Progress is Over-rated?

Shredded Wheat Cereal from Post claims that it has sustainability because it didn’t innovate. The new series of commercials from Post features Frank Druffel, their President who clearly states that Progress is over-rated. The commercials are made very well and one can’t help laugh out aloud on the way some of our business clichés have been juxtaposed. Apparantly, Ogilvy has been making these wonderful ads that’s raking in top ratings on Youtube.

But then, here’s the thing to think about. It’s really cool to claim that the product hasn’t changed in a long-long time cos it’s good and consumers want it the way it is, and quite another to claim that they innovated the cereal way back and then decided that they must say ‘no’ to innovation. Why? Is innovation harmful and addictive? Some of the ads claim that advertising has done no good to the world and that landing on the moon has made no difference to us. Maybe so, Maybe not!

Something tells me, this ad is hoodwinking us into believing in things that may not be true based on anecdotal evidence. It’s like saying there is no air ‘cos we can’t see it. Quite a few may disagree.
Here are some of the ads:

Amazing Evian Babies

I know, ads with babies are just so the cutest. But these Evian ads with babies are something else all together. Check out the new ads released by Evian water to communicate their “Live young” proposition.
Here’s the ad:

Apparently this comes 10 years after the Evian swimming babies ad. Check this one out too:

Even better than the commercial, is the making of the ad video:

For more news coverage, read this: http://great-ads.blogspot.com/2009/07/evian-live-young-dancing-babies.html

Just a Couple of Ads

The last ad for The Economist, that I saw, used some benign form of fear appeal: What if you ended up with someone ‘really important’ (Henry Kissinger) in close proximity - like the business class airplane seat? What if you are dumb-stuck ‘cos you really are dumb? Read Economist….kind of thing.

Basically saying: “Hey Dumbo! whoever you are that’s not reading Economist times, start reading now…lest….

“How presumptuous” - I say!!

Thanks to print media quickly going down the swamp which is thanks again to the new interactive media, the new Economist ad seems to have toned down the arrogance a bit. Its noteworthy that while all other magazines seem to be on survival mode, the Economist is actually showing signs of growth. Maybe, thats because they are not limited by geography and do not confine themselves to 'breaking news'. They are rather good with their commentary on whatever it is that they wish to focus on. In risky times its best to carry eggs in different baskets after all. If you look really close, they are starting to sound more and more like erudite bloggers who spend more time and money on the same kind of stuff - to make it sound more knowledgable. All this talk of change, is it the media or is it the consumers? Or has the media already changed the consumer preferences, not just just in media but even in content? That could explain the profits?

And now The Economist wants to talk to - no longer the Dumbo, but anyone who cares to watch their communication.

What’s the ‘positioning’ again? Or did it say?

To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird, will remain on top 10 lists of "best-sellers by first time authors" for years to come. Like Margaret Mitchell and Arundati Roy, Harper Lee managed to write a nice tale of a messy affair. Apparently based on her personal experience as a child in Alabama, a southern state in the USA, it is both witty and profound. Lee believed in writing what she knew - as honestly as she could, and the sincerity of the narration is the book's strength.

My favorite dialogue sequence, right from the mouth of babes (Dill and Jem: Age:10, trying to get their eccentric neighbor out of the house) and couldn’t be more profound:

“Dill, you have to think about these things,” Jem said. “Lemme think a minute…..it’s sort of like making a turtle come out…..”
“How’s that?” asked Dill.
“Strike a match under him.”
I told Jem if he set fire to the Radley house I was going to tell Atticus on him.
Dill said striking a match under a turtle was hateful.
“Ain’t hateful, just persuades him – ‘s not like you’d chunk him in fire,” Jem growled.
“How do you know a match wont hurt him?”
“Turtles can’t feel, stupid,” said Jem.
“Were you ever a turtle, huh?”

That made my day and sold me on the book.

The most amazing aspect of the book is that it deals with a sordid plot – a lawyer fighting a case defending a black man accused of raping a white woman in the 1930’s, in the deep southern state of Alabama. A very grown up story narrated in the voice of a 6 year old and as seen and comprehended by the eyes of completely innocent children who know no race or creed – just humanness.

This style of narration has two effects. A, an adult story told with an innocence that makes the reading feel, Oh So Clean! ….and B, the contrast of innocence in children who have no baggage and the irrational prejudices of grown-ups who carry too much unnecessary baggage, works brilliantly to bring out what the author intends – the irrationality of racism and importance of being human.

I read this book right after I wrote the post on how I could never fall in love with narrators of the story and I almost had to eat my own words. I loved the little girl, 'Scout' Finch, who narrates the story, but unfortunately she didn’t become the first to break my belief about narrators, ‘cos I loved her dad even more. Atticus Finch is older than dads of 6-year olds usually are: about 50. He complains about not being upto the kid’s rambunctiousness, but he is the perfect gentleman who does the right thing even when stuck in a tight spot and brave in a way that really matters. He is a talented shot, but an even better lawyer. Above all, he is a great dad. He’s awesome because he doesn’t feel the need to color the children’s thoughts – he let’s them make their own judgments and see the right from the wrong, helping them along when they can’t make sense of the facts. Above all, maybe the image of Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in the 1962 movie stuck in my head.

