The Indian Consumer

Movie Review: The Butterfly Effect

2009-09-14T07:00:00.000-07:00

While I generally like movies of the thriller genre, the ones with super-confusing stories are my favourites. If you have seen Sabse Bada Khiladi, you will have a vague idea of what I am talking about.

The Butterfly Effect is one such movie. No, actually it's in a league of its own. Throughout its length, it will keep you at the edge of your seat, and you will have to remember a lot and pay a lot of attention to the story, to keep up with all the twists and turns.

Evan is a guy who inherits an ability from his father, using which he can go back in time and change his future. Now because one future has already happened, whatever he does in the past creates an alternate future. Yeah, yeah, I know the way I am describing it, it sounds like the Steven Spielberg Trilogy of 'Back to the Future'. Well, it's all of that... and more excitement, more thrill and at a much faster pace.

To change one not-so-good event of the past, Evan goes back and forth multiple times, creating new alternate futures in the process, each one worse than the previous one. During one such effort, he almost loses his 'medium' of time-travel, and the movie ends with him barely managing to create a future that he would love to.

Very fast-paced and gripping. Leaves you thinking a lot after the movie is over. And a bit more violent and sexually explicit as compared to the usual Hollywood stories. Overall, a great one-time watch!

And if you have enjoyed watching the Back to the Future Trilogy, Memento, Paycheck, etc. you will love this one too.

Happy Diwali!!!

2008-10-27T21:05:00.001-07:00

Hope this Diwali lightens up the darkness in which the consumer is often taken for a ride.

Here's lighting that one diya.

Happy Diwali!!!!!!!

Thinking within the box!

2008-09-22T00:30:00.000-07:00

Whoever coined the term 'Think outside the box' is desparately wanted here. A credit co-operative society called 'Loyal' gets 'inspired' by the logo of HDFC and does a very similar logo for itself.

Down-sizing!

2008-08-27T18:30:00.000-07:00

This pic is actually clicked almost a year back.

Given a preference, I would eat only Wrigley's Orbit chewing gums, that too, the pellets. I say 'given a preference' because as a policy, I would eat any chewing gum that is offered for free.

So it was one of the days when I had bought a couple of Orbit's packs. And I was about to pop one of them in my mouth when I noticed the other pack. Here it is for you.

In case you didn't notice, one of the pellets in the centre is only half the usual size. And the entire pack was as sealed and unopened as any other pack that would come out its factories.

A new way to down-sizing, is it?

It's Showtime, folks!

2008-07-15T15:00:00.000-07:00

Got to see a lot of movies in the past few days. A short review for each of them:

Hancock
I don't know what to say to a movie like that. Will Smith (Hancock) is a super hero who is hated by everyone because of the trouble he causes everytime he saves lives. That's because everytime he comes for help, he ends up damaging a lot of property. And people have taken him for granted, for all the good work that he does. Life changes when he saves the life of a Public Relations executive. And then life goes bad when he realises that he is not the only superhero on this planet. Some absolutely crappy logic follows, trying to put logic into the existence of 2 superheroes on the planet. The movie also ends very abruptly.

Overall, if you like movies about superheroes with a dark side, you might just like this one. If you are a big time Will Smith fan, it might just disappoint you. But if you are anyone else, I don't know why you should watch this movie.

Bhoothnath
A family of three - Shah Rukh Khan (forgettable), Juhi Chawla (Anjali) and Aman Siddiqui (Banku) - rent a bungalow in Goa, not knowing that it is haunted by Kailash Nath's (Amitabh Bachchan) spirit. The kid is the first to know about him, and they become friends. Mom ignores the kid's stories about the ghost as his pranks. But later, when Kailash Nath's son tries to sell the bungalow, the ghost scares the buyers away. And at this point, the confusion starts.

A movie that starts out as a timepass-fun movie, suddenly becomes preachy about how to take care of your parents, and becomes all emotional, that too, not in a good way. And it ends abruptly when the ghost is sent to heaven by just doing a shraadh. And even then, apparently, the ghost is still very much there. See? I told you - confused.

