Kapil’s Korner

It’s not been a very good day today. Lots of rain, water-logging in Mumbai and the city has been crawling. Very little work resulted in a slow day which is something I don’t like in office at the start of the week.

An email forward from a friend helped end the day on a better note. Thanks Jai!

Arthur Ashe, the legendary Wimbledon player was dying of AIDS which he Got due to infected blood he received during a heart surgery in 1983.  From world over, he received letters from his fans, one of which conveyed: “Why does GOD have to select you for such a bad disease”?

To this Arthur Ashe replied:
“The world over — 50 million children start playing tennis, 5 million Learn to play tennis, 500,000 learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 ,Reach the grand slam, 50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to semi final, 2 to the finals, When I was holding a cup I never asked GOD ‘Why me?’ And today in pain I should not be asking GOD ‘Why me?’ ”

“Happiness keeps you Sweet,
Trials keep you Strong,
Sorrow keeps you Human,
Failure keeps you humble and Success keeps you glowing, but only Faith &
Attitude keeps you going… ” - Arthur Ashe

Remember that “Attitude is always part Gratitude”.

Image by: Digital Neophyte

What happens when you use a camera to get a few friends together and offer them free booze and food?

(Image copyright is Craig Giffen) 

Craig Giffen just managed to do that and made himself the Human Calendar - the story of which he explains in detail here. It’s nice but I wish they could have given some more interesting facial expressions.

Rickshaws in Nagpur don’t have meters. You negotiate with the driver for your location and then you can make the ride. Last week I spent some time in Nagpur. For two days I paid Rs.60 every morning to reach my destination from the hotel. On the third day I checked out and with my luggage approached the first rickshaw outside the hotel. He said 80 bucks! take it or leave it. (I thought he was over-charging because the previous two days I had taken the rick a little away from the hotel entrance). I told him 60 was fair but then we agreed on 70  and got moving.

I reach my destination and handed him Rs.70 as promised. A gentleman indeed, he actually returned Rs.10 back and said, “I quoted Rs.70 because I thought you wanted to go ahead of the big junction, so here is Rs.10 back.” Got me thinking. I was a tourist and the driver could have easily avoided the 10 bucks refund and kept that little extra for himself.

Gives you an assurance that a few good honest men yet survive around here and it’s a matter of chance that you get to meet one. Have you met one lately? Share your story with me in the comments area.

Just read Dell’s Hearing Test at ADWEEK. It’s a good article which describes Dell’s efforts to manage their online reputation. I thought there were a couple of learning’s to understand how social media will be a challenge for the complete organisation and NOT JUST the branding team.

1. Running a company blog is more than just yet another marketing and PR activity. Everybody has to be responsible for what’s being put online and to respond to consumer reactions.
2. Internet is the most easily accessible Customer Complaint box, so be sure you have a “active” team to take care of those disappointments popping up there.
3. Customer complaints often lead to better product development. So is that team listening to the what’s being talked online?
4. It’s amazing what can come out of customer suggestions - Dell customers said they preferred more environmental friendly packaging material. Such things rarely come out in customer satisfaction surveys.

And let’s remember just because you have a blog which talks to people it doesn’t mean it’s going to be all good. You gotta “listen” to the negative reactions and quickly solve customer problems before they become top listings on websites like digg and StumbleUpon.

If you are an advertising professional in India you are not going to like this bit of view shared in ET’s - Ad world attrition hits all-time high.

JWT India’s executive VP and NCD Elvis Sequira echoes Mr Singh’s views. “Too many agencies have stopped adding value to their clients’ businesses. Earlier, they used to be advisors and partners and now they’re just a bunch of really worried vendors presenting layouts to the middle rung of the marketing department. So, instead of charging fair value for their services, a lot of them are left scrambling for a rapidly shrinking percentage of spends.”

The article further states how top bosses of ad agencies have been looking at other exciting careers. Moving out of the agency world has been recently discussed a number of times with colleagues over lunch. Although the creative satisfaction is what keeps a lot of us going I think at some point the reward at the end of the month is disappointing for all the hard work and pressure that we go through.

Not wanting to sound like a pessimist but then the industry is sure not going great places, so a long-term in career in advertising is a matter of concern currently. Is it time to explore other exciting avenues?

Early this week fuel prices went up and petrol now costs Rs. 55.88/ltr in Mumbai. And I like what this graffiti says.

 
Image is from an email forward.

The new Bengaluru International Airport commenced operations on 24th May and I was lucky to fly in to the city a few days later to experience this international gateway in South India. A quick summary of my experience.

What I liked

• 53 check-in counters means no long queues.
• No baggage screening to be done by passenger. It all happens after check-in by the airport/airline staff.
• Good refreshment outlets at the Food Court (there is Barista and Taste of India serving south & north Indian dishes) and shopping area (Shopper’s Stop, Tommy Hilfiger) after security check-in.
• There is free Wi-Fi but I didn’t get a chance to try it.

What I didn’t like

• No TV terminals giving news updates (I missed the IPL final match while at the airport)
• No traffic discipline at the drop-off area. And of course we Indian drivers just don’t seem to respect a “Zebra Crossing”.
• It’s a long drive away from the city and Bangalore traffic they say can be really bad in peak time.

This is a huge replica of a Louis Vuitton bag outside the Departure area of the airport.

Next week I should be flying to Hyderabad and will get a chance to see the new airport there too.

From today’s Mid-Day - Carlsberg beer’s promotion campaign.

Read the PDF file from Mid-Day’s website.

My fantasy for a cruise holiday started when I was evaluating options for the honeymoon about 2 years back. We didn’t want to do the Super Star at that time and looked at the Royal Caribbean. But due to some factors we couldn’t make it.

Then a few months back Nitika’s family started planning for a vacation and we were invited to join them. After lots of discussions with the travel agent we bundled a 4 night/5 day package onboard the Super Star Aquarius from Singapore. The Aquarius ship is said to be smaller than the regular Virgo which sails on this route. That apparently has been moved to Hong Kong for the Olympics tourist crowd. But if you haven’t been on a cruise ship before you’ll hardly know the difference.

On Sunday morning we reached the Singapore Cruise Terminal well in-time. The check-in is just like air travel. Instead of boarding passes you get access cards which are very crucial for the journey. These access cards not only act as your right to being on the ship but also a charge card whereby you can purchase anything on the cruise without having to carry cash on you. And of course they are your room keys too.

If you are doing the cruise during vacation time there is one thing for sure - You can’t feel homesick. Of the 975 passengers 450 were Indian. So don’t abuse in your mother tongue because you don’t know who’s listening on the next table. And of course there were at least a dozen honeymoon couples from India.

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