New Zealand Trip –the Highlights.

Tongario River Trail

I would recommend everyone I know and don’t know to travel to New Zealand. At least once in a lifetime. We knew it is a beautiful country but what we saw bowled us over. Perhaps because we were visiting in spring, where there was bloom and waterfalls everywhere. Let me make an attempt to pen down some of these. Though no amount of words and pictures can sum up even half of what we experienced.

Walks and Cycling Trips: The NZ government has done a fantastic job of preserving the beautiful country as well as making it accessible for people to appreciate. They have created multiple walking and cycling trails inside forests and around the hundreds of lakes that the country is blessed with. Maps are freely available at information centres of nearby towns that help you explore the area. We must have walked for around 100kms taking umpteen trails over these days. Of these two were particularly interesting, one at lake Tekapo, the Mt. John Summit Track that walks mostly through open tussock lands ending with stunning 360 degree views over Lake Tekapo, Lakes McGregor and Alexandrina, the Mackenzie Basin and across to the Southern Alps. The other was Lake Rotopounamu Walk near Tongario that goes around a lake nestled on the side of Mount Pihanga. We also did two cycling trails – both of which were very good for those not used to cycling too much. The Tongario river trail did a loop around the Tongario river passing sometimes through forests and sometimes alongside green pastures of land. And the Queenstown trail went around lake Wakatipu. We rode up to Frankton on a beautiful sunny day. 

Windy and Wet

Kayaking in lake Taupo: Not many people were kayaking in NZ. Perhaps since the summer had not arrived. But on this rainy windy day, we were pretty determined. Mike and Barb, whose place we put up (Tongario Adventures), had Kayaks and they were very generous to offer it to us for free. Mike even took the kayak with me up to the Taupo lake, a 100 yards from their house. We first kayaked parallel to the beach until the end of the hill and then turned into the river upstream. It was difficult owing to the winds, but we went on. One side of the river had houses and the other had a hill. Families of ducks swam close by, perturbed by us, the unusual visitors. When we got tired, we turned around and the current made us drift slowly back into the lake.

Milford Sound Cruise: If one were to ask me the number one highlight of the NZ trip, then I would mention Milford Sound. Perhaps because it was a rainy day. We had booked ourselves on this bus that picked us in the morning from our hotel and dropped us at the cruise and return. On board was a very informative and enthusiastic driver cum guide, Shelly. She tried to keep our spirits up in spite of the cold and wet weather. But I guess the weather was a blessing in disguise. Owing to the rains, the Sound was full of waterfalls. A mystique mist formed around the mountains surrounding the Sound owing to which we were unable to see the top of the mountain and it seemed like the water falls were plummeting from the clouds. On a clear day a picture of the Sound will show multiple mountains one behind other, stacked up as layers. 

The surreal Milford Sound

But since this was a cloudy day, the same scene on a camera felt like a shaken photograph or someone who needed to see an ophthalmologist as eyes saw hazy images. Was nature playing games? It was an eerie feeling. “Did Lord Voldemort lived here?” Rupali asked. I was so excited that I opened my shoes, folded my pants, put on the poncho and went up to the top deck of the cruise. The winds were so strong that it was difficult to stand without holding on to the rails. Rains splashed from all sides and the poncho was no good. But the scene was stunning. As the cruise went up close the mountains we saw a family of seals lazing on rocks, unperturbed. One of the customary items on the cruise is that they move close to one large waterfall – almost underneath. Owing to the rains the fall had become even more rowdy and now the vapours from the falls were seeming like sharp water pellets. Damn the clothes and the camera. While Milford Sound will be stunning even on a bright sunny day, the rains added immense mystic and enigma to the place and made it incredible.

At "The Find" pub in Queenstown

Queenstown: This is some place where you should plan at least 3 full days. It’s a beautiful small hilly town with a population of 28K people, most of who I guess work for tourists one way or the other. Also called the adventure capital of the world, it offers a lot of activities for the enthusiast – Skydive, Bungee, Swings, Jet Ski, Parasailing, Skiing, Rafting etc plus a host of softer options such as Cycling, Milford Sound tour, LOTR tour, Wine Tours, Gondola Ride, etc. We were in Queenstown for four days and did some of these adventure trips and tours. On other times we mostly walked, sat in front of lake Wakatipu sipping wine, visited pubs and ate at Indian and Thai restaurants.

