Air India dumped the Centaur logo three years after it was readjusted to point upwards; Indian Airlines changed its name to Indian just two years before its merger.

Brand A-I: One too many

Business Standard

The electrical goods firm has outspent its rivals in brand building.

The electrical goods firm has outspent its rivals in brand building

I remember lazy Sunday evenings years and years ago, waking up just in time to catch the weekly film courtesy Doordarshan, on a black and white TV set. There would be a spate of ads before the movie began. Amidst the haze of memories that include haan bhai haan, Surf ki kharidari mein hi samjdhari hai, and gale mein khich khich, what stands out sharply is the Nirma tune. Somewhere around 6pm &lsquo;washing powder Nirma&rsquo; would blare unapologetically across the country reminding us that Neema&hellip;Rekha&hellip;Jaya aur Sushma&hellip;sab ki pasand Nirma&hellip;So I was surprised (pleasantly) to note the soundtrack of the latest Nirma &lsquo;underwater&rsquo; ad&hellip; For one, it is different. More important, it suits the pace and flow of a film that has been shot beautifully under water. The track is almost operatic and very engaging. However, it does not attempt to do a new &lsquo;take&rsquo; on the cobwebs-old tune.

'Tuning up'

Maruti Suzuki&rsquo;s portfolio has several small cars. That makes its task of differentiating each of these cars difficult. To bolster one of its most sturdy performers, the WagonR, which sold 135,000 last year, the country&rsquo;s largest carmaker has come out with a mascot named WizeR.

Maruti Suzuki: WagonR gets WizeR

Acquiring a company in India can throw up four human resource challenges.

The human factor

Dabur's acquisition of Fem gives it a foothold in the crowded skin care market.

Dabur finds its missing link

    This magazine initially featured a &ldquo;sweetheart of the month&rdquo; and changed its original name after its co-founder suggested the name of the car company that produced only 97 cars in its history and closed down. Name the magazine.

Answers to last week's quiz (#106)

How the small and resilient newspaper honed its strengths to compete against rivals with deep pockets.

Mid Day zeal

&nbsp;

    What is common to Infosys Technologies and Technopak Advisors?&nbsp;
    &nbsp;
    Whose mascots are Chouw and Mouw?&nbsp;
    &nbsp;
    Which newspaper was the first to publish a correct story about the sinking of the Titanic in 1912?&nbsp;
    &nbsp;
    Which is the only company that is allowed to use the Red Cross logo and why?&nbsp;
    &nbsp;
    The Fiat Punto launched in India replaces which previous brand from Fiat&rsquo;s stable?&nbsp;
    &nbsp;
    Who

The Strategist Quiz (#107)

PRODUCT MARKETING
Author: Mark Butje
Publisher: Elsevier
Price: Rs 295
ISBN: 9788131213445
EXPERT PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
Author: Brian Lawley
Publisher: Happy About
Price: Rs 1,042
ISBN: 1600050794
THE BOOK OF LEADERSHIP AND STRATEGY
Author: Thomas Cleary
Publisher: Random House
Price: Rs 843
ISBN: 0877736677
ZIGLAR ON SELLING
Author: Zig Ziglar
Publisher: Jaico Publishing 
Price: Rs 175
ISBN: 8179925870
WHARTON ON MAKING DECISIONS
Authors: Stephen J Hoch and Howard Kunreuther
Publisher: John Wiley &amp; Sons
Price: Rs 1,657
ISBN: 0471382477
WHAT THE CEO WANTS YOU TO KNOW
Author: Ram Charan
Publisher: Random House
Price: Rs 524
ISBN: 0609608398
BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Author: Randolph H Hudson
Publisher: Jaico Publishing 
Price: Rs 275
ISBN: 8179924688
MANAGING THE PROFESSIONAL SERVICE FIRM
Author: Maister David
Publisher: Free Press UK
Price: Rs 766
ISBN: 9780743231565
MARKET OPPORTUNITY ANALYSIS
Authors: Robert E Stevens, David L Loudon, Philip K

The top 10 business bestsellers

Bike maker Bajaj Auto's new campaign hopes to lure 100 cc bikers to the bridge segment of 135 cc bikes.

