Red Cut

THE MAGAZINE FOR LEADERS AND FOLLOWERS

The missing creativity in advertisements these days

NABEEL SAYEED VP, DAWLANCE THINK BIG

PAKISTANI FACEBOOK STATISTICS COSUMER INSIGHTS BUSINESS’S BACKBONE

SAAD HAROON

COMEDIAN, BRAND AMBASSADOR, SPRITE. CORPORATE HUMOUR

IMPORTANCE OF WRIST WATCHES FOR MEN e ur

VOL NO. 2 ISSUE NO. 5 2011 PKR 75/-

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il RS Fa U NE from E R n EP ear R T oL EN s t g in Th

Greetings,

THE NOTE

Are we really living in the lost world? No sense? No creativity? Where has it all gone? as we try to solve this mystery, we can learn many unbelievable patterns of our industry.

RED CUT strives hard to make this magazine for its readers and therefore with our novel corporate strike, we will keep working harder to make you understand the importance of you. It is also that time, where we extend our gratitude to our beloved readers who do have faith in us and our cause.

We do promise you that in near future you will see a lot of new things, exciting things, well we would just like to keep the curiousity high.

Regards, Team Red Cut.

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19- LAND OF THE LOST EVENTS

10 - LOREAL REVITALIFT 14 - NANDO'S 10 YEARS OF PERI LICIOUS NESS 16 - COKE STUDIO'S MUSICAL VOYAGE 18 - L'ATELIER

ARTICLES

06 - 10 THINGS TO LEARN FROM FAILURE 08 - ITS WHAT YOU WANT!

PROFILE

32 - SAAD HAROON (IMPORTANCE OF HUMOUR FOR CORPORATE WORLD)

THINK BIG

22 - INTERVIEW WITH NABEEL SAYEED, VP DAWLENCE

CORPORATE FASHION

36 - IMPORTANCE OF WRIST WATCHES FOR MEN

FACTS & STATS

28 - FACEBOOK STATISTICS AS PER PAKISTAN

If you wish to get you corporate event covered or want to contribute in RED CUT in terms of articles and photographs, please email us at magazine@redcut.com.pk To subscribe to RED CUT Magazine email us at subscribe@redcut.com.pk visit www.facebook.com/redcut www.redcut.com.pk for more information

EDITOR ANUM AHMED CONTENT MANAGER RIDA AZIZ DESIGN&CREATIVE YASIR ANIS PHOTOGRAPHER DANIAL SHAH CONTRIBUTERS ZEHRA SHEIKH OMER AHMED SALES MANAGER YAWAR ANIS MARKETING MANAGER ALI IMRAN SHEIKH DISTRIBUTION SAAD ANJUM USMANI SYED AREEB ALI MANAGING DIRECTOR MUSTAFA BAIG EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR YASIR ANIS

ENTREPRENEURS

10 THINGS TO LEARN FROM FAILURE

The entrepreneurs’ weaknesses turned into strength!

By Yasir Anis

Every entrepreneur has made a series of mistakes or been subject to failures along his or her entrepreneurial journey. These setbacks, though painful, will teach you more about business than any textbook, lecture, or mentor ever could. Plus, they are great fodder for conversations at cocktail receptions and on panel discussions. After all, what's the point of ending up in frivolous litigation, nearly losing your shirt, pitching venture capitalists for tens of millions of rupees with no revenue model, or being forced to move back in with your parents if you can't have a few laughs as a result, right?

I have asked several successful entrepreneurs of Pakistan and most of them coincided to the following points.

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No revenue, no business. Period.

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You are not special, or a winner, (and neither is your business).

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How many things can you do perfectly?

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Traditional business plans will bankrupt you.

Build a sustainable business for yourself, and not one based on hypothetical acquisitions or imaginary investment capital. If your business can cut it, you may be able to buy other companies down the road or raise venture capitalists. But treating either path as a guaranteed strategy is simply stupid. Bottom line: Stop thinking about many tomorrows from now, and focus on today. Cash flow, or die.

