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The Branded and Gilded Life

Connecting the not-so-obvious branding dots

Marketing is a never-ending set of experiments to understand human behavior. It"s still opaque even after billions are spent every year. Predicting human behavior is like the horizon - visible yet hard to reach ideascape.substack.com

business marketing

All Episodes

5:59

The autograph and the selfie

The Branded and Gilded Life ·

2022/09/11

It's one of the prizes of fame.People swarming to get an autograph - and now a selfie.Fame by association.The selfie with a celebrity seems to be the in-thing now.Adoring fans with smartphones held high, pleading for the celebrity to walk into the frame.Followed by frenzied postings on social media with a flurry of likes and emojis.Was the signature mania any different?What happened to those endless coming-of-age signatures with a flourish?Were they retained and kept as encounters to be preserved

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6:09

The movies where nothing happens

The Branded and Gilded Life ·

2022/09/04

There's no plot.No character arc from bad to good.It starts in a beautiful section of the woods.Sunlight filters through the trees.The natural forest sounds of a river flowing and birds chirping fill the soundtrack.So what do you think happens next?Nothing.It's like someone walked into the forest, set up the camera to run for a few hours and then uploaded it on to YouTube.You would expect a film like this to get about 10-20 views?After all, how long does it take to actually get to a real forest from

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6:14

The issues with tissues

The Branded and Gilded Life ·

2022/08/28

In the early days of the pandemic last year, there was a run on toilet paper in the USIt was quite mystifying to Indians who have no such needs in bathroom emergencies.But how a product evolves is fascinating, even hilarious.In India, facial and other tissues still constitute a small market of about Rs 1500 crores.For a nation of over a billion, that's a drop in a thunderstormHandkerchiefs have been the all-purpose, go to solution for the middle class - used for everything from wiping sweat to

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6:08

Has the internet changed the world?

The Branded and Gilded Life ·

2022/08/21

We still go to work every day. Online.We track our steps, our heartbeats, our calories and our social capital. With tiny rushes of adrenalin and fear.We snap pictures but not on old-fashioned cameras anymore.Headphones have become essential.We move through the day from one screen to another, even when we say we aren't addicted.Conversations are hard. Texting is preferred.Our concept of money has become way more ephemeral.We dislike unpredictability even while saying we welcome it.We're watching

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5:56

How long did your Tamagotchi live?

The Branded and Gilded Life ·

2022/08/14

A few days or a few weeks?Apparently, there are people who have kept the pet 'alive' for 25 years.That calls for some serious dedication.An egg-shaped plastic toy with a B&W screen burst on the scene in 1996.The genius move was making rebirth easy. Just a reset after 'death'The 'pet' would be born as a small egg and hatch into a form.All action happened on the screen inside.You decided how much effort you would put in.But once you made a commitment, you had to stick to it. Everything from 'feeding'

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5:21

The new kid in town - Spielberg

The Branded and Gilded Life ·

2022/08/07

It was the early 70s.And movies theatres were facing a new attention magnetTV programs. The studios knew they had to get people back into theaters again.Films that would make people long to see spectacles made for big screensMuch like the times we are in now but for a totally different reason.Francis Ford Coppola was already a big name with 'The Godfather' having released.But in his drawing room, over a weekend, they were watching a film made by a 24 year old.In the audience - George Lucas, Martin

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5:42

Don't worry, you won't understand most of this

The Branded and Gilded Life ·

2022/07/31

I didn't either but it's still interesting.A Sydney student's homework has gone beyond his wildest expectations.It's not clear whether he got an 'A' but researchers at Amazon AWS, Yale and Duke University were studying it as well.He's found a way to reduce errors in quantum computers.It's one of those problems that stops progress.Quantum computing works exponentially faster than the computing power we have today.Now, while that gets faster results, it also amplifies error rates substantially.Errors

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5:53

A pen that lasts forever

The Branded and Gilded Life ·

2022/07/24

We've all run out of ink and pens at specific points.Asked people at random places and occasions if we can borrow a pen.This product takes into account that behavior.It's small enough to fit on a keychain.And since it's made from a silver composite, it writes on most surfaces.No ink required, so no refills That solves the problems all ball points have. They dry up if left unused over time.These days, the need to write in notebooks has progressively reduced.But jotting down ideas exactly when you

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5:23

Influencers - the old and the new

The Branded and Gilded Life ·

2022/07/17

In social media, 'likes' are the currencyThe more their follower’s number in the millions, the more an influencer can charge for a single brand mention.More than a mass medium could ever hope to for a solo release. Even in prime positions or prime timeBut this power is limited to an emotional connect and the ability to persuadeThere are music, film and cricket stars at the top of the pecking order who have carefully curated and cultivated their social media profiles.A single mention from them gets

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6:05

Conversations with teenagers

The Branded and Gilded Life ·

2022/07/10

A tweet by Paul Graham opened up a window into adult-teenager conversations.Let me reproduce it here because he puts it eloquently:Parenting trick: When your kids reach the sullen teen stage where they don't want to talk to you, drive them places. In the car they forget they're having a conversation. It helps that you're both looking forward instead of at each other.Simple enough?Adults struggle to establish contact in those growing years. It's as if the kid you know well morphs into someone

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6:12

The flop that's still a hit

The Branded and Gilded Life ·

2022/07/03

He was told he couldn't even jump over a garden chair.And in the beginning, he couldn't.But at the Olympics in Mexico in 1968, Dick Fosbury would invent a high jump technique people laughed at. It looked far from graceful. As he approached the bar, he turned his back on it and when airborne, flopped his body across in an arc with millimeters to spare.That was also the year the landing pad was replaced with rubber foam. Without the foam, there was no way to use the technique.Even today, that

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5:14

What happened to Rasna?

