Branding of an after shave brand

When it comes to branding of an after shave brand how can it be really done ?well i am not an expert on this but based on my personal experience as well as on some insights i will like to evaluate some thing like an after shave on various parameters .I think some thing like an after shave can be perceived on following parameters

1) Medicinal purpose:- an after shave is supposed to be an antiseptic , that takes care of the skin after shaving . Well this is what an after shave is supposed to be doing but since this is a basic requirement from any after shave this parameter cannot be used for differentiating a brand , for that matter if medicinal purpose is the only factor then there is hardly any difference between an after shave or lets say alum or an antiseptic cream .

2) Price :-the role of price in branding does not look very clear over here. But one thing is for sure that is since it is a luxury brand a price some how in the higher side will do favor .

3) Packaging and color :- Things like packaging and color of an after shave product will definitely play a vital role in building the brand value of the product. A good packaging and color will not only give a feel good factor to the consumer but will also prompt the consumer to show it to their friends there by multiplying the band value.

4) Advertisement :- a brand like an after shave is not a basic need , it is more of a desire and so for any such kind of product it is very essential that it should be promoted in a very stylish and glamorous fashion .The advertisement should strike instantly with the consumer psyche , it should be in a position to compel the customer to spend few extra bucks from his pocket to get the brand. In view of this it becomes essential that an advertisement for an after shave brand should contain added flavors of glamor, style or sensuality .Those elements should be produced in such a beautiful way that it must compel the viewer to connect himself with the brand .For exp:- an advertisement that promotes an after shave as a product which helps in attracting females then in that case the ad should be made in such a mesmerizing way that it must compel the viewer to think that after applying it his sex appeal to the females will increase two fold.

These above given factors are important for developing the brand value for some thing like an after shave but a very important fact that has to be considered is that these factors do not directly affect the consumer, the impact made by stuffs like lets say the packaging or advertisement will either be of some imaginative nature or aesthetic purpose or at most of ego satisfaction but to make a mark as a brand it is very essential that the brand must make a deadly impact on the consumer while he is using , as a consumer(as a consumer not merely as a customer ) there must be a chord between him and the brand.As a product it must give some direct value addition to it's consumers ,for this purpose in my opinion two parameters are very essential .

a) Feeling of freshness that the shave can give and the longevity of freshness :- by feeling of freshness i mean the cooling effect which the after shave gives and the smooth skin that one gets after applying the shave .This is some thing very important for building the brand value of the after shave, a point to be noted over here is that not only the intensity matters but what does matter is the longevity, because the more the feeling freshness will prevail the higher will be the bond time between the brand and the user and stronger will be the impression of the brand in the eyes of the user .

b) Fragrance and its longevity :-Similarly fragrance and its longevity are also very essential factors that can help in building the brand value of an after shave brand. Fragrance is something that directly impacts the consumer .So its quite natural that a nice fragrance will make a strong impact but a very important factor that has to be taken care of is that simply a strong fragrance is not going to serve the purpose since mostly any after shave brand has strong fragrance , what does matter is the longevity of the fragrance , like freshness the higher the fragrance will remain the stronger will be the impact. A nice fragrance will make the first impression but if it will vanish of soon then it cannot reaffirm it self, but if the fragrance can maintain it self for a longer period of time then every time the nice soothing smell will enter the nostril of the consumer the higher will be the feelings of the consumer for that brand.Longevity of the fragrance will ensure a prolonged positive interaction between the consumer and the brand and will surely give enough time and space to the brand to win the heart of his consumer .

IN THE END I WILL LIKE TO LIST DOWN ALL THE FACTORS THAT CAN AFFECT THE BRAND VALUE OF A PRODUCT LIKE AN AFTER SHAVE IN INCREASING ORDER OF THEIR SIGNIFICANCE :-

a)Medicinal use.
b) Price .
c) Color, Packaging, Advertisement.
d) Freshness and it's duration, Fragrance and it's duration.

Emirates Airlines: Brief Introduction

               fig 1 : fly Emirates logo ( source: telguprofessional.blogspot.com)                                                           

Dubai based Emirate airlines, is among the most successful airlines in the world. This largest airline from the Middle East had played a vital role in shaping up the Emirate state from a, oil rich Emirate to a global tourism destination. In the following blog, author will attempt to give a brief description comprising of, history, profile, strengths, corporate strategy and areas of concern, for the airline.

History:

After its independence in 1974, Dubai along with other Emirates were served by Gulf Air, but since the very beginning  relationship between the airline and Dubai was tensed, owing to Dubai’s unwillingness to abandon its open skies policies. In 1985 when Gulf Air reduced its flights to and from Dubai by 2/3 rd, the ruling elite at Dubai realized, to have an exclusive airline for Dubai , hence Emirate Airline (having just two carriers at that time) was born with   an initial investment of US $ 10 Million from the government. The 1st ever flight departed to Karachi on 25th October. In 1987 it started its European operation with flights for London and Frankfurt. A perfect exemplar of phenomenal success stories, Emirate airline had kept on almost doubling itself every three years, growing with an average growth rate of 25% annually. Presently not only it is serving 100 destinations across 60 countries but had also won myriad prestigious awards and accolades. (Andreas E, Alexander K)

Facts and figures (2010)

• Fleet size: 152 ( Boeing: 91, Airbus: 61) + 18 on order/ planned (Boeing:5, Airbus: 13) (planesspotters.net, 2010)

• Average age of the fleet : 6.5 years (planesspotter.net, 2010)

• Destinations served : 100 destinations, 60 countries

• Financials: revenue: US $ 11.8 Billion, profit: US $ 964 Million ( a 416 percent increase over 2009) (emirates.com, 2010)

• Employee strength : 36, 000 approx

• International passengers: 25.9 Million (2009-10), 7th highest in the world in terms of number of passengers. ( arabiansupplychain.com, 2010)

• Number of flights per week : 2400

• Head office: Dubai

• Key people: Chairman and CEO: Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President: Tim Clarke

