Metaverse - a fad?

Metaverse - a new wave like Social media?

Back in 2006-07, there was a new wave of social media & digital marketing trying to redefine how brands communicated and engaged with people. 

It started as a fad, when brands ignored it first, then adopted like experiments with 1% of budgets to today, where it is one of the top 2 spend channels.

Metaverse, is in the same zone as social/digital was back then.

Brands created pages on social media platforms. Then, they added interactive stuff via various widgets and apps to build engagement. Then came idea of selling via social.

Even customers first created thier profiles. Then they connected with friends, built communities. Then, they started reading news. And today, it is a complete entertainment package, where people open these apps to see some random byte sized content (call it reels or shorts).

Same trend seems building for Metaverse. People are creating thier avatars. Kids are already used to such parallel places via games like roblox or minecraft. Adults have had this virtual reality life (WFH)during COVID via zoom and are now living a hybrid work life already.

Brands are creating Metaverse stores, buying retail space in Metaverse (will you call it ‘un’real estate 🙄) - Samsung, Adidas in Metaverse like Decentraland, The Sandbox. 

CPG Brands like Coca Cola, Nike etc have done various events in Metaverse to promote a new product line or special events. Walmart has a Walmartland in Roblox and has released a video on how they imagine shopping at walmart in Metaverse (it’s interesting if you haven’t seen it yet - link in comment).

And yes people can buy from brands in these Metaverses. So, the proposition is that consumer can shop from say Macy’s physical store in NY from Bangalore by visiting its Metaverse store and get the purchase delivered in real world! 

Sounds exciting?

#metaverse #marketing #ecommerce #social

Brand Signage stunts- from Lucy Pizza to NolhtaceD?

Brand Signage stunts- from Lucy Pizza to NolhtaceD?

Brands are about stories. Stories that connect. And if stories, translate into reality; nothing like it! 

Here is how two brands - Domino’s and Declathon played with thier signage for few stores to tell beautiful stories.

#Domino's rebranded one of its stores in order to honor Lucy Bronze, an English woman footballer ahead of the Euro 2022 final. Lucy Bronze worked as a chef at Domino's in Headingley while studying at Leeds Beckett University in the early 2010s.

French sports apparel brand #Decathlon changed its signage of 3 stores in Belgium to promote "reverse shopping", through which people in the country can sell their sporting products to the company to support environment friendly practice of reuse. So, the brand literally reversed thier logo!

Do you remember any other such story of #logo change?

#marketing

New Modern Sarees from Tata, Birla & Ambani

Indian modern Sarees - now from Tata, Birla and Ambanis!

India sells ~50000 cr worth of Sarees annually. Out of which ~27% was organized market in FY20, which is slated to grow to 40% by FY25.

New cool brands have been growing with modernised play on sarees. Taniera by Tata, Navyasa by Birla and Avantea by Ambanis are some those new brand launched in last 5 years. 

The erstwhile biggies - Nallis, Kalyan Silks, Pothys, Chennai Silks have been there since ages selling buildings full of traditional sarees.

Interesting play in retail with again expansion of exclusive stores by each of the new brands. 

Definitely, there is a gap in the market with the dearth of modern sari specific brands, contrasting to plethora of western wear brands. 

W and Biba capitalised on this gap earlier in non-saree ethnic market earlier.

Interesting to see, how things pan out.

Where do you buy your sarees from?

#fashion #retail #brand #sarees 

Startups & Leap of faith?

Startups & Leap of faith?

From leap of faith, the best example that comes to my mind is that of Hanuman doing a leap over the Indian ocean to lanka in our mythology epic Ramayana.

At first, he just had a problem at hand that he had to find the whereabouts of Sita. He was confounded as to how he will reach lanka which cant be seen from naked eyes and its only water everywhere in sight.

He didn't remember any of his magical power giving him confidence that he could do it. He was made to remember his might, later by his team members. He gained strength, but still wasn't sure.

Later, its the leap of faith. Faith in his idol Ram. He then believed in himself and jumped off over the ocean. He needed to believe that he HAS to find Sita. He defied gravity by believing that he has the rocket fuel(magical powers) within him to sail through!

