Where do we Begin -Guerrilla Marketing !!

If there’s any correct time to start, it’s right now. If there’s any proper place, it’s right where you are. You’ll never feel you are completely ready, so you may as well begin immediately.

If there’s any secret to be learned, it’s the secret of taking action and never stopping. You’ve heard Diana Ross sing when she was a member of The Supremes. Hear now what she says about taking action: "You can’t just sit there and wait for people to give you that golden dream; you’ve got to get out there and make it happen for yourself."
It’s wise to think of your marketing the same as you think about your rent. You pay it and never think twice. It’s also wise to think of your marketing as breathing. You couldn’t exist with only one breath, or even two or three. Don’t think you’re going to attract a new customer with only one effort, or even two or three. You keep breathing and stay alive. You keep marketing and stay profitable.

Many business owners realize the simplicity of marketing, but just don’t know where they should begin. Analysis paralysis stops them in their tracks. So many tasks. Where to start? So they don’t start. They know what they must do, but don’t really have a plan, so they make disconnected efforts to achieve a hazy goal. When they don’t see encouraging results right off the bat, they lose confidence, if any existed in the first place.

Michael Eisner, chairman and CEO of Disney, and the man who propelled it to undreamt of success, says, "At a certain level, what we do at Disney is very simple. We set our goals, aim for perfection, inevitably fall short, try to learn from our mistakes, and hope that our successes will continue to outnumber our failures." There’s nothing Mickey Mouse about that kind of philosophy -- because it embraces mistakes as part of the process.

The marketing world has changed because it has shrunk rather than expanded. Again, credit technology for the shrink job, accomplished not as much by the jet as the net. Marketing has also become a lot more technical. But that doesn't mean you have to be technical -- because technology has met you more than halfway by becoming much easier to use and even easier to pay for.

Guerrillas welcome the changes as much as they welcome the status quos. They are fully alert to what has changed and what must never change. They know well the difference between change and improvement. Analysis paralysis is a condition that has been eliminated in their world.

Humour appeal in advertising

Humour generates feelings and pleasure and for this reason it has a potential for the feeling to become associated with the brand and affect consumer attitude towards the brand and probably its image . Humour can also affect information processing by attracting attention ,improving brand name recall , creating a pleasant mood and reducing the chances of counter arguing. The positive side of humour ads can be summed up on the following points
1)Humour attracts attention

2)Humour can help increase ad message retention

3)Source credability can be enhanced by humour

4)Humour may diminish the counter argument  because  it distracts audience  from making cognitive  responses

Live Monaco F1 Grand Prix at Tote, Mumbai

To make Monaco the “Next Destination” for the Indian high class traveler by bringing to him a glimpse of the city through the famous Monaco Grand Prix .

About Monaco.

Monaco located in the South western Europe, on the North Central coast of the Mediterranean Sea and is surrounded by France from 3 sides and Italy just 16 km away.

Known for its high life, fine architecture, night life, casino’s and of course the Grand Prix and Monte Carlo Rally…it could be the best choice for a luxurious getaway for the rich and famous .

Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix is known as the most significant and famous automobile races in the world, with its narrow course laid out in the streets of Monaco, making it one of the most challenging tracks in Formula One

Triple Formula One champion Nelson Piquet was fond of saying that racing at Monaco was "like trying to cycle round your living room", but added that "a win here was worth two anywhere else".

The Big Idea

Corner seat invitation for participants and their friends for the Monaco Grand Prix with French hospitality and entertainment

USP of the Event

Get a sneak preview of the luxurious& glamorous lifestyle of Monaco within a few hours .

Who will be Attending

•      Primary

–    HNI’s - People who are capable of spending €1000 per day during their next personal/business travel

•        C level employees of mid and small cap organizations

–    Crème de la crème for imparting snob value during PR

•      Secondary

–    F1 enthusiasts.

Entertainment French Style

 

•       MONACO - the "Chic" experience

•       Before the race starts a classy dance sequence

–     Sitting at a table with a colourful cocktail a beautiful lady is enjoying the race and the party organized for the event (sounds of cars passing and people talking at the party). A gentleman, mesmerized by her beauty tries to impress her with a very elegant and romantic solo dance number. First shy, she finally gives in and joins him in a very sensuous and graceful partner dance sequence with elements of jive, French tango and salsa on French lounge music

•       Duration 12-15 min

•       2 dancers – 1 female & 1 male (French national; dancer, actor, choreographer, writer, painter & Director of the IN STEP Dance Company)

Brand management: The World Integrates through Cricket--IPL

Brand management: The World Integrates through Cricket--IPL: "IPL – The Indian premier league has taken the cricketing world by storm. It has also got its marketing mix spot on. TV, Internet, Newspaper..."

The World Integrates through Cricket--IPL

IPL – The Indian premier league has taken the cricketing world by storm. It has also got its marketing mix spot on.

TV, Internet, Newspapers… Every medium is flooding with DLF IPL, a private event; that above all, explains the success of Indian Premier League. For a private event, entire media is fighting to give free of cost coverage! Strange, but Interesting! So what marketing and branding strategy has worked in favour of IPL?

One, “Packaging of the Event” from day 1 as entertainment is the biggest strategic hit. It structured teams around states thereby ensuring team and brand loyalties and assured eyeballs when it comes to media.

The first season of the Indian Premier League commenced on 18 April 2008 in India, and ended on 1 June 2008 with the victory of the Rajasthan Royals against Chennai Super Kings in the final at the DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai.

As the second season of the IPL coincided with multi-phase 2009 Indian general elections, the Indian Central Government refused to provide the Indian paramilitary forces to provide security, saying the forces would be stretched too thinly if they were to safeguard both the IPL and the elections. As a result, the BCCI decided to host the second season of the league outside India. All 59 matches of the second season, abbreviated as IPL 2, took place in South Africa. Ironically, South Africa were also scheduled to have elections doing the IPL, however, the South African government provided adequate security for both the South African General Elections and the IPL.

