While queuing at the billing counter of a local supermarket, I overheard the conversation of a couple with their 5-6 year old son standing in front of me.
The kid was super irritating and mischievous. His parents pointed out to someone else's son (that ideal child) who was in the other row and told him, "Look Son, you need to be like him!".
I just realized that the problem starts from there!
That's the age when we start being someone else and later on in life when these kids grow up shit happens and they spend their entire life trying to figure out how that happened!
Why do we look for Steve Jobs v2.0 or Albert Einstein v2.0?
Why don't we let those trouble makers and misfits grow up as there are and let them change the world with their own way?
Let there be originals! No one is born perfect but we do find our ways when we grow up! That's life!
Few days ago, I boarded the Virar bound peak hour crowded Mumbai local from Dadar. A mentally retarded (Differently abled) person boarded the same First Class compartment. He had a weird look and wore smelly clothes. Looking at him, the passengers started abusing him but he didn't give a shit. He stood in between the two doors, people started panicking and moved aside. Some even started fighting amongst each other.
He remained calm and behaved like nothing happened as he enjoyed the luxury which every Mumbaikar dreams of- having a place to stand without being pressed from all four sides during peak hours. All this while he was also making weird faces looking at other passengers.
After few stops, he alighted from the train and everybody was relieved. When he got down, he looked back and said, "Tum sab yede ho, puri duniya yedi hai (All of you are idiots, the whole world is filled with idiots)".
What did I learn?
Bewakoofon ki duniya mein yeda hona jaroori hai boss!
(Being an idiot is the best way to survive in the world filled with fools boss)
Creativity has no boundaries. Saw a sketch artist today while travelling back home in a Bhayandar bound Mumbai local train, who was sitting next to me.
He sketched the person sitting in front of him with ultimate perfection.
Within the chaos and madness of this city lies a creative charisma in every Mumbai-kar :)
I was at a suburban railway station 'Borivali' in Mumbai yesterday when it was raining cats and dogs in the City. This tremendous amount of rain put the city infrastructure to test, causing water logging in low lying areas in the City. So, there was a delay in the local train timings.
Picture: Aerial view of Bandra-Worli Sea Link, Mumbai, India
Sometimes, its the beauty of this city that such incidents bring Mumbaikars much more closer and then strangers talk and discuss their life stories. There is a profound depth in the life story of every Mumbaikar. There is a story of work, love, hatred, friendship, struggle and success. In the 15 minute interaction with a fellow Mumbaikar in his 50's while I was waiting for my local train back home, I learnt of a short story about professionalism.
He was a typical local Mumbaikar with a square framed spectacle, tucked out shirt and a black shoulder bag. He worked for a Courier Services Company in Mumbai and was handed over the responsibility to personally deliver a parcel containing a pair of sports shoes worth around INR 16,000 (US$ 290) while it was raining heavily. I have a lot of respect for the courier guys, they really don't care if the weather is sunny or rainy but just do their work honestly. While walking down a lane, he told me that he came across a path which was completely water logged and couldn't even see the road properly. His feet were shaky because he was scared to put one more step further fearing it may be an open man hole or a big pot hole. He said, "I was not scared of falling down but I was scared about destroying/ damaging the responsibility which I was carrying (pair of shoes in his case)". It was his responsibility to carry the parcel and deliver it without any damage. He fearlessly stepped ahead and kept walking till there was a clear path ahead and delivered it to the destination. He took charge of the situation while risking his own stand.
In this case, that person had a complete advantage of going back to his office saying, "No, I can't go, its raining heavily" or he could have just mishandled his parcel complaining the city water logging. But, he didn't complain. He was responsible for his work and about his professionalism. Its the same set of qualities we look for in the Corporate decision makers as well. That 'parcel' in this case could be the 'expectation of the Company stakeholders'.
I forgot to ask his name or about his Organization name but I understood that he was a gem and his Company must be very fortunate to have him as its employee. After that I just left the station to think about other alternative route back home. But, I was happy that I had a small story to share on my blog.
Be Courageous! Be Professional! Be Honest! Be Hungry! Be foolish!
'Aashiqui' is a hindi word describing 'love'. Before I talk about the Brand development strategy of a recently released Bollywood Movie 'Aashiqui 2', let me ask you to just enjoy this amazing video of the song called, 'Tum hi ho' from the movie.
Source:Youtube video of the song 'Tum hi ho' from the movie 'Aashiqui 2'
I suppose, you must have really enjoyed this romantic melody. This song has become a massive hit among different demographics in India and has topped the charts across various media platforms. It's being played everywhere, be it a local laundry shop or an expensive coffee house. Its being shared massively on Facebook and other networking sites as well. It is also one of the reasons, the movie became popular and has been declared as successful. In Bollywood, music has a great contribution in the success of a movie and this history is being repeated year after year.
Picture:Movie Poster of the 1990 released movie 'Aashiqui'
Now, let me come to my point of discussion. 'Aashiqui 2' which was released in the year 2013 is a sequel to the 1990 released movie 'Aashiqui' which was commercially and critically successful mainly because of its popular music. There are many such movies which have released their sequels and have been really successful. Some great examples of Hollywood movies are Spiderman, Batman and Harry Potter. This is a perfect example of 'Brand Extension' where the existing brand name of the movie is extended to a new and modified product (its sequel or a completely new story). In other words, the brand name 'Aashiqui' has successfully leveraged its already established brand name to launch another movie with a completely different story but the essence of 'good music' still being intact. Here, the biggest advantage is that the cost of expenditure in advertising and making the audience aware of their core competency can be reduced.
Picture:Movie Poster of the 2013 released movie 'Aashiqui 2'
Brand Extension can sometimes be really very risky and can cannibalise the brand name. Like in this case, when the audience heard about 'Aashiqui', the first thing they remembered was the music of the Original movie. A perception was created in their minds about the good and appealing music which the brand will carry with it to 'Aashiqui 2'. This perception was carefully preserved by the movie makers and it delivered its promise with good music and it was a success.
Now, if the producers of the movie use 'Aashiqui' as a brand name to make more movies to extend their brand and suddenly decide to drop all songs from them and make it a thriller without any melodious music, it can create a confusion in the minds of their audience because, then they can no longer associate good music with the brand name 'Aashiqui'.
Some brand extensions in Bollywood and Hollywood have been really very successful but some have even failed miserably, but this hasn't stopped movie makers on using this formula of brand development strategy. Its a great and perfect formula for movie makers if they really wish to reduce their expenditure on creating a brand name but 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down' review by the audience is difficult to predict due to changing demands and expectations of different market segments in domestic and international markets.
Let us keep a look out on how movie makers can leverage the brand value of their original flicks to create new movies, with innovative ideas.