Almost failed Skydiving trip: Skydive was our No.1 highlight of the trip. There are three places to skydive in NZ: Queenstown, Glenorchy (40mins from Queenstown) and Wanaka (an hour’s drive). They are more or less similarly priced but we chose Glenorchy, the place were a lot of LOTR was shot, since it was most picturesque. Since Skydive is very much weather sensitive, we decided to wrap it up the first day itself. Upon reaching the dive zone, we were briefed by these cool looking divers  (instructors) who had done some 4000-5000 dives. NZ law requires one to have minimum of 1000 dives to be able to be an instructor which though expensive, makes it one of the safest places to dive. The guy who was to be Rupali’s instructor, Sasha, had taken Sonam Kapoor on the dive. Our group consisted of three men who wanted to dive from 12000 feet and us who wanted to dive from 15000 feet. 

Just before the failed Glenorchy dive

Since their aircraft was small, they took the three of them first. We saw them getting ready and boarding the aircraft. After a few minutes we saw them jumping from the aircraft and their shoot opening. They landed right in front of us, exhilarated. It was our turn now. We were excited and anxious in equal measure. My instructor was the guy who was briefing us, who also seemed to be the most dude, experienced type. Rupali went into the aircraft first and I was next. When we were up in the air, I could see why people said that Glenorchy was probably the best place to dive. While the scenery was stunning from the aircraft, my mouth was running dry. I wanted to sip some water. My instructor kept pumping my guts by some small talk. He pointed out where LOTR was shot. Meanwhile he was constantly talking to the pilot in some sign language, which I later understood, to be able to find the wind speed down there. When we reached 7000 feet, the pilot passed him a note that wrote 20 which meant the wind speed down there was 20knots. Anything above 25knots was not safe to dive. As we reached 11000 feet and the aircraft became colder, they were talking still and passing notes. His last note read 24. My instructor took the decision. We had to abandon the dive. All the way on the descend, he kept telling that he was sorry but it was not safe for us and that is why he had to take the call. I was partially releaved that we did not have to dive but equally disappointed that having come so close, we had to abandon it which meant that we have to go through this ordeal again. This disappointment kept growing as we headed back to Queenstown. I was thinking of those three guys who dived just ahead of us. We were really unlucky. We booked again for the next day for 9AM.

The next day while we did not have to come all the way to Glenorchy, the dive was cancelled again and again on the third day. We made an instant decision to take the Queenstown dive since we saw that the weather was quite OK in the city and the Queenstown team was diving. We booked ourselves for the 1330HRS dive, the earliest available for that day. At the said hour, our dive was cancelled again! The bloody wind had picked up again.

I was really disappointed. There were four highlights of our trip at the planning stage – the Tongario Alpine crossing, rated by many as the best one day hike in the world, the skydive, the glacier walk and the Tranzalpine train journey. We were unable to do the Tongario hike as it had snowed, unexpectedly, and therefore the hike was not feasible for armatures. The previous evening we came to know that Franz Joseph Glacier one day walk has stopped as the bottom of the glaciers are no more so the hike is not feasable. Now if we were unable to dive as well, we would have not done three of the four highlights initially planned. What a bummer!

Shitting bricks... Why is Rupali curious?

Just when we were taking a refund, we learnt that the Wanaka team were still diving. Apparently, if its the Westerly winds that are blowing on a particular day, they first reach Glenorchy and then Queenstown and if they turn, they would reach Wanaka. We booked ourselves immediately for Wanaka. I was only 50% sure that we will be able to dive that afternoon as I kept looking at the trees and leaves that seem to be swinging softly with the wind. We reached Wanaka and quickly got inducted and dressed. This time however, we booked ourselves for the 12000 feet, sensing the bad omen. We boarded quickly and were up and it was time for the mouths to go dry again. For some reason I did not find the Wanaka team to be very professional, compared to the Glenorchy guys. But anyways, we were up. 