While Amitabh Bachchan is not as bad as Khalid Mohmad said in his review, but yes, he is nowhere close to his best. Juhi Chawla's acting reminds you time and again of Farida Jalal in the typical comic roles. Banku, played by Aman Siddiqui, is a hit. I loved him. He carries off a lot of emotions very well. Overall, avoid the movie, and if forced, watch only till the interval.

Be Kind Rewind
This movie is about a VHS casette movie rental shop run by an old man and his employee. One day, the employee's friend gets magnetized because of some accident, and when he comes into this shop, all casettes are erased. To same themselves, they re-shoot a 20-min version of a movie and rent it off as the original. When the customers come to know about it, they ask more movies like that, and these guys start running a business of renting out 'sweded' (re-shot) movies. Trouble starts when one day, people from movie studios come and sue them for piracy.

In my opinion, the movie is just amazing. It starts out as a complete comedy, and ends on an emotional note, representing how tough life can get sometimes. But through out its length, it is very involving, and your heart goes to the people when they are struck by the tragedy of it all. It ends on a realistic, and a very positive note. Don't know much about the actors so no comments there.

Chasing Amy
This is actually an old movie, released in 1997. Holden and Banky are comic book artists. They go for a comic book exhibition-cum-signing event when they meet another comic book artist, Alyssa. Holden falls for Alyssa, only to realise later that she's a lesbian. And that's just the start of the movie. Later, Alyssa reveals that she was just trying to find the right person, and didn't want to restrict it to only men. After meeting Holden, she too falls in love with him. When it is just about to get all ok, Holden discovers that Alyssa has a very wild history, and him being a very conservative guy, he is not able to take it.

Again, another movie that's very involving. It is very verbose and hard hitting at times, never a timepass watch. Very thought-provoking too. Has a lot of discussions about the mentality and attitudes of homosexuals, and also those who hate homosexuals. It is of course, worth a watch for those who watch movies not just for entertainment.

Meet The Spartans
If you love the war-movie '300', you would absolutely hate this movie. Why? Because it's a spoof of that movie. Total timepass movie, but at times, very gross. Makes fun of a lot of things - Transformers, American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, Deal or No Deal, Paris Hilton, everyone. Watch it whenever you want a wicked laugh, and point a finger at someone and giggle.

Spiderman 3
After watching the first 2 movies, I wanted to watch this one badly. But it all came to nought when I finally watched it on HBO a couple of days back. It is almost a Hindi movie. Peter Parker becomes very self-centred because of all the attention that he gets as Spiderman. Meanwhile, Mary Jane Watson loses her Broadway musical play, and is back as a singing waitress in a bar. The movie overall is very boring, inspite of 3 villians in this one, instead of just one each in the previous movies. Avoid it as far as possible.

Ratatouille
I watched it quite some time back and loved it thoroughly. What happens when a rat has an ambition of becoming the world's greatest chef? The answer is a brilliant movie called Ratatouille. All I would say is, go watch it whenever you can. It's worth watching over and over again too.

Next on the list:
Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na
Johnny English
Kung Fu Panda
Persepolis
Charlie Bartlett

Movie Review - Khuda Kay Liye

2008-06-19T10:00:00.000-07:00

As is usual with me, I again missed on watching a good film in the cinema, and had to watch it later on my computer screen.

To call Khuda Kay Liye just a movie is almost insulting it. Khuda Kay Liye is an outstanding piece of art, something would definitely be difficult to ignore or forget easily.

It is a very touching and disturbing story about how two brothers, who are forward-looking Muslims and rock musicians living in Pakistan, fall victims to Islamic fundamentalism on one side and American fears of terrorism on the other side, in spite of themselves being part of neither of the groups.

I won't reveal any part of the story other than the broad plot discussed, because I strongly recommend everyone watches this movie.

Using the old-style review format, the star cast is just superb. And given that we don't know who these guys are in real life, it helps knowing the characters better. Shaan as Mansoor Khan, Fawad Khan as Sarmad Khan and Iman Ali as Mary/Maryam do perfect justice to their characters.

