Will Manchester United Actually Stay With AIG ???

With $150 billion of US government support, there has been intense scrutiny on the insurer’s spending habits, including those bonuses, some of which have now been returned. But AIG has to pay somewhere in between $20 million and $28 million to finish its four-year deal it signed with the team Manchester United in 2006.

The Question is not that how is AIG doing this? But the issue is that whether Manchester United and the owner Malcolm Glazer really cool with sporting these jerseys as they continue their quest to win championships? Actually it’s hard to get a quick sponsorship deal in this environment, but you have to think that it’s worth shelving the embarrassment by paying back the money from the rest of the deal and trying to sign a temporary stand-in.

But what about the ‘Nike’ jerseys which are already in production for next year? As explained by the London Telegraph recently, should AIG change the name to AIU (American Insurance United) would be responsible for the jersey change, but obviously if ManU ditches AIG, or whatever they’ll be called, for a blank jersey or another sponsor they would probably have to pay the bill.

How embarrassing would it be then for ManU to wear the AIG logo on their chests as they try to win the Champions League in Rome in May?

Ref.- Reuters

Credits - Manik Gursahani

Biggest Holders of US Government Debt !!!

As the US government spends an unprecedented amount of money to fix the nation's economy, there is an equally great need to raise the cash to pay for it. This is accomplished through borrowing, whereby ‘US Treasury’ sells Treasury securities of varying maturity.

For investors, the government bills, notes and bonds are considered a safe financial product because they have a guaranteed rate of return, based on faith in future US tax revenues. The government has been partially funding operations via Treasury securities for decades. This borrowing adds to the national debt, which is now above $11 trillion and is rising every day. Much of that debt is held by private sector, but about 40 percent is held by public entities, including parts of the government. Here's who owns the most.

1. Federal Reserve & Intragovernmental Holdings- $4.806 trillion
2. Mutual Funds- $769.1 billion
3. China- $739.6 billion
4. Japan- $634.8 billion
5. State & Local Governments- $522.7 billion
6. Pension Funds- $456.4 billion
7. Other Investors- $413.2 billion
8. Oil Exporters- $186.3 billion
9. Caribbean Banking Centres- $176.6 billion
10. Brazil- $133.5 billion
11. Insurance Companies- $126.4 billion
12. United Kingdom- $ 124.2billion
13. Russia- $119.3billion
14. Luxembourg -$87.2billion
15. US Depository Institutions- $107.3billion

I believe even if 5% holdings of all these entities enters the stock market of this world the volatility of the market will try to smoothen up and it would bring comfort and confidence to the financial market. Every entity being futuristic is still ready to hold and borrow more and more debt from an economy which is said to be the sole cause for this recession.

Ref.- CNBC

Credits - Manik Gursahani

OPEN... a weekly mind stimulant...!!!

RPG group is entering into publications by launching its new current affairs magazine named, “OPEN”. It would be launched on 3rd of April. Sandipan Deb is the editor of the magazine, who, in fact, was one of the founder editors of Outlook, more than a decade ago.

The positioning of this magazine is quite interesting. As per the report from afaqs, the target audience would be. 'Individuals who belong to SEC A1, are around 32 years (both male and female) of age, with a monthly household income of Rs 2 lakh, hold senior managerial positions, drive C segment cars, wear branded apparel, use high-end phones or Blackberrys and travel abroad at least once a year.'
It would be available only in top 12 cities of India, with the price of Rs.30. Its competitors India Today, Outlook etc. charges Rs.25 per issue. Open, feels that there is no direct competition with these magazines, which, according to them, are more mass magazines. ‘It will be positioned as an interesting, intelligent and stimulating magazine.’

Open also thought of interesting form of marketing too. Firstly, magazine would be sold only on its merits and not on the basis of freebies. ‘Therefore, the magazine is actively pursuing an alternate model of acquiring readers. They have a database of their target audience that has passed through stringent filters. Open is sending an exclusive and personalized offer to these cherry-picked consumers, giving them an opportunity to experience the product for four issues free of cost.’

Moreover, Open’s size will be more than an inch wider than the standard A4 size of most of the magazines. Thus, when opened, the magazine gives an additional two inches for the content and also maximizes the ad impact.