Similarly, #Startup culture is all about believing in yourself (irrespective of your earlier experiences) and taking the plunge in something you might not have done earlier.

You generally set out to do the impossible or something big that looks impossible under constraints of time. And once you achieve the same, you wonder, how we did it.

One key trait in this playbook is to try things which are different from convention itself. For eg, if the normal industry does this for ages, who can we defy those assumptions or constraints and then think fron there. This #firstprinciples thinking is at the heart of startup thinking and should be in #career and #life as well.

Believe in yourselves!

Defy assumption!

Take that leap of faith.

Happy #diwali ! 

Obsession with KPIs - Popular Post from Linkedin.

Obsession with #KPIs

In my personal experience across companies, there is this madness to track everything. You will find a dashboard with lots of colours, shapes and trend charts showing slices and dices of data.

Somebody said - " Whatever gets measured, gets done". Very rightly pointed out, given until we measure we wouldn't know how good or bad e are doing. Then only you can apply resources to improve!

But, there is this concept of 'Efficiency' and 'Effectiveness', i think Peter Drucker mentioned this in his milestone book 'The effective Executive'. 

#Efficiency is how well a process or task is getting executed. For eg, Making a product in part in a factory is taking XX minutes at YY rupees cost.

#Effectiveness is about assessing whether that part is needed in great supply or at lowest cost at all, given its a part which is not a bottleneck at all to push production!

Having KPIs to just keep tracking efficiency is a drain on resources and direction for entire org. Keeping minimal but effective metrics is essential for entire org to keep thier focus on those few that are effective and matter the most.

Another concept that Amazon prescribes is the #input metrics tracking apart from output metrics. Until we track what all we are putting in (say spends in media, hrs in training, points of distribution..), outcomes of sales wouldn't happen! 

Infact, Input metrics tracking is the holy grail of KPIs and Dashboards!

Any other concepts you picked around KPIs?

credits for cartoon - Tom Fishburne 

#growth #analytics #data

Apply the art of Storytelling. Everywhere.

Classic Fairytales > #Data & Spreadsheets

I was teaching my son the following expression in algebra -
x(y+3)= xy+3x,
however he was only multiplying x with y and leaving 3 separate. I told him multiple times via logic, bodmas etc but he kept repeating the same mistake.

Then my wife told him a story - A guest is ringing a doorbell of house, he is standing out of the house(x). In the house, y and 3 stay together (y+3). When they open the door(brackets), both y and 3 meet the guest x (multiplication) and they spend good fun time together.

The result was astonishingly strong, he didn’t do any further mistake! I realised the power of storytelling even in algebra.

Similarily at work or in life, it’s important to harness the power of #storytelling vs keep sticking to spreadsheets. Now, more and more organisations are switching to #narrative  writing vs power points or just tables as exemplified by Amazon  with the doc writing that crystallises everything from mind to the 6 pager what, why, how, who etc).

And to learn from classical fairy tales, there is always this broad structure at work as well-

- Beginning - Once upon a time | Market was like this…
- Context - There was a king and queen | We did a,b and c
- Problem - But they were sad because of | however the kpis didn’t move
- Solution - Then the hero did this | Then we took actions x,y,z
- Evaluation - And they lived happily ever after | Resulted in kpi movement
- Moral of Story - Learning | Learning’s and way forward

Do you have more such insights out of plain logic vs #stories experiments?

Get Drunk with Happy Harmones!

Got drunk in the morning ever?

I do. Regularly.

With Happy Hormones!

Yes. I am back on running track in between with cult classes. Ran 50km for July; good start after a hiatus. Loving the happy hormones rush through the day to keep me full of life! Once done in morning, you are drunk through the day with energy!

As you know, Hormones are produced by human body after certain activities. Certain hormones are known to help promote positive feelings, including happiness and pleasure.These “happy hormones” include:

Dopamine. Also known as the “feel-good” hormone.

Serotonin. This hormone helps regulate your mood as well as your sleep, appetite, digestion, learning ability, and memory.