Identifying Differences vs. Identifying Similarities among Consumers

As marketing students/teachers/practitioners, we know the mantra of “Segmentation-Targeting-Positioning” for developing marketing strategies as well as we know our ABC’s for reading and writing. In order to segment a market, we are really looking for segments or groups of consumers who are different from others. Now, the question is: how far do we take these differences – I am sure we can find individual quirkiness – quirkiness so individual, that the marketer must address consumers one at a time. Taking this kind of thinking further makes concepts such as Mass Customization very appealing. At the end of the day, a large scale manufacturer attempts to provide customization for every individual by just making superficial changes on the same basic product – like color of a car and some design on newest model of motorbikes. Really, it’s just sprinkles vs. chocolate chip topping on plain vanilla ice-cream!!

The whole point of industrial large scale production and efficient marketing to a large number of consumer’s is lost. This stream of argument is not to say that all markets must be treated as one huge homogenous market and that targeting and positioning make no sense! No, that’s not it at all!! The point is: do we really have differentiated products that are required by different sets of consumers owing to the fact that the product is REALLY different? Or else, why not just focus on the entire group of consumers.

Yes, the problem then would be: How do we sell it to them? How do we “position” it if we don’t view them as different? Look at similarities. Why do marketers find it so hard to look for similarities? Similarities can include customers, making the market bigger. Differences only serve to exclude consumers. One great example of how we can do this is by looking at Rituals.

Apparently, BBDO worldwide has done a study on consumer rituals. They define rituals as a series of actions that transform people from one emotional state to another and are developed over a period of time. According to them, Rituals make people feel good. They believe that brands that are embedded in consumer’s daily rituals have a better chance of “stickiness” and make them “Fortress Brands”. Their study done across 26 countries with feedback from more than 5000 people has provided them some rituals that people follow across the world: ‘Preparing for Battle’, ‘Feasting’, ‘Sexing Up’, ‘Returning to camp’ and ‘Protecting yourself for future’. Each of these stages has sequence of steps. According to them, rituals are followed by everyone, its execution may differ.

Sometimes looking for differences doesn’t work, especially in an over-segmented market. Maybe, its time to consolidate and look for similarities! Here’s another clip from my favorite stand-up, George Carlin, who speaks of how we are more alike than different.

Dead Poets Society

I haven’t really been the poetry loving type, but I think of late I have developed some appreciation of ‘the rhyme and rhythm’ in literature. This story about an English teacher in rigid formal school for boys really touches me every time I watch some of its scenes – I don’t know if that’s because I love reading and can see what Keating means, or if it’s because I am a teacher……

Some beautifully made scenes with meaningful performance by Robin Williams:

And here's a rendering of O Captain! O Captain by Walt Whitman

Jazz turns Blue at Madison Avenue

All in a day’s work: says the final rolling credits!

How the change in the mediascape is causing tumultuous growing up pains for the young uns who chose to get into advertising – a fitting ode - couldnt have said it better!!

On narrators and others

I sometimes smile and LOL with them (Bridgett Jones from her Diary book), nod my head at some profound observation on life or people (Alex from Roots), completely agree with injustice doled out to what I consider “My” type of situation (Kate Reddy from I don’t know how she does it), empathize and sympathize….. but I never have and never will, fall in love with first person narrators of stories, who also have a role to play in the book.

Looking back in time, I am quite unabashed at letting out that I have had a string of love affairs with one or the other of such characters – some more torrid than others. Starting with Tom Sawyer, my first crush, the list would typically contain Jupe (Julian) from the three investigator series, Rhett Butler from Gone with the wind, Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, Francisco Domingo Carlo Andre Sebastian DeAnconia (Frisco) from Atlas Shrugged and so on and so forth, and a couple of wayside flings with Captain James Kirk, Sherlock Holmes and Huck Finn (These make the list because these were the more enduring than some of the fly by night ones).

For some reason though, I have never found Jim from Great Expectations or Mrs. DeWinter froim Rebecca or even Rahel from God of Small Things, amazing enough to admire them. Sometimes I wonder if Ms. Mitchell had decided to narrate Gone with the Wind with Scarlett O’Hara, would I have found her mean and selfish, which she was, rather than willfully strong, wonderfully self-absorbed and bullheaded, making it ‘ok’ for Rhett to be in love with her?

The way I see it, writers of stories might have, I am sure, seriously pondered over whose voice they must use: their own ostensibly impassive third person voice or that of one of theicharacters from their yarn. If they were hoping for credibility in borrowing the voice of their characters, hope they realize, the character is as good as written off from anyone’s favorite list and sometimes they might even get hated for ‘telling’.

Although “The Kite Runner” is a beautiful story, quite heart warming and shocking at times, Hassan, to me, was the hero, which is quite likely what Khaled Hosseini wanted to achieve with his first person rendered tale - I really didn’t like Amir at all. Not sure if Hosseini intended THAT effect though! My grouse with Amir was his audacity to get all judgmental about his father with his new found western mindset and the fact that he hoped he could redeem his awful character by bringing back Hassan’s lovely child from the hell-hole he was instrumental in putting him, in the first place. And let’s not forget, the child did more to save Amir's life and soul than the narrator did to save the child.

End of rant!!

About Saving the World

There was a time, long long ago, when I was an idealist youngster in search of meaningful life. Hard to imagine – nevertheless true! The question was typically, how can I save the world?

If I was more mature, I would have asked a) Save from what? b) Does it really need saving?

Obviously, my little mind knew something was wrong, but count quite figure out what it was.

Now, I know there is a whole lot that’s wrong with it (the world, I mean) and that I am perfectly happy not doing anything about it. Selfish – true! Happy – Yes!

