24 – China and Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is the next big thing, people are already started discussing and debating how good or bad it will be, and how it’s going to impact our lives.

Though in India, AI is advancing at a slow speed we still lack technological advancement. Countries that are prominently using AI are CHINA, USA, UK, GERMANY. China is already a world leader in AI, although China is mostly in the news because of bizarre uses of technological advancement and AI.


One of the bizarre things I have heard is –


Social credit system- China is using this system to reward or punish a citizen, each citizen will get points according to their behavior, good deeds will win them positive points and bad deeds deduct the points, good deed like how you are keeping the surroundings clean, how are you behaving with your spouse or neighbor, you aren’t creating any ruckus in the society, donating blood, this will help you to gain positive points as a reward you will get loans easily with less interest rate, you will get to travel in high-speed transportation.

Were as bad behavior will lead to negative points as punishment it will be difficult to get loans, the interest rate will be high but there is a loophole in it, You can manipulate the system by paying money and change your points, in order to do this all you have to do is to donate money to the government-approved NGO and volunteer activities. The main ideology behind this is to improve governance and improving the social behavior of the citizens. China is just misusing technology that’s all I understood with the social credit system, it’s doing more harm than good to the Chinese citizens.

23 – Re-targeting Ads

A few days ago one in our classroom, one of our mentors explained how Google is tracking all of our activities through our mobile phones. Through our microphone, google is listening to all of our conversations and Geo-targeting the Ads.

It happens with all of us when we were searching for a product and drops the search in midway, the product ads bombard our social media timeline on every page and app where we go, sounds spooky? isn’t it

Last week when my classmate was using Instagram, and she was discussing about ‘Brandfactory’ withing 3 seconds a ad pops-up on her screen, with the brand factory commercial,which includes new ranges and discounts to lure the reader.
Though Google, claims it’s useful but how useful it is, that’s a consumers had to decide? Re-targeting is the way to keep on pursuing the consumer until he made the purchase, Re-targeting is only good for a consumer like me when I want to buy a product and left in a midway because of high price and then the brand offers me a special discount and push me to buy it but it is not at all good when I just talked or mentioned about a brand on a phone call or in a conversation and suddenly product and brand ads all over my feed.

Personalizing the messaging, limiting the frequency, of the targeted ads is the best way to grab consumers’ attention if brands can leverage it, they will win the Re-targeting war.

22 – Most Valuable Brands

Interbrand which is a part of the Omnicom Group just released its annual ‘Best Global Brands’ report of 2019.

Top 5 Valuable Brands are:

  1. Apple
  2. Google
  3. Amazon
  4. Microsoft
  5. Coca Cola

You can not build a brand overnight, it will take decades to establish the name and fame in the market, It needs to go through a lot of hardships before it becomes a renowned brand.

These companies stick to some strategies and tactics which make them on the top:

Innovation – Success story of Apple or Google we all are familiar with, starting from the bottom now they are at the top, they became most valuable and bankable brands, what different they did to make the mark? They keep on innovating their products and services according to their customer’s or user’s needs.

Leadership – Most of these brands have appointed the world’s best leaders in their leadership positions. It’s the leader who makes the difference, who motivates and inspires employees, brings their best out of them. Satya Nadella, Tim Cook, Bill Gates. People admire their work.

KYC – Know your customer or consumer, You won’t survive in a highly competitive market if you don’t know about your consumer demands, grievances. You need to maintain a human connection, you need to work according to your consumer demand, it’s always a two-way approach.

The consumer is still the king.

21 – Changing Places

To grow in life you need to experience a lot of things, you need to move out of your comfort zone. There comes a time in your life when you need to take this decision to leave your family and parents for your future, for higher studies or work.

 The things which you learn, when you move out of your city or home town:

  1. Cooking – When you are at home your mother cooks food for you, your favorite dishes but once you move to a different city, that’s when you started to miss not only the homemade food but also your mom. You have to cook on your own, no more favorite food or dishes. Maggi becomes your savior for hunger.
  2. Memorizing – At home you don’t have to remember or memorize a lot of things related to your household tasks but once you move to a different city, you have to memorize a lot of stuff, pending bills, monthly expenses, tallying budgets, buying grocery.
  3. Adjustment – You learn to adjust while staying with other people, where you have to deal with different characters, some of them want to use you, some of them wants to get used by you, not everyone is there to help you or comfort you, you are on your own.
  4. Time management – You have to manage time more efficiently when you are away from home and no one is there to help you with your tasks. You have to plan things accordingly.

