The Amateur's Scratchpad

“Can consumers trust brands to do what is right?” , questions Matthew Harrington, Global COO, Edelman, at the beginning of his speech.

At Praxis 8, I was fortunate enough to listen to the keynote speech of Matthew Harrington where he talked about how consumers are putting a huge part of their trust in the brands they spend on. Brands, now more than ever, play a bigger role in the consumers’ life. But, when did this transition happen? Mr. Harrington points out that this transition started taking place from the time brands started making bigger promises, tracking the audience and their preferences and eventually segregating and targeting groups of consumers. And now, this has taken a larger than life picture.

Today, brands are built with publicity and maintained with advertising. There are numerous factors today that contribute in creating brand trust. Unlike older days, packaging and branding alone are not enough to convince customers. Earlier, people would not check the ingredients of a shampoo before purchasing it but would look at the price and the packaging before making the buying decision. Now, customers do not mind spending a little more if the shampoo contains their desired ingredients. The same goes with food products. Consumers are becoming more health-conscious. Be it millennials, teenagers or people from any age bracket, the contents inside the packet they are spending on should satisfy not only their tongues but also their fitbits. Also, the sudden outbreak of “influencers” have contributed into the trust-building process in a humongous way. “How many times have you decided to buy something after you have seen an Instagram influencer advertise them?”, asks Mr. Matthew. Most of the young adults are influenced to try a brand by influencers. Not only that, often the first news about a brand like the launch of a new product or discount provided for a certain occasion is conveyed to users by the YouTubers through their YouTube channels. Thus, influencers, bloggers or vloggers are playing an inseparable role in creating trust for a brand inside a consumer’s brain. Also, it’s not necessary that the influencer has to be a celebrity like a movie star or a sports personality. Anybody with a considerable number of followers on a social networking site like Instagram or Facebook or Pinterest can be an influencer. The count only keeps increasing. Thus if a movie star can advertise a brand and build trust, so can the eighteen year old who has more than ten thousand followers!

Brand trust is essential across markets, ages and incomes. Thus, a brand which is doing very well in the US might fail in a country like India where the culture is different, the incomes are low and people’s mindsets are more orthodox. Also, often brands make strategies which fail to create any impact. For instance, when McDonald’s changed their logo to a “W” from “M” on International Women’s Day last year, they faced a huge backlash. Another example being Marks & Spencer’s “Rainbow sandwiches”. Harrington, picks these examples out as brands which made “All talk and no action”!

He concluded by mentioning that a brand isn’t simply a product anymore. It is a reflection of consumer trust. It represents the users’ belief in the product they indulge in. Thus, a lot of effort and planning should be put into building the blocks of trust for a brand as it can cultivate potential consumer base that will benefit the business in the future. Brands are a promise and they are expected to put reliability. So, going back to the first question that he began with, he answers that consumers can half trust a brand if not completely in doing the right thing because even brands are becoming more mindful and sentient to consumer needs and undertaking endeavors to fulfill them.

Topic: How can we mobilise public opinion to get people to demand climate action and change lifestyle habits and behaviours to reduce carbon emissions?

All of us, in some way or the other are aware about the climate changes occurring around us. But, how many of us actually take the initiative to do something about it? What we think is, someone else will do it! Let someone more ‘woke’ come clean the mess that we are leaving behind. This general thought process of ours have ultimately dragged us to the edge of the mountain. One more miscalculated step, and we fall right into it without any way of returning. Chennai faced an acute water deficit of a staggering month long time period. A bottle of packaged drinking water costed 450 INR/. The Arctic is melting, the polar bears dying, the whales and turtles are suffocating with plastics wrapped around their faces, humans are developing new and different diseases everyday due to the high carbon emission in the air. It’s just not a very good time to be alive, is it?