If you are great fan of the art of film-making, this might leave you dissappointed at times, but if you are a great fan of plain, simple and effective story-telling, this movie will blow your mind away. The consistency of the movie's characters even when circumstances change dramatically, is just brilliant!

Everyone, from the broadminded Father of Mansoor and Sarmad, to the fundamentalist Maulana Tahiri, and from the cute, lovestruck Janie, to the believer of true Islam Maulana Wali (played by Naseeruddin Shah) have done great acting.

All in all, a great movie worth watching. For me, it goes straight in the list of my all time favourites, under the same category as Rang De Basanti, Black Friday, Lage Raho Munnabhai, and the recently released Aamir.

Tehelka: true to its word

2008-02-26T00:00:00.000-08:00

Imagine a magazine that carries the credibility of exposing the biggest of scams and scandals in recent history of the nation. Add to that, a killer of a cover story every week, nice articles presenting the week's happenings from a different perspective. Now add to that, guest articles and interviews by biggies of the corporate world, people like Santosh Desai and Nandan Nilekani.

What you get is a new age magazine, a magazine that in many ways represents the new India. And what a name to it - Tehelka, a revolutionary magazine in the true sense of the word!

Maybe my perception of the magazine is coloured. Maybe like other vehicles in the print medium, this one too is the front end of some behind-the-scenes power. But I would still swear by it, largely because of its content.

In addition to giving good news, information and analyses every week at a very reasonable rate, this magazine has enabled subscription by paying online, in a world where some of the leading publications have only a downloadable PDF form online, and accept payments by cheque, DD and credit cards, but no option to use the same credit cards via the Internet.

What's more, this magazine delivers the issue at home just two days after it hits news-stands. Compare this to other publications who take roughly 4 days for the same, and you know you've got a winner at hand.

To anyone who spared his / her time to read this post, I would urge to pick up a copy for yourself and go through it, before rejecting it as an old-school sensational journalistic magazine. It is everything but this.

Taare Zameen Par - a must-watch

2007-12-26T13:00:00.000-08:00

Saying that this movie is outstanding is, quite literally, taking an easy way out. While it saves effort of using a whole lot of superlatives, it doesn't do justice to the movie.

If you thought Aamir Khan the producer couldn't make a film better than Lagaan, think again. If thought Aamir Khan couldn't act better than he did in Andaz Apna Apna, Rangeela, Sarfarosh, Dil Chahta Hai, and Rang De Basanti, think again. If you thought acting and producing is all Aamir Khan can excel at, think again.

With 'Taare Zameen Par', Aamir Khan turns director and as is usual with his way of working, he re-defines that art as well. After a point, you would give up on thinking who of the 3 is the best - Aamir the actor, Aamir the producer or Aamir the director.

Throughout the movie, Aamir Khan's well-known trait - perfection - is visible in each frame. He takes Amole Gupte's story to the next level of story-telling. Shankar Ehsaan and Loy have given great music to Prasoon Joshi's very well-written songs. The lyrics are fabulous. I don't know who has given the background score but that again is a work of art. As my friend pointed out, there is not one scene in the movie that does not have a matching background music.

And to watch Aamir act is a treat in itself. During some emotional scenes, he gives a couple of close-up shots on his face. Trust me, no other actor would have dared to have the camera so close on his face. However, at no point during the movie would you feel Aamir is bigger than the film.

The cake and the icing, however, is taken by the very young and extremely talented Darsheel Safary. His acting is touching and easily the most heart-warming.

Amole Gupte's paintings shown in the movie (the paintings made by Ishaan are all by Amole) are amazing. The detail given to every frame and every scene is again commendable. Although my friends who watched the movie told me that the movie somewhat drags, but I did not feel so at any point and thoroughly enjoyed the movie, in spite of this being the costliest movie ticket I have ever purchased!