Accelerate to XCD

With an obesity rate of 5 per cent in India, the plus-size population in the country is in excess of 150 million, creating a huge scope for plus-size clothing.

KIT: The plus-size clothing market

Reasserting its emotional connect with consumers &mdash; something that is at the core of its brand philosophy &mdash;, Bharti Airtel last week rolled out a new plan called Special 5 for all its 100 million mobile phone customers. The plan allows the customer to choose any five (Airtel) numbers of his choice to make local calls at low rates of 20 paisa per minute and long-distance calls at 50 paisa per minute. It is based on the company&rsquo;s internal research and consumer-call analysis which showed that most users make 60 to 70 per cent of their calls to four or five &ldquo;special&rdquo; people &mdash; family members or close friends.

Bharti Airtel: Bond with &#39;Special 5&#39;

The economy may be displaying green shoots, but that's still not enough for companies to muster courage to hire in full measure. Major consulting and finance companies like McKinsey and Royal Bank of Scotland, for instance, have joined the ranks of IT companies in deferring placements by up to six months. Nasdaq-listed IT service provider Cognizant has done the same.

After IT, consulting, finance firms defer hiring, students worried

The annual Brand Derby, the results of which were published last week in The Strategist, threw up some interesting results. First, right on top amongst the 2008 brand launches were two all-Indian entries &mdash; the Indian Premier League and Nano. Second, of the 26 brands rated by the 90 respondents, 13 came from Indian-owned companies &mdash; three cars, two direct-to-home services, two films, two apparel brands, two FMCG products, one general entertainment channel and IPL. And third, seven homespun brands made it to the ranks of the 16 most successful brand launches. The lessons to be drawn are: One, Indian marketers, if they want, can build strong brands. IPL and the Nano have gained recognition the world over. Amongst the six FMCG brands in the Derby, the one that was ranked on top was Mother Dairy&rsquo;s Nutrafit probiotic milk drink. Two, companies across categories have come to realise the importance of a brand in a cluttered market.

Bhupesh Bhandari: Brand them into the dust

Ahmedabad Education Society has established Ahmedabad University with 11 schools offering several graduate and post graduate programs. In the first year, the university will have two schools, the School of Management and Commerce and the School of ICT with 3,135 students. This number will grow to 11 schools and 21,790 students in year ten.

AES Launches Ahmedabad University

The University of Pune (UoP) has signed agreements with leading universities from countries like France, China, South Korea, Japan, Germany, Austria and South Africa, apart from some Latin American ones, too.

Pune varsity becomes first to go international

Almost a year after its inception, the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar (IITGn) has got its own director in Sudhir K Jain. An expert in earthquake engineering, Jain graduated with a BE in civil engineering from IIT Roorkee before he went on to pursue a masters degree, as well as PhD in structural engineering. In an interview with &nbsp;VINAY UMARJI &amp; CHITRA UNNITHAN, Jain talks about his plans of making IITGn &ldquo;one of the finest institutions in the world&rdquo;.

&#39;It may take us two years to get a permanent location of our own&#39;

The University of Western Australia (UWA), which is a member of the Australian &lsquo;Group of Eight&rsquo; research universities, plans to tie up with Osmania University, J&amp;K University and Chennai&rsquo;s Anna University by September of this year for long-term student and faculty exchange programmes. &ldquo;These collaborations are also for research purposes. We already have tie-ups with IIT-Delhi and IIT-Madras.

Australian university to tie up with Indian varsities

Going by the experience of several engineering colleges which found it difficult to place students due to the slowdown, the National Institute of Technology, Warangal (NIT-W) &mdash; a centrally-funded higher education institute &mdash; has introduced interdisciplinary courses for students who would graduate in 2010.
Speaking to Business Standard, NIT-W director YV Rao said IT students would be given a course or two in civil, mechanical or electronics as an optional in the third year of the

NIT-W introduces interdisciplinary courses to improve job prospects

The battle for prime-time eyeballs has just got bigger. Sony Television, which has been struggling to retain its slot among the top five Hindi entertainment channels, is putting all its marketing and programming muscle behind six new TV shows, five of which are being telecast between 8 pm and 11 pm, when advertising and sponsorship rates are the highest.

Page 706 - News