If you are human, guess what? You are still bound by the rules of Darwin's theory of evolution. The worst thing you can do is fall for your own fantasy world living in current reality., so stay focused, stop thinking you are a winner because you're excited and think your idea is brilliant, and go and show it the world.

If your answer is anything other than one, and you are a small start-up on a shoestring, guess what? You are an idiot. Rome wasn't built in a day, neither was Google.

Both were built brick by brick, scaled and then, and only then, did they diversify.

Keep your business plan simple, because if it's not simple, you're dead.

Don't get stuck in analysis paralysis! Business planning is not a revenue generating exercise. Execution is where the money is at. Write something short, sweet and to the point and get on with it.

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The worst case scenario is the only scenario.

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Divide your "lowest" financial assumptions or expectations by 4.

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Strategic partners are not always good ideas.

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Proof of concept isn't optional.

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Business growth happens in real time.

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No matter how successful you are, accept that you will fail again.

If you project 100 customers, you might get 10. If you predict a deal to close within 2 months, it might close in 12. The point is, you always need to be thinking about back up plans—and sometimes—back-up plans to your back-up plans. Don't rely on one way to do something, think about multiple paths. Cover yourself by thinking about alternatives at every turn and you'll become a much stronger decision maker.

Anything you think you will earn before you execute, well, probably won't happen.

Financial forecasts are like little angels that sit on your shoulders whispering sweet nothings in your ear about upward climbing bell curves. Don't get stuck on a grandiose financial milestone. Focus on growing organically and covering your basic life expenses before you worry about a six-figure salary or ten-digit company revenues.

Before you bring on anyone as a business partner, determine if truly "partnering" is the best option. Decide if alternatives such as sharing revenue or doing a joint venture are a better fit. Make sure you know everything about the person you wish to partner with, from their political backgrounds to their business ethics. And if you decide to go ahead and bring on a partner, be sure to create an operating agreement that clearly states what happens in every possible outcome—from a partner leaving to a partner dying.

No one is going to hand you a bunch of cash and say, "Here, go follow your dreams and build the next big company." Banks rarely—if ever anymore—lend to start ups.

Angels and venture capitalists won't give you a second look. Bottom line: money people don't care if you are alive or dead until you are in the marketplace—and thriving. Do not waste a second on an idea that you truly cannot get off the ground in some way without someone else's resources. Think smaller before you try to go bigger. Get rid of the "phase 3" aspects of your idea before you can get "phase one" out the door.

If you find yourself saying I can't launch my business without the whole ball of wax day one, hit yourself over the head with a blunt object until you gain some clarity.

You may want to get past all of the start-up crap, but you can't get to B until you get past A—and A takes time. There are no 6-minute start-up tricks or ways to get to your first million any faster. It takes time to build traction, brand awareness and a consumer base. Trying to get to B faster will only lead you to a weak A, and a weak A can take down the whole business.

Failure is good. It will be your guide to smarter, better decisions. The faster you realize that your business will never be perfect and there is no such thing as smooth sailing, you'll grow as a leader as a result.

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ARTICLE

It’s What You Want?

Your consumer insights are far more important than you think!

By Zehra Shaikh

Imagine this: you see a chocolate on your study table that you had forgotten to keep in the refrigerator. Now it’s all melted and soft, you start opening it to see its condition, and it starts dripping in your hands. Immediately you put the whole bar in your mouth to prevent more loss. Now can you feel the chocolate rolling seductively in your mouth, caressing every taste bud, the walls of your cheeks being hit by a sweet, warm muddy wave. You slip in a state of nirvana with its scrumptious flavor; you’ll never forget the experience.

That’s what advertising needs to do; it’s not about brand- who cares what chocolate it was- it’s simply about the product and the experience it’s capable of offering. But the real art is to portray the capabilities in the best form.

How do we find out what is it that a person really want to see or experience. Consumer insight comes at play here.