Open has planned a 360 degree communication strategy, which includes outdoor in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, multiplexes and the Internet. To start with, television isn't part of the media mix. Ad films will be shown in multiplexes, before movies that are frequented by their target audience. Also, there will be buzz-marketing activities at malls to engage them.

It would be interesting to see, how successful is Open's marketing, once it is out in the market.

Ref. - www.afaqs.com

Why India needs a Nano ???

Suhel Seth rightly says, "From a marketing perspective, it has already gone into the lexicon of India's people and the fact that Tata called it a people's car is even more suggestive of the transfer of ownership of the brand from a company to its users: the people. How many brands can claim this? And how many brands have ever used this form of positioning? It is rare in times such as these to avoid paid advertising and yet launch a brand that has a lot riding on it. But then again, Nano is one car that needs no definition. It has been embraced as a vehicle of change but even more critically; as a vehicle of empowerment and it is here that the Tatas have provided that huge leap as it were."

Read More - "Why India needs a Nano?"

Build your own NANO...!!!

Without going to the showroom, now you can decide upon how your Tata Nano should look like. Tata Nano’s website offer’s you to build your own Tata Nano. Customize your Nano as per your preference. The website offers you to customize on colors, wheels, decals, scoop trim etc.

Go and check out yourself!

Visit - Tata Nano

Deflation On Inflation...

In simple layman terms deflation connotes a contraction in the general price levels. As the inflation has fallen to a 30 year low of 0.44 %, which is now turning out to new darker clouds of deflation from inflation on India. The skyrocketing inflation has come to an end for now but had put us into new worrisome shoes in this dis-inflationary environment is a fallout of the drop in commodity prices, rollback in production and weakening demand. Such a sudden and frenzied fall in inflation numbers brings to another worry, namely Deflation.

For general consumers food grain prices are still holding high, vegetable prices have gone down lower on diesel prices. The decline in prices of food articles, fuel and metals has pushed the WPI to strange lows in March, 09. Mainly consumers and manufacturers defer spending, trying to cut production costs by either firing workers or employees which entirely leads to drop in demand and further fall in prices. Deflation has a deep and harsh impact on the economy. As companies are forced to sell their products at reduced prices along with reduce out their margins, which indirectly threatens job loss and pay cuts which is a cause of worry.

There is still a room of scope and joy as the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is a reflector of retail prices at the end-consumer level, held firm at 10.45%. Along with that Oil prices has again started soaring in international market along with that all time gold prices will bring some respite to the commodities market. Along with that this was just on week figures so deflation has not officially entered Indian Economy. I believe both RBI & Present government won't give easy permission giving out more scope to debt to expand from now onwards for a medium term. So folks don’t panic…..

Credits - Manik Gursahani

Ref. - Business Line

Limca's... “Haseen Lamho Ko” !!!

Saw the new Limca’s advertisement, “Haseen Lamho Ko”? This ad featuring Niketan Madhok and Sushma Reddy (mine favorite) is a huge hit these days. On Orkut, more often you can see this ad featuring in everyone’s favorite videos list. People are making “Haseen Lamho Ko” as its ringtones and caller tune.

Imagine, showing this 2.30 minutes advertisement at the prime time slot, and paying nothing! Reason, “Haseen Lamho Ko” is been played on the top music channels, over and over again, as a song. Coke is not spending a single penny to these music channels to show the advertisement. Moreover, Music channels are bound to play its music video, due to its popularity.

Srinivas Murthy, GM-marketing (Flavours), Coca-Cola India agrees “When the Limca ad was first aired, it was a 40-second TV commercial for which we had to pay the channels,” he says. “But when we started getting innumerable requests on our toll-free number for the song, we thought why not scale it up.” Murthy feels that music channels are only too happy to play “Haseen Lamho Ko” over and over again because it has all the elements of a music video — great visuals and an engaging background score. “And in the video the Limca brand is not too much in your face either,” adds Murthy. “This doesn’t put off the viewer even if he watches it a number of times.”

That’s called intelligent marketing!!! Three cheers to Limca’s “Haseen Lamho Ko”!!!

See the ad here - "Haseen Lamho Ko"

Ref.- Economic Times

A day before its launch... Tata Nano !!!

