Water Falls

En route to Cherrapunji- the wettest place on earth!

Occasional herds of cattle were spotted on the road. This was a lazy group of cows jaywalking in the perfect weather conditions. The calm postures of these animals made me contemplate about my life, and the road ahead...

The roads towards Cherrapunji from Shillong are the best mountain roads I have traveled in India so far. I felt I was in Nappa Valley! I secretly wished to drive the car on these beautiful roads. The place is not called Scotland of the East for nothing!

A bit of grey, blue and green and a hint of red and brown...makes for a perfect picture with Mom and Dad. :)

Towards Cherrapunji, Meghalaya

Sight Seeing, Shillong

These are the evergreen pine trees. This photograph was taken at the Shillong peak region. Pine trees are found extensively in the mountainous regions of the northern hemisphere, there are about 115 types of this species throughout the world. Pine trees are gymnosperms and hence do not bear flowers, rather they have the male and female cones. The male cones, situated at the lower branches of the tree, are thinner and smaller and release massive amounts of very fine wind borne pollen which find the much larger female cones situated at the upper branches of the tree. The cones are visually very appealing and are often found lying at the base of the trees. People pick them up and take them home as souvenirs!Don Bosco Church. The biggest and best known church of Shillong. It is a beautiful building and has a very peaceful setting with loads of open spaces and a nice stairway up to the church.
A common dog resting peacefully in the shade off a wall. These dogs bear resemblance to wolves and have a thick coat of fur...
Mom enjoying a hot cup of tea at the Shillong Peak area. A conical wicker can be seen on the right, placed on a tripod, which is  being used as a dustbin. These wickers are made out of bamboo and are used for various purposes. People even use to carry wood, rock, vegetable etc.

This photograph is also taken on the premises of the Shillong Peak. The pine forest on one side and the beautiful road straight ahead with a commoner approaching towards the camera, completes the picture.

Our Hotel- Shillong

Our hotel, Blue Pine, was uniquely shaped in the form of a triangle. It was a very nicely done room with wooden walls and a nice and cozy bed. The feel of the room was very European with those big windows, framed pictures of fruits, wooden finish from ceiling to the floor, the soft lighting etc. Though the service was a problem as there were hardly and house-keeping staff available and we had to travel about 200 meters to another hotel. Itotally loved this tiny triangular room :)


With Mom and Dad. Took this photograph on the self timer with flash. The pic turned out to be pretty good.

Shillong Peak

This is a wonderful place located at the highest point in Shillong. The place is called Shillong Peak and is situated very close to the Air Force area. This is the best place to see the entire Shillong city in a beautiful panoramic view. I have taken a few photographs of the place and also had mom and dad pose for the camera :)

Here Dad is seen wearing a beret which I bought from a nice boutique store in the city- near Police Bazaar.

A Panoramic view of Shillong City from the highest point- Shillong Peak

This is one of my favourite panoramic shots taken off Shillong Peak. The shot covers an angle of approximately 270 degrees. If you look closely you might be able to spot the golf course, the main city, and the city's most important market- Police bazaar...

Golf Course- Shillong, Meghalaya

Meghalaya, literal translation: 'The Abode of Clouds' is one of the most picturesque states of India. This state was previously a part of Assam, but in 1972 it was made into a separate state with Shillong as the capital city. Incidentally Shillong was the capital of Assam till 1972 and after the state was broken up, Guwahati was made the capital of Assam. This photograph was taken at the golf course of Shillong, a very beautiful and picturesque place indeed- you can't probably look more photogenic when you have a backdrop such as this!


Pine trees in the backdrop...mom collected a lot of cones that had fallen off from these trees.

Nongpoh- a small village situated between Shillong and Guwahati

This small village, Nongpoh is where the drivers take a break while going towards either Guwahati or Shillong. It is about 36-40kms from Guwahati. This town is very strategically situated between two big cities. The roads are mostly very clean, but when we went there the roads were being widened and there was dust and sand everywhere, and there were so many trucks on the road. It took us almost five and a half hours to travel 125kms to reach Shillong.

Zoological & Botanical Gardens- Guwahati, Assam

This was one of the best Zoos I have ever seen in my life, very naturally situated for all these wild animals. We got to see tigers, lions, rhinos, giraffes, deer, birds, langoors, hippos...etc, in their natural habitat. Coming from Calcutta, i was always proud to proclaim that we had the biggest zoological gardens in India, but this little zoo in Guwahati completely shattered my pride in terms of the quality of the natural wildlife at show!

Cityscape- Guwahati, Assam

This photograph was taken from top of the Nilachal Hills in Guwahati. It was a breathtaking panoramic view of the entire city from up here. This is probably the first of the many panoramic shots I have taken in the trip. Beautiful place, if you look closely you will find a long serpentine train in the picture.

Guwahati, Assam

Our driver and guide in Guwahati. He was a great guy with a lot of patience, never complaining even once for the long waits while we made our visits to the local sites. He accompanied us to the local zoological gardens which was the best one in India i have seen so far!

