Category: Uncategorized

By Jaisurya Das

 

Namaskar and Welcome to Dear MxM’s fifth issue of 2016 !

 

I understand the legendary ‘Basics vs Neutrality’ debate has come to an abrupt / logical end with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) asking Reliance to keep its ‘free basics’ offer on hold until further advice.

 

In other words, I am happy to announce that we are back to Square One. Amazing, aren’t we?

 

Nothing free since the learned ‘internet evangelists’ believe that this will infringe on one’s freedom!

 

And to think all these years, I thought freedom meant so much more! RIP.

 

I must confess I am unable to understand how ‘free basics’ prevents new users from accessing what they want….

 

Data packs are available for everyone and if you’re ready to pay, there isn’t any reason why you won’t get access to anything you want, be it information on fertilisers, farming or pornography.

 

We have this uncanny knack of questioning anything that is free; And yet, when we want something, we expect it virtually free. Sometimes, its sensible to allow people to do their job.

 

Give them a chance. It’s nothing that can’t be reversed. But what it could do, is something that you or me can’t dream off.

 

Yes, I am not an enlightened one. I don’t join a revolution I don’t understand. I don’t believe this world is made equal, be it the human race or the internet.

 

Well, c’est la vie….and we are officially back to where it all started….

 

Neutrally inaccessible.

 

Amen.

 

Coming to think of it, it’s important that Dear MxM is neutral to all this and hence the rest of the space must be devoted to our Q & A for the week,

 

Do read on and who knows, you’ll probably enjoy it!

 

How much does a newspaper actually cost after all the printing, salaries etc

Thanks for writing in with a pertinent question. I shall take the liberty of answering this in fair detail, to be able to give our readers a quick overview of ‘media economics’.

 

Unfortunately, reader’s rarely get to know costs, since they pay a pittance to buy their copy of the daily newspaper. The reality, is that newspaper production is a highly cost intensive manufacturing process, right from the huge investments required in real estate, printing machines , staff etc .

 

To add to this, the DVC (Direct Variable Costs) are prohibitive, what with newsprint rates spiralling every few months thanks to the infamous dollar:rupee equation resembling an ECG (Electro-cardiogram) graph!

 

The long and short of this is, that publishers end up spending anything from approximately 30 paise per page (one sheet of your newspaper = 2 pages) to as high as 2.00 per page for the high end glossy /art supplements that accompany the main paper. These rates are indicative and depends significantly on the number of copies being printed.This essentially means that, higher the circulation (sales) the lower the cost per copy.

 

Hence a standard 20-page newspaper in two sections (16+4) would cost nothing less than

 

Rs 8-10 per copy, assuming the paper you buy has a large enough circulation. So, when you buy your paper at Rs 2.00 – 3.00 don’t forget,  the cost is being cross-subsidised by the advertising it publishes.

 

Incidentally, India is one the few markets across the world where you can still buy a newspaper at a rock-bottom cover price. Therefore, the good thing to do, would be to thank all the advertisers and say a prayer for them day after day. May they prosper!

 

Amen.

 

At a recent sales conference, there was a huge debate on my channel offering massive discounts on bulk buy of GRPs. Two of my seniors locked horns because one was in favour of offering discounts and the other said it’s fatal to do so.  What according to you is the right path?

Honestly, I don’t think there is a bulk buy that happens in any business without a decent discount. It’s essentially akin to economies of scale and thus pretty much an accepted form of clearing inventory, be it media, or the consumer goods’ industry.

 

Having said that, it’s prudent to have clear justification for the discounting procedure at every level to avoid any arbitrary waiver’s. The discounting must be available to any client and must ideally be purely business linked.

 

A bulk-buy rate manual is the kind of transparency required to ensure success as well as high work  ethics.

 

There is no right path. It’s for us to dig our own path depending on the environment and the business we are in. Yes, being credible, ethical and fair are qualities that make that ‘rare’ great salesman!

 

Unfortunately, a dying breed. No wonder than that, the chair earns more respect today than the person who sits on it.

 

Yet, I pray that someday this equation will change for the better.

 

My daughter has a choice of majors for BA. She wants to get into digital media or broadcast. What subject should she major in?

Thank you madam for writing in to Dear MxM. Ideally I would have liked the list of subjects available for her Major in the Bachelor programme she is currently pursuing.

 

Nevertheless, I shall give you some options which will hopefully help her take a call. She could look at mass communication,  communication studies, creative writing etc if she is keen to pursue content or related areas.

