Political ads are often the most difficult to evaluate. Sometimes popular ads aren’t really effective. As election campaigns in US And India gain momentum, 4Ps B&M looks at some of the most memorable yet potent political ads across the globe that changed the game of power forever
 
The 7,200-seat Magness Arena at the University of Denver in Colorado was packed with spectators on Wednesday night on October 3, 2012. All spotlights were on President Barack Obama and Republican Presidential candidate & former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney as they prepared for a face off in their first Presidential debate. Before the debate started, everyone expected Obama to get through it without a gaffe. The onus was on Romney to keep his hopes of the White House alive and as such needed to convey a strong message. Given his draggy speeches, it seemed like a tough task for Romney, but as the debate approached its end Romney knew he had delivered.

As per a study undertaken at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, titled Rapid Perceptual Integration of Facial Expression and Emotional Body Language (Hanneke, Corne, Beatrice, et al), “The face and the body both normally contribute in conveying the emotional state of the individual.” That’s exactly what the 67 million viewers across the globe attested that day. While the Republican challenger appeared practiced, at ease, confident and fluent in all things Obama, the President looked shaky. Obama’s answers were slow, flat and cautious. In fact, one of the memorable moments of that night will be Romney, standing confident and beckoning from the podium while Obama, head down, playing into his image as philosophic.

Although a week later a vehement Obama ramped up his attacks on Romney’s debate performance, telling supporters that what they saw from his opponent in Denver last week “wasn’t leadership, that’s salesmanship,” most of the damage had been done. According to Gallup (a research-based performance-management consulting company based in US) poll, Romney had scored a 52-point debate victory over Obama – the biggest since the polling giant began tracking debates 20 years ago. The previous largest margin was 42 points for Bill Clinton over President George H.W. Bush in the 1992 Town Hall debate in which the latter famously looked at his watch and the former proved proficient in expressing compassion for voters. Well, we all know the final result! So, will this debate too go down as one of those that matter? Although it won’t be a game-changer like Kennedy-Nixon in 1960 or Bush-Gore in 2000, one thing is sure that it could mark the start of a likely comeback for Romney, particularly if he can keep up with Obama at this pace. For now, it’s one up for Romney.

Even Pew Research Center reported this “as the most dramatic shift in a national poll during the entire general election campaign”, with Romney’s fortunes improving in almost every respect. This certainly comes as a real shocker for Obama and his allies who, since April 2012, have coughed up $164 million on 363,000 ads, as against Romney and his allies who have spent a third of that, $57 million on 127,000 ads (according to an NBC News/Smart Media Group Delta analysis, more than $512 million has been spent till September 30, 2012 by both the parties in campaigning, more than the total amount spent on ads in the 2008 election).
 
This dramatic shift is one of several such instances in the history of modern politics when effective communication (“the activity of conveying information through the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, visuals, signals, writing, or behaviour”) has changed its course. After all, it’s a process that determines what consequences a political message will have on both voters and competing political institutions. “Political communications has therefore always been central to the electoral and policymaking process but in the last decade certain important structural developments have fundamentally altered this process, particularly postwar trends in the mass media moving from the traditional world of newspapers, radio and television broadcasting towards the Internet,” states Pippa Norris, Faculty of Comparative Politics at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University in one of her research paper on Political Communications. In fact, sometimes how a candidate looks is more important than what he says, or a few right words are more effective than a long speech or rhetoric.

An ad is a product of painstaking craftsmanship. Various elements, ranging from positioning of the product, clarity of the idea behind the product to visibility of the brand, its persona and the power of communication have to be intelligently weaved together. But while some ads manage to rewrite preset creative benchmarks, some go the wrong way, fall by the side & fail to excite viewers. In this section, we review three ads that came out tops, for the right and the wrong reasons this fortnight.

Pak pak... duh...