Tisca Chopra (plays Darsheel's mom) has done a commendable job. Even Vipin Sharma (plays Darsheel's dad) does a great job. Ditto for Sachet Engineer (play's Darsheel's elder brother)

Throughout the film, watch out for the nuances that make the film an Aamir film.
* Tisca Chopra keeps on nagging Darsheel for being late for school bus, but at the end kisses him on his forehead, that's what mothers do.
* One of Darsheel's teachers is a Bengali gentleman... and as they normally are, this guy speaks British English, is good with literature and teaches English. Listen to him and you admire the casting and the acting done.
* But as I have mentioned earlier as well, the movie belongs to the kid Darsheel Safary. He has done fantastic acting throughout the movie. In one scene, his character is supposed to be overwhelmed by what's going on and he's about to cry. To act out that overwhelming feeling is what only artistes can do and to see a 9-year-old do it impeccably, it's a treat!

Sify Broadband - Good speed, but utterly unreliable

2007-12-26T12:00:00.000-08:00

I have been using Sify Broadband for almost one and a half years. A close friend had got a connection and he recommended that to me. A detailed review follows:

The Good:
Connection Speed:
Mine was a 64 kbps connection and the downloads easily touched 6-8 KB per second. This makes me sure that the higher speed connection packs too, would be good.

Ease of payments:
Sify has a number of options for collecting payments (in my case, for the prepaid packs). They arrange for someone to come home and collect it. They also have an option of online payments. Quite good.

Value For Money:
The pre-paid packs offered by Sify are very paisa vasool (value for money). I am yet to see other providers offering anyting competing to Sify’s packs.

The Bad:
Consistency of connection:
Technically, given that it is a cable connection, it should be available 24 X 7. This is not the case with Sify. The connection went down once almost every two weeks. The software would pop up an error message, and I would have to call Sify Customer Care to get the connection working.

Technical Support:
The people working behind the connection are quite good. My connection would get working very soon after I call Sify Customer Care. It is a different case altogether that the connection should not go down in the first place.

And the Ugly:
Infrastructure:
From what Sify Customer Care tells me, Sify does not own the complete infrastructure to provide a broadband Internet service. Since the basic connectivity is via cable network, Sify depends on the local cable operator for what is called ’ Last Mile Connectivity ’. Simply put, the cable operator is always the final link between Sify’s network and the user’s computer.

It is for this reason that Sify becomes a very unreliable ISP. In my case, the cable operator has refused to continue the service, and I am stuck with no connection. There’s not much I can do about it.

Customer Care Helpline:
To say that it is pathetic would be appreciating it. My experience with Sify’s Customer Care has been very bad.

As I have mentioned earlier, the cable operator disconnected my net connection.
- After this, for about one month, I kept calling Customer Care but all they said was that an engineer would come and check it the next day. Nobody came.
- After about a month, the Customer Care executives ultimately relented and told me the truth that the connection was down because of the cable operator refusing to co-operate. Then, when I asked them to cancel my account, and refund me the balance, they said it can’t be done over the phone. I have to email them.
- On 1 October 2007, I emailed them for refund and got an automated reply that they would get back within 24 hours. Nobody has replied till date .
- Over the last 2 months, I must have made umpteen calls to them, and all they did was to say somebody in the back-end team will call me. Again, nobody called back.
- I had dug out an email address in Sify Mumbai, and mailed that person. In reply, I only got an SMS saying, ’please contact only SIFY BB for your queries’.
- For the last 10 days, I have been told that my cheque has been dispatched. But I haven’t got anything yet. Still waiting.*

Moral of the story:
Go for it only if:
1) you are ok with the idea that it might get disconnected anytime
2) you trust your cable operator to continue its services
Of course, purchasing one of the post-paid packs from Sify would be recommended in any case.

Overall, it might work, but you can never be sure. And once you are stuck, it’s the end of the road for you.

* This review was posted by me on MouthShut.com about 3 weeks ago. An update to the review is that I finally got a cheque for the refund amount last week. Hopefully it will be cleared!

All Out left me stumped!

2007-08-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

Take a look at the two photos below. They are of packages of All Out, a mosquito repellent brand marketed by Karamchand Appliances Private Limited.

At first look and with some effort at reading the small print, one would think it's the same package of 45 ml, what we marketers refer to as the same SKU. But they are not. Although the quantity of both the SKUs is the same, the first photo is of what the package says 'a 90-Day refill' of the mosquito repellent; and the second one is of 'a 60-Day refill' of the same product.

