A Walk Through the Greeky MICA Campus

The on grounds creatives for Sankalp 2010.
It was the best creative learning experience for me this year.


The campus looked heavenly when the sun went down. The photos below speak more than words on the work that our team put up.

Lamp shades were created using white chart papers with blue paint dabbed on them and greek alphabets drawn randomly. The yellow lamps were covered in red gelatin papers to get a red light. After that, blue chart paper made the final light look violet! :)
The hostel floor was full of greek alphabets, with me sitting with "colored fingers" :)


They look fiery in the day-light too!

Special thanks to the best team-mate ever - Taniya Dhirasaria! :)

My experience at ESOMAR Asia Pacific Conference 2010, Malaysia

I was selected by ESOMAR to attend the Asia Pacific Conference this April in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia through their Developing Talent Initiative. It was a life-changing experience for me and it gave me a whole new perspective towards market research and global relationships.

What is ESOMAR?

ESOMAR is the world organization for enabling better research into markets, consumers and societies. It is a prestigious community with more than 4,600 members in over 100 countries. ESOMAR’s aim is to promote the value of market and opinion research in illuminating real issues and bringing about effective decision-making. To facilitate this ongoing dialogue, ESOMAR creates and manages a comprehensive programme of industry-specific and thematic conferences, publications and communications.

What is DEVELOPING TALENT INITIATIVE – Future Talent Meets the Industry?

ESOMAR has developed a programme aimed at encouraging the brightest students to enter the industry and to start a dialogue between University and Business school professors. This highly successful initiative has extended many invitations to students around the world including MICA. They want to show the students that the business dynamics require a market research profile which is not only rigorous and based on knowledge of methodologies and statistics but also needs skills that prepare new comers in this industry to handle the complexities of everyday business. ESOMAR events are also a great opportunity to learn and to allow students to get in touch with industry experts and their companies worldwide.

The APAC Conference

Asia Pacific 2010
Eyes on Asia
Kuala Lumpur / 25 - 27 April

Theme of the Conference

There is a widespread sense that we have talked for 20 years about Asia as representing the future. Now the global economy has positioned Asia as a driving force of the world economic recovery. Asia is no longer the next thing but the thing. In this context, business must find the way to invest in innovation and capabilities. How can market research help business exploit the opportunities that the economic situation is bringing to the region? How can local Asian market research companies leverage global opportunities to expand and grow their business? And what are clients looking for? How can local and international companies best utilise existing skills and maximize resources?

The answers to these critical questions will be the engine that drives the Asian research industry to react and adapt quickly to the new context.

Students selected to attend the conference

ESOMAR had selected 4 students from across Asia to represent their country’s young talent at the conference. The following students were selected from Asia-Pacific, including me:

- Benjamin Jozef F. de Leon University of Asia and the Pacific, Philippines

- Tanvi Gupta MUDRA Institute of Communications, India

- Mark Wong Kah Yuang Singapore Management University, Singapore

- Wenqi Zhu Communication University of China, China

The ESOMAR APAC Team

The conference was held at the JWT Mariott Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In the conference, the four of us were given an opportunity to work as a part of the organizing team of ESOMAR and to interact and network with all the participants from across the globe. We attended all the presentations followed by the networking drinks and dinner. We got an excellent opportunity to work on the back-hand operations of an international conference along with overseas colleagues in the same team. In the above photo, the two senior members on the left are the Presidents of ESOMAR - Gunilla Broadbent and Finn Raben.

There was a plethora of innovative ideas and thoughts spreading across the sessions as the presenters from across the globe presented their research papers. The papers were from all across Asia including India, China, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and also other countries like UK, Germany and USA. Most of the papers focused on the Indian and Chinese context but yet had a universal applicability. Some of the papers that I found very interesting are described below.

Synergistic co-creation: A blend of art and science. This paper was presented by Deepa Soman and Prakash Dadlani from Godrej, India. They spoke about how “synergistic partnering” between client, agency and consumer can create wonders in the market. They spoke about the process of ideation, design and implementation of innovation in developing remarkable products by using innovative research.

Shoppers of Asia was a paper written by Korakoj Nirutnapaphan from Bangkok. It was also co-authored by MICA alumni, Himanshu Vashishtha and Aruni Ghosh. It was a very interesting comparative study of the differences and similarities across markets in different asian countries, with a focus on shopper’s store selection behavior.

