Tag Archives: Brands

What Entrepreneurs must learn from Fashion Models!

One day, when I was on my regular ‘contest begging’ trips, I was stunned when the brand manager of Liril Soaps (a Unilever Company product) said, ‘Alok, don’t harass me. We make soaps here – not contests. If you like contests so much, why don’t you make them and pitch them to me, rather than the other way around’……. On introspection, it was so clear why the games succeeded in China – with no mass entertainment options available (TV and films are state controlled) and very cold weather, Chinese teens were happy to lock themselves into gaming dens and play away for hours non stop. On the other hand, in India, with 3 bollywood movies releasing a week; 500 channels on TV and very warm and ambient weather, teems cared a damn to sit in suffocating game parlors and play online games with silly dragons and elves Continue reading

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Why service at India Retail stores is so bad…

A few weeks back I invested a princely sum of money to buy my Airmax 2010 Nike shoes from the flagship store in San Francisco. Last week, just before traveling again, I washed my shoes and was aghast to see … Continue reading

Posted in Experiences, Hall of Fame | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 20 Comments

What’s in a name?

Spending time and money on the perfect ‘brand name’ creation is all bunk. Those who pretend that it matter are the false advertising types whose livelihood depends on making people spend money they don’t need to: Continue reading

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Why the Chinese buy Internet Media on a ‘time’ basis

During my experience in China during 2001-2003, I never paid much attention to why the leading websites in the country sold their media on a ‘time’ basis - so essentially Sina, Sohu and Netease would sell their impressions and banners on … Continue reading

Posted in Internet, Media, Mobile and Tech | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Ad networks go and going bust :-(

I was shocked when my colleague told me that Adsmart or Adrevenue – a UK based ad network that Games2win had signed up has gone bust…taking along with it about 500 UK Pounds owned to us. Shucks…. and hell…. how … Continue reading

Posted in Start-Up, VC & Corporate Stuff | Tagged , , , , , | 16 Comments