Parent Company

Emirate airlines, is the part of the bigger conglomerate namely Emirate group, with a range of individual companies, serving various verticals of international travel and tourism industry. Emirate airlines comprises of; Emirate airlines, the biggest airline of Middle East; Dnata, an aviation service company providing ground handling services; Emirates Holidays, providing tailor made holiday packages to over 100 destinations; Congress Solution International , a PCO (professional conference organizer) offering a wide range of services; Arabian Adventures , offering wide range of overland adventure programs such as deep sea diving, desert safari etc; Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa, an exclusive conservation-based resort bordering the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area in Australia; Mercator, Emirate airline’s IT solution provider, is a leading supplier to IT solutions across the globe; Emirate’s engineering, maintaining the expansive fleets of Airbus and Boeing of Emirate airline as well as seven other airlines through 3rd party maintenance contract ; Alpha flight Group Limited, an in flight catering company employing more than 6000 people and serving 58 airports across 11 countries. Beside these, Emirate group also has a wide range of joint ventures such as; Emirates Flight Catering, Emirates Leisure Retail, MMI, Oman United Agencies etc. Emirate Group, employing more than 40,000 individuals from 160 nationalities is a state run entity, managed by Dubai Investment Holding. (emirtaesgroupcareer.com, 2010)

Strengths (Andreas E, Alexander K)

• Political support: Emirate Airlines had been  very crucial with respect to Dubai’s  strategy of transforming itself into world class tourism cum commercial hub, hence the airline was always up on the agendas of the ruling elite of the Emirate.

• Strategic location: Dubai’s is strategically placed between the crossroads of North and South as well as East and West, there is hardly any major agglomeration in the world which is not with in 8000 miles from Dubai. Some 3.5 Billion populations reside with in an 8hr flight from Dubai. The strategic location had played a major role in transforming Dubai into a a very successfull tourist destination. Strategic location coupled with easy immigration policies (transit travelers do not require clearing emigration at Dubai airport) have also helped Emirates Airlines being preferred by many transit travelers.

• Indirect subsidies: it is said that Emirates had been indirectly subsidized by the government of Dubai in the form of almost no charges being paid for various at Dubai airport, such as, ACT, noise and security charges.

• Top class service and high labor productivity: another competitive advantage for Emirates had been its ,great services in almost all the class and  high labor productivity. A study done by UBS in 2005 showed that Emirates per unit cost was 40% lower than that of KLM.

• Tax free regime: the tax free regime at Dubai had not helped in adding to the over all profitability of the airline but also in attracting high quality human resources from all across the globe.

Corporate Strategy (Andreas E, Alexander K)

• Focusing on healthy mix of both O & D (origin and destination) as well as transit travelers.

• Focusing strongly on cargos. 20% of the revenue comes from cargo for Emirates Airlines.

• Along with organic growth strategies, it had adopted inorganic ones as well ,such as having a 43.6% stake in Srilankan Airlines.

• Providing high quality services in all classes.

• Maintaining high frequencies , serving every location at least twice weekly.

• Making strong presence in underserved markets such as Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester, Hamburg, Cochin, Kolkata etc.

• Making strong presence in markets such as Sub Saharan regions that have been so far unconnected to the global air traffic network due to lack of a effective national carrier.

• Markets itself very strongly, though over all marketing budget is confidential but is expected to be 3-5 % of the overall revenue. Out of the wide range of PR and marketing strategies used, sponsoring major sporting events are at the fore front of its branding agendas.

Areas of Concern:

• Politically unstable Middle East: the present unrest in Middle East poses serious concern for the Emirates Airlines. Though UAE is enjoying a peaceful political climate, but the uprising in various parts of the gulf and Middle East, will surely result in apprehensions, among the travelers in visiting the region.

• Emerging carriers from the region such as Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways are posing tough competition to Emirates Airlines. Though yet to break even, their strategy of matching Emirates level of service in comparatively lesser price is can be a source of serious threat to Emirate airways.

Reference:

1> Andreas E, Alexander K, how sustainable is Emirates business model, available at < http://www.aerlines.nl/issue_38/38_Knorr_Eisenkopf_Emirates_Business_Model.pdf >

2> Planesspotters.net, 2011, Emirates: details and plane history , available at http://www.planespotters.net/Airline/Emirates

3> Emirates.com , 2010, emirates group makes record profit this year, available at < http://www.emirates.com/fr/english/about/news/news_detail.aspx?article=567011 >

4> Arabiansupplychain.com, 2010, top 10 international passenger airlines, available at < http://www.arabiansupplychain.com/article-4997-top-10-international-passenger-airlines/1/print/  >

5> Emiratesgroupcareer.com, 2010, Emirates Group Company, available at http://www.emiratesgroupcareers.com/english/about/companies/  Default.aspx

6> Andreas E, Alexander K, how sustainable is Emirates business model, SWOT analysis available at < http://www.aerlines.nl/issue_38/38_Knorr_Eisenkopf_Emirates_Business_Model.pdf >

7> Andreas E, Alexander K, how sustainable is Emirates business model, Emirates business model, available at < http://www.aerlines.nl/issue_38/38_Knorr_Eisenkopf_Emirates_Business_Model. pdf

Marketing yourself as an ACTOR in bollywood:Where was Abhay Right and Where Vivek went Wrong

The concepts of marketing applies everywhere and Bollywood stars are no Exception, your success as an actor depends heavily on how well you market yourself and how correctly you market yourself .Here i will like to tell stories of two bollywood actors ,one started off well but made blunders in his brand promotion where as the other started off slow but promoted himself in a very slow but strategic sense .

Vivek Oberoi:-

From his very first film Company vivek became the darling of bollywood ,and the press heralded that bollywood has got his new Shahrukh khan,soon after Sathiya followed and vivek gave his second hit in the same year,after the success of sathiya vivek was signed by all the big film makers of bollywood ranging from Subash Ghai,Karan Johar to Mani Ratnam etc.Vivek was now the blue eyed boy of media ,and he was commanding a very strong brand value ,but here vivek made a blunder ,rather than becoming slow he started playing his games very fast, in each and very press conference vivek started to dominate, in every conference a kind of artificial over confidence was quite evident in vivek oberoi, he started pretending as if he was not the would be but the real shahrukh khan,and then there was the famous salman khan controversy ,These all things projected vivek as an inflated balloon ,who was some how a talented man but was highly over rated, soon after what had to happen happened ,one by one his films started bombing at the box office,so here was a man who was holding a very strong brand value as an actor but as a product he was a dud, his brand value itself proved to be short lived and got vanished quickly, very soon he was forced to play supporting roles from main lead roles ,as there is a wonder full saying in marketing nothing kills more than a bad product but a strong promotion, the same happened with vivek, but here i must confess that the product was really not bad,with time vivek had really learned a lot from his mistakes , As an actor he had become quite serious , though still he is not smart enough in dealing with media but he has some very exciting projects in his kitty, and is ready to make a comeback with a bang.

