Brands

BRAND – THE SOUL OF MARKETING STRATEGY

In today’s fiercely competitive market place when big Corporates are fighting for their share in the market pie, building a brand is an inseparable activity for every Company. What they are selling is not the product but actually a Brand. The value of a Brand can be judged by the respect it commands in the market. Not far away, we did not know much about the most respected international brands like Nike, Samsonite, Sony (add a few more like for Jeans, Perfumes etc.). Not that the products they are associated with were not manufactured in India before these brands came in our Country. Shoes were manufactured even before by several companies, but when Nike came, Indians were willing to pay five to six time more price the same product because the brand it carried was Nike. Same thing about luggage bags. Before Samsonite entered India, the hard and soft luggage were manufactured in India also. However, Samsonite commanded much higher price for their product.

The point I am trying to make is that every brand has a value. The great brands have great value. This value or premium is not developed in a short span. It is a specialized technique. I will illustrate the technique of Brand Building with reference to Indian Premier League – a league promoted by The Board of Control for Cricket in India popularly known as BCCI. We all know that the game of Cricket is a national craze. Even during this age of electronic media when a great number of people are glued to the television sets when they are not in the colleges, offices etc. the popularity of the game has not dwindled (diminished). The lanes and the grounds are still full with children not only in the big cities like Mumbai but even across the length and breadth of the country.

Today we are in the era where “marketing” has become a key word for success. You no longer market goods and services alone. You have to market yourself as well if you have to taste the fruits of success. See how cine stars market themselves. Although they are the uncrown kings of bollywood, Shahrukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan have also to market themselves as the “brands” to acquire currency and success in a fiercely competitive entertainment market.

In our county films and cricket are two spheres of every day activity which attract maximum frenzy. This adulation for both these areas gives rise to newer and newer innovation which elevates the public interest in them even further. The newest innovation in cricket is T20 also known as 20 : 20. This innovation sought to answer the oft-repeated criticism against cricket that it is a long, never ending, tedious game where one has to wait for full five days and still not be sure whether there will be finally any result. The objection to absence of speed in this game was sought to be removed to a considerable extent by ODI concept. With the introduction of T20 format, the game has become even faster.

This innovation has aroused considerable public interest. BCCI wanted to exploit the rage for cricket unleashed by this T20 format and, therefore, it started a new league called Indian Premier League on the lines of English Premier League (Put here the correct name). The novel concept was to sell each team to the willing buyers. A number top notched industrialists were interested in buying these teams as can be seen from the multimillion rupee bids offered by them for the respective teams. Maximum bid amount was offered for Mumbai team which was purchased by Reliance group at a price of Rs. 460 crores. Highest amount commanded by an individual player was Rs. 6 crores the price commanded by India’s T20 captain MS Dhoni. Even the films stars like Shahrukh Khan and Prieti Zinta entered the fray to buy the teams and succeeded in buying a team each. Shahrukh bought Kolkata where as Zinta bought mohali.

The race for purchasing the teams amongst the industrialists was not only out of love for cricket but also because these industrialist saw an opportunity cash on the immense popularity of T20 format to market their brands to the masses. BCCI saw an opportunity to make crores of rupees by marketing this new brand called “IPL” to the masses. The whole game plan revolves around money.

The essence of brand marketing is first to attract the attention of the public to the brand, then to arouse their interest in the said brand and finally to convert that interest in to the purchase of their product. One fact is absolutely clear that BCCI has very successfully created this new brand IPL. Let us see how the buyers of the teams succeed in exploiting this brand to increase the sale of their products.

Ecological Footprint

The first academic publication about the ecological footprint was by William Rees in 1992. The ecological footprint concept and calculation method was developed as the PhD dissertation of Mathis Wackernagel, supervised by Rees at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, from 1990-1994. Originally, they called the concept "appropriated carrying capacity". To make the idea more accessible, Rees came up with the term "ecological footprint," inspired by a computer technician who praised his new computer's "small footprint on the desk." In early 1996, Wackernagel and Rees published the book Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth.

Ecological footprint analysis compares human demand on nature with the biosphere's ability to regenerate resources and provide services. It does this by assessing the biologically productive land and marine area required to produce the resources a population consumes and absorb the corresponding waste, using prevailing technology. This approach can also be applied to an activity such as the manufacturing of a product or driving of a car. This resource accounting is similar to life cycle analysis wherein the consumption of energy, biomass (food, fiber), building material, water and other resources are converted into a normalized measure of land area called 'global hectares' (gha).

Per capita ecological footprint (EF) is a means of comparing consumption and lifestyles, and checking this against nature's ability to provide for this consumption. The tool can inform policy by examining to what extent a nation uses more (or less) than is available within its territory, or to what extent the nation's lifestyle would be replicable worldwide. The footprint can also be a useful tool to educate people about carrying capacity and over-consumption, with the aim of altering personal behavior. Ecological footprints may be used to argue that many current lifestyles are not sustainable. Such a global comparison also clearly shows the inequalities of resource use on this planet at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

In 2003, the average biologically productive area per person worldwide was approximately 1.8 global hectares (gha) per capita. The U.S. footprint per capita was 9.6 gha, and that of Switzerland was 5.1 gha per person, while China's was 1.6 gha per person.^{[5] [6]} The WWF claims that the human footprint has exceeded the biocapacity (the available supply of natural resources) of the planet by 20%. Wackernagel and Rees originally estimated that the available biological capacity for the 6 billion people on Earth at that time was about 1.3 hectares per person, which is smaller than the 1.8 global hectares because it did not include bioproductive marine areas.

A number of NGO websites allow estimation of one's ecological footprint (see Footprint Calculator, below).

Ecological footprinting is now widely used around the globe as an indicator of environmental sustainability. can be used to measure and manage the use of resources throughout the economy. It can be used to explore the sustainability of individual lifestyles, goods and services, organizations, industry sectors, neighborhoods, cities, regions and nations. Since 2006, a first set of ecological footprint standards exist that detail both communication and calculation procedures. They are available at http://www.footprintstandards.org and were developed in a public process facilitated by Global Footprint Network and its partner organizations.

Take your ecological footprint at:-http://www.earthday.net/footprint/index.asp

World's Most Worthless Money

Zimbabwe

As Indians worry about the rate of inflation exceeding 7 percent, we should consider Zimbabwe, where the inflation rate broke the shocking 100,000 percent mark and the country released a 10 million-dollar note (now valued below $4 on the black market). But Zimbabwe's currency is hardly the only one inflated beyond reason.

Iran

50,000-rial note. U.S. value: $5.35.
Since the 1979 revolution, Iran's inflation rate has hovered around 15 percent, thanks in part to ever-rising oil prices.

Guinea

10,000-franc note. U.S. value: $2.33
In 2002, the mineral-rich African country refused to implement reforms mandated by the International Monetary Fund; foreign cash dried up, and the central bank printed too much money.

Cristiano Ronaldo a girl????????

As you would have read Manchester United player admits to be born as a girl.
This seems scary when is proved so and would be forced to play with women.
Certainly good for Women's Football but it would be a great blemish on his image.
Add in your comments!!

Teacher sleeping in exam room

Teacher sleeping in exam room while the exam is still going.
Wonder what happened to her!!
Might because only 3 students were writing the exam.My friend gives a creepy expression just before the video ends.