Offline branding Vs Online branding : What makes marketing successful?

This is what I have written for Markathon November Issue, under Eye-to-Eye Column.

Branding can be defined as an exercise to communicate to your target audience what your brand is all about; and to make them chose your brand over the competition. This communication has generally been through traditional channels like television, radio, print and billboards. No doubt these methods do help in creating brand awareness; we simply can’t under estimate the influence of internet in today’s world. As a result, online branding comes as a powerful tool for a successful marketing experience.
One of the key benefits of online branding is that it’s completely measurable, unlike offline branding. Using state-of-the-art techniques and software programs, we can virtually track everything, right from visitor’s demographics, their click-through ratios, their conversion ratios to the search phrases used by them. This in turn helps in measuring efficiency of the program by measuring conversions, which further augments in effective and focused branding exercises.
Moreover given the spread of internet, everyone has an online presence. Remember that in the digital world, you are not the only keeper of your brand. There are people who write about it and who may impact it in a big way. Hence online branding becomes even more important to mitigate any negative emotions which might have crept in the target audience.
As the reach of internet spreads, consumers become more interactive. Now we don’t wait for the information to flow to us; we are going out and searching for it in the digital space. Unlike offline branding, online branding serves this target segment with focused branding programs based on specific searches and keywords.
At the end of the day, given the advent of internet in our lives and yearn for information, online branding is a handy and cost effective method to run focused yet successful marketing campaigns.

Game Theory and Tifin Box !!!

Game theory deals with strategies which different firms or individuals take, which in turn are dependent on the strategies followed by their competitors. Game theory doesn't explain the ways on how to win a game or how to build your strategies.Rather it explains a situation where everyone takes an action to maximize their benefits,but at the end everyone performs at a sub optimal level where they fail to get the best results.The best result would have been achieved had they co-operated and synergized their efforts. But mutual suspicion and competition makes them do otherwise. This action of individuals/firms is called their dominant strategy. Moreover the firms now have no incentive to change their strategies, and they reach an equilibrium called the Nash Equilibrium(remember "A Beautiful Mind"?)
Now comes a practical application of Game Theory,an event in my class which unfolds daily. Some people in class get lunchbox from home,and needless to say, we all gorge on the food. Every one takes his/her turn to take their fair bites in the lunch. Now comes this person. let's call this person X. X would come from behind shouting "mujhey do mujhey do". Pushing others aside, this person won't care to take a fair share,rather this person would just snatch away the lunchbox to take the biggest share. Others observed this thing for a day or two, but now the Game theory comes into picture. No sooner do others see this person coming for a grab,everyone pounce at the tifin. And the result,most of us don't get any food. A person or two get a very big share while some part gets spilled. So overall it's a lose lose strategy for the group. And everyday we have the same picture.Due to mutual mistrust and competition , we all play a dominant strategy which leads to a sub optimal result. Hence a loss for most of us.
This is how Game Theory works in my class.

Happy Happy

Finally I got a big reason to smile.I got placed at Day zero of our summers placement process. The process was total fun, but too much stress full for most of us. The sheer thought that the CV is not shortlisted in a company makes you repent for an opportunity lost.
But as some one rightly said "There is no reward as sweet as which is hard earned". So here I am with a summer internship in hand.
Time to make merry. Next target : Learning Guitar !!!!

High Frequency Words

I have been thinking of writing this post since a long time. It's about certain high frequency words which most of us,though unknowingly use very often while speaking in public. And guess from where have I made this list.It's from my peers and seniors at college. Not only that, the list has a significant contribution from the people from industry who, quite often, are on the campus for some guest lecture or some talk.
I must say some of these words are really irritating and sound like stones thrown at you when the other person uses them again and again. Just another day I was attending a guest lecture and the lady spoke the words " you know" 35 times in her 10 minutes speech, which translates to one "you know" in every 24 seconds. Imagine how annoying it gets.
So what are some of those " high frequency" words which I have noticed so often? Here we go :
1) You Know
2) Like
3) As in
4) I mean
5) Ki

I am sure you come across such people very frequently . So what's the word that annoys you the most? I am sure there would be many !!

Chao

Diluge of everything

I must say I am absolutely doing nothing these days, and still my time goes as if I am busy like Hell. God knows where the time flies by.Most of the time is eaten by the extra classes which are being scheduled, courtesy the swine flu break. And the remaining time is spent in certain useless activities ( read making reports and assignments). And what's new in life....Well nothing !! OK so what's new coming up?? Lots n lots !! Trim exams starting from 21st Sept ,and immediately after that summers.And haven't even started with the basic newspaper reading,I just pray I get into some good company. Studies fro Trim exams are not that high on priority.Currently looking forward to the summer placements. More than that I am looking forward to the plans I am making once I get placed( Touchwood).
Enough for the day... Time to get back to the CSR report.
Chao