Industry, academicians and students need to pursue innovation to meet the challenged of the future. Those wishing to make their mark should aim at the basic problems and find their solutions. As a center of education and industry, there exists large pool of talent in Pune which is why the city can become a innovation hub as well. Encouraging innovation is a must to make 'Make in India' campaign a success. This was the inference drawn from a day-long conference involving industry experts, academicians and student on Saturday.

The conference, titled CII Innovation Meet and an initiative of CII Pune Industry-Institute-Interface (I3) Panel, was held at the Army Institute of Technology (AIT) in association with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The faculty members of engineering colleges, industry representatives and student community attended the meet in large numbers. The event also had a project exhibition of students who were later given awards for their projects. In all, 47 projects were showcased in the exhibition of which 13 were from AIT.

Those speaking at the occasion included Brig (Retd) S K Lahiri, Director Army Institute of Technology and Convenor, CII I3 Panel, Dr. Parag Kulkarni, industrialist and consultant, Dr. B B Ahuja, Officiating Director of College of Engineering, Pune and Ajay Sharma, Associate Vice President, Bharat Forge while Air Commodore (Dr) Sanjay Kumar, Raman Kumar, founder chairman, Ador Welding Academy Pvt. Ltd., Shrikant Bairagi, convenor, CII Pune MSME Panel, Datta Kuvalekar, Director, Forbes Marshall Pvt. Ltd., Siddharth Jagtiyani, founder, Chief Technical Officer, McruiseOn, G S Kalsi, CEO, Continuity1 spoke in a panel discussion on 'Design Your Thinking to Future'.

In his inaugural address, Brig. (Retd.) Dr. S K Lahiri said, “An innovation begins with curiosity and 95 percent innovation is incremental. In AIT, we are preparing our students for skill which industry itself has not adopted. We have industry sponsored inter-disciplinary projects and an incubation center is started this year. As a result, nine patents have been filed so far from AIT and 5 out of them were by students.” He detailed out various measures to encourage innovation in students and said that Pune has so much talent that there was no reason why we can't promote a culture of innovation.

Dr. Kulkarni said, “Innovation is the creativity at work which keeps the stakeholders motivated. Knowledge is voluntary and not conscripted. We teach the students everything but not the thinking. Can we teach the students to think?” He also said that the Innovation begins with the problem and the reason we have less innovation is that we are trying to treat manifestations and not the basic problems.

Dr. Ahuja gave out an outline of various steps taken in COEP to allow students and faculties to have innovate ideas. He said, “Innovation is for everyone. Successful innovation is about creating value. Innovation is necessary for survival in the globalized world. The new age challenge for all faculty is to prepare students for jobs that do not exist today”

Ajay Sharma focused on the needs of defense industry with regard to innovative products. He said, “There is lack of environment for innovative ideas in India but things are changing now. In defense, it is more important to be innovative to be ahead of others because many technologies are shared by other players. India has many security threats and we need an unified organization to assess these threats and face them. We need an organization to look at the innovative ideas as products.” As a solution to increasing the innovation in product making, he advised that practical oriented learning should be promoted.

There is a prevalent view in our industry that attitudes follow behavior and theefore do not matter. In many cases that is true, but in others it is not. Marketers who ignore brand attitudes risk making a big mistake, because in many cases attitudes do lead behavior.

I think the belief that attitudes do not matter is in part fueled by the fact that in survey results, positive attitudes almost always reflect brand usage. Big brands have more people agreeing that they possess positive qualities. On the one hand that is good to know – you want people who use your brand to think positively about it– but on the other hand it hides more subtle differences between competing brands. For this reason, Millward Brown has routinely stripped out this brand size effect for many years  now, in order to understand the relative standing of a brand depending on different image statements.

However, even when brands are shown to be endorsed differently across image statements on a relative basis, you still do not know whether that attitude will drive behavior or vice versa. For instance, analysis of BrandZ data over a five year time frame shows that almost all brands that grew also grew their salience. This suggests that the two are related; however there is no proof of causation. This is a classic chicken and egg situation; buying a brand you found in-store will make that brand salient to you, but increased salience might also encourage you to buy a brand for the first time.

Chicken or Egg?

The only way you are going to figure out which is the chicken and which is the egg is to study attitudes toward, and usage of, brands over time. Ideally you would do this at the individual respondent level, but a reasonable alternative is to study attitudes toward, and usage of, a brand over time. Do changes in attitudes lead behavior, or lag them?

In my experience the answer is both. Sometimes attitudes lead, often in more considered and longer purchase interval categories, and sometimes they follow, often in impulse categories. Even then, you cannot make assumptions one way or the other, because it also depends on which particular attitude you are examining. For instance, people can recognize when a brand is different from others even when they do not use it, and we often find that brands that over-index on difference relative to current usage are poised for growth, provided that the difference has the potential to be meaningful to more people than the brand’s existing user base.

People buy the brands they like, and they like the brands they buy. Marketers need to encourage and grow this reciprocal relationship. My colleague Bill Pink, Partner Client Solutions in North America, believes the focus on what leads and what lags is misleading. Instead, he argues that the focus should be on understanding the network of relationships between attitudes and usage, and also identifying where the opportunities are in that network to enhance the reciprocal relationship between attitudes and behaviors, and in that way grow both.

Written by Nigel Hollis,Executive Vice President and Chief Global Analyst at Millward Brown

Source:Millward Brown

Catch the martial arts movie festival, that will make you say ‘WHAT THE FU?!’  Starting 5th October, Mon-Fri at 9:00 pm

The premium English movie channel will present the biggest martial arts film festival on television with its specially curated property - ‘Fists of Fury’ offering some cult and contemporary handpicked movies. Starting this October, 9pm on Mondays – Fridays is going to be ‘FUL OUF SUP PAH ACK SHN’ (full of super action) only on Zee Studio.