Just a day is left, when the most eagerly awaited car, Tata Nano would be launched. Tata Nano holds huge importance not just only for Indian consumers, but also for Tata Motors. Tata Nano has the heavy burden of expectations. Tata Motors expects Nano to turn their fortunes. When I was in Tata Motors, dealers used to ask me in every meeting, “When will Nano get launched?” Moreover, Indian consumers were waiting for this 1 lakh car. Nano brings dreams (of buying a car) of the lower class and middle class families into reality. Tata Nano is already been termed as “People’s car”!

Similar was the feeling among Indians, when Tata Indica was launched as the first indigenously made car.
Following are the similarities between Tata Nano’s launch and Tata Indica’s launch.

Read Here - The Economic Times

EMAMI.. Going Britannia’s way !!!

“Tin tin tin tin”… Remember this Britannia signature tune! Britannia used this signature tune successfully to link all its brands in a common thread. Now Emami is going Britannia’s way. Emami has planned to come with a sign-off tune for its brands in advertisements (April onwards).

Emami group of companies’ director Aditya V Agarwal said: "The Company has more than 25 brands under its umbrella, but all of them are not power brands. Since the brand equity of our lesser known brands was getting lost, the sign-off tune will help the smaller brands to ride on the huge acceptance and popularity of our power brands."

As per me, it’s a smart idea, but Emami shouldn’t expect any radical shifts in sales! It’s just a brand building exercise! Yes, the lesser known sub-brands of Emami will get a little push. But does Emami holds enough Brand equity that consumers will buy, just on its name? I have lot of doubts on this aspect.

A Rs 2,000 crore diversified group, Emami owns power brands like Boroplus, Navratna, Fair and Handsome, Sona Chandi Chyawanprash, Mentho Plus, Himani Fast Relief as well as the entire range of Zandu Pharmaceutical products.

Ref.- Economic Times

Tata's "T!ON"...

Tata is planning to enter the Pepsi and Coke's den. Tata Tea, has launched non-carbonated beverages as "T!ON". Due to the strong presence of Pepsi and Coke, the barriers to entry in this industry were really high. Tata's only, with their humongous distribution presence in India, can have dared to enter this monopolized market. Parle Agro (Frooti and Appy) is fighting the battle with the giants of the beverage industry, in India.

As per now, T!ON is under concept testing. The brand has been launched in a small way, only in Chennai region. The product has been launched in three flavors-Mango Rush, Peach Punch and Apple Buzz. If the consumer's reaction is positive, sooner the brand would be made available to every retail store, pan India.
Tata's can gain super-normal profits if they are able to establish their brand T!ON. The journey would be tough, and the toughest challenge would be the Positioning and Price. The 400 ml bottle has been competitively priced at Rs 22. I believe, its smart pricing. Because, consumers don't really differentiate between a 400ml. bottle and a 500 ml. bottle. Moreover, pricing of Pepsi's 600 ml. bottle is Rs. 20 itself. Thus the just negotiable difference is less.

But, positioning still holds the key to success. I guess, we have to wait for few more months to get our answers!

By the way, I am still confused how the brand "T!ON" would be pronounced!

Ref.- Economic Times

Citigroup: Crisis along with Shake-up

Citigroup, is changing its way significantly. Gary Crittenden as the new Chief Financial Officer, is being made responsible to manage all its underperforming and toxic assets. Crittenden has earned the confidence of the financial community. It is a welcome relief for the firm as they want to release these assets as soon as possible.Gary Crittenden along with Vikram Pandit wants to live with the dream to restore the third-largest U.S. Bank even after $38.5 billion in losses over five quarters.

Citigroup is also involved in some financial gymnastics to raise its sunken share price. Citigroup is planning a reverse stock split-equivalent of giving $10 billion to its investors in exchange for split. This lead to a short term rally in the share price of Citigroup since the beleaguered company is earning profits in the first two months of this year. To my view this won’t make a significant change in its fundamental outlook for the company. In financial terms a reverse stock split reduces the number of shares outstanding and therefore the share prices also increases proportionately. This financial housecleaning will also help in the bailout plan to go smoothly.

Credits : Manik Gursahani

Male vs Female MBAs...

"Female MBA graduates not only earn significantly less than their male colleagues, but the gap grows over time, according to a paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research. The authors tracked the earnings of 1,600 MBAs who graduated from the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business between 1990 and 2006; they attribute the differences to choice of subjects (women took fewer finance courses), that women’s careers were subject to more interruptions, and that the women worked fewer hours than the men.