This leaves one wondering as to why is the same quantity of the product sold in two different packages with two different sets of claim and price. The answer lies in the manufacturing date. The one with the 90-day claim was manufactured in April 2007, while the one with the 60-day claim was manufactured in July 2007. That would mean that the same SKU was put in market as 90-Day refill in April, and three months later, the claim was brought down to 60 days, and the price changed accordingly. Seems the 90-day claim itself didn't last more than 90 days.

The reason was doing this was not to point out this flop of the claim. The weird thing about all this is that now the company has the same bottle (I had checked that as well) and the same quantity selling the market with two different claims and two different price points.

How fair is this for the consumer?

Amul: A truly priceless brand

2007-08-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I had been to 'Red Box Cafe' at Bandra. Below is a photograph I clicked of one of the pages from its menu card. This page detailed out the pizzas and sandwiches on offer. Take a look.

The most striking part about the menu card of this famous restaurant is the name 'Amul' under Choice of Cheese. Note that all other types of cheese are more of commodities where as this one 'type' was a brand name in itself.

If I were Dr. Verghese Kurien, I would be proud of what I have done over the years with a milk co-operative.

I read earlier that world-famous brands are finding it difficult to crack the butter and cheese market in India, especially the Western states of India, because of Amul. People in these markets define the taste of butter and cheese by the way Amul's Butter and Cheese taste.

While that itself is an accomplishment in itself, this one fact that Amul's Cheese appears as a separate cheese for pizza and sandwiches under a restaurant's menu is simply amazing!!!

Kudos to everyone at Amul.

Krrish, the Indian copy-cat Superhero

2006-10-17T00:40:00.000-07:00

Finally, I did it.
I watched Krrish (is it with two 'K's or two 'r's? Hope the spelling is correct). I had expected I would just 'not like' it. But this was worse. I HATED it.

Of course, there is a good aspect to the movie. Lots of people have watched it and have enjoyed it. But then, there's a huge negative side to it.

And this is it:

1) Copied story

The first time it hit me, I thought it to be just another act Bollywood is so expert at. But this one leaves even 'Main Hoon Na' miles behind.

The film, touted by media as the rise of the Indian Superhero, has so blatantly assembled storylines from Hollywood, I almost lost count.

To start with, there's Spiderman.
Priyanka Chopra wants to confirm that Hrithik Roshan is the Masked Man and so hires goons to harass her in HR's presence, while the channel crew shoots the scene with a dozen cameras. Looks so closely familiar with the way Peter Parker takes the first snaps of Spiderman.

Then there's how Hrithik, following Naseerudin Shah's chopper, suddenly sees a kid on the road and a huge truck running towards him. The way, our Indian hero saves the kid has an uncanny resemblance to the way Spiderman did it.

Another movie from which a part of the story is borrowed, is Paycheck.
For the un-initiated, Paycheck is a story based in a future distant enough to look like fantasy for us. It shows the lead character build a time machine with a very realistic reasoning given to it.

In Krrish, the whole of the future-telling machine set is copied, look of the screen, and even the way the hero starts the machine. Yes, the original English machine, quite logically, showed only the visual of the future, not audio. Seems Mr. Roshan had better ideas!

Fortunately, there's no logic given to the Krrish version of the high-tech machine. So that avoided them copying the logic as well. Phew! Thank God!

But imagine a guy creating this machine 20-22 years ago, that's around 1985. Papa Hrithik Roshan (Rohit Verma, I guess) should have been a Science Nobel Prize nominee if you ask me.

Then, of course, there's The Matrix
From the costume of Krrish to the fight scenes, to the 'bullet-time' special effects, there's so much uncomfortably similar to The Matrix.

What did I miss? Ah yes. Superman works for a newspaper - Daily Planet. Spiderman works for a newspaper - The Daily Bugle. Priyanka Chopra does not work for newspaper, she works for Star TV. Something original, you may say!

2) Copied music

If it was not enough that we copy music for the songs, this movie has its background 'theme' score borrowed heavily from the Havana composition of KennyG. You have tough competition, Mr. Anu Malik.

