Online Marketing

Time for a lesson on online marketing - a layman perspective(advanced and choosy of course)

This thought came after seeing the change in ad pattern on hotmail which was probably trying to come in Yahoo Beta version plans. Those who use hotmail might have notice it that the advertisement which used to be on top of the page horizontally is now in right side of the screen,vertically. The way in which yahoo beta version is advertising. I am not sure who advised them to come with the advertisement in right bar , vertically and that too with pictures in it. Yeah it indeed catch the eye and you can't miss it, but at the same time it irritates too. And that is the reason due to which I restored the classic version of yahoo mail after trying the beta version. Hotmail, high time to introduce features like restoring, else I don't see myself using hotmail in long run probably. Best way of online marketing, is how google do it. How come you are so good ,google. I hate you I hate you. Text advertisement in vertical right bar. And pictured  advertisement in right bottom of the page. In none of the case, I ever clicked the ad though.  For me advertisement in horizontal bar was more like a theme, which made feel good inbox. Wonder who gets trapped in the net of this online marketing. [:thinking]

Moral of the story:-  Pictured advertisement in vertical right bar is a bad idea of online marketing.

Being IIM

So what's the first thought came into your mind after reading the title of this post?  Indian Institute of Management(IIM)? Story of IIM student? About fight to get into IIM? MBA? C'mon give a break. Time to grow up. This post doesn't have to do anything with mentioned above. This is a story about Indian IT Male(IIM), a profile which is very common in India now. And yeah this spicy post shouldn't be taken as true reality though it might be. :P

Engineering a very easy degree in India, which can be obtained from grey market(fake one) other then getting it first hand with your effortless effort of 4 years in engineering college. Here engineering doesn't mean working on new idea or developing something on idea already existing, but just to cram some formulae, theory a night before exam and just vomit everything(I am not talking about vomiting literally %$#%) you crammed a night before in the paper to clear it and come out with a bright,shining degree. Engineering degree can be analogous of "India Shining" campaign which was as hollow as the degree. So coming to what an engineer learn at educational front? Answer is in one word NOTHING. Now don't come to me saying that you have learnt a lot in your engineering life. ;-) 

But few things they become good at, and that are, giving bolvachan (say, philosophical thought), how to download movies & songs and from where, crashing the computer and rest are clandestine and shouldn't be spoken over here. :P And Achievement after completing the engineering degree are, thousands of movies and songs stored in there TB(in our time it was GB) capacity hardisk, a long list of movies they have seen, few friends and of course a degree. Its pity if you did not do it in your engineer life. And am really sorry if you have wasted your FOUR precious year studying some engineering concept or some research paper which you will never use. 

And there are two path after completing the degree, one come and join IT or go for higher studies to again do the same stuff. :P And those who join the IT give rise to flavoured IIM. But someway or other one admirable quality of Indian engineers are, they can DO anything under given timeline and that is the thing which make them survive the IT. 

And now comes what they do and what they think.  Starting from fresher till they become experienced player.

Before joining the company they are full of  enthusiastic to do something great in life. Yeah they start thinking about LIFE, a questionable and debatable topic. Pass the training period which lies anywhere between 1-4 months, get into some project and then suddenly 8 more month passes (yes without doing any work and not to miss, learning), which completes the first year. By that time looking around no work, no learning situation the seed of higher education planted. And only thing which they find is, yeah, its the one and only one, CAT. Donate some money to coaching institute, and later more donation to colleges for filling the form, and bingo when the exam is just a month away, WORK as a blood thirsty demon in face of project lead comes from nowhere. Feel frustrated with it, but somehow do the work and preparing side by side for exam. Write the paper and fail to reach the expected percentile and then donate more money for application form where their percentile requirement they can fulfill. Take adhoc leave in Jan/Feb/March to attend the selection process and process follows as mentioned in my previous post 'yem bee yee'.  Get admission but realize that college doesn't match there aspiration, drop the plan for admission thinking in mind to prepare again. And this marks the completion of TWO years in IT. By the time third year begin the very thought of preparing starts dieing, third year passes with retrospection. Feel more frustrated, plan for shifting the company and some take this measure while some do not. Think about career option beyond Master's course and the monotonous IT life. More they think more interesting ideas they get. Few are listed as below in priority level.

