A theist

Sun, stars, moon, earth, wind, rock, plaster of paris… Wondering what is this all about? I would say it’s the evolution of visualization of a brilliant concept called God over centuries and millennia!!!

I would love to quote this as a best example for “version control” for any product that mankind had come across. Of course, the one tricky concept that even the best organizations are finding tough to manage. Also, don’t ignore the concept of product differentiation. Different people - different thoughts and different Gods. A brown man or woman is the visualization of God in the sub-continent and of course a white in the white peoples’ land. That is one of the reasons why this concept was sold easily all around the world in different packages, but under a same brand.

Everything was going right for people, but the ambition of the marketers to sell their products to different markets at different geographies created a chaos in the long run. As any product, the new Gods also had a great demand in the places they were introduced and started giving tough competition to the local players. Also the benefits provided to the rightly segmented and targeted audience by the sales men namely the “prophets”, “missionaries” and lot more, worked out successfully and created dissatisfaction in people about their current state. All this ended in loss of brand loyalty and the poor Gods were misused by their ambitious followers.

I don’t find any problem with the almighty, but for the fact that he was not keen on educating people about his incarnations all around the world. He somehow felt that people would understand by themselves that he not only appeared at ten instances to save the world, but also had to appear in some far off places and save the good ones from the bad ones during the climax.

I strictly believe in God. Of course, there are various things that science cannot explain and the only answer is the unseen power that rules and controls everything. God from my point of view is a mixture of fear element with hope that controls as well as motivates people to fulfill their roles and help in things moving forward.

Perceptions apart, the point I am trying to make is so simple. I trust in god and that’s why I do not trouble him with prayers. And the world calls me an “atheist”. Common sense says, the ones who do not trust in God, have an element of doubt, “what if God forgets me?” and keep praying to remind him of their grievances. Wake up. It’s all about trust. And stop calling me an “atheist” for the simple reason that I clearly understand the concept called God, and its purpose of existence. I am “a theist”.

The "Gurus" of Marketing!!!

As a continuation of my "Curiosity Selling" Concept, I would like to talk about the "Genius Marketeers" world has ever seen. Do you people admire these set of personalities am going to talk about? I don't think everyone would. But I strictly do admire them. Not for their concepts and ideas to make people enlightened, but for their brilliance in selling nothing but desire and curiosity of achieving happiness and their success in making happiness a scarce resource.

The "God man" strategy: 

I would like to term this strategy as the “God Man” strategy. These “God Men” are believed to be either the representative of God or even the God himself/ herself. People follow, praise and worship them to find out answer for the most curious question, “how to be happy?” which of course does not have an answer. But ultimately the gurus end up making themselves happy with villas, charter jets and of course, the power of God!

This case is also a best example of playing with the curiosity of people and promising of enlightening them with ways of being happy. Unlike the TV shows which I would talk about in my next post, this concept has a wider scope and can cross borders easily as they claim to have invented the unique technique applicable for all religions and cultures. In this context, people are all same and equal and God is one who is obviously the founder of that particular ‘ism’.

Living can be so artistic: 

Art of Living Foundation (AOLF) has its international headquarters in Bangalore, India at Veda Vignan Mahavidyapeeth or VVM campus (usually referred to as the Bangalore Ashram)and has regional centers in more than 140 countries. In Europe, the organization is known as "The Association for Inner Growth". The foundation was founded by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Along with its function as the vehicle for spreading his teachings and Vedic knowledge, the organization is involved in community service through its centers. The Foundation operates as a social business and its main activity is to organize Art of Living courses; yoga, breathing, and meditation workshops, and education and trauma relief in regions of trauma and disaster. 

An International Brand:

The Art of Living has established itself as an international brand reaching out to over 300 million people in over 140 countries with its various programs. The best part is that this has been achieved in a very short interval of just 30 years.

AOLF is a member to the following international associations

· CONGO (Conference of NGO's in consultative status with ECOSOC of the United Nations), Geneva and New York

· United Nations NGO Committees: Health, Mental Health, Committee on Aging, New York

· United Nations NGO Values Caucus, New York and Geneva

· International Union for Health Promotion and Education, Paris

· NGO Forum for Health, Geneva

· National Association of Women's Organizations, Uganda

Sold a lot and still selling:

The revenue generated every year by the Art of Living organization is absolutely miraculous. Keep in mind that they have sold nothing other than curiosity in people about living happy and free of diseases.