Relevant pieces to the Chinese media puzzle was presented by Don E. Schultz and Martin P. Block. It gave a revealing comparison between consumers’ media consumption in China vs. the USA.

Will Twitter change the way that market researchers communicate? Was presented by Ray Poynter from UK. This was one of the best presentations I have ever attended in my life. It was an interactive session where Poynter projected a live Twitter screen and live comments from the conference attendees were showing up every minute. The hashtag #ESOMAR was being used to tweet the proceedings of the conference. Live feedback to the ongoing seminar was appearing on the screen simultaneously as the speaker was presenting. This would allow the speaker to adapt to the audience needs real-time. It was only after this experience, that I was inspired to use twitter productively. And till now, I have been using twitter to stay in touch with all MR professionals from across the globe!

Measuring emotions: Is China different? Was presented by Raimund Wildner and Laena Liu. They had created a tool that researchers can use to measure emotions quantitatively. Also, this tool had to be tweaked to be applicable to China because the tool used cultural elements as the base of measurement.

Billion dollar baby: Leveraging mobile technology for research applications in India was presented by proud MICA alumni Madhumita Chakraborty and Sandeep Arora. They spoke about how the mobile penetration in India can be tapped by marketers and researchers as a tool for data collection. This paper was selected as one of the best papers presented at the conference and was nominated for the global award for excellence. It was a very proud moment for all of us because the two best papers selected at the conference were both authored by MICAns!

Listening to the sounds of silence was presented by Shobha Prasad from Drishti, India. This was a very out-of-the-box presentation and was very much appreciated by all. She said that in qualitative research, most of our analysis is based on what respondents “say”. However, she explained that more often there is a lot of valuable information in the “silences” of consumers, what they leave unsaid. Silence may play a role to convey opinions and feelings. This gave me a fresh new perspective towards qualitative research.

There was also a great line of panel discussions spanning across different topic areas. One interesting topic that was covered was about how can research be done on “hard to reach” respondents especially when the universe size is very small and obscure. This panel discussion was moderated by Pravin Shekhar from Krea, who is also the ESOMAR India Representative.

I also got an opportunity to meet some key people from the world of marketing and research. I got an opportunity to interact one-on-one with the one and only Don Schultz – The Father of Integrated Marketing Communications! I have been reading books written by him and we have been learning the definition of Advertising and IMC as defined by Don Schultz. It was an immense pleasure and a dream come true to come face to face with such a personality. He is a very warm person and very supportive to young students who want to achieve something big in life. He gave me some recommendations about further studies and career paths when we all sat together and had lunch at the same table.

Me with Don Schultz- The father of IMC

I also got an opportunity to interact with the chairman of TNS worldwide, Mr. John Smurthwaite. He was very keen on playing a role in helping students kick-start their career and to help them develop a good future in the market research industry. I received a very warm welcome into the MR industry by the senior members and it further boosted my enthusiasm and respect towards the MR industry.

What I have gained from this experience

This was my first trip outside the country, and I went all alone. It was a very liberating experience for me as I got to experience a whole new world all by myself. There was a certain level of fear at the back of my mind about going to an unknown country all by myself, but the entire experience has made me a much stronger and bolder person. This was the first time I got to interact with many people from different ethnicities and nationalities and it instilled a greater confidence in me to understand the global culture much better. It made me realize that no matter what country we are from, all humans share the same feeling of passion towards innovative ideas and self development. We all worked together as one team, as one fraternity. Personally, it was very beneficial for my future career growth as well since I got to network and build connections with the who’s who of the MR industry.

I must say that we were literally “pampered” by all the senior members of the research fraternity because we were the only four young “talents” at the conference. The entire MR fraternity is very supportive and welcoming. I can’t wait to complete my studies and be a part of the MR industry.

My profile, my views towards the furure of Market Research and my future career plans can be viewed at ESOMAR's website in Future Talent Meets the Industry section here.

Kabir laments the pitfalls of 'Language'

If we ask ourselves one question, "What is language?", we would get a simple answer that language is a set of symbols that we use to communicate with each other. It may be either verbal or non-verbal. Since ages we have created signs and symbols and have assigned 'shared' meanings to each of them. Many of these signs seem to continue to depict the same meaning through out. But some other signs mean different things at different times.