ABHAY DEOL:-

The mistake that vivek did was that he promoted himself so strongly that there was exorbitant amount of expectations with him but when his films came ,there was a mismatch between what was expected and what he delivered(though no doubt he was a talented actor, but the expectation itself was so high that it was tough to deliver),But where as vivek did mistakes another actor abhay deol who debuted in 2005 with his film Socha na thaa, played his cards very intelligently, from his very first film it was evident that this deol is a deol with a difference, there was no doubt that abhay could be nurtured into a great actor ,but abhay never tried to be aggressive in his initial days, since the release of his very first film he was offered a bunch of flicks but rather than choosing any film that came on his way he was very choosy with selecting film, even while choosing the kind of roles to play Abhay preferred playing offbeat roles ( different from playing intense roles in parallel cinema and at the same time avoiding typical bollywood hero kind of roles where an actor is more a hero rather than an actor) , he preferred such roles where he could really deliver and the result was that not only did he receive a lot of rave reviews for his performance but also since he choose the middle path his prospects as an actor was open in both kinds of cinema , that is in parallel/off beat cinema as well commercial flicks .while dealing with media also he always projected himself as a smart, elegant and intelligent actor .(He has got the privilege to speak min WHARTON UNIVERSITY ), but never crossed the line ,as an actor he knew his limitations and never tried to project himself something larger than life but at the same time never went underground as well , at regular intervals news related to him was there in the media. The over all result was that not only was he in a position to establish himself as critically acclaimed actor but after the commercial success of DEV D he is one of the sought after commercial actor of bollywood .

Both VIVEK and ABHAY have huge potentials and have got a long way to go, only time will say who will be more successful but right now the ball is in Abhay's court and a great degree credit definitely goes to the way he marketed himself .

India as a Brand :A mere rhetoric

Couple of months back in my college there was an event organized that dealt with the idea of branding India, the main objective of the event was to focus strongly on the positive aspects of India so that we can attract more and more investment and human capital from all over the world. There were dignitaries from various part of the corporate world and basically every one believed that by reinforcing strongly on positive aspects of our culture ,our diversity and our booming IT industry and economy we can build a strong brand image of India.

Well before being judgmental in the beginning i will like to tell when it comes to the concept of BRANDS what does THEORETICAL WISDOM says .According to theory a brand is a name ,logo or the product of a company with which a customer relates himself and which distinguishes the company from the competition, this was just a theoretical definition ,but practically with out getting into much of global gases(a typical TAPMI TERMINOLOGY that means focusing more on abstraction with out giving much of concern for practicality ) a strong brand value means the strong loyalty a particular product enjoys on account of its supremacy over its competition as well as the value that it delivers to it's customer ,thus though a strong promotion strategy is really important for brand building, promotional strategy are just the circumference of the entire process, at the center of any successful brand lies the product it self ,today CATERPILLAR is a brand because it produces the best tractor ,VAN HUSEIN is a brand with which people feel connected because it makes the best cloth fabrics, MCDONALD is a brand because it prepares the best fast food, thus it is not the promotion but the product that constructs a brand .

Now lets come to the idea of India as a brand ,with the above given concept of brand it is well evident that the brand value of India as a nation depends primarily on the nation called india ,it's economic system ,it's political machinery,its economical parity ,it's efficiency in making things happen ,it's growth potential ,it's per ca pita income ,the vision of its policy makers,it's position in various social index factors such as human development index,gini index etc .Along with this too some extent it also depends on various other factors such culture heritage etc .Now having said this how strong is really India as a product, with 72% people still earning less than 2 dollar a day can we tell that India is an economic super power .With around a quarter of population living in abject poverty struggling hard to make it's end meet can we tell that India is a strong brand in it self, with a rank of 138 in human development index and a abysmal position of 145 in per ca pita income can we really tell that India has got the potential to herald itself as a very strong brand on the global platform .In a country where there is so much of social unrest from north east to Gujarat from Kashmir to the southern part of India is it possible that mere rhetoric of our culture and heritage will offset this harsh reality of violence and unrest and brand india as a epitome of harmony in diversity . With so much of corruption prevalent in all the ladders of bureaucracy , with such a slow pace of deregulation , is it really apt to claim that India is a great place to do business. There is so much hoopla regarding IT that some people even donot hesitate to proclaim that if china is the factory of global economy India is the laboratory ,i will like to tell such people that just tell me a single indigenous IT product that this lab has made , an operating system is a far off dream India could not have made a single web browser so far.

In marketing it is said that nothing kills a brand faster than a bad product it self, and given the kind of statistics given above modern india is indeed a bad product ,a product which is still going through the initial phases of it's product cycle .so rather than emphasizing on brand promotion of india on account of hand full of rhetoric like tradition or IT india first needs to work on the product quality itself ,it needs to implement a very comprehensive human development programs ,that must put emphasis on mass level education,sanitation, health facilities and education .it needs to invest hugely on its higher education system and must change the culture of this system from mere mugging of facts to research and practical application,it needs to curb rampant corruption as soon as possible. (details on this on some another blog), once the product will be of top quality strong branding will simply follow. Till then it will be nothing more than mere rhetoric.

Use of social networking sites for evaluating candidates

This might look weird in first go but social networking sites like orkut and face book can be used as a wonderful tool for judging and analyzing potent candidates for senior positions .

Social sites like face book and orkut can give a hell lot of information regarding one's prospect candidates for senior positions .In social networking site like orkut there are options of joining various communities( since i am not a face book user till now i donot have much idea on this ),there are myriad communities available in orkut ranging from communities on fashion and life style to communities based on politics ,religion , business and others .Generally every individual has a tendency to join some communities of his taste where he can chat and share views with like minded people and also gather some valuable information .Now suppose a company wants to recruit for some senior position and it wants to judge its potential candidates on various parameters, though to make this happen it can rely on the candidate's past experience along with a thirty minute face to face interview ,though they may give some valuable insights regarding the professional behavior of the candidate but still it is n't sufficient in judging the overall personality of the candidate .When it comes to hire an employee for a senior position it is not just the professional behavior that matters but various other things like political inclination, hobbies ,interest are also important and cannot be discounted ,it is tough to evaluate these things just on account of a thirty minute face to face interview ,to know your candidates better interviewer can rely on social networking sites like orkut ,it can go to the interview's account on such sites and can see the various communities the he has joined.To join a community you need to first search that community, then you need to visit the required page,then there happens to be a join option where you need to click,immediately after this another message will appear asking you whether you really want to join this community or not and after replying in yes, finally one becomes the member of the required community .Thus though the entire process does not take more than 3 minutes but if in this fast moving world one cares for giving his 3 minutes then it surely means that he has got some inherent interest in that particular stuff with which the community deals with. Suppose if someone is the member of a community namely "NO MORE COMMUNISM " ,then it surely means that he has some sort of aversion for that communism , or if someone is a member of too many music related communities then then it can be guessed that this fellow is a music buff. Thus with the help of communities (along with some degree of deductive logic) a lot of things can be found out regarding your candidate.