Call it selective attention if you will, but here are two things that convinced me that I am right on track.....

1. A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson – I learnt that I am too insignificant for either the universe or the nano particles and if I was taking on humans – I was just too insignificant for Einstein type contributions. AND
2. The following “gyan” from George Carlin:

What can Metaphors in an Ad Copy Do to Consumer Beliefs?

According to this research, nothing! Apparently metaphors for metaphor’s sake don’t change consumers preexisting beliefs. The premise for the research rests on investigating whether metaphors have an impact on consumer belief and if they do, is it simply because of the cross-domain comparison or because of artful deviations in presentation of the topic.

The study, done in the context of ‘exercise’ as a consumer product, identified 6 metaphors from content analysis of advertisements and internet forums of popular fitness magazines in the US: Exercise is heat, Exercise is a journey, Exercise is work for pay, Exercise is construction, Exercise is sculpting and Exercise is combat. After a Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS) exercise from data collected among a student population, three metaphors were identified for the study such that they were the most dissimilar on the semantic space: Exercise is a journey (Exercise provides roadmap for my life, Exercise is a step in the right direction), Exercise is work for pay (exercise provides job training for my life, Exercise is a matter of putting in the time) and Exercise is heat (exercise provides the flame for my life, Exercise is a way to turn up the heat).

Without getting into the specifics of the research design and data analysis – it would suffice to say here that study was done using experimental designs and the data was analysis was a simple Generalized Least Squares (GLM) – Repeated Measures ANOVA.

The study has shown that Metaphors by themselves do not have an impact on the beliefs of consumers, but those metaphors that are considered more deviant than others (in this case “Exercise: Flame for life”) helped to change the belief more than the other ad statements in the form of metaphors. Further, it was seen that some consumers with a high ‘metaphorical processing ability’ are more persuaded than others who score low on the trait.

What does a study such as this mean for copywriters? Do they consider the impact of their words and metaphors when constructing their clever copy? Do they consider the eventuality that the metaphors suited to the rural audience in India may sound quite insipid and inane to the urban consumer and vice versa? Do they even wonder about the impact of metaphor vs. a pun vs. a rhyme or are they just looking to sound clever and witty? How often have hackneyed metaphors been used to connect with the consumer?

Maybe a look-see into some of the so-called impractical academic research might help practitioners make more learned decisions?

Body Double

I just needed a quick read. Preferably a crime caper that would keep me on the edge of the seat and help me finish off the nail that had grown a yukto-milimeter = 10 power minus twenty four (Is there really such a measure? Do people actually go about measuring such small amounts? Crazy!!). So, I picked up this single book in my library that said “Body Double” by an author I had unheard of, Tess Gerritsen, a new genre writer of thrillers, I supposed.

It’s one thing to read about crime, especially of the gruesome type, but yet another to read about how the cadavers of the victims are taken apart in figuring out the crimes themselves. In Body Double, Tess Gerritsen does just that. In a blog post where writers write about the back stories of their own books, Gerritsen says that the plot point for this book came from imagining how it might feel if one had to witness oneself being autopsied - and this she details to captivating extent, framing the driving point of the plot.

There are several layers to this apparent crime/thriller novel. On one level it is a straight forward plot of crime by an animal who is both driven by the rationale of making money as well as an emotional imbalance with a taste for the macabre, and that precisely is the problem. Either a crime is perpetuated by the psychotic or by a fully functional human for rational reasons such as jealousy or greed, but how does one account for a beast with a fascination for the morbid and who uses it making money in an organized way? How does one explain the eventuality that he actually perpetuates it into a family business? And even worse, how does one explain away the fact that this animal dies like an average family man bought into hospital by his loving family, when several families were broken and several children orphaned by his fantastic occupation? How does one explain the lack of justice and retribution which is the compelling issue in any study of crime?

On another level, this book talks of the innocent who by chance is a kindred soul of the animal. The central character of the book is Dr.Maura Isles, a Boston Medical Examiner who loves the precision of her job of autopsying crime cadavers. The book starts with her returning from a conference in Paris and finding a crime scene investigation on her porch. People are surprised to see her since she was the one who was supposed to be dead. One look at the victim makes it clear that the bewilderment is because of the identical physical match with the said Doctor. A DNA analysis proves that they are genetically related – perhaps twins. A background check reveals that they were both given up for adoption, handled by the same agent. That would have been enough for me to go on a personal crusade. To find out how my twin happened to be shot in the head in front of my house, when I didn’t even know she existed should be enough to pique my curiosity. But then Garritsen decides to take Dr.Isles, a rational medical expert into the autopsy room and show how it feels when it could have been her, under the merciless scalpel.

The author further tortures her protagonist by making her trace the path which the dead twin, a microbiologist, had traversed before her, eventually leading her to a correctional facility where her apparently deranged mother is incarcerated. The doctors can’t quite make up their mind if she is unhinged and the ‘mom’ plays the part of psychotic-but not quite, exceedingly well. She was sentenced for the murder of two sisters, one of them pregnant. The visits are an emotional roller coaster ride for the Dr.Isles who has to now doubt her own moral fiber. Is the love for the cadaver genetic?

While the bigger crime and central part of story, with the gory crime and ancestral linage of the protagonist, kind of gets resolved by itself - really, no one solves it, the other part of the story including the murder of the twin kind of takes the readers to a different plane.

