When was the last time you saw a commercial from a brand that brought tears to your eyes? In this post, you might get emotional but I can assure you will smile at the end (Spoiler Alert). Samsung India made this commercial that showcases its product servicing standards and its reach. As you must be aware that geographically India is a pretty big country and it becomes very difficult for companies to set up service centers in remote places. This is the pain point that Samsung has tried to answer, serving remote customers. The ad showcases a service agent who is on the field to address the complaint made by a customer. The background score is sung by the very talented Bollywood singer Mohit Chauhan which has motivational lyrics which simply means "flow like a river". When the service agent reaches the destination, he is baffled to know that its a shelter home for visually impaired kids. The complainant is also a visually impaired girl who wants to listen to the song of her friend who has appeared on a singing talent show. The ad strikes an emotional chord with its viewers and leaves a strong message. Have a look at few comments on the video. "This Ad made me to look for Replay button instead of Skip button." "First Ad To cross 100M views.....Woooohoooo. That shows how good this Ad is.....Amazing." "Don't have words to express... fraction of a second.. U lose all ur ego... After watching.. This... Hats off to the director.." "This kind of video inspire you to become a better person and find positives in whatever life offers you." The ad has already gained more than 150 million views on YouTube. Tell me in the comments, which another ad made you emotional? #Advertising #Brands

As students approach their final semester in college or university the question that makes them restless the most is whether they will get placed or not? If this question isn’t answered for them it can do more harm and even result in depression. If you are a student in your final year or a placement head or even an experienced professional and you are looking for opportunities to step into the corporate world this post will be helpful for you. I am writing this post with MBA / Post Graduate students in mind but students from other fields like medical, engineering can also benefit from these ideas. Before I share the ideas I would like to mention that an MBA / Medical / Engineering institute or university is NOT a job placement organization. This is the first thing the students need to erase from their minds. An institute is a platform where students acquire the knowledge and skills needed in the corporate world. 7 ideas that will help you get a job (if you haven’t got already): 1) Make a Resume to hire. The first step is preparation. You need to make your resume to apply for a job you are looking for. Make sure you make a CV that stands out from others. Being a fresher you need to portray your achievements in academics and extracurricular activities. Design a CV that demands attention. Have a look at this one here. Pro tip: If you don’t have designing skills get help from a friend or pay a freelance designer to make one for you. Make sure your resume is grammatically correct without spelling mistakes. 2) Register on Job Portals. Once you have your CV ready the next step is to upload it on all job portals such as Naukri, Bayt, Timesjobs, etc. Make sure to use the right keywords in your description as this will make your CV searchable to prospective companies. 3) Build a presence on Social Media channels. I have rarely come across any student who doesn’t have a social media profile. Put social media to use. Be very active on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Slideshare, etc to look for opportunities. I simply love LinkedIn as it helps me connect with key people in my industry and keeps me updated about the current market. Make a complete profile with relevant keywords in the headline that catches attention. Check out my profile Tausif Mulla. Also, add groups related to your interest and participate in the ongoing discussion (give your two cents on the current topic). The link to this post is here. On Twitter, search with hashtags such as #Job #Dubai to get relevant results. Also, use Twitter to keep yourself abreast with current happenings in the market in your field of interest. 