The Daily Indian

In this fantastic 2008 Kellogg report [Innovating Through Recession], Dr. A. Razeghi argues that in times of recession, “the worst thing you can do is to hide… and disappear from a marketing perspective

A Sandeep

It’s about the seven neighbourhood brats whom I had to take out for a lunch last Sunday. Not that I had any love lost with them, but the nine year old imps irritatingly demanded a gourmet at either McDonald’s or Pizza Hut, while I was stuck on to the fact that if I really had to waste my money during an economic downturn, I’d rather do that at the relatively health-oriented Subway. “Who’s even heard of Subway?” the scallywags protested in unison. The deepening frown on my face notwithstanding, I realised a point in their statement. Was global recession forcing Subway to advertise lesser? Given that Subway is now America’s largest quick service restaurant chain [larger than McDonald's], would it therefore mean that during a slowdown, reducing one’s ad spend was the correct strategy for a stronger and fortified long term vision?

In this fantastic 2008 Kellogg report [Innovating Through Recession], Dr. A. Razeghi argues that in times of recession, “the worst thing you can do is to hide… and disappear from a marketing perspective.” Companies should, he says, “use this time to increase their customer communication!” Senior Associate Dean, John Quelch, of HBS, the noted author of the 2008 benchmark Harvard paper, Marketing Your Way Through A Recession, definitively proves, “Brands that increase advertising during a downturn improve market share and ROI…” The world renowned Prof. P. Barwise of London Business School concludes, “The most successful firms maximise long term shareholder value by maintaining or increasing their ad spending when the economy slows down… This enables them to build market share faster and at less cost…” My personal favourite Sir Martin Sorrell, Group CEO of the world’s leading media firm, WPP, deliberates [in Their Recession, Your Opportunity] that even maintaining advertising spend vis-à-vis the previous year during an economic downturn “carries clear benefits in terms of market share and profitability once the post-recession upturn develops.”

Wharton professor Leonard Lodish, in the November 2008 report [...The Tough Don't Skimp On Their Ad Budgets], strongly advocates, “If your company has something to say that is relevant in this environment, it’s going to be more efficient to say it now,” a fact supported by the fall 2008 JWT report [Marketing In Recession], “Boosting ad spend in a recession is more beneficial than at other times;” with the closing statements by Dartmouth’s marketing totem pole, Kevin L. Keller — “People who starve their brands now will be paying for it in the future.” According to Forbes-TNS’ 2008 research, the ones who suffered the most in recession are those industries that cut advertising: Real estate (-14.3%) and car makers (-6.6% to -7.1%). The globally quoted McGraw Hill research proves statistically that in the past recession (1981/82) those companies that continued to advertise in the subsequent three years enjoyed a whopping 275% sales increase, while those that didn’t had at best only a 19% increase.

No wonder while Subway had an annual ad budget of just over $100 million [and revenues around $10 billion], McDonald’s had a gut wrenching $1500 million ad budget [with revenues smashing above $23 billion]; and forget the US, internationally McDonald’s is the numero uno QSR by miles!!! With options of bodily threatening the seven rapscallions literally out of the question, damn the research is what I thought! If advertising was what it took, advertising is what the kids would get. In the two days leading to the lunch, I made one-page exhaustive flyers about the massive health benefits of eating out at Subway. I then deliberately spent the better half of Saturday prancing around the neighbourhood meeting with the kids’ parents, convincing them too, which they absolutely were! Advertising works, and like nobody’s business. Sunday lunch, my wife sweetly told me to proceed to Subway to book the table, as she was getting all the kids in her car. The lunch was a fantastic success! I ate a veg sandwich… alone! Nobody else came. My wife had taken all the kids to McDonald’s. She didn’t even call once…

(A Sandeep is Editor of Planman Media)

With tectonic shifts in the US politics power play, the long-standing question of US competence seems to be resurfacing. Let us clarify. That Bush was incompetent is not a Nobel Prize winning theory. But will US be seen again as an intellectually social nation, is the question! Not only Americans, but the whole world is waiting for Democrats to come to true power and refurbish America’s tainted image. Let’s be honest, US, through decades, has built its reputation on genuine achievements that took years of some prim and somewhat improper planning.