Advertiser: McDonald’s
Baseline: I’m Lovin’ Pak Pak
Agency: Leo Burnett India

4Ps B&M Take: This one makes all the right noises. Actually for some, it may even be the noisiest ad still. There is so much of ‘pak pak’ in the air that for a moment you’re seriously tempted to look around and check if you have landed yourself into a giant chicken coop. The campaign for McEggs – the new egg burger launched by McDonald’s to cater to the chunk of ‘eggetarian’ consumers in India – has guys and girls clucking like chicken after getting a taste of the burger. One ad has a local hip hop group going ‘pak pak’; another has a choir straining its vocal chords to ‘pak pak’ and yet another has youngsters breaking into ‘pak pak’ in a college library, in a bus, and so on. The agency has attempted to replace the ‘wow’ factor after eating the burger to people emitting chicken-like sounds. Some situations also tickle the funny bone, like the one in which a youngster breaks into ‘pak pak’ giving himself away at a hunger protest. The ad loudly declares that the treat is available for just Rs. 25 – a good lure for the price conscious lovers of McDonald’s burgers. Unfortunately, the ad is too noisy and while it may be good to shout info about McDonalds’ new launch from the rooftops, everyone may not really appreciate the jarring ‘pak pak’. The team at McDonald’s is going all out to populate the ad across channels believing McEggs to be their new money spinner. But hey, give us a break people. What’s the big deal for all that noise? It’s just a sunny-side-up egg preparation tossed into buns. With bread and egg combos available at every nukkad shop and dhaba across the country, it’s really not such a path breaking novelty that it deserves so much of nerve-grating ‘pak pak’.
 
It’s a thief! yawn

Advertiser: Godrej Securities
Baseline: Darna Kaisa
Agency: JWT Mumbai

4Ps B&M Take: A big criterion for any advertising to be effective is that it should be believable. Some say that brands should weave in some product features into their ads, but that it should be done only in cases where it makes the promised benefits believable. Sadly, often all such caution is sacrificed on the altar of creativity or to induce forced humour into a storyboard. Something similar seems to have happened with the ad for Godrej Security Solutions where a couple are rudely awakened from their sleep when they hear burglars inside their home. But then they promptly stuff cotton wool into their ears and go back to sleep believing they have nothing to fear because they have a high-tech Godrej Home Safe which cannot be broken open. First, nobody in their right mind would ignore such night time intruders into their home, even if their safe was guarded by security guards paid for by the Reserve Bank of India. Okay, one can even ignore that on the pretext of creative license. But how can you ignore the product category of safety solutions which requires a high dose of consumer trust to remain relevant. The ad ideally should have been splattered with cutting edge features and technology which make Godrej homes safes more trustworthy than others in the category. If Godrej is still relying on their age-old brand image of being the market leader in the segment, today’s competitive market place will not waste much time in showing them the reality of their fool’s paradise.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned Links

SC slams AICTE's illicit control on MBA courses
MBA, MCA courses no longer under AICTE
2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

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Internet is bringing a significant shift in the way organisations buy and use technology. This is where the power of the Internet comes into play.
 
IT – Two very simple letters that in the wrong circumstances can strike fear into the heart of even the most level-headed entrepreneur. Networks, software, and databases are not the reason that most people start up their own business. The flipside, of course, is that if handled well, IT can turn what is merely a good company into a truly great one. Any entrepreneur knows that running a business from scratch takes time, effort, commitment and most of all, passion. Unfortunately, to stay grounded in reality, it also takes sound fundamentals, and a sturdy infrastructure. Today, IT is surely a big part of that. Not even the very smallest of firms can get away without having some kind of technology to help them run.

Google Apps is reliable, efficient and cost effective solution for a new generation of entrepreneurs: The real trick is getting something in place that works reliably and efficiently and doesn’t cost a lot of time and money to install or maintain, something we were keen to demonstrate with the Google Apps service. Business these days is not only global, fast-paced and demanding but employees now demand a lot more of the systems they use to do their jobs. A generation used to posting and sharing photos online, instant messaging with friends and interacting online for a good chunk of their spare time is expecting a lot from the workplace.

Internet is bringing a significant shift in the way organisations buy and use technology: This is where the power of the Internet comes into play. The Internet provides the flexibility to create, share, access and collaborate with other people at work. Email, spreadsheets, calendars and presentations suddenly become accessible quickly and securely wherever you are. Not only that but the fact that everything is online means that multiple users can work on documents simultaneously and edit in real-time. In short, no more emailing backwards and forwards with attachments. This means a lot when you’re working at the kind of pace required as a start-up.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned Links

SC slams AICTE's illicit control on MBA courses
MBA, MCA courses no longer under AICTE
2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

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Erik Simpson, partner and the creative director for San Antonio (US) based esd & associates, suggests four ways your web analytics can shape marketing strategy
 
Once you launch your website, people find it in their search results and visit your site. The web server is “watching” them, tracking how much time they spend on the site and which pages they visit. The web server sees the i.p. address of the computer the visitor is using to access the web, and it can find out where the computer is.