Though this method is as effective in recruiting for lower ladders as for higher ladders but currently it is more practical in using it for high profile recruitment only, in low profile recruitment where recruitment is made in huge bulk and where specific skill set is required from the employee rather than a very diversified one this method will simply end up wasting a great deal of time with out giving much of desired results.

Though a very innovative and wonderful tool in itself it has got it's own flaws:-

1.Some times people join a community not out of love for it but out of hate or differences.Exp:- you might join a community called America not out of love for Americans or America but just to debate with other America lovers regarding your difference in opinion

2. Some times one might join a community not out of some sheer interest but just for some show off.

3. This method can be used as a wonderful supporting tool but too much of reliance on this might not be very effective.
rather than relying on it completely what interviewers can do is that they can get a rough sketch of their prospective candidates with the help of such tools and then based on this sketch a proper face to face interview can be taken to reaffirm the sketch .

NEW PARADIGM OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONSHIP IN INDIA IN THE FACE OF ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION

Introduction:-Industrial relationship is a field which basically deals with the relationship between the management and work force. like any other field of social science it has been subject to change since its inception, initially labor was thought just as a mean for production, and the idea was to exploit it to the highest degree possible, this kind of mindless exploitation gave rise to militant unionism, strikes and gheraos .With time it was realized that that labor is not a resource to be exploited but an ally to be utilized in a proper way to achieve higher goals and gradually there was a change in the dynamics of industrial relations. In present scenario when the Indian economy is globalizing very rapidly followed by the massive influx of technology, capital and ideas the dynamics of Industrial relationship in India again calls for a paradigm shift. One fifth of all those born between 2007 and 2030 will be an Indian. By 2030, India will become the biggest source of labor thereby attracting a huge degree of investments from the global market.[1] Under such a scenario, Industrial relations in India will require major changes to streamline itself with the needs of vast globalization. This change has to be implemented from both sides that is from the end of management as well as from the end of labor force so that it can become a win- win situation for both, along with the growth of the nation.




Paradigm Shifts in Negotiations:

As we know that globalization is followed by huge investments of capital, technology and ideas, so one of the major aspect on which globalization survives is Competitiveness. If India wants to leverage its potential in the classic age of globalization, Indian companies need to be highly competitive. This competitiveness has to be shown in every aspect of the organization ranging from innovative measures to process alignment to efficiency of workforce. If the workforce will remain unsatisfied, and will exert means like strikes and gheraos, then productivity will be hugely affected and a lot of man-hours will be lost along with incurring bureaucratic costs to deal with it. Practically speaking, modern Indian industries simply cannot afford this kind of wastage. So the new Industrial policies call for minimizing to a large extent this unwarranted loss. To have almost a zero rate of such activities is easier said than done. Given the kind of history Capitalism has, this neo-Capitalism will have some sort of inclination to exploit the labor force which might create unrest in the workforce. They need some means to address their grievances. For this they need to design such intelligent ways which will not only solve their problems but will also avoid man-hour loss. An excellent example would be the case of strikes in Japanese shoe factories where if the workforce has to protest, they simply don’t go for a strike as their Indian counterparts, but they produce shoes for only one leg. Once their grievances are addressed, they produce the shoes for the other leg to complete the pair. Thus during the time of their so called strike, they hamper the sales of the company temporarily, thereby gaining the attention of the top management, but the best part is that once their problems are resolved it doesn’t lead to any man-hour losses and the company doesn’t lose out on its Competitive advantage.


Paradigm in Labor rules:

Globalization calls for flexible labor rules with hiring and firing as a norm. So our labor rules has to be flexible enough to give proper room to the process of rapid hiring and firing, so that the industry may not lose out on its competitiveness. But at the same time, the industry also has some obligations towards its employees. One beautiful aspect of Globalization is that it generates a lot of new and diversified avenues for employment. With the help of ample technical knowledge as well as soft skills, anyone can leverage on it. What the industry needs to do is that it should keep on innovating as well as providing the required training for its workforce. This will not only ensure better opportunities for a fired employee to search for a new source of employment but will also help in the productivity of the company. One important point to be noted over here is that since globalization calls for flexibility in hiring and firing, it has to be played on a level ground where the rules are same for the employer as well as the employee. Generally it is often seen in Indian IT companies that before hiring an employee the company signs a bond with the new recruit, according to which if the employee quits the company within a particular time period he needs to pay a bond amount. Such kind of practices are not only highly biased against the employee but are also a mis-fit in the world of globalization. If a company has the right to fire an unproductive employee for reducing its losses, so should an employee have the right to switch from one company to another smoothly for his individual growth.



Paradigm shifts in Reporting Relations:

To gain a high degree of efficiency in a globalizing economy it is vital for the Indian industries to have a workforce that is highly motivated and which sees an alignment in their personal interest and the goals of the company. This can only be done when employees have a say in the decision making process as well as vital functions and processes. This can be implemented with the help of an organic, non bureaucratic and informal structure that does not differentiate between management and the workforce and facilitates smooth flow of information from the workforce to the management. This will not only result in psychological satisfaction (as important as economic satisfaction)of the work force but will also have a lot of positive impact on the industry itself. One of them could be the detection of changes in the market. As we know that globalization is always accompanied with a great degree of frequent changes, so it is imperative that such changes be detected as soon as possible so that the proper course of action be followed. It is not the top management but the common workforce which has the direct link with the market that detects such changes. But unfortunately due to mechanistic and bureaucratic structure, the information doesn’t go upwards which in some cases might end up in huge losses. An example that supports this is the “Sony Way”, which encourages the product engineers to ‘self promote’ in the company by seeking projects in different departments of the company where they feel can contribute more and hence promote the flow of ideas in the company.[2]



Paradigm shifts in managing cultural diversity:

Unrestricted flow of labor is one of the pillars on which globalization is based upon. Today mainly we see outflow of labor from India. But with time we should be ready for considerable amount of labor inflow also. So far our industrial relation policies are not accustomed to deal with a diversified workforce, with varying backgrounds in geographies, culture and thoughts. So we need to adapt our industrial policies in view of these demographic shifts. Our policy should be modified in such a way that it can accommodate workforce from various geographies amicably and can extract the best out of each of them. Since the philosophy of India has always been Unity in Diversity, this will not be a very tough task. So far we have dealt with our own regional diversities, now we need to deal with diversity across borders.



