Branding blunder that Vivek oberoi does:diffrent offscreen and onscreen image

Well it had been a week over here at Sheffield and the author is off to write his second blog & the topic is related to one of his favourite areas of interest: Indain film industry.
The author intends to talk about one of the most talented but most wrongly marketed Bollywood actors Vivek Oberoi, the kind of roles that he plays and the kind of media image that he maintains. One must understand that in a nation like India where both films and actors are adored heavily,every actor is a brand in himself.Every actor has both real as well as latent brand value that can be cashed in the form of asking price for films, stage show charges, endorsements etc.Media plays a very important role in deciding the exact brand value of these actors in the eyes of there customers that is the general public. Many a times there are actors like Ritesh Deshmukh,Arjun Rampal who are over rated in the media and then there are actors like akshaye khanna and vivek oberoi who are grossly under rated.*

Though the author does not intend to go into very details of every actor but will like to point out a very big blunder that Vivek as well as other actors do too often: Maintaining an altogether different image on and off the screen.One must admit that though these days actors in Bollywood are experimenting a lot with there roles, but in spite of that there is a specific kind of roles for which every one is known for. For exp:- Ajay devgan is known for playing serious roles,Salman Khan is known for playing roles of strong headed guy, roles that require throwing lot of tantrums and attitude,Sanjay dutt is known for playing mafia kind of roles and Sahrukh khan for romantic roles.Though Vivek himself had played so many different kind of roles but primarily he is some one who had always been appreciated for rough and rash roles. Be it the role of a dreaded criminal in shoot out at lokhandwala, an aspiring gangster in Company, and the no non sense young guy of Road.Vivek is some one who looks best when he has to play an earthy character, a character which does not reside in some fancy world but comes from the world of darkness,some thing that exemplifies the baser instincts of the human character.Even in his upcoming film Raktha Charitra where he is playing a south Indian feudal lord he is looking magnificent.He is some one who is always associated with grave and grey kind of characters, but when it comes to his off line life he has altogether a different image.He pretends to be too good and humble. Here the problem arises. People in India have a fixed image for every actor, they love to see them in that only. If an actor is rash and grave on the screen then they expect the same off the screen too.If he is a goody goody kind of guy on the screen then the same is expected from him off the screen too. The author is not saying that there is any harm in being a good boy but in case of vivek oberoi it creates an identity crisis. At one hand when he plays the role of a gangster and on the other if he tries to flatter Salman Khan in some media conference then it's obvious that normal public will find it tough to relate with him.He must understand the commonsensical fact that a hero who plays the role of a bhai or a gangster is not expected to plead in public, to try impressing some one knowing the fact that the other person do not even care a damn. Based on the type of role which he does ,Vivek really needs to change his way of behaving in public.There is no harm in showing humility but the essence of a mafia should not be missing nor should the style.The gravity with which he plays his role should not be found missing.The silent arrogance needs to be there not only on the silver screen but also in the real world. After all a brand is what the world perceives you.
(*:- Views are personal in the particular case)

The Arab community: what they have and whta they dont have

Well the author has reached united kingdom for his student exchange program and beside enjoying the English autumn one very important purpose he is having is to interact with the international community and to have a first hand experience of their culture, beliefs and their strengths and weakness with respect to the global business framework. Today the author is going to write on the Arab community:-

Strengths
1> Relationship based business: In the Arab world relationships matters the most. In contrast to their European or American counterparts where two negotiation parties have the tendency to shoot directly to the main agendas, the Arabs give a lot of emphasis to relationships. Business is never discussed initially. Initial time is always devoted to relationship building and once the relationship is built business follows. In the Arab world gestures have a great importance, customs and tradition play a very important role. And it is these gestures that do help a lot in building relationships.

2> Good negotiators: Arabs have always been traders. Trade had been the life line of Arab economy, as a result of which it had been seen that they are not only good sales man but have great knack for negotiations too.

Weakness
1> Continuous hardworking ability is missing in them: in contrast to their other counterparts they do not have the ability put continuous effort. They do put a lot of effort when needed, but cannot continue it for a longer period of time and this is something that really kills there prospect as strong professionals. In the modern world of business sustained effort is really needed if one wants to succeed. For this flaw of there even the Arabs can't be blamed completely. lot of credit goes to the environmental factors of the Arab world also. The weather had always been hostile in the arab land.So it had been some how tough for them to continue putting hard work. More over economies of countries like Bahrain have relied on stuffs like Pearl, fish etc. For these things one does not need to put continuous effort. One needs to work hard only when needed and then after the harvest can rest for large time.

