Musings!

WHEN we travel with your friends or partner, what we cherish most is their presence , the jokes we share and the comfort of their company.

the places  we visit  and the experiences will always be entangled with the general flow of mood of the group accompanying you..

BUt  when you travel alone, it is someone from deep inside who accompanies you throughout. She doesn’t disguise her inner self just to fit in the world of normality .

She is more happy and free and urges you to fly high.. Her beautiful voice resonates through the empty walls you see around. She sees through the eyes of other people and reads the untold stories of thier lives.

She says there is beauty if you seek yourselves .. she says  be yourselves n that’s awesome

Brand Talks!

Enough of my silly ramblings..let me move into something serious now.. really serious!!!  but not necessarily boring.I’m gonna talk something about Marketing!!.My subject!! ..

I read an article from Terry O Reilly, the radio celebrity of “Under the Influence ” by CBC. I started listening to his podcasts because our marketing Prof. advised us to do so.Also, I would like to include some insights that I got from other articles and interviews that I listened to.

The most important fact of the matter of advertising, which kept me thinking and which our sir kept reiterating is ‘what makes customers buy a stuff’? what do they feel when they purchase some particular brands? What on earth drives them to spend more and more money for a handbag or a sunglass or a dress 500$?How ads manage to evoke those emotions in the minds of the customers so that they become ready to spend their hard earned money for just a brand logo?

Advertiser’s Perspective: O’ Reilly says that it’s important as an advertiser to ask themselves that what business they are in. For instance, Coke is not in Soft drink business but in the Happiness business. Drinking a coke is a sign of celebration and happiness. The brand Apple sends a signal of rebellion and different thinking.

So when the customers purchase those brands, they just don’t purchase products, they purchase emotions, the values associated with the brand.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Brands..

I saw a documentary about “The three Secrets of Superbrands(Fashion). The team conducts certain interviews in the area of emotions these super brands evoke in the minds of target customers mainly women.The women were asked why do you spend 250$ on a handbag made by Gucci or Ralph Lauren? The response was they get excited when they own an expensive item. I seriously couldn’t comprehend the rationality behind purchasing expensive stuff , before learning this course.why are we running behind very expensive brands? Even though I own a couple of Ralph Lauren stuffs, I never purchased it because of its brand but I got those as gifts.Also, I never find those RL items superior to other clothes that I own.In fact, some worn off earlier than the cheaper ones I own. So from then on, I did not purchase any products because it’s expensive. But the frenzy that people are in when it comes to brands, always puzzled me mainly when I stroll through the streets of NYC, eyeing at the bags which cost 500$ etc..,

But then one thought struck me out of the blue.What if I see someone owning this bag.What would be the first impression I make out of them? She must be rich enough to purchase a bag that would cost a fortune and for her to be rich she must be talented.So just by owning a product, one can convey a lot of indirect messages to the people around.So these products in a way expose the inner desire to be superior to the people around you.I mean Maybe .. My theory!!The origin of all this stems from a desire to flaunt off how special you are to in front of others…

So are those brands really superior to the cheaper ones?

The guy in the interview travels to the Sunglass manufacturing company named Luxottica in Italy where Sunglasses are made. According to Wikipedia” ..Luxottica also makes sunglasses and prescription frames for designer brands such as Chanel, Prada, Giorgio Armani, Burberry, Versace, Dolce and Gabbana, Miu Miu, DKNY, and Tory Burch.

They make these brands in batches in the same place where one brand of glasses is made in one hour and the next brand in the next hour. So these glasses of the different brands and different price ranges are made by the same manufacturer, in fact, on the same day by the same people. So even though the brands claim a unique identity, they are all made in the same place.. so it the “exclusivity” given by the customers to these brands is a mere creation of advertising?

My take on what is really happening to us?

How are the advertisers influencing our emotions and the way we think..? Before that its good to understand that what is the foundation of our way of thinking? How are we determining the values and rights or wrongs or how are we programmed to think? Is it religion or the surroundings that taught us to behave in a specific way?If we know what taught us to think in a particular way, it would be easier to understand how are we influenced by ad people.

Admen are influencing the core values that we treasure to sell their product…As we are exposed to a plethora of ads and bombarded with new products every day, we are fed daily with information in a way that the core values are linked to products.When you keep listening to the same messages over and over again, we draw an automatic connection with what we feel to the products that we see on ads.

The new Realm of Social networking!

I was thinking the extent to which FB culture has penetrated to our lives.How important it has become for most of us to portray the awesomeness of our lives to the FB world…Roshan Andrews(Malayalam Movie director) conveyed his scepticism about the new normality of this generation, in his movie “how old are you”, the normality where very private moments become mere posts of Facebook  when couples say “I love you” to each other on FB, waiting for the approval(likes and loves) from the FB world.According to studies,  there are growing concerns about the amount of depression social media sites causes in the young generation. Also, the time which is lost on FB affects the overall productivity of a person.This article explains the amount of loss FB causes to the people’s lives..http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/04/facebook-turns-12–trillions-in-time-wasted.html

Furthermore,I’m pretty sure that the happiness scale( if there is a scale to measure happiness) is lower than the pre-Facebook world while we are on a trip, since we only think about taking pictures and the captions to post on Facebook… people are too much obsessed with drawing their perfect life on FB while forgetting to live it.