Conclusion:

Along with China in this coming future, India has a very crucial role to play. India has the potential to be benefitted hugely by not only outsourcing but also by other models of globalization such as off shoring and global sub contracting model. Right now the world perceives India as a destination where the forces of globalization can play a constructive role that will not only boost Indian economy but will be in favor of the world economy as a whole. The basic reason for this is the cultural aspect of India (which has always been the melting pot of various cultures), the democracy of India, secularism of India, sound fiscal policies and last but not the least, the huge amount of Indian workforce which is not only very talented but also economically viable. We should also consider the fact that Indian economy can be benefitted not only from the influx of capital and technology, but also from the influx of the global workforce and innovative ideas in the near future. But to make these things happen a very vibrant, flexible, unbiased and technically sound workforce is needed. But at the same stage of time to fulfill these above objectives regarding our workforce we also need a very flexible, vibrant, unbiased and knowledge friendly industrial relationship. As we know that the forces of globalization as well as industrial relationship are mutually dependant, we need to design our industrial relationship policies in such a way that not only we are in a position to strike a beneficial deal for ourselves, but can also fulfill the expectations of the globalized economy.


REFERENCE:

1). Organizational Behavior – Robbins, Judge and Sanghi , Pearson Publications

2). Organizational Theory, Design and Change – Jones and Mathew – Pearson Publications.

3).The World is Flat – Thomas Friedman

4).Kautilya Today – Jairam Ramesh

Pricing strategy:What differentiates leaders from folllowers

When it comes to pricing it's product or service there are few parameters that differentiate the leaders from the followers leaders from the followers, where as a follower designs it's pricing strategy on guts feeling a leader thinks of various factors and does a fair amount of mathematical calculations before coming up with a price. The various parameters are:-


• Face to face research

• Survey based research

• Telephonic research

• Competitor’s analysis

• Price sensitivity measurement When it comes to design a pricing strategy there are few parameters that differentiates the

• Activity based costing

• Break even analysis

• Economic value analysis

It's no more about bottom line but about sustainability...

The words business and bottom line have always been synonymous, the word business makes no sense without bottom-line but in the present though bottom line is very important it's not everything, sustainability is as important as mere profit and sustainability doesn't mean sustainability in terms of making profit but also in terms of social and economic stability .In the present context it can be said that there are basically three types of bottom line-

1. General Bottom Line /Economic Bottom Line/Economical Sustenance:-A new product,or strategy makes no sense if it cannot make profit.It has to economically sustainable.

2.Social Bottom Line/Social Sustainability:-It is very essential for a business that it should be socially sustainable and shouldn't create nay social unrest in the long run, because not only economic stability but also social stability is important for a business to run smoothly in long run.

3.Enviromental Bottom Line/Environmental Sustainability:-In the present context along with socio economic sustenance environmental sustenance is also essential ,today natural resources are getting depleted at a very fast rate ,hence for the survival of a business it is essential that it has to be used in a very judicious way,Long term sustenance of a business can never be guaranteed if the business is at logger heads with the environment. Thus environmental sustainability is as important as socio economic one.

REFERENCE:-a)THE INTERNATIONAL GUIDE TO MANAGEMENT CONSULTANCY.
                        b)www.fotoserach.com

What is managment consulting???

We often come across the word management consulting, so what is it exactly? Management consulting is the act of providing expertise to a client by an external agent called consultant. A typical consultancy project includes various steps-

1. Identifying the problem
2. Identifying the constraint.
3. Providing alternative approaches
4. Selecting the best solution.
5. Once best solution is selected it is important for the consultant to help client in integrating the change with the structure of the organization.

Having said this management consulting is something that cannot be restricted to such a simpleton definition it is something beyond, The factual meaning of management consultancy is highly dependent on the kind of socio economic back ground in which the business is done,Due to this there have been significant changes in meaning of management consultancy
in the beginning of twentieth century’s consulting was all about increasing production efficiency of clients,then in the time of 1930's and 40's that is in the time of world war(when the load was very high on industries) consulting was about designing newer process that can meet huge demand at a very small interval of time,Then in the 70's and 80's consulting was more concerned with the concept of quality that is meeting the standard in the most cost efficient way ,Now in the present scenario of globalization where businesses are operated under cut throat competition consulting has underwent a very diversified definition ,it is no more only a advisory role but has to do a lot with final execution and implementation of the projects.Consulting task ranges from implementation of various IT technologies such as ERP,E-GOVERNANCE,OUT SOURCING to implementing organizational designs and changes to making strategies to target newer market segments in this globalizing economy, more on this new aspect of consultancy in upcoming blogs.

REFERENCE:-THE INTERNATIONAL GUIDE TO MANAGMENT CONSULTANCY.

Interactive Branding:A new dimension in brand managment

Marketing and branding has always undergone changes from time time. There was a time of 70's when the idea of marketing mix was developed, the concept of 4p and 4c where developed and for the first time it was realized in the marketing circles that customer is an important aspect of marketing and when it comes to marketing one should never be myopic, rather than producing what it can produce it should rather think for producing what the customer wants. Then in the 1980’s the concept of branding came into picture and the concept of building up of a rapport between the customer and the producer was realized .This was the period when ideas like brand equity, brand management and brand loyalty came into picture. this was the period when branding meant giving customer a value and in return of that value charge them some extra price.Now the value which brand managers talked about could either be real or simply be perceived or a combination of both.


Now this is a new era, in this era technology has made significant changes ,the power of blogs, social networks and open sourcing has given customer a whole new range of weapon ,as customers the individuals are much more powerful and to this aggrandized set of individual the formal branding rules may not hold very effective.

