BRAND RAHMAN

We got it at last. Yes it is Oscar. We had to wait for a long time (read for a foreign director's Indian film) to benchmark our film industry. But it is surprise for me, while the excellent films like Lagaan or Rang de basanti could not achieved the status of Oscar, the less attractive film like Slumdog ... won Oscar? I have a crazy logic, those films were worth more than the so called oscar standard.

No need to analyze why we could not achieved the status before in any Indian film. It is time to look forward. It is the time to capitalize what we have now in our hand. Hollywood had a long relation with our Mumbai film induatry. But they never shown any interest to evaluate the feasibility to strenghen this relationship further. In recent times Reliance Big Entertainment shown their interest to attract more holly directors to Indian soil. Now slumdog being a benchmark for Indian film industry, the top foreign studios like Sony, Disney & TWX are all set to come to Mumbai. Slumdog's Oscar-winning sound mixer, Resul Pookutty, is an FTII(Pune-based Film & Television Institute of India) alumnus. Not only our competence of film making capability is on holly radar but also our filmy telent making institutions are of the prime interest of holly directors & studios. We can deliver same or improved version of hollywood jobs at much lesser price what we have already shown in IT already. Yes it's time to become a global film hub for Mumbai. It is seemed that opportunity is knocking the door.

TOUGH ROMANCE

Valentine's day has been converted into an unofficial festival in India. Thanks to the mighty marketers who along with the incredible Indian media has transformed it into an event to get more exposure to the products & services.But this year it is going to be the real test for them due to the global slowdown continues.Consumers plan to spend an average $102.50 on Valentine's Day gifts and merchandise, versus $122.08 per person last year, according to the National Retail Federation's 2009, Valentine's Day Consumer Intentions and Actions survey. According to the serves the average spending on the gift items like rose,greetings,jewellery has been effected globally. India being a major exporter of roses for different festivals has reported 30% reduced sales this financial year. This ill financial weather can not dominate lover's market for long. They have found new way called online dating , a cheaper way for making relations of busy people. So the online dating agencies like Perfect Match.com has been proved to be recession proof with a steady growth in sales.

So, this year few have to compromise with intangible gifts rather than tangible ones.Hope the next 14th will come with a packet of boom......

LET'S GO TO WAR

IPL, India- Sri Lanka, Formulae one, WWE,FIFA world cup,……………,Israel Palestine, Ltte-Sri Lankan army, Russia-Georgia-Chechen . All are events. The difference is that the first four are used as communication channels by the companies like Adidas, Nike or RBS – the driving force of the various products & services. The last three are the potential events used by the marketers of the global weapon market. The market of weapons is flourishing day by day. The reason being a structured supply chain management in the market, has polarized into two verticals – The mighty United States & ever challenging Russia. Being the market leader of 41.9% in the global market, The US has always shown its invention to update its unknown weapon line & differentiated from the challenger’s threat.
Apart from the two biggies in the trade, Britain & recently China ,the market followers, are showing their capability to meet the market gap in the supply chain network. Britain came in third, but its arms exports grew only 200 million over 2005 and the overall volume of arms transfer deals stood at just 3.1 billion dollars, less than a fifth of the US total.
The challenger Russia is known for its inbuilt aptitude in heavy engineering. It has deployed its chief marketer President Vladimir Putin who claimed a remarkable $2.2 bn deal from Saudi Arabia for supplying the Mi-35 attack helicopters and transport choppers Mi-17 and Mi-8. Russia is also expecting the Saudis to make a decision on a $1 billion package which includes T-90 tanks and armored personnel carriers.
The target consumers of both the majors are also different. United States tries to capitalize its allies(NATO members) & some of its faithful foreign relations like India & Pakistan. The huge cost involved in maintaining the military supremacy all over the world, US needed a concrete blueprint of marketing its ever changing weapon lines. The Russia has targeted always the nemesis of US like Venezuela, china,Iran, north Korea, Cuba etc. India is always a loyal customer of Russian defence products(recently the Sukhoi fighter jets were updated with the brahmos areal missile system on Russian soil!).
If we see history we shall come to know that the gulf countries are a major potential market for weapon sales. That’s why US has approached several times the area through its famous Marines to promote & demonstrate its advanced defence star products to maintain a brand recall in minds of the surrounding countries. But the promotional huge cost sometimes diminishes the image of the president(Mr. Bush), as he can not justify the proportional success in the marketing audit!
The success of grabbing a reasonable share in the weapon market relies on the R&D capability of a country. As the high cost involved in the process lengthens the break-even, the corporate do not take interest to start weapon business(L&T). India is also trying to market few products like helicopters & missiles developed by DRDO to the lower segment. There seem to a gap in the market – the training of defence professionals in different countries who do not get enough chance to demonstrate its defence capabilities. So India, fighting with terrorism for decade ,can become the “Master Chief” for those nations & can bypass the majors.

VIDEO CONFERENCING - CONNECTING TOMORROW

Happy new year to all the readers of markettracker. Wish a happy & prosperous journey to you.

We came to know about interaction virtually few decades ago. With the development of communication technology worldwide companies were engaged to find cost effective measures,while Erickson introduced first commercial video conferencing solutions. With the continuous development of technology it has reached to this point of time when companies are thinking truly to deploy it , use it, gain from it.

