Excerpts from Lecture by Alyque Padamsee

Excerpts from Lecture by Alyque Padamsee...had a lecture by Alyque Padamsee today. Here are some interesting ideas and excerpts..afterlistening to him i have no doubts abt why he is so famous...Idea management. Which is the only global indian brand - hotmail that too only cos Sabeer Bhatia happens tobe indian.In contrast a brand tht made a country famous.. Nokia..So why did microsoft pay him $400 mil ?? why would you pay such a huge sum to make emailavailable to people for free ...ad revenues ? only a small percent... it was bcos it gave MS a ready database of targetaudience to whom it could sell software. The people who register are in marketting jargonhis target segement, today it has close to 200 mil users, thus it gives MS a straight offthe jacket list of computer users whom it can target to sell its software. This is what billgates paid sabeer bhatia for... thus success = idea + entrepreneurial skillso how do you get ideas ??So you need "to take advantage of the unexpected" e.g of innovations by chance ???1. Post-it : developing a superglue and realised that it comes off.. 2. Viagra : developing a medicine for the heart and they found it had other benefits3. Walkman : Akaio Morita visited a exhibition of electric goods in europe and saw adictaphone... learnt tht it can be used to record letters to your secretary when you aretravelling, which you can then hand it to him/her when you are back. He bought it, and laterwhen he was partying at a dicso he liked a song being played there and recorded it on thedictaphone. Later when flying back to tokyo he was playing tht song back and booommmm....the idea of a walkman...So how to develop your creativity... everyday look at what you do and say how can i improveit ... while brushing your teeth, think is there a way i can better this toothbrush ??maintain a dairy and do it daily.. since most ideas are building up on innovation...e.g mobile phone -- telephone..neumatic tyre, bulbs tht consume less electricity..Innovations at Lintas..1. Five Star Loo - Lintas made profit of Rs 5 lac and they were discussin where to spendit.... they finaly spent it to update their loo so tht it was better than the one atOberoi...sounds crazy..the benefits... the next day when he came to find there there was a long Q outside the loo..and they were relatives of employees who wanted to see the famed loo...Seeing this he then invited the then MD of HLL to a meeting.. a long meeting.. and finallywhen the MD had to use the LOO.... and Lintas got a big order plus recommendations...2. Mother Terresa donations - Board members used to come late for meetings.. So he put a jarwith a photo of Mother Teressa. You pay Rs 100 per min you are late for charity...Initially they got lots of money for charity.. but then soon it dropped .. :P get thepoint..His Star Campaigns..1. Hamara Bajaj - The scooter was soon on the verge of being outdated and Bajaj neededatleast 2 yrs before it could upgrade its product due to the huge capex and it was needed tohold the sales of bajaj for this time frame.. Turning negatives into positives - the huge bulky frame was ugly to look at but it alsocarried more load, and due to past history, there was this sentimental value to a bajajscooter... it had been in the family for a long time..and was like a family member and hencethe "Hamara Bajaj" positioning a family scooter.2. Liril - They wanted a soap to counter Hamam on the freshness front. What does a middleincome group houswife think about in the 10 mins tht she gets to herself when she is bathing?? and research revealed .. she hums songs..and thinks about escape from the dailydrudgery.. and thts waht the liril ad is supposed to portray.3. KamaSutra Condoms - At that time, they found tht 90% of the people had heard about Nirodhbut only 2% used it, the reason.. they found it repulsive enough to make them forget aboutsex.. and hence KS had the tag line.. "for the pleasure of making love". The Ad councilhauled him for the ad.. his rebuttal .. what do u use condoms for ?? i'm just saying it..ucant punish me for saying what is true...btw why KS ? kamasutra is too long and embarassingto go to a chemist and ask for...so the principle is ... "makeing it desirable is making it buyable"4. Public Service ad... don't drink sugarcane juice from open stalls.. duing the time whenthere was a wide spread fear of an epidemic of jaundice, cholera and dysentry...the ad.. i rem seeing it on tv.. just a glass of juice being made.. a the saying.. "In justRe 1 a glass you can buy jaundice, cholera and dysentry". Only 30 secs ad. No explicitmention of sugarcane n e where, and no "Instructions" about what not to do.. so in hiswords..this is the differnece between propoganda and communication.. propoganda givesinstructions... communicatiom motivates.So branding is about making an impact on the emotional retina of the consumer...