The new era beckons for interactive branding, A kid of branding strategy that will take into account both marketers as well as customers, where the role of customer can no longer be restricted to someone who has a need and whose need has to be fulfilled by the producer by giving him some sort of value in the product,todays customer will play vital role in each and every aspect of branding, such as eliciting his need, the price which he is ready to pay, the kind of value that he wants. Even in trivial issues like aesthetic sense of the product, looks and style of the product customers will be playing an important role.This new branding technique will have positive impact not only for the customer but also for the marketer himself. With the help of this interactive branding The marketer can come up with a huge degree of cost cutting, because a major degree of input will be provided by the customer himself and that to with the help of tools like blogs and social networks which simply costs nothing. This field is an emerging field in the landscape of marketing management .It calls for a great degree of study ,research and analysis ,I will like to write more on this topic and at the same stage of time a expect a lot of inputs from the free thinkers.

Similarity between second punic war and the onslaught by japanese automakers

Competitive strategies in business and wars have always shown resemblance; if closely looked most of the business warfares take its inspiration from wars.

Here in this post i will like to bring one such resemblance between the attacks made by great war tactician HANNIBAL BARCA against the ROMANS in the PUNIC WAR and the attack made by the Japanese auto makers like TOYATA ,NISSAN AND HONDA against the big three ie GM,CHRYSLER AND FORD.

For those who do not know regarding punic war i will like to explain, punic war is a set of three wars fought between the romans and the north african empire of carthage which finally ended up in the culmination of carthage.Out of the three wars our concern here is with the first part of the second war where the carthagian general hannibal barca took a military of around 50,000 soldiers,crossed the alps and attacked the romans in their own land. A similar kind of strategy was adopted by the Japanese automakers in the early 70's when they attacked the american auto industry in their own market.

in 218 bc Hannibal left new carthage(spain) and left for rome,the basic strategy of Hannibal was very clear, there were two major ideas involved-

• Romans always considered themselves as a very superior force,the smug romans could never prognosticate that the army of carthage whom they considered as an inferior stock can ever dare to attack the romans,this sudden attack will completely confuse them and since the Romans are unprepared they will find it tough to respond.

• The second part of the strategy was to fight the war in the roman soil, this can create chaos in Rome and carthage can leverage it.

This carthagian strategy really paid off.They defeated the Romans continuously in three consecutive battles and got a major part of the roman empire (though it should be noted over here is that finally it was not rome but carthage that tasted defeat ,thanks to the retaliatory moves by the romans who used the strategy of hannibal against him only, details on this on some other blog)


These very same tactics were used by the Japanese auto companies against their american counterparts. Japans companies entered in the American market in the early 1970's with their small cars which were better in quality but lesser in price than the cars produced by the American auto majors. American automakers were not prepared for this attack, they perceived these japanese makers as manufactured of inferior quality and instead of fighting them they relegated the segment of small car market to them and started focusing on big car segment, they were sure that Japanese companies were not capable enough to fight them on this segment, but unfortunately they were wrong ,after holding their ground in the small car segment the Japanese attacked the us auto makers in the segment of big cars also and on account of their idea like TQM IE TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT they defeated the us in this segment also ,Finally the American automakers tried to take shelter in the segment of light truck manufacturing but here also the Japanese did not spare them ,as per the present data gm is bankrupt, Chrysler has been taken over and ford is on the verge of bankruptcy. Well, large part of Japanese victory can be attributed to various reasons such as better product, cheap labor in contrast to their American counterparts, better culture in their companies but a very important part that worked in their favor was there strategy of attacking the American on their own profit sanctuaries ,it repeatedly attacked the Americans on all those domains which have been their major source of making profit and thus created a great chaos in there structure, one important point to be noted over here is that while American auto makers were under great pressure of loosing there revenue from their core market the Japanese makers were not only winning ground in the usa but they were making good deal of money from there japanese business also, in fact there safe base at Japan give them the opportunity to take risk against their American counter part by attacking on their territories. This was very much in line with the Hannibal’s strategy of restricting the warfare in the roman land and keeping a safe base at carthage.


Thus we can see that there has been a great similarity between the attack by Hannibal barca and the Japanese automakers. (Baring one difference, though the Japanese have almost won the battle , Hannibal finally lost it to the Romans who learned slowly from Hannibal and used the same strategy against him.)

REFERENCE:- HARDBALL: GEORGE STALK AND ROB LACHENAUER

The rule of 250

The rule of 250 is a wonderful networking cum selling strategy, it stipulates that while you are dealing with one customer you are in reality dealing with 250 potential customer because every individual on an average knows 250 such individuals whom he can influence to some extent, according to this rule if you have made strong relationship with one of your customer on account of your services as well as on account of personal grounds then this one customer has the potential to bring you 250 new customers with the help of his personal network.

The father of this rule is an US based auto salesman named JOE GIRARD,according to Wikipedia Joseph Samuel Gerard, better known as Joe Girard, (born November 1, 1928 in Detroit, Michigan) is an American salesman. He is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most successful salesman[citation needed], selling 13,001 cars at a Chevrolet dealership between 1963 and 1978.JOE has authored a book called "HOW TO $ELL ANYTHING TO ANYBODY" where he has described the rule of 250,according to him your one single customer is equivalent to 250 potential customers, Joe always believed in making very good relationship with his customers, he was in a practice of sending them cards(every month he used to send 13000 cards) and he generally used cards of different color and size for his customers so that customers should never think that this is a junk mail, this helped him in building strong relationship with his customers who in turn brought him loads of new customers. These new customers again has the potential of bringing 250 new customers, thus a whole new network of customers can be established.

The story behind finding this unique no. 250 is again very interesting, once what happened Joe went to a funeral ,there he was given a prayer card ,unlike other prayer card this card was having the photo of the deceased on the top, this prompt the sales man inside Joe to give a serious thought, he thought since the exact no. of mourners turning up for the funeral is not known how can someone decide how many cards to print, the no of cards shouldn't be very low but the same time it cannot be very high because that will lead to unnecessary wastage( this kind of card cannot be reused  since it was having the photo of the deceased ).After the funeral he went to the funeral director and asked him how did he decide the no of cards to be printed, the director replied that over the period of service he has noticed that for any kind of person generally 250 mourners turn up for his/her funeral. This led JOE to think that every individual is linked to some 250 individuals on whom he has some sort influence because until unless you will not be having some influence on some one  the  guy will not turn up for your funeral, from here the rule of 250 came into existence.

So next time whenever you are dealing with any customer always keep in mind that in reality you are dealing with 250 potent customers.

REFERENCE: a) HARDBALL: GEORGE STALK AND ROB LACHENAUER
b)WIKIPEDIA
c) SOMEDESA.COM

The puppy dog ploy:a must read for start ups.

