More importantly, what would you really want to do this New Year? And while you are at that thinking stage for once refrain from browsing the net, calling up friends to find out their plans, or adjusting your day to the TV shows. Invariably we are slaves to what is offered on the promos or what our friends are doing or tuned to the tele.

‘What’s wrong with wanting to party with friends?’ you may ask. Nothing provided that is what you want to do this New Year. Let it not be a pre ordained mission. So let’s get back to that thinking process and let’s first look into ourselves and find out what we want to do on the 1^st of Jan, 2011. You might be surprised at the actual number of original ideas your minds are capable of making.

But at the end of it, if it is your choice to follow friends and sit out all the TV shows, be it again as your choice and enjoy the New Year!!

May this New Year be your best yet!

I have been the believer of the magic of languages and its ability to form better relationships ever since my childhood days, trotting along with my dad in his various transfers along the country. And being in a multi-religious, multi-linguistic country like India, where around 33 different languages and 2000 dialects are identified in usage, picking up 5-6 of them did not seem so difficult.

But the importance of languages changed from being just a mode of expression to many things as I grew older. Better friendships in teenage with people who could speak the language. At a time I was the close friend of many groups of people.  My linguistic prowess showed its better features as I grew up and ventured alone in this wide world. A favour here, an easy booking there, people I found out where bound to their languages. Truly language had hidden powers, beyond the squeak of words.

As in the words of Angela Carter, Language is power, life and the instrument of culture, the instrument of domination and liberation.

So three years back when I came to Dubai, the magical land of Middle East, I was thrilled to get a chance to learn the lyrical Arabic. The Arabic language has a lyrical tilt in its words and the script just flows off the pages. A truly artistic language. I was really excited to be able catch the language on the streets so to speak and thus learn it the native way. (I had learnt all my other languages by just being in the city).

But the shock came in a few days of my being in Dubai. The shops, cabs, cleaners, workers, vendors, everyone could speak English, Chinese, Indian and Arabic. I simply didn’t get a chance to learn. So I armed myself with books and an online course to embark this learning experience. But the fun was just not there and Google just about translates everything.  The technology today has made learning something new unnecessary. Languages transcend the borders of mere communication to give us a glimpse of their culture, but modern times have it made it too easy for us to bothered to learn them.

As Friedrich Hebbel rightly put in perspective, “ If language had been the creation not of poetry but of logic, we should only have one.“

Celebrated on November 14th the date marking the B’day of India’s first Prime Minister Pt Jawarharlal Nehru.

Thanks Google and way to go India!

The paper today had an article on cuddling being very good for health. I was happy, since I pamper and cuddle my kids a lot. But the shocking issue was the article described the whole concept like shouting for ‘save the earth’ help slogans. Apparently cuddling increases the oxytocin in the body… how many of us think of things like that while cuddling? And the icing on the cake! Due to increasing single humans, there are cuddling classes! Why don’t you take a bloody injection in oxytocin? Would save a lot of energy.

What has the world come to? Early morning laughing therapy to improve the heart, cuddling classes to increase the oxytocin in blood, are we sure we are the Homo sapiens and not some silly amoeba under a petri-dish?

You want to know how to cuddle? Learn it from your kids and yes, the increasingly single population can learn it from their aged parents. I am sure they lived long enough without the Google to not have forgotten how to and the present day amoebae, do not Google this plueassee…..

There is a certain feeling of coming home to in the arms of a loved one, the soft chubby touches of a baby, the tight hug of a friend, the tentative one of a new boyfriend, the cuddle of a husband that simply never stops just there…. Don’t spoil this with a freaky class. We are humans, I am sure even the present mutant varieties can come up with a bit of genuine emotion.

So let’s stay human!

A science project, to grow small lentil plants from seeds has had her hyper excited and every now and then after drowning her seeds in some more water; she’ll urge them to grow.

“Patience is a virtue, Prinks” I said looking up from my work.

“What’s ‘wertoo’ and how’s waiting different from patience?” Her confused expression made me smile.

But really how do I explain patience to a child who is growing in a world where there is very little of it? And virtue? Many would know it as the virtual desktop manager for Mac OS than its meaning in moral excellence.