Data to dissect
The server will share all of this information with you in a website analytics report. Time spent and pages visited are just the basic facts. The server can report:
1. Unique users and repeat visits
2. Navigation behaviour
3. Usage data by hits, kilobytes and session
4. Landing pages, exit pages and files downloaded
5. Referral sites, search engine referrals and search terms
6. User location

Key performance indicators
All of this data is useful for evaluating and evolving the website design over time, but if you can interpret the data, it will tell you a lot about your products, your audience and your brand. These “key performance indicators” are not only valuable for assessing your web design – they can help you evaluate your overall marketing effectiveness, public perception and brand communication.

Your website structures your brand communication – it describes your company and engages your audience in a clear and organised manner. By observing user behaviour as it is revealed in website analytics, you learn a lot about your customers:

One: what they are looking for
Today’s shopper browses the web before they browse your aisles. Analytics can tell you what keywords or keyword phrases your web visitor used to find you. By charting the visitor’s path through your site, the reports can show you the customer’s thought process: “home improvement” to “tools” to “hammer.”

Two: where they come from
Knowing where your customers came from helps you assess the effects of your marketing initiatives. Analytics can tell you about the geographical origins of the servers visiting your site, but a more telling statistic is the referring site. If your website is well optimised, search engines will probably be the source of most of your inbound traffic. However, a more significant report comes from the other sites where the user found your link.
 
Direct address comes from people who type your url into the browser. If you have an active off-line campaign, including a simple domain name in every print advertisement, billboard, location sign, broadcast spot and business communication If you have an active social media campaign, you may find visitors drawn to your site by a tweet or post – particularly those that include your link.

If you have an active Internet ad campaign, either with banners or cost-per-click campaigns that include display networks, you could see results from all kinds of related websites. esd is currently managing a nurse recruitment campaign. We were startled to find an incoming link from “HighwayHypodermics.com” until we discovered it was a site for traveling nurses.

If you are an active blogger in your industry, and include your link when you comment on other blogs, you may find traffic coming in from those sources.

Three: where they “landed”
Not all of your traffic has to come in through your website’s “front door” – the home page. As you can see in the referring metrics, inbound links can come from a variety of sources across the web. Since many of those links originate with your own marketing activity, you can target your inbound links to various “landing pages” within your site.

You are targeting your customer on both sides of this technique – you are planting links in specific location (a pizza delivery Internet ad banner placed on a sports page) with an appropriate offer (the “Super Big Super Bowl Pizza Deal”) linked to a page you published on your site specifically to promote (with localised phone numbers and an online order form) the offer.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned Links

SC slams AICTE's illicit control on MBA courses
MBA, MCA courses no longer under AICTE
2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

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ICMR-4Ps B&M brings to you inet, a comprehensive ranking of India's Most popular websites after a thorough and comprehensive analysis with research inputs from primary as well as secondary sources
 
4Ps Business & Marketing magazine, in association with Indian Council for Market Research (ICMR), conducted a perception survey among Internet users to identify India’s most popular websites. Here’s how we did it:

FIRST PHASE:

The first phase of the research was initiated with a single question to the respondents, “Which are your top five most preferred websites?”
This survey was conducted among 1,000 respondents across India namely Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore. The respondents included students, housewives, working professionals and others to generate a list of preferred websites across various categories. Based on the frequency of responses, the websites were first sorted and placed into their respective categories. The following is the list of categories covered under the survey.

SECOND PHASE:
As per the table given above, 23 broad categories were taken into consideration for the next phase of the survey. In order to conduct one-on-one interviews, structured questionnaires were designed. The research was conducted in five major cities of India – New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai; with an aggregate sample size of 1,089 respondents.

The respondent profile varied across different categories with their respective age groups, gender and education levels. Each of the respondents was asked to rate the websites on a scale of 1-10 (where 1 is the lowest and 10 is the highest) on the following parameters:

User Friendliness: The main goal of a website is to provide its visitors with a pleasant and fulfilling experience. User friendliness includes factors such as page loading speed, accessibility, navigation and information.

