and the LPGA generated approximately $1.2 billion in 2011
The golf industry is larger than the spectator sports and performing arts industries combined,” WGF chief executive Steve Mona told CNN.
Employs close to two million Americans with a combined wage income of $55.6 billion.
There are two economies in golf. There’s the participation economy which is about the everyday golf facilities, trying to attract golfers and current players to play as much they can. “Then there’s the entertainment side of golf too and that’s where the professional tours come in. that relates to the interest of the game.
Posted in Uncategorized on September 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »
super documentary on the world’s greatest investor. lot of subtle points to take note of. a must watch.
Posted in Uncategorized on March 18, 2013| Leave a Comment »
About a year and a half ago, Town Essentials started a direct to home service, supplying grocery and vegetables. In various conversations with Town customers, realized that customers were benefiting in many ways. Some of these benefits, can be classified as tangible and some intangible.
Would like to share some of these benefits, they are:
Time, Time, Time: For the Indian professional and especially working couples, time has become very scarce, long working hours, lengthy commutes, whatever little remains is personal or family time. If any free time is available, the last thing on anyone’s minds is grocery shopping.
Even, if one liked shopping, you have to hustle, take out your car or two-wheeler, drive to the store, finding parking, then shop, wait for your turn in lengthy check out lines, settle the bill, then carry grocery to your vehicle, drive back home, last lug your grocery from the parking lot into your home. In addition to all the hassle your vehicle has burnt some scarce fuel also. All this can be eliminated by a click of the button and the goods are delivered to your doorstep. The hassle and the time you save, is an intangible, true cost should be accounted for, some call it the welfare surplus or quality of life surplus.
Eco Friendly: A brick and mortar grocery store, needs a of lot of energy to sustain the infrastructure. Air conditioning, packaging and the fuel consumed to travel to the store. If there are 100 customers for 100 orders, each customer’s travel to and fro from the store has to be accounted for. In the case of online purchase, these orders will be delivered with a smaller number of vehicles, reducing traffic on city roads and lower fuel consumption.
Accounts: Keeping a tab of how much you spent by order, day, week, month, year etc can all be tracked. When you go shopping unless you store the bill and remember to capture it, very unlikely you will have the full picture. Using staff for cash purchases has leakages associated with it.
Special Purchases: Party Shopping can be hell, get this from this shop, get that from that shop, already arranging a party is stressful, getting everything together only adds to the stress.
Quality: the vendor is able to supply the same quality across the city. Else you really have to depend on your corner store and you don’t have a choice when the quality is bad.
Choice: Physical stores are limited by space of how many products can be stored. An online store can have an offering that is always larger than the physical space. The store can always deliver slow-moving items, without stocking them.
Repeat: 80% of a monthly grocery list is generally the same as last month. So you can reorder from the last order or most frequently ordered items.
Finally, there are some who just enjoy shopping, for them grocery shopping is a priority, they love going to markets, touching and feeling the vegetables before purchase. For this category of people, online grocery service is a firm no for sure.