The market players who enjoy a major stake in the developing market of virtual communications, are - Adobe, IBM,Microsoft etc.But the cost being huge to implement this system , medium & small companies can not afford to think of deploying it.So there is a gap in the market itself where any nicher can enter with by-pass attack. Believe me, that has happened recently when Intellisys, an indian origin company, introduced VENNFER systems for making video conferencing into reality for those companies with various added features.
It is a complete IP based video conferencing software solution built on state-of-art Microsoft Technologies as well as Open source platform that enables real time audio, video, and data communication over LAN, WAN (leased lines, VSATs, VPNs) and broadband by using TCPIP multi casting technology thus conserving real time bandwidth in case of synchronous audio and video delivery at multi point locations thus, providing a highly interactive communication medium. This product has distinct utilities of top management face to face meetings, sales presentations,brain storming sessions,corporate trainings,employment interviews,e-learning etc.

Besides the filling of gap in the market place, Vennfer has differentiated itself by introducing many essential features

1)multiple video delivery system - displaying many video windows at a time

2) Programme sharing - ppts, excel sheets, white boards can be shared instantaneously.

3)Switch user mode - administrative control of the programme can be shifted to other users.

4)SMS shooter - sending sms to alert group members about the info of meetings.

5)Slide Generator – This feature helps to multi cast different PPT slides as well
as animations or other image files among the administrator and the client.

So Vennfer has ultimately reduced multi cast cost & allowed higher band width at lower cost,runs on any kind of network ,helps in integrating all applications on all platforms. It must be remembered that a Indian company is getting ready for a severe head on collision in the market place of virtual business communications. The volatile price of fuel, travel restrictions & the need to improve the trade communications will drive the future video conferencing worldwide.It is time to innovate technology for the domestic firms which will enable the affordability of the system in the market.

It's Time to shop in recession

World is facing the scorching heat of recession. Not only we have reduced our daily expenditure to match the increased price of products, companies have been forced to reduce their cost to remain competitive in the market where it is loosing orders from even loyal customers - the effect is transmitted to the employees in the form of pink slips.

Sometimes back I told that some companies does not care about recession(read Recession? Whoa cares?). Now it's time to shop for few smart companies .Like ITC & Accor group are in the race for acquiring the six hotel properties of Unitech all over India. The global auto sector is the worst hit of recession. So the suppliers of auto parts has experienced steady decline in their sales. So cash rich companies like Amtec Auto is also aiming to aquire Unitech properties at the reduced market price. British firm private equity firm Duet group has acquired three hotels in India also.

If we watch Indian aviation sector, it is a war-torn picture like Pearl harbour. For last few years, this sector has seen bloodbath which initiated employee lay offs, cancelling of new aircraft orders & increased air fare. But the hero is Go - Air, who has a concrete plan to add 20 brand new air crafts to its fleet this year.It is also in search for new partners for flying global.

Indian BPOs are concerned about new political environment of US. It has already lost a significant revenue due to global turn moil. But Indian firm Aegis has led the way by acquiring Philippines based company -People support for USD 250 million.

So it is a time to be en cashed by those firms who have managed themselves efficiently. Those smart firms will be able to leverage this opportunity to lead in the post recession market. Indian firms have this extreme opportunity as they are more cash rich firms compared to the western countries.

PASSION FOR FASHION

Last week we saw one of the biggest events of the world fashion -The miss world competition. It is a platform to showcase the fashion quotient of world renowned designers. Its now BRICS , South Africa also has been included in the elite club where it can attract the world attention what ever it does.

This year also we saw the dominance of the BRIC countries. Russian beauty Kseniya Sukhinova left behind rest of the world at the D stage of Johannesburg on Dec, 13. Parbathy Omanakuttan stood second & continued India's claim to be fashion hub of the universe(refer to http://www.missworld.com/). Congratulations to the Keralian beauty who has given us a scope to be proud as Indian at the time when we are worried about our country's security. South Africa has received the world attention for organizing the world class event efficiently.

Take the role of the south african govt. who left no scope to enhance the brand image of SA. The Johannesburg tourist company(JTC) took several steps to accommodate over a billion who came to watch the competition. JTC fought hard to take the competition on their soil this year.The initial venue was Ukraine. But a brief war between Russia & Georgia led the organisers to yank the event. Hongkong was the next destination. JTC snatched that event by using their political & business competence. Miss world, 2008 showed that the host is capable enough to organise any international events in the future(The 2010 football world cup is coming up there).

JTC tried hard to show the uniqueness of African fashion endeavour. The challenge was to promote the local fashion industry on the global platform. JTC hired Adam Levin and Jenny Andrew, renowned design consultants, to guide the local budding designers for maximizing their potential to redefine the African fashion talent. we saw cross selling efforts of JTC also. With the help of department of arts & culture they demonstrated a craft exhibition showcasing several South African handmade products products ranging from pottery, wire furniture, decorative ornaments, telephone wire and South African ethnic inspired fashion accessories.

So World has experienced the incredible South Africa which capitalised this opportunity to enhance the share of mind of a wider range of international consumers for in house products. India has also an unique opportunity to showcase it's potential segments at the Commonwealth Games in 2010(India is the host of Common wealth games ,2010). Its the time to not only show the diplomatic power for snatching international events but also up sale & cross sale the brand image.

Recession ? - Who cares ?

FIAT 500

Auto industry is one of the most severely hit by US recession mainly. Three biggies of Detroit are concerned about their existence in the business. Next month we can again expect a bailout package offered by FED bank to save those heavy weights.

BMW MINI COOPER

But few companies like Daimler, Fiat & BMW have a reason to cheer , because small cars like SMART(Daimler), 500(FIAT) & MINI COOPER(BMW) don't care about the slowdown of auto sales. They are not only showing sales increment over the months but also have offered the parent

companies a hope to survive.

But what is the reason of this contradictory behaviour of these kind of models? Colin Couchman, the auto analyst of GLOBAL INSIGHT said " If you make cars that are nice, keep their value over time & give people a good deal of pleasure on a daily basis,people will buy them." The volatile crude price may have convicted the consumers & the trendy looks along with the brand have converted them into purchasers.