4) Follow Key People on Social Media. Once you have an updated social media profile add/follow key people in your industry. I, usually follow people both on LinkedIn and Twitter. Make sure you don’t add the same person on Facebook as it is considered more as a person rather than a professional networking site. One of the mistakes to avoid is, do not to send an immediate message like “Hi, I am looking for a job. Do you have anything for me?” This is a big NO-NO. Behavior like this turns off a person as it brings out a picture that the recently added person is very unprofessional. Yes, you can mail it to the prospective person but it has to be a very polite and professional mail. At this point in time do not rush into asking for openings in the company. Spend some time going through the person’s profile. See what kind of posts he/she has liked or re-tweeted (this will help you gauge the person). Then, message him/her about a certain topic which might be of keen interest to this person. For example, one of my fellow LinkedIn connections is an avid reader of marketing books. So I will mail him something like this “Hello Mr.Josh, I came across your profile and realized you are an avid reader. I am looking for good books on consumer behavior. Can you suggest few good authors to me?” Try to keep it simple. If you get a reply then that’s your start, but if you don’t get a reply then do not bother the person again. Use the search option both in LinkedIn & Twitter to search key people like HR Manager at LinkedIn, VP Marketing at Al Futtaim, Finance at Samsung, etc 5) Get hooked on to a BLOGGING. If you haven’t already made your own blog, do it asap. Use Search Engine Optimized (SEO) friendly blogging CMS (Content Management System) tools like WordPress, Wix, Blogspot, etc. Start publishing posts about specific industries, skills, the strategy adopted by a company (in your interested field), etc. this will help you in the short term and long term as well. I would suggest write topics related to the XYZ brand in the related industry. Whatever you have learned put into practice. You can simply start with SWOT analysis, Porter 5 forces analysis to that specific industry, and much more. An engineering student can study challenges in the production of XYZ products and their analysis. An architecture student can design models of buildings that can conserve energy consumption. Whatever is your field, select a topic and start blogging today. 6) Don’t just talk, show it. Once you have your own blog up and running, the next thing is to make an awesome post. This post has to be The BEST one with all the other posts you have published so far. Ideally, this post should showcase your thought process. Few examples: A finance student will make a list of shares that he feels are good pics because of XYZ……. reasons. He will work on EPS, Debt Equity ratio, etc, and make his analysis. A marketing student will work on a strategy for the company he is interested in working for. What is the current strategy, what do you suggest, how will it benefit, and so on. A law student can give his two cents on a current suit in court for the XYZ brand. What does the brand need to do? An HR student will draft policies for start-up companies. The idea behind these posts is not to show how much you know but to show you are thinking about this company and showing interest to grow the company, that’s what will matter here.​ 7) Sharing is Caring. In today’s world sharing is caring. Indeed. Once you have made your best post now it's time to share with key people. You can share with them on LinkedIn, Twitter, emails, etc. Try using the Mailchimp tool for emailing key prospects in the industry. You need to make sure you have a creative headline for the post. One of my posts on LinkedIn that has got over 50k + clicks is 6 strategies preschools should adopt to boost admissions. Your headline should give a glimpse of what you want to communicate. When you are emailing your post to a key prospect, be polite. Ask the person to give his VALUABLE feedback on the post that will help you learn more. Pro tip: Big NOOOOOOO to mass emailing by way of CC’ing or BCC’ing all key prospects in one email. Use MailChimp to make better emails. Finally, do not be disheartened if you don’t get immediate results. Invest some time in these ideas to see positive results.