2> Lack of awareness in brand building activities: Though the Arab world is really growing very fast but still when it seems as if they are not yet very well versed with modern business practices. One of them is there disinterest towards long term brand building practices. When ever the Arab invests in some brand building activity they want a very quick result. But practically this is not the possible. Modern brand building takes a large amount of time. It's not something that can be done in a very small time.

(Views here are based on the authors own understanding of the Arab people, his readings on the Arab world and his interaction with people who have worked in the Arab world.)

Anxiety can drive to experiment something new in life

The up coming blog that I am going to write will basically deal with the positive side of anxiety, so far lot of negatives have been said on the anxiety factor, and frankly speaking being anxious is a very uneasy state of mind, though it is neither painful nor torturing as such but it creates such a chaos in your inner world that every thing seems to disturbed, any ways this not the point of discussion, the point of discussion is that this state of inner volatility can also do a great good provided if it is used in a proper way .This state can really motivate you to take new resolutions in your life and to implement something new, some thing more positive in your life .

At first it might seem a bit counterintuitive that how come there be a relationship between anxiety and taking a new resolution .But there is a fundamental relationship between them . As human beings we all suffer with some sense of incompleteness and incompetency and we do want to remove it, we always make plans to take something new in life but unfortunately most of the times it gets restricted to planning only .We hardly implement in practice, the reason being the underlying pattern of our habits which is so deep in us that we do not find it easy to break this down .externally we might have some sort of angst with us but internally we are habituated with the way we live and are with complete peace with us ,internally we do not want any change . Now the good part of anxiety is that it creates a lot of inner turmoil, suddenly the so called equilibrium that the mind had created comes to a crash .we start doubting ourself,suddenly we are at some unease with our self, the so called habitual set up that was developed by us disintegrates temporarily. Now this period of temporary disturbance is the most fertile ground for doing some thing new,in this situation of chaos of yours there is no predetermined habitual inclination to stop you from doing some thing new , in anxiety you get the freedom to start any thing new .(In fact rather than freedom it is more of a need , you really want to do some thing new to pacify your anxiousness , to suppress your uneasiness)

The point that has to be taken care of is that anxiety can get you started but after that to continue some thing for a long period of time you need a decent amount of self discipline and dedication .Once the dose of anxiety goes down old habits will like to come back but with a lesser vigor , at such time you need to be a bit more patient and cautious . You need to be committed towards your new found practice for a while, after that over a period of time this new commitment of yours will become a habit and both you and inner being will be used to it .

So next time when ever you suffer with an attack of anxiety don't panic, rather try to use this opportunity for some better purpose .

Black Is Bold ,Black is Beautiful

                                                                             
In India, beauty and fairness are synonymous terms (though south is an exception but even there also being fair is a respectful idea ).Indians don’t only have fad for fair color

But in fact they are mad for it, not only females but also males aspire to be fair (that’s why someone like Shahrukh khan needs to endorse fairness cream for male). You take up a matrimonial and a very common sentence  which you will comes across is wanted a fair, beautiful blah blah blah bride for a blah blah blah.In a country where being fair is almost the first requisite for being beautiful having a dark complexion is nothing less than an anathema (at least it holds true for the female specie).

But there is a paradox, while the middle class and the lower class do crave badly for fair color the higher echelon of the society negates this presumption, if one will carefully study bollywood one will definitely see
that if a comparison being done between dark skinned actress and fair skinned ones the darker race will definitely out number it’s fairer counterpart.Not only actress like Konkana sensharma or Nandita das who are more into art house cinema rather than being with commercial genre have got earthy looks but in the present scenario some of the most successful commercial actresses like Priyanka chopra, Deepika padukone ,Sameera reddy, Bipasha basu ,Asin are dark skinned. Then we have got someone like Lara dutta and Amrita rao who are though not dark but are of wheatish complexion .Well there is still no dearth of fair looking actresses like Ashwariya rai,Sushmita sen ,Vidya balan etc but with the large no of dark skinned actress present right now we can surely say that the old saying that beauty and fairness synonymous t doesn’t match the ground reality, not only in bollywood but even in the modeling world some dark skinned models have achieved the sky,be it Ujjwala raut(the model who went international),Shweta menon or Indrani dasgupta(my favorite) .