Look/Design: The parameter of look/design is also considered important as it creates the first impression on the visitor. The look/design of the website is primarily based on colours, graphics, white spaces and other technical factors.
 
Content Quality: A website is known for its content quality apart from the overall look and design. The content quality/credibility of a website is what drives a visitor to make frequent visits to the website.

Trustworthiness: At present, there are a number of websites available for online shopping, money transfer, photo/video sharing and other transactions. In this context, overall privacy and security are all the more important for a visitor to a particular site.

Overall Satisfaction: This parameter was included to ascertain the respondents’ perception on the website in a holistic sense.

THIRD PHASE:
The final overall ranking is a weighted average of Alexa rankings and the ICMR survey rankings. As per expert opinion and peer review, Alexa rankings have been given 30% and ICMR rankings have been given 70% weightage.

[Editors Note: Researcher should note that Alexa rankings, similar to any other Internet ranking tool, can be manipulated to a larger extent than can primary responses from a sample. Researchers should also note that a few websites that could have scored extremely high on Alexa rankings might have very low Alexa score because of their internal server security that may prohibit Alexa’s Internet crawlers from accessing their websites (typical examples include Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail et al)] Subsequently, certain websites have featured in the ICMR survey list but do not have an Alexa ranking. Hence these websites have not been considered in the overall ranking but their individual scores have been revealed in the following pages. Also, while many websites rank high in their respective categories, they may have slipped down in overall rankings because other websites have more mass functions (search engines, social networking, web portals, et al).

Note: The Alexa rankings we have considered for the respective websites are ranks as on August 13, 2012. Also, certain categories have been omitted in the second phase of the survey e.g. Torrent sites, websites with adult content, et al.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned Links

SC slams AICTE's illicit control on MBA courses
MBA, MCA courses no longer under AICTE
2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

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For the past several years, Google has been continually updating its PageRank algorithm to clear the web spam and reward websites that play by its rules. The search engine giant has struck again, with " Penguin" this time. What does it mean to search engine optimizers (SEOs), and how they can survive the attack...
 
The world turned upside down for the whole new breed of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) experts across the globe when Ken Krogue, a contributor at Forbes Magazine, penned an article title “The Death Of SEO: The Rise of Social, PR, And Real Content” on July 20, 2012. It was followed up with another article title “The Death Of SEO: Generating Real Content” on August 4, 2012. And what followed these two articles was not just a flurry of responses or feedbacks (both the articles have been viewed by some 1,10,426 people so far), but also thousands questioning “If it was for true?”

In one of his pieces Krogue had spoken about an exhaustive conversation which he had with a Utah (United States) based SEO consultant named Adam Torkildson over lunch, sometime back in March 2012. The revelation was “Google is in the process of making the SEO industry obsolete, SEO will be dead in two years.” Krogue doubted the words, but a month later, on April 24, 2012, when Google proved Torkildson right by announcing the launch of an all new search engine algorithm code named “Penguin”, he shared the conversation with the world, creating a sensation.

It’s a fact that whenever Google has come out with a new algorithm for PageRank (a link analysis algorithm, named after Founder Larry Page and used by the search engine, that assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of documents, such as the world wide web, with the purpose of measuring its relative importance within the set), it has created ripples across the digital world. After all, every single individual or company wants to be in the top league when it comes to Google search results page – a miss means losing out (in terms of customers, brand recall, et al) to a competitor that has managed its way to the top.

If industry experts are to be believed, Google alters its PageRank algorithm over 500 times a year. Most of these changes are minor, but major updates keep on happening at regular intervals which keep search engine optimizers on their toes. A case in point is Panda, a prominent change to Google’s search ranking algorithm that was first released in February 2011 (interestingly, there have been about 13 data refreshes of it since then). The algorithm made news for cracking down on sites with poor quality, and plagiarized content, as well as sites with a high ad-to-content ratio. Its impact on PageRank too was evident. CNET, a tech media website, reported a sudden rise in the rankings of news websites and social networking sites, and a drop in rankings for sites plagued with advertisements.