Guest post by SKY Reading is a complex "cognitive process" of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive meaning. Wait… what? That was Wikipedia’s definition of reading! Doesn’t make reading so appealing now, does it? Well, let me tell you what my definition of reading is. It is this amazing relationship you start with a book of your choice. No pressure. No strings attached. You set your own pace and you willingly commit out of pure love. It takes you to another world, another place or another time. Makes you feel, experience and live a life you never thought you would live. Brings you closer to people you don’t know, however, love with all your being. Creates this wonderful mixture of emotions in you, sometimes you sob, cry tears of joy, smile or even laugh your head off! The best part is when things end, it’s totally peaceful! No heartbreaks and definitely no need for gallons of Ice cream to help you get over the whole experience! You know what? You don’t even need to be exclusive and read one book at a time, poly-reading certainly won’t be considered as cheating!! How does that sound? Here is one of my favorite Carl Sagan’s quotes that captures the passion for reading. Dream Big! Sky. P.S: If you wish to a guest post, drop me an email on scroogemarketer@gmail.com #MBA

As an educator, I always look at the inspiration that will help me nurture my skills and benefit my students. What better way to look for inspiration than social media? In this post, I have curated a list of 10 brands that you should definitely follow on social media to improve your marketing. 10 Brands doing an awesome job on social media: 1) Burger King The first on the list is one of my personal favorites, Burger King. If you are in the food business, you should definitely follow the KING on all social platforms. For this post, I will concentrate on Instagram. Currently, Burger King has over 1.3 million followers on Instagram. It also has country-specific accounts and the numbers of followers on these accounts make a huge chunk. The social media strategy adopted by Burger King is a mix of humor content and consumer testimonials. Have a look at some of the posts by the brand In this post, Burger King is seen trolling its arch rival McDonald over the movie IT. Similar to this scary clown, they even released a commercial on their YouTube channel. 2) Oreo The second brand on the list is Oreo from the house of Mondelēz International. Oreo is an iconic cookie brand that's been on the market for over 100 years. Initially, the brand was owned by National Biscuit Company ( also known as Nabisco) that was later acquired by Mondelez International. Oreo is a brand on social media that's all about appeal. Be it images, videos or gifs, you will fall in love with the cookie by the sheer presentation of it. You can follow Oreo on all social platforms, but in this post, I will talk about Twitter. On the micro blogging site, it has over 857k followers as on Dec 2017. Over the years, it has gained a lot of respect from it followers mainly due to its quirky tweets. Have a look at these tweets: During one of the super bowl matches, the light went out for flat 34 minutes. Television viewers had nothing to do during the blackout and so they turned to Twitter and this is what Oreo did. Now, that's savage. Here is another one, when the Google announced their next Android update will be called Oreo. 3) Airbnb After Uber, the company that disrupted an industry is Airbnb. In the business of connecting travelers with the host to offer affordable and memorable experiences, Airbnb has become a huge hot on social media. Their own website has a section called Airbnb Stories that showcases stories from travelers and hosts around the world. Airbnb is very active on all major social platforms and doing extremely well. For this post, I will discuss its presence on the biggest social network Facebook. Airbnb is all about building a community that thrives on experiences, it has a whopping 10 million followers on Facebook alone. Have a look at the type of content that is posted on Airbnb's Facebook page. Airbnb arranges regular meet ups with host and travelers around the world. 4) Nike When an iconic brand says you "Just Do It", you better do it. Nike is one brand that has been a "look up to" brand when it comes to marketing. Take up any social media website and you will see millions of followers for Nike. Nike has over 29 million followers on Facebook, over 7 million followers on Twitter. What do you do when your brand has such humongous following? You engage. Nike is known to sign biggest sports athletes as its brand endorser. As a brand what do you need to do when you have personalities like Serena Williams, Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba, Neymar promote you? You leverage their success. Nike puts up awesome content on its Facebook and Twitter page, have a look at it. Over the years, Nike has also supported controversial campaigns and has broken stereotypes. This was evident in their newest launch of the athletic hijab for female Muslim athletes. 