So what has become so special with this dark complexion that suddenly it has become so fashionable? One thing is surely the fact that dark complexion is somehow more sexier than the fair one, at least I believe so. Who else can forget hot and dusky Bipasha flashing her skin in Jism or sensual Sameera reddy coming out of water in a white bikni in race. Even in the time of 70’s and 80’s both the so called sex sirens ie Jinat aman and Parveen babi where dusky but the most important reason lies in the fact that the world around us is changing, at least the youth is . The gen x is ready to experiment,they are ready to break the norm,no more are they interested in restricting themselves to the same old adages, for them fair is beautiful but so is black. The new generation definitely has got a very diversified taste where complexion no more matters ,what does matter is your attitude and the way you are presenting yourself, if you have got the right mixture of style, confidence and presentation you will surely have a space to carve your niche. Not only have the audience changed but so have these actresses and model who are an integral part of this confident and vibrant GEN X.The way in which they are representing themselves with the cock tail of style, smartness and attitude definitely helps in quadrupling there beauty let’s hope that this very same freshness and newness which had swarmed the upper echelons of the society must percolate down to the wider mass.it’s evening time.Just say Amen

Mahabharata & new age Managers

                                                                      
In the upcoming blog the author will try to describe five different types of new age managers based on five extremely vibrant characters from the Indian epic Mahabharata.

1> Duryodhana:- Duryodhana defines blind ambition, the ambitions of Duryodhana was so high that he was almost mad about it. To make things happen he was ready to go to any extent. Managers of this category are irrationally ambitious, and to fulfill there ambition they are ready to stretch to any degree, they have huge amount of energy and to achieve success they can cross any line. Though they have tremendous amount of energy like Duryodhana but such they are often very anxious, arrogant and tough to deal with.

2> Karna:- After Duryodhana the another most vibrant character from mahabharata was Krana, though born with divine origin Karna was born and brought in a low caste family and due to which he was always humilated. He was deprived of his true honor, his ego was hurt at every stage of time and as a result of which he developed a great craving for his ego. Whatever action did he take was taken to satisfy his suppressed ego.Even the high degree of morality and philanothropy did he show was nothing but an after effect of his ego fulfillment desire. Manager under such category are completely ego driven, they are self recognition oriented and whatever they do, they do by keeping themselves in centre. Since such managers are recognition seekers they often make themselves efficient and capable with continuous effort self motivation.

3> Arjuna:- Whether it was Dronacharya or lord Krishna Arjuna had always shown 100% devotion, it was this devotion and focus that made Arjuna one of the finest archer in the world. The manager of this category like Arjuna are extremely devoted and focused. Whatever they do , they do with full commitment and devotion. As a result of this devotion they excel in every field whether study or professional world. Though devoted there is no guarantee that they will be loyal to a particular industry for a very long time,but for the time being are with a company will remain devoted to their job. They are quite predictable and are often a bit boring in their social life.

4> Yudhisther:- Though moderate in his abilities Yudhister is the most morally upright and ethical character of Mahabharata. Managers of this category are not highly efficient "moving on the razor's edge" kind of managers but are always ethical in their approach and are inclined towards CSR kind of activities. Though they don’t live very glamorous life but do command a moderate amount of respect.

5> Bhima:- Bhima was one of the most powerful, energetic & also one of the most casual, careless and aimless character. Managers of this category are extremely talented but are like unguided missiles. until unless they don't channelize their energy nothing much can be expected from them, their energy is more of a burden rather than an asset.

Two Misconceptions that Marketers often have

                                                                              
After coming back to TAPMI the author underwent such a heavy schedule that hardly there was any time left for the blog, but today since there is some spare time the author will like to write a very short blog on two very acute misconceptions that generally marketers have.

1> Considering your personal perception as sacrosanct:- This a very big mistake that many a times marketers do. As individuals we have the tendency to put a lot of emphasis on our personal opinions and then based on our personal opinion we generalize each and every stuff. One must understand that everyone is different and if decisions are made on a single person's opinion then that might end up in blunder, having said this it doesn't mean that a marketer should not be guided by his instinct and opinion but it should always be confirmed with a larger set of people.

2> Being aggressive:- Being an MBA student himself author has recognized the fact that among many MBA students and in many industry circles there is a misconception that marketing and aggressiveness goes hand in hand, and if one wants to succeed as marketer then he needs to be aggressive. In the author's opinion the reality is just the other way round, a marketer should never be aggressive, because nothing can annoyed a customer more than an aggressive and dominating marketer. One must be very down to earth, calm and composed while dealing with the customers. A small amount of aggression might work but it should not look obvious, one must understand that as long as the deal is not finalized the customer is the king and nothing should be done on the part of marketer that might make his future customers feel uncomfortable.

