e Magus

This is a long form of what I had tweeted some days back. The strategy cycle: for marketing, it is digital; for digital, it is ecom; for ecom, it is going offline; when offline, it is marketing — Santosh (@santosheg) February 6, 2014 Each and every meeting, with various clients, has been about "time we moved to next stage" and depending on which stage the client was - the story changed. Stage 1: When the client is offline, enter the marketing strategy - the digital is the future (nay, present) and get him onto the bandwagon. There are various sub stages within this, POWS (Plain Old Website Stage), to Search Marketing, to Advertising, to Social, to Mobile Stage 2: When the client is doing Digital Marketing, it is strategy time to create business models in the space.. Enter Ecommerce, M-Commerce Stage 3: When the client is doing Ecommerce, then it is time to strategize and plan expansion through offline initiatives. It works meeting after meeting....each time, ...

In the simpler times, gender was just about Male, Female, and in case you were not sure where you fit between these 2 options - there was ‘Others’ or ‘Prefer not to disclose” option. The list of 56 gender options that Facebook has given means a lot to both, the individual and to the marketers. For some, this profiling options by Facebook means a lot. For them it is more about assertion of their self-identity. Till now, most of them have been living with their personality preference hidden in their closets. With social acceptance and legal recognition increasing, they are more willing to come out in the open and feel comfortable and true to themselves. It also allows them to connect with like minded people and form communities and support groups, as still ‘they’ are not considered  like ‘us’, and would need peer support & like minded people to protect (for want of another word) them.  For marketers, target audience segmentation (based on demography) all along, h...

O f late (no pun), I have been observing that appointments never happens on time. Either it gets delayed by minutes, or sometimes postponed at the last minute to a different day!  By virtue of what the reason is, appointments can be broadly divided into, appointment for Meeting activity viewing Meeting Appointment:    In India, other than the fact, respect for others time is not on anyone’s watch-list; When it comes to internal meetings, people have a common excuse for late coming - my previous meeting got extended, I’ve an important mail to send across, something urgent has come up (official/personal).  Eternal meetings are more messy - Got stuck in traffic, The printer is not working (classic advertising agency servicing folks speak),  Activity appointment: The most irritating thing during an activity is, It is an important call, I need to attend to this ; SMSing, Checking your mails on BB or smartphones, and to the more audac...

Some things will never change. While I’ve tried to generalize most of it, some are specific to my recent travel (to Hong Kong) & to the country I belong (India) Most flights going abroad departs at unearthly hours All immigration officers grim and grumpy You are always seated closest to the one who snores loudest “Made in China” is cheaper in your home country than in China (HK) Duty Free is cheaper in your home country You find more reasons to love your home country when visiting abroad You find more reasons to love the country you visited, once you are back If shopping is on your list, winter is a bad time to travel If touristy places are on your agenda (museums, entertainment parks, etc) then weekends are a bad time to be there Your boarding gate is always the farthest The sum of all your luggage weight is always less than what you anticipated The cheaper the wifi connection, more the network problem to connect A smile is an universal conversation starter ...