 

If it’s marketing and sales: business management , business studies, economics etc would help her build perspective.

 

Ideally if she’s decided on media, it would advisable for her to look at a good post-graduate programme offered by one of the leading universities. There are excellent programmes in media and communication where she can take her appropriate elective and move ahead into the industry.

 

For a start, she could also do an internship or two with a media/ digital company, in order to get first-hand experience of the industry. I am suggesting this since, invariably at graduation level there is always dilemma on the ideal career. Hence, nothing better than getting a taste of it before going ahead.

 

I take this opportunity to wish her all success. Dear MxM would be happy to guide her, should she require any further advise on the industry.

 

Sir, don’t you get bored answering all our often-inane questions?

Ha Ha! Now this is probably the best question I have received this season!! In the best interest of our readers, I shall desist from being overly truthful on this one 🙂 Yet, like I always say, what has to be said, must be said!

 

Indeed I do, so you jolly well send me some good questions young man!  Having said that, I must add that we do some amount of sieving to ensure we pick interesting /relevant  /urgent questions over the others.

 

Answering questions and being of help is our raison d’être and hence each one is important for us. However, this column wasn’t created to answer only academic queries like which college should I apply to? Or which company offers a good salary for freshers? etc.

 

We strive to provide a sounding board to the fraternity at all levels, through our advice and views in Dear MxM week after week ….

 

Our humble mission is to mitigate concerns and conflicts, build positivity and impart the little knowledge that we believe we possess, in the business of media, advertising and marketing…!

 

Thank you dear readers for being with us week after week, and taking time off to write back with your opinion’s and suggestions. We sincerely value your feedback and hope to continue to live up to your expectations as we go along.

 

And, yes, put that laptop away and enjoy a terrific weekend with loads of great food and good cheer. To hell with work and all that goes with it. Take a break, Do nothing !

 

As always, feel free to inbox your questions on editor@mxmindia.com with ‘Dear MxM’ in the subject line and then rest easy while we do the rest !

 

’Dear MxM’ simply because, we care !

 

Jaisurya Das, the maverick media-evangelist, eats, sleeps and romance’s brands. His cerebral consulting interventions are aimed at making brands powerful and sustainable. He is also the Contributing Editor of MxM India. The views expressed in this column are his own.

 

By A Correspondent

 

Gulf Oil Lubricants India Ltd (GOLIL) announced that its parent company Gulf Oil International, a part of the Hinduja Group, had entered into its largest ever single long term partnership with the world’s leading football club, Manchester United to become its global sponsor and official lubricant cum fuel retail partner till end of 2019 football season.

 

The multi-year partnership was signed by Frank Rutten, Vice President, Gulf Oil International and Jamie Reigle, Commercial Director, Manchester United at Aon Training Complex, Manchester United’s official training ground in presence of the First Team Players and Manchester United Legends.

 

“Gulf Oil’s association with the world of sports has been phenomenal right from motorsports to cricket, where we have partnered with the best of the best. It was therefore logical for us to team up with Manchester United in order to reiterate our brand’s core values of endurance, quality and passion. We look forward to leverage this interesting mix of football and cricket and leverage this partnership to increase consumer engagement with the brand, create new & exciting communication platforms that will emphasis the customer value propositions,” said Ravi Chawla, Managing Director, GOLIL.

 

The deal will give Gulf Oil International access to Manchester United assets including the club crest and player images and Gulf’s distinctive orange disc will feature on the Club’s digital perimeter boards during Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup matches at Old Trafford.

 

The company’s partnership with Manchester United is in addition to its existing global tie-ups   with Milwaukee BMW, World Superbikes, the World Endurance Championship with the Gulf Racing Team and Porsche.

 

The company expects the tie-up with Manchester United to augment its long-term association with Cricket for enhancement and further strengthening of its brand equity amongst its customers, especially for personal mobility consumers who use two wheelers or passenger cars.

 

The partnership marks a further step in Gulf’s intent to strengthen its brand presence globally as well as enable it to engage with Manchester United’s worldwide fan base, including 325 million followers in Asia, which Gulf sees as a major focus area with a strong presence in India and rapidly developing businesses in China, the Middle East and Indonesia.