Move over, moral dilemma, there is one more layer I can think of. So as to not give the plot away, I’ll pose them thoughts to Tess Gerritsen. Was it some kind of kooky humour, using a full term pregnant police office in a crime involving pregnant woman? Why could’nt Ballard, the Boston Police Officer, have been given a chance? I had quite started to like him – actually I had to keep telling myself not to invest too much in him, lest he turn out to be dreadful character. I couldn’t quite make out if all the attention he was paying Dr.Isles was for real. Even if their relationship was on shaky grounds, I liked him better than the confused priest, that Maura seems to fancy. I really wish you had let Ballard be! Sulk!

Although my library has only one out of the series of 6 books with the Boston Police characters in it, I know I will devour them all when I lay my hands on them! Thank you Tess!

The season of the Dolls!

A far cry from the scary “Sanju” of last years MaxLife Ads are the white-ant like ZooZoos with enlarged heads: Courtesy, Vodafone’s attempt at entertaining us during the IPL this season. Well, since a lot has been said of the ZooZoo’s and their uncanny sense in appreciating life’s little ditties, I am going to lay off that breed of “not quite” animation for the dolls of the new Livon Ads.

I, of the frizzy-curly hair, am always on high alert for the panacea that will do the equivalent of straightening the dog’s tail. The other day I was pleasantly surprised to see the new packaging of the Livon conditioner – the greasy but non sticky stuff that can be left on the hair after a wash - one can then pretend that one did something to get things in control and forget about it. The proposition now however seems to be more than ‘managing’ hair – its now about ‘beautiful’ hair!

The brand has now acquired an extended family – a purple packaged family of Livon conditioners and serums – they used to be plain old fashioned ‘potions’ before now, in staid white packaging. They are being launched with a really cute set of Dolls – named, hold your breath – “Livon Dolls” – specially designed for Livon by one Mr. Razneesh Ghai of White Light Films, who has also directed the ads.

The dolls have a large heads in proportion to their bodies and even larger eyes. Larger eyes and head apparently make them more expressive, since dolls by themselves find it hard to express emotions. I must say, for dolls with no muscular emoting capacity, the mood of these ads have been created beautifully. The Dolls, as expected, have extremely shiny, beautiful, soft, fluffy and manageable hair. Why do Dolls have it all?

The ads have the dolls in various hair dos and in various settings such as a hilltop, a café, a balcony etc. The music, voice over, lighting and camera work set the mood. Nice, dreamy, introspective dolls seem completely at peace with themselves. With nice beautiful hair - not one out of place - I guess one could feel that way!

The connect with this commercial for consumers, it is hoped, must come from aspirations of the little girl in every woman who wants to look like the doll from her childhood! I hope my daughter has no such aspirations – all her dolls have horribly mismanaged 365-bad hair days. And I don’t remember ever having a doll, so there!

More coverage @ afaqs: http://www.afaqs.com/main1.html

De-fusing Roger’s Diffusion Curve

My last post on the Domino effect of the yucky Domino’s video set me thinking in terms of what it means for the well accepted two-step communication model and the theory of diffusion of innovation.

Before the two step model, was the Hypodermic-needle model which suggested that mass media did all the communication – a single step in which mass media reached out to…well the masses – like injecting stuff into your body – single shot. The two step model of communication was first presented by Lazersfeld and Katz (Personal Influence, 1955) when they proposed that when mass media put out a communication, some members adopt it faster than others and then they in turn propagate it among others - The mother of the Social Network Theory.

This was the sort of idea that appears to have birthed the concept of ‘Diffusion of Innovation’ proposed by Everett Rogers (1962). Rogers provided us with one of the most enduring marketing ideas with his adoption/diffusion curve. Most marketing students would know that there are a small bunch of people with certain characteristics who are innovators and they adopt the idea/product much before the others. The early adaptors then follow suit and then the early majority followed by late majority and the miserable laggards who adopted last – leading to diffusion of innovation – typically an S-Shaped curve. Frank Bass (1969) then provided a rather robust mathematical model to quantify the diffusion model as a combination of mass media and personal influences.

While the idea of the adoption-diffusion curve has sufficiently sunk into our psyches, and the several of us have believed of the Adoption curve and the Bass model as the ultimate in diffusion theory, maybe its time to relook at the process with changing media structures.

A typical viral campaign that goes from mass media and then gets adopted across the late adoptors would be the strategy followed by Vodaphone’s ZooZoo ad campaign. More on that one later – since everyone is talking about it! The mass media creates something interesting worth accepting/acknowledging/adopting and then some people get hooked on to it earlier than the rest. They pass it along – on the internet – more adopters, followed by the early majority, late majority and the laggards – at which point the media might oscillate between television and the internet.

But consider what happened with Dominos Pizza – it was not a mass media that gave rise to the viral Dominos video that got passed along on to Youtube. It first started with individuals sharing a viral video which became newsworthy enough to get on to mass media. Some people heard about it and then checked out the TV, newspapers and the internet! This doesn’t quite follow the two step model or the Bass model - What kind of adoption/diffusion process is that?

Another question that generally bothers me with the diffusion model is the premise that a lot depended upon the qualities of the innovators – they were supposedly a minority and a special lot. Now with increasing adoption and maturation of the market, do we alienate them? For example, one adopts a new technology ‘cos its so cool and one is an innovator, and then others adopt it too – does Mr.Cool then get disappointed and jump the ship? Does a company targeting innovators appropriately for enabling diffusion end up alienating them as the product become mass market? Typically a question asked by my students when I explain how we can actually apply Roger’s idea of diffusion of innovation!