Even though I don’t post many private pics on FB, I also suffer from few new gen diseases coz of the social networking sites….I was so scared that people would read my blog and draw conclusions about my ‘imperfect’ life as this blog contains some small bits of the real me who is sometimes happy and unhappy… Because nowadays sharing a post about Depression would automatically convey that you are depressed..people like to draw conclusions about your life based on what one posts on FB. So I think twice to post something on FB to avoid questions.

The most liberating feeling is to let yourselves be seen .. Let it be seen.. the most vulnerable part of you so that the subconscious efforts to show off your awesome life would be subsided automatically …it is not necessary to draw a perfect picture on any social media sites… It’s ok to be not cool sometimes.It’s ok to be weak sometimes…It’s ok to be imperfect sometimes…It’s ok to cry sometimes..  bcoz nobody’s life is perfect as it seems to be…

COZ WE ARE HUMANS!!

Weird Thoughts

Why do I feel detached from the world sometimes?  Sometimes I feel this whole world runs on some unwritten meaningless rules, and everyone forces us to fit into those rules desperately. I was completely into a particular scene when I saw madmen lately.Because the scene exactly explained the crux of my agony for last few months…I can’t coin a word for the whole feeling of detachment from the world that we live in.  Quoting from the mad men series.Draper says ” you born alone and you die alone. and this world drops a bunch of rules on the top of you to make you forget those facts!! But I never forget that. I’m living like there is no tomorrow because there isn’t one! and Rachel replies: ” I do know how it feels to be disconnected ! to see the whole world laid in front of you the way other people live it “!

I echo her.. I know the exact feeling to be disconnected completely! Arrays of faces with the same but meaningless emotions moving around ceaselessly. When you feel the very existence of yours is merely a replica of thousand of faces around you when you realise the absurdity of the unwritten and written rules that dictate the way one live in this world, the rules that decide rights and wrongs, you get stuck…You wonder what the heck I’m doing here!! … sometimes I  feel that I am floating in the sky, watching the mess that we managed to create for ourselves, smiling to myself …

Self talks

Sometimes, it is important to look deep within when your mind puts you in a ‘bad mood’.When I feel awful about something, I just deviate from the things I’m supposed to do and indulge myself into something trivial.It’s just an escape mechanism of the brain from the uncomfortable thoughts. I think ‘mood swings is the way of your mind telling you that “I have few questions that need answers. I need you to ask your brain to come up with those answers. But then, the lazy brain finds shortcuts to calm your mind down. Netflix, youtube, movies etc.. etc,, easy comforts,,

Don’t ignore your mood swings. talk yourselves out of it instead of seeking momentary comforts in videos or foods. You will slowly be a better version of yourselves.

My Guilty pleasure!!

I'm completely honest when I say this. “I was bewitched body and soul by Mathew Macfadyen.I know that  Pride and Prejudice is one of the most celebrated classics, the story that remains forever in our hearts. Most of the girls fell head over heals for MR Darcy in the story.what’s sexier than a man who is sophisticated, vulnerable, deep, intense and flawlessly manly?  Everything about him attracts women in..

And, I always had a huge crush on him.. is it just a crush,,? I would rather call it a Madness !! Yes, I admit it.I know that I’m just one among those women who were swept away by Mr Darcy!! Usually, for many, those crushes would die away as time passes. But mine .. it is always with me.   I fell in love with the British accent just because of Mathew’s Voice(as an Indian it’s not that cool to say that   ). I know it has become a cliche to talk about Macfadyen’s voice. Heck with it.. his voice is truly hypnotising!!

I used to watch his interviews over and over again on Youtube. Sometimes even now. I know its a little immature.. but i dont care .. 

The only man I admire for the way he is, in the film industry!” most ardently ”  

And yes!!He is my guilty pleasure!!

Random!!

When you attribute your inaction to the negative circumstances or problems that you face in your life, you are just making an excuse for not doing what you are ought to do. When you shrug off the responsibility from your shoulders for your laziness and put all the blame on those small misfortunes of your life, you close your own eyes and complain it’s dark out there. NO matter what happens to you,  be determined to move forward. When you don’t, it is not fate that withholds you from what you want. It’s  you.. only You. You might pity yourselves for what’s  happening to you and think about that one thing that you don’t have and use it an excuse to prove your mind that it’s ok to lie down on the couch complaining “ why me”  instead of going out and work your ass off.Wake up gal!!! you are blessed in so many ways .. be grateful and make others lives beautiful!!!!!! it’s your life. Live with the passion!!Live it!! Don’t just pass through it.

PS: not an upsurge of emotions after a motivating speech or motivating movie.I believe this is the attitude I  have now. This is the lesson I learned from my life.