Manmeet Sabharwal's Marketing Blog

Recently we heard the news that Microsoft and Yahoo entered a pact for next 10 years for search engine integration.Basically MS wants to aggressively market its new search engine Bing and Yahoo could be of great help.
In the search engine market,google sits supreme with 65% market share.Yahoo and MS (bing) currently share 28% of market share.Rest of the search engines like askjeeves.com,dogpile,AOL etc etc take whats left.

Bing arrived on the scene with a bang.All tried Bing atleast once or twice then came back to good old Google.

I was watching a show on CNN yesterday in which they were asking a…

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I just happened to see an interesting piece of info last night while searching google for ZooZoos and Vodafone.Actually i was searching why the famous Pug is back ?
I couldn’t really figure that out but found this .
Vodafone Won the First PETA India Glitterbox Award for its Animal-Friendly ‘Zoozoo’ Ad in May 2009.
And the news release was :
Mumbai – For leaving the competition in the dust with its “ZooZoo” ad, Vodafone has won the first of PETA’s 2009 Glitterbox Awards, which are given to businesses that take advantage of humane alternatives to the use of real animals in their ads.
“ZooZoo”…

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This is as good as it can get !
Now you need not go to an ATM if you need cash.if you are in a mall,shop or a restaurant,you can just withdraw cash from a POS(Point-of-Sale) Terminal like bill counters.
Thanks to Reserve Bank Of India(RBI) for this move.
Click this link to read the exact letter from RBI to banks and system provider(VISA/Mastercard):  http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Id=5184&Mode=0
Conditions :
1. This facility is available only against debit cards issued in India.
2. The maximum amount that can be withdrawn at POS terminals is fixed at Rs.1000/- per day.
3. This facility may be made available at any merchant establishment…

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Comment of CEO Dan Bradshaw,Mongoose Cricket on my blog on mongoose cricket T20 bats
The comment 1 :
Hi Manmeet
Thanks for your blog – it was informative and gave a balanced opinion, even better than some journalists who have written articles for newspapers.
Can I answer some of your points, but first declare an interest – I am the Chief Executive of Mongoose Cricket.
The bat does allow you to hit the ball harder, but you still have to be good enough to hit it in the first place. It is not a magic Harry Potter wand!
The other point is that you are…

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Argentina recently saw a new change in their lives, A new soft drink Pecsi or not so new softdrink Pecsi.Actually Pepsi has come up with a new campaign in Argentina in which Pepsi has been renamed Pecsi.
When speaking Spanish, especially with an Argentine accent, people tend to say “Pecsi” instead of “Pepsi”. They have said it like this for years, and Pepsi has responded by launching a campaign changing the second P to a C, believed to be the first such change for the venerable brand.
According to a recent survey, 25% of the population says it that way. So BBDO…

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In 2005-06 a phenomenon called Orkut hit India.People were totally hooked on to it.Even i made a profile on it in 2006,after that a social networking revolution came to india.
In US Europe etc  this had already started 2 3 years back.MySpace,Facebook etc were already super popular.
India also caught on well with all these trends.Orkut become a passe soon Facebook took over for Personal and social networks.LinkedIn for professional and MySpace just for timepass.( am talking India)
Then suddenly new words started to make some noise twitter,tweets and this noise took the world by surprise and shook it.They intoduced the concept of microblogging…

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Anything that has a name and an identity is a Brand.But some names are just not names they become much more than that.Punjab is one such example.
When a person hears the word Punjab,a lot and lot of associations start to generate in one’s mind.
From mustard fields to the 5 rivers,from music to culture,from people to workmanship,from ego to fights,Different pictures get created in the mind.
Like a good brand the meaningful name PUNJAB-Punj Aab-The land of 5 rivers Ravi,Beas,Chenab,Jhelum and Satluj adds to the equity.
Punjab is no more just a state,its an ever growing brand.

When we talk about a brand we…

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My roomie asked me today evening,”Do you know why clocks always show 10:10 in ads ?”
Even we all have noticed all ads of watches and clocks show 10:10.

I had read about that something in childhood so recollected a bit but could not remember properly then we started to browse net.
First we got very interesting ones (infact funny ones) but no one was close to reality or what i had read years ago.just to share with you some interesting ones.

The clock was invented at 10:10 so in honour the time is kept 10:10.
It was the time when America dropped bomb on…

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Nearly a year back i noticed small kiosks near many stations in mumbai.All station roads had these small brown colored kiosks with 2 3 guys standing.These brown colored kiosks had Hindustan Unilever written on them.Those guys had a big container type of equipment with them.One day i and my friend went to them(due to Brand Hindustan Unilever) and asked what was it all about.
They very professionaly told us about this new Water Purifier from Hindustan Unilever.They kept explaining it and the word Hindustan Unilever was very prominent in their description(Unilever were attaching their heritage with it to sell it as…

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When i was a kid i liked Baingan Ka Bhartha(An Indian Dish Made of Brinjals) like anything.My mom used to make it for me whenever i wanted it.Everytime i used to visit home this dish was always there on my wishlist.This time when i went home and asked for it Mom said we have stopped buying brinjals.They have some issue.It was shown on the news.Then she told that they are genetically modified or are about to be so to avoid risk we are not buying.
I was heartbroken but thats true.Soon Aloo Baingan ,Bhartha and other delicacies will be not safe.As…

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