The puppy dog ploy is a life saving strategy that any start up needs to follow in its initial days,As illustrated by the name this strategy suggests that during initial days of it's growth when any start up company suffers from lack of resources and doesnt have deep pockets as it's competitor's the company should mantain a low profile and should try to reamain unnoticed in the competitive arena.puppy dog ploy helps the start ups to avoid onslaughts from established players of the market thus ensuring uninterupted growth for the start up .The logic for this is very simple ,suppose you run a start up company and if you want to compete against well established players in the market you need to come up with some inovation,because thats the only way you can make a niche for your product ,now the problem is that if your idea clicks and you grab a lot attention for it then surely and certainly the well established players in the market which have got deep pockets will be attracted towards investing in this new idea and with the kind of pocket they have and the kind of brand value they enjoy the chances are very high that will beat you very easily on your own game.

So these new start ups should alawys resist the temptation of making big claims in the begining of there growth,one very good lesson can be learned by" NETSCAPE" ,the company came up with a web brouser navigator in 94 and with in 8 months the company captured 90% of the web brouser market,from day one the company was challenging microsoft heads on,The cofounder of the company MARK ANDREESSON AND JIM CLARKE never missed any oppurtunity in debasing microsoft,they claimed microsoft as the deadstar and declared that very soon the the MS window will become obsolete,though it helped the strat up in gaining publicity but at the same time it also made BILL GATES very cautious of netscape,he made internet his top priority and and used all of his resources to beat netscape,MS used both soft as well as hard power to beat netscape,not only did it strated delivering it's web brouser interenet explorer free but also it paid heavily to companies like KPMG AND AOL to switch from navigator to internet explorer,as a result of this netscape started losing it's market share and finally lost the battle to micro soft,in the end it was taken over by AOL in 10 billion us dollars.While netscape made the blunder TRANSMETA adopted this puppy dog ploy very perfectly,this micrioproccessor manufacturing firm was founded in 1995 but from the very begining it kept a low profile,very little was known regarding it's business,by 2000 it came up with a new version of microproccessor that can run both window as well linux operations by utilizing a fraction power used by INTEL micropocessors,the company got a lot of media attention after the launch of the product and finally when it went public in 2000 it got a market capitalization of some 6 billion us dollars(though the company was not very successful in the near future),transmeta knew that in case they would have created lot of hoopla in the begining Intel a large company would have used a great part of it's resources and expertise in developing a better product than transmeta in the similar segment.


Thus it is advisable for a new start up to play the puppy dog ploy and maintain a low profile as long as it can,it not only averrts strong competition but also helps the sart up in concentarting on it's product.

REFERENCE:-a)JUDO STRATEGY:-DAVID B.YOFFIE AND MARY KWAK

b)HARDBALL :-GEORGE STALK AND ROB LACHENAUER

Judo Strategy:Book Review

Judo strategy is written by David b. yoffie and Mary kwak and is published by Harvard business school press. The book basically talks of the resemblance between judo and the strategies that have been taken by various newly emerging business to fight against established players. In judo weight and physical strength doesn’t matter what does matter is your strategy and with the help of right strategy and right move you can use the strength of your opponents for your own benefit, the same principles are valid in the ambit of business where no matter how strong your competitor might be but with the application right moves and strategies you can bring him to ground.

The book is diveded into three sections with the first two sections having three subsections each and the last one having two. The first section deals with the fundamentals of judo strategy in business, like in real judo where you have three steps that is movement,balance and leverage ,in real world business also players adopting judo strategy against their strong competitors need to make use of these three steps. In the movement step one needs to maintain a low profile so that while his business is under growing stage he can avoid attacks from well established players, at the same stage of time he needs to define competitive space where the company can apply its core competencies and once the competitive arena is decided the company should escalate fast so that the firm could emancipate its strength and can enjoy some substantial advantage over its established rivals.After making proper movement the company needs to balance itself from the opponent’s attack,this balance cannot be achieved by fighting neck to neck with your competitor but by griping your competition with the help of various means such as striking deal with your own competitor or striking deal with your competitor's partner or by designing your strategy in such a way so that you can use the moves of your competitor for your own advantage as in case of fight between Wal-Mart and Kmart back in 1980's ,at that time the average price of retail item was slightly lower in Wal-Mart in comparison to Kmart, but Kmart was investing a lot in advertisement ,Wal-Mart was reluctant in spending so much into advertisement ,what it deed was that it posted Kmart's weekly circular in front of it's stores and challenged that walmart will match or beat any of the deal thus converting the strong advertising campaign by kmart in it's own favor .After movement and balance the third part of the game calls for leverage ,this part is the most important part in designing your attack here you use the strength of well established player and use it against them only,the best example can be the case of dell and compaq,back in 80's compaq was a well established brand in the pc segment and it's selling network relied on a very strong network of retailers and wholesellers ,it was difficult for dell a newcomer in that time to afford such a strong network,dell adopted a fairly different plan,it took orders directly from there customers,gave them customized solution for there need and finally delivered it directly to the customers there by slashing any need for middle man ,this new model of distribution called as "DIRECT FROM DELL" was very successful and it helped dell to increase its market share drastically, Compaq on the other hand was very worried on account of its loosing market share,it was having two option either to continue with its earlier model of selling or to switch over to the dell's model of direct delivery, but it went went for the third one where it adopted both the strategies which simply was a dud,not only did it lose it's good relationship with the vast network of retailers and wholesalers which had so far helped Compaq to be one of the dominant player in pc segment but also it was not in a position to adopt the direct delivery system properly which was somehow an alien idea for the company.Compaq's market share kept on decreasing year by year and finally the company was taken over HP.The penultimate part of the books gives us the example of various successful individuals such as Jeff Hawkins,Donna Dubinsky(Palm ),Rob Glaser(Real Player) ,Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie(Cnet Networks)  who have used judo strategy very perfectly against there competitors.The last part gives some strategy to beat a judo player by adopting the game of sumo where the big players needs to adopt strategies such as intimidation, use of strength ,propagandas and outspending your weaker competitors on account of your deep pockets and rich assets, additionally it also contains a user manual for using "JUDO STRATEGY".