Literally, consumer insight is to find out what a person wants. But it’s not just what a consumer wants; it’s how it wants it, why it wants it or even where it wants it. If one is out to find out what a consumer wants they may get replies that are based on what’s on top of their minds at that point or what they feel like having at that point, or for that matter just lying to sound cool. Therefore finding a true consumer insight is a tough job. But before consumer insight, we need to understand consumer behavior.

We humans are such, that to protect ourselves from exposure to strangers, we lie to them. There are times when we lie to ourselves too. Thus we don’t usually tend to speak the truth if asked by someone, therefore, in order to find the real thing you need to understand the person you are asking, make him/her comfortable and provide them with trust. Just asking outright the questions you have is a bad way of going about it. Either, as mentioned, make them comfortable, or study their behavior from a distance.

Studying behavior is an exhaustive exercise; it demands a lot of time, patience and money. There are several ways of studying consumers. The best way is to be at target consumer’s home and study their behavior for a day or two.

But it’s not practical as people won’t let a random person in their house, even if they do, they wouldn’t be behaving in their usual way; they will be conscious.

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These insights can derive the Big Idea for an ad or a campaign.

Thus to overcome this one can study the buying and consumption patterns. This can be done by studying people in a super market or a store. Or they can see what causes a particular decision to be made. Again not an easy task, thus to find that out a set of questions are asked, either face to face or through a questionnaire. These questions are usually indirect and find out the real answers without imposing too much.

Other ways used to understand consumer behaviors include focus group where a moderator leads the group in a discussion regarding a certain product. This can be effective in a way the people give their opinion regarding what they usually do. Then you have the media use. To reach the consumer you need to know how to reach them, therefore understanding their media consumption. The best way is to attach monitors in TV’s of the target consumers to see what channels they watch. Whereas, other media vehicles would have to be found out through questionnaires or focus groups.

These were just a few ways of understanding consumers and even they are not 100% accurate. But these efforts have to be made. Especially in a country like Pakistan, where there are multiple sects and cultural differences within a particular province, that it becomes important to understand each sect individually to avoid offending or alienating any.

Once we understand what their behavior is, we need to know what they really want. For example: from their behavior we know that a huge market loves having something sweet after meals. But we need to find out why they want to have sweet after meals, what influences their decision and more importantly how to influence their decisions.

Consumer insight is the accumulation of all of the above, but the challenge is how it’s used in the execution. This insight derives the Big Idea for an ad or a campaign. For example in case of Owsum flavored milk, the consumer behavior was that children don’t like taste and smell of milk but are forced to drink it every morning. The insight is, that every day there is a tussle between mother and child on drinking milk; thus the big idea came out to show Owsum favored milk as a savior of the tussle. The execution was simple, plain milk was portrayed as a monster while Owsum milk as children’s hero.

Insight can come from a group of people or it can come from an individual, thus a researcher has always to be on a lookout for traits of consumers. It gets consumer to perform an action, it’s like a prompter for them to buy what they need. Good insights result in great campaigns, because that’s when you have really understood your people.

Just like a melting chocolate in your mouth would make you want to have a chocolate.

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EVENTS

L’OREAL REVITALIFT “Revitalift Double lift works like an instant lift for your skin.

Its double anti-ageing action goes deep into your skin instantly reduces fine lines and makes skin visibly tighter.” L’Oréal Pakistan Spokesperson Aamina Sheikh

(Karachi, 07 May 2011) L’Oréal Paris, the world’s leading beauty brand, proudly announced a brand new series of exciting and interactive Experts mall animations in Karachi and Lahore celebrating beauty, skin care and their world No. 1 in anti wrinkle creams franchise Revitalift at a press meet on the opening day of the experts’ mall animation.

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Speaking about their Mall Animation Events, Marketing Manager L’Oréal Paris, Zainab Pasha has said, “It is important for women to be aware of the right skin care regime to follow, especially when it comes to ageing.

Every skin type is different, every skin concern is unique, and we believe our mall animations are a chance for consumers to engage with our Experts face to face and to learn about their personal skincare solutions.”