According to the tax return filed by the American chapter, AOL Foundation had total revenues of $5.5M (mainly 3.5M from course fees and 1.7M from public support ) and expenditure of $3.6M from July 2006 to June 2007. Net assets at the beginning of July 2007 amounted to $7.7M. Although AOLF is said to work in partnership with its sister organization the International Association for Human Values which implements humanitarian programs, no direct reference in this tax return is made to humanitarian relief and training programs conducted directly or through IAHV. However, cash allocations including foreign grants of 0.95M are included in the above reported expenses.

If revenue generated from one of its chapters counts to a mammoth sum, it becomes tough to even imagine the size of Business Empire that they have created over the period of time.

Other Famous Foundations:

Not only the Art of Living, there are various such spiritual organizations which have found customers all over the world. They include Amrita foundation, Sai foundation trust etc. Charity is the best part of these organizations as they utilize the generated revenue for welfare and development of the society. These empires stand tall unless and otherwise they fall in for some scam which sends vibes all through their channels and serves to be a prey to the media. In recent times we have seen such cases so the risk involved is so high.

My bottom line: 

My bottom line is yet the same and simple. In the present world, no one needs to create anything, but just understand the target audience. What do they need? the ultimate answer turned to be "happiness". As the U.S declaration of independence states, it is "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" the ultimate aim for anyone on earth. And our gurus had segmented the market rightly for people who had a life, targeted the ones with liberty to waste money and positioned in their minds their pursuit of happiness.

Hope you liked this post. Stay tuned for my article on our dear TV reality shows and what they do to ensure that we are glued to our seats.


SrinivaS


Curiosity and Craziness are never ending phenomena!!!

Business is something where "money" plays!!!

This post is a part of my paper on a marketing concept "Curiosity Selling". 

there are three aspects in which I made the study on and sports being one of them.

Sports Power

“Sports” has now become more commercialized in terms of ownerships of the best sporting clubs on earth. Some of the well known and less explored avenues are discussed below. 

Formula1 Racing

If ever there was a man who could make a silk purse out of a sow's ear it is F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone. A recent report reveals the 2009 financial results for UK-based Delta 3, the company which receives all the revenue from fees TV stations pay to screen F1 as well as the fees paid by circuits and sponsors of the sport. Remarkably, despite facing the worst recession in living memory last year, Delta 3's revenue still rose 6.4% to a record £680m with its operating profit after costs more than doubling to £119.4m. Around £278m of Delta 3's revenue comes from fees paid by broadcasters with another £278m from fees paid by Grand Prix promoters. The remainder comes from series sponsors including DLF and Allianz.

English Premier League

The Premier League has the highest revenue of any football league in the world, with total club revenues of €2.326 billion in 2008–09, and is the second most profitable after the German Bundesliga. In 2010 the Premier League was awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise in the International Trade category by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The Premier League was recognized for its outstanding contribution to international trade and the value it brings to English football and the United Kingdom's broadcasting industry. At present Sky and ESPN have exclusive rights to broadcast the Premier League - the current domestic contract is worth pounds sterling 1.78bn over three years.

Indian Premier League

In 2010, IPL became the first sporting event ever to be broadcast live on YouTube. Its brand value was estimated to be around $4.13 billion the same year. According to global sports salaries review, IPL is the second highest-paid league, based on first-team salaries on a pro rata basis, second only to the NBA. It is estimated that the average salary of an IPL player over a year would be $3.84 million. The brand value of Chennai Super Kings (winner IPL 2010, finalist IPL 2008 and semi-finalist IPL 2009) is estimated at USD 48.4 Million.

On 15 January 2008 it was announced that a consortium consisting of India's Sony Entertainment Television network and Singapore-based World Sport Group secured the global broadcasting rights of the Indian Premier League. The record deal has duration of ten years at a cost of US $1.026 billion. As part of the deal, the consortium will pay the BCCI US $918 million for the television broadcast rights and US $108 million for the promotion of the tournament. This deal was challenged in the Bombay High Court by IPL, and got the ruling on its side. After losing the battle in court, Sony Entertainment Television signed a new contract with BCCI with Sony Entertainment Television paying Rs.8,700 crore (US$1.93 billion) for 10 years.