In the flight were 9 people (4 teams) besides the pilot. The extra person was another diver who went up to take the video of this guy Chinese guy jumping. There are two types of videos you can opt for – one that is from a camera stuck on the wrist of your instructor (the cheaper option, $150, wherein your instructor puts the camera on once in a while) and another if you want full video where another diver dives alongside you and is always in front of you to take a full video ($250). The Chinese had opted for the full video. This camera guy was super cool. In between when we were say at 8000-10000 feet, he opened the door to do guess what? Throw his chewing gum away! At 12000 feet, he finally opened the door fully as a strong wave of chilly wind swept inside the aircraft. He lunged out like people do in Mumbai locals while the Chinese and his instructor got ready and went up to the edge of the aircraft. The instructor and camera guy made signs and wooo... jumped right in front of me. I was probably shitting in my pants as it was my turn. My instructor asked me to move forward. As I moved closer to the edge, I saw the earth below for a second. The instructor was making some adjustments, we were not abandoning this time and were indeed jumping. I was too frightened to keep my eyes open. I guess I lost my balls for those few seconds. I closed my eyes and kept my head on the right shoulder of the instructor as told, and then before I realised I was flying. Scared to death I could sense the chilly breeze hitting my face at 200kmph. 

May be 10 seconds after dive, in free fall

I opened my eyes a couple of seconds later and what I saw was absolutely stunning. As if in an instant bliss replaced fear. I was absorbed by the beauty I saw below. Mountains, lakes, farms all etched as if it were a child’s painting. I tried to look left and right and absorb as much as I could see. While the wind kept hitting the face at the crazy speed, the feeling was so overwhelming that I just wanted to take as much as I could. After about 45 second free fall, the shoot opened. Yes it did! And then as if the earth came to s standstill. From 200kmph, we were, what felt like zero speed in like four seconds. It was so sudden that I felt that we had landed! Once the shoot opened my instructor and I were able to talk. He showed me the topography of the place – the Roys peak, Mt Hyde, Mt Aspiring, the Wanaka Lake, Lake Hawea, the Wanaka River etc. He then asked if I wanted to swing to which I said a big NO. I am not a swing person – please! Now that the shoot opened and I was offered another chance to live, I don’t want to swing. I realised how much I hated amusement parks. But thats OK. I wanted this to last. I was absorbing the splendour around me. I saw other divers below me – one of who could be Rupali. It seemed that for a few minutes we were not moving at all. The wind was getting strong. The only way to go down was to swing. He told me that he would take small swings to which I agreed. Slowly after a lot of effort from his side, I guess, we were moving down. When we finally reached the ground there were four five people from his team waiting for us. Look on their face showed that our dive could have become a concern soon. But yes I was alive, in one piece. I saw Rupali down looking very happy. We hugged and kissed at this exhilarating experience, after four cancellations. An item ticked off our bucket list!

Glacier Hiking @ Franz Joseph: While the full day glacier walks had been closed, one could still do half day Heli-hikes. The way this works is that you board a chopper that takes you right up to the glacier and from there you hike up along with a guide. We booked ourselves for the first flight. (Always do weather related trips first thing in the day. The weather changes fast and usually gets worse as the day progresses). We were a group of 10 who were given a proper gear and crampons. The chopper ride was short and in no time we were on the glacier where our guide was waiting for us – in T-shirt and shorts with an axe. His look kept me puzzled for the next few minutes as I put on my crampons. Finally, we started our hike. It was not as adventurous as I would have thought. The guide uses the axe to pave the way for the group which makes the climb relatively easy. The glacier however was a beauty. It had shades of white and blue. Then there were the crevices of different formations. During our hike we also saw a small glacier explosion – where part of a glacier breakaway like a thunder. The trip was so well timed that just when it ended, it started to rain.