The Branded and Gilded Life ·

2022/06/26

In the 80s, it was a runaway success.But the campaign 'I love you, Rasna' and the girl who was seen as cute and lovable have been eclipsed.The rise of the colas and their deep pockets shifted consumption habits.The soft drink concentrate powder had to be mixed into drinks - and the flavour seemed artificial to a new generation that was moving to 'real' fruit juices.Even though they were just as sweet as the colas wereThe 2-liter cola bottles could be stored in the fridges and brought out anytime

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5:42

Are Formula 1 drivers superhuman?

The Branded and Gilded Life ·

2022/06/19

The average human navigates away from a web page if it doesn't load in seconds.The most studious kids can put in about 6-8 hours in a day but not at a stretch.Think of what a Formula 1 driver takes years to achieve.Unrelenting focus in 2 hour races with no break or lapse in concentration.At speeds of over 200 mph (about 340 kmph), they can't afford a single mistake. Zero tolerance for error.The fitness routines develop reflexes faster than those of fighter pilots.They build unbelievable muscular

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How do you make people listen to a catalog?

The Branded and Gilded Life ·

2022/06/12

The ones that resembled phone directories are long gone.They used to be a staple of the big chains for holiday shopping over the years.The internet ensured that it was no longer necessary to print them.So why did IKEA move out of a catalog into a podcast?And why would anyone want to listen?Put yourself in IKEA's position - catalogs are getting outdated but if they're your most potent marketing weapon, you have to find other ways to get the same traction.So, how do you make it interesting?Build it

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5:57

Amazon rewrites the advertising model

The Branded and Gilded Life ·

2022/06/05

Google and Facebook can only point you in the direction of an online purchase.But Amazon is the place to fulfil it - at least a large chunk.So, what happens when Amazon becomes an advertising platform?In case you haven't noticed, there are now 'Sponsored Products' on Amazon.And those ads are paid for by companiesThe digital equivalent of in-store advertising in the real world.You've walked into the store and you're about to pick up your favorite brand of noodles, when you see the competition making

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6:00

The cat that got the cream

The Branded and Gilded Life ·

2022/05/29

What is it with the internet and cats?The 'original' of a digital pixelated cat creating a rainbow trail behind it sold recently for $500,000.What's happening here? Digital work that anyone can access selling for huge sums of money.Keep the focus on ownership.Everyone can see the art. Ownership is another matter altogetherYou can look at the Mona Lisa by walking into the Louvre. But owning it is a different ball gameHere's where the internet, art and blockchain are converging.If you can establish

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5:49

Alberto, Alberto and Alberto

The Branded and Gilded Life ·

2022/05/22

Talk about coincidences.The original brain behind Zumba, the world-wide exercise routine was built around a set of dominoes that started tumbling in Cali, Columbia.A city familiar to most people who watched the Netflix series, Narcos.Cali was the capital around which Escobar's empire grew.But the first Alberto, or Berto was a 15 year old dance instructor in the middle of the bedlam. Dancing away and making others dance to his tune.Zumba began with a mistake when Berto forgot the regular dance

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6:04

What happens with 100% internet penetration?

The Branded and Gilded Life ·

2022/05/15

Most countries aren't anywhere close.South Korea offers a glimpse of what could happen when practically the whole population is online - 96%.Blazing internet speeds and high urban saturation In addition, the work culture follows the Chinese model - 996. 9 am - 9 pm, 6 days a week. That leaves little time or inclination to go shopping on the one day people get off from work.The company leading the pack online is Coupang. They invested early in logistics and delivery infrastructure getting a head

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6:16

Who remembers cassette tapes?

The Branded and Gilded Life ·

2022/05/08

Before iPods and CDs, there were audio cassette tapes.Now forgotten in the lofts of old houses, you'll still find old collections gathering dustThe inventor, Lou Ottens of Eindhoven company, Philips has just passed away at the age of 93.Another milestone in an audio journey that played out over a couple of decades.Cassette tapes attained the heights of their popularity in the late 60s and by the early 80s, they were on their way out, having conceded ground to the vastly more popular CDs.But in those

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5:52

Requirements gathering from a prison

The Branded and Gilded Life ·

2022/05/01

When Amit Mishra was jailed in connection with his wife's suicide, it was the worst thing that ever happened to him.When he emerged a year later having proved his innocence, he had built a software solution jail authorities are now adopting across the entire network of prisons, starting with Haryana.The problem he solved - helping people who had served their sentences to appeal for release.In the earlier bureaucratic system that existed, prisoners languished far beyond the sentences they had to

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