Wednesday, June 24, 2009

All for this one moment?


(Lufthansa billboard at Bangalore Airport)

An accquaintance, while flying Lufthansa, Business Class, pressed the call bell. Since there was no response, he called again.

The airhostess responded - " are you having a heart attack!?"

All for this one moment?

Creating evocative advertising is easy, living it (for any orgainization) is equally difficult.



Sunday, June 21, 2009

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Should an Atomic discount cause a sales explosion?

C Krishniah Chetty and Sons hoarding in Bangalore on 16 June,2009


Atom: According to the dictionary (take any) an Atom is a small particle.
Atomic: According to the same dictionary,Atomic pertains to an Atom.

So, is an "upto" 15% "atomic" discount a big deal or small enough to be ignored?




Thursday, June 4, 2009

Bajaj Yoh-ro Fan or The poor quality of Bajaj Euro Fan

Two years back, I changed all the ceiling fans in my flat. The Euro looked different. It also had the Bajaj branding. Good design, good brand, I thought.

Bajaj Euro Fan

At different times, in the last 2 months, 3 of these 4 fans have had to be repaired. Two of these started making a grating metallic noise, when run for more than 10 minutes. Noise which could be music, when drowned in the sound of heavy drums , to some ears at an acid rock concert. Ball bearings had to be replaced in these 2 fans. The other moved at the speed of of a windmill - when faced with wind speed of less than 6 knots*.The capacitor had to be replaced.

Ceiling and other fans, from as far as I can remember, have been very reliable. In the 70's and 80' I don't remember the fans in our house even requiring maintenance for over a decade. This is about fans from an era when Indian manufacturing had not yet come of age. The age of the Ambassador and the Premier Padmini.

The poor quality of these fans surprised me. What I am not sure of is,if this poor quality is on account of poor manufacturing at Bajaj or is it the Made in China effect?

Caveat emptor!

*A windmill needs a minimum wind-speed of 6.88 knots

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

5th June - World Environment Day :Contribute your mite, make your commitment bite.

Compared to incandescent lamps giving the same amount of visible light, CFLs generally use less power, have a longer life. A CFL can save over Rs.1,000 in electricity costs over the lamp's life time compared to an incandescent lamp. It also saves 2,000 times its own weight in greenhouse gases.