When Bollywood and cricket met, the result was IPL and it was truly entertaining to see one’s favorite cricketer as well the Bollywood star on the same platform. IPL was no doubt an entertaining one. Super stars like Shah Rukh, Preity, Akshay, Katrina, Hrithik had been a source which provided a lot of glam to IPL promotion.

To attract the cricket fans, even team-owners have started selling tickets personally. Preity Zinta, the co-owner of Kings XI Punjab and Australian pace man Brett Lee sold the tickets along with their autographs.

The IPL is predicted to bring the BCCI income of approximately US$ 1.6 billion, over a period of five to ten years. All of these revenues are directed to a central pool, 40% of which will go to IPL itself, 54% to franchisees and 6% as prize money. The money will be distributed in these proportions until 2017, after which the share of IPL will be 50%, franchisees 45% and prize money 5%. The IPL signed up Kingfisher Airlines as the official umpire partner for the series in an Rs.106 Crore’s (1.06 billion) deal. This deal sees the Kingfisher Airlines brand on all umpires’ uniforms & also on the giant screens during third umpire decisions. Sony Entertainment Television signed a new contract with BCCI with Sony Entertainment Television paying a staggering Rs.8700 Crore’s (87 billion) for 10 years.

Difference between Advertising &Marketing

You will often find that many people confuse marketing with advertising or vice versa. While both components are important they are very different. Knowing the difference and doing your market research can put your company on the path to substantial growth.

Let's start off by reviewing the formal definitions of each and then I'll go into the explanation of how marketing and advertising differ from one another:

Advertising: The paid, public, non-personal announcement of a persuasive message by an identified sponsor; the non-personal presentation or promotion by a firm of its products to its existing and potential customers.

Marketing: The systematic planning, implementation and control of a mix of business activities intended to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually advantageous exchange or transfer of products.

After reading both of the definitions it is easy to understand how the difference can be confusing to the point that people think of them as one-in-the same, so lets break it down a bit.

Advertising is a single component of the marketing process. It's the part that involves getting the word out concerning your business, product, or the services you are offering. It involves the process of developing strategies such as ad placement, frequency, etc. Advertising includes the placement of an ad in such mediums as newspapers, direct mail, billboards, television, radio, and of course the Internet. Advertising is the largest expense of most marketing plans, with public relations following in a close second and market research not falling far behind.

The best way to distinguish between advertising and marketing is to think of marketing as a pie, inside that pie you have slices of advertising, market research, media planning, public relations, product pricing, distribution, customer support, sales strategy, and community involvement. Advertising only equals one piece of the pie in the strategy. All of these elements must not only work independently but they also must work together towards the bigger goal. Marketing is a process that takes time and can involve hours of research for a marketing plan to be effective. Think of marketing as everything that an organization does to facilitate an exchange between company and consumer.

What is ‘partition’? Just a division between two parts of anything, or something which, for a change, might draw our attention because living itself is nothing but such a wide partition spread out between life and death! And this truth becomes even more evident, if you can experience how it feels to be separated, of course much against your will and wish from your land, values, principles, families, friends, and from everything, everyone you love in order to survive, at least, if not live the fullest.

That’s why; partition is probably life’s one of the most traumatic shakeups, which challenges one’s survival, immediately, where the person’s sex, caste, creed, colour, religion, etc. remain simply inconsequential.

Though a partition sends away one’s life to astray with utmost disdain and ruthlessness and impacts lives of men and women alike; still it affects and, to some extent, infects the women’s health and psyche, bringing unthinkable and unbearable pain and agony to them.

As a matter of fact, what Nita, her mother and her sister had gone through – as picturised in the movie ‘Meghe Dhaka Tara’ – by falling prey to the evils of the partition of India is not at all an alienated phenomenon to the women of today who also delve deeper into such feelings and pathos in their respective lives, thanks to many partitions and borders which they need to break... to go beyond. Either being different from Nita, her mother and sister or being totally indifferent even towards self.

When all that happens somewhere, sometimes, unnoticed, Sharmila Maiti thought of getting behind the lens to let her, as well as every woman’s senses mingle with ours. And, since 2010 incidentally happens to be the 50th year of the movie ‘Meghe Dhaka Tara’, Sharmila chose to salute and commemorate this masterpiece of Late Ritwick Kumar Ghatak in her own parlance of cinema, which would go BEYOND BORDERS.

BEYOND BORDERS is not just a typical documentary film having a retro-effect to talk aloud in Ritwick’s language; instead, it’s the docu-fiction by a today’s Nita whom we rather know as Sharmila.

Not to mention, BEYOND BORDERS was already selected for International Conference of Cinema 2010 in February. It was also screened as the inaugural film at International Womens’ Day film festival in Kolkata and Pune. It was selected for Haryana International Film Festival too. And now, it is going to be screened at Kolkata Film Festival 2010 – the biggest non-competitive film festival in the world. It has also earned the brownie points from the Indian select for Venice Film Festival.

Given this, the DVDs of BEYOND BORDERS are about to be launched soon. These DVDs comprise of priceless and never-before-heard interviews of the three actresses: Supriya Devi, Gita Dey and Late Gita Ghatak (who went to her heavenly abode shortly after the shooting, so Sharmila’s film captured the last days of this cult Rabindra Sangeet singer & actress), making of the film and some interesting tidbits. Thus, for the reason obvious, each of the DVDs is going to be a pride and prized possession or collector’s item to the connoisseurs of movie and entertainment.

So, go BEYOND BORDERS notwithstanding every partition in life, for, the name of the game is ONLY survival, and '…still we survive'!