3) Unnecessary and Irritating product placements... and lots of them

I consider myself lucky to miss a part of the movie which had Bournvita and Tide being displayed / spoken about. So, no comments on those. But, unfortunately, I didn't miss Siyaram's, Star TV, Singapore Tourism, Lay's, and Hero Honda.

I mean, how stupid can the Indian audience be, to be shown Hero Honda sponsoring a Circus in Singapore, that too with the name "The Great Bombay Circus". On top of that, Hero Honda gives
awards to superheroes in Singapore.

Are we so dumb to be shown Siyaram's banners saying 'Come home to Siyaram's' ... on a bus which had people going on adventure trips to the mountains. Is that what the guys at Siyaram's think about 'home'!!?!!?!?!

I guess that would sum up my terrible experience of watching the film.
In case you might to add something, be my guest.

SBI vs ICICI Bank

2006-08-27T02:03:00.000-07:00

A personal review on the way SBI and ICICI banks function.

Saturday monring, I had gone to SBI for opening a PPF account. Some 3-4 forms were to be filled post which, an official's acceptance was required. After the acceptance, there was a long line at the teller, at the end of which I was successful in opening the account.

Compare this, to the services of the ICICI Bank. Opening an FD at ICICI took the same time as it took to open the PPF account at SBI. But there are differences. I had filled the forms for the FD on the spot.

The forms for PPF were already filled by me before going there. At ICICI, I did not have to move from my seat. At SBI, we had to go to two different counters before going to the cashier.

Some more observations with the branches.
ICICI: All materials talking about latest promotions are visible as soon as we enter.
SBI: One of the posters asking the general public "to collect a kit as soon as they open a savings account" was posted on the remotest of the walls.

ICICI: All counters were numbered / labelled.
SBI: None of the counters were numbered or labelled.

Does it really matter if SBI's advertisements present a new, lively image of SBI's services?
Does it really matter if everybody in the world sees and likes SBI's advertisements? How many of them will not be disillusioned as soon as they enter one of SBI's branches?

Viewers are dumb!!!

2006-07-04T11:36:00.000-07:00

That's what it seems TV channels think. At least, that's the way they act.

Before I go ahead on this post, let me tell you this post is nothing but plain old cribbing about entertainment and news channels - Sony and NDTV India to be specific.

Sony Entertainment TV recently started promotions for its new programme 'Akela', which is about a person who sees dead people ala 'The Sixth Sense' by M Night Shyamalan. Given its communication, I was looking forward to watching this show. But post the first episode today, I was utterly disappointed.

Since Ekta Kapoor started ruling the small screen, the logic in TV programmes has gone for a toss. And that is across all kinds of programmes, including the much acclaimed series 'CID'. 'Akela', unfortunately, is part of the crowd in this respect.

For some unknown reason, the writer thought that directly showing a gifted man is a criminal offence. So we have to show some story of how that man got the gift. Had it stopped there, this post wouldn't have been written. But then, writers (again for some unknown reason) want to show unnecessary, irrational herioc stuff at the start of the program.

So this police inspector, the protagonist, climbs down from the terrace of a high-rise in an dare-devil style. All this, just so that he can use a pair of binoculars to see what's going on in the target's home in the opposite building. Seems that going into a flat and peering down from the window was not practical.

Sometime later he is chasing a gangster, who has run to the terrace of the building. Apna hero is so very bindaas, he roams openly searching for the bad man, without taking any cover. Also, the bad man is so bad with his gun, he misses his target when he shoots at the hero five feet away.

At the same time, the bad man is really good at playing carrom. At the final face-off apna hero shoots bad man, who shoots just before falling off the building. That bullet bounces off two surfaces before hitting the hero at the back of his head.

Bullets bouncing off??? Some real cool stuff is put in these bullets, I tell you.

Fortunately for me, the madness stopped there in the first episode.

It is a torture to see either eternally jealous siblings, conspiring family members and pativrata wives, or non-sensical, over-dramatized and fantasized (not just fictionalised) crime investigation programmes every time you switch on your television. I have lost hopes of ever getting to watch a TV programme which remotely appeals to my logical, rational human brain.