In keeping with L’Oréal Paris’ global philosophy of technical expertise and revolutionary innovation, Park Towers in Karachi and the Mall of Lahore is open to visitors to treat themselves to the L’Oréal Paris beauty experience with their Experts. These include specialized skin care services including; personalized skin consultations in Karachi and Lahore with L’Oréal Paris’ expert panelists including beauty therapist Peng Qureshi, cosmetologist Ujala Zia and dermatologists Dr. Khilji, Dr. Saadia and Rubina Hassan; Makeover services by Saba Ansari of Sabs in Karachi and Maram of Maram & Aabroo in Lahore.

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EVENTS

Hosted by L’Oréal Pakistan Spokespeople Aamina Sheikh and Anoushey Ashraf, the ladies spoke about the mall animation activities planned by L’Oréal Paris this year including information on the current Experts Mall Activity with complete with skin consultation and testing areas, the makeup makeover areas while also introducing the L’Oréal Paris experts panel for Karachi; beauty therapist Peng Qureshi, cosmetologist Ujala Zia, dermatologist Dr. Khilji and stylist Saba Ansari of Sabs all of whom were present at the event providing personalized skin consultations.

In addition to experiencing one-on-one free professional consultations with L’Oréal Paris’ skin experts and beauty panelists, visitors have a chance to avail facial services at the expert’s salons. Additionally, at the animation venues L’Oréal Paris products are also available at special promotional prices for patrons to purchase.

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EVENTS

Nando’s 10 years of Peri licious ness

Celebrations with Masala Tv Chefs

Nando’s pre- celebrated its 10 years of perilicious existence with all the renowned Chefs of Masala Tv including Chef Gulzar , Chef Rida , Chef Sharmaine, Chef Shereen and many others who paid tribute to the brand by visiting and having dinner at Nando’s Boat Basin , Karachi. The tongue tantalising story of succulently grilled chicken in lemon and herb or periperi has become the hottest story in Pakistan. With 7 restauarants Nationwide divided in 4 restaurants in Karachi , 2 in Lahore and one in Islamabad, Nando’s has taken the country by storm since its arrival in 2001.

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EVENTS

This fast casual chain of restaurants specializing in peri peri flame grilled chicken has people addicted to the taste of Peri-Peri and craving for more. The brand vision remains to be the best, not the biggest. The powerful people culture serves to be an integral component of the brand and will continue to be a powerful driver into the biggest and most competitive of all markets. Nando’s is now looking at other cities for expansion and will soon be looking at new restaurant openings.

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EVENTS

Coke Studio’s Musical Voyage The journey continues with season 4

Coke Studio embarks on its fourth season with a heightened awareness of the invisible depths of the musical foundations upon which it stands. Expanding on the experiences of the previous three seasons, Coke Studio now continues along the path of self-discovery with a fresh perspective on the scale of diversity – of music, poetry, cultures and languages - that exist in Pakistan.

In Season 4 the Coke Studio journey is rich and varied. It takes us deeper into the realm of classical music – introducing promising new talent, highlighting branches of music that have evolved from the classical root and presenting demonstrations of the ancient art form by universally acknowledged maestros. Coke Studio will also be showcasing styles of music that are uncommon yet exceptional and therefore, very precious. In keeping with the Coke Studio tradition of expanding the boundaries of mainstream listening, there is the inclusion of regional language songs. Making valuable additions to the country’s known talent pool, Coke Studio also introduces some gifted, yet virtually unknown singers that have earned a place on this platform due to their skill and talent alone.

And providing perfect balance to the musical spectrum of this season, Coke Studio continues to acknowledge the importance of contemporary music via fusion and cross-genre collaboration numbers - featuring pop singers, a diverse range of bands and a house-band that combines the best of eastern and western instrumentation.