The best part of this book is that it contains a lot of examples from the business world,as a result of which it becomes easy for a reader to grasp the main ideas of the book properly, the book has given various examples of the firms such as FREESERVE,PALM,REAL,EBAY,DELL,SEGA,FRONTIER AIRLINES,INTUIT, ETC who successfully adopted judo strategy against there well established competitors and received favorable result ,at the same time the book also gives illustrative examples of firms like ETOYS,NETSCAPE, ETC which couldnot use judo strategy in a right way and had to suffer.Though book is very comprehensive and illustrative fraught with a large no. of examples one drawback which the book is having is that most of the examples and cases of which the book talks about have been taken from the IT and related industry, had there been more examples from other sectors such as FMCG,RETAIL,AUTOMOBILES, ETC the book could havce been better.As a whole this book is well written and is worth reading for MBA students, entrepreneurs, managers as well as general read

the UN COLA advertisement campaign by 7up:a master stroke to change the competitive space itself

One of the very intelligently designed as well as simple advertisement campaign that had always fascinated me is the uncola campaign by the 7 up. The campaign signifies the importance of changing the competitive space itself when you are dealing with well established players in the market.There is absolutely no intelligence in fighting with a well established competitor neck to neck. That will simply prove fatal ,the best way would be to fight them on an absolutely different plane,and this strategy was exemplified by 7up in 1967 when it came up with its very famous uncola campaign.

Back in 1967 both coca cola and pepsi were leading cola brands and the word cola was synonymous with the word beverages .Both Coca-cola and Pepsi were having strong dominance in the psyche of cold drink lovers,at that stage according to conventional thinking 7 up which was or in fact is basically a lemon drink could have been done two things either it could have introduced a cola brand of itself or it could have positioned itself as a lemon drink thus highlighting some of its salient features as lemon drink.Following the first would have been suicidal because with two leading brands already in the market it would have been really tough for 7 up to invest its resources and to come up with a 3rd brand that could  change the status quo,had they followed this course of action 7up would have definitely made huge losses. The second course of action though could have been better from the first one but solely emphasizing on the type of drink it produces would have never helped it to to configure itself accurately among the psyche of customers with respect to its competition.

An intelligent ad design is one where you position yourself with respect to competition ,the competitive space where you are waging the war should be clear to your customers,and thats what 7up did,it came up with its famous campaign “7 up the uncola” thereby at one end waging a war also with there competitors which were basically cola brands and at the same time not waging it since it is not a cola.The uncola campaign positioned 7up in a very tactful way,it made its message clear to the public "here is a drink that is not a cola,it is different and it is very proud on its difference ."It clearly gave an alternative to try for the prospective customers of that time, and this paid off.With in a very short interval of time the sales of 7 up skyrocketed. It enjoyed huge market share in the coming few years.
The campaign was really successful in changing the competitive space itself for 7up which gave 7up in getting a clean sweep for first few years.

REFERENCE: a) POSITIONING:JACK TROUT AND AL RIES.
                       b) http://www.drpeppersnapplegroup.com/.

How to manage your brand when you are dealing with commodities???

Well what do you really understand by commodities,according to wikipedia A commodity is some good for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market. It is a product that is the same no matter who produces it, such as petroleum, notebook paper, or milk.

As i have explained branding in the previous section branding  can be regarded as some aspect of your product or service with which a customer relate himself,in other word it is some thing which helps you to differentaite your product from rest of the competitors.definately as per the defination of commodity it becomes a very tough job to brand your product in case its a commodity,though tough its not completely impossible to brand your product.Here are some of the ways in which you can brand even a commodity-

• by providing products which are much more reliable than your existing competitors.exp-the case of acme bricks,while most of the bricks on an average gurantee a relaiblity  of some 5 years acme gurantee a relaiblity  period of 100 years.As a result of which it commands a very strong brand loyality by its customer.Such sort of branding can be done in steels,bricks,cement etc.
• after sales service,this is another aspect where one can differentaite from its customer,after sale service will ensure strong customer company relationship which will finaly lead into more business with the same customers in the near by future.
• providing some additional services at the same price,exp: suppose you are dealing in the business of milk,you might give your customers pasturized milk at the same price where your competitors are providing normal milk,one another case could be providing free home delivery to your customers in case you are dealing with steels,bricks,farm products or metals,
• by establishing the image of your company as some thing which is very ethical and which is very active in discharging its obligation towards society,though this is some thing which doesnt have a direct relationship with your product but the basic root of this idea lies in the emotional aspect of costomers,one must always believe that emotions play a vital role in making desicions,every customer will keep an ethical organization in high esteem and will always be emotionally inclined in striking a deal with such organization.

What is a Brand???

Often we come across the term brand,from automobile,tv sets to  jeans we wear we hear this word.Even most of us have our own personal favourite brands,often we hear that companies like Ibm, MICROSOFT,GE,BOEING,BMW,MCDONALDS,TATA are big brands,so what is it all  about,  to be very clear the defination of brand is very large and it contains both tangible as well as intangible aspects.A very short one line defination for brands would be to say that its the name,logo,tagline or product (or some specific quality of the product)of a company with which a customer relates it self ,you might love levi jeans and you feel your self connected with it and always prefer wearing it,thus levi becomes your favourite brand when it comes to buy jeans.
But if seen with a broader perspective brand is just not only this,its some thing beyond.The brand value of a product refers to the totality of experience which a customer has when ever he uses the product,the experience of the customer includes various factors such as the quality of service which he is recieving ,the price which he is paying,the value for money which he is going to get,the value of risk reduction with the product(take case of electriacl equipments)brands can  include various other        factors such as aesthetic sense of the product or the resale value of product(in case car,mobile phones etc).Now any product cannot becaome a brand in itself in just a small interval of time ,to be a brand some time is always needed,a proper branding strategy for a company is some thing which needs to include both ,ie right product and right promotion,neither product nor promotion can single handedly create a brand ,to make a brand company needs to create some short of impression in the minds of the prospects or costomers with the help various promotional strategies and when the customer  purchases    the  product  the product must justify this,the standard of the product must be in accordance to the  image which the customer was holding in his mind.This can only ensure brand loyality from the side of customers,if your product is of very high quality but it is not supported with a strong promotional campaign it can never penetrate deep into the customer minds,at the same time if you have created a lot of hoopla with the help of a strong  campaign regarding your product .But when being  purchased  your product is not upto the mark then how ever strong your promotions may be,sooner or later your product will be rejected by the public.

When it comes to branding it should be known that branding is not only asssociated with a product ,it  can also be associated with a group of product or a whole company itself.More on this in some another blog.

REFERENCE:B2B BRANDING BY KOTLER AND PFOERTSCH