Clicked from the Train

Tranzalpine Train Journey: This was the final leg of our trip. The kiwis run some great trains; particularly the Tranzalpine, Northern Explorer and the Coastal Pacific. We took the Tranzalpine from Greymouth to Christchurch. This was our last day in NZ and we had seen so much beauty that I was wondering if the train journey would add anything that we had not already seen. For the first hour or so, the train passed alongside the Waimakariri River and reached Arthur Pass station after passing through a 42km Otira tunnel built in 1923. Up to this point, the journey was nice but nothing to write home about. It was after this point when the train passed through the gorges and the farmlands of the Canterbury plains that the scenery became extraordinary. I went up to the open board at the back of the train and was busy clicking pictures. There were few people on the open deck since the train was not even 50% full. (If you travel in peak season, you may get a place to sit but the open board will be packed.) Owing to spring, it became even more dramatic as Pohutukawa trees and Kowhais flowers were blooming. There were shades of green that one cannot imagine. Mountains, rivers, flowers and trees – all in one! Highly recommended.

While we visited Roturua's Geysers and the Buried village and also spent some time in Auckland and Christchurch, we wont put them under highlights. Not because they were not good, but perhaps not good enough to seek a place in this list. 

Anyways, we think we will go back again, may be after a few years. We still have to do the Tongario crossing, Milford on a sunny day, Abel Tasman National Park etc and perhaps repeat a few things once again.

New Zealand: Travelling Tips for an Indian

New Zealand was on our Bucket List for long but we finally did the 17 day fantastic trip this month. We knew what we wanted to do and where all we wanted to go but the itinerary had the flexibility to extend or reduce a day here and there. As always, we planned everything on our own, no Travel and Tour companies. I will dedicate this blog on the tips of travelling to New Zealand, especially for an Indian. My second blog will cover highlights (destinations) of the trip.

NZ $ was 50-52 INR when we traveled. $ is NZ$ and adjusted whenever compared.

Malls, Lavish Hotels and Shopping? Skip NZ: If you are one of those who loves going to Dubai, for example, for its big malls and modern architecture, then NZ may disappoint you. It is a country for nature lovers. Also it’s not for those whose one big item on the vacation agenda is shopping. The country imports most of what it consumes so everything is expensive. (If you indeed have to shop, go to Warehouse, a kind of Wal-Mart of NZ) If you like staying in lavish star hotels, then it’s not the place either. NZ is best seen outside of its big cities such as Christchurch or Auckland and there are no five star extravagant hotels in the countryside. So if forests, seas and natural landscapes don’t excite you, then maybe you don’t have to go.

Plan 2, may be 3 weeks: NZ is a small country but an absolutely beautiful country. If you close your eyes while on road and open after 30 minutes, you will see natural beauty. Close again open after 20 mins, you see beauty again. The country has done a marvelous job of preserving its national parks and surroundings. There is a lot of stuff to do, especially adventure related. Plus if you are travelling from India, you have already spent a lot of time and money reaching there. To make the most of it, a week-10 days is not good enough. Plan 2-3 weeks.

Drive, Drive, Drive: Being a common wealth nation, it has right hand drive so Indians will have no problem on judgement as long as they are following the signs and rules. All passengers wear seat belts – front or rear. Most roads are two-lane only, except when you reach motor way, (New Zealander’s Express Way) but driving speed is 100 kmph, unless otherwise mentioned. Indian DL is accepted. Book in advance, rental car companies block card but do not take the money and cancellations are easy. Read rules. Shop for rental cars wisely – look for deals across Ace, Apex, Jucy, Quality, Economy, RitePrice, Rentadent etc. plus lot of companies that operate only in North or South Island. (Type destination e.g. ‘Auckland to Roturua rental car’ for more names). Take full comprehensive insurance – while it makes the deal expensive it is tension free. Do not take GPS, your phone will do just fine. Choice of cars are not all that great, unlike let’s say in Europe or US. They are expensive as well. (SUV in US for $50 a day (minus insurance), while you will get it for not less than $60-70 in NZ). Petrol is also expensive. $2.2 per litre, US is half of that. In spite of all these costs, I would recommend you to drive. Roads are smooth and beautiful. I am not an auto enthusiast and don’t enjoy driving so much but we did some 2500 kms and it was a pleasure. The country is so scenic you want to stop often for a photo opp. Depending on your itinerary, most drives are less than 4-5 hours from one point to the other after accounting for generous breaks. Most cars will not have USB port. I would recommend that you speak to the rental company before booking as it helps listening to our music while on road. Cars do have CD though. Fill your tank in larger cities as the petrol is cheapest there.