5) Amul Amul is an Indian global brand well known to revolutionized the Indian milk industry. It is brand that's quirky and satire. Amul is very quick to come up with satirical humor on trending topics. Currently, it has over 1.4 million followers on Facebook and here is a glimpse of types of posts it makes. The above post was shared by Amul on the demise of the actor Shashi Kapoor. 6) IKEA The last brand on the list is my personal favorite IKEA. If you are looking for creative inspiration, IKEA should be your first stop on social media. The brand is very active on all social platforms. I will cover its presence on Instagram. Have a look at some of the posts by the brand. Ikea has built a thriving community on Instagram where followers post their products, hacks, designs, etc. The DIY videos are a huge hit with its followers. In 2014, it released a catalog on Instagram which went viral. Here is a glimpse of the catalog. These are few brands that I follow on social media for inspiration. Tell me in the comments, which brands do you follow for inspiration? #Facebook #Instagram #Twitter #YouTube #Nike #Ikea #BugerKing #Amul #Oreo #Airbnb #Education #Marketing #Brands

Gillette ranks at 29th position on the Forbes "World's Most Valuable Brands". Currently, the brand value is approximately $19.2 Billion and growing strong. In this post, I won't be touching on the financials of the brand but an ongoing commercial for one its products Gillette Blue Simple 3. If you are a marketing student, you might be aware that Gillette was acquired by P&G back in 2005. Even after the acquisition, the brand has still retained its positioning "The best a man can get". For P&G, the razors are one of the most profitable product items under the personal hygiene product line with operating margins of around 30%. Gillette even started its own subscription model to take heads on a competitor like Dollar Shave Club. The new product Gillette Blue Simple 3 has come out with a humorous commercial that showcases a father getting more attention than the cute baby. Watch the commercial here Humor being the central theme of the ad, it clearly portrays the product benefits i.e "clean smooth shave". Another brand that is known to take this route is none another than Axe. Adding humor in commercial is not a new thing and it has been quite successful for the products. The biggest advantage of making a humorous ad, such as this one, is creating a strong brand recall. Gillette is also known to have successful athletes as its brand endorsers such as Roger Federer, Thierry Henry, David Beckham, Rahul Dravid to name a few. Let me know in the comments which another ad of Gillette did you like it #Gillette #Advertising #Brand #Marketing #Advertising #Brands

Nike is one brand that never disappoints me with its creative ads. This time is no exception. December is considered as a festive month and all big brands roll out their campaigns to boost their sales. In this festive season, Nike has come up with this quirky advertisement with a sporty Santa Claus. For many years, Nike has retained its positioning of "Just Do It" and it has worked very well for them. With Christmas just around the corner, the brand has given Santa Claus a makeover. This Nike Santa Claus is sporty and lives his life on the edge. Check out this print ad by Nike for Christmas. #Nike #JustDoIt #Advertising #Ad #PrintAd #Brands #SocialMedia #Marketing #Christmas #Advertising #Brands

One thing that irritates my spouse about me is being organized. Rather, I would say too much organized (pun intended). In recent years, I have realized that I have become much more productive than I was before. Like many, I use to procrastinate on all the stuff that I was supposed to do, be it professional or personal. One thing that helped me to get organized and enhance my productivity is Google Calendar. The multi-billion-dollar tech giant Google has launched many great apps for consumers. The majority are free applications such as Gmail, Drive, Docs, Hangout, Analytics, Sites, etc. Among all these awesome apps, my personal favorite is Google Calendar. 12 Google Calendar Tips & Tricks to make you organized: 1) Add an Appointment / Event directly from google search Simply go to google search and type “Make an appointment” or “Create an Event”. Next, click on “edit event” which will take you to the google calendar web app. Here, you will see a pop-up on the screen that shows the event details with the time you selected. One interesting thing that you may notice is that the calendar automatically makes the pop-up background texture related to the event. In this case, since I have created an event about the dentist appointment, it has chosen a toothbrush texture, which looks nice. 2) Quick add Events in Calendar The second way to create an event in the calendar app is by clicking on the specific date. You will be prompted with a pop-up where you need to put down the details about your event. For example, Dentist's Follow up Appointment at 11:00 am. Hit save, and you are done. 3) Look for Appointment / Meeting slots Google calendar is very handy when you have to book an appointment slot with another person based on his/her availability. For this feature, the other person also