Kamakhya Temple- Gwahati, Assam

One of those poor lambs on the premises of the temple for the sacrificing. Beautiful creatures!

Kamakhya Temple- Gwahati, Assam

This is a photograph of Mom and me on the premises of Kamakhya Temple. On the sidewalks we saw lots of goats and lambs were tied up for sacrifices. I initially didn't know that they were for offerings to the goddess to fulfill the mannat that the devotees make. There were also pigeons kept in cages for the same purpose.

Kamakhya Temple- Gwahati, Assam

The Kamakhya Temple is a Shakti Peeth temple situated on the Nilachal hills in Guwahati. Its current temple structure was constructed in the year 1565, its in a form of a beehive. It is an ancient Khasi sacrificial site, and worshiping here still includes sacrifices. Devotees still come here to sacrifice goats, pigeons and buffaloes to the goddess. A beautiful temple which leads to a man made cave where the goddess and a few other gods are worshiped everyday. Its a very long wait where the devotees have to wait in long queues. The longest queue doesn't require any tickets, but it takes the longest time, then there are tickets priced at Rs 100, 200 and 500. It was about 3 hours for us to come out seeing the insides of the cave and the goddess...was a good experience. Mom didn't go because she feels claustrophobic in such caves, and she had visited this temple before as a child when she went in and felt sick. So Dad and me went in for the offerings though we didn't sacrifice any goats or pigeons, but just a coconut :)

Ariel view of Assam

On our way to Gwahati from Calcutta. the sky was clear and I could capture some breathtaking ariel photographs with my new camera Sony DSC HX7V

Mothers believe in your abilities...even when you have serious doubts about yourself!

I have this tendency to be too casual about things thinking that everything will fall in place and I wouldn’t have to worry... And one time that I really wouldn't want to forget is when I appeared for the entrance exam at St. Xavier’s college for Mass Communication in 2006.

Since the very beginning I knew that I would be studying medical, and if not, then maybe English or Mass Communication. That’s why I focused mainly on Biology and English (English because I always heard that the prettiest girls are found in the English Dept in any college, and Biology because...well...i love anatomy). Sadly when I didn't even get anywhere close to my ambitions of getting through medical or cracking into the best English dept in town, Jadavpur...plan B followed in automatically!

I started preparing for Mass Communication as a result of my failures in my other pursuits, plus...I had heard the second place where the best looking girls go was...yes you guessed it right! The due date with the exam  was on a lazy Sunday afternoon, and the moment I stepped inside the big iron gates of St. Xavier's College, I  clearly fell in love with the place ( read: with a lot of women who had come for the test!)

More than 500 students had come for the exam, and there were only 35 seats to be taken...my grit was shaken seeing the frenzy...but the beautiful faces motivated me all the same!

The exam was a bit high on creativity and less on knowledge. If at all anything, the imaginative side of the students was at play hand in hand with their creativity and graphical prowess. A lot of sketching and scribbling was required to wring out all the content that the brain could hold onto the plain white sheets of paper.
One part of the question paper asked us to develop an already given plot by taking it forward, using some props such as: paint, grenade, some rope, a stick...etc. The paper also tested the knowledge about world cinema and current affairs. There was some English grammar and comprehension which was not at all a problem for any one of us. 

I finished the paper on time, but it wasn't all that great. I leaked the gk portions off my answer sheet, and it was only the sketching and scribbling part that I did well. I thought I had very little chance of actually clearing the screening test to the next round. I came back home and wasn't too upbeat about anything. My brother told me that I had royally screwed up my chances the moment he heard that the gk part was a sitter and I missed questions which were pretty much expected of me to know.

Now, mothers are the most optimistic people in the world after the Poets, and they know what their children are capable of. My mother was no exception and she was the only one who believed that I should at least go and have a look at the shortlisted candidates once. She convinced me to go even though I had to miss playing football that evening and travel by bus in the hot afternoon and then walk a kilometer to reach the college, but I listened to her (maybe she blackmailed me into doing it...). And when I reached and checked the list of the shortlisted candidates, I could hardy believe my eyes! I witnessed something which I couldn't ever describe ever with words- My name was there on the list.... It was the last day before the second round started! And all these days I could have very well prepared myself for the interview only if I believed a little bit more in myself and had dragged my lazy arse to check the shortlist a little earlier. And there was no way that I could have ever known that I would clear the screening if I had not listened to my mother that day!
The college took only 50% of the total shortlisted candidates and I did make it. And nothing would have been possible if I hadn’t trusted my dear mother's instincts. I owe her my graduation degree. Now I am an MBA from another good institute in Bangalore, and am getting ready for placements, and the nervousness has again set in- what company will hire me, what job will I get, what money will be up for grabs, will I at all get a good job in this financially stressed situation, etc. But I can just close my eyes and believe in my mother’s words that “what are you worried for, you are good enough, and like everyone else you too will be placed in a good organization soon!”
So moral of the story: Mothers don’t just blindly believe in you, they know you better than you would ever know yourself and they love you more than you'd love yourself. Their love drives you to the path of success, and it’s very unfortunate of the sons and daughters who don’t have faith in their mothers.