Oxytocin.This hormone can also help promote trust, empathy, and bonding in relationships.

Endorphins. Endorphins are your body’s natural pain reliever, which your body produces in response to stress or discomfort. 

Try a 20-30 min morning physical activity for 21 days; i bet you will feel a lot more alive and addicted more than any alcohol to keep doing the same thing everyday. It’s been 7 years since I embraced running and it has turned my life upside down - from how I weigh to how energised I am thru the day to an entire identity it has given me! 

As world famous Dilbert cartoonist says - We should not get drained by time management or task prioritisation tactics, we need to do energy management as with high levels of energy, we can tore down a big task in less time vs otherwise.

Have you experienced such happy harmones already? 

In running circles, it’s said - When u feel bored or tired, u go for a run! Contrary to popular belief of ‘Running long distances will drain you’, it is actually energising and for me it’s like #Meditation. 

Try it!

#life #health #work #management #tip

Never Ending Money + Kids

Concept of "Never ending #Money"!

In discussions with kids of today, few interesting insights came across about money. The thing most run after in life -

1. Getting Money is very Easy.

2. And its unending!

How? When i asked kids-

1. We just have to go to ATM, insert card and get money. We can get as many times we want, Papa/Mummy does the same!😂

Another kid showing greater wisdom said...no no -

2. Even, going to ATM is also not needed. Its through UPI in mobile. Just scan the code anywhere and you can buy anything! 😅

And when asked about -

why you need so many pens at one go?

why throw the pen away if it runs out?

Why not use a refill?

The answers was -

3. What is a refill?😭

4. Order from Amazon it will come by tomorrow!

With such definitions, I felt we need to bring in offline money and teach them value of money. One of the perils of using online money is weakening of mathematical skills. You dont need to subtract on how much money, the shopkeeper should return!!

My takeaway with small kids immersion as parent -

1. Get kids do the offline transaction at say self serve food counters where they need to order with real notes & bring back receipt and change.

2. Get them to manage a monthly budget for thier own stuff and do reconciliation at end of month.

3. Use refills and ration the pens per usage.

4. When something runs out, send them to offline shop to purchase the single pen/eraser needed to teach them value of 'physical effort' to get things.

Being part of Tech/ecommerce industry, i know its quite contrary to what we do - bringing convenience with doorstep delivery. 

But kids need to understand that the delivery wale bhaiya is replacing your effort to acquire things...and they should do the same to understand life! 

#insights #parenting #life #ecommerce

Language Market Fit

Language Market Fit

To achieve product market fit, there is also an element of language market fit. Apart from how superbly product is solving a consumer need, if the way it is communicated to consumers (which confuses or doesnt resonate) is key to achieving #PMF.

This concept is closer to #positioning in classical #marketing.

In a lot of categories which are very new, how we position our product kills or puts product on an upward spiral.

 Here are 3 examples of how 3 key products communicated themselves in a 

fantastic way...coming from milestone companies! 

#1

Not fit - A simple portable mp3 players with XXX MB memory for loads of songs, XX Mhz processor for speed & minimal switches.

Fit - 1000 songs in your Pocket!

#2

Not fit - A modern portable device with XX GB memory & long lasting charge to store thousands of books to read whenever wherever & with whispernet you can start reading new books in under 60 seconds.

Fit - Take your book library with you!

#3

Not fit - Upload your videos.

Fit - Broadcast Youself.

Guessed them right?

Ipod, Kindle, YouTube.

Runner's Update - 6000kms Up.

#Health post

Celebrating 6000kms on road, thanks to my legs and pairs of Nike.

This creative from Nike sums up everything a runner experiences. 

Shoes giving life like lungs to us!

A runner thinks like this -

When in distress, go for a run (Meditation)

When tired, go for a run 

(Rejuvenation)

When in anger, go for a run

(Calmification)

When looking for answers, go for a run

(Ideation)

When bored, go for a run

(Recreation)

When want to workout, go for a run

(Excercise)

and so on...

But always...

Run, walk or crawl...just keep moving

 forward!

#running #life