• To go back to village and start farming.
• To open a PAN shop.
• To open a tiffin shop or restaurant.
• To commit suicide???
• To continue working in IT

Whatever career option they think, they do continue with the least priority thing which is continue working in IT.  And this complete there fourth year in IT. Fifth year may result in them thinking that them becoming stagnant in career and then taking some part time course to improve the resume and in side working on marriage plan, as by the time they become lead they become lonely with everyone flocking around mostly with selfish motifs.  And then the never ending cycle continues. Guess I will be able to comment over the final destination after reaching there till then, No Comments!!!

Possibly story of IIF(Indian IT Female) also goes on same line, till they get married and from there IIF and IIM takes different path because for female life become secure while for male probably it become insecure. hehehe Making males taking some different measures. ;-)

Blog Hit - a milestone achieved

I was happy to see that blog hit for my page is reaching the figure 9000. That's not bad taking into account my intermittent postings. Over it due to my dormancy on my page for past 12 months, my blog hit was just 1700 last year. So overall, the average for my blog ranges in 3650 hit an year(nearly 10 hit a day). Yuppie!!!

Few more thing I found, mostly I write sarcastic comments or something related to advertisement. Guess its giving an insight into my thought process too. :D

Special thanks to all the readers for checking my blog page regularly. :-) 

Yem Bee Yee!!!

"Yem Bee Yee " a disease which have the ability to to become chronic if proper action not take now. Or I guess its too late!!! It can be easily be observed from the figure. CAT taker for year 2006 was around 1.7 lakh which increased to 2.2 lakh in 2007 and reached a figure of 2.8 lakh. A consistent increase of nearly 25% every year. And if you believe the analysts, the figure will reach 3.5 to 4 lakh in coming year. And so is the case of coaching market which is growing leap and bound and have reached nearly half a billion rupees. Colleges which were never heard say 3-4 years back are now tough to get into. And the colleges which were tough to get into 3-4 year back are now nearly impossible to get. :D

Lets just do a quick check who is gaining due to all this operation? I would say Coaching institute, Colleges. Why? Well I gave the analysis part in paragraph above. And who are the losers? Aspirants off course and the company where these aspirants(if working) are working. Doubt? I salute the person who gave the statement, GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER THE OTHER SIDE. Might be written for donkey's but fits aptly for MBA aspirants. Running or say quitting attitude and the greener picture post MBA make them think suddenly life will take a turn in Z-axis from current 2 dimensional monotonous system. They think post MBA will make them get a fat pay cheque with not much of effort. And coaching institute, media air their desire, and they start running for never ending run of MBA putting aside there work, ignoring opportunities, responsibility. Though the beginning give a filling low input and high output scenario, but once into it realize that what they were looking was just a tip of iceberg, and viola!!! the Titanic riding for dream destination 'MBA' hue and cry over the exorbitant application fees of colleges which comes with a deadline date much before the main exam. Greed made them fuel the ship so as to reach the destination quickly. And there is a twist in the story, this time the approaching iceberg is not that big to affect the ship and ship sail through with little damage on pocket for which anyway there company is paying.

Comes the exam date, and then few realizes that damage which they thought was not that small as they were thinking they need to do some repair, some more application are filled now. By the time the whole application process gets over, aspirant realize that the damage on pocket was also not small and was huge for applications only, say a modest figure of 20k-25k, nearly a month salary (minimum). No heed to the damage is given as still the bright and greener picture is in view. Thank God, calls starts coming out. And somehow the applicant make it finally to few colleges selection process. Start preparing for the process, and start thinking about why MBA, why this college, aim in life, ideals, where they want to see them after 5-10 year, plan to achieve and crap like this. And surprisingly no one comes out with the correct and honest answer. Few examples:-

Q. Why MBA?

Honest Answer:- I feel that a fat cheque will be waiting for me after completion of course and moreover I am good for nothing and my condition is similar to what my manager is. And I don't want to work at all that's why I want to do MBA. And also all my friends were doing it without knowing why they are doing so I was also doing it. :P

Answer which is actually spoken(Touch of honesty Zero)? :- Something on line of growth opportunity, aspirations in life which can't be achieved without MBA and it goes on an on. 

Q.Why this college?

Honest answer:- I am not getting any other college and someone told me the placement figures are good for this college as compared to other one.

