MBA Takeaways:

1. House and Home are two different things- Especially when it comes to your awesomely nice room, attached bathroom, cosy bed and other knick-knacks.
2. Value your Mom- You can't thank her enough for those delicious meals and ironed clothes.
3. Competition and peer pressure may turn you into a super ugly person unless you have an extremely strong value system- Case in point: "The most respected body on campus".
4. Unity is not strength- What works in a B-School most of the times, is "I, Me, Myself" !!
5. Midnight snacking is a way of life- You can't imagine how bad the 3 AM hunger pangs can get and now, without any Arcus, I only hope that my Mom doesn't ask me to hire a separate cook at home.
6. There will never be an answer to "Why MBA?"- It all boils down to one's own perspective in life (Ok, I did use my MBA Faffing technique here !!).
7. JIT rocks- No matter how hard you try, you always end up sticking to the sacredness of 11:59:59.
8. Plagiarism check is such a farce- Mostly because Cut Copy Paste and a dash of editing, does it all !!
9. Biological Clock is a thing of the past- Because this is one clock that adjusts itself the way you want it to: sleep at 5 AM, attend classes at 8:30 AM, skip breakfasts and lunches, have superbly greasy food and even then, it keeps ticking.
10. Employers do want to pay you well- At least well enough for you to buy good quality under-eye creams to get rid of those dark circles which are ugly enough to scare your clients away !!

Opportunities for companies by targeting the Older segment of the population

According to global consumer market strategy researcher Euromonitor International, India has 60 million ( approx.)  people above the age of 65( as on Jan 2011), which is almost 5% of the country's population and almost 10% of the world's over 65 population. All the above stated figures sound very lucrative any marketer, considering the total population of UK is just 60 million. The financial crisis of 2008 has not only shaken the trust of the consumers from the Government, Businesses and the economy as a whole but has led to a paradigm shift in the consumer behavior. The companies need to understand that the demand for various products have stagnated or decreased due to the sluggish growth post the crisis. In such a scenario, new segments of prospecting customers need to be figured out. 

In India, the age of retirement is between 60 to 69 ( depending on the public and pvt sector rules). Due to the improved living conditions, focus on healthy eating and hygiene, at the retirement age also,the people are ambitious, young at heart and above all have money to spend. This seems to be a category which has not yet been developed fully. The marketers mouth may be watering by the sheer big size of this category.  

In 1999, NTT Docomo has offered a phone with unique features to this category of customers. 

The reasons  for why marketers fear to tread into this category are: 

1- The companies on the face value want to serve young and want to represent the youth. 

2- The companies don't want to get into this niche, which they may later find difficult to connect with the other segments.

3- Deep seated idea about old people, being boring, less on energy and with no aspirations, in the general Psyche of the society.

I think this segment of the population has tremendous buying power and also tremendous experience in decision making, hence companies should try to penetrate this segment only if they have product excellence and the right way to cater to the aeging. 

Surrogate marketing of Dirty Picture

Most of us are aware that  surrogate marketing refers to intentionally utilizing a company, person or object to help convey the message of another party. It can be used to indirectly promote products or services deemed by some groups as being unhealthy, unethical, and immoral or, possibly, illegal through activities that are viewed as acceptable forms of promotion. For example: Bacardi and Royal Stag launched their music cd’s and Kingfisher enter the segment of mineral water. 

Coming to The Dirty Picture, it is a biopic on the life and times of Silk Smitha, a sought-after actress of the 80s. The movie is studded with ravishingly amorous dance numbers by Vidya Balan and this is what is shown in the promos. It was a much awaited release of the year because of its popularity in the public due bold and provocative skin show. The film has taken off very well in terms of the revenue. 

In the Indian society, Love, desire and fantasy are considered to be the prerogative of the vamp hence  absolutely nothing is discussed about sex and  masculine fantasy. This is where the story writer has used the larger than life and exuding excess  seductions to convey the hypocrisy of society and of the male imagination. A very interesting take away from the movie can be morality is what keeps duty( Wife) and desire(A sexually liberated girl like Silk) apart. 

I think the public has got swayed away by the celebration of life, excess skin show and couldn't catch the essence of the film- male hypocrisy and the liberating power of sexuality ( both a No- NO in our society). Therefore I would say, the film has used surrogate marketing technique but public has not caught the correct strings like those of BagPiper..... Soda. 

Nokia's fall from grace

                                           
Nokia is Finland's largest company and account for almost more than 1/3 of the market capitalization of Helsinki Stock Exchange( currently 225Mn Euros). Even after the changing dynamics of business, Nokia is one of the world's most recognizable brands. It is considered to have been a King of Kings in the global multi billion mobile phone industry. But as the business history is full of companies falling from the pinnacle of glory to the ashes, similarly Nokia's shrinking market in US, China and India is being assumed as the inklings of the same.