A couple of Wharton professors are apparently working on this:



………and here’s a link to Martin Bishop’s blog at Brand Mix, where he discusses this issue with the example of how Facebook handles this issue.

Demonstrating the Domino effect at Domino’s Pizza?

The power of a social media cannot be more apparent than what happened to Dominos Pizza and a couple of their employees. Like they say, bad news travels like ‘wildfire’.

You can’t have a real laugh at joke unless you share it. And Kristy and Micheal from dominos decided to do just that, they shared their silly little secret recipe for sandwiches with Youtube. Unfortunately for them, those who saw the joke weren’t those who were joking, but those where being joked at – their customers.

The video is so disgusting, I can’t put words to it. I think, the video is removed from the internet. But then, the rest of the media world takes over and here’s a report from NBC



For those of you who havn’t heard of the video made by two Domino employees, New York Times covers it adequately.
For a change, here’s a well done crisis management video that has been put up by the fast food company.

Attitude vs. Recall

By way of broad classification, there are two things one would want out of advertising: a) Viewers must remember it and remember as much of it as possible and b) The viewers must be favorably predisposed to the ad and by association, the object of advertisement. The first part of this issue is the related to memory and the second part is related to attitude.

A new research in psychology shows that bad weather can influence focus of people, leading them to recall information from that bad-weather period better. In short, people tend to observe and retain information better when they are in bad mood.

As one interested in psychology, its application in advertising and marketing communication and a predilection for gratuitous thought, I start wondering what it mean for advertising - how does it fit into what I know about memory and information processing. How do attitudes fit in here?

The obvious conclusion from the results of the study would be: if you want people to remember the ad and related information, they should be in a bad mood. This can be brought about in two ways – either they are already in a bad mood when they view the ad, which can be ensured by placing it in between a really bad show, or the ad itself should induce the bad mood, which can be done in n number ways, on way is by making really, really bad ads.

(One of the studies by the ELM researchers on effects of mood shows that, when consumers are asked to evaluate something when in a bad mood, they end up rating it more poorly than they would if they were happy. To know more about ELM follow the link)

Hence, by the ELM’s diktat of biasing effects of mood in information processing, the above mentioned method would end up causing you to intensely pay attention to information and form extremely strong and not so favorable attitudes towards the ad and the brand, which is a dreadful situation for an advertiser to be in. Now, to avoid this conundrum, if we decide to make the viewer happy, we must sacrifice some amount of expectation on memory. This means that viewers may have a positive attitude, but may not have adequate recall of information, that is, they may not really know why they think favorably about the ad and the brand. This in turn means that they can be easily persuaded to change their attitude.

Now, how can an advertiser handle this situation: should he decide that the viewers must have strong attitude with all necessary information and sacrifice some amount of favorability in attitude, or should he decide on retaining a high level of favorability and sacrifice some amount of recall?

Here’s another take on the research: http://exploring--psychology.blogspot.com/2009/04/here-comes-rain-again-falling-on-my.html

More on rupee symbols

Indians are complicated and elaborate - here’s the proof:

A poll by Times of India on the rupee symbols submitted to the ministry of finance.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/rupeesurvey.cms

Can you see yourself spending more time and effort trying to get the rupee symbol right than the amount it must represent?

To think or not to think: Elaboration Likelihood Model

Understanding persuasion is a matter of bread and butter for marketers.

Even so, when I did a really small survey about some basic models of ‘Persuasion’ among branding, research and advertising professionals, I found that they weren’t aware of them - and that there was a healthy interest on the subject matter.

Although academic literature is scorned among practitioners as theoretical, and therefore: unusable, I believe that usability of something will be known only on application. And in order to apply, one must actually know it. So, here’s an attempt to put some of the academic kind of thinking which can actually be used if an attempt is made.

I’d like to make a beginning with an extremely robust model in persuasion theory called the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM - Petty and Cacioppo, 1986). This is an offshoot of the information processing genre of literature which deals with how people process information in their minds. Cutting out all the nitty gritties of the research per se’, I’ll just etch out what the model proposes. To understand in further detail, how they came to form such conclusions, you can read up on their published papers available online at http://www.psy.ohio-state.edu/gap/ . As a precursor, I might add that, the task, if undertaken, would require some basic understanding of attitude theory, experimental methods and some basic statistics.

In a gist, ELM comes from a whole bunch of studies by Petty and Cacioppo and several other researchers of attitude, who contend that attitudes are formed when people process information and information is processed either centrally (elaborately, taking into consideration all information that is central to the issue in contention) or peripherally (using secondary clues such as attractiveness of the presenter of information). They contend that the central route produces stronger attitudes, more enduring than those produced by the peripheral route. This translates into an understanding that if you want viewers/ listeners to have strong attitudes, you must present good arguments and give them a chance to process elaborately. Attitudes here refers to ‘predisposition towards the object in contention’ – basically in terms of favorability - Do you like it or not like it, do you think it is good or not good etc…

Attitudes are said to be important because they drive behavior. If you like brand A more vs. brand B, chances are, given a choice, you would buy A.

The model further explains that when people have the motivation (interest, relevance of subject matter) and ability (knowledge of subject matter and context such as level of distraction) they tend to process information better. This gives us more fodder for thought - if the advertising message is such that it appeals to consumer personally – basically target correctly - and gauge their level of knowledge before making the pitch so that they actually understand, and provide it in a situation with as less ‘noise’ as possible, then, maybe you can cause strong attitudes. Hence, this model not only tells us when strong attitudes are created, it also tells us how to create them. And most of the logic of this model is pretty straight forward and we can’t really dismiss it as too simple – ‘cos the application is tough!