So, what all can we do to get this under control, even if a little? How can we inspire people to bring small changes in their daily lifestyle habits and behaviours to reduce carbon emissions? Here are five ideas on how we can start taking action:

• Being more Informative: Despite a growing number of climate mitigation policies, humans have increased their rates of greenhouse gas emissions dramatically since 1970. Although, many are concerned about it, the concern often do not change to action. This, always might not be voluntary. There is also a lack of information often faced by those who want to work towards the cause. So, more informative campaigns should be carried so that people can have access to more news and information.
• Growth in Communication: After the big circulation of information, comes the communication of the same. Information will only reach a handful of people without the help of communication. And the easiest way of near or far communication now a days is of course, social media! Social media campaigns across the different platforms should be carried in abundance so that the circulated information reaches far and wide and to every class of the society. That, right there, is the beauty of social media! But, do not forget to “unplug your device” after you’re done with that Instagram post. Anytime a cord is plugged into a socket, it’s drawing energy! That’s contributing to carbon footprint.
• Setting a goal: Once the information and the communication part is sorted, the goal setting should be done. Goals should be small, realistic and logical. A step-by-step made up goal takes less time and labour to be achieved. For example: Set a goal of ditching your Sunday chicken curry for a bowl of organic vegetables.
• Taking a pledge: It is often said and believed that when people take a pledge or a promise, they are more unlikely to break it, especially if it’s on a public platform. So, if by taking a pledge for Mother Earth makes people do something to reduce her cries, be it! People can take small pledges like “Walking/cycling to work”, “Planting more trees” and move forward accordingly.
• Implementation & Feedback: Lastly, all the goal-setting and the pledges should be put into action in the last step called implementation, in a step-by-step process followed by feedbacks so that the one putting in the labour gets the well-deserved appreciation in return. How can you implement? Let’s start by not indulging in fast-fashion.

To sign off with, it’s high time! Though, the situation did not turn this gross overnight but let’s take baby steps towards solving it. Let’s do our bit!

Movie: Gone Girl

Director: David Fincher

Cast: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, Kim Dickens, Carry Coon and others

Rating: 8.5/10

There are good movies, there are stunning movies and then there are movies like   ‘Gone Girl’ which absolutely makes your brain boil like a cauldron. The film  starts with Nick Dunne (played by Ben Affleck) and Amy (played by Rosamund Pike), both writers, meeting at a party in New York and Nick immediately being mesmerized by Amy’s beauty. They eventually fall in love and ultimately get married. After a few months of fully living their fairy tale marriage, on one hand, both Nick and Amy lose their jobs as New York based writers in a downturn. On the other hand, in the wake of Nick’s mother’s diagnosis of stage four cancer and his father’s worsening Alzheimer’s, the pair is almost forced to move to the small town of Missourie in North Carthage to take care of them.

In the beautiful town, Nick runs a bar with his twin sister Margo (Carrie Coon) while Amy sits at home, gathering dust. The problem starts when on the occasion of their fifth marriage anniversary, Nick comes back home to a set of upturned furniture and his wife missing. He immediately informs the cops and is taken in for questioning by detective Rhonda Boney (played by Kim Dickens). During the investigation, some clues are found and soon via an entry in Amy’s diary the film flashes back to the couple’s first meeting. Since then, the film switches back and forth between two time periods- the past where Amy is everywhere and the present where she is nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, Ellen Abbott (played by Missi Pyle) a psychotic neighbour of the couple turns up claiming that Amy was pregnant which was a fact unknown to detective Boney. On being questioned, Nick declares himself absolutely clueless about the matter. The police, media and the common people become skeptical about Nick. The probing, the growing media ruckus and the peer pressure of the police on Nick soon gives away the fact that his portrait of a loving committment with his wife is a dark lie. His lies, his trickery soon compels everyone to think about the question-“Is Nick Dunne himself the person behind his wife’s absence?”

What works for the movie is the director David Fincher’s mastership. He knows exactly how to strike up a concrete credible fiction and which ends to let loose to keep the balance slightly off. The director has successfully dragged the best out of his leads. Pike, who has been quietly admirable in other films before delivers a punch on screen .Her certain subtle expressions, the methodical way in which she pounces and rips like a wild little cat on screen leaves the viewers jaw dropped. While the voiceovers of her diary overflows with emotion and brings out the helpless woman in her, her facial expressions are taut. Ben Affleck too has played the role of ‘the-perfect-yet-lying’ husband graciously. Carrie Coon(Margo) as Nick’s sister, Kim Dickens (as detective Boney),Neil Patrick Harris (Desi Collins)as Amy’s old sweetheart and Tyler Perry as the grandstanding lawyer are all great on their own. The scenes are flinty and grim, underscored not with music but the buzz of air-conditioners and fluorescent lights.

