Tarun Katiyal is keen on changing the rules of the game in the English general entertainment channel space and bring in more advertisers to a segment that has so far accounted for a negligible 0.14 per cent of the total viewership pie.

Reliance bets big on sitcoms

Business Standard

Today the thick, definite line that exists between brands and commodities is getting blurred. The middle class invasion brought together by the two most emerging economies of the world, China and India, has forced the world to provide the best products at a cheap price. This has led to a proliferating warfare based on discounts, literally eroding the margins in the process.

Why consumers look, feel and pay more?

    At the age of 19, DK of Old Delhi started making fountain pens, and today, his company exports pens to about 75 countries.

Answers to last week's quiz (#164)

    This brand&rsquo;s name hails from the popular sport of cricket and it was introduced by Karamchand Appliances, which is now a subsidiary of a multinational. Name the brand and the company that owns it now.

The Strategist Quiz (#165)

Social media networks such as Facebook, Orkut and Twitter are being accessed by 80 per cent of India&rsquo;s internet users.

KIT: Social media in India

THE STRATEGIC DRUCKER
Author: Robert Swaim
Publisher: Times Publication Books
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GETTING NAKED
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MARKETING 3.0 
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PRACTICING GREATNESS 
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BEATING LOW-COST COMPETITION 
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THE THREE LAWS OF PERFORMANCE
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YOU CAN&rsquo;T PREDICT A HERO
Author: Joseph J Grano 
Publisher: Times Publication Books
Price: Rs 350
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SOCIAL MEDIA 101
Author: Chris Brogan
Publisher: Wiley
Price: Rs 1,108
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ENGAGE 
Authors: Brian Solis and Ashton Kutcher
Publisher:

The top 10 business bestsellers

Fox International Channel&rsquo;s National Geographic is doing all that it can to climb up the ladder in the non-fiction genre. After seven new channels in June &mdash; Fox Crime, FX, National Geographic HD, Nat Geo Adventure, Nat Geo Wild, NG Music and Baby TV &mdash; it launched its Telugu feed during mid-August. And now it&rsquo;s rolling out Airtel Nat Geo Young Explorer, an initiative with Airtel to identify India&rsquo;s young talents who have the curiosity to explore the world.

National Geographic: Nat Geo's talent hunt

Parle Agro is taking its round and happy mascot, Hippo, to launch its second salted snack variant &mdash; Hippo Round Round. It had launched its first snack variant, Munchies, last year and followed it up with a campaign which asked audience to &ldquo;Kill Hunger, Kill Evil&rdquo;, insinuating that the latter was a result of an empty stomach. With Hippo Round Round, the '1,500-crore company will talk to a younger audience and widen its reach.

Parle Agro: Hippo's next stride

Home-shopping channel Star CJ Alive is ramping up operations to reach out to more consumers.

Shopper's star

Symbiosis Institute International Business(SIIB), Pune, recently organised&nbsp;its annual flagship event&mdash;SIIB Leadership Series 2010. The theme of the event this year was &lsquo;Taking over the mantle&rsquo;. The event was inaugurated by Sachin Pilot, the Minister of State for IT and Communications.

SIIB hosts leadership series

Last week, fast moving consumer goods major Emami entered a list of 39 Indian companies named by Forbes magazine as Asia&rsquo;s &lsquo;Best Under A Billion.&rsquo; A week before that, the Kolkata-headquartered firm announced that it is looking at its first overseas acquisition for around Rs 1,500 crore.

For Emami, small is big

The tussle between India&rsquo;s two biggest music channels, MTV and Channel [V], has reached yet another level &mdash; this time with the latter&rsquo;s foray into serials.

MTV, Channel [V] slugfest goes on

Japanese mid-market consumer electronics major Sansui is a late comer in the high-growth LCD market, dominated by Samsung, LG and Sony. The reason is simple: Sansui so far sold its TV sets on the USP of high-tech sound technology with super woofers that gave 3,000 watts of sound power.

Sansui banks on the power of sound

When companies launch innovation initiatives, they focus almost all of their time and energy on that initial one per cent &mdash; the thrilling hunt for the breakthrough idea. The reality is that an idea is only a beginning. Innovation is not just the much-anticipated light-bulb moment. It is also a long, hard journey &mdash; from imagination to impact.

Executing innovation

UTV Action is expanding its distribution and content, six months since its launch. Unlike other movie channels which span a gamut of genres, the channel focuses on action movies which rate as the most-watched movie genre on TV. When UTV redid its Bindaas Movies, a youth-centric movie channel, into UTV Action, it had a sharper positioning on its hands. &ldquo;We were looking to capture a mood of the viewers than just offer a movie. Hence, the entire channel was oriented to action,&rdquo; says UTV Global Broadcasting CEO MK Anand. It got more undivided attention of audiences and advertisers. The task on its hands now is to get more action movies and reach more of its target audience, before other players launch their specialty movie channels.

Action replay in Hindi

Three new TV commercials back to back, then a high-profile Nescafe ad preceded by a teaser. Nestl&eacute;, the country&rsquo;s largest foods company, has suddenly taken the commercials market by storm.

Fresh take

The toilet cleaner market in the country is estimated at around &#39;60 crore per annum.

KIT: The toilet cleaner market in India

THE ART OF CHOOSING 
Author: Sheena Iyengar 
Publisher: Little Brown Price: Rs 499&nbsp;
ISBN: 9781408702949.
THE LEADER WHO HAD NO TITLE
Author: Robin Sharma
Publisher: Jaico 
Price: Rs 195
ISBN: 9788184951196.
REACH FOR THE SKIES
Author: Richard Branson 
Publisher: Random House
Price: Rs 599
ISBN: 9780753519868.
ON THE BRINK 
Author: Hank Paulson 
Publisher: Business Plus
Price: Rs 599
ISBN: 9781846142574.
THE BIG SHORT
Author: Lewis Michael
Publisher: Penguin
Price: Rs

Answers to last week's quiz (#165)

    This American brand is often called &ldquo;The Voice of Authority&rdquo; and all its products are designed by Italian designers. Name it.

The Strategist Quiz (#166)

Other management institutes are catching up with IIMs in pre-placement offers.

Page 816 - News