This model borrows heavily from cognitive psychology and is about how people actively process information. Hence cognition, aka, thinking becomes a central issue in ELM. While the central route is about thinking elaborately and high on cognition the peripheral route is more about appearances, with less amount of critical thinking which, in a way, can be translated as ‘feel’ factors. Although the ELM researchers don’t talk about feelings and emotion so much, they contend that these cause biases in processing information. The model is robust because it is simple and hard to dispute. When I first started reading up the large volume of literature and all the papers written in this research, I couldn’t find a thing to fight it with – they had an explanation for everything I picked bones with – one might argue that maybe I didn’t have the talent to find the bones, and they wouldn’t be too wrong. I am sure, one with more observation and logic skills could find a skeleton in the ELM closet.

Although ELM side of the story is only one side of a multi-dimensional issue - the cognitive side ( the other sides will be presented in another posts), what we learn is that, for advertising to be effective we must cause central processing which will lead to stronger attitudes, assuming they are favorably disposed.
And we know that in practice, we use peripheral cues (prettier models, unnecessary distracting humour, and incoherent information) all the time – to get attention – meaning we sacrifice strong attitudes at the altar of SENSATIONALISM. Maybe we do this because……hmmmm…. we don’t want consumer to hold enduring attitudes towards our brands?

Symbols and currencies

Recently came across this new magazine called ‘Open’, which goes by an ad line that says “your weekly mind stimulant”. It’s a current affairs and features magazine with an eclectic mix of articles. Find its weblink here: http://openthemagazine.com/

The very first piece of news following the editorial letter is one on the symbol contest being run by the Ministry of finance to replace our own ‘Rs.’ The magazine had got three popular artists, MF Hussain, Baiju Parthan and Abir Patwardhan to come up with some logos from the artists, below:

Having put up the magazine’s version, I had my graphic art background winking at me. So I pulled out my dear old Illustrator 10.0 (Thank you Adobe) and made some quick sketches of my own. I am a little rusty and not too clean with the software, but after a hiatus of 5 years from designing and using the software, this is what I came up with:

Would love to hear your suggestions on the symbols…what you didn’t like, what you liked, what is toooo much and what is too little, what to add, what to delete……

The little grammar book we swear by

As Indians, our education system has been predominantly British, until the American media chose to push over the stiff lipped English for the more conversational American colloquialism. Talk of our daily battles with Microsoft word and its penchant for crying foul on our spellings.

For those of us who remember the harrowing days of pouring over the Wren and Martin for the English grammar class, Strunk and White, the little grammar book was a revelation. I loved the book for its easy prescriptive ways, forgetting the oft repeated warning of our elders: Easy come-easy go.

But then, it was an addiction.

Apparently, its 50 years of Strunk and White and people are paying homage to the book. However, there was that little something inside me that said that all was not well with Strunk and White – A sort of uneasy feeling you can’t quite put a finger on - like you know you are supposed to be happy about your best friend topping the class, but you don’t quite...

And then, I found this article that kind of explains to me why I probably scored lower on my verbal part of GMAT than the quant part – an impossible task – I could never do better in quant than anything else!

Here’s to: 50 years of Stupid Grammar Advice

Asimov: Nemesis

Our solar system is one of the rare planetary systems that has a single star. Most planetary systems are said to be binary star systems. The star nearest to our sun is the Alpha Century, located at about 4.3 billion light years from is a binary star system (α Cen AB). However a third star called the Proxima Centuri is also known to be associated with this system albeit a little further than the distance between A and B. Taken together they are actually considered a triple star system (α Cen ABC).

The Background
Asimov’s Nemesis is one of his later books and is not part of his foundation, Robot or the Empire series. Nemesis is set in the 23rd century. The earth as we know it is completely crowded and polluted. Settlements have taken off on artificial space ships that orbit around the earth. Settlements handle their own research on space travel and one such settlement has learnt to travel space on a system called ‘Hyperspace travel’ which is space travel at the speed of light. While the settlements have generations of civilians living on it, earth attempts to keep a tab on them with spies and agents.

The story revolves around the discovery of a companion star for earth, that too a dim red star, which is discovered by a young astronomer (Eugenia Insignia) on a settlement called ‘Rotor’. Having made this discovery, the settlement which is sitting on its ability of ‘Hyperspace travel’ decides to take off into space away from its orbit around Earth, hoping that it would find another planetary system around the new red star. The commissioner of Rotor (Janus Pitt) is a man with an agenda. He wants to get away from Earth to make a world of his own where his belief of the ‘best of human’ species can thrive and build a settlement of a single race – almost a version of Hitler and his ideology. Even while ‘hyperspace travel’ had not been tested before and he knew not what could happen during the flight, he was still trying to convince his people that it was a good idea to try it. When Eugenia makes the discovery of the companion star, it gives him a reason to drive the settlement into space using the new untested technology – promising its settlers a new world.

Rotor survives the travel, with group of civilians who had voted to undertake the ‘hypertravel’, and reaches the red star only to find a single planet, Megas, which cannot sustain life. However, they find that the moon of Megas, Erythro can actually sustain life, although there was no identifiable life, except protozoa type bacteria which was spread all over the surface of the moon.