Killer Brands: Book Review

Killer Brands by Frank Lane is a very insightful book for any marketer. The author talks about how a brand can be created such that it rules the market, and how it leverages the brand equity to an advantageous position in the market. This book is very relevant for both novices as well as experts in marketing. It dives deep into the chasms of marketing practices and shows the importance of creating a compelling and differentiated expectation. And if someone really wants his products and services to be the number one choice for his customers then this book will be more than helpful for him.

The book is divided into 5 parts. And throughout the book the author focuses on a three-step technique viz. Focus, Alignment and Linkage. All these three parts are like the three sides of a triangle which give meaning to the whole concept. The author tries his best to bring forward arguments and examples from the real world to make the reader pretty much aware of all the nuggets of branding and positioning.

This book focus primarily on the American markets and the whole idea is how a marketer can break the barriers of a me-too product, with no way to compete in the market except the price. And how can he make a product which is differentiated from the rest and recognised as something which people can associate themselves with and make people ask for the product even if it is priced a little higher. The author further points out that the task of creating a ‘killer brand’ is as difficult and equally as easy. And he shows in this book how with the use of his three-step techniques anyone can make a ‘killer brand’ and bask in its success!

Here the author talks about the differences and similarities between dominant and killer brands. He takes an example of Nike as a dominant brand which is not a killer brand, whereas Air Jordans from Nike is a killer brand. Here the whole ideology is that owning a brand which is not dominant can be equally valuable as that of a dominant brand.

The book has been made very practical with numerous examples from the author’s real life where explains the nuggets that he discusses in the book. He has used the example of how the Janitor in a Drum and Spanx became leading brands even when they were products from very small companies.

The author has laid stress on the importance of strong focus in a business. He says that when it comes to creating a killer brand, the first principle of focus asserts that no matter how many strong selling points or expectations might exist, it is wise choosing one and making it the sole focus of the brand! The author further points out to a very basic fact that mere focus won’t help a brand get the killer status, the brand’s expectations needs to be compelling and differentiated from other brands that offer similar expectations. It’s not easy to learn this art in the long learn and one needs to practice this right from scratch and slowly build on the expectations. Unless a brand does exactly that, it becomes just like other me-too brands that are in galore!

The author, Frank Lane, very rightly mentions in his book about the compelling power of expectations and the other basic nuggets that really matters. Multiplying the focus without actually changing the focus is another very useful insight that the author has touched upon in this amazing book. He talks about the power of alignment whose purpose is to create coordination which in turn multiplies the power of focus. Creating the brand’s backbone with strategies that feed each other is another interesting valuable insight for the readers.

The next step of the three step process of making a brand a Killer Brand is Linkage. It aims to make your Killer Brand synonymous with the product in the marketplace, so the consumer thinks only of your brand when the need arises. Linkage is said to be a fairly simpler process as compared to the previous two steps and has been described as the glamour part of the business. The book describes various ways in which the Linkage can be created for your Killer Brand. One is to have a memorable slogan for your brand which the consumer can recollect very clearly. Also, the advertisements of your brand should be consistent with the product and in the right context and it is expected that effective ads create the right linkage. The author also says that the message that your brand should give should be simple and clear so that it doesn’t create unnecessary confusion in the minds of the consumer. And finally, the author says that the Linkage should be a continuous process and needs to be reinforced time and again. The author also gives substantial examples to justify the importance of Linkage in the success of the Brand. The process of Linkage is stated and described to be the simplest but is indeed the most difficult and complicated process.

There are many factors that affect consumer decisions rather than simply linkage and this includes the changing needs of the consumers. The process described in the book cannot be generalised to all products and many other factors should be considered to ensure the successful Brand equity.

The various examples from the day to day life at the end of the book are really catchy, though some examples may sound familiar but they are projected in a totally new light and the reader significantly relates to the theories that have been mentioned in the book. The book is a very handy guide for any marketer or a layman who is interested in knowing brands and how to make a brand really stand out and be successful in this huge competition in the market. We recommend people who are really interested in marketing to definitely go through the book as it will be a great and interesting read. Lots of fundas will be created and lots of concepts will be cleared.

Marketing in Analytics? Analytics in Marketing? :P

“How much are you willing to pay for a product and what are you willing to trade off”

Conjoint pricing is a very innovative marke

ting strategy because it segregates the functionalities, the utility as well as the price and attributes for the different consumers in the market. It does not particularly focus just on the price or just on the features, it rather focuses on what a consumer is willing to let go to for getting something else...for e.g. if a customer is willing to pay Rs 10,000 more for a laptop which has a better battery life then he is trading off on the price of the laptop. He could have spent Rs 10000 less to get a laptop if he didn’t bother about the good battery life.