We are on call with friends, colleagues, everyone, 24 hrs. From cooking, cleaning to music and games download everything happens in seconds. Do you need to remember the shopping list? No there’s a 24 hr supermarket that gives free home delivery right around the corner… so go ahead and live for the minute.

My grandma would have called the expectant wait for the soup to simmer until the aroma fills the house as patience. Hard to point that out with ripping open a packet and pouring it over boiling water.

There used to be a period of waiting in my childhood, an expectation at the end of it. Be it for the ‘Chitrahaar’ every Friday or the episode of Fauji, or even a letter from a friend. The eagerly awaited greeting cards for birthdays, even the crank ones for Valentines carelessly showed down my mail box. The email, CDs and mobile phones have taken away these simple pleasures.

The day and age for such things are no more there. Slightly difficult for a seven year old to comprehend that afew things just take time and sometimes it’s for the best.

But for now I just told my daughter, “Darling look at those plants. They grow slowly, first the roots, then shoots, leaves and finally beautiful flowers. They do it slowly against your enthusiastic flooding, against winds and bad weather. This expectant steadiness is patience – a great quality, a virtue”

From a marketing angle this aggregation of your digital footprint is equivalent to creating an online brand positioning. Thus in the social media space its creating a “ BRANDSTREAM”. Thus brandstreaming is a consistent creation of content on the various social platforms and aggregating the same – videos, podcasts, blogs, twitter, interactions, press releases, customer feedback, whitepapers etc in a single stream.

Thus the social platforms that help you shout about your website in the large cyberspace allows a clear integration of online channels and thus create a definitive brand image.

Used correctly it is a very powerful branding tool, but the catch is the correct usage. It makes sense for the Organization to stream all their content but why should a customer watch you everywhere? Especially when your twitter update, Facebook fan page, and your email give the same link to an article published in your blog for which you give out an RSS feed as well. This kind of repetition is not brand streaming it is customer choking.

Hence if you want to create a great Brand stream follow these 3 steps to success:

1. Be original and unique – This is your golden chance, having all the social platforms – hence make sure you truly create a unique experience. While you can magnify your pluses, remember your negatives through the same glass!!
2. Create consistent image – All the content, be it words, audio, video or photos should be consistent and in line with your brand positioning.
3. Create varied content – Do not write the same article and create different links to it. Be more creative!

Make sure the cyberspace has a unique place for your digital foot print.

From the colorful Gems, M&Ms, Poppins for kids to sugar free chocolates for diabetics and weight watchers to the premium Belgian and dark chocolates there is something for everyone’s sweet tooth. But to a brand enthusiast, there is a whole lot more. Unlike the beverages market where the brand positioning mostly is comparative in nature, here the players try imaginative and unique positioning. While Carburys celebrates, your everyday break time snacks Kit Kat and all can afford Munch make your day. From the delicious gum to the bite sized, gift wrapped gems of creamy American classic – Hersheys the market is well branded.

Today Cadburys has taken this one step farther and in line with the mobile revolution. Their SMS range of chocolates allows personalized messages like ‘sorry’, ‘thank you’, ‘love you’, or ‘miss you’ to be given as a gift.

Branded confectionery has become very popular especially the brand extensions. Even in this recession the industry is doing good as chocolates are considered as a cheap and available luxury. While private labels are not a popular feature in this industry, the supply chain has brought in its own mark into the market.

Candylicious – the largest candy store in the world spanning over 10,000 square feet is a concept representing fantasy, joy and irreplaceable childhood memories, combining candy and the world of imagination into a hip and fashion-forward store. A visually mesmerizing store with pillars of candy, a tree of lollipops and a huge collection of premium chocolates. It is the chocolate wonderland.

Well! There’s more to life than chocolate, but not right now

The world people say is shrinking. Really? It still takes 24 hrs to travel from Chennai to Toronto. But what has really changed is the world has started looking more and more alike especially when we speak retail. There was a time when souvenirs from a country have a unique value. The Arabian souq, the Italian pizzeria, the American fast food, Indian bazaar. Today they have their presence worldwide, and in a sickening similar fashion. Be it B’lore, Beijing, Beirut or Boston, the very same McDonalds, Starbucks, Levi, Gucci, Nike, Sony stores line streets with the same array of products. As we say most stores are alike regardless of what they sell, the point of differentiation needs to be created in the retail environment.