The main underlying reason for the second and third of these explanations is that once women MBAs had children, many cut back on hours, or dropped out—13% of the women in the study were not working at all ten years after graduating, while the corresponding figure for men was a mere 1%. The researchers stress that active discrimination is unlikely to have played much of a role in the pay gap—but the continued influence of gender roles in determining career paths is clear."

Read More : The Economist

High Retail Markups in Beverages...???

Some of our favorite refreshing beverages carry some of the heftiest retail markups.

Bottled water is wildly popular -- Americans spent $16 billion on the ubiquitous drink in 2007 -- and it's wildly overpriced, considering that 40 percent of bottled water is nothing but filtered tap water. In fact, for the price of a single bottle of "Evian" bottled water, you could pay for 1,000 gallons (3,785.4 liters) of municipal tap water. With bottled water, you're not paying for the H2O, but rather the packaging and the convenience.

Coffee is another culprit, especially if you buy it in a coffee shop. If you make coffee at home, it costs between 25 and 50 cents a cup, depending on the quality of your beans. That same cup will cost you well over $3 at "Starbucks" -- the same price that store might pay for an entire pound of beans wholesale. Interestingly, only about 25 cents of a $3.75 latte is profit for Starbucks. The rest pays for importing and roasting the beans, milk, the cup, labor and overhead costs.

But the biggest beverage markup of them all belongs to Wine in restaurants. The average retail markup on a bottle of wine in a restaurant is 300 percent. The best advice: Bring your own bottle and pay the $10 corking fee.


Read More : Howstuffworks

Coke Ke Sath Dost Free...

Coke has come up with a new TVC "Coke ke sath dost free" with Gautam Gambhir. As per me, I really liked the idea as well as the advertisement. Its riveting and refreshing. Its refreshing especially after horrible series of ads, Coke recently had. Earlier ads (Hrithik and Diwali ads) were really boring and unattractive.

People are able to connect with such ads. Cricket season is starting in India with IPL and T20 Worldcup to follow. This ad with Gautam Gambhir and Cricket as background has a great potential to click with the customers. If these "Coke ke sath dost free" ads are extended with the same theme, I believe, it could really help in building strong relationship with the customers.

It seems Coke has tighten its belt to compete with Pepsi's "Youngistan" ads in this advertising space. Hope Coke doesn't falter again in brand building through such ads.

Coke has also roped in Aamir Khan back for a 2 years contract. I still love the Coke ads with Aamir Khan theme. Hope to see these two iconic brands back in action again.

Know your Customer...!!!

A disappointed salesman of Coca Cola returns from his Middle East assignment.
A friend asked, "Why weren't you successful with the Arabs?"

The salesman explained, "When I got posted in the Middle East, I was very confident that I would make a good sales pitch as Cola is virtually unknown there. But, I had a problem I didn't know to speak Arabic. So, I planned to convey the message through three posters...



First poster - A man lying in the hot desert sand...totally exhausted and fainting.
Second poster - man is drinking our Cola.
Third poster- Our man is now totally refreshed.

Then these posters were pasted all over the place"

"That should have worked," said the friend.

The salesman replied "I also didn't realize that Arabs go from right to left" !!!

The Theory of THREE !!! - 2

I have always believed that there are three kinds of people in the world.

One, who does a mistake, never admits them, neither improve on them.These are offensive, arrogant and over-confident people. In the long run, these people are generally unsuccessful.

Second, who does a mistake, admits it, but never improves on it.They are humble, defensive and unconfident people. In the long run, these people live an average life, without risks.
As per me, I belong to category Second.And working on to become a part of Third category.

And Third, who does a mistake, admits it, and never repeats it. They are the leaders, who are confident as well as humble. They take risks in life and live a successful life.

Why is it so, that most of people lie in the category One?

Which category, do you belong to???

Admit your mistake...!!!

I have always believed that there are three kinds of people in the world.

One, who does a mistake, never admits them, neither improve on them.These are offensive, arrogant and over-confident people. In the long run, these people are generally unsuccessful.

Second, who does a mistake, admits it, but never improves on it.They are humble, defensive and unconfident people. In the long run, these people live an average life, without risks.
As per me, I belong to category Second.And working on to become a part of Third category.

And Third, who does a mistake, admits it, and never repeats it. They are the leaders, who are confident as well as humble. They take risks in life and live a successful life.

Why is it so, that most of people lie in the category One?