So basically, conjoint pricing is a bracket or range of offerings what you are willing to pay for.

Let’s look at an example to understand th

is further...

Sony Bravia is a premium TV brand. There are so many features that you get- but the question is how much do you feel is the utility of all those features...

Let’s say you don’t want to pay for a feature that the company is offering to you, but at the same time you get other features which you definitely want in the product...hence you are looking at the utility that the product brings to you and this is because different features are looked at by different kinds of customers...

Here we have a TV which offers all this features and functionalities, and can combine these features into several groups depending on the demand criteria by the different types of customers...we can actually focus on just the size, slim, colour and pixels for customers who are more concerned about the “looks” of the television. Like this we can make several other groups and develop ad campaigns and promotional events that could be targeted at those specific utility quotients perceived by those segments of customers.

This method is very useful as it focuses on the different consumer segments more accurately and more effectively. As the people are paying for the product which is giving them the best utility according to them and not confusing them with too much information not valued by them.

Life's Old Song

Remember us when we arent there

Wonderful memories that we shared

Will always be close to us

Will always remind us of who we are

And when we never meet for long

We will always know life's old song

That tells us who we ought to be

All those days will last you'll see

Forever and ever and ever...

Never pretend to never care

We'll pick up each smile on our way

All because we are bound by this

Stirng that holds us end to end

Dreamy thoughts defines us well

And no one would know or ever tell

The faith that keeps us stong

And this is life's old song

Consumer Insight of Famous Products

Wheel detergent- this was a very important product launched by HUL in India and after studying why a consumer wants to buy a detergent powder at that end of the market they found lather is a very important cure for that, hence they decided to give them lather in the product. They also found out that a lot of detergents that the consumers were buying at that end of the market were also giving them a burning sensation in their hands. The consumer insight here was that their product gave the consumer fantastic wash, at a great price and is gentle on their hands.

Sony walkman- this consumer insight came to the then chairman of Sony Mr. Akio Morita, when he went to a park for a stroll and found some people carrying big music stereos while jogging. He thought that if his company could make a music player that would be portable and would be convenient to use, then it could really be a successful idea. Hence the walkman was invented and it became a runaway success. It eventually had to die out due to the advent of cd/vcd players.

Chick shampoo sachet- the company was the first ones to have come out with the shampoo sachet concept. They found that the consumers often the lower income group didn’t want to spend a lot of money at a time to buy a bottle of shampoo. They wanted something for cheap and convenient and at the same time of good quality. Hence the company came out with Rs. 2/- sachets which became a huge success story.

Laundry detergent tablets- Salvo was the first company to understand the pain point of the people who washed their clothes in washing machines. They realised that the process of taking the detergent out and then measuring the exact amount to be used for a perfect wash is very hectic! Hence it came out with a laundry detergent tablet which could be directly pun in the washing machine. This was a very good consumer insight.

Motion sensor room freshener- this was a good consumer insight as consumers many times wonder if their expensive room freshener is getting wasted unnecessarily when people are not present in the room. Hence the concept was born to use motion sensors which would let the room freshener to automatically spray the perfume only when it detected motion within the room.

Electric toothbrush- The first successful electric toothbrush, the Broxodent, was conceived in Switzerland in 1954 by Dr. Philippe-Guy Woog. Electric toothbrushes were initially created for patients with limited motor skills, as well as orthodontic patients (such as those with braces). Claims have been made that electric toothbrushes are more effective than manual ones as they are less dependent upon patients brushing correctly. But it slowly gained popularity and spread all across the world and was based on a very impressive consumer insight

Surf Excel Easy Wash- it was found out by HUL, that a lot of water was required to wash clothes. And in India as it is there is a distress of water and they wanted to use less water in detergents and we were the first in the market to come up with Surf Easy Wash which says you save two buckets of water in terms of rinsing. So we created a formulation for this market. This was a very nice project that surf undertook and were very successful in the market.

Mc Veggie- Mc Donald’s understood that if they wanted to launch in Indian market in a big way they needed to change the basic concept of it selling beef or just meat burgers. Its consumer insight helped them to introduce mc Veggie burgers in the Indian market. This became a huge popularity with the vegetarian people in the country and they gained a lot of customers extra, which were completely against their norms in the western world.

Canon Printers- the consumer insight here was to make something that is portable and convenient to use by the consumers. This was carrying a big insight as the whole printing experience would be changed as the smaller and portable printing machines were very much required by the corporate organisations! Here canon saw an amazing gateway which Xerox failed to monitor and hence the market share of Xerox printers got replaced by canon over a period of time!

The Innovation Economy: How technology is transforming existing industries and creating new ones.

Here the whole topic of discussion is- how innovation influences the various processes in different industries? Why do leaders of the industries have such a hard time dealing with the new technology that comes in? What is disruptive technology and how does it affect the industry?

