Change of profession; from advertising to farming!

It can’t be more quirkily mesmerizing than this. In the last couple weeks I have been thinking of quitting advertising and direct marketing as a profession and take up something more soul aspiring. Say farming.
Well you don’t have to be surprised? The fact is that this temptation has hauntingly crept into my mind (night and day) and someday I think I will soon turn into a farmer. Well they say that it is easy for a farmer’s son to be a farmer. This does not apply in my case. So where do I get the land and all the other myriad things that one requires to be one “hell of a successful” farmer. Plus, in the current times, you’ve got to have Almighty’s Saving Grace for your farming venture to do good and in the current drought trends where the government is running austerity drives, it isn’t a good respite either. So how on earth do I rationalise this desire of mine? I really don’t know.
Let me contextualise more and reveal the real reasons for these unreasonably soulful drives within me. It just happened. In fact one of the reasons that I am posting this experience of mine in this blog (yawn factor), is that, this farming venture desire is being driven into my mind by all who live around me; inhabit my office as well as my home. I mean my co-workers and co-homers. Everybody’s is into it. Not a day ends without them having been in the farmlands. Mid-night wake-up calls and SMS’s to check who has made how much. Sudden burst of emotional roars on “wins and screws” in the farmland. It even doesn’t leave me while I am asleep. I have started dreaming about it. It couldn’t be more “Filmy” than this. A few days back, on one of those, “wee-hours” groggy groping for the wash-room, I suddenly discover my better half in her farmland; busy farming off course.
I have tried to resent it and see myself failing. Initially you think you wouldn’t do it ever in your life. It is such a bloody time waster! I said that once. Well, you know, it is a great way to build your community and stay in touch with friends. I think this way, now. One changes. Then one day you do the thing that you once thought, “was not your stuff.”
After much unrest in my mind, umm signing up for that thing called FARMVILLE!
NOW!

Yawn Factor in What You Wear

Well, actually I took quite a while to add the next layer to this thought but as they say it takes nine months for a baby to be born, I was doing some market visits that were dependant on some first hand infromation from users of the various brands that have been in included in this study.

They say that the consumer is the light @ the end of the tunnel. And this is true(atleast we assume) especially in the life of brand keepers like me:I say this out of my stumblings...oh I mean the "X" pee-rience(did i spell it wrongly well if i have then please pardon me and dont ever try to decipher the underliner).

Well the brands here are in shoe lifestyle category, viewed in an indian market's perspective.This is the result of me from talking to people on the streets, having gol goppes(pan puri) with them,travelling in the rail, standing at the bus stop @ university areas, sipping a chill pint of beer with a moneyed user and also doing a little bit of mystery shopping at retail stores...and for obvious reasons, to argue with the brand's stake holder's view point on this, I hav'nt included their point of view....(any body wants further a dip into these insights please, do write to me...)

The graph talks about locating the brands' Yawn Factor(plotted on our two axis-socio-tribe value and aspiration value) ...and if you see from a absolute perspective, it wouldnt be as relevant and applicable as you would find if things are viewed from from comparative perspective....and in my detail studies I have similar data aggregations available for apparel brands...motor cylcle brands....watches...Discotheques/Pubs in Delhi...

The Yawn Factor

It is that character or that distinct DNA in your brand that fuels the onlooker to possess it inadvertently(subconsciously) because some body else possesses it.

So what does that connote in the context of your brand ? My brothers in brand management are all the time pursuing to have it imbibed in the minds of it's relevant buyers.Lets say, to start with, the yawn factor in a brand is a function of a few things(as we go ahead lets try to see what else can we fit into the schem of things) in broad perspective.

a) the propensity of a brand to create it's own user-tribe
b) aspiration to acquire/possess/use it against its alternatives

c) the extent to which the users are ready to evangelise it

So if we plot our brand on any of the above parameters along the two/three axis we can assert and say that, higher they are in their planes, better will be their potential for a higher 'Yawn Factor."
We can actually try to do this in our day to day work as we evaluate our branding endevours.

Many a times we will often find ourselves caught in the situation where we realise that our brand already has its own user tribe. However the challenging task is to create reverbs within it!

Where it all started:

It all started one day when, on one of my rare unhurried days of driving to office, and with the sprightly mood that I was in , I suddenly transited to repetitive yawning only to realise that guy opposite to me(who I could see in his rear view), was the unholy instigator of this "yawning"act of mine to which I had very less control....the rest is all... that is there in this diary of mine...and for you guys to voice...and to all my friends in the "cat race"(where the cat either hits the mice or misses it) of marketing....Do write in your views to sujoy.sahu@gmail.com