The purpose of communication is to communicate a message clearly to the receiver. But when the signs we create start becoming contradictory to their own meaning, the whole concept of language starts looking funny.

Kabir, the great Indian saint and poet, laments about the vagaries of language:

Chalti ka naam gaadi

Maal ko kehtey hain khoya

Rangeen ka naam narangi

Dekh Kabira roya

[What moves is called interred/ vehicle

Commodity is called lost/ desiccated milk

What is colorful is called colourless/ orange

On observing these, weeps Kabir!]

Source: The Tenth Rasa by Michael Heyman

Whoever had assigned the meaning of the colour "orange" to the word "naarangi", must have had some mischief in her mind. These words can mean completely opposite things at the same time. This makes us think and rethink the level of importance we give to words in our daily lives. Are words mere carriers of literal meaning or they carry a lot of other hidden motives? Do words actually add meaning to our lives, or are they mere illusions? The language needs to be created with responsibility to make it more understandable. Otherwise, it will fill the society with contradictions and myths. But who takes the responsibility of shaping language in first place?

A Consumer is a Temporary State of Being

How do you define a Consumer? Is she a person who buys your products? Who consumes your products?

The person whom we consider to be our consumer, also does one million and one other things throughout the day. She is not our consumer 24/7. If we look at the person from the inside, we can clearly see that this person is not the same person in different contexts. She adorns different avatars when surrounded by different discourses. These avatars, or "Moments of Identity" as Virginia Valentine from Semiotics coins it, are contextual and volatile in nature. They are temporary states of being. Similarly, only when the person is in the context of our brand, and she consciously immerses herself in the context, does she adorn the avatar of our consumer.

So, the lessons brands can learn from this perspective of looking at consumers is to make the brand discourse culturally immersive for the person to transform into a consumer. It is more important for the person to see herself as our consumer instead of we falsely assuming her to be one.

Inspired from 21st Century Consumer by Wendy Gordon & Virginia Valentine

Sir Ken Robinson - Animated!

Excellent piece of work by RSA Animate. Must watch.

Choiceville - Conjoint Analysis in a new Avatar

Click on the image to enlarge

Market Research enters the world of gaming. The respondent creates his own “desired” avatar by choosing from the available options similar to the choices available in conjoint analysis - but in the form of an interactive game. She can pick up products from the shelf after looking at their price tag and attributes using her aforesaid budget. The Avatar created by a person symbolizes her "Ideal Self", driven by her needs and wants.The options available will be real brands and real products. This idea is applicable especially in identifying extrinsic motivation factors and self congruity with brands. What brands do consumers want on themselves? What brands do consumers want others to see on them?

Maybe, this can be the next idea to measure consumers' needs and wants...

This poster is my entry for the NewMR Virtual Festival and it can also be viewed here.

GeneticMR - Could it be a possibility?

We all have witnessed how MR has used Neuro science as a tool to gauge what is happening inside the consumer's head. But the consumer is not just made of his head. She has a lot of processes happening all over her body that plays a role in her moods, emotions, behavior, feelings, needs and desires. Could it be possible to study the holistic DNA structure of the human genome to find alleles that influence needs? Maybe we can identify universal patterns and also individual differences. One major advantage is that there will be zero respondent fatigue because we would just need a strand of her hair!

ShweePea - A new brand I cooked up

We had a course on 'Visual Literacy' recently at MICA where we worked on an interesting assignment of creating a new brand for any product or service category. So, we thought of launching a new chain of playschools across the country and name it "ShweePea".

The underlying idea that guides our brand purpose emerges from Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk below:

Each kid has tremendous talent. Kids are not frightened to make mistakes; they are ready to try everything. But the world teaches them to be scared to make mistakes. Creativity, which is the process of having original ideas of some value, comes from seeing things differently and that’s what ShweePea would help kids do.

Based on the Montessori school of thought, we nurture innocent naughtiness in your child and ensure that he doesn’t lose the capacity to think creatively. The brand elements are colorful and safe with smooth rounded edges. We have made all elements including the fonts, shapes and colors reflect innocent naughtiness. :)

Why Research Insights are Diamonds

There has been a recent discussion about what do we refer MR agencies as? Are they research agencies or firms? Are they vendors or strategic partners? If you ask me, I would call them a conglomerate, in fact a horizontally integrated production line of diamond jewelery. We all know that "Diamonds are a girl's best friend". Here, the ever-demanding and pursued girl is none other than the brand manager - the client. The girl craves for a sparkling diamond ring that would fit her perfectly.

