Mostly everyone hates it when you get those calls from marketers trying to sell you stuff or making you think your inputs are valued and will be used to make business better. Most of the times we end up making ridiculous excuses to not participate (but I’m sure denial rates are factored in when survey campaigns are being formulated) but sometimes you want to stop being bothered help the organizations you do business with better themselves. Here are a few observations from the telephone survey I just had with a Bank of America surveyor

1. Try not to sound so disinterested

Now trash talk call centers in India all you want, with their fake American names and neutral accents but whatever it is, there is nothing worse than talking to a call center personnel (no this person was clearly not from an Indian call center.. trust me I would know) who sounds like they are doing a big favor by calling you. This lady who called me sounded like she was annoyed that I picked her call up in the first place and proceeds to ask me a series of questions. Not a good start if you want to get genuine feedback from your consumer base.

2. Dis-incentivizing never works

When you tell someone “…ideas for products and services will be the sole property of Bank of America with no reward financial or otherwise given to you” (i paraphrase of course) you have effectively killed off any remaning reason why this someone should want to help you. Most people will settle for a “thank you” or some minor incentives but when you flat out come guns blazing the automatic response is to shut down and ask you to go do something else (like go fly a kite or something). If you want to crowd source ideas for your business try to give a small incentive. And if you don’t want to, just dont tell them “all your bases are belong to us and also by the way no rewards whatsoever!”

In any case, if I could only recall the name of the company they said were doing the survey, it would be awesome to send them a note and tell them not to cut costs by skimping on proper training and hiring practices.

Just because you have an Apple logo in your store doesn’t make it a real Apple Store.

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(Note: Jumbo is a large electronics store that sell a variety of products from different consumer electronics manufacturers all over the world. This would be a store like Best Buy in the United States of America)

Having an Apple store in your town is like  a celebrity deciding to buy a house in your neighborhood and letting you play with all the cool and expensive toys. I used to love going to the Apple store – playing with all the cool Apple products or the occasional appointment with the folks at the Genius Bar.

There are a few elements that make an Apple store an Apple store

1. Only Apple and related Products: The reason why its called an Apple store, is because it retails ONLY the Apple product line which means – iPods, iPads, IPhones, Macbooks, MacBook Pros, iMacs, Apple Display, and related software and accessories. If you have products from other manufacturers, I’m sorry, but you are NOT an Apple Store
2. Apple Sales Force: All Apple Retail Stores have Apple sales folk – those awesome blue t-shirt wielding Apple product connoisseurs, understanding all your needs and prescribing the best solution. If you don’t have these great people, you are NOT an Apple Store
3. Genius Bar: This is one of the critical elements to the Apple Store Experience. As an Apple product owner, you have the option of scheduling an appointment with the Geniuses and having them explain technical questions regarding your Apple product. I have had to interact with them on more than one occasion and they were absolutely helpful. Thank you. If you don’t have a Genius Bar, you are NOT an Apple Store
4. One-to-One: Another wonderful element of the Apple Retail Store is the One-to-One. When you purchase a new Apple product you can sign up (if I recall correctly) for sessions from knowledgable folks on how to use your product. It also applies for software (I recall once during my Genius Bar visit, there was an Apple folk explaining the intricacies of some big software like Final Cut Pro or something). If you don’t have this, you are NOT an Apple Store
5. Others: Apple Stores regularly conduct workshop and other programs (sometimes even get artists to come in an join in the fun) to enhance the Apple product and store experience. If you have no such programs, you are NOT an Apple Store
6. The Official Apple Store List: If you are not featured on this official Apple Store List, you are NOT an Apple Store

A couple of weeks ago there was an email floating around Dubai regarding Apple’s first store in the city. It later turned out to be a Virgin Store with a desk bearing the Apple Logo (as heard on Virgin Radio). The good RJ from the show then proceeded to use this definition to launch the “second Apple store” in the region on air.

As all Apple fans around the world know, its more than just the logo that makes an Apple store – its about the whole experience. There is no official Apple store in Dubai and the entire region for that matter, I believe, and while these electronic stores get the Apple products into the hands of new customers, it is just not fair to label them Apple Stores. They are just regular electronics retailers that have, amongst others, a small subsection of the Apple product lineup. So please, in the name of all that Apple, stop calling yourselves Apple Stores.

Yesterday while loitering around a local mall with a few friends, I happened to see this little marketing gimmick placed at well known mall electronics store.

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• What I don’t get with absolute clarity is if Motorola is trying to promote one particular model from their cellphone lineup. Viewers of advertisements should be able to tell with pristine clarity what the product is all about. While I do agree that for some products ads could be intellectually challenging, when it comes to products like cellphones one has limited time to convince a buyer

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• When you are doing some marketing gimmick such as this, please stop assuming everyone is an idiot! It was evident from the moment I laid eyes on it, that the “cellphones” were fake. If you are going to try to convince me to buy your phones, please show me that your phones can actually do what you claim it can. Now, I personally dont find the ruggedness to be a major buying point but even if it were, I would never consider buying this product unless you be honest and upfront with me

Next time, please think about doing it right.