needs a google account. Since I am an educator, let me share with you an example from a faculty context. Let's assume, that my students want to meet me to discuss a project topic allocated to them. In my calendar, I will select the day/s and the time slot when I am available to meet. In this case, I have selected from 11th until 14th and then named the event as Project Discussion. I will change from All Day to specific time i.e from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm. Click on More Options, a new window will open. Here, you need to click on the Find A Time tab (marked with the highlighter) and add the email ids of the students who wish to meet you for project discussion. Once saved, all the students will be notified and they will have to open their calendar and confirm their slot. 4) Get more out of Calendar with Labs There is a secret door in google apps called "Labs". It's a place where developers create the add-on that works seamlessly with various Google apps like Gmail, drive, keep, etc but are still in the testing phase. You can access labs through the settings gear icon. An add-on that gets installed multiple times (can be hundreds of thousands of times) then gets a permanent place with google apps. Once, you select an add-on you will have to enable it then save your changes to see the add-on work. 5) Share Your Calendar With Family & Colleagues Now, you can share your calendar with others. Being a marketing faculty, I have onsite and online classes for various modules at different times of the day. If I have to know which module my colleague is teaching and at what time, I just have to ask him/her to share her work calendar with me. In this way, we both will know our schedule and can collaborate on activities that fit into our schedule. 6) Add Rooms Availability in Calendar This is a great feature for offices, schools, and colleges. Let's assume you have a conference room at your workplace and you plan to schedule a client meeting there on a specific day. To let know other teammates that you have booked the conference room on that day and time, you need to block it on your shared calendar. This feature is only available to G Suite customers. The G Suite admin will have to enable the "ROOMS" feature for the calendar. In a school or college, this feature can help the faculties to book a classroom like labs, meeting room, etc. 7) Add Hyperlinks to our Calendar Invites With the new update in Google Calendar, you can now add hyperlinks to your events and send them with the invites. It's very effective if all the teammates are prepared well in advance about meeting agenda. For example, the Director of Communication can share docs, sheets, and forms as part of the invite to the faculties. Finally, all the team members will be on the same page. 8) Manage multiple calendars side by side If you are in a secretarial job, this next feature will be a life savior for you. If you manage multiple calendars of all the senior professionals in a company like the VP Marketing, VP Operations, VP Finance, etc then this feature will be handy for you. All you have to do is, get access to their respective work calendar. Select "Day" view in the calendar and then the names from "other calendars". This will give you a clear view of all the events scheduled for that day for all the people you managing appointments. These 8 tips and tricks have helped me a lot to become more productive. Now, every morning after my routine chores the first To-Do thing for me is to look at my Google Calendar. I will be writing another post on "How to make multiple calendars and manage them with ease?" Here's a quick snapshot of my multiple calendars Subscribe to my blog for more tips and tricks on google apps.

Recently, Google unveiled its second Chromebook called the "Pixelbook". Since then, a lot buzz has been created over Chromebooks. So what are Chromebooks and why should educator and students get one? A Chromebook is a laptop that runs on Google’s very own operating system called “Chromium OS”. The laptops were initially designed to be used only with internet connectivity as the majority of applications such as Gmail, Sheets, Docs, etc are all cloud-based applications. Initially, when Chromebooks were launched not many laptop brands were keen to adopt the chromium OS except few like Acer and Samsung. Over the years, the adoption rate by the laptop manufacturers has soared to new heights, all thanks to the education sector. Google had framed a clear road map for its Chromebooks with education industry at the center. Schools in the US started adopting Chromebooks as more and more district went 1:1 (one Chromebook for one student). This adoption by the schools in the US gave the early signs to other manufacturers to adopt Chromium OS and start producing Chromebooks for the larger audience. Today, you have all laptop brands such as Asus, Toshiba, Lenovo, etc that have added Chromebooks as the new product line in their product mix. If you are an ardent Apple fan, you might find it difficult to digest the fact that Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in 2016. Gartner has predicted that the growth will reach 16.3% by the end of 2017. In 2016, schools in the US brought 5.4 million Chromebooks for the use in the classroom. You may have a question in your mind, why are schools moving towards Chromebooks? The answer to that is very simple, cost to the school. When a school adopts a laptop / PC it's the only cost that is incurred, there is an additional cost of the operating system (OS). With Chromebooks, you only pay for the laptop as the Chromium OS is free of cost and comes inbuilt. 