There is great deal of dilemma when it comes to technological innovation as people feel that the whole concept is based on randomness. They feel that when they have certain objectives which they set out to meet, they very often miss by a large margin, thus they infer that innovation is just mere randomness. But researchers today, are trying to prove that innovation is not at all mere randomness, and the deviation from the targets is greatly due to the various factors that come into play in deciding our success. They are trying to find out how the probability of getting all the factors that influence the success can be maximised.

Man has always had this desire to reach the skies. Right from the Middle Ages, man had made various attempts to fly...sometimes strapping wings onto their shoulders and sometimes making machines with wings. They all fell to their deaths with their fate-less attempts. The thinkers of that time then said that it was foolish for man to even think that they could actually fly! But later on people understood that it was a waste to go against the basic laws of nature and if they had to succeed in their endeavour then they ought to flow parallel with the laws of nature. And hence the aeroplane was invented; which was nothing but a machine that was so built that the air resistance from the wings would make it airborne!

The reason why the big players in the industries have such a hard time with the changing technologies is that they are never prepared for the breakthrough changes which innovators come up with. The leaders in the industries have all grown with an accumulated year on year growth with their constant but limited innovation. It’s not because when companies reach the top they tend to become risk averse, slow, bureaucratic and lose their ability to do breakthrough innovation, but because of the mere reason that someone in the competition does something so different and radical that it totally changes the equation in the businesses!

Now, What is disruptive technology and how is it a major form of innovation and how it hampers the industry position of the stalwarts?

Disruptive technology is something that doesn’t sustain the trajectory of the technological progress. It is brought in the market as something which is worse and not better. For example: Intel launching Celeron, a cheaper and lesser efficient cousin of Pentium. Disruptive technology makes the leaders’ chances of staying at the top very difficult.

In the mid 1980s Intel made chips that were very basic and could not effectively serve the customers’ needs and demands. This led them to improve on the technology and make advanced chips such as the Quadra core duo etc. They pursued to cater to the needs of the customers to whom they could sell the improved products at a higher margin in the demanding tiers of the market. But in doing so they over shot the demands of the mainstream customers who would not require such advanced technology for their daily small works!

Apple sold its Apple 2 to children as a toy and this was a disruptive technology. Digital’s customers didn’t know how to use a personal computer and hence they never demanded what they desired of the products. The company needed to listen to their needs so that they could provide the required technologies in the next generation customers, but they got no signals from the customers because they didn’t know how to use them.

But as the years progressed, the computers went on to become way more advanced than what the customers could ask for, the technological innovations outstripped the requirements of the mainstream customers. And through the 1990s the companies targeted the mainstream market where the margins were lower and the requirements were also lower. But the choice that the companies had to make was whether to make high end computers that earned them huge margins or concentrate more on the lower priced computers which would earn them a much lesser margin but a significant amount of sales. Most of the companies capitalised on this segment by coming out with low priced computers, and that was the time when households all across the world started purchasing for their personal use in a big way!

If an innovation company seeks to enter an industry with a sustaining technology (as in the case of computers), meaning they try to introduce a better product which is actually better than the products currently available then the chances of success is nearly zero! This is because you create a territory in the industry which the leaders can easily copy because of their immense strength and resources, plus it becomes a region for more profit margins for them. But when a company enters an industry with a disruption then it becomes very easy for the company’s success, because they can seize a territory which the leaders don’t want because that becomes less profitable for them.

Companies keep falling to the belief that there can be demand for high end products and they keep on innovating and make products and overshoot what even the most advanced customers can actually use. Hence companies enter the disrupted market with lower technology products which cuts down sales of the high end products...then other companies enter with more limiting technologies at much lesser prices...so this vicious cycle kills the players who keeps innovating and overshoots the demand and utility limit of the customers. And the reason for innovative failure is because of the belief that there will be more demanding application for products at the high end.

People buy a lot of technology but hardly use it or don’t know how to use the products to their full utility. For example many people have broadband high speed internet but they hardly use it except for sending or receiving emails, this is very typical of the older generation.

There are two types of disruptive technologies:

First: The slightly low end technology at a cheaper price tag and lesser profit margin. These are the products which are good value for money to people who want products at a much affordable rate and are also confident of being competent of using the product efficiently. Example: the Celeron chip for personal computers, which were a little low end but very good and efficient product for the mainstream customers who didn’t want to pay a large sum for an advanced micro processor in their computers. Intel successfully disrupted the industry and stayed on top adopting this method.

Second: the discount retailers such as Wal-Mart and K-Mart, where they sold commodities at a much lesser price than the other retailers. This created their own sweet space in the market where they got customers who were willing to travel a little outside of the cities and do the shopping at a much cheaper rate. And now the hard goods specialty discounters like home depot, toys R us, Staples etc. They are now come in from the bottom and have disrupted the market. They don’t create new markets but they create a lower cost business model that allows the disrupted innovator to discount prices that are required to win market share.