In contemporary history, it all started from the first nuclear weapon US gave to the world, through what is now known as the Manhattan project. Then came their Marshall plan in 1947 [officially the European Recovery Programme], which focussed on fortifying a stronger foundation for Western Europe, and warding off communism after the second World War. Beside these two war-oriented initiatives, the US also proved its competence in the field of science, technology and arts. This is evident by the number of Nobel Prizes that Americans grabbed – a jaw dropping 309 since 1906 [an average of 3 prizes per year] making it the top contestant in the race. America also developed remarkable institutions of higher learning [Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Yale] giving depth to what ivy league defined. Perchance the most appreciable move was the development of a society that redefined the meaning of melting pot. From the criminally racist days of Cassius Clay, most of US transformed uniquely to welcome all ethnic groups, religions and races.

Today, however, the scenario seems different and of course bleak, and the growing acceptance is that nonfeasance is a major risk to America’s global image. The last ten years have been enough to vividly showcase the scars America has received and encouraged. The Iraq war and the much publicised absence of mass destructive weapons was the key.

From the American initiative to use private security companies to protect Iraq’s oil infrastructure to the much hyped Iraq reconstruction projects [The Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction reported frauds in the initiative and led to conviction of many top officials]; from the abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo prisons, where the prisoners were subjected to unspeakable torture [Amnesty International's 2005 report confirmed the same], to Sergeant Samuel Provance [who reported the sexual abuse of a 16-year-old girl by two interrogators]; from US Attorney Alberto Gonzalez [under his regime, the Justice Department and the FBI have illegally used the US Patriot Act to uncover personal information about US citizens] to Bernard Madoff [arrested on charges of the biggest accounting fraud in history that led to investors losing $50 billion]; from all this to much more, US has left much to answer for its ‘achievements’ in the last eight years, be it the response to Hurricane Katrina, or Saddam Hussein’s structured execution, or America’s conspiratorial and deliberate support to promoting the recession, or the Wall Street melt down, and of course, Bush’s failure to capture Osama bin laden!

England skipper Andrew Strauss deplored the preparation of the pitch at the Wanderers stadium where his side was bundled out for a scrimpy 146 and lost their last Group B Champions Trophy match to New Zealand.

England lost by four wickets, clearing New Zealand’s way into the semifinals on Tuesday. Strauss blamed the 22-yard pitch for their defeat though he praised Kiwi openers for their splendid 84-run partnership which the took the game away from them.

“I don’t think it’s a great wicket for one-day cricket. You will like to see a wicket which is more consistent. Earlier we didn’t quite get it.

“But credit must go to New Zealand the way the came at us with the bat, especially McCullum and Guptil,” Strauss said after match, yesterday.

The honour of being the guest at the first state dinner hosted by President Barack Obama would go to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and it will be held during his upcoming state visit scheduled for November 24.

Obama, who has been a great admirer of Manmohan Singh for his visionary role in steering India from a developing country to a major economic power, has invited the Prime Minister for the first State Visit of his Administration.

Incidentally, Manmohan Singh had the distinction of being the first State Guest of the Second Term of the Bush Administration. As such the Prime Minister would be the guest at the Blair House, across the White House, one more time.

India is attracting a growing number of mountaineers from across the globe with as many as 52 foreign expeditions to Indian peaks last year

Pranab Bora, TDI Bureau

According to an analysis by the Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF), a national level body regulating mountaineering and adventure sports activities in the Indian mountains, of the 52 foreign expeditions Stok Kangri in Ladakh was the most popular peak.

“Stok Kangri, located at a height of 6,153 metres in Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, is a favourite among mountaineers. Of the 52 expeditions, 26 have been to this peak,” Col. H.S. Chauhan, secretary of IMF, said.

“Not just foreigners, Stok Kangri is popular among Indian mountaineers with four expeditions being carried out last year. In addition to that, 95 individuals took permission to scale the peak,” he added. One of the main peaks of the Zansker range, Stok Kangri has always captured the imagination of travellers since it first opened to visitors in 1974. Although straightforward, the route is challenging and interesting, providing stunning views of the Karakoram range.

Other favourite peaks include Kun East at a height of 7,077 metres in Jammu and Kashmir and Kedardome peak in Garhwal at a height of 6,830 metres. The IMF study says mountaineers from Europe, especially Germany, Britain, France and Spain, like climbing Indian peaks. While Germans had undertaken 12 expeditions in 2006-07, British and French mountaineers undertook eight expeditions each. The Japanese and the Koreans undertook four and three expeditions respectively last year. “The number of Indian expeditions have also been increasing steadily with as many as 60 each year over the last five years. Trekking is also becoming very popular. The IMF has granted permission to 600 trekking groups in the last five years,” Chauhan added.

Indira Parthasarthy

Recent events, including the case of Uma Khurana molesting children and indulging in pornography in the capital, have highlighted the quality of teachers in our schools. Let alone teaching, would you like these people to be even around your children? But if the government’s recommendations are implemented, such a perverted lot will be teaching our kids about sex education!

