By 2015, your mobile phone will project a 3D image of anyone who calls and your laptop will be powered by kinetic energy. At least that&rsquo;s what International Business Machines Corp sees in its crystal ball.

IBM expects to see holographic phone calls by 2015

Business Standard

Good old brands are finding their way into the portfolios of some of the top FMCG companies in the country.

In demand: Iconic consumer brands

Leading brands are doing it all &mdash; innovative products, pricing and campaigns &mdash; for a bigger bite of the market.

Mosquito repellents take the village road

    Toyota Etios, Tata Swach, KFC Krushers, Pepsi Kurkure and McDonald&rsquo;s Aloo Tiki burger are products that reflect a new concept in business management. Name it.

Answers to last week&#39s quiz (#180)

It&rsquo;s a little past nine in the evening, and I&rsquo;m home after a long day at the office. This is my favourite time of the day. I&rsquo;m unloading and unwinding. I have my feet up on the coffee table, and I&rsquo;m flipping channels without really paying attention.

What's on tonight?

Mahindra &amp; Mahindra has turned around Punjab Tractors to make it the third-largest tractor manufacturer in the country.

Collaborative competition

Stay Raw&rsquo; is MTV India&rsquo;s new message to the youth, and the brand&rsquo;s new strapline as well. The channel recently launched a campaign to revamp its image which included all the bells and whistles. The most obvious is the change in the channel graphics, which includes a fresh 3D logo.

MTV retunes

The Delhi airport has a brand new terminal, billed as one of the largest anywhere in the world. Close to the airport no less than 13 properties, hotels and community centres, are under construction. One of them is the JW Marriott by Asian Hotels (West). The 525-room hotel is slated to start operations in 2012 and will cost Rs 700 crore.

Room for all

Madhya Pradesh Tourism is back with another earthy and rustic television commercial. Rolled out earlier this month, it&rsquo;s called MP ajab hai, sabse gajab hai (MP is unique, it&rsquo;s full of surprises) and is the third in a series of campaigns created in a similar tone. The first in 2006 was the hugely-popular bioscope commercial, titled Hindustan ka dil dekho (see the heart of India) which showcased the key attractions of the state through a bioscope. The second in 2009 conveyed the variety that the state offers through different expressions of the eyes of a traveller. The latest one uses the traditional art of hand shadowgraphy to tell what&rsquo;s unique about many of the destinations. All the three campaigns have been conceptualised and created by Ogilvy India.

MP revealed, through shadows

After news (Times Now, ET Now) and entertainment (Zoom), Times Television Network is set to enter the movie space with Movies Now. This will be an English movie channel broadcast only in the high-definition (HD) format, which the company hopes will provide the necessary differentiation in the market. The channel will be available across analogue, digital cable and DTH platforms throughout India.

Time for movies

Surgery in an out-patient setting has become a global trend and is expanding throughout the world. By 2020, 75 per cent of all surgical operations will be carried out in ambulatory surgery centres/units.

KIT: Walk-in, walk-out surgery centres

THE ART OF CHOOSING
Author: Sheena Iyengar
Publisher: Little, Brown
Price: Rs 499
ISBN: 9781408702949.
THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE
Authors: Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner 
Publisher: Wiley 
Price: Rs 379
ISBN: 9788126506491.
REACH FOR THE SKIES
Author: Richard Branson 
Publisher: Random House 
Price: Rs 599
ISBN: 9780753519868.
THE NEW AGE OF INNOVATION
Authors: C K Prahalad
Publisher: Tata McGraw-Hill
Price: Rs 750
ISBN: 9780070248618.
MAKERS OF MODERN INDIA
Author: Ramachandra Guha
Publisher: Viking
Price: Rs 799
ISBN: 9780670083855.
DECISION POINTS
Author: George W Bush 
Publisher: Virgin Books
Price: Rs 999
ISBN: 9780753539668.
MANAGERS WHO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Author: TV Rao 
Publisher: Random House India
Price: Rs 299
ISBN: 9788184001372.
THE BIG SHORT
Author: Michael Lewis 
Publisher: Penguin Price: Rs 599
ISBN: 9781846142574.
CONNECT THE DOTS
Author: Rashmi Bansal 
Publisher: Eklavya Education Foundation
Price: Rs 150
ISBN:

The top 10 business bestsellers

&nbsp;

    What term was coined by the UK post office after it commissioned a study to look into the anxieties suffered by mobile phone users?&nbsp;;
    &nbsp;
    Link the terms weight, lift, drag and thrust to a Yorkshireman and what do you get?&nbsp;
    &nbsp;
    What is common to Dawn, Passion and Achiever and another set of brands, namely, Stunner, Dazzler and Shine?&nbsp;
    &nbsp;
    Which company invented the world&rsquo;s first erasable ball point pen and by what name was

The Strategist Quiz (#181)

Two decades after its birth, the World Wide Web has started influencing consumer habits. The way we communicate, conduct business and entertain ourselves, has undergone a visible change in 2010. Consumer preferences have also been the driving force behind major innovations in wireless data and just about every other area that involves the internet and consumer electronics. Based on the 2010 experience, all signs point to a year in which we should gain more control over how we use and pay for services on the internet, mobile broadband and consumer electronics.

WWW shaping your online behaviour

&ldquo;The average was better than the standard,&rdquo; says Prahlad Kakkar, outspoken ad filmmaker of Mumbai-based Genesis Films and who is best remembered for his work on Pepsi. A keen observer of advertising, Kakkar sums up the fare dished out this year in no uncertain terms.

Of Youtube, shadows and remixes

India&rsquo;s digital world has witnessed tremendous growth in the past decade. The telecom sector, in particular, saw an explosive growth in its mobile subscriber base, cheaper mobile services and the introduction of mobile number portability and 3G services. The entertainment sector also took to the trend with more and more Indians logging onto the the world wide web. However, the broadband subscriber base is still low.

Digital revolution: India comes of age

From $4 billion in 1998 to its worth of over $60 billion today, the information technology (IT) and IT-enabled Services (ITeS) industry has become a major driver of India&rsquo;s economic growth story.

Infotech in 2020: The $300 billion question

There is nothing fast or easy about building a strong brand &mdash; persistent champions of branding will vouch for that. In their book Brand Building Advertising, authors MG Parameswaran, executive director, and CEO, Mumbai, of Draftfcb Ulka Advertising and Kinjal Medh, COO, Cogito Consulting, have put together the learnings from a series of case studies that have put some companies and products on the brand map. Here they take on questions from the strategist on the challenges before marketing today and how advertising can manage people&rsquo;s changing perceptions.

Q&A: MG Parameswaran & Kinjal Medh

New models set to storm market after the hugely successful iPad2 launch.

Tablet PC frenzy hits a new high

Cricket seems to be the flavour of this season. So much so that when cricket buffs are not watching this sport on TV, they are playing it &mdash; on their mobile phones.

Cricket buffs bat for online gamimg

VIP Industries has been at it for quite some time. To appeal to the youth &mdash; and therefore increase frequency of purchase &mdash; the Mumbai-headquartered company has been working overtime to position its brands as fashion accessories rather than utilitarian products. In line with this strategy, VIP &mdash; which claims to be Asia&rsquo;s largest and the world&rsquo;s second-largest luggage company &mdash; has launched a new television commercial (TVC) for its sub-brand Skybags with Hindi movie star and its new brand ambassador John Abraham as the protagonist.

Out of the box

- Find Specials News, Features, Analysis and more at Business Standard. Full coverage of Goafest 2014

Page 968 - Supplements