There is a lot of creation involved to effectively use these disruption technologies. The companies are constantly looking at targeting the existing customers or are trying to cater to new customers with their innovations. For example the vacuum valve was replaced by the disrupted innovation of transistors which were much smaller in size. Then Sony later came out with a much smaller portable radio which was cheaper and also convenient for the youth to carry around with them. These competed with non consumption, as we also saw when portable television was invented.

The voice processor is a new venture that technology oriented companies are targeting at. They want to substitute the word processor with a word processor. So by merely launching the technology won’t help the companies if they don’t find a way to disrupt the market and make the technology cheaper than the current technology! The main hurdle here is to predict whether technology can make the life easier for the larger group of the targeted population who lack the historic skills or the money to participate in the market. Whether the new technology will be helpful where the substituted technology can be a little difficult to use, or are people are willing to buy the crummy products.

We will have to wait and see what these innovations hold in the lives of the common man in future. In a very short span of 2 decades we have moved from ancient boxes that could compute numbers and do word processing for us, to the wireless and nano technology age where computers are getting smaller and smarter. We have seen gadgets change, replace old ones and evolve, and we are yet to see so many path-breaking innovations that researchers and scientists are currently working on...

What the industry challenges will be... how the customers’ demands will be met...only time will tell!

Clustering Analysis

How can cluster analysis be best used?

The objective of cluster analysis is to assign observations to groups (clusters) so that observations within each group are similar to one another with respect to variables or attributes of interest and the groups themselves stand apart from one another. In other words, the objective is to divide the observations into homogeneous and distinct groups. In contrast to the classification problem where each observation is known to belong to one of a number of groups and the objective is to predict the group to which a new observation belongs, cluster analysis seeks to discover the number and composition of the groups.

Before we do a clustering of the data, we must understand the objectives of the same. Or else at the end of everything we will be left with loads of charts and graphs and nothing valuable to decipher from all that data. So we must understand why we need to cluster information under one head and what values can be added by correlating the different clusters that we make. For example, if we group the features and attributes of a product such as a mobile phone which concerns the product features such as sms, wi-fi, 3g, alarm, clock, radio, music player, torch, etc then we might be able to tell what are the things we should focus on depending on the customer preferences and dislikes. We can tell whether any feature is underutilised in any of the groups of people, if some features are not adding any value to the customer but he has to pay for it, whether a bundling of features can be given to the customers which will make their mobile experience more useful, time saving and convenient.

Uses of cluster analysis in marketing

The primary use of cluster analysis in marketing has been for market segmentation. And now market segmentation has become an important tool for both academic research and applied marketing. Today the marketing world is equipped with hundreds of market segmentation techniques and most of these techniques instead of bringing simplicity, confuses the marketer. These techniques have served to shift discussions of researchers form more substantive issues of meta-research directed at integrating market segmentation research. One of the major areas of future research should be the evaluation of the conditions under which various data analytical techniques are most appropriate.

All segmentation research, regardless of the method used, is designed to identify groups of entities (people, markets, organizations) that share certain common characteristics (attitudes, purchase propensities, media habits, etc.). Stripped of the specific data employed and the details of the purposes of a particular study, segmentation becomes a grouping task.

It has been noticed that researchers tend to select grouping methods largely on the basis of familiarity, availability, and cost rather than on the basis of the methods’ characteristics and appropriateness. These practices can be attributed to the lack of research on similarity measures, grouping (clustering) algorithms, and effects of various data transformations.

A second and equally important use of cluster analysis has been in seeking a better understanding of buyer behaviours by identifying homogeneous groups of buyers. Cluster analysis has been less frequently applied to this type of theory-building problem, possibly because of theorists’ discomfort with a set of procedures which appear ad hoc. Cluster analysis is one means for developing such taxonomies.

Cluster analysis has been employed in the development of potential new product opportunities. By clustering brands/products, competitive sets within the larger market structure can be determined. Thus, a firm can examine its current offerings vis-à-vis those of those of its competitors. The firm can determine the extent to which a current or potential product offering is uniquely positioned or is in a competitive set with other products. Although cluster analysis has not been used frequently in such applications, largely because of the availability of other techniques such as multidimensional scaling, it is not uncommon to find cluster analysis used as an adjunct to these other techniques. Cluster analysis has also been suggested as an alternative to factor discriminant analysis. In such applications, in which case cluster analysis would not be used as a classification technique and the analyst would face a different set of issues from those addressed here.

Cluster analysis has also been employed by several researchers in the problem of test market selection. Such applications are concerned with the identification of relatively homogeneous sets of test markets which may become interchangeable in test market studies. The identification of such homogeneous sets of test markets allows generalization of the results obtained in ine test market to other test markets in the same cluster, thereby reducing the number of test markets required.