Interestingly, despite this and several other changes to the PageRank algorithm the SEO industry has been not just been able to survive but flourish. In fact, a new eMarketer study says that search ad spend is expected to grow 27% from 2011 to 2012, up from $15.36 billion to $19.51 billion. And by 2016, it is expected to reach almost $30 billion annually. As expected Google sites lead the US explicit core search market with 66.8% market share, followed by Microsoft and Yahoo sites with 15.7% and 13% market share respectively (as per the latest data released by comScore on August 15, 2012). If this is the situation, then why there is such an outcry on the launch of yet another update – Penguin?
 
When 4Ps B&M got in touch with Torkildson, who made the shocking revelation, he gave us the same response which he had been giving to a host of bloggers and writers since the statement was published in Forbes (although this time he sounded more diplomatic than the way he was quoted by Krogue). “Google is definitely pretty far away from being able to personalise everything, and make their search results 100% accurate. But they are working on it very hard, and by invoking Moore’s Law on their behalf, if their algorithm today doubles in effectiveness two years from now, most search engine optimizers will be out of a job just because of that fact,” says Torkildson. Pessimism is evident from the way he states things, but is it really the situation?

When the launch of Penguin was announced by Google on April 24, 2012, Matt Cutts, Head of the webspam team at Google, had stated on the Official blog that “in the next few days, we’re launching an important algorithm change targeted at web-spam. The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s existing quality guidelines. We’ve always targeted web-spam in our rankings, and this algorithm represents another improvement in our efforts to reduce webspam and promote high quality content.” Therefore, one can say that it’s nothing but an ongoing battle between “Black Hat” search engine optimizers and Google, one which will probably never be resolved. The basic idea behind Penguin is to put a stop to “Black Hat” techniques and reward ethical SEOs.

For starters, while “White hat” search engine optimizers are the ones who focus on improving the usability of a website by creating quality content which is relevant to that particular website, “Black hat” search engine optimizers use unethical techniques and tactics (tactics such as keyword stuffing, cloaking, and content spinning), primarily by looking for shortcuts or loopholes, to rank a website higher than it deserves to be ranked.

The Penguin targets all such tactics that search engine optimizers have been using for the past several years, all to improve the ranking of a website, unethically. Agrees Todd Bailey, Boston based SEO and Vice President – Marketing at WebiMax as he tells 4Ps B&M, “If you had done a lot of these things, you will see dramatic shuffling of search indexes and drops in ranking.” For numbers, while Panda affected about 12% of queries to a significant degree; Penguin affects about 3.1% of queries in English (about 3% of queries in languages like German, Chinese, Arabic, & an even bigger percentage of them in “highly-spammed” languages) to a degree that a regular user might notice. In fact, the percentage would increase as Google launches Penguin updates.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned Links

SC slams AICTE's illicit control on MBA courses
MBA, MCA courses no longer under AICTE
2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

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B-schools from emerging economies are increasingly making it to global rankings. Segran Nair, discusses where management education is heading
 
The University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business is the only African management school to make it to the Financial Times’ list of Top 100 B-schools. Segran Nair’s – Director of the Associate in Management Certificate Programme, the Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration & the MBA Programme at GSB – maiden visit to India makes it clear that the Graduate School of Business is ready for an international student base. In this exclusive conversation with 4Ps B&M’s Arpita Sarkar, Nair shares why B-schools in emerging countries like India and South Africa need a more contextual approach with a strong focus on the domestic ecosystem. Excerpts from the interview:

From a time when management gaduates were required to engineer complex debt-based instruments at Wall Street to now when they are required to clean the mess, what is the greatest challenge for B-schools? What must they do to stay relevant?

If you talk of the present day scenario, I think it is about contextualising and focussing on decision making. A B-school experience cannot just be about self-enrichment. In order to be relevant, B-schools have to incorporate a much more critical approach in the curriculum where they start talking about the actual responsibilities of managers in the form of decision making itself. They have to analyse what these decisions would mean for stakeholders at large. B-schools need to compel students to think critically and revamp the course content. When I say revamp, I mean that every B-school needs to do its own bit. For instance, we at GSB have done a couple of things. A course in our programme is called Professional Development and focuses on the strengths and weaknesses of each student making it an introspective exercise.