Which category, do you belong to???

World-Sourcing... !!!

India has reached a critical juncture in determining whether it will shape or be shaped by globalisation. It’s now faced with the daunting challenge of moving toward becoming both a net producer and consumer of high-value intellectual property.“Worldsourcing” can help set India on a new course to prosperity and its fair share of the global economy.

Worldsourcing, in short, is a business strategy that smart, ambitious companies use to take the underlying forces of globalisation and shape them to maximise the value and quality they deliver to customers worldwide. At the same time, it makes maximum use of all the dispersed resources of a company, from talent to intellectual property to manufacturing muscle.

The distinctions between the so-called emerging and developed markets are rapidly fading, a trend that began with the emergence of information technology and global communications. This made it possible for billions of people in every part of the world to join a rapidly growing middle-class.Those consumers, no matter where they are, demand access to high-value products and services. This means producers must increasingly reach and sell wherever profitable markets exist, anywhere in the world. Thus, a worldsourcing company can create value 24 hours a day, following the sun.

There are crucial differences between worldsourcing and outsourcing. Outsourcing is a centralised, top-down strategy designed to save money on non-core operations by handing those operations to a third party evaluated by a single criterion: the lowest price.
Worldsourcing, by contrast, is a global, decentralised strategy designed to drive greater value and quality by distributing an organisation’s core functions — management, operations, processes, and production — across multiple global hubs of excellence located wherever the best resources, talent, ideas, and efficiencies exist or can be created.

Yang Yuanqing, CEO, Lenovo, coined the term Worldsourcing,in an article,where he referred Lenevo as a Worldsourcing company.

World-Sourcing... !!!

India has reached a critical juncture in determining whether it will shape or be shaped by globalisation. It’s now faced with the daunting challenge of moving toward becoming both a net producer and consumer of high-value intellectual property.“Worldsourcing” can help set India on a new course to prosperity and its fair share of the global economy.

Worldsourcing, in short, is a business strategy that smart, ambitious companies use to take the underlying forces of globalisation and shape them to maximise the value and quality they deliver to customers worldwide. At the same time, it makes maximum use of all the dispersed resources of a company, from talent to intellectual property to manufacturing muscle.

The distinctions between the so-called emerging and developed markets are rapidly fading, a trend that began with the emergence of information technology and global communications. This made it possible for billions of people in every part of the world to join a rapidly growing middle-class.Those consumers, no matter where they are, demand access to high-value products and services. This means producers must increasingly reach and sell wherever profitable markets exist, anywhere in the world. Thus, a worldsourcing company can create value 24 hours a day, following the sun.

There are crucial differences between worldsourcing and outsourcing. Outsourcing is a centralised, top-down strategy designed to save money on non-core operations by handing those operations to a third party evaluated by a single criterion: the lowest price.
Worldsourcing, by contrast, is a global, decentralised strategy designed to drive greater value and quality by distributing an organisation’s core functions — management, operations, processes, and production — across multiple global hubs of excellence located wherever the best resources, talent, ideas, and efficiencies exist or can be created.

Yang Yuanqing, CEO, Lenovo, coined the term Worldsourcing,in an article,where he referred Lenevo as a Worldsourcing company.

The Theory of TWO !!! - 1

ANGER MANAGEMENT


Your close friend, suddenly shouts on you, yells at you!
He/she criticizes you, condemns and complains, in public, of no reason!

How should you react???

Generally observed behavior suggests, that there are two ways to react.

First,tit for tat! Give your friend a nice, harsh reply, so that it never happens again. Teach him/her a lesson, so that he/she may never ever dare to repeat such behavior!And again if he/she reacts,make sure you win "The War of the Words".

Second, listen calmly, and try to clarify.If the situation gets heated up,leave the topic and just don't react. Later, try to understand the reason, and try solving the issue. If its your mistake, go and say "Sorry"! Try to clarify your reasons and patch-up. But if its your friend's mistake, make him/her realize it, politely, when he is calm and ready to listen.

As per me, I prefer the second one! I found it more mature, logical, and effective.

But, why so, that most of the people around us, chose to follow the first method?

First method, will surely led to an end of relationship. And even if the relation doesn't end, there would be no mutual love and respect.
Second method, will solve the issue once for all.Moreover, relationship will get strengthened. And even if relationship ends, you will always retain a level of respect.

What's your call on it?