8 reasons on why you should use a Chromebook? 1) Low Prices: Be it a student or an educator, the price is definitely one of the top criteria when it comes to purchasing decision. Chromebooks are known to be very cost effective. Have a look this chart: Only the Pixelbook crosses the mark of $1000 rest all the Chromebooks are in the price range of below $549. The starting range is $159 offered by Lenovo which should be a good choice for students who have basic tasks to do such as surfing the web, video content, assignments, etc. 2) Long Battery Life: My personal reason to buy a Chromebook is definitely the long battery life it offers. Even the most budget Chromebook will offer a battery life of 6 hours and above. The new pixel book 2 offers a battery life of 12 hours and above. 3) Ease of use: Since these laptops run on Google Chromium OS, ease of use has become the unique selling proposition (USP) for Chromebooks. A kid in the second grade can use a Chromebook without any adult supervision, thanks to device management. 4) Security: We all have been in a situation where our laptops got infected with a virus that got transferred with the data copied from the USB drive. With Chromebooks, you don’t have to worry about viruses anymore. All Chromebooks have built-in security measures developed by the tech giant Google. Chrome OS is well-guarded against all the viruses, phishing, etc out there on the web 5) Google Apps: The best part about owning a Chromebook it is accessible to millions of apps straight from Google Play store. All the models that were released in 2017, had play store installed out of the box. As a student or an educator you will be able to improve and enhance your productivity with google apps such as Drive, Keep, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, etc. 6) Offline use: Chromebooks are designed with the CLOUD in mind.There are more than 200 offline chrome apps that can work without internet connectivity. Apps such as Drive, Gmail, Docs, Kami, Google Drawings, Slack, etc. 7) Google Assistant: Having a virtual assistant is a cool idea, isn’t it? A virtual assistant comes handy when you are working on multiple tasks like assignments, lesson plans, presentations, case studies, etc. With Google Assistant, you can simply share or even learn more about the topic. You just need to hold your stylus on the text and your Google Assistant gets activated. For now, this feature is only for Google Pixelbook but will be rolled out with all future Chromebooks starting 2018. 8) Durability: Most Chromebooks pass the military durability test that includes fall from a height of up to 4 feet, water spillage on keypad and screen tampering. The Acer Chromebook 14 can even survive extreme temperatures (minus 20.2 degrees to 140 degrees Fahrenheit), humidity, vibration, rain, sand, and dust. Watch this durability test video by Acer Bottom Line Chromebooks are productive devices that are affordable and offers decent performance. With the introduction of Android apps to Chromebooks, I see more educators and students opting for it. #google #ProductLaunch #Education #Chromebook

Over the years, Volva has retained its positioning of being a "safe vehicle." In this commercial, the brand went through all the limits to showcase one key feature of their new trucks i.e steering stability. The ad is a stunt which was performed by the legendary action actor Jean-Claude Van Damme. The ad clearly communicates the feature of the product without going overboard. The soundtrack used in the ad was "Only time" sung by Enya which makes it an icing on the cake. For me, this ad is definitely one of the top ten favorite ads ever made. #Volvo #Advertising #Positioning #Advertising #Marketing

As a marketer, it is of vital importance to know what is the current THING in the market. We may not like something but what if our customers associate themselves with it and want to be known by it? This is where most marketing professionals take a hit, they don’t listen to their customers. A few years back, HBO's acclaimed show Game of Thrones sparked a curiosity in me which resulted in a question “Can movies/shows be termed as BRANDS?” The question looks very simple but you don’t get a clear answer to it. In this post of mine, I have tried to answer this question based on the comments I received on one of my posts on LinkedIn and my observations over the period of time. To start with, let’s go back to basics and learn what is the definition of a BRAND? The American Marketing Association defines a brand as “A name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. I love to define a brand as "the sum total of all the experiences one has with a