If this wasn't enough, morons await you on news channels these days. I was watching NDTV India tonight for the updates on Mumbai rains. As usual, the reporter is raising questions on everything regarding the management of the situation by the BMC. According to him, one of the most important questions that need serious investigation is: "Why is it that every time it rains heavily, the low lying areas get flooded?"

God help me!!! Don't reporters know basic stuff? The low lying areas get flooded simply because they are low lying areas. Where does water go when it rains? It will not go for a trek up the steep slopes of the western ghats. It will go down to the lowest lying areas, ultimately either flowing into the sea or percolating down the layers of the ground.

Seems that one doesn't need many qualifications to become a TV reporter. I am thinking of a job shift now.

Update # 1: 9 July 2006

Tonight's news on Aaj Tak: After a detailed report on the Shiv Sena uproar today in Mumbai, the next report [i.e. the most important news for the country] was about a professor of Hindi at Patna University falling in love with a student. This was so important that they had invited the 'couple' to their studio and carried an interview of them in the programme.

Need I say more?

Just in case the answer is yes, read more about the business of media here.

In Defence of Brands

2006-06-24T14:13:00.000-07:00

It is the typical rant of any consumer today. Everything around us is getting branded which, more often than not, means getting more expensive. A pair of shoes that may cost only Rs. 500 to produce, including the cost of designing them for mass production, are sold at prices anywhere between Rs. 1500 and Rs. 2000.

Same goes for cola drinks, shirts and most other things.

The whole idea of branding something, is to build a trust around it. If you like something, you know exactly from what product you bought from which company, and you can go out in the market and buy it again. And again and again, if you like it, and prefer it over other products in the market. That's exactly what companies charge more for - Trust.

The advantage to the company is obvious - more money for the same product, meaning more profit. But there are advantages to consumers as well.

If not many, well, atleast one. Avoiding being cheated again... and again and again.

Imagine I went to a shop and bought something quite expensive, thinking that it would be of a higher quality, or has more benefits, or has better after-sales service, whatever it promises. What if it does not deliver? And I want to avoid that product that next time I go out looking for a similar product? Easy, huh! I know the name and company and I will not buy that.

But imagine doing that in a brandless world. Impossible!!!
What would happen in such a case is that while prices would hit the floor, so would quality. That's because:
1) Companies that make better quality products can't charge higher for it, because nobody knows the difference until he actually buys it.
2) After knowing the higher / lower quality after buying and using the brand, the consumer still won't be able to figure out which one product that was, of the lot in the market, if he wants to buy it again.

For both reasons, it makes sense for companies to make lower quality products, and price them lower. Imagine dealing with all products of lower and lower quality - from toothpastes to cars, from clothes to perfumes, from soaps to electronics, from airlines to hotels.

That's why I believe that brands, though they make a product expensive, are still worth it.

Oh by the way, I forgot to say that in the current scenario, a world without brands is a very distant reality. By distant, I mean, until there's a World War and we go back to living in caves!!!

Tailor-made! Literally!

2006-06-08T01:58:00.000-07:00

Came across a website 'Hansen's Clothing' while surfing the blogs.

How come we in India never get such people?

We have had many tailors around for many years. So customisation isn't new. But this kind of image, and service is surely new. I have been going to tailors for my clothes since childhodd uptil as late as my high school, and I am yet to come across a tailor, who will impress me with his services, and maybe take me away from readymade clothing.

Won't work, you may say. After all, who would go through the trouble of buying custom made shirts when readymade are so good and so perfect.

But no. I think there exists quite a market for this kind of service. Even Sam Walton talks about this kind of customization in his book 'Made in America', as a way to compete against the big retail stores.

The way it is put in here, it doesn't sound too expensive. And anyway, I for one, would not mind paying a premium for custom made, nice fitting shirts / suits or ethnic clothing.

Can't we rewind a few years, and take some customer service from this era to that one?

Ahh!

Introduction

2006-05-12T12:15:00.000-07:00

Welcome!

This blog shall be about my take ... a marketer's take... on being a consumer in India.
It shall contain my thoughts and views and opinions about being on the receiving end of marketing in India.

Comments are welcome.