We have also established the Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Management students at the centre work on developing solutions for societal problems. For example, South Africa is a developing economy where we have a health care system which is funded by both government and as well as private institutions. Patients who opt for private hospitals get world class treatment and facilities. But those who cannot afford, go to the public ones and have to spend hours for someone to just attend to them. The treatment in such hospital can be described as mediocre and in most cases substandard at best. In such cases, intervention through application of management solutions can make a substantial difference. For example, we at GSB have partnered with the City of Cape Town to help solve certain issues. Respective authorities from the city come to us with problems. We then send our students in groups to address these issues with three objectives: 1. They have to come up with a sustainable solution; 2. It has to generate revenue; and 3. It has to create value for stakeholders.

These are just two examples of how we have revamped our course content to become much more relevant and critical. Another programme which we have introduced is called the evidence based practice. It is a course that teaches students how to accumulate evidence for decision making.
 
According to recent GMAT estimates, 2/3rd of B-schools report that applications for the two-year full time programme have dropped. Another 57% report that applicants for one year programmes have dropped. What does this imply?

Each course has its own challenges and these trends keep changing as per market conditions. I think if uncertainty continues across markets, students might look up for a modular format. In 2010, the intake for full time programmes was huge, while in 2011, a preference was seen for modular course. Our class size for the full time programme is 80 and about 80-82 for the modular programme. Compared to other B-schools, this is smaller. Consistent with the macro-economic situation in 2011, we got some 300-350 applicants for the modular course and around 170-180 applications for the full time. You see how the scene changes so promptly that in December 2011 we had a good number of 80 students but then during admissions, the number dropped to 70. This implies that 10 students changed their mind and decided not to go for a full time MBA but for the modular programme, the intake increased. Many B-schools in US have actually closed doors for full time programmes because they do not find much takers. These B-schools are now looking at other formats.

A lot of investment is being made around the world for establishing world class universities and management schools which can compete with those in the US. Do you think investing alone can cater to the need of relevant human resources around the world?

I think it’s about a lot more than just catering to human resource needs. I am a bit critical on the models proposed and implemented by North American B-schools in developing and emerging economies. They tend to apparently believe that their model fits into other economies as well. I think that is hogwash. If the course content has been developed to cater to developed markets, then how on heavens can it be relevant to the economic environment of developing countries and emerging economies. The curriculum needs to be contextualised in accordance with local problems, because the solutions these management graduates come up with have to be local. As I said earlier, we need to be more relevant. B-schools need to go back to the original model when an MBA was about general management. Organisations and firms in emerging economies don’t really need functional expertise. They need general managers who have an eye for detail and can encapsulate various business functions into a singular long term strategic vision. And that is what an MBA should enable a candidate to do. It is high time that we in India and South Africa take our own contextual realities into consideration. Instead of American case studies, those which are locally relevant need to be developed. Given the dynamism of our economies, we can easily merge practice with theory creating original content.

What do you think are the most important factors that differentiate faculties of top B-schools from the ones that are not so sought after?

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned Links

SC slams AICTE's illicit control on MBA courses
MBA, MCA courses no longer under AICTE
2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

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There’s more to the indian car market than just hatchbacks. and M&m wants to prove this isn’t just theory. will xylo’s makeover make its task any easier?
 
For as long as anyone can remember, India has been counted as a market where versions of A, B or C car models have a greater chance of being lapped-up by buyers if they come in the sub-4000 mm length. Over last year however, the two-million-a-year selling four-wheeler market has been in flux. What has forced the change in equation is the emergence of Utility Vehicles (UVs) as powerful volume-selling products. Count this. Between April and June 2012, sales of UVs (volume) in India grew 50.85% y-o-y (to 117,711 units). This when the overall passenger vehicles market grew by 9.71% goes to show how the UV segment has outpaced the overall market in recent years. What is most encouraging about this change is the manner in which the segment has started contributing greater volumes to the 4-wheeler market in recent months. Three years back, the UV category was actually declining. Between April-June 2009, its sales shrunk 1.52%. A year back, the category accounted between 11-13% of the total sales in the four-wheeler market in India. Today, this figure has reached 18%. The story of how the Indian automart is battling slowdown is really one where the UV market is playing the oxygen tank.