product or service over a period of time". Apple & Microsoft have a rich history associated with them, Harley Davidson has become a cult, and FedEx has become a verb (Can you please, FedEx this?). Now let’s try to fit this definition into movies. The Sum total of all the experiences a viewer has with a movie (like Godfather, Terminator, Sholay, Andaz Apna Apna) over a period of time. As you see, with the above definition, I can term a movie or show as a brand. But, does it also fit into key branding concepts? I will try to unfold important branding concepts like brand architecture, brand extension, brand equity, etc. with respect to movies. Applying branding fundamentals on movies: “Branded House” To simply put, in this case, the company is the brand. All products and services within that company are subsets of the parent brand. A good example of a branded house is the TATA Group. They may have different companies/divisions/verticals (Tata Nano, Tata Swatch, Tata Salt, etc) but they are known for their parent brand’s ideology. When we talk about movies, we have different production houses like Walt Disney Pictures, Warner Bros Pictures, Yash Raj Films (YRF), Dharma Productions, etc. Every production house has made a position in the mind of the consumer. For example, a Walt Disney movie will specifically cater to children. Similarly, a Dharma Production film will keep the romance as the central theme of the movie and will cater to similar audiences. Source: Virgin “House of Brands” In this type of architecture, the focus is on sub-brands rather than the parent brand. Proctor & Gamble (P&G) company is a perfect example of a house of brands. In the house of P&G, there are dozens of brands such as Olay, Vicks, Gillette, and Head & Shoulders just to name a few. Each individual brand has marked its position in the mind of the consumer. In movies, a production house may be known to make different genre movies thereby catering to different audiences. Production houses like Lions Gate, 20th Century Fox, Rohit Shetty Films, Vishesh Films, etc. all follow the house of brands architecture. Source: P&G "Brand Extension" "Brand extension is leveraging a well-known brand name in one category to launch a new product in a different category". In the case of movies, the sequels can be terms as brand extensions. I had initiated the same discussion in one of the groups in LinkedIn and below are few really good points that were shared by fellow marketers. Here is the link Question: Can a movie be termed as a BRAND? Answer: Yes, if it fulfills at least one of the five aspects. A movie can be termed a brand if it covers a few of these aspects: The movie should have an emotional connection with the audience. A movie can be termed as a Brand when it becomes a CULT classic. Becomes a cash cow (by selling copyrights) for the production house over a period of time. Strong Recall. Be relevant (in sync) with current times. A movie can be a Brand when it is able to evoke an emotional response from its audience. The goal of the movie should be to leave the audience satisfied and wanting more. "Ye haath mujhe dede thakoor……." - Sholay A movie can be termed as a Brand when it becomes a CULT classic. The movie "The Godfather" is considered a CULT classic for its dialogues, stylish visuals, engaging storyline, and powerful characters. It has endured the test of time and is still a favorite of fans today. “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse” - The Godfather For a movie to be called a Brand, it needs to become a cash cow (by selling copyrights) for the production house over a period of time. For instance, the movie called "The Shawshank Redemption" was a successful movie in the 1990s. It took about 5 years for the production house to make a profit from that movie. However, today, Netflix pays a huge amount to retain in its library. "Do or do not. There is no try." - Star Wars For a movie to be called a brand, it needs to have a strong recall among the audience. As strong recall translates to higher revenue from copyrights and an increase in the number of people talking about it. This in return leads to more people seeing it on repeat and more people purchasing their own copies/paying for subscriptions. For example, the FRIENDS series has been known for its strong emotional connection and recall with audiences over the past two decades. It has also been one of the most successful sitcoms of all time with over 10 seasons and 236 episodes. Were Ross and Rachel on a break? - FRIENDS It is necessary for a movie to be relevant (sync with current times) to be called a Brand. The best movies and shows aren't bound by a time period; they are timeless. Toy Story, for instance, is timeless because it continues to have relevance for children today. “The important thing is that we stick together” - Buzz Lightyear Concluding thoughts on the movie as a brand Branding is a term that is used to describe a company or product's ability to generate interest and profits. It can be said that if a movie is able to connect with its audience, generate money for the houses in the long run, and has a strong recall it can be termed as a brand.