 

By A Correspondent

 

McDonald’s India launched the Maharaja Mac Burger, an equivalent of the iconic Big Mac across India early this year with an integrated campaign featuring unique catchphrase #ThodaTimeAur, which highlighted the burger’s great taste and big size, thus allowing McDonald’s customers to spend more time socialising and encouraging young adults to engage more deeply with the brand.

 

The campaign established the Maharaja Mac as the Social Burger and creating a countrywide demand for it. With the advent of mobile Internet, streaming content has become mainstream. In order to engage with the customers in the digital world, McDonald’s has launched a new film based on the #ThodaTimeAur proposition. The new film tells us that while we think we know our friends very well – that however may not be entirely true.

 

Kedar Teny, Director – Marketing & Digital, McDonald’s India – West & South India, said, “The new digital campaign is a part of the overarching theme of sociability and our commitment to keep building on that platform. This is our 4th execution on the sociability platform and first in the long play digital content format. While we are optimising the campaign through various mediums, we aim to engage with our audience with this visually captivating video on social media. To give our campaign an interesting twist we quizzed real consumers on their familiarity quotient with each other’s interests and captured their reactions on our hidden camera. The simple truth is that there are many times you don’t know the obvious likes and dislikes of the people you consider close to you. The message instantly answers the need to bond with friends and family over a gourmet social meal – Maharaja Mac – as the conversation starter. The iconic product seamlessly fits into that proposition of knowing each other over #ThodaTimeAur.”

 

Commenting on the creative thought, Rajdeepak Das, Chief Creative Officer, Leo Burnett India, said, “After the success of the Maharaja Mac launch campaign #ThodaTimeAur, we wanted to engage with young minds and move the conversation forward with an interesting real world insight. McDonald’s Familiarity Test is a simple experiment we did with real people asking them simple questions they ought to know the answers to. It is surprising to know that most of us get these answers wrong. The film captures the genuine reactions of McDonald’s customers and makes us want to deepen relationships with our loved ones.”

 

 

A combination of high speed wireless broadband and cheaper smart devices combined with increased digital advertising spends will propel digital media sector beyond INR 200b nby 2020.Further, easier digital payments mechanisms like wallets and telecom APIs,together with sharp analytics will enable an on-impulse transaction ecosystem for entertainment content consumption, said Raghav Anand, Digital Media Head, Media and Entertainment, EY. The research firm has published a report titled ‘Future of Digital Content Consumption in India which identifies key trends that will shape the future of content consumption in the country. Spread across eight key areas, the report predicts an increasing proliferation of digital media consumption into rural markets,

 

The 8 key trends highlighted by the report are as under:

1. Increase in content for the individual: Smartphone penetration in India is expected to grow to 520 mn by 2020. This use of smaller screens on personal devices will fuel ‘personal escapism’ or watching content individually, with 45% of all content consumed expected to be on the small screen by 2020.

2. Content breaks out of the 30 and 60 minutes programing pattern: Short form and snackable content is primarily driving the growth in consumption of digital media, and is very popular with a younger audience. The average length of video viewed in India is less than 20 minutes, with short form content constituting 62% of all content consumed on YouTube.

3. Omniplatform content consumption: While television serves as the primary screen currently, we are entering an era where all screens will work seamlessly together — they will just come in a wide range of sizes.

4. The changing face of rural consumers: The next wave of growth in India’s internet penetration is expected to come from tier II and tier III cities, enabled by wireless mobile internet. The preference of the Indian consumers towards vernacular and regional language content is constantly on the upswing, with 93% of the time spent on videos in Hindi andother regional languages. By 2020, of the 650m internet users, 50-55% are expected to be rural users, up from 33% off 351m in 2013.

5. Growth in earning population: India’s earning population (above 25 years of age) is expected to grow from 40% of the total population to 54% of the total population by 2018. In addition, mobile wallets are increasing in popularity, and would see a 60x growth in the number of transactions till 2020. This increase in the earning population and ease in the ability to pay will lead to a growth in spending on media and entertainment.

6. Community enablement: Mass content will evolve to suit the new market needs, aided by the increase in individual content consumption, and the ability to unicast content. Expect to see increased niches being created and the focus move from only mass products, to mass and niche communities.

7. Regional e-celebrities: The proliferation of digital platforms have also given rise to the phenomena of ‘e-Celebs’. With the growing influence of similar home-grown celebrities in India, it is expected that such talent would be partnered extensively by content and brand players to build offerings for consumers on different digital platforms. Successful e-Celebs can then be ported across media and given shows online, on TV and other media.