I recently found myself enlightening a couple of individuals who were visibly surprised that they had missed catching the fact that its no longer “Wal-Mart” or even “Wal*Mart” (in the U.S that is). The hyphenated version appeared in one of my reader posts as well. The worst part however was when I was sitting in one of the Brand Management Track programs that we were having and the speaker had no idea of this change. Besides the hyphenated logo was in use only till 1992 so its a logo that was 2 iterations prior to the one currently in use! Get with the times!

Back in 2008 WalMart decided it needed to revamp its logo/name (at least for the stores in the U.S to begin with). And what they did as part of their massively expensive campaign was to take out the asterisk symbol from in between the name and throw it at the end.

Logo Before 2008

Logo After 2008

Make no mistake you still say it the same (I’ve never heard anyone say “Wall Hypen Mart” or “Wall Star Mart” ever) but when you put up the logo or write the name try to avoid the “-” and “*” in the middle of the name from now on. If you take the time to go to Walmart.com see what logo they use in their corporate website you’ll notice precisely the logo they are using now and they want everyone to use (I presume). Furthermore if you try to access http://wal-mart.com , it automatically redirects you to http://walmart.com. All of this is part of the campaign back from 2008 and the shift that I am trying to highlight.

Nevertheless this is arguable one of the worst brand management undertakings if, even after close to 3 years, people still get your name/logo wrong.

For a quick history on how the logo has evolved take a look at this  (from Walmart Logo Timeline and Smartblog)

Hult International Business School is an institution with an striking pedigree. In 2009, The Economist in its yearly MBA rankings, listed Hult as #44 in the world and #23 in the United States. Along with 2009′s Financial Times rankings, this clearly placed Hult in the top 1% of institutions in the world.

Ref: Hult Rankings (seen on Hult website as on September 20, 2010)

Just when you thought that in itself was cause for celebration out comes the 2010 rankings by The Economist.

World Wide = #27

USA = #17

Ref: The Economist 2010 MBA Ranking

Here’s is an interesting stat

Diversity of recruiters – #5

While there are a few other very encouraging stats I find this one to be particularly encouraging.

Here’s wishing Hult continues to climb up the ladder and reach the spot it clearly deserves. Go HULT!

Hult routinely brings in external speakers to augment the MBA experience and one of the speakers we had last week was Reg Athwal who speaks on ‘Unleashing Your DNA’. The whole concept is about finding what kind of personality type you are and subsequently surrounding yourself with others who fit other aspects where you might not be strong at to create a sort of ‘Dream Team’ if you will. The whole concept while cliched seemed to have a positive effect on the student body which is probably a very good thing.

Check out Rawltd.com for further information on the speaker, who knows maybe this is what you are looking for. If it looks a little ‘markety’ thats probably cause he does his job really well.

I picked Hult International Business School to study at for a variety of reasons

1. Hult is globally renowned and reputed
2. MBA is  a 1 yr course, so I get back to the workforce sooner
3. Hult has a Global Rotation program where a student can rotate between their 5 global campuses [Boston, San Francisco, London, Shanghai and Dubai].

Its been 2 weeks since I’ve commenced my academic pursuit in Hult Dubai. I chose Dubai for a variety of reasons, but most of all because it was a cultural melting pot and more importantly a trading hub.

The 3rd week of academics just started after 5 days of religious holidays (which was much loved by all students). Today’s sessions were organized by Hult’s Career Services department and saw 3 external speakers talk about Marketing, Communication & Branding, and ‘Unleashing Your DNA”. All sessions were equally wonderful but here is something that really caught my attention.

Communication & Branding - Olivier Auroy

I find the discipline of  Communication & Branding completely fascinating. The ability to define, create, sculpt and control an entity’s persona is quite exhilarating and fascinating. The landscape is dynamic and the challenges varying and thus is not a job for those preferring stability in their line of work. One of the very interesting highlights of the session on Communication & Branding was this wicked idea of a new kind of sun-glasses. If you think there can be no innovation in a commodity as common as sun glasses, you’ll want to check this out.

bq (derived from the word burqa) is a brand of sunglasses that offer the perfect bridge between fashion and cultural traditions. The Middle Eastern countries have a rich heritage and changes in traditions have been swift with the advent of globalization. Women in these regions used to wear (and still do) burqas but as globalization sweeps through, more women have shifted towards wearing sun glasses as an alternative to the more traditional attire . bq aims at bridging these divergent forces by creating a new style of glasses that appeal to fashionistas whilst preserving a sense of tradition.

Here is a video on the product:

We had a lively discussion in class with ideas on positioning and marketing being flushed out and a particularly interesting thought struck me. With sentiments in the West towards anything from the Middle East at an all time negative, wouldn’t it be meaningful to position this product in a way that would bridge the cultural divide? For example, one could call upon Miss USA 2010 to sport these sun glasses and when awareness of this product increases so will the attitudes towards the unknown change. If humans have used music and sports to set aside their differences and come together why not fashion? Fashion is global and the desire to look good universal! An interesting thought that warrants further exploration of course.

We had another brilliant session on “Unleashing your DNA” but I suppose at this juncture a new post is warranted