Phone: As soon as you land in NZ, take one of those prepaid cards right from the airport. We took one Vodafone card from duty free at some $37 which gave 120 mins of free outgoing calls (domestic, international, what have you!); 2 GB of download, continuous internet access, 200 SMSs and all incoming free! On the other phone we kept the Vodafone India international roaming. While not as good a deal, kept my Indian number alive in case of some emergency.

Australia visa: In case you are transiting through Australia to reach NZ, you will need an Australian transit visa. It is not very expensive ($20 per person) but it’s an unavoidable hassle.

Season: NZ summers are from December to April. They are the peak travelling season as well. I try avoiding crowd, so shoulder months of Nov and May would be my advice. Plus you get better deals on hotels and activities. But summer is good as well as there are no weather related surprises that may stall your plans, especially if your schedule is tight.

Pay using your Master debit card: Contrary to popular opinion, debit cards give decent good deals. Before leaving we tried taking some NZ $ in cash and the rate we got was in excess of Rs. 53 per NZ$. Same was with prepaid international cards. We got a rate of Rs.50 when we used the ICICI debit card. HDFC was close to 52. Visa debit card was not working for some reason. When swiping your card, chose the credit option and enter your pin. Carry little cash since you can withdraw cash from ATMs there as well.

Stay with locals: My final tip is to stay with locals. In the former part of our trip we used AIRBNB and stayed with locals. They are friendly and their tips are invaluable. (Check https://www.facebook.com/TongariroAdventures who were our hosts. Great couple - very helpful. Strongly recommended if you are in the area). AIRBNB gives lots of options on the kind of privacy you need – separate bathrooms, separate entry exit and even separate houses. While costs of staying in a hotel vs. AIRBNB may be similar, staying with locals gives you a perspective of the country and its culture. The kind of advice they give cannot be found in guide books and Google! Plus many offer kitchen and laundry usage. For singles, there are hostels and rooms on a sharing basis at very cheap prices – say $150 a week.

Food & Drink: NZ does not have a great list of its own cuisine. Its influenced by West. You get burgers, pizzas etc. But there are lots of Thai restaurants that most Indians like. (When ordering Thai, ask them to make it hot). Looking at the price you can figure the quantity. If a dish is priced around $20-25, then you can order an extra helping of rice/bread and that would be good for two people. There are a lot of Indian restaurants as well, especially in cities. Once in a while you feel like eating typical homemade Indian meal and many places offer microwave and cooking facilities. Carry company sealed MTR, Paramapara, Haldiram snacks and Basmati rice and declare when you enter. Don’t carry meat, fruits, soil, leaves etc,. Drink NZ wine. You can get a good one for $15. You can carry your wine to restaurants and pay for it extra (mostly between $5-10). It still works out cheaper.

Talk money: NZ is an expensive destination. Cycles cost $30-50 for half a day. The bus we took from Auckland Airport to city downtown cost $16 per person. A box of Pringles may cost $4.5 to 6.5 depending on where you shop. A back of the envelope calculation for two value conscious people per day would be $120 for stay, $100 for food, $75 for car/petrol, $200 for activities/entry tickets + flight tickets and miscellaneous expenses. Yes, entry tickets are expensive and so are all adventure related activities – you would do something or the other every day and hence a $200 per day budget is decent.

Must dos: There may be lots more, I am only listing from amongst what we did and these are absolute musts. Places to visit: Milford Sound, Queenstown, Lake Taupo. Things to do: Skydive from Glenorchy (most scenic) where Lord of the Rings was shot. Take the Tranzalpine train, forest walks and cycling. Anywhere in NZ is great for walks and cycling. More on these in the second blog on Highlights of the NZ trip.