8. Increase in digital gaming: Due to an increase in the number of mobile internet users, smartphones and tablets in India, expect mobiles to be one of the most important platforms in gaming, garnering a 54% share of the total Indian gaming market by 2020.

 

At a foundational level, the eight trends will require M&E companies and content providers to develop much richer relationships with audiences. Players will also need to invest in the technologies that will enable them to analyse audience data, deliver deeper engagement with advertising and prove incremental value to brands.

 

By Ranjona Banerji

 

If you live your life on the internet, you may well be confused by a plethora of websites, all of which claim to be part of the news media. Since the advent of television news – especially in India – and of the internet, people feel that they understand how the news media works and they also feel that their voice has a right to be heard within a media framework.

 

A few years ago, “blogs” or weblogs or online diaries were quite the thing. People wrote their first person experience of how events around them unfolded. In times of crisis, newspapers and news channels used bloggers for information and perspective if they had no staff in that area.

 

But there was an intrinsic problem then and it remains today. It revolves around a simplistic question: what makes a journalist a journalist? Does anyone who has an opinion qualify? Does every do-gooder walking down a street make the grade? Or is there something more? What is the difference between a police investigator and a private detective? And why do private detectives have licences? Because: credibility.

 

Most of us who call ourselves journalists have gone through the grind. We have spent years editing copy and making pages. We have spent horrible hours on a soulless beat, gathering information which might even never be used by some evil news editor. We have had our writing or our newsgathering skills or our editing prowess shredded to bits by some senior who knows more and better than us. We have had it drummed into us that we are nothing, that today’s byline is tomorrow’s recycled paper. Those of us who are old enough were paid the bare minimum, so low in fact that the government had to step in with a wage commission to monitor our salaries.

 

We have watched the process of news being made into a newspaper or a news programme. It is long and laborious and it requires some skills, none of which have to do with how convincing you sound at a dinner party or how many of your friends think that you write well. We have made those judgment calls of what makes the front page and what doesn’t. We have sat through those focus groups where readers told us what they wanted and what they didn’t. We have made mistakes and been humiliated and we have got up and started again because the newspaper has to come out the next day, your or my ego or hurt feelings notwithstanding. In some ways, the grind is even more harrowing for 24 hour news TV people because it never stops.

 

Hardly surprisingly, we hang on to these credentials. We have earned them. And even less surprisingly, we are sceptical in the extreme of bloggers pretending to be journalists. The Indian webosphere is full of blogs masquerading as news sites. They are usually formed with the conviction that all Indian journalists are terrible inefficient liars, mainly because these said journalists do not support the political opinion of the blogger. Once the so-called news website has been started however, they often find that their opinions are not always enough. So they start picking up news from the same evil journalists that they mistrust.

 

I have seen a most revelatory email exchange between the people who run the website The Logical Indian and Sachin Kalbag, when he was editor of Mid-Day (he is now with The Hindu) after The Logical Indian picked up Mid-Day articles without permission or attribution. Otherwise known as stealing.

 

This is an explanation from someone at Logical Indian: “We are not justifying ourselves for the mistake we committed with the recent Mid Day story. This was our biggest mistake as neither we properly credited the Mid-Day article author nor we took permission. We just want you not to build such a wrong perception about us. Your perception matters to us a lot. We have a lot to learn from you and other committed people in this field who can guide us.”

 

This is gobbledygook as apparently they never stopped lifting material from reputed and professionally-run news sources.

 

Another excuse for stealing other people’s stuff and then tagging it as exclusive is this:

“The content was also listed under NEWS and EXCLUSIVE category. By ‘exclusive’ we don’t mean that we own the stories. Exclusive here means the stories which are worth paying attention for.”

 

This is even more rubbish. “Exclusive” in the news sense means this and this only: the newspaper or website or TV channels on which you are seeing this news is the only place which has it and is a result of the work put in by that particular journal.

 

I do not mean to target only Logical Indian. The internet is littered with such websites pretending that they have newsrooms staffed with journalists who do actual work. I would not even call them amateurs. For people who read such websites, I assume they do so because they have grudges against news journals which do not subscribe to their political viewpoints.

 

This is Sachin Kalbag on his experience with websites like these:

“Here’s a reality check: Newspapers and other media houses spend a huge amount of money in newsgathering. There is a level of skill involved. There are several levels of filters in the newsroom before a story makes it to print. Journalism is both a skill and an art (that some people misuse it is right, but that’s a different debate).