A market researcher is firstly a diamond miner. Or should I say "insight miner"? He digs into the coal mines, where coal represents the abundance of data all around the place. He mines for diamonds in the form of robust research insights from among the pile of useless data. But this diamond is not yet ready to be gifted to the girl. It needs to be further cut and refined to make it sparkle. Here is where the researcher uses his analytical skills to derive actionable recommendations that are crisp and to-the-point. Finally, these diamonds are fitted onto a ring that must fit the girl's finger perfectly. Hence, the researcher needs to customize and shape the ring exclusively for the girl.

The girl will accept the ring only if it is presented to her in a memorable and precious manner that she would cherish for the rest of her life. It should be given as a surprise to her and not just in a simple boring fashion. The researcher should present the insights and recommendations to the client in a memorable manner and not be boring!

Well-cut research insights can add a sparkle to everyone's life and deepen the relationship between the miner and his girl so that they can live happily ever after...

Be Yourself

An animation created by me, inspired by 3 Idiots :)

Thinking of research gives me goosebumps :)

Market Research is a very interesting field. Throughout our academic life, from school to graduation, we have been reading books written by others. We have been studying theories founded by thinkers over the years. Research is the only way we can create something new and original to the existing knowledge base in this world. The human mind and intellect is capable to finding answers to the deepest unanswered, or even unasked questions. If we keenly observe at what's happening around us everyday, we will come across many such activities that have no explanation. It would be interesting to find the cause behind such things. Blindly accepting the conventional wisdom is not the right thing to do. According to Galbraith, conventional wisdom is simple, convenient, comfortable and comforting. We need to think out of our comfort zone to find the real answers.

Links about Behavioural Economics

1) A video on intrinsic motivation using Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational

2) Behavioural Economics - Red hot or Red herring?

3) Thinking Marketing blog

4) Dan Pink on Motivation

Word of Mouth

“Why and What do Brands Do to Inspire Conversation?”

Janelle Zurek, vice president of innovation at P&G’s Tremor, did a nice job of identifying the keys to effective word-of-mouth messaging. She explained that things that disrupt a set of established mental associations, or “schema,” get us thinking. Then, if a disruptive idea is considered relevant and useful, our social survival instincts will prompt us to share it with others. So in order to create messages that will spread by word of mouth, you need to find the thing that will disrupt people’s established beliefs and make them stop and think.

Janelle proposed that it is the things that do not fit an established mental schema that make people engage their conscious minds.

Excerpts from an article by Nigel Hollis (Millward Brown)

A really cool source for Business Ideas

This website is amazing. It has a huge collection of creative ideas for entrepreneurs and any other people who want to do something great in life! Get ready to pounce on these ideas! :)

http://www.springwise.com/businessideas2010/

Research findings on Indian Kids by IMRB Kidscan

Here are a few findings tweeted by IMRBSpeaks from their research 'Kidscan':

1. GEC viewing among kids is passive. 60% kids would switch to kids channel if they got the remote
2. Good looking cartoon characters find highest favour among Indian kids
3. Kids like ads with reality in them rather than exaggerated fantasy.
4. Chinese food catches the Indian kids’ taste buds - ranked as favourite cuisine.
5. Indian kids exhibit high sensitivity to environment:70% willing to proactively participate environment related activities - (Nickelodeon's campaign that used this insight)
6. Indian kids politically apathetic: One third consider all politicians corrupt.
7. Celeb endorsements work wonders for kids. For favourite celeb, 34% straightaway buy the product.
8. High levels of peer influence among kids: 35% sure to buy a product if their friends have it.
9. Fitting into a group very vital for kids,60% express a strong desire for social acceptance
10. Window window in the mall’ : 68% claim ‘window shopping’ at malls as their favourite time pass.
11. Only 40% feel it's alright for girls to wear short clothes,indicates a highly conventional outlook towards adults & adulthood?
12. Academic performance the ‘Coolest’ thing - More than 80% kids want to be known for getting ‘best marks’ amongst friends
13. Cereal killer: Breakfast cereals are most hated food item for kids. Souce: Kidscan Study by IMRB international
14. 30% Indian kids sure that entertainment is not possible without cool gadgets.
15. Kids like ads with reality in them rather than exaggerated fantasy.