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Episode 1 features “To Kia Hua” by Bilal Khan, who is one of the newest singers to emerge on Pakistan’s pop music scene. A deceptively simple melody, “To Kia Hua” goes through a metamorphosis at Coke Studio, adapting smoothly to the Eastern groove provided by veteran House Band percussionist, Babar Ali Khanna on dholak. Also featuring in Episode 1 are progressive rock band Mizraab with their exhilarating “Kuch Hai”, replete with classic rock elements that have been fused at Coke Studio with a distinct Eastern flavor. The song features heavy acoustic guitar riffs from Faraz Anwar’s, powerful alaaps from qawwal Mannan and the compelling punch of the darbuka, played by Mizraab’s percussionist Nasir Ahmed. Coke Studio’s first episode also presents a captivating collaboration between Balochi folk legend Akhtar Chanal Zahri and contemporary pop songstress Komal Rizvi together in, “Daanah pe Daanah”.

Originally written and composed by Zahri himself, the song fondly sings the praises of the province he hails from.

Presenting an unconventional alliance, this Coke Studio rendition of the popular folk song fuses with Sindhi Sufic classic “Lal Meri Path”, taking both well-loved anthems to a new level. Reborn against the backdrop of a modern funk groove the song becomes a symbolic celebration of diversity.

The first episode of season also introduces an eclectic hybrid “Ik Aarzu” - an exciting amalgamation of a brand new Jal original and two timeless classics, “Dum Must Qalandar” and “Tere Ishq Nachaya”. With this interesting merger Gohar Mumtaz and Farhan Saeed of Jal have blended modern pop with traditional tunes. The first episode of the season further introduces the first of its classical numbers this season, “Sighra Aaween Saanwal Yaar” as rendered by Sanam Marvi in raag Malkauns, and in the words of Sachal Sarmast and Sultan Bahu atop the bluesy backdrop created by the House Band.

Episode 1 features “To Kia Hua” by Bilal Khan, who is one of the newest singers to emerge on Pakistan’s pop music scene. A deceptively simple melody, “To Kia Hua” goes through a metamorphosis at Coke Studio, adapting smoothly to the Eastern groove provided by veteran House Band percussionist, Babar Ali Khanna on dholak. Also featuring in Episode 1 are progressive rock band Mizraab with their exhilarating “Kuch Hai”, replete with classic rock elements that have been fused at Coke Studio with a distinct Eastern flavor. The song features heavy acoustic guitar riffs from Faraz Anwar’s, powerful alaaps from qawwal Mannan and the compelling punch of the darbuka, played by Mizraab’s percussionist Nasir Ahmed. Coke Studio’s first episode also presents a captivating collaboration between Balochi folk legend Akhtar Chanal Zahri and contemporary pop songstress Komal Rizvi together in, “Daanah pe Daanah”.

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EVENTS

L’atelier Islamabad – L’atelier, Islamabad’s leading new fashion multi label boutique held an exhibition showcasing Nickie Nina’s latest collection hot off the PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week ramp. The exhibition was well attended by fashionistas and socialites alike!

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COVERSTORY

The loss of creativity in advertisement is common now a days OMER AHMED

CREATIVE DIRECTOR, ORIENT ADVERTISING.

Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a 1,046-kilometre (650 mi) coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. Pakistan is afederal parliamentary republic consisting of four provinces and four federal territories. With over 170 million people, it is the sixth most populous country in the world.

But this isn’t about the ‘land’ part of the title, my apologies; let’s steer over to the latter.

The Advertising scene of Pakistan as glamorous as it may impressively look with a fairly new style palette being used in various advertisements, there are creeping issues that have been slowing our industry from what it can have very easily been ‘internationally acknowledged’. Well for the quality of advertising in the past few years, we have upgraded a notch – that’s what happened globally; everybody upgraded. But the question is why didn’t we grow as they grew.

How is it that our friendly neighbours are light years ahead when it comes to intelligently humorous addictive advertising that makes you scratch your head in wonder? They don’t need celebrities to be endorsing each and every product in the market, they even don’t need fancy CGI effects to woo the audiences. It’s not about ‘wooing’ as much as it is “hm you know what, that’s quite true, i’m gonna remember this ad.”