20 – Survival of the fittest

In the journey of life only fittest survive, but when it comes about brands’ it’s not about that, it’s about the one who adapts with changing worlds and trends will survive and rest will diminish like they didn’t even exist before.

Social media; it’s all started with Orkut, Myspace, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram social media sites entered the life of the peoples just like a parasite, some of the social media sites are diminished by some are still present, and since the consumers are actively using all this sites brands need to maintain their presence on all the social media sites.

Why social presence for a brand is important? The target audience is now mostly active on social media sites. Billboards, and advertising is costly as well as old school methods to connect with brands. Since nowadays everyone is busy on their mobile phones and social media networking sites.

There are some brands like Zomato, Netflix, Swiggy are taking social media engagement to the next level by setting a benchmark by listening to all the grievances and actively interacting with the consumers as well as entertaining them through various engaging posts.

While there are some brands still using old school techniques, away from social media and losing an opportunity to connect with the consumers which is hampering brand.

19 – Go, Goa, Gone

I have never been to Goa and I have never boarded a flight before but my college friends and my mentors of score gave me an opportunity. I was excited about it, as we were going to be part of India’s largest Public Relations summit, known as PRAXIS.

I had no idea, how exactly the airport and flight works, what is boarding pass, how many security checks are there in which we have to go through, which things to carry, which are the things not to carry. I just heard stories from people, I know about a few basic stuff, so I was very curious about it.

In August we came to know that we will be the part of PRAXIS, we will be flying to Goa, Most of my friends have been to Goa and they shared a lot of stories too. Beaches, cheap booze, and party, fun life await for you in Goa, Since I don’t drink and smoke, neither their fun stories nor the cheap alcohol appeased me but this time things were different.

PRAXIS calling and thought of flying the first time, meeting all the PR veterans was more than enough to fascinate me.

We have to reach an hour early which is a quite frustrating experience for the people who are frequent flyers as they had to reach early wait in the line, go through security checks, and sometimes their luggage gets lost or misplaced. Thankfully it didn’t happen with me.

We stayed at the Bamboolim beach, Goa. Our room was beside the seashore, although we weren’t able to hang out much there still it was a good experience, Staying close to the beach and greenery, a break from the monotonous schedule, which was a breathtaking experience for me.

18 – What Can You Learn From Indian Cricket Personalities – Part II

Saurav Ganguly – Dada, The Bengal Tiger, One of the finest captain of the Indian cricket era, who nurtured and trained players like Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan, Gautam Gambhir, M. S Dhoni. Saurav Gangly most successful Indian test captain overseas, in 2000 Saurav Ganguly appointed as the captain of team India. Under his captaincy, the Indian team won several overseas series, he is well known for the 2002 Natwest Trophy incident in which he removed his shirt as a celebration move when Indian defeated England.

Anil Kumble – Anil Kumble who is also known as ‘Jumbo’, he is considered as the greatest match-winner for India and one of the highest wicket-taker, with a simple action nothing as such uniqueness in his bowling action he has managed to took 619 wickets in his whole career span.
What we can learn from Anil Kumble is without even an extraordinary wicket-taking action he was a nightmare for the batsman, so you don’t have to be extraordinary, being ordinary enough in your field will be more than enough.

Yuvraj Singh – Fighter, not only on the field but also off the field, one of the best middle-order batsman of the Indian team, notoriously known for hitting six sixes in six balls, helped Indian team to win 2011 world cup by doing best in every department be it bowling, fielding or batting. After the Indian team won the world cup, news flashed all over the news channels. Yuvraj Singh diagnosed with cancer, played world cup while his therapies were going and Yuvi fought like a champ and came back strong.

What we can learn from Yuvi – Not even a deadly disease can stop you, if you are passionate enough to fight it out.

17 – Captain Cool – MSD

When you hear this word “Captain cool” “helicopter shot”, only one person comes into your mind and that is none other than M.S Dhoni. The man who rose to fame and reached great heights, where only very few people can reach.

There are a lot of qualities, which we can learn from M.S Dhoni and apply in our life:

Calm – ‘Cool as ice’ that’s how commentators define M.S.D. He can handle pressure as he invented it, he can change the dynamics of the game. The strategy which he follows is to remain unfazed even in the toughest situation.

Grounded – You can see a lot of pictures on social media which depict this side of M.S, from cleaning his bike to traveling by train from mentoring junior cricketers to mentoring even the rival team-mates. Even after achieving all the awards and accolades he has remained humble and grounded which makes him most respectable cricketer in the world.