Sir Martin and Arnab Goswami

It was interesting to hear live Sir Martin Sorrell talk at an event organised by India Chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA). Audience comprised of many senior people from the agency background but not many noteworthy from the client side. Even Sir Martin on the dais was not impressive enough for healthy client attendance.  While the IAA or any other advertising body members do a fairly good job at selling client products, they are relatively poor at selling their own events.

While Sir Martin is of course a visionary, I was rather impressed by his oratory skills and wit.  He was up against our celebrated journalist Arnab Goswami. While an honest and bold journalist, Arnab has a very predictable sort of technique when in a Q&A session. He will pick on some statement, sometimes insignificant, and will try to corner his guest by constant hammering and extreme interpretations of the statement. However either Sir Martin was well prepared or Arnab was not at his usual best, it soon seemed like a one sided duel where Sir Martin shot each of Arnab’s accusations or interpretations way outside the door, convincingly. Whenever Arnab wanted to make an accusation, he would first not allow him to finish, move on to putting context in place as per what he thought was what he meant and then justify it. Sir Martin had the upper hand of being the guest of honour and Arnab had not done his homework well or may be business was not his genre.

During the audience Q&A however Sam Balsara asked an interesting question on why is WPP focussing so much on Digital in India since it has just 12% penetration; whilst Print and TV are continuing to grow. Sir Martin backed the decision to invest heavily on digital advertising since he expected that to catch up soon. Here is where I have a disconnect.

Spends on Digital have grown substantially and it now contributes 4% of overall media spends (FICCI). While Digital will continue to grow it will be years before it catches on to Print or TV as far as Sir Martin India outlook is concerned. Here is why.

Lets break digital advertising in two broad parts – crowd created content (Social Media mainly) and business created content (News, Entertainment sites and apps etc). Advertising happening on Social Media Platforms will be eventually negotiated directly by the content aggregators such as Facebook, Google etc. These platforms know only too well the perils of having a Group M mediate a deal between the content provider and client. Group Ms of the world will be kept at bay. Also, the biggest clients of such platforms will be people like you and me and not businesses. And the large business houses will get customisation only when dealing directly. 

As far as content creators are concerned such as News and Entertainment sites, few of these sites create original content. Most rely on TV and Print to offer content. Versions of Print and TV find their way on Digital media. This part of Digital therefore is not a creator of content, it is an aggregator and  disseminator of content. If there is no Print and TV, there will be very little salable content on Digital. Being largely free, it will be a challenge for Digital to produce original content and be able to monetize it. If costs on Digital go up, advertisers will start evaluating whether Digital really makes sense which as of now they are not as it is very cheap. This is where market equilibrium will set in and allow for all three to exist. But this equilibrium is nowhere in sight at least for the next 10 years. Sir Martin’s investment may be too premature, therefore.

Digital will grow not doubt, but not at the cost of TV and Print but alongside. 

"Selling" is not the same as "Talking"

My wife and I have spent the past couple of weekends shopping for a car. For most couples this would have been a moment to look forward to but for us it’s far from being impressionable. We would rather be trekking up some hill in this beautiful monsoon rather than going for boring test drives. But first a confession: we are not auto enthusiasts. For us an automobile is just a little more than a machine that takes us from place A to B.

We had Amaze on our mind when we started off. But we also drove Xcent, Duster, Sunny, Etios, City, Mobillio and Verna over two weekends. I agree these brands span at least three segments of cars but this blog is not about what we end up buying. It’s about the experience of buying a car.

So let me start with Honda which was the first showroom we visited. This was the weekend before Mobillio was launched. There were a few customers and a teddy bear kind of cute plump guy was our ‘consultant’. He asked us questions like which car were we driving currently and what was our daily run but did not bother knowing our weekend activities, who will be driving the car or if our budget could be stretched. When we walked out, we informed him that we will be coming to see the Mobillio the following weekend. But he never called back.

Honda was not the exception here. The Hyundai salesman did not asked most of the relevant questions. He seemed more confident though but was not talking specifics of Xcent. When we asked if we could test drive the Verna as well on the Id day, he said that he wasn’t working on that day. He never called back either. Toyota showroom, except the cheerful watchman, was way too somnolent. The salesman had to be woken up from slumber to respond to questions.  

