Read Between the Ps

Marketing should have an ROI - or shouldn't it? An article from the recent publication of Harvard Business Review  (July 25th) by Amy Gallo highlights the right manner of driving the ROI from Marketing Investments. Though the article is largely generic, it does highlight the biggest challenge in calculating ROI from Marketing initiatives - what we should include in 'returns'! As per Amy, One of the downsides of marketing ROI is that it is easy to only recognize the incremental profits in short-term sales and underestimate the long-term benefits that marketing brings to brand value. While Customer Lifetime Value can rationally explain some part of ROI, overall this is still a tricky area to touch. On the other hand, Prof Byron Sharp does not believe in ROI for Marketing per se. According to him , Do you want to lift your marketing ROI OR grow your brand (share/sales)?  Because ROI is seldom a recipe for growth. or what he mentioned almost a year back , ...

Most men would have cribbed about the shopping obsession of the women in their lives (not just wives!). Men, who study consumers, (and not just their women) would describe this as 'retail therapy' - how you shop when you are stressed. Women shop when they are stressed. A student of CAT preparation would apply deductive reasoning or syllogisms on these statements and conclude that  Women are mostly stressed! (Wonder why is this not mentioned in any nuptial agreements!) That could be true. However, there probably is more to it. What is the secret behind this? Why do women (as well as men) shop when they are stressed? Shilpa Madan  has an interesting logic to address part of this quiz -  We earn moral credits by doing something interesting.  Mathematically speaking, when you earn moral credits, you spend them on supposedly 'immoral' activities or indulgence as it is called! So every time you do something good, you want to spend that on something you would n...

Every year this time, some strong force of energy pushes me to introspect about my passion for writing - as if part of me is still incomplete and it is high time that I do something beyond brooding to get it moving. Over the past few years, this introspection has entailed virtually one post reinforcing my commitment followed by few ramblings, followed by another resolve, and then few more ramblings, and so on, till the excitement tapers down. Just a simple plotting of posts over the past 12 years reflects my diminishing enthusiasm towards writing and expressing myself. Ironically, if I was to plot the number of books and deep articles I have read over these many years, it would just be the reverse pattern. As I wrote almost a year back... Lets Restart. For I am not done.  Not done to Let go of this passion of reading the world through my eyes  Not done to stop learning as I keep sharing - not to increase readers, but for the joy of sharing  Not done t...