Finally the cluster analysis has been used as a general data reduction technique to develop aggregates of data which are more general and more easily managed than individual observations. For e.g. limits on the number of observations that can be used in multidimensional scaling programs often necessitate an initial clustering of observations. Homogeneous clusters then become the unot of analysis for the multidimensional scaling procedure.

The lack of speciality about the method of clustering in some of the marketing studies tells about the problems associated with the use if of cluster analysis. The lack of detailed reporting suggests either an ignorance of or a lack of concern for the important parameters of the clustering method used. Failure to provide specific information about the method also tends to inhibit replication and provides little guidance for the other researchers who might seek an appropriate method of cluster analysis. Use of specific program names rather than the more general algorithm name impedes inter-study comparisons. This situation suggests a need for a sound review of clustering methodology for the market researcher. Though they mention some empirical work on the characteristics of these measures and algorithms, their report is primarily a catalogue of techniques and some marketing applications. Relatively little guidance is provided to the researcher who is seeking to discover the characteristics and limitations of various grouping procedures.

D(H)ELL

If I had to choose a brand which I hate, Dell comes to my mind in an instant!

I really had a harrowing experience with the brand and I am never going to trust this brand again. My brother's first laptop was a Dell inspiron, and he literally had to go crazy taking care of its so many problems.

After a couple of months of absolutely proper and sober use, the lcd cracked without any reason, and when he asked the company to repair the damage as it was under warranty, they said that its not possible as the screen was not covered within the one year warranty scheme. He had to pay RS 16,000 to repair the laptop and he was still not happy with the company’s work. The same old lcd display was never really achieved!

The laptop had this issue of heating up a lot, and it was literally impossible to work with it keeping it on your lap for more than 15 minutes. The sound was of pretty ordinary quality and so was the hardware. The computer was very fragile and the hinges gave way just when the warranty ended…and he had to again shell out 3 thousand rupees to get it fixed! By that time we had already decided that we were never ever going to buy a Dell again our life!

I don’t know if it’s the brand or if it was just me who was having a series of bad affairs with the products of the brand. But soon I was convinced with the former, the brand certainly had a problem as after coming to college here in symbiosis I found that my roommate’s dell inspiron getting corrupt in just 4 and a half months! Though he and I use our laptops pretty much the same manner, but his gave way real too fast! And my new sony vaio which I bought recently was really working like magic! The poor guy (my roommate) had to call up the call centre guys every week to get his laptop fixed but they could never sort out the problems! He had his hard drive crashed twice in 4 and a half months and it was becoming very irritating for him, but finally he got his laptop replaced with a brand new one. But I still hear complaints from him about its poor quality and the problems with the laptop.

My brother's old dell inspiron, which he still uses, again created some problems as the battery had suddenly gone dead and the circuit got corrupted. It set him poorer by another thousand to get it checked and fixed. And now I have no trust left with this brand. I am irritated and really feel like advising everyone against buying the brand as I don’t want to go through the same problems that I faced. I feel that the company does not focus on what they have really set out to achieve. The service is of very poor quality and I find my current brand of laptop (sony vaio) very satisfying as I have used it more than one year already and I haven’t have one single problem with it.

In India people a very price sensitive and if a company delivers something cheaper without having to compromising on the quality then people appreciate the products and start trusting the brand. But when people realise that it’s just a strategy to cut down on manufacturing and production cost by compromising with the quality of the product they really don’t remain on the same respect level anymore. I think dell should take this into consideration and start making good quality products so that people like me don’t have such harrowing experiences after using the product!

Rishikesh- travel experience (in progress)

Day 1- day of the journey

We had to board a bus to Rishikesh from Kashmere gate ISBT at 11 in the night, but things weren’t quite going the way we expected them to be. It was a very hot and unusually humid day in delhi, and I was already taken for a fry doing market survey at Ghaziabad for my company as a management trainee. I reached Bumba’s place from Ghaziabad exactly two and a half hours after noon. He wasn’t home, but he left a key under the wastepaper basket.

The plan was to collect all our booze and clothes in as little luggage as possible as a lot of trekking had to be done. At around 8pm we set our journey with Riku joining us directly at ISBT after finishing office at Noida sec 16. At Kashmere Gate we had dinner at dominoes and when we went to the bus depot, we were surprised to see that there were no buses empty! All the seats were already booked even before we reached there. And we realised that we had no options but to take the private bus by paying extra. And the delhi heat and the food turned out to be quite a disaster for my stomach, and I got my stomach a little runny!

The bus was not even an AC one and we were cramped into tiny seats with overboard bunks as sleepers. The people travelling in the sleepers had to really struggle as there was about a couple of feet space for two persons. The situation was really getting a bit too crampy and uneasy, and the heated bus environment was drying our throats as we constantly sipped water to stay conscious. I was already feeling a bit nauseous with the heat and the sweat. in about some umpteenth attempts, the bus started the engine and throttled forward with the cold night air gushing in through the window.