Also, here is a link to a survey summary conducted by ASER on the rural education system:
http://www.voiceofbharat.org/education/aser2009.asp

Interesting links about Advertising

I will be posting interesting links here as and when I come across them.

1) Customers' trust in different forms of advertising - Nielsen

2) Domino's recruits fans to sell its pizza!

3) Visual Targeting - to attract your TG to your communication - case study of Kraft-diamond shreddies

Interesting links about Marketing Research

This post is dedicated to give a wide range of links to some great discussions and reports related to Marketing Research. I would be updating the list as and when I come across some good information online. This would serve as a fruitful database for reference :)

1)Web Chatter About Tiger Woods Begins to Shift Back Towards Golf - Nielsen Brand Association Map

2) GenNow parents saving for children’s education- IMRB

3) Purse string power - Indian Housewife behaviour - IMRB

4) Recessionary impact on shopping behavior - Nielsen

5) Ogilvy study on Modern Chinese Mothers

6) JWT- Brand lessons from Recession 2009

7) AdAge - Web Tracking - Emerging Research Tool

8) Social Listening - for new product development - Nielsen

8) Point-of-Purchase Observations & Interview techniques (CIM)

10) Innovative Quali techniques

11) MR Blog links - Interesting read

12) Online panel tips

Understanding "Niche" Marketing

Niche marketing is servicing a portion of a unique market,
or a unique portion of a common market, not already served.

Here, Unique Market can be in terms of a unique segment (based on demography, geography, psychography) - the product is not meant for the masses at all. But, because the market is considerably huge in size (i.e., total no. of customers), the nicher serves only a portion of this largely sized unique market.
Eg: The "luxury designer wear" market has a unique audience - so it is a unique market. But this market is huge and spreads throughout the world. As a nicher, I can open a small boutique in Ahmedabad and say, "I will design kurtas and designer sarees for Gujju women in Ahmedabad."
Since news channels are generally targeted to the masses, a nicher in this category can offer something unique to cater to specific needs of a smaller segment. Eg: a channel on Fashion news.

For the second part - Unique portion of a common market - an example can be Johnson & Johnson Baby soap that targets the 'baby' segment in the common soap market (which is mass).

For niche - 2 or more companies can offer the same products (eg: boutique) - but the individual customers should not be common between them. Eg: "A Gujju boutique with Bandhni designs" will still remain niche if another boutique "A modern khadi cloth design" opens in the city. But if another "Gujju Bandhini boutique" opens in the neighborhood- they dilute each other's "niche"status - and start competing with each other for "market leadership" again!

As can be seen in the above cartoon from www.CartoonStock.com, The first salesman has carved a niche for himself in the "garments" market as a "tie-seller". But the second salesman has entered the "tie" market as a nicher by catering specifically to the smaller segment within it - those who do not know how to tie a tie! Basically, both of them are niche players. But the customer segment of Salesman 2 would be a subset of the customer segment of Salesman 1.
Both of them are not competitors because one is offering a product and the other is offering a related service.

The basic purpose of 'carving a niche for yourself' is to get rid of competition.

The final point is that the status of being NICHE is not permanent, it is rather relative to the presence or absence of direct competitors.

MY JOURNEY WITH MAGGI 2-MINUTE NOODLES

Mummy! Bhook Lagi!
Bas Do Minute!
Maggi! Maggi! Maggi!

My oldest memories with Maggi dates back to 1994-95, when I was studying in 1st Std.
My sister (who was in 3rd STD) and I would come back home from school at 4pm everyday – throw our bags on the couch and shout “MUMMY! BHOOK LAGI HAI!”
Our Mom knew what we wanted. She would take 2+1 minutes to serve us with Maggi. The extra 1 minute, to add her “mustard tadka” to add flavour. It’s the same tadka that she adds to Dal for dinner.

This scene was shown exactly in the same way in their TV and print ads those days. Instant gratification was the key! My sister and I wanted it. In the ad, the mom would quickly break the noodle cake into two equal halves and put it in the boiling water. When my sister and I used to peep into the kitchen and look at our mom doing the exact same gesture, we would be instantly reminded of the ad, and especially the loud crunch noise that accompanied the breaking of the noodle cake.

