Asian Market Tumble again on U.S.

Continued worry that the beleaguered U.S. economy will slow global growth caused Asian stocks to fall sharply. Shanghai took the biggest hit, dropping 7.2%, as winter storms threatened to exacerbate national energy shortages and accelerate already-high inflation.
In Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Seoul, the decline in share prices ranged from 3.8% to 4.3%.
In China, weather woes gave investors another concern on top of a global slowdown. Heavy snows, which are disrupting transportation at a peak travel time, depressed share prices of airlines, insurance companies and energy-intensive industries. The latest jolt pushed the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index firmly into ...

‘A’d Joke!

A mother had three virgin daughters. They were all getting married within a short time period. Since mom was a bit worried about how their sex life would get started, she made them all promise to send a postcard from the honeymoon with a few words on how marital sex felt.The first girl sent a card from Hawaii two days after the wedding. The card said nothing but: ‘Nescafe’!Mom was puzzled at first, but then went to her kitchen and got out the Nescafe jar. It said: ‘Good till the last drop’.Mom blushed, but was pleased for her daughter.The second girl sent the card from Vermont a week after the wedding, and the card read: "Rothmans".Mom now knew to go straight to her husband's cigarettes, and she read from the pack: ‘Extra Long. King Size’.She was again slightly embarrassed but still happy for her daughter.The third girl left for her honeymoon in Cape Town. Mom waited for a week, nothing. Another week went by and still nothing. Then after a whole month, a card finally arrived. Written on it with shaky handwriting were the words "South African Airways”.Mom took out a latest magazine, flipped through the pages fearing the worst, and finally found the ad for South African Airways.The ad said: ‘Ten times a day, seven days a week, both ways’.Mom fainted!

Advertising Poetry

Who ever said Advertising is poetry probably meant only this! I scavenged this piece from the net. Author unknown.When the client moans and sighs,Make his logo twice the size.When the client's hopping mad,Put his picture in the ad.If he still should prove refractory,Add a picture of his factory!

Ad Quotes

Writing well, rule No. 1: Write well!- Luke Sullivan, copywriter and author.Imagination is one of the last remaining legal means to gain an unfair advantage over your competition.- Tom McElligott, cofounder of a highly creative Minneapolis advertising agency.I don’t think people read body copy. If the first five words of body copy aren’t “May we send you $700?” word six isn’t read!- Luke Sullivan.Great print ads can make you famous. Great TV ads can make you rich.- Anonymous.Your radio spot just interrupted your listener’s music. It’s like interrupting people having sex. If you’re going to lean in the bedroom to say something, make it good: “Hey your car’s on fire.”- Luke Sullivan.

Life of a Marketer

One thing that strikes me when I lecture in B-Schools, apart from million other things that hit me with increasing regularity, is the aura surrounding the life of a marketing job in the minds of the students. Most, if not all, seem to think a marketing job is the next best thing to being a freelance gynecologist!I don’t intend spoiling their party but I thought I could use this space to introspect a little bit about the life of an average marketer - those hard-working alcoholic workaholics who work 9 to 5 – working from 9 A.M to next day morning 5 A.M! Here is the piece – self-reflection lessons for marketers.You lecture the paper-delivery boy on ways to improve his marketing skills.You get all excited when it’s Sunday, so you can wear casual clothes to work.You find you really need PowerPoint to explain what you do for a living.You know deep inside yourself when you say ‘the work is happening’ means only one thing – the work hasn’t even started.You normally eat out of vending machines and at the most expensive restaurant in town within the same week.You know the people at the airport and hotel better than your next-door neighbours.You think a ‘half-a-day’ means leaving office at 5 o’clock.You know but you don't realize it when you promise somebody you would meet him/her ‘first-thing-in-the-morning’ means meeting that person just minutes before lunchtime.You remember the names of all your high-school classmates but not the guy whom you met just half an hour ago.You are planning to take the weekend off – only that you planned it three years back!And all those marketers who are reading this......if you wish to add more to this list based on your experiences, feel free to add them.That's the whole point about this blog!

Business Sense

A factory’s marketing manager takes a visiting customer on a tour of a latex products factory.At the first stop, he's shown the machine that manufactures baby-bottle nipples. The machine makes a loud hiss-pop noise."The hiss is the rubber being injected into the mold," explains the marketer. "The popping sound is a needle poking a hole in the end of the nipple."Later, the tour reaches the part of the factory where condoms are manufactured. The machine makes a noise: "Hiss. Hiss. Hiss. Hiss-pop!""Wait a minute!" says the customer. "I understand what the 'hiss, hiss,' is, but what's that 'pop!' every so often?""Oh, it's just the same as in the baby-bottle nipple machine," says the guide. "It pokes a hole in every fourth condom.""Well, that can't be good for the condoms!""Yeah, but it's great for the baby-bottle nipple business!"

Sales Sense

A keen Texas lad applied for a salesman's job at a city department store. The store was the biggest in the world and sold everything under the sun."Have you ever been a salesman before?" the boss asked during his interview."Yes, I was a salesman in Texas," the lad answered. The boss took an immediate liking to him and told him he could start the next day. "I'll come and see how you made out after we close up," the boss said.The day was long and hard for the young man, but finally it was 5 o'clock. The boss closed up the store and found the lad sitting slumped and exhausted, in a chair. "How many sales did you make today?" the boss asked."One," said the lad."One?" said the boss, obviously displeased. "Most of the sales people on my staff make 20 or 30 sales a day. How much was the sale worth?""Exactly $101,334,533," said the young man."How did you manage that?" asked the boss, flabbergasted."Well," said the lad, "this man came in and I sold him a small fish hook, then a medium fish hook, and finally a really large hook. Then I sold him a small fishing line, a medium one, and huge one. I asked him where he was going fishing, and he said he was going down the coast. I said he'd probably need a boat, so I took him down to the boat department and sold him that fancy 22-foot Chris Craft with twin engines. Then he said his Honda Civic probably wouldn't be able to handle the load, so I took him to the vehicle department and sold him new GMC 1-ton pickup truck.""You sold all that to guy who came in for a fish hook?" the boss asked in astonishment."He came in to buy a box of sanitary napkins for his wife, and I said to him, "your weekend's shot. You might as well go fishing."