In the meantime, another thing happened- the conductor had boarded an extra passenger in the bus and she had no seat available. The bus therefore had to turn back and get her down at the depot and start again on the same way. The only female passenger deserted us and we dolefully made our way into the silent delhi night. The clock showed it was already half past midnight and another 5-6 hours of journey was left for Haridwar.

After a couple of dusty and bumpy hours in the bus we arrived at a refreshment point where we all got down and had some food and fags. The bus again started after 30 minutes at that place, and this time we all dozed off peacefully.

It was already 6 am when we woke up at the sounds of the passengers, you always know that you destination was near when you heard such sounds. We got down at haridwar and I ran for a paid toilet. It was a great morning. We were nearing the thick of action and couldn’t wait to explore all that was waiting for us.

First stop hardwar

The morning air was refreshing for a change. We were pretty tired from the uncomfortable bus ride (thanks to the agents who promised us an air conditioned bus but ultimately accommodated us in a non a/c one). The much awaited trip for us was finally on its way and was rolling just as we imagined it to be. We took out some fags (we were stocked with about a week’s fag) and started our journey.

Breakfast was the next thing on our mind as we weren’t much of pilgrims. Though we were in Hardwar we didn’t feel the urge to get bestowed by the holiness of the place, but we did feel a lot of peace and quiet there in the morning. No hustle bustle, no chaos, no announcements over the mikes, no pilgrims, no noise...just the ghats and some devoted people who had come to take a bath in the river Ganges. The water seemed so much fresher than what we saw in UP and Bengal, and free of the mucky and gooey colour and feel. I almost wanted to touch the water and sprinkle it on my tired face, but seeing the rush and the current of the water I decided to postpone the idea.

We reached a pretty done up alleyway, full of advertisements and posters, chai and breakfast shops. Amongst that we noticed a nice restaurant totally Indian, rather desi, with lassi glasses and galebies on display. It pretty much brought a smile on our face as we entered. We ordered for a regular breakfast of puri and sabji and a glass of lassi. It was one of the most satisfying breakfast experiences for a very long time, as i had been staying out of home for a pretty long time and my culinary expertise fell flat when it came to the desi breakfast at this particular shop.

Converse- All Star

Converse is a brand I respect immensely as it gives me a feel of being different from the rest. The best thing about these shoes is that they are very versatile and redefine style its in own sweet manner. They look amazing with their aggressive, playful, yet classy appeal. I remember buying these shoes off a hi end shopping mall some 7 years back and instantly fell in love with the brand. I have been a devoted converse fan ever since and own 4 pairs of shoes from the them.

Converse- All Star was first produced in 1917 as ‘Chuck Taylor All Stars’ which targeted the basketball shoe segment. It has evolved into a cult product and has carved a niche for itself with the masses. The brand recall is immense and its almost at par with other major brands like Nike, Reebok and Adidas.

Converse was not particularly popular until basketball player Chuck Taylor adopted them as his preferred shoe. He was so impressed with the design that he became the shoe's leading salesman. After proposing a few changes to the shoe, the shoe got its current name and Chuck Taylor's signature on its ankle patch.

The likes of Chuck Taylor, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Avril Lavigne and many such celebs, be it in the field of music, sports, acting or politics…have really given this a cult status and people perceive this brand as something they can identify with. Its much more than ownership…its more of a sense of belonging to the same league as those who really influence them.

The designs of the shoes that they came out with were very simple yet very different from conventional designs. They were one of the first ones to come out with different materials and design for the shoes. Materials such as canvas (mainly used as a tent material), leather, suede, vinyl, denim, and hemp etc are used for the material of the shoes.

Consumers demanded more variety from these shoes - particularly with respect to colours in order to match basketball teams - so coloured and patterned shoelaces became popular to complement the two colours, black and white, available before 1966. Afterwards, more colours and styles became available. Low-top or "Oxford", high-top, and later knee-high, versions were produced. Some versions of the shoe were offered without laces, held up instead by elastic. When Converse was bought by Nike and operations were moved from the United States to overseas, the design saw a few alterations. The fabric is no longer 2-ply cotton canvas but 1-ply "textile" and many wearers have noticed different patterns of wear.

The company really didn't brainstorm much to come out with different fits and designs for the different age groups, sex or professions of the customers, but followed a unique format where the shoes were unisex which could be custom designed and modified, just like a high end auto mobile.

The star logo inscribed into a circle and the ‘all-star’ brand name written at the heel of the shoe is really fascinating and appeals to the crowd. Youngsters have welcomed this brand with all their faith and they love the brand with all their heart. It's becoming a challenge to find musicians who don't own a pair of converse all-star!

I am a big fan of this brand and have been using it for at least 6-7 years. The brand has now catapulted into other merchandise as well such as bags, caps, apparels etc. it is very price friendly and at the same time gives us the sense of individuality. The brand owners have already become a club like a fraternity club, where they feel that the converse wearers belong to the same league.