In a year, which could be described as anything but good for the world economy, when most of the companies were grappling with ideas for settling their P&Ls at a respectable score, the only company which saw the silver lining in the dark clouds was Samsung. This year proved out to be a gem of a year for Samsung in spite of the eternal patent tussle going on with Apple in many countries. It first overtook Apple as the world’s largest smart phone manufacturer and now it hopes to emulate …

One of my favorite scenes from the movie ‘Fight Club’ is the ending scene when Edward  Norton, with his head all blown up, is staring at the concrete jungle spread out in  front him as the buildings start blowing up and The Pixies’ Where is my mind starts  playing in the background. Research in Motion is a company that had every single  individual working in such buildings dancing to their BBM tones till not so long ago.  That was no small following of loyal corporate fans! In 2009, Fortune …

According to popular wisdom, a  good brand is supposed to be one that sticks in the mind of the consumers, one which spells out a clear message and has its own unique space in the targets mind. However, sometimes you find that the niche positioning which you have worked so hard to get is becoming redundant. At this stage, it becomes important to ask yourself – Do I need to inject some fresh vitality into my brand? Is there something more I need to add which the customer is not …

Following up on the previous article on managing press relations, let’s focus on how it happens on the ground. As mentioned in the earlier article, and also pointed out in a comment, the biggest task for the brand is to get the journalist to write the article as a marketing pitch, and no as a bland news item. The example we took in the last one was ‘Now fly for Rs. 500’ v/s ‘Low cost airline launched’. Here is a case of a permanent conflict between the two parties.
The journalist, …

PR: we’ve often heard this term being used in the marketing parlance. So what is it. Simply stated, it a kind of promotion channel which, in the words of Mr. Kotler, aims at promoting, or protecting the image of a company or a specific product. It comprises various means like Press Relations, Corporate Communications, lobbying etc. I’ll be focusing on Press Relations for the rest of the article, and the views I’m going to present are based on my summer internship experience with a brand which leverages Press Relations quite …

The Apple iPod could be said to be one of the, if not the most successful new product launches of the twenty-first century. It took the music world by storm, and has been attributed as being the primary cause behind the revival of Apple. In March 2003 the Apple share value was $7, by July 2008 it had jumped to $180. In the years between 2003 to 2008 the Apple share value increased by a spectacular 2500%.
What made the iPod so different, and allowed it to capture such a large …