Leader – M.S Dhoni is regarded as one of the finest leaders in the cricketing world, he leads from the front. Under his leadership India won ICC World Cup, ICC champion’s trophy and ICC worldT20 Trophy, the list of achievements is so many. Self-belief is what he possesses and preaches in the toughest of situations as on many occasions he has stepped up and single-handedly won the match for India, supported team in the crucial situations, motivated players when they are at their lowest, this makes him a great leader.

Think out of the box – He is a gambler. A gambler who always wins, he knows how and where to place his bet. During the T20 world cup, in the last over instead of giving the over to Harbhajan Singh, he asked Joginder Sharma to bowl and the rest is history. In 2011 World Cup when the team collapsed, he promoted himself up the order and single-handedly won the World Cup for us. Neither his opponents nor teammates can predict is next move but his out of the box and calculative approach makes him the best.

16 – What Can You Learn From Indian Cricket personalities

There are lots of things which we can learn from Indian cricket personalities who took the Indian team and Indian cricket to new heights

Sachin Tendulkar – Who doesn’t know this name, perhaps ‘Maria Sharapova’ doesn’t, the god of cricket the one whom everyone looked after, I did everyone wants to be like Sachin; Started playing at the age of 16, Batted against fast bowlers like Shoaib Akhtar, Wasim Akram, Shane Bond, Brett lee. A fearless batsman who can send the bouncer of Shoiab Akhtar to the stands with such ease.
What we can learn from Sachin – If you are passionate about anything stay fearless to achieve that

Rahul Dravid – Rahul Dravid is also known as ‘The Wall’. The reason why he is known as the wall because once he is on the crease, bowlers couldn’t take his wicket. he used to bat at no. 3 just after Sachin and Shewag any fall of wickets or collapsed t the initial stage of the game, Dravid used to Anker the innings and used to save the matches.
What we can learn from Rahul Dravid is persistence and patience is the key to success, Once Dravid scored 12runs after playing 96 balls, that showed how prolific he was.

Virendra Shewag – Most destructive batsman, known as Nawab of Nawajgarh. He is known for his courageous batting doesn’t matter what the situation demands he used to play his natural shots, boundary on the very first ball of the match is the must thing, Running between the wickets wasn’t his forte.

M. S Dhoni – ‘Thala’, ‘Captain Cool’, ‘MSD’, ‘Best finisher of the world’ you can call him anything you want, this will be incomplete without his name in it because he has done a lot for Indian cricket over the years and still serving, won us 3 ICC trophies only captain who achieved this, can bat at any situation at any point of time, doesn’t matter what the run rate is, how many wickets have been fallen. Until MS Dhoni is on the crease we have the hope that we will win this match because he has done it several times in the past, he knows how to read the game, how to manipulate the opponent’s mind and strategy.
If you can read the game and know how to manipulate with your competitor’s mind you are ahead of the game.

15 – In Brands We Trust – Matthew Harrington

Brands are the part of everyone’s life, as we all are consumers, and our consumption pattern is mostly for a specific brand that we trust or like the most.

At PRAXIS we got an opportunity to learn more about brands and how consumers trust the brand from the Global COO of Edelman Mr. Matthew Harrington.

Matthew sir shared various valuable insights;

  1. A brand is a promise, and customer trust brand, to do the right thing.
  2. Thanks to Jio, the reach of the Internet and social media is increased. The consumer is now more aware and alert about the things which brands or companies do.
  3. According to consumers, brands are playing a major role in a consumer’s life.
  4. 74% of Consumers are concerned about the product experience.
  5. 67% of Consumers are concerned about customer experience Since most of the companies are facing breach of data issues and consumers are concerned. The information which they are sharing with the brand is safe or not.
  6. 77% Concerned about brands’ impact on society, consumers want the brand to express their values, they want brands should involve and solve the societal issues too.
  7. When brands build trust consumers reward them; They are loyal to the brand, they advocate for the brand, and they defend the brand since they feel the brand is the part of their life.
  8. India’s consumers not convinced of the brand’s commitment to the society – Every brand has a responsibility to get involved in at least one societal issue that does not impact its business.
  9. Doing something for the society just for the sake of CSR activity was the thing of the past, now consumers are more aware and they know which company is actually doing something for the society or just pretending.
  10. Advertising or Print media is not going to end anytime soon and that’s debatable. but in India most consumers avoid advertising.