So how would you convert a passerby browser into a buyer? Especially in the present times when feeling the pinch of the down economy every retailer must compete harder than ever for its piece of a shrinking pie. First things first. Make the passerby a browser. This calls for the merchandise shouting from the windows. Yes! The Window Display. That attractive mannequin in that gorgeous attire that would make every woman wish she owned the outfit. Window displays – the welcome call by the retailer but who’s listening? Take a few steps outside the store. The target place from where the windows call out. What do we see? The flooded streets, people swarming in all directions and desperately trying to avoid tripping, the vehicles hooting it way out of traffic jams and don’t forget the sweltering heat. In this scenario how many of those potential browsers would actually stop, raise their heads above to the glint of the sunlight to view the window display? A glass that’s already darkened due to anti glare tints and of course the roadside pollution. So are the window displays not effective in crowded spaces? On a 100 ft road, the vehicles zoom past. The traffic signals, lanes and the ever present cyclists keep our eyes glued to the road. In a mall people have a leisurely stroll, there’s no glare of the sun, no traffic or pollution. Lined with shops on all sides it’s also very confusing.

The window display exists by grace of the relevance of the merchandise in the store. A mannequin may attract a lot of attention, but a book store? Stacks of detergent or kitchen supplies at a grocers’ do not an attraction maketh. Then how does a grocer, bookseller, or an electrical appliance retailer fill up his windows to attract customers?

The art of window display is very unique to the store. A bookstore may not be able to attract customers by just placing the latest bestsellers on its windows simply because books are not covered keeping the retailer in mind. It is based on the story inside. Hence an abstract design in grey and blue cannot be seen and read from a ten feet distance and that is where the browser will be. So the windows would have huge blowups of the book cover. Apparel retailing has shown various innovations on the streets of Pondy bazaar. The whole retail store entrance is designed according to the promotion. A grocer on the other hand includes an array of promotional offers bright and big on its windows.

To the extent to which there are tricks, to the degree to which there is art in strategy, and sometimes the irrationality of their combinations has the power to attract our attention.

Thou shall live on fruits and veggies

Thou shall eschew cakes and pastries

So I’m going shopping. Low carb, zero fat, healthy food shopping. But no sooner than I enter the supermarket, the warm smell of baking bread hits my nostrils. Yumm… my legs follow the olfactory trail even as my grey cells scream to stop.

Baking bread, freshly brewed coffee, the heady scent of coconut oil at Kerala Chips have enticed and lured customers for ages. Today this neuromarketing has entered scientifically to our retail stores. In store fragrancing has been given a lot of importance in the present times and why not? In a huge mall often corner shops get no visibility. But Cookie Man makes sure that your nose knows the way even if your eyes miss it. Of course it’s typical for bakeries, restaurants, food joints and even perfumeries to entice customers through fragrances but what is astonishing is that even non-food companies have started this trend.

Baby powder scent diffused in children’s clothing store or fresh lime scent in the cleaning products aisle in a hypermarket or even a good pine scent in a furniture store are classic examples of using in store fragrancing to enhance the satisfaction of your customers, but today stores are also going in for signature perfumes. Samsung has a signature scent of green melon and Sony uses a concoction of citrus, vanilla and other ingredients in its own signature scent. Even General Motors have started using a signature scent in their dealerships. Air Aroma – the largest supplier of scent diffusion technology in the world says the demand is only growing, even in this recession.

While research shows that sight is 75% smell and a scent congruent with the brand does increase profits, it still is a tricky deal. If your store’s fragrances to the customer’s nostril stink, your profits will surely sink! No one likes to walk into a wall of perfume hence the fragrance should be light and pleasant.

Of course heaven forbid the situation where your customer is hypersensitive to scents!

Another interesting twist to ponder upon is if everyone scrambles to diffuse their signature perfumes what would the mall on a whole smell like…. Aroma traffic jam! The new word will hit the dictionaries soon. Imagine an Italian food joint (with its heavy garlic smell) sandwiched between a women’s designer boutique and a gifts shop selling scented candles. So what will you have? Pine fresh pasta or garlic chiffon?