 

Folks like The Logical Indian just lift those stories and call them their own. It is daylight robbery. Assuming (erroneously…) that LI is read more than newspapers, it is like a rich man stealing from a slum dweller. Just because you’re rich doesn’t give you the right to steal.

 

It is like, to give another example, one software company stealing someone else’s code, calling it their own, and then profiting on it by selling it in the market.

 

There’s a reason there are laws against such things. The Logical Indian is wilfully breaking those laws.”

 

My view is that journalists have to do more to oust and out such websites. For our readers’ sakes.

 

By Jaisurya Das

 

Is it true that women co-workers always fight with each other?

And it’s a wonderful evening here in Pune with the characteristic evening breeze setting in to mask the summer’s blazing sun. Ladies and Gentleman, welcome back to yet another edition of Dear MxM, India’s premier counselling column for the advertising, media and marketing world.

 

I read with interest a recent blog on ‘the poor urban youth’ or some such thing which I must confess made interesting reading. It’s been doing the rounds on social and attracting several hundred comments and reactions. For those of you who haven’t chanced upon it, its all about the youth going overboard spending just to be able to maintain a lifestyle that their peers lead.

 

False notions of success resulting in overspending, which in turn is leaves them with practically nothing to survive on..

 

Tragic to say the least, this is just another fall out of lifestyle and the ridiculous demands it makes off our lives. I often wonder why we behave like ants that crawl in a straight line, one behind the other wth the solitary objective of following.

 

I guess it’s human psychology to ape considering our ancestry?!

 

What a paradox to have someone adorn Zara pants and survive on Veg Manchow courtesy the cup noodle factories; Unfortunate but this is the truth. Several hundreds of these aspiring young live on their own in Mumbai and other cities matching their ambitions with colleagues and society at large.

 

They dine at Olive, and retire to their modest PGs night after night, burning the midnight oil over personal gratification. Yes, Ladies and Gentleman, this is the new order and our children are part of this era. Scary isn’t it?

 

For my young readers, I do hope this will be an eyeopener of sorts. Be selfish my friends and don’t allow the world run your life ! Live well, but carve your own space in this madness.. Believe me, the solitaire for your girl can wait. Sweet nothing will happen and if at all it does, she isn’t the one for you.

 

Success isn’t all about material gain. It’s about satisfaction that is unparalleled that no money can buy, it’s about chasing a dream that you have nurtured for years. It’s about going ahead with your life, adapting to what you have and yet aspiring for what you don’t! Don’t chase what you aren’t ready or equipped for, as it will get you nothing but grief and a hollow wallet!

 

Chase craft, chase expertise, chase great friends, chase colleagues and friends who believe in you well enough to push you to trudge along confidently on that long mile of discovery.

 

Yes, everything is possible but send the right signals to the universe else it won’t return it in good measure! This is the physics of well-being. Peace with what is ours and the strength and discretion to let go of what isn’t… Life is about living. Amen.

 

All our peace seekers for this week are strangely from the city of dreams.. Mumbai.

Amchi (Our in the Marathi) Mumbai, here are your answers!

 

Is it true that women co-workers always fight with each other?

He he!! Where in the world do my readers get such ideas from? Far from it my friend!

The women are as good or bad as the men. Seriously man, this isn’t true.

 

Fighting and disagreeing is pretty much part of life isn’t it? Don’t you enjoy a good fight? Yes, empirically the decibel levels are higher when the women fight, but that’s got much to do with the opera pitch more than their intention to be heard.

 

Having said this, I must confess I have witnessed a few high-pitched exchanges between women though fortunately almost always it’s on trivia. Contrary to what you may have heard, ego clashes are not restricted to any one gender in a corporate environment. In fact, most often they are  related to a day-to-day task or a minor difference in opinion. In fact quite often the women are the steadying force in a team who bond well to keep the mood upbeat. Pressures are high in most corporates so yes, it has its share of quarrels and fracas but that all in a day’s work. I personally haven’t seen it ever extend to the next morning!

 

Hence, worry not my friend, for women are good both for the corporate and the soul!

 

My boss rejected a friend of mine who he said would make silly mistakes in his news reports – like getting the name or spelling wrong or the designation. He said my friend will never get out of making such silly mistakes. Do you think that’s a fair decision?