The advocates of so-called sex education are blindly copying teaching models from the west. Don’t you know England’s teen pregnancy rates are the highest in Europe? That’s just one instance. Many experts from the west attribute it to the explicit nature of sex education, that is imparted to students from the age of 12. Even in the US, there is skepticism around ’safe sex’ teachings. The concept of carrying a condom in your pocket at all times, to be ready when the ‘moment’ arrives is under fire even in western countries. The movement for ‘abstinence until marriage’ is finding many takers. So how come there is insistence here to foist off sex education on us, or being ‘ready’ at all times. What exactly are you trying to propound when you start talking to a 11-year old about the opposite sex, start showing him/her explicit slides and pictures, encouraging them to touch each other? Yes… those are proposed ‘class exercises’! Five girls and five boys will be blindfolded and made to touch each other to see how they react and their responses recorded. Do I need to tell you the potential for abuse in such a situation? Then, there’s another ‘exercise’ where two male students will be asked to simulate rape on a girl student, in order to teach girls how to react in such a situation! If we don’t stop this, our schools will become havens of immorality!

The buck stops at NACO (National AIDS control Organisation) and UNICEF; they maintain that such education is necessary to prevent AIDS. But why this focus on AIDS? Indian children are more likely to die of diarrhoea than succumb to AIDS. Why then do they keep harping on condom use? I’ll tell you why. These people are in cahoots with condom manufacturers; all of it is nothing but a sinister ploy to sell more condoms! In the process they could end up corrupting our youth, but that, of course, is of no concern to them! All I’m saying is that this course curriculum should be made public and open to parents to see and decide for themselves whether they want their kids learning all that. If they still give the go-ahead I have no problems.”

BRASS TACKS
11 states have already banned sex education in India of which three — Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka — have the highest number of reported AIDS cases in India. NACO has now expressed willingness to review the course curriculum.

Troubles for the BJP in the Lucknow (west) assembly constituency, where a by-poll is slated in the near future, are far from over with a major group in the party continuing its opposition to the official party nominee Amit Puri.

After raising the banner of revolt against the candidature of Puri, the faction considered close to party MP Lalji Tandon, who had vacated the seat after being elected to the Lok Sabha, opted out of the crucial meeting convened by the party yesterday for formulating a poll strategy in favour of Puri.

Tandon was among those who were absent from the meeting though party leaders maintained that he was no longer angry with the decision of fielding Puri.

Tandon, who reportedly wanted his son Gopalji to be given the party ticket, had on record stated that he was annoyed for not being taken in confidence over the selection of candidate. The simmering in the party has, however, continued.

State unit president Ramapati Ram Tripathi was also not present in the meeting as he was out of town.

According to party insiders, only a handful of 30 ward presidents, mandal presidents and general secretaries in the constituency took part in the meeting.
The party nominated MLA Suresh Srivasatava as the convener of the Lucknow (west) seat.

Hollywood star Will Smith will host this year’s Nobel Peace Prize Concert with his actress wife Jada Pinkett Smith. The couple said hosting the show would be an awe-inspiring experience.

‘The opportunity to recognise the laureate’s contributions to the world peace movement will be an awe-inspiring experience – we are both humbled and honoured to take part in the Nobel Peace Prize Concert this year,’ mirror.co.uk quoted Smith as saying.

The show, to be held in Oslo Dec 11, will feature performances by Wyclef Jean, Toby Keith, Donna Summer, Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi as well as Amadou And Mariam, a blues and jazz duet from Mali.

The winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced in Oslo on Oct 9.

A series of tsunamis smashed into the Pacific island nations of American and Western Samoa killing possibly more than 100 people, some washed out to sea, destroying villages and injuring hundreds, officials said on Wednesday.

President Barack Obama declared a major disaster in American Samoa, a U.S. territory, and ordered federal aid to help recovery efforts, with a U.S. C-130 military transport aircraft due to leave Honolulu for the tiny South Pacific islands.

The Chinese capital Beijing is under lockdown on the eve of a massive military parade to mark six decades of Communist Party rule, with gun-toting police manning street corners to ensure nothing spoils the event.

The show of force has grounded kites and pigeons, lined roads with volunteer grandmother security guards, prompted warnings to stock up on food and left harried citizens pondering who the festivities are really for.

A series of stabbings and an explosion at a restaurant serving food from the restless far western region of Xinjiang — blamed on a faulty gas bottle — have jangled residents’ nerves, despite the pervasive police presence.