We would try to imitate everything in the ad- especially the slurping in of the single strand of noodle by making our lips round. Even though it was a noisy way to eat, we enjoyed it thoroughly! I still remember, we had a set of 2-toothed forks instead of the typical 3-toothed ones shown in the ad. There was only one 3-toothed fork in our house and my sister and I used to fight for it daily because we wanted to eat in the same style as the little girl in the ad.
6 units of the Maggi 4-in-1 pack was a part of my mom’s monthly grocery list. When I asked my mom why she made Maggi for us every day, she would say, “Tum logon ko itni bhook lagti thi, jaldi jaldi ban jaata tha”. Maggi was equally loved by mothers because it was quick to make. And ofcourse, we kids loved it because it was “Mmmmmm… TASTY!!” The tagline was perfect “Fast to Cook. Good to Eat”

My mom is a housewife. She was always at home when we came back from school. Maggi knew this and hence it made ads that touched our lives! The mom in the ads during 80’s and 90’s were housewives wearing sarees. They were just like my mom and I could very well identify with the little kids who would relish the noodles. The extra mustard tadka to the dish made my mom feel assured that she has contributed something to her daughters’ meal. Moms in those days had a need to put in all efforts into cooking, even if they use shortcuts to cook- they did not want to feel guilty about not doing anything special for their kids. This is also shown in Maggi ads where the mom cuts and adds vegetables to the dish.

As I grew older and entered primary school (5th Std), I had already learnt how to cook Maggi noodles. It was the first thing that I learnt to cook! I remember, once the Nestle team had visited our school and had a quiz competition. They were giving away maggi noodle single packs as free goodies. All of us made sure that we went back home and opened that very pack , cook it and eat it on the same day. We thought that the Maggi guys are directly giving it to us, it must be “special” maggi from the ad girl’s kitchen

But when I was in 6th Std, Maggi changed! It had a different texture and taste. I didn’t like the new taste and missed the old one. We started buying packs of other brands and tried to develop a taste for it. But nothing was like the old Maggi. We stopped eating noodles after a few months as we became fed up of other brands as well.

After a few months, I saw ads saying “YOUR FAVOURITE IS BACK”. But I was so horrified by the yucky new taste that I decided not to buy Maggi again. I thought they would have mixed both the tastes and made it more horrible. But luckily, I got to taste it at a friend’s house. I was so overjoyed with the taste that I asked for 1 more helping. That day, I went back home and told my sister, “Our Maggi is really back!” We bought the packs and started restarted our maggi relationship.

When I started college, Maggi had gradually transformed in its message. It was already popular among kids in the household. Now, they wanted to expand to other members of the family- the grandparents, father, and mother. As a teenage girl, I was growing health conscious. And there was a general wave of health consciousness all over the place. Maggi noticed this trend, and changed itself into “Taste Bhi. Health Bhi.” The new Dal-Atta noodles ads showcased Calcium and Protein components. These ads also showed grandfather and father eating the noodles. Maggi had now become a healthy family meal.

The mothers in the ads were looking more modern and were working women. The “Mania” ad did not show the mom as a housewife. The teenage boy comes from the shop with the noodle pack and cooks it himself. I could identify with the teenage boy this time, who was casual but yet independent. He cooked what we wanted, which was also healthy (rice).

Maggi has grown along with me, the ads have grown along with me. They seem to follow my life and show it the exact way on TV! Today, I sit and remember my good ol’ days with Maggi. They have captured that as well. The current campaign of Maggi is about “Remembering your good ol’ days with Maggi”. It has recently launched “MAIN AUR MERI MAGGI” campaign in commensuration of 25 years of Maggi in India.

This new campaign is interactive. Maggi is now cashing in on the memories people have with it. Licking waali Maggi.... Hostel waali Maggi.... Camping waali Maggi... Recently, there has been a slow decline in people’s connection with Maggi. This is because the departmental stores and supermarkets are stacked with 10 different brands of noodles. Maggi wants to remind everybody about the beautiful memories and relationship that everybody shares with the brand. All the new ads are now giving everybody another reason to love the brand.