Answer which is given:- College ethics and ideals matching with mine or something on this line

Q. Where after 5 year

Honest Answer:- 5 years? are you mad? I don't even think what I am going to do in evening, planning for year 5 year from now is crazy. Screw you!!!

Answers which is given :- entrepreneur and going hand in hand with Bill Gates or Mittal or Tata or something similar to line above. :P

Lot many question are there, its a hell lot of work. Will come out with the dossier in days to come.

Lets get back to the agenda. After few more interview, final call list comes those who are selected jumps with joy and those rejected try again next year, because once you are addicted its tough to get out of it, more like a narcotics. Lets talk about those who were jumping with joy, reach the college, then come the rigor of course. Think I am screwed why did I come here? Summers start, get the feeling how easy it was thrashing the lead those days rather than getting a summers. Every day pass with a feeling, thank GOD at least one day has passed. And then comes the placement days. And from nowhere iceberg appears only to crash there dream run. Manage to get the job somehow which feels like peanut including the tax figures and expectation from the recruiter. Think of the golden days of IT and sighing on decision to come to MBA taking into consideration only placement figure. And the titanic sink again this time.

Disclaimer:- This post is written on a lighter note, take it sportively and don't take it as real picture of MBA. Two years which you are going to spend will be the best days in your life no matter what the placement figures are. It will be surely a refreshing break from the work. And this gives you another opportunity to make life long friends (in loads) after your graduation with IQ level similar to yours. And last but not the list, writer is not trying to defame any institution nor demeaning the aspirants. Post will be deleted if more than 100 comments comes against it. :P

Google Chrome!!!

Google trying its hand in everything, and no doubt one day we will hear that it has a market share for OS too.  But I am sure of one thing, they are probably gonna caught in some legal issue some day or other. I dont know how many of you actually encountered the problem, google doesn't support MS mail (Hotmail) upto some extent. The application doesnt respond properly with hotmail. Also on google chrome, all sites other than google's crash once and you will get the page broken link and site not exist. Belive me it came for yahoo.com too!!! screw you chrome!!!

I am writing this after using Chrome for nearly 30 days and after declaring chrome as my official browser last month on 26th. Chrome has replace mozilla and due to my habbit of  throwing/scrapping things which I dont use made mozilla to go completely out from my TV(means laptop), browser which I used for almost 2 years.And now I miss mozilla!!!

I hate you google!!! And yeah I can tell this while using your so called application blogger and I will still use it. :D

P.S.:- I am back with my posts which lack synchronization and not to miss, clarity of thought. :P

Bell Bazao!!!

I hope many of you might have seen the advertisement by BELL BAJAO initiative on television(Indian Chaneels only) these days. Boman Irani alias Dr. J (dot) austana [Coutesy : Munna Bhai MBBS] urge people to ring the bell to halt the domestic violence. And I know people will love to see what the starting line of web page has to say. 

"Bell Bajao" (Ring the Bell) urges men to take a stand against domestic violence. Ring the bell and intervene in situations of abuse. A simple act from your side is all it takes to bring it to a halt.

I would like to ask three question :-

1) Why only MEN need to take a stand against domestic violence. Can't women take stand here? Or I guess Women Organization are already working with there protests and slogan war against men(alas, he is always the culprit), so some people thought lets come up with this idea of men against a CRUEL man. ;-)

2) Why its been projected that domestic violence is solely caused due to man. And women doesn't have to play any role there? At a time I would have accepted if it could have been rural area, but urban area I guess, you try your hand and you will get one on you too. [WELL I never got into such situation, if u r cooking something like that in your mind as of now then]

3) Why we hear only crying lady and a beating man? Can't they come up with opposite idea? It will be heard for sure. :D

Domestic Violence initiatives? Do we need it? We already have so many laws and initiatives in this regards.And seldom law is found in use anywhere and if used then that too at upper or higher middle class, and that too many a time to gain some monetary benefits. So whose morality is in question here? And also its a known fact outsiders interference with personal matters (yes personal you read right, I am saying its a personal matter) usually have sever repercussions. At the end its the morality of the person involved (man or women) which stops such incidents. Anyway lets hope the initiative will work. And also hope ringing the bell dont give shock like the havells advertisement - "Shock Laga laga shock laga". Amen!!!