Nokia had started its operations in India in 1995 and has offices in 7 cities in India. The reasons of success of Nokia in India are:

1- The first mover's advantage backed by huge investments in India.
2-  The strong distribution network comprising partnership with HCL and also its own distribution efforts in the form of Nokia concept stores.
3- Effective brand building exercise leading to strong brand recall and catering to different segments of population in India.
4- Indianization approach also borne fruits for Nokia in India where it has come up with the handsets and strategies unique to India.For example: Torch in the mobile phone( Large no. of rural population don't have electricity and power cuts are frequent).

The customer expectations were changing and so were the mobile handset companies coming up with  innovative ideas like:
1- Dual sim handsets- Micromax , Samsung
2- Longer battery life- Micromax's first model came with 30 days battery backup
3- Added functionality like universal remote for TV and AC- Micromax
4- Phone powered by solar energy- Samsung Marine
5- Interesting features- Spice mobile's ultra violet torch that would help to detect counterfiet currency
6- Touch  phones- iPhone, Blachberry, Samsung
etc.... Nokia did not anticipate that ignoring the above mentioned emerging trends may cost it big. It focused on high margin market only while giving a deaf ear to the noises madeby Micromax, Karbonn and Lava in the value for money market.

SWOT analysis of Nokia

Strengths                                                                   Weaknesses
- Forte is technology                                                 - Laggard in forecasting the changing market dynamics
- Strong brand name and brand recall                       - Not many alliances with operators
- Own manufacturing network in India                    

Opportunities                                                            Threats
- Rural India: huge market                                         - Competition from domestic low cost brands
- Smart phones market                                             - Urban Indian market is becoming saturated

Amrutanjan rebranding

In 2006, Amrutanjan could boast of a market share of 25% in Rs 250 crores pain balm market in India but now in 2011 where the balm market size has sky rocketed like any thing to Rs 1700 crore, it just commands 10-11% market share. Amrutajan is a heritage brand considering it's bright history of almost 118 years in India. Despite the huge competitions from new players as well as from variants in balm category, Amrutanjan still holds strong brand equity and brand image in the minds of the consumers. 

This is a typical case of rebranding due to changing market expectations. 

 According to the model suggested by Keller, there are two forms of rebraniding- Evolutionary and Revolutionary rebranding. Evolutionary rebranding describes a fairly minor development in the company's positioning and aesthetics that too gradual. While Revolutionary rebranding describes a major identifiable change in the company's positioning and aesthetics. 

According to me, Amrutanjan has tried both evolutionary rebranding, by comming with the roll on variant and changing the positioning  and revolutionary rebranding by changing the logo and foraying into new product categories like ready to eat, hand sanitizer, beverages and napkins. 

Balm is the main stay business of Amrutanjan and here arises the question which is bothering the consciousness of every marketer: Is it wise enough to diversify even when their main business is declining?

The strategy followed by Amrutanjan to make timid forays in unrelated businesses like printing, fine chemicals and health spas seems to be a myopic one aimed at marginal market share. 

The pros of diversification into unrelated business for Amrutanjan are : 

•Better management & allocation of resources

•Realizing a higher return on investment

•Reduction in risk

The cons of diversifying into unrelated business for Amrutanjan are: 

•Diversion of resources & attention to other areas at the cost of existing businesses

•Risks of managing entirely new businesses

 Now's it's upto the new young leadership in the company to decide its fate. 

AT&T and T-Mobile Merger - By Esha Sharma

The latest buzz in the mobile industry is about the AT&T’s astounding $39Bn takeover deal for T-mobile USA. The main rationale for AT&T behind this takeover is they need T-Mobile to increase LTE network coverage from 80% to 97% of the population. AT&T is at present the second largest network operator in US, with T-Mobile at the fourth position and Verizon topping the list.

Impact on AT&T post merger:

1-    The synergies achieved by combining AT&T and T-Mobile: network compatibility (GSM/HSPA+/LTE), access to incremental spectrum, economies of scale, and retail footprint expansion is very lucrative and crucial for extraordinary broadband experience to customers.

2-    The merger would allow AT&T to corner the US Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) market, making AT&T the only operator to support the globally adopted GSM standard.

3-     The merger will force the rest of the wireless telecom industry to compete with AT&T’s improved and growing network and this may lead to really low prices. As AT&T has been the leader in its development of emerging devices through its emerging devices division, so the competing companies might try to come up with innovative emerging devices in wireless include cell phones, e-readers, tablets, and even pharmaceutical pill caps etc.

Impact on T-Mobile

1-    T-Mobile offers customers unlock codes for their phones especially when customers are traveling out of the USA.

