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Math Behind The Canvas
Vijai Chandrasekharan
Creative Head - Mudra Digital Consulting
Design forms an important aspect of marketing, especially when the visual appeal and experience is of paramount importance in the promotion/ introduction of a product or service. Whether it's a wrapper for a confectionary or for soap, a new logo, a mascot (like Gatoo of Asian paints or the devil in the Onida campaigns) the application of design makes a big difference in making the product stand apart from others.The same is true on the web.

Getting the best out of your advertising agency
M G Parameswaran
Executive Director - FCB Ulka
Simple Simon met a pieman going to the fair.Said Simple Simon to the pieman,”Let me taste your ware.”
Said the pieman to Simple Simon “Show me first your penny.”Said Simple Simon to the pieman, "Indeed I have not any.”- Mother Goose

Media Gladiators: A shift in power
Meenakshi Madhvani
CEO - Carat India, Regional Director - APAC
In 1997 when Carat set up shop in India, one of the leading agencies went on record to announce the fact that Carat was doomed to die in six months. The logic was that the Market was not ready for a sophisticated media product and that Clients were not sophisticated enough to understand it! What’s more, media owners were warned by well meaning souls that Carat would buy in bulk and sell in retail! Some of those well meaning souls today proudly flash their ‘Media Specialist status’.

Ethics of Persuasion
Sampa Chakrabarty Lahiri
Strategic Marketing Research Team
Its ad campaign was banned because it was considered to "bring advertising to disrepute". The brand went ahead insolently to scream through the billboards in London - Fcuk Advertising. It caused a furore in the media with some newspapers commenting that "it undermined the fabric of the society". Inspite of being hauled up by the Advertising Standards Authority, Fcuk advertising proved to be a major hit.

Customer Retention: The key to Business Performance
K Ramakrishnan
Strategic Marketing Research Team
Customer retention is not given the attention due to it, by most firms. It has been found that customer retention has more impact on profits than market share, economies of scale and other variables that are considered to provide competitive advantage to a firm. In fact, it has been found that companies, which reduced customer defections by 5 per cent, could boost profits from 25 per cent to 85 per cent.