Call it a coincidence but the growth story of UVs in India began during the time when Mahindra & Mahindra started showing its seriousness beyond the Scorpio and Bolero. Today, after the sensation-of-a-launch of the XUV 500 (whose production schedule is running a delay of 5-6 months due to excess demand), the company is doing its best to market the latest avatar of its other big bet launched two years back – the Xylo (the ‘Stylish new Xylo’ as M&M brands it), that was launched in February this year. Strategically, where M&M scores a full 10 is the choice of category where appears to have neatly settled in. Today, it commands a 52.9% share in the sub-Rs.15 lakh platform, the only sub-segment where it sells. And going by how the company has introduced incremental innovation in the Xylo – enhancing its exteriors, interiors and overall performance with new features like stylish headlamps, sporty rear spoiler, glossy wood interior panels, mHawk turbocharged CRDe engine, a voice command technology to adjusts speaker volumes and unlock doors et al – expect its share in the sub-category to inch closer to the 60% mark in another quarter with ease.

To ‘again’ put this steal of a buy in the public eye [the first TVC of the campaign was launched in February 2012. It showed the original Xylo’s exteriors getting a makeover in a car washing station, and being rolled out as the new Xylo], starting June this year, M&M chose to air the second sequel of its ‘happy legs’. As before, creative agency Interface Communications injects a fresh feel into the 30-second spot that highlights the new stylish Xylo. The challenge this time was to move beyond selling just the proposition of adequate legroom space. The idea of a makeover had to surface – challenging when on the screen, you have three leggy beauties accompanying ace fashion photographer Atul Kasbekar.

Sharing the idea behind the project Robby Mathew, NCD, Interface, tells 4Ps B&M, “The new Xylo TVC picks up exactly where the last one left off. In the last ad, the vehicle wandered into a car wash station, but ended up getting a makeover. Now fresh from the car wash, Atul and the girls continue their journey in the stylish new Xylo. The core proposition of the Xylo has always been its roomy legroom, crystallised as ‘happy legs’. This campaign had to educate people know about the restyled exterior and interiors, but it quickly comes back to the Xylo’s core strength of space, especially the voice command technology system.”
 
The TVC opens with Atul driving around in the new Xylo with three models. They travel through a scenic beach town, down to a pier for a fashion photo shoot. En route, the four play around with the new Voice Command System and even change into costume in the Xylo’s spacious interiors, delighting a few fishermen. Actually, the fishermen shown between the 12th and 15th second of the TVC weren’t in the original cast plan. They made their way into it, while the shoot was in progress. Reveals Alan Rego, writer of the new ad-film (Creative Team – Interface), to 4Ps B&M, “For the sequel TVC, there is a scene where the models had to change clothes in the new Xylo. Even though they weren’t actually doing so, we got a lot of attention from the fishermen out there who were feeling shy. We realised their importance and included them in the script. We captured their natural expressions who weren’t possibly aware of the ad being filmed there.” The signature track ‘Can’t get you off my mind’, which worked well in the previous formats adds life to the sequel. In the last five second of the TVC, the VO says, “Happy legs in a stylish new Xylo”.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned Links

SC slams AICTE's illicit control on MBA courses
MBA, MCA courses no longer under AICTE
2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

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A lot has been said and written about the facebook ipo since its debut, but investors are still confused. here are five myths about the company and its stock
 
The Facebook IPO didn’t live up to expectations?

The right question to ask would be “whose expectations?” Retail investors bought a piece of Facebook not because it made economic sense but for the satisfaction of ownership of a (very small) piece of a very popular company. The IPO’s initial dynamics are a direct consequence of:

An initial overpricing, very difficult to justify by the underlying economic reality of Facebook.

A game of supply and demand: The underwriters sold to their clients potential scarcity of shares available. In fact, in the days before the IPO they chose to increase the total number of shares to be sold by 25%, maximising the total dollar amount raised but increasing the selling pressure once the IPO is out. Watch out though. The total of 180 million shares sold during the IPO look small in comparison to the flood of over one billion shares that Facebook insiders will put on the market by November this year!

Facebook concealed information pertaining to its growth prospects from investors

No, many issues (for example current slowdown of sales growth, actual use of money raised by the IPO) were in fact disclosed. Many investors didn’t bother to look at the disclosures and then were surprised when they came out in the news.

