Consider a situation. You know an architect who has just started his career; you have never seen his work or heard his name in the appropriate circles. However, you have heard him talk; talk a lot of his work - how many clients are pouring in, how great the job is, the client appreciation he has received. Day in and day out you hear this person talk about work, you see his promising new website and social networking sites are used efficiently to let the world know that this architect is doing really well. No possible opportunity is missed to drill in his professional details and how amazing the outcomes are.

Suddenly out of the blue a friend of yours needs to hire an architect, and immediately the first name that comes to your mind is of the young architect. The names of reputed firms are hard to recollect and even the billboard (right in front of you) advertising an architect fade away.

Whether or not you recommend him is a different issue, for the young architect the purpose is served.

Most people engage in personal branding, at the end of it ‘How to do’ outweighs the ‘What to do’.

I hesitated because the brand was too good and although I would probably never buy enough from them to keep their income flowing I still wanted exclusivity to the extent I could control it.

It made me think about the theory of word of mouth and how some great products get almost all their publicity by word of mouth.

Sometimes even the most deserving products do not get their share of recommendation. There are many instances when word fails to get around:

1. When the product is comparable to that offered by the competitor but fails because of bad choices - bad choice of location for example.
Case: Last weekend I went for a movie to Adlabs (Hyderabad), the theater offers everything comparable to its competitor, except the really narrow roads that lead to it, less parking space and a mall in the third floor whose target audience clashes with those that Adlabs targets. I will never suggest this place to anyone, enough though the three hour movie watching experience was close to what other multiplexes offered.

2. When the product is so exclusive that you do not want people to know.
Case:There is a great gift shop in Pune called gift-a-way. Tucked away in a cozy corner in a busy street, finding it is an adventure and choosing from the delicious racks of handmade marvels is even more exciting. The place has the same set of loyal customers. Although the owner wants the customers to talk, they rarely ever do.

3. When the product is great, but tells people more about you than you want them to know.
Case: Parachute Therapie hair oil - Now I have tried it and at least six other people I know have tried it, but then it is everyone’s little secret. No one wants the world to know you are having hair issues.

4. When the product was great, but you are not sure if it was the best
Case: An all day pamper yourself massage at a spa. You know it was great, but who are you to say if you have been to the spa twice in your whole life. What if the others have tried all the other spas as well and the one you are raving about is the worst??

Word of mouth is meant to be about the product, but it rarely is. It is more like a secret that you tell your best friend, and only when the whole experience cuts the mark.

Wishing it would pour today
Turn the soil to life
Give back what it has taken
Wish it would take away the pictures
Melt the images that would have been
If you would just see
See that hope still stays

Belief that has now gone
Like those days of childhood
Yet life’s rosy again
If you would just see
See that love still stays

Life’s fading into tomorrow
If you could just see
See all that has changed
And it only get better
If you would just see
See that hope still stays

The “scandal” has made it to every newspaper worldwide, turning the issue into a moral and political drama. I cannot help but wonder about the little girls?? What about Yang Peiyi and Lin Miaoke? Will they forget this as a childhood episode? Will Lin carry on with the image of a lip-sync, or as a exceptionally beautiful girl? Will Yang Peiyi become more confident or end up with a ‘low beauty’ image?

Have we successfully messed up the way the future generations perceive talent and beauty? How wise are our decisions on what is acceptable and presentable?

What was showcased to the entire world was no doubt an unprecedented display of glitz, culture, talent, technology and years of preparation, but is all that credible? When might it truly be?

A new branch opens up at the locality, because the market is untapped here. The endorsement contract was handed over to a younger actress, because it will go down well with the target audience. A variation of the soap was launched, because research shows that it will be a future cash cow.

At times, reasons for doing things at a personal or business level extend beyond the ‘because‘ of profit.

True, these businesses are thriving and the owners are happy, but so are the people running a non-profit organisation. There still exist establishments where employees work overtime by choice.

For some people choices are, thankfully, defined by their love for live, and how they want to make a difference. No wonder that we see refreshing new small businesses taking shape, fighting all the odds. No wonder that we still see an old kirana store getting regular business despite new forms of competition.

A business may not be unique in what it offers, and yet it thrives, because despite the business purpose the motivation is heartfelt, an attempt to offer something new to a relevant group of customers.