The only thing that I would have done differently if I would have made the same film is make the ending a bit more clear. The ending has been left quite flat by the director which leaves the viewers confused and of course, asking for more. Also, I would have slacked down the beginning a bit or made it a bit more gripping and focused more on the profound mystery of Amy’s life which would have perfected the overly long duration of the movie as well as quenched the viewer’s thirst about the abrupt ending.

On the whole, it is rather a logically insane film, especially with the unpredictable twists and turns along the quarter half. Fincher does what he does the best. Outstanding acting, a not so loud yet an indistinct background score, an amazing screenplay, great cinematography and the fabulous story telling style of Fincher cooks up the perfect recipe for Gone Girl’s success.

In my life of 22 years, there have been numerous times when the thought of leaving you has crossed my mind. Time and again, you’ve proved me right. You have played with my patience, you have played with my mind, made me question my conscience. I have often been qualm. So, today sitting on my almost toddler sized bed in my run-down apartment, looking outside the window and hearing the incessant pitter-patter, I somehow find myself thinking of you- something I thought I would never do!

I find myself questioning my conscience, “Do you miss home?”

“What was your definition of home?” it cross questions.

And, I start thinking about what ‘was’ home! Deliberations lead me to think, Yes…I miss home!

You were like my scrape book. The one that I had designed just the way I fancied. In you, I had pasted pictures of my first success, of my first failure, my first best friend, the first best friend who turned into something more, of the first snap when he left me in a puddle of tears, of the first time when I saw pride in my dad’s eyes and many more… I have often jumbled and scribbled parts and episodes of my life in you.

I love rains and you have never given me that. So, when I set out for the city of dreams which also is the city of rain, apparently, I thought I would fall in love with it. Turns out, I haven’t and now to think about it, I don’t even like the round-the-clock rain. Aren’t we funny? For our entire lives, we make up a list of criteria for a certain thing and when that gets handed over to us, we don’t want it. You are the epitome of the screwed up education system and the political hullabaloo that didn’t provide me the chance I deserved. You have acted as a catalyst for every defeat I have ever faced, every friend that I have ever lost or for every platonic/romantic relationship where I have given my right arm and yet failed. You have stood for all the ‘could have been but didn’t’ s of my life. Instead of teaching me to hustle, you have always made me lean towards the laid-back attitude culture. On the whole, I have a book of complains for you.

But, what is it about you that makes me miss you like my heart has gone empty?

And thus I realize, “Some things, once you’ve loved (or hated) them, become yours forever. And if you try to let them go, they only circle back to you. They become a part of who you are!” We cannot break free from that circle of sentiment. So, yes! I miss the smell of old books at College Street, the horrible abomination called ‘cold coffee’ at Coffee House, the ‘fuchka’ stall at Vivekananda Park, the yellow taxis, Oly Pub at Park Street, the road to my school which had a huge bougainvillea tree and my grandfather would pick a flower for me every morning on the way, the blue and white architecture, the blue-yellow buses, the golden ‘aloo’ of my biryani, the neighbourhood tea stall, Eden Gardens, the evening “adda” at JU. I miss my two best friends. I miss my high school lover. I miss the pandal making scenes before Pujo.

I will miss ‘anjali’ and Tagore on ‘Ashtami’ morning!                                            

And just like the book of complains that I have for you, the sudden realization dawns upon me that I have a book of appreciation for you as well. Now I know, somethings stay imbibed in you forever and you don’t realise that unless you voluntarily try to uproot it and get it out of your system. So, stay the same as you are with your “macher-jhol bhaat” followed by an afternoon siesta, the mandatory evening chai and adda along with the discussion of football and politics and so much more that it physically hurts me to type. Thus, no more words and no more tears. Just take care, Kolkata!

Source: Line in Italics taken from the movie “Kill Your Darlings”