The plot:
While this is the background of the plot, the story is about the daughter of Eugenia and a Earthman (Fisher Crile – a spy from Earth), named Marlene who has a special gift – a gift of seeing through people and understanding them, which is quite unsettling. She is not a mind reader and cannot actually read someone’s mind, but has an uncanny ability to read the slightest nuances of body language and make out people’s innermost feelings and thoughts. She is not ‘plain’ to look at, at best, but has an incredibly intelligent and mature mind. The nemesis is a star which actually poses danger to earth as it hurling its way into the solar system, and can cause damages to the very existence of life by the disturbances that it would cause to the gravitational status of the solar system. The story is then about Marlene’s special attraction to Erythro and how her special abilities help to save Nemesis and the Earth. While that’s the crux of the plot, several human relationships and dynamics decide the fate of the world.

My take:
As usual a gripping tale by Asimov: complicated in its plot, amazing in its ability to simplify the most complex of science fiction – thanks to his straightforward narration.

Aside from the fact that Nemesis a beautiful science fiction, written in trademark Asimov style, what to me was amazing, was how humans remain quintessentially ‘human’ in their thoughts and behavior in any setting. Whether one is on Rotor, on Earth, or on Erythro, Freudian psychology hits the nail on the head. Marlene and her ability to assess inane human thought – repressions, regressions, projections, rationalizations and so on and so forth – and deal with it, is a an immutable talent that makes her valuable across time and space.

LMN vs. Nimbooz

Jonathan Swift had a point to make and I could sympathize, empathize etc., with Gulliver in Lilliput and the Brobdingnag land.

But what were they (who ever allowed this to happen) thinking! What I would give to be that dog, little kid and balloon man - uuuurrrggghhh!

For a lemon based beverage that's supposed to help you refresh, I find it incomprehendable. Compare with another contemporary ad for a similar product. I am at a loss for words - Comments on these ads are welcome.

The past never really goes away.

Harlan Coben’s books are a constant reminder of the fact that people do get past tragedies and personal crisis caused either by self or others. BUT the past never quite disappears without leaving scars - some of which may remain unhealed- unless it is reconciled completely. All of Coben’s thriller plots are about cases which were apparently laid to rest, at least several years before the current plot, but ‘not quite’ – the story was clearly not over. The problem resurfaces in for one reason or another and past evidences are almost all gone – sometimes even the connection to the past crime is not easily discerned.

While the plots hold the same pattern in almost every thriller he churns out, the books are a compelling read. I, for one, can read seven Harlan Coben’s in one week @ one book per day. He writes a series of thrillers, one featuring a sports agent called Myron Bolitor, while the other is more random, but just as good. Some of the characters kind of overlap, such as the personal secretary of Bolitor who is a beautiful hispanic woman with a colorful past – an ex-wrestler - the WWF type and has interesting sexual preferences.

I adore Myron Bolitor for his earnestness and I simply love the conversations and interludes with his friend Will who is a mostly unbelievable character – must read him to know him. I love the pace and intrigue of the plots. Definitely not the kind of books one would read for erudition and certainly not the kind one would read for spiritual and intellectual enlightenment. But for those days when you are so bored and lazy, even bungee jumpin’ sounds dull? These books can put the life back into you!!

I went through these books so fast, I started rationing them ‘cos I afraid I would run out of them!

For more information on these books, go to the official site of Harlan Coben. And here are some of the titles I’ve read and loved:

Stuff and getting rid of stuff

Amazing how much we amass and how much we get rid of. Over a lifetime, we probably get rid of more stuff that we keep – and we are still so cluttered. Although we seem so keen on getting stuff, we hardly ever think of where it comes from and where it must go. Consider the fact that no matter can be destroyed on this earth - the indestructibility of mass as we learn in physics - where do we get so much stuff from, that has no place to go? Amazing!!

We could get into specifics about how we manage to convert bio-degradable into non bio degradable - basically take all the good stuff and make them environmentally bad stuff - and about how we just keep creating matter, which we get and then get rid of (not really if we come to think about it)! But that’s not the point of this post.

We never think about where the garbage goes, do we? As long as we get rid of it….out of sight – out of mind – less to think about! We don’t think much of anything else we get rid of either – the TV, Refrigerator, the old cars and namewhatyoumay.

I was watching Wall-e (that really cute animation by Pixar) yesterday and even if the earth depicted in there is quite imminent and all those issues about earth is beautiful etc etc., is all well taken, what really caught my attention was the fact that as humans, how micro we are – We don’t really get ‘it’ unless ‘it’ happens to us - unless ‘it’ happens to me, me, me. Examples: Until the captain realizes that he could dance and grow pizza on earth, he doesn’t care about going back to earth. Until the fat woman starts looking around and sees the beautiful sky and actually meets a man (ahem) she might get interetsed in, she is stuck to her chair and monitor.

It’s always about “what’s in it for me", and always limited by how macro we are able to see in terms of “what’s in it for me”. As long as we have more people thinking narrowly about “what’s in it for me”, we are never going to see the really, really, big “what’s in it for us”.

The moot point goes back to how we relate to all this “stuff” on a very personal basis. The distinct interest and lack on the disposition behavior in academic research clearly shows that we care a lot less about getting rid of stuff than acquiring them ' cos then, its about us. Even when we do take getting rid of “stuff” seriously, it is only when we have some attachment to the object. Other times, we just want to “get rid of it” the easiest possible way - the less messy, the less painful, the less expensive the better – don’t care where it goes, what happens to it and what it does to everything else around it.