How did your boss figure this? Was there a test given to the candidate/ friend or has your boss been reading his work? To be honest, bereft of this information it’s tough to comment on this scenario..Judging a person’s capabilities or the lack of it is pretty much the discretion of the interviewer, be it this job or any other.

 

I would imagine your boss has the acumen and experience to screen and decipher the candidate’s pros and cons before he takes an apt decision. If this is his observation, I would give him the benefit of doubt for more than one reason..

 

Firstly, this is your boss’ professional prerogative and if he’s been entrusted with this responsibility am sure he must be good at what he does!  Secondly, habitual offenders (read grammar and syntax) often find it tough to get over this lacunae. In all probability this is what your boss is probably referring to in this case.

 

I honestly think you shouldn’t be taking this to heart and worrying about it being fair or otherwise. It’s just professional judgment versus your friendship. Period.  And, yes, am sure your’e buddy will land a better job soon. Have him focus on overcoming his shortcomings in order to sail through his next interview.

 

All good wishes to both of you!

 

Don’t you think it’s incorrect for bosses/ managements to give a bad increment without enough warnings about performance through the year?

Agreed though I must confess that often it’s not the appraiser who decides how much needs to be given as its greatly dependant on the budgets approved for increments year on year. At times the appraiser isn’t even in the know when it comes to what each rating will sum upto to in terms of actual money.

 

I have experienced this myself and in all the avatars;I have been an appraisee who was most unhappy with the COLA (Cost Of Living Adjustment) handed out in the guise of an increment, an appraiser who had the power to rate, but not to pay, and as the top management deciding the appraisal budgets for departments in the organisation. Believe me, contrary to popular belief, your boss isn’t always the culprit!!

 

Having said this, I do agree that an appraisal is the culmination of a years performance good or bad and thus, the progress must be shared on the floor. This is a leader trait and hence a practise that good mentors follow wherever they are. Holding hands and moving ahead is a virtue that differentiates the true mentor from a leader..

 

Frankly, I do hope we see more of this breed as we go along. Amen.

 

Recently I read that a certain news channel has adopted a strict dress code. But why do that? Aren’t employees responsible enough to wear decent clothes? Please offer your verdict on the issue.

Oh yes, this was in the news and all over social quite recently! Well, I figure this has upset you quite a bit and to the extent that I am guessing if you were one of the affected few in this channel.. Are you?

 

But jokes apart, why not a dress code? Isn’t it customary for people to wear uniforms when they work in their professional environment? Why is it so different in this instance? We are the first to complement people on how smart they look in the Defence services, the Police, Medical Services like Doctors, Nurses, and so on and yet when it comes to our work, we protest !

 

Why the hypocrisy? Decorum and being well-turned-out at work, only adds to the persona of the individual as well as the place they work for and yet there is this disconnect. All because it’s media? Why the need to conform ? We need the freedom to decide?? Let’s for a moment imagine that your hospital decided to shed all its uniforms and you had casually dressed Doctors, nurses, surgeons et al.. Would you be as confident of getting yourself treated by them?

 

Sorry, I don’t see a problem with this. It’s not really about not knowing to dress well; This is about giving it a certain elegance and uniformity in line with the organisation and its objectives. A TV channel comes into contact with several hundred people across the globe and I can understand what it means to have a common dress code to befit its professional expertise.

 

Yes, what this dress code should be on the ground is something that needs to be decided keeping in mind comfort, adaptability and the weather condition in various parts of our country. This is what is important.

 

I put add that a common dress code also ensures that there is no visible parity between the staff, irrespective of what level/ background they enjoy. So, my friend, I think it’s best you take a deep breath and wear what you’re asked to. And moreover there’s no point in cribbing about an organisation that you work for !

 

Take it well or leave it !

 

And this brings us back to Do, Re, Mi…. 🙂

 

On that musical note from the all-time favourite Sound of Music, I take your leave for this week but, not before wishing all of you a splendid weekend and much fun! God bless you with loads of happiness and good cheer always.

 

We will be back with our customary precision next week, same space, same day, with a fresh set of questions and some rocking answers! Meanwhile do keep writing in to the editor@mxmindia.com with ‘Dear MxM’ and your City as the subject. Goodbye and take care, Jd

 

Jaisurya Das, the maverick media-evangelist eats, sleeps and romances brands. His cerebral consulting interventions are aimed at making brands powerful and sustainable.  He is also Contributing Editor of MxMIndia. For more information on his work visit www.xanadu.co.in