The Duster was true to its name – like a Duster. The seats had stains and felt very unhygienic. The Nissan team when called for a Sunny test drive was most responsive. When they said someone would call back in 10 minutes, someone indeed did. But the car he got was not the one they sell – it was the old version which is now out of production!

Anyways, I was under the impression that these MNCs that have been selling cars for decades now had a code of conduct and some set norms for their salesmen that would be used when people walk in to buy a car. But most were sloppy and missed out on critical information that could be used to sell better or even up-sell. I didn't find the language skills of any salespeople satisfactory. It is fine if one is not fluent in English. As long as you can communicate the features of the car along with its benefits really well, Hindi or even Marathi is fine. May be the companies cannot pay well – in which case they should clearly have a change in policy. Most cars need ‘selling’. There are so many options today that just having a great product may not be enough. You need good salesmanship as well. I am no Joe Girard but here are seven basic rules/questions that should be asked: 

1)       Know thy competition: Which other cars have you test driven so far or are planning to test drive? (No one asked us this question – I am still amazed) Sir Verna is a great car with amazing features but its engine will never last or perform like City’s. So while City does not spend on frills, your money is spent in areas such as engine durability, safety, suspension blah blah. It’s a wife that cooks well, takes great care of your parents and brings up your kids well. Verna is the pretty looking wife who does good salsa and may not be alongside you when you grey.

2)       Know thy usage: What is your daily running and which route do you take? Sir in the route you take, my guestimate is that the car will give you a mileage of xx kmpl. Ask about his office, work, working hours etc.

3)       Know thy user: Who all drive the car? Mam can use the seat height adjuster to increase the height by as much as 50mm. Sir for cars that are driven by drivers, mileage is important.

4)      

Know thy habits, passions: Do you do weekend drives regularly? In which case our boot space is largest in the category – can also fit your child’s bicycle! Are you fond of Music? Classical? Let me play that for you while we drive. (Everyone played FM!!! No music to showcase the music system)

5)       Showcase your product with love and passion: Sir Can I show you the bonnet? Show him the different parts etc so that he is involved. Throw some jargons so that he realises he is buying a better product. (No one showed us the bonnet!!!)

6)       Engage in conversation – small talk. To the child – her name, school, what she likes about this car, if papa takes it which colour will she prefer – show her the colour options. To wife – so madam when do you drive? What is the most important feature for you? General – Is you car kept in open or in a garage? Which car are you driving currently and what is the reason you want to change?

7)       Call back. Ask your client how was the experience. Tell him you want to take him again for a test drive if you were busy that day and were unable to spend time. 

Death of a brand

I admit this sounds forsaken. But let me take you through three arguments that converge to the fact that brand building, in the classical sense, is dead or soon going to be.

1.       Top Brands: Look at the top 100 brands of the world today. (http://www.interbrand.com/en/best-global-brands/2013/top-100-list-view.aspx) Besides technology brands, how many of these brands are less than 10-15 years old? Very few. It will therefore not be incorrect to imply that brands build over time because many people shape it single mindedly over years. Brand building needs serious investments and patience. In fact, many of these brands in the list were brands before the entire science of branding took shape. Why don’t we see new non-technology brands?

2.       CEO Tenure: The average tenure of Fortune 500 CEOs is down and some chief executives last fewer than three years. (http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-12-20/news/45378705_1_ceos-management-guru-ram-charan-business-models) (http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/steven.kaplan/research/km.pdf) They have to give results quick. They are therefore not interested in investments that take a while to give dividends such as brand building. Their entire focus is on profitability. New age CEOs will therefore not care too much on brand building.

3.       Majority stakes are on decline. This means that there are fewer larger companies that are owned by individual or families. Increasingly, majority owners are selling their shares to investors and the later have limited attachment to the brand. They do not care so much about legacy. Most are there to make a quick buck. Hence shareholders patience will be waning in long term investments such as brand building.

If the above trends are largely true, my guess is that less and less time and money will get into brand investment. For example, investments like Coke Studio will become increasingly rare. That will be poignant.