If you haven't heard about "CHROMEBOOKS" probably you are living with the cast and crew of Walking Dead (pun intended :p). Chromebooks are the next generation super fast and highly efficient laptops that run Google's Chrome Operating System (OS). Watch this video tutorial by the famous Youtuber Anna Akana as she showcases its benefits and how you can personalize it as per the way you work, play, collaborate and communicate. In the month of October, 2017, Google launched its newest Chromebook "The Pixelbook". At the moment, it's the most premium and Chromebook available in the market with rich features. By 2018, all the upcoming Chromebooks will have android apps support, that will take computing to a whole new level. I am eagerly waiting to get my hands on the "Pixelbook". Here, in the United Arab Emirates, Google has not yet launched the pixelbook. I will probably have to catch hold of a friend who can get me one from the US. #Chromebook #Pixelbook #ChromeOS #Brands

Every day we take decisions in our lives. Some are correct and some are not. Our correct decisions help us move forward in life and our wrong ones help us introspect our lives ( what did just happened?). I think both are necessary for a progressive career. On the same topic, I started reading a book called as “Lead with Story” by Paul Smith and I am already captivated by it. This book has several stories and the one thing common in all of them is decision makers.The story that impressed me the most (so far) is a man known as Rasoul Madadi. The year 2011 was a remarkable year in recent times. It was in the same year the world witness the rise of Arab spring. It started with Tunisia and soon caught up with the neighboring countries. This is the story about Rasoul Madadi in Egypt. On 25th January 2011 a revolution erupted in cities across Egypt. Millions of civilians hit the streets demanding free elections to combat police brutality, high unemployment, corruption and rampant inflation. Protesters opposing Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi wave flags in Tahrir Square in Cairo on Wednesday. Shortly afterward, the military staged a coup, ousting Morsi and suspending the constitution. Initially, the protest started peacefully but soon turned out to be violet when forces loyal to Hosni Mubarak clashed with protesting civilians. The capital city of Cairo was in chaos and soon turned into a war zone. Many people started to flee the city for safety. Rasoul Madadi an expatriate from Cincinnati was one of them,along with his wife and six-year-old son. His company had ordered him to leave the country with his family to a safer place. On January 30th, he left his house for Cairo airport. At this point of time, the destination didn’t matter as long as they are out of Cairo. As people took over streets the with protest it brought the moving traffic to a standstill. Many pilots and crew were not able to make it to the airport that resulted in many flight cancellation that day. Incoming flights were diverted to other cities there by resulting few outgoing flights. A picture he took a Cairo airport That day, Rasoul Madadi witness something incredible. His company had booked multiple tickets for him and his family on the same day. Every canceled flight had his name on the list. That Sunday only one flight took up from Cairo airport and Rasoul Madadi with his family was on that flight. The company that took put so many efforts in safeguarding its own employee was none other than Procter & Gamble (P&G). On that day, P&G proved employees are an important asset to an organization. The story is inspiring, isn’t it? As I love to write about education, the question that crossed my mind is “Are our institutes nurturing decision makers or simply producing robots for the corporate world?” Imagine this, what if the person (who booked the multiple tickets) just booked one ticket on that day? I am pretty sure the team at P&G well thought of ongoing scenario and took a bold decision to book multiple tickets for its employee. In our schools, colleges, institutes we need to nurture students to make critical decisions. While doing this, they might fail several times with their wrong decisions, but this will eliminate the fear from their minds. The case studies shouldn’t be restricted to classrooms only. We need to create an ecosystem that will nurture decision makers for future. Lastly, as an institute lets not produce robots from assembly lines but future managers with skills to make critical decisions for their organizations. Do share your thoughts and experiences on “decision making” and don’t forget to subscribe to the blog for more content. #MBA