How to Brand yourself among your peers: Few Innovative tips

                                                                     
As management students and working professionals we need to continue our job along with huge bunch of peers. Directly or indirectly our professional life is influenced by our peer group. So it’s very essential that we should maintain a strong brand value in the eyes of our peers. Today in this blog the author will attempt to write a few innovative measures that can help individuals in maintaining a strong brand value in the eyes of their peer. Having said this ,the author will like to clarify that the basic rules of individual branding such as hard work, crisis handling abilities , Socializing abilities ,dependability etc are extremely important for maintaining a good image in the eyes of your peers but along with them if the following few tips are followed then it will be of great help .


• Never try to show off your superiority in front of your peers. This can hamper your brand value like anything. In fact fundamentally one should not even think that he is superior than his peer group . The reason being very simple, a group of peers constitute a set of individuals who have more or less same dimensions of competencies and their cannot be much of a difference between two individuals who share the same professional space.(let’s say two management student studying in the same college, only difference that can happen is that one might be good in one stream and the other might be in something else. So your unwanted bragging of yourself or showing off of your attitude will not do nay favor other than putting the general opinion of your peers against you.

• Having said this does not mean that you should not try to project your positive side . Whenever you feel that there is an opportunity where you can deliver never miss the chance. But again be cautious, only be active where you can be active, don’t try to snoop into stuffs that are not your cup of tea, because that might give you the tag of attention seeker.

• You might have a very interesting idea and you are extremely passionate about it, but before shooting it out in public just think once , is the mass sitting around equally passionate, are they going to take it with interest or will they be reluctant to hear it. One must understand the fact that whenever one speaks something publicly he is using his time as well as the time of others. So it is very essential that one must consider the interest of others. Neglecting the given idea can give you the tag of a bugger.

• Avoid being a rebel. Being a rebellion always sounds fascinating and inspiring, but these things work only in the novels of Ayan Rand. In practical life generally being too rebellion does not work.

• Always try to do few things that can be of common interest to your peers. Example let’s say there is a confusion among your peers regarding the pay appraisal policy of the company and you have got a document that explains it elaborately then rather than keeping it to yourself it is advisable to put it in a public folder or send through a batch mail .This can boost your image like anything.

• Along with regular intellectual stuff that one does ,one must also put equal amount of efforts in general routine stuffs, events, and activities that keep on happening in the work place. Not only the intellectual stuff that one does but also these sweat drenching stuffs are also very obvious in the eyes of your peers. So there is no point neglecting them.

5 Socialzing tips for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

                                                                 

                                                           
If you are an aspiring Entrepreneur then the following piece of writing might be of some help for you .The author has written few points which might be helpful for someone who is an aspiring entrepreneur ,in making strong as well impactful networks.

1> Try to meet more and more no. of  people.

2> Your acquaintance must include people from all kinds of socio economic sphere:-

• Rich & big shot people who has the potential to make big investments in your business plan.

• Govt. officials/employees who can use their positional power in warding off various issues that a start up might come across such as paper works, legal hassles, registration etc. If not in winning contracts then can at least help you in including your name in the govt. tenders.

• People such as lawyers, add agents/media people, furniture shop owners, electrical appliances shop owners etc. Whatever kind of start up one might be contemplating these are the basic few services which are needed in all. So having such contact is always helpful, if it cannot get you things in free then at least can give you some discounts which is always of great help given the fact that initial stage of a businesses are always associated with resource crunch.

• Have good contacts with creative people so that if needed some kind of their help can be availed.

• Also have good contacts with people from lower strata of society, because for a venture not only creativity and capital is needed but also brute labor is required, so such contacts have its own use.

3> Whenever you are meeting a big shot you need to be very cautious, beware of the fact that you are meeting your future investor. Try to take care of the following points:-

• Don’t speak much, do not interrupt in between, but do not also mum, speak when it is required.

• During any such conversation if you think that you can be of some use to the man then without hesitation offer your service, if some remuneration is offered after the service deny it amicably.

• Listen to him patiently(even if you feel he is bugging or bragging too much be patient)

• While leaving ask for the visiting card and while receiving it show humility and respect.

• If possible immediately add the person in some social networking account of yours. Do not buzz him too much but try to interact with him at regular interval of times. Always greet him on special occasions like anniversaries, festivals etc.

4> Coherence of political idea:- While meeting someone if you find there is a coherence of political ideology between both of you leverage this as much as you can. Try to discuss with him on these stuffs. No bond in the world can be stronger than the bonds of political ideology (provided both of you are really about it.)

5> Stuffs such as Cigarettes, drinks & foods (in decreasing order of their effectiveness) are also of great use in socializing with people.

(Views here are personal and since the author is just an MBA student he might not be an expert in dealing with such stuffs, but based on his personal observation he had tried to explain his opinion. Any additional information from the side of the readers is welcome.)