2-     The acquisition is going to affect some employees and possibly increase the unemployment in the Country.

3-    There won’t be iPhone for the current T-Mobile customer but in the future there should be that option.

4-     AT&T doesn’t offer unlimited data plan whereas T-Mobile does. This is going to affect T-Mobile customers.

Points of Concern:

1-    Effect of the merger on the competition and consumers

2-    Effect on neutrality rules which exempt wireless broadband from restrictions. Net neutrality basically prevents large corporations from marginalizing smaller companies that threaten their profits or promote an opinion that is dissenting from the popular one. Since more and more people are using their phones to access internet so protecting net neutrality for wireless broadband is important.

3-    Reallocation of the spectrum to be done from TV broadcasters and its impact

4-    Impact on regulations and initiatives like AllVid- the proposal for a device that would allow consumers to integrate different systems into one interface

Stakeholders of AT&T and T-Mobile merger

  

Consumers
I think customers are going to be the biggest losers as the cheap voice and data plans offered by T-Mobile stand under the threat of being closed down. Moreover as the competition is going to reduce post merger so the prices may not remain as low as they have been.

Phone Handset Makers

There are currently 2 major carriers who buy the GSM- based phones from handset makers- HTC and Motorola. This merger may prove against the interests of the phone handset makers as the will lose control over the prices and hence profits because of a single player post merger.  Even with LTE becoming the standard for 4G, there will be only 3 major players in the market and hence the profits of the handset makers will be at peril.

Sprint
Sprint is the 3rd largest carrier in USA and this merger will push it further to the bottom position. In order to regain it's position in the market, Sprint will have to invest more.

Network Equipment Suppliers

Moreover the network equipment manufactures and suppliers  won't be untouched from the impact of the merger. Alcatel- Lucent, Erricson and Nokia Siemens are the suppliers to both AT&T and T- Mobile, because of the carrier consolidation these companies will also lose their control over prices and hence profits.

Google
Google  will also be affected by the merger as T-Mobile is Google's good partner for Android OS- based devices. Now since the market is heading towards consolidation so Google may fear the Big-wigs- Verizon and AT&T may come into Android domain in the future.

Pros of the merger:

1-    To enhance AT&T’s coverage in many areas of the US, especially in San Francisco, where the number of cell phone towers is expected to go up by 30 percent. This will obviously result in better network and notably fewer dropped calls.

2-    Benefits from a projected deployment of high-speed broadband to over 97% of the population and better service for existing AT&T and T-Mobile customers

3-    More efficient integration of available spectrum from both companies .Since both AT&T and T-Mobile run the same GSM technology. Hence, they are compatible with each other and can be integrated with much less effort than otherwise. This means that subscribers will not be much affected by the shift in mobile carriers. AT&T has stated that T-Mobile customers will most probably be able to use their existing handsets even after the merger is done.

4-     AT&T is the only unionized wireless company in the country and the merger would ensure that 20,000+ T-Mobile workers would have the chance to join the 43,000 currently unionized AT&T Mobility employees with decent wages and legal protections on the job.

5-     The merger would enable both the companies to jointly offer the much more advanced, next-generation LTE to a lot more subscribers in the USA.

6-    T-mobile is a dying company, financially speaking; which is why they agreed to merge with AT&T. This merger will only save jobs at T-mobile
7-    The iPhone will finally arrive for T-Mobile customers in about 12 months, although you'll all be AT&T customers by then. Nevertheless, you have to wonder if AT&T won't use the T-Mobile acquisition as an opportunity to entice outmoded feature phone and smart phone users to upgrade to newer devices.

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Cons of the merger:

1.   The merger will lead to more expensive tariffs and plans.

2.    This may also lead to the end of low-cost mobile phone and data plans that T-Mobile subscribers enjoyed

3.    The merger would create only 3 major mobile phone carriers in the US, namely, AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. Each of these would resultantly own about one-thirds of the mobile market share in that country.

4.    The merger would thus create a saturated market, which in turn would lead to lower consumer choice and higher costs.

5.    Lack of adequate competition would finally lead to lack of innovation and therefore, lack of quality services for the customer.

6.    The process of the merger could take a long time to complete, what with AT&T having to gain approval for the same from the FCC and the Department of Justice.

7.    The merger will probably also lead to a drop in customer satisfaction for subscribers of T-Mobile, which has a reputation for providing better customer service than AT&T

8.    There’s no doubt there’s going to be some rationalization in staffing, mostly in the consumer marketing and networking engineering area                                                                                       

    There are chances that T-Mobile’s gutsy approach to expanding its smartphone lineup will be killed by AT&T’s stodgier culture.   A look at the T-Mobile and AT&T data coverage maps shows that T-Mobile won't add much to AT&T in terms of coverage area