Something new, that may not necessarily be motivated either by money or by fame.

These video promotions may not be of much relevance, or even innovative in their approach yet they spread because of the ease of forwarding and zero monetary investment on the part of the viewer.

Possible reasons why such videos work:
1. The source of the video is reliable and hence probably worth the effort
2. It presents a intriguing enough setting to entice the passerby to click
3. Invariably placed at login pages of the site (where the page takes some time to load)
4. Unpredictability of the story line
5. Ease in understanding the concept
6. Hope that one viewer will find it interesting enough to pass on to friends

The formula to trigger a chain reaction for online word of mouth is no rocket science. Get the elements right and you are set to go. This mode of advertising however comes with its own share of downside: firstly there is no way to measure how many of the ‘views’ actually translate into ‘customers’ , secondly such concepts work as long as there is a balanced mix or entertainment and advertisement, change that equation risk equating the brand to shallow humour.

Those bonus marks are not about beautiful handwriting, they are about the attention given while finishing the assigned work. Brands score (and lose) brownie points all the time. Decors of a retail outlet, presentation of a dish are signs on the thought and attention to detail given. If it is a hastily thrown together dish you would know, not just from the taste but also from how it is brought to your table.

Works for everything, carefully written alphabets and dotted lines on the earth’s diagram look like tiny elements that can be skipped. It will however determine whether you score those crucial two marks.

The trouble however arises when more diverse products are on sale. Books for example. Nothing impresses more when the employee knows the book by title, authors name, availability, release dates etc. But that is rarely the case. So how do we achieve this? It is definitely far more complex than remembering which size of jeans goes in which section of the store.

A possible solution -compartmentalise. Not the store, the employees. Instead of having all 10 employees handle the customer traffic at random, allot each of them one genre of books. Each employee trained to specialise in her genre, she knows the authors, the latest releases, the biggest bestsellers, the rare publications, prices and hardcover releases.

Sure, all this can be done with a click on the internal search engine. The idea is not to do what everyone does, but to do a little more. The idea is to cross from being good to being great.

All that has changed drastically, no more long waiting periods, transactions can be done from the ease of home, efficient service is provided almost everywhere you go. The customer has been raised to the position of King. This of course has its own side effects.

 Expectations are sky high, after years of oppression the sudden sense of power has made the Indian customer extremely demanding, impatient and sometimes even inconsiderate.

No matter how great the service, product or scheme a minute flaw is enough to tick the customer. The only time good service is noticed is when it goes wrong. Great ambience, variety of choice, valet parking .. all that is fine but I am paying for it, they are not doing me a favor seems to be the general attitude.

The shopping malls provide near perfect ambience; every need of the customer is taken care of - sofas for those accompanying the shopper, eating options close by, membership privileges, clean washrooms free goodies and polite considerate treatment - and yet we cannot get over the delay in billing.

Interestingly these accusations are directed to those who really are trying to be perfect, nobody complains about slow service in a local restaurant, nor do we complain about delayed letter delivery from the government post office. We do however, go out at the four star restaurant when the dessert is five minutes late, we crib if the telephone billing service is slow -after all we all had to wait for a good ten minutes till they got the server up and running. An otherwise prompt courier service receives bad reviews if the letter arrives a day late.

The side effects of making customer the king are many, good and ugly. It could have turned the otherwise overtly tolerant Indian consumer into a critic looking out for the smallest of flaws.

I feel that understanding, patience and a genuine appreciation are required from both involved - the consumer and the provider.

The journey back and forth from office is an assault to the senses- radio is at peak volume and huge billboards cut out partial views of the sky.

The cafeteria not only has the television always turned on, but we now have world space playing alongside. (Even the washroom has its own audio speakers!!!)

By default, media has taken shape of an omnipresent white noise. Television and radio sets are switched on with no apologies to others present.

I remember how watching TV or tuning into radio was such an occasion. The event was planned for weeks in advance. The shows were few and far apart, but no matter what the issue of the program, everyone watched  with undivided attention. The recall of those episodes is still very high.

Compare this with the messages thrown at you from the cluttered skyline, a hundred channels of television and the audio blare of radio. All of 10 hours of media exposure and I have no clue what I was listening to.