The Emerald

My experience as a teacher is filled with several life lessons, anecdotes and memorable interactions with students, peers and others. I began teaching in 2000 to the students of an under-grad business management program. During the first year, a certain student seemed to stand apart from the rest of the group. She, lets call her Emerald, was smart, ahead of the class, proactive - everything that a teacher wanted in a student. Later during the course, she regularly absented from the sessions. Since it was a small group, it was easy to track the students and help them to sort out issues if they sought any assistance. So I tried to find reasons behind Emerald's absence. She was supposed to be suffering from chronic headache. the absence continued and finally Emerald quit the course. I learnt later that she had some problems in the family.

I made several attempts to get in touch and convince her to continue her course. All my calls went unanswered. Years later, in a shopping area, I felt a familiar face pass by. It was Emerald. But I never bothered to stop and say hello to a "dear student". As it was not crowded, there was a higher probability of Emerald noticing me. But she didn't. My ego as a teacher convinced me that it was the student's duty to walk up to me and converse.

Then it happened. During the first week of July 2008, the local papers reported that a young woman jumped from her apartment and ended her life. A note by her mentioned that she was frustrated in life as she couldn't find a job. I looked at her picture and yes, it was Emerald.

I wish I had pushed myself to convince her to continue the course. I wish I had taught them how to be strong. I wish I had let go of my ego. I wish.......

Looking for tribes(wo)men

I had earlier mentioned about the art of case study writing akin to a Holmes story. After being with Icfai for nearly three years, I can very confidently say that it gives a great sense of satisfaction to write case studies and teach through writing. Besides, the learning derived is significant. I have authored more than 15 case studies, co-authored several and mentored and initiated teams into case writing. All our case studies are available at http://www.ecch.com/ and http://www.ibscdc.org/

I have moved on from being satisfied in seeing our case studies taught in b-schools across the world to collaborating with academicians and industry insiders in writing case studies. I have also realised that there is a very small tribe of regular case writers from Harvard, INSEAD, Wharton, Richard Ivy, Icfai and a few others. I and my team at Icfai Research Centre would be glad to collaborate in whatever we can be it case reviewing or writing or even getting your case class tested. The idea is to expand the tribe of case writers. Drop a line if you are interested: bharathi@ibsindia.org, bharathisg@hotmail.com

Customer is the King......Gimme a break

Several observers of the Indian market have time and again mentioned that the Indian customer has arrived and so is customer service in terms of exceeding his expectations. I think we still have a long way to go when it comes to serving the customer and genuinely making an effort to retain him. Let me narrate a story. Last week I went to this supermarket, Nilgiris, a100-year old brand that has a loyal clientele. The shop is very congested with narrow aisles flooded with merchandise. I was looking for an after shave for my husband. The after shave brands were all placed at the top of the rack. They were very closely packed and one had to make an effort and at the same time show a lot of caution while removing the preferred one. When I picked up one of the brands, the pack nxt to it fell thud on the floor and smashed inot pieces. Immediately the sales gal came running to look at the damage and informed that it would be billed. I continued with my purchase and very time I picked up something, there was someother product tumbling down. I also picked up a couple of aprons for which the price sticker was missing.

I got to know the price only after the bill was printed out at the billing counter. I pointed out to the manager of the store that the merchandise had to be properly arranged so that one could use single hand to pick up products from the shelves. I was told that I was the only customer who seemed to have a problem. I was in turn advised to ask for an escort at the store. As a matter of fact, this information was nowhere displayed in the store. The manager did not even acknowledge the suggestion or register the compalaint of a customer. I duly paid for the broken bottle of after shave, cursed Nilgiris that I would never visit them again. But does it matter to the retailer? A small percentage of this huge population is sufficient for the retailer to meet his costs and make a decent profit. This apart, I noticed the price on the aprons written with a felt pen in one of the corners of the cloth and barely visible. Is this not a perfect case of hiding information that is vaulable for the customer?

The hype that is created around the buzzwords 'the Indian customer', 'customer service' and 'customer retention' fall apart in the wake of such events. So what next? I would visit a different super market and Nilgiris would continue to 'entice' customers.

The brand that indeed unites the colors

One of the world's most controversial brands is the United Colors of Benetton (UCB). Unlike other companies that makes unrealistic statements about their brands, UCB works the other way around. It believes in taking a stance in the real world instead of using its advertising budget to perpetuate the myth that consumers can be happy by the mere purchase of UCB clothes. Its trademark of colorful jumpers is a part of the visual imagery but not the focus of its print and billboard ads. There are several ads of UCB that truly unite the colors vby showing multiethnic and multicultural models.UCB has also courted controversy by a series of unsettling images-blood covered babies, a dying AIDS patient, a child soldier and several others. The irony is that controversy only served to elevate the brand UCB further.

Absolutly Absolut

Anybody who wants to understand advertising can hardly ignore this advertising history - Absolut Vodka. Generally vodka is beleived to be a Russian (or Ukrainian?) brand. And Absolut being a Swedish Govt. product had to break the convention. There was nothing much to talk about the product. Vodka, being a colorless liquid was packaged in odd-looking medicine bottles and the company wanted to highlight the absolute purity of the brand. The company also had the origins clearly printed on the bottle. The ad agency, TBWA coined a simple two-word formula, "Absolut Perfection" in 1981. The ad also depicted the bottle being shown against a halo. This ad was followed by similar such ads which clebrated the bottle as the hero and with just two words. The rest is advertising history.

The campaign has been running successfully since 1981 even today. More than 1500 print ads have been released. These ads have caught the imagination of hobbyists the world over. Several sites, like ebay, sell these ads. The Absolut campaign is so successful that many artists have featured the Absolut bottle in their ads. For instance Andy Warhol the renowned painter and David Cameron, the fashion photographer. in the Absolut Cameron ad, the model becomes the bottle with the label being transformed on to her dress.

The company sources water from one well, grain from one field and production from only one plant in Sweden even till today. Every year during winter, it creates an Ice Hotel featuring an Absoult bar and invites guests. It also conducts premier exhibitions of the work that features the Absolut bottle. In the US, Absolut Vodka is the No. 1 imported vodka in the premium category and No.1 in the world. This is a perfect example of sheer advertising success.

Have a look at the ads. The hero of each copy is the bottle and the magic created by just two words.