e Magus

  Wishing you all a very Happy New Year! I began delving deeper into Zen philosophy during the Covid lockdown, became hooked, and now make effort to incorporate its principles into my day-to-day life. As a marketing consultant, I occasionally attempt to integrate Zen-inspired strategies into marketing too. Some interesting concepts have emerged and I wanted to share my thoughts with you. In the fast-paced world of marketing, where trends come and go and consumer preferences evolve rapidly, brands often find themselves navigating turbulent waters. In this dynamic landscape, the timeless principles of Zen philosophy can serve as a guiding light for marketers seeking to establish genuine connections with their audience.  Embrace Simplicity: At the core of Zen philosophy is the principle of simplicity. In a world bombarded with information, consumers appreciate brands that cut through the noise and convey their message with clarity. In my experience, I’ve seen that simplifying pro...

N ewspaper websites designs are defined by 2 key features - Order and Regularity (of content updates) Since most of the newspaper websites are dead ringer of their offline version..it comes with a baggage of having the same design/mastheads, editorial, colour schema, culture, language, etc. Order is built into the website design to replicate the above features..Thus like an actual newspaper content spread, you have sections built - Home page, International section, National section, Sports section, etc... Added to it, large quantity of content updates on a regular - if not realtime basis... Looking at the above points, it would seem, on the face of it, that technological impact on newspaper website design would be minimal. While it is challenging to re-look at design of newspaper website; with the technological advancement and the change in the user behaviour of consuming content online, there are things that can be done without compromising on the publication’s overall vision and...

Working for a digital agency ( www.mrmworldwide.com ), I come across various digital marketing requirements from clients. One common client requirement is - website redesign/ changes. And familiar client remarks in such cases are – “Make it look different from the existing website”, “Identify best practices from other website and let’s incorporate the same” . On the face of it, it looks like a very common and straightforward ask …. But the truth is far, far true. Sheryl Crow sang- A change would do you good. But the truth is, as humans, we seek familiarity. Be it the people we meet, the road we take from home to office, and in majority of the cases the food we eat….we tend to seen familiarity; so would it not be true even for our other habits including online. Yet, when as digital marketers we think about redesigning a website, we mostly seek complete change in the design including structural changes with little regard to the impact on user path A casual glance into any website an...

Last few weeks I have been busy doing 2 things: Talking to various ‘online’ ad agencies on various projects Trying to sell to a client the importance of having a kick-ass website Most of the ad agencies have a long list of ‘great’ work done in terms of website creation. Some were really good, but most of them were template stuff. All of them gave a list of clientele (usually an US or European Client). It kind of got me interesting. I kept asking them various questions on the website creation and design.. The thought, the strategy, etc… Most cases the owners were not giving any proper response to some basic questions… This one takes the cake: Question: how do you know that the website you created is a successful one? Answer: It has to be successful. The client has paid me the monies. The unfortunate part is that most of the agencies who build websites do not put any thought into it. A part of the blame would also go to the clients, most of them just want an online presence, where peop...