Maggi will always be an iconic brand. It has now become more of a generic name for a dish – like “panipuri”. There is also an orkut community on “Maggi Lovers”. A brand that is so well-knit in our lives, it becomes impossible to imagine our life without it.

Some of Maggi’s old and new ads can be seen here:
http://www.maggi.in/merimaggitvc.aspx

My Print Ads for Education Times

The Importance of Education

Education is important.
The ads depict the importance of education in a person's life. Education purveys a fecund frame of mind to people. It widens the horizon of their imagination. They become truly free to make the right decisions. Confidence becomes concomitant with education.






It is difficult to imagine a life without education. The entire basis on one's personality is the education that one possesses. It is salutary for the mental well being of every person. It is panacea when used in the right way.

Life in 4000 A.D.

Future world painting by Fred Freeman (1906-1988)

Hi! I’m Tanvi Gupta, a student of Level X of the “Edu-Circuit” school located on the Earth. Today, I’m going to tell you about my day…

I woke up at 7:50 A.M S.E.T. (Standard Earth Time) when the biological alarm clock connected to my brain set off and automatically secreted anti-soporific agents in my body. After getting up, I walked into my new “Clean-o-matic” machine that helped me get ready for school. The new machine has all the settings customized for me- the electronic toothbrush, my tooth paste flavor, temperature of water, my favorite soap, automatic hair-dresser and also my school uniform (completely ironed).

I got ready by 7:52 A.M. S.E.T and had my favorite breakfast, a couple of “sandwich pills” that provide me instant satisfaction & nutrition of 2 sandwiches in a single gulp! I stuck my “nano-book” behind my ears and was ready for school. My grandmother tells me that when her mother used to go to school, they actually used to take huge books that were double the size of our palm! Oh my God! Its so hard to believe that! Our ancestors were really very primitive…..

Anyways, at sharp 7:54 A.M. S.E.T. I entered the “teleporter” that instantly transmitted me to school. As I entered the lobby, the electronic records automatically got updated with my attendance for the day. Our school is one of the most famous schools in the “Milky-Andro” Galaxy belt. That’s the reason we have many alien students enrolling every year. I reached my classroom at 7:55 A.M. and saw that the class was already full. The first row was occupied by the “Zilchos” from planet “Zilch”, the invisible planet from our neighbouring galaxy Andromeda. They look similar to humans but with the absence of a nose. They use their palms to smell. So they make sure that their hands are kept clean always!

The second row was occupied by the “Ezhiopians” from “Ezhiopia” which is the seventy eighth moon of planet “Zoogoooo”. They are very different because they consume food through their skin which is porous. So, you better be careful the next time you shake hands with or hug an ezhiopian! But jokes apart, they are very friendly and helpful by nature. The last three rows were occupied by earthlings, moonlings and marsians. Actually, all of us from the Solar system are quite united in the class. In our history lessons we learnt that many years ago there was a geo-bio-racial discrimination between people from earth and mars due to the red colouration of martians. But now, we have crossed all inter-planetary racial barriers. But we still need to overcome the inter-galaxial boundaries…

We had our Cosmography class at 8:00 A.M. S.E.T. Our class teacher “Tutor #2435” was the latest model of the techno-tutor series of robots with the highest level of artificial intelligence and advanced cognitive abilities. She* entered the class from under the desk and greeted us all. Then she started giving us the codes of the various sources of information about the various planets which were fed into our nano books. The nano books are equipped with the latest technology and all the information automatically gets neurotransmitted into our brains! But this process is done at a steady pace to ensure permanent settlement in the grey cells. I have heard another shocking fact from my granny that our ancestors used to write in books using an instrument called pen that had a coloured fluid inside. How is it possible when there are zero-gravity classrooms? The fluid ink will not be able to flow down at all!

*( the Intergalaxial Institute of Gender Balancing – IIGB, has passed a legislation that the robots have to be addressed with a female pronoun because of the fall in the percentage of female organisms in the galaxy)

Anyways, the classes continued as usual. I had a couple of meal pills for lunch. Post-lunch, I felt quite heavy. I guess I had a pill too much. I had a hydro-pill to quench my thirst. The hydro pill is equivalent to water of the ancient days. As you know, earth is the only planet that had water content. But everything dried up centuries ago. The hydro pill is synthetic compact water generated in the laboratory. We have learnt to adapt without real water through evolution over the past few centuries!