Facebook has a great business model

What I’m sure about is that just by making cosmetic changes like introducing the Timeline, Facebook won’t be able to reverse its decline. Moreover, the lack of innovation that demonstrates such a change casts doubt on the ability of Facebook to innovate on its business model. A lot of signs seem to prove that Facebook has reached its zenith. Economics, digital or not, follows market rules. Launching a start-up without a strong business model can’t work eternally. Mark Zuckerberg says “Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission – to make the world more open and connected ... Simply put: We don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services.” But, today, Facebook’s survival relies on advertising income which makes up for 85% of total revenues.
 
With so much money at its disposal now, Facebook will easily innovate on its business model

One must realise that out of the $16 billion raised from the IPO, only $6.84 billion went to the company directly. The rest of the proceeds were used to allow investors, from earlier financing rounds, to cash out a (substantial) part of their stake. So how will Facebook use these $6.84 billion? Many commentators suggest Facebook will embark on an aggressive acquisition strategy, supported by the company’s cash (around $4 billion) and the existing $5 billion credit lines. This is probably a likely outcome, however, the true financial capacity of Facebook is going to be constrained by an upcoming tax liability linked to the settlement of restricted stocks – part of the 2005 executive compensation plan. The resulting tax liability, estimated to be around $4.6 billion, means that in the end less than $2.3 billion out of the total $16 billion raised by the company will actually benefit Facebook’s operations.

Google and Amazon.com were also downplayed by investors when they debuted at the bourses. Going by that, Facebook will also bounce back

The problem is not to know if Facebook is a great company but if it is a great investment. At current pricing it will have to deliver very strong economic performance over the next few years in order to justify the pricing of its shares. Should Facebook face growth issues or fail to maintain top profitability margins, then its shares will not follow Google’s path. Facebook will have to first establish a solid, sustainable business model (as Amazon did). Until it finds a model that can grow with the company’s aspirations, its shares are likely to remain under pressure.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned Links

SC slams AICTE's illicit control on MBA courses
MBA, MCA courses no longer under AICTE
2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

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Some international campaigns succeed in creating momentously historic landmarks in the global advertising playfield. 4Ps B&M brings to you a review of one such stellar campaign that was active during the month ending July 15, 2012.
 
Advertiser: Mini
Ad Title: Mini: Store
Category: Ambient

4Ps B&M Take: When the market experienced an unprecedented proliferation of products and services in an increasingly globalised world, it led to a panic attack amongst marketers who found it difficult to get through to consumers. The subsequent advertising bombardment is a result of the above. But now, as more countries join the ‘developed economies’ bandwagon, business dynamics are fast changing. One such change is in the form of escalating real estate prices which makes the cost of acquiring more customer touchpoints a financially excruciating task. We all know Mini is a well established and highly aspired brand by all aspects. However, its competitive edge, in terms of product positioning and placement, doesn’t make it invulnerable to the basic laws of economics. The maker of the legendary Mini Cooper cars wanted to establish more Mini outlets in Paris for driving increased traffic to their stores. But a market analysis revealed that doing so in a city where the price of real estate is sky high was not the best of options. Mini took this dilemma to DDB Paris where the Executive Creative Director Alexandre Hervé came up with a brilliant idea – sell Mini in a Mini! A total of 10 Mini cars were converted into Mini Stores with a signage mounted on top indicating the same. The cars were driven by sales executive who carried brochures along with them and the stores were open from 9AM to 6PM. People on the street could simply get into one of these cars to reach their destination. They had the option of driving a Mini themselves or being driven by the sales executive. Further, whenever a Mini was parked, the spot was converted into a Mini location at a negligible parking ticket cost. The project kicked off in Paris and is now being replicated across France, rapidly multiplying customer access points. The ambient activity not only fulfilled Mini’s goal of having 10 new stores in every city across France at a fraction of the cost, but also significantly increased the chances of a prospective customer opting for a test drive. With the help of DDB Paris, Mini was able to reach out to its target audience without having to spend on convincing them to walk in to a brick & mortar store. Apart from these visible advantages, Mini also ended up creating a completely new business model for the auto industry. Now that’s something out-of-the-box, we would say!

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned Links

SC slams AICTE's illicit control on MBA courses
MBA, MCA courses no longer under AICTE
2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

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