‘FISTS Of FURY’ will feature movies like, Karate Kid 2 & 3, Curse of the Golden Flower, Bloodsport, Death Warrant, Lionheart, Badges of Fury, Myuai Thai, Kung Fu Panda, The Tuxedo, Champion, Pirate Brothers, Special ID and Shaolin Girl.

Get ready for some kicks and punches as Fists of Fury showcases combat packed performances by Jackie Chan, Jean Claude Van Damme, Jet Li and the martial arts superstar of today, Donnie Yen.

Nothing else beats action the way martial arts does, hence Zee Studio will present its viewers with the best movies that will make you say ‘WHAT THE FU?!

Witness this heart-thumping martial arts fest from the 5th to 23rd of October only on Zee Studio ‘See it all’.

Three factors form the foundation of a successful ad campaign: Reach, resonance and reaction. Reach the right audience, and ensure your advertising resonates positively so you can generate the desired reaction. Simple–right? Wrong.

The advertising landscape is evolving at an extraordinary pace as media proliferation and technology advances create new ways of connecting with consumers. We watch videos on phones, stream music on laptops and read newspapers on tablets—sometimes all at once. Needing to reach, resonate with, and get a reaction from the right audience in a world of choice can make it difficult to decide where to allot one’s advertising dollars.

While there isn’t one simple rule for maximizing advertising effectiveness in such a saturated market, understanding how consumers feel about the ads served on the various media platforms they use every day is a good place to start.

THE CIRCLE OF INFLUENCE IS WIDE

The most credible advertising comes straight from the people we know and trust. For that reason, it should come as no surprise that more than eight-in-10 global respondents (83%) say they completely or somewhat trust the recommendations of friends and family. But trust isn’t confined only to those in our inner circle, as two-thirds (66%) say they trust consumer opinions posted online—the third-most-trusted form of advertising.

“The power of digital ad formats cannot be underestimated, as they offer many advantages for achieving effective reach,” said Randall Beard, president, Nielsen Expanded Verticals. “But few brands have mastered online word-of-mouth marketing techniques, the results of which can go viral very quickly. Passionate brand advocates can be powerful allies to amplify your message, but you need to give them a reason to talk. Evolve the relationship from a one-way sales pitch to a two-way conversation. And be transparent and accountable. Online brand advocates can quickly become adversaries with the power to damage credibility and reputation if things go wrong.”

Owned (brand-managed) online channels are also among the most trusted advertising formats. In fact, branded websites are the second-most-trusted format, with 70% of global respondents saying they completely or somewhat trust these sites. In addition, more than half of respondents (56%) trust emails they signed up for.

Looking at two-year digital trends, trust in paid online and mobile ads has stayed relatively consistent since 2013. Almost half of global respondents say they completely or somewhat trust online videos ads (48%, no change from 2013), ads served in search engine results (47%, down one percentage point) and ads on social networks (46%, down two percentage points). About four-in-10 global respondents trust online banner ads (42%, no change) and mobile advertising (43%, down two percentage points). Just over one-third say they trust mobile text ads (36%, down one percentage point).

“Brands have been steadily increasing their digital ad spend as they get increasingly comfortable with digital advertising and measurement, but TV formats still deliver the highest unduplicated reach (i.e., the ad reaches each audience member only once) of 85%-90%,” said Beard. “While digital ads can offer considerable benefits—such as precision-focused campaigns, in-flight adjustments and more creative options—moving from TV to an all-display digital plan is a bold move for any marketer. Consider a mix of both offline and online channels for the best ROI.”

TRUST IN TRADITIONAL ADVERTISING IS STILL STRONG

Despite continued media fragmentation, the proliferation of online formats has not eroded trust in traditional (offline) paid channels. TV, newspapers and magazines remain trusted advertising formats. More than six-in-10 global respondents say they completely or somewhat trust TV ads (63%), up one percentage point from 2013. Slightly fewer trust ads in newspapers (60%) and magazines (58%), which fell one and two percentage points, respectively, from two years ago.

Other findings include:

Millennials show the highest levels of trust in 18 of 19 advertising formats/channels, including TV, newspapers and magazines.

Self-reported action based on advertising exceeds trust by more than double digits for ads served in search engine results, ads on social networks and text ads on mobile phones.

Humorous ads resonate most in strongly in Western markets; health-themed ads are rated highest in Latin America; and ads depicting real-life situations are most appealing in Asia-Pacific and Africa/Middle East.

High-energy/action advertising themes resonate more with younger respondents, while pets/animal- centered ads resonate more with older respondents.

WPP announces that its wholly owned operating company Cohn & Wolfe, a leading brand communications agency, has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Six Degrees PR, a full-service public relations agency, and its content and integrated marketing subsidiary Alphabet Consulting.

Founded in 2009 and with offices in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, Six Degrees has extensive public relations, public affairs, crisis management and digital media experience. The agency also delivers content and integrated marketing campaigns through Alphabet Consulting.  Clients include regional and multinational companies such as Amadeus, Cushman & Wakefield, Dalmia Bharat Group, Hughes, Ingersoll Rand and Nokia.

This acquisition marks a further step towards WPP's declared goal of developing its networks in fast growing markets and sectors. In India, WPP companies (including associates) generate revenues of over US$500 million and employ approximately 14,000 people. In the Asia Pacific region, WPP companies (including associates) generate revenues of US$5 billion and employ around 50,000 people. Collectively WPP's public relations and public affairs agencies (including associates and investments) generate revenues of US$2 billion worldwide and employ 11,000 people