The last class for the day was Language, at 3:00 P.M S.E.T. We all had selected the language of our choice. I had selected “Ezhiopian” language because I find it very interesting to learn inter-galaxial languages. And it would also be useful for my future because I’m planning to move to Ezhiopia for my further studies. They do not use the mouth or vocal chords to communicate. Instead, this language uses claps, snaps and sneezes! Its an amazing adventure to learn such languages!

School was done for the day at 4:00 P.M. S.E.T. I teleported home by 4:05 P.M. Now, it was time to visit my favourite place on earth – The Forestarium! It is the most beautiful scene that I have ever seen. It is a pre-historic piece of land that has been conserved and showcased. It contains a bunch of around 25 huge green and brown pole-like structures called “Trees”! These vegetative organisms have become extinct centuries ago! But we are lucky enough to be able to witness atleast a bunch of these today.

My mom also gave me a pleasant news that our cousins are coming to visit us from the Moon. I love my cousins a lot. We all have grown up together. But last year, they had to shift to the moon because the population on the Mesosphere of the earth has also surpassed the limit. Last century, the population on the earth’s crust, troposphere and stratosphere had reached its peak. Each layer of the Earth’s atmosphere is being utilized one by one to build zero-gravity apartments every year! The Moon is also almost full! ;)

Today was an eventful day…

Anyways, its bed-time for me now…

I need to switch off my brain and keep it for charging. Need to use it tomorrow in class!

Good night (in case you have a period called “night” in your planet)

Visual Thinking - the best way to learn

Visual Thinking is something that has always purveyed strength to my concentration levels. From among the 5 senses, the sense of vision is the most important one for me. Since childhood, I have always been attracted to visual content that textual or audio. Even if one reads through a text, the mind creates various kinds of images with circles and arrows, dynamic transactions between people, objects, shapes, colors, etc... The simple black and white text on paper turns into a beautiful, colorful collage of characters in our mind.

The canvas for this amazing piece of art resides in our right brain. The right brain is known to be the link to experience "Nirvana". It does not confine your consciousness to the "real" world. It creates or enters into a new world that has no boundaries, no definitions. A person who is comfortable using her right brain more often, turns out to be among the creative lot!

But visual thinking generally comes naturally to us. If I tell you that I have a friend called "Bob", you may instantly create a rough image of that person in your mind. Maybe that person has a round or oval head! This can be clearly explained using the famous "Bouba-Kiki" effect.
I have 2 creatures with me. One is named "Bouba" and the other is named "Kiki". I have the pictures of both of them (not necessarily in the same order). Can you tell me which one is Bouba and which one is Kiki?

Generally, a majority of people will name the spiky pointed creature as "Kiki" and the rounded blob-like creature as "Bouba". This is the power of visual thinking that is innate within us.

Visual thinking helps a student to grasp concepts faster and to retain them as well. The Effective Elaboration that takes place within a person's mind after learning is an outcome of visual thinking. If you hear the word "Circle", the image of a circle will come in your mind. The 'database' of our mind is a zillion times larger and faster than any of the fasted computers or search engines in the universe!

A large part of this database lies within our genes. This means that we are born with a lot of images in our mind. That explains the "Psychic Unity of Mankind".

My Print Ad for Nokia Goes Green

Nokia went green with the launch of biodegrabale, eco-friendly handsets. It wanted to play a role in painting the city green. But this could be possible solely by the participation of consumers. One of the most effective means to reach consumers and to make them aware of the new colour of Nokia is through a print campaign. Hence, the Thinking Tigress pounced on the idea of a "greener planet" to be used for the ad.

The three hands create a subtle gesture of the 3 R's of conservation of the environment - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. These are the hands of the spirit of the earth- "Gaia". Nokia has purveyed her the power to enrich the earth and revive its verdant beauty. The contrivances that Nokia has provided to Gaia are the bio-degradable handsets. She has emphatically accepted these tools and holds them in her hands.

The man's iris reflects a fresh green colour. This has been further emphasized by keeping the rest of his face desaturated. He has just opened his window and peeped outside. The panorama is lush green because of the alliance of Nokia with Gaia. Furthermore, the logo of Nokia has also been given a green leafy plume - a souvenir from Gaia.

Gaia- Supreme Goddess of the Earth (Greek Mythology)