Gauravonomics Blog

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Planner and marketer Anjali Ramachandram is sharing some interesting ideas about marketing and social media, both on her own blog and on PSFK’s Marktd.

Anjali has been doing a series of interesting interviews with marketing thinkers and practitioners like Faris Yakob, Noah Brier and yours truly in the Brain Tap Interview series.

Here’s the transcript of an interview Anjali did with me way back in May —

1. Which is your all-time favorite ad and what do you think makes it work?

I’m not particularly turned on by ads per se. I think the value is not in thinking of an interesting idea that works for 30 seconds. I think that the real value is in thinking of a truly compelling idea that works over the brand’s lifecycle, that becomes an ongoing conversation between the brand and its audience, and becomes the lens through which the brand’s audience interprets culture and life itself. Amul in India and Absolut internationally are two brands that have done it well.

2. What do you think the Next Big Thing in media is going to be?  Read More

I was quoted today in a Hyderabad Times story on lifestyle entrepreneurship — entrepreneurship in the pursuit of leading a lifestyle that is a perfect balance of health, wealth and relationships –

While Gaurav Mishra, a marketer and a prominent blogger partly agrees, “I think entrepreneurship itself is nebulous in India, given our ‘good boys get a good job’ mindset, ‘lifestyle entrepreneurship’ will be even more rare. At the same time, profit is only part of the reason people become entrepreneurs. This is just taking it a bit further and deciding to be the master of one’s own destiny and one’s own time.”

I still have to figure out why I’m an expert on entrepreneurship, but all buzz is welcome. A link to my blog would have been even more welcome.

On second thoughts, I’ll probably look back at this story a few years later as a sign that helped me answer the question I have been asking myself endlessly — ‘What Should I Do With My Life?’.

Patrix is an urban planning doctoral student at Texas A&M, the founder of DesiPundit and a self-confessed Shyamali Malakar fan. Patrix blogs at Nerve Endings Firing Away.

I have already written about why I love Patrix’s blog -

- Patrix has an intuitive understanding of how conversations are created on blogs, and, as I try to understand the nature of online conversations myself, I find myself looking up to him as something of a guru.
- Patrix has an innate curiosity about technology and popular culture and the ability to write from an enthusiast’s perspective, something any blogger would do well to emulate.
- Patrix is one of the most generous people I have known, online or offline, and, via DesiPundit and his own blog, he has probably done more to promote desi blogging than anybody else.

Patrix belongs to the second most widely seen species of desi bloggers, the doctoral-student-blogger (the first, of course, is the journalist-blogger) and I’m sure that you’ll meet many more bloggers from this species in the ‘Desi Blogging Cafe’ interview series.

Jamshed Velayuda Rajan, or Jammy Rajan, is based in Chennai, works for an Internet major, blogs at Ouch My Toe and is one of India’s funniest bloggers.

I have already written about why I love Jammy’s blog -

- Jammy manages to do that rare thing – being personal and funny at the same time – and every post on this blog is laugh out loud funny.
- Jammy has one of the best 404 error page I have seen on a desi blog. Reminds me that I have to work on mine.
- Jammy does innovative little things to engage his readers, like offering a Best of Ouch My Toe PDF file for download, asking readers to pick a topic for him and putting subscription and archive buttons within his posts.

Jammy, I feel, is the perfect follow-up to Jai, because of the contrasts between them in terms of their backgrounds, their content and their style of writing. It will be my endeavour in ‘Desi Blogging Cafe’ to explore this diversity in desi blogging.

Q. When and why did you start blogging? Has the reason why you blog changed over time?  Read More

Jai Arjun Singh is a New Delhi-based freelance writer/ journalist/ blogger. Jai works part-time with the Business Standard newspaper, blogs at Jabberwock and is mainly known for his erudite reviews of books and movies.

I have already written about why I love Jai’s blog -

- Nobody else writes as prolifically or as beautifully about books and movies as him.
- His interviews are more personal and insightful than any other I have read on desi blogs.
- He manages to make even his rants read like literature.

Jai, I felt, was the perfect person to start off the ‘Desi Blogging Cafe’ interview series because he is the perfect example of the desi A-list blogger/ journalist, a species you’ll often come across at ‘Desi Blogging Cafe’.

Q. When and why did you start blogging? Has the reason why you blog changed over time?

A. I started in September 2004. Initially I thought I would use it mainly as an online “storehouse” for some of my published articles and reviews, for easy access and reference. But over time that function changed: I found myself increasingly writing fresh things purely for the blog, whether in the form of personal posts, general observations or notes about books, films etc.  Read More

Mechanical Engineer turned Java Programmer turned Software Salesman turned Ship Chandler turned Stock Market Investor turned Transport Fleet Operator Chenthil shares the lessons he has learnt as a first generation entrepreneur –

Dream big, but make sure that there is some arrangement for running your day to day life. If your dad has left you a fortune, good for you. Another option is to have one spouse working full time while the other is chasing his/her dreams. All my risk taking is possible only because of the solid support of my wife, who takes more than her share of the family burden.

Techie turned restaurateur Madman offers similar advice to wannabe entrepreneurs –

It is good to dream, but not to day-dream. You need hope, but not delusion. That said, you should realise that to boldly go where no one has gone before (please pardon my Star Trek geek cliche) does indeed require a leap of faith and a hope for a market that may not even exist yet (certainly true in my case.) Just be sure that your decision is an informed one and based on solid research, not solely on an impulsive moment. We have to deal with the constraints of the world we live in, and one of those is earning a livelihood.  Read More