What I had to say, was about getting rid of stuff, but I think it’s closely related to how we relate to “stuff”. And on that topic, George Carlin says it much better than I can ever say it.

Get the video here:

His experiments

I wonder if God (if he exists) uses the scientific process in thinking through his operations.

Maybe he doesn’t. You see, all this may just be a really bad joke - How else would one explain this idea of making a planet full of dinosaurs and the wiping them all off the face of the planet, how would one explain the dark ages, the slave trade, the holocaust, terrorism…..?

Then again, maybe he does, use a scientific process I mean - in which case he must be making careful inquiry into the nature and causes of things. I can almost bet that he uses experiments to make his studies – look at the fact that there is almost nothing that you can know for sure without the existence of an exception to the rule, which means that several experimental conditions exist at any one point of time. So, assuming he uses the experimental method to study his creations......
Here’s my grouse: I am almost sure that I belong in the experimental group and am being subjected to all manipulations - and this, without permission. What happens to privacy issues and ethics when it comes to His dealings, I ask…….no answer!

Right now I am particularly cut up about being part of an experiment group which is being studied for its behavior when they are rendered suddenly incapacitated and jobless.

…….now, where are the members from the control group……need to see if they are for real………

We need to talk about Kevin

As a person who espouses marketing for a living, it's clear to me that its sacrilege to put a poor product in the market. But mistakes do happen and poor, defective products get made and placed in the market. Sometimes they hurt others and the marketer/manufacturer has the choice of taking it out of the market and making amends for his mistake.

The Woe:
But what if you were a parent? Can you recall your defective product – a child that has gone horribly wrong? And is it the child’s fault that it went wrong or was it yours? And then again was it the environmental context (society, culture, politics, etc.,) in which the child is reared? These are questions that are raised and left unanswered by Lionel Shriver in her Novel titled “We need to talk about Kevin” (2003).

The book:
The book is written in the form of a series of letters from the mother of 15 year old Kevin to her estranged husband, after the boy has been incarcerated in prison for killing 7 people in a Columbine type massacre. In these letters she explores herself, her aspirations, her marriage, the contrasting beliefs and attitudes of the two people in the marriage, how these differences affected their parenting as well as their marriage after they turn parents. She explores her own attitudes, values, thoughts and feelings with courageous honesty. From a larger perspective, she explores the issues of who gives up more when a couple become parents, what are the individuals perspective of the society they live in, how does the community view the mother, the father and the child? The letters unfold in a dramatic fashion, almost akin to a suspense thriller with a psychotic character as its central theme. At the end, the letters leave you with too many disturbing questions and very few ideas on how to resolve them.

My kneejerk reactions:
When I started reading the book, I felt that the letters were far too open, too candid and far too self deprecatory for it to be written to someone who could read it and respond to it. Just too unreal! At times it sounded like the narrator was desperately appealing to someone to tell her she was right or wrong and no one was coming forth with an explanation. At other times, she sounded like she was making excuses and everything else she said was just to absolve herself from the obvious monstrosity she had created - she was looking for sympathy. Several times I was left confused about whether the mother (narrator) is the monster or the offspring is. But I couldn’t put down the book for a second.
I couldn’t believe someone who could write all this to another person would not be able to work out the differences that led to the estrangement. As the narration climaxes, we know why she is forced to write and the answer is not pretty. By the time I got to the end of the book, I was so drained emotionally and mentally that it left me with a catch in the throat and cobwebs in my brain. For one who is predisposed to putting down a book when it gets too heavy for a shameless bout of weeping and sometimes even bawling, this book left me too stunned to respond.

Hmmmm...
Those familiar with psychology would identify the character of Kevin as one that matches an extreme case of anti-social personality: Extremely intelligent, absolutely no attachments, psychotic - twisted thinking and highly rationalized responses. Psychologists would also agree that such cases are hard to diagnose and hard to cure. The nature-nurture debate can be made here with no conclusive answers, as usual. But as long as we know that one part of that equation, the nurture part is left to us, we are never going to feel free of guilt and self doubt.
While on the topic of nature and nurture, here's another title by Ken Follet that handles a similar issue: The Third Twin. He seems to be arguing the nurture angle which is a more popular view in todays world. Here's a link that handles the topic quite nicely http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article5986239.ece.

Although one might think that the book is relevant only in the American context, I would highly recommend it to anyone who is a parent or who might eventually be one. Simply Profound!!

A stitch in time saves nine.

Actually twelve, in some specific cases as in Yours truly.

Had I the good sense to get rid of that awful corn on my right foot a month or two back, I might not actually be killing my time and yours with useless posts.

One stitch on my right foot may have actually, virtually, practically, effectively and so on and so forth, saved me from acquiring 11 more stitches on both my feet.

By the way, ‘corn’ makes for a lot of corny puns, most of them only if intended, but I shall desist and save you some more aches and groans.

Pun

I was complimenting myself on the ‘clever’ title for my newly minted blog which came into existence today after months of procrastination….when I came across this article titled “Pun for the Ages”.
Not that I am an established punster or comic writer of any caliber, but I am a reader and listener of language…..and, Pun is Fun!!
Trite it may be, snigger it may cause for a response. It may not propel the extensive user of it to any great heights of regard by his fellow men and conversely may actually repel some.
But…it is spontaneous and witty. I agree with the author when he says that it is a, “non deadly sin, easier to excuse than resist”.