Broadcast rights as a measure of customer curiosity

All these above mentioned entities have made revenues based on the broadcast rights and the tickets sold. This is based on the fact that any sport can be successful on the basis of the interest of the spectators. As TV channels are ready to grab the deals with such huge sum of money, it gives a clear signal that curiosity among people is high which again accounts to their TRP. Another fact is that Set Max had charged 1 million rupees for every ad of 10 seconds during the semi-finals and final matches of IPL 2010. This clearly is a measure of the curiosity and interest of the viewers, who eventually are the spectators of the game.

Spectator Interest Model

Enough boring you with facts that are freely available on the internet. Now, let me come to my point of view.

From the above observations, it is so clear that the revenue generated by any sport is directly related to the interest that the spectators exhibit. Taking this into account, a model can be proposed namely the “Spectator Interest Model”.

The main parameters taken into account are the curiosity of spectators and commercialization of the sport.  

The model can be given as,

The model is based on the idea that “sports” has changed its dimension in recent times with the advent of club culture and de-nationalization of teams. The broadcast rights and tickets for these club games have considerably seen a hike and almost crossed the values of those related to international games.

This trend is clearly a result of the organizing committee and the promoters of the clubs playing with the curiosity of the spectators right from the regional impact by splitting of teams in accordance to zones or states, selection of international players, inclusion of local players, venues and various other factors. All these factors account to dragging of the spectators with a feeling of belonging which blends and comes out as curiosity and support to their sides.

Look forward for my next post on the true management "Gurus" and new promising ways of making money.

Srini's Theory of Rapport Building

In my recent set of observations of people who hang around places in Bangalore, I was able to observe a pattern of what people talk about and that gave rise to this idea of formulating the rapport building process.
My theory can be represented using a simple formula,

r = mc³

                                                 (I still wonder how Einstein came up with a similar formula as mine!!!)

            

The bottom line is so simple. You have to be equipped to talk on three things in general to start a conversation with any typical Indian citizen.

Cricket:

Dhoni’s bald style after winning the world cup was a great sensation and youngsters queued in salons to get their heads shaved(As discussed in my last post). We are such a cricket crazy nation and everyone can make a clean and flawless comparative analysis about teams and players of the game. So, to start a conversation with someone, the best weapon could be the “national game” of people who ruled us and forgot to take back.

Cinema:

Genelia ties knot with Ritesh. How did this happen? Will she continue acting? All these doubts arise in the minds of any typical Indian citizen. People are least bothered about their family and children, but cannot sleep without watching Zoom channel and clarifying their doubts with respect to the latest gossips. The number of movie woods is no scarce in the sub-continent. From bolly to kolly to tolly to molly to sandal to whatever you name, there has always been some or the other news day in and out. People don’t know what is the defence budget allocated, but are totally aware of the budget of Ra-One and Robot. Join the “club of critics” and of course every citizen of the nation is one.

Current affairs:

This is a way of tackling the so called “Boring” people who have no other work, but read news papers, watch news channels and discuss politics as if things would change on their advice. Of course, they read gossips but don’t discuss for the reason that they are serious people. The only way to handle them is to start throwing news about Mitt Romney’s run or Pakistan’s political fun. I know this is a little tough thing to do, but watching news for just half an hour will sure serve this purpose.

Am sure you wonder what is that "m" doing on the equation. It is of course our mouth. We have to use it to the best level(other than for just eating). Dont care what people call you. May it be chatter box, non sense or whatever. The objective is simple, to get people to talk with us. And in my theory, "m" is never a constant(unlike Uncle Einstein's).

But this theory would help in just starting a conversation. It is quite obvious that Chikni Chameli is hot not more than five minutes on a discussion. So, it would be wise to understand the interest of the other person in a quick interval and ensure exchange of contact numbers, mail ids and most importantly social media connections in the first meet so that it becomes easy to build on the relationship.

Stay tuned for my next article on “Different People Different Thoughts!”. Stay curious, it may be about you.