We have all the talent in the world, hot blooded youngsters with the vision and drive that could start a country of their own, but really where are we utilizing them, we talk about the youth and how powerful a tool they are, but I am yet to see a decent many who really take the opportunity, or have they not been given the opportunity. We may have upgraded our arsenal of production gadgets and hats off to that. But as far as I see it, we’re lost. There are lots to do to put us on the international advertising map where we deserve to be, for that we need to stand up and open our eyes to the things we have been over looking.

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COVERSTORY

The Fear Factor We see it all, through hundreds of channels being broadcasted worldwide, we see how advertising can be short, simple and dangerously effectual when it comes to engaging the target demographics. It’s as real as it can get, the closer to reality, the better. Let’s talk about our friendly next door neighbours. As flamboyant as their advertising may seem, it really isn’t.

Put aside your regular big shot endorsements and there’s still a lot behind that closet that has taken their advertising scene to a whole new level.

Instead of showing a false world of sparkling chandeliers and unrealistic plastic women smiling at you through their fake white teeth, our neighbours show their audiences the truth of the common man, and then slap some comedy into it. Their audiences easily relate to it, and fall in love with it. Whereas on the other hand, we lose the whole point in the whole thing, let alone fall in love. I’m not saying our advertising sucks, but I’m sure people agree to the fact that we’re going about it the wrong way, mostly. So why is it that we can’t seem to come out of the standards that we’ve boxed ourselves into, do we feel that it really works? According to me it’s because of our dear friend, fear.

It’s encouraging to know that our brands have started housing young talented, thirsty individuals to lead on, but then it’s agonizing to find out that they weren’t able to give the agency room for something new, something that can contribute in a small way to the revolutionizing picture of change. They say out-of-the-box but it doesn’t quite cut it when you mostly don’t know what the box is in the first place. Is it the fear of change, or the fear of ambiguity? As usual I’ll leave the question out to be reflected on.

Break the Norm

Design or Concept?

The question isn’t about what to choose from, but what comes first from the two. This may seem like something you’d read in “Advertising for Dummies”, but trust me, you’d be surprised to know how many of us get it wrong. When it comes to seized visual communication, we tend to beat about the bush as we try to fluke around with our tools hoping to come across something with significant meaning. The results may be flattering but it normally isn’t that rewarding compared to something from ‘precise effort’. In an industry where client briefs fly in from all directions and deadlines dawn to be met ‘yesterday’, we’re inclined to skip the important brainstorming session and hit straight to the execution room. A solid concept always goes a long way, and brings out undeniably stronger design options. It’s the idea that sells, the rest falls right into place afterward.

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The Lost Youth With our professional academic entities exploiting curriculums to suit the demanding advertising industry, it’s sad to see no aptitude in the students being produced out from our universities. Talent, sure. Passion, ok. But our young Ogilvies lack the sense of direction which is vital when you come out into the open to put your drive to the test. I’ve come across hundreds of admiringly talented passionfilled young individuals fresh out of universities who just don’t exactly know what it is they want out of their careers, and this does a number on their interest meters due to the lack of confidence this brings. What good is passion when you don’t know where to use it? Not many fresh grads get honest guidance when they start out in the industry. Internship is vital and valuable when they ask the right questions and absorb as much as they can. If you’re a budding advertising professional reading this right now, drop the glamour dreams and stick to your guns. Assess yourself, do some decent research, lock target and launch without looking back.

Education Via Advertising It’s hard enough when we’re headed in the wrong direction, but then things get near to impossible when the person you want to talk to doesn’t speak your language. We talked about how great advertising can be without forced meaningless visual attractions – glitter I like to call it. Most professionals complain that bringing a change ain’t that easy, “we’re supposed to consider our target audience! They won’t perceive such a drastic change”, or “They won’t get it.” Number one, nobody’s asking for a drastic change, number two, they’ll never get it until you give it to them – in bits and pieces that is. Our brand friends are mostly understandably afraid of trying new and fresh things since it may risk losing their target audience’s attention through ambiguity, or that their brand personality could take a sudden nose dive after years of certain positioning. The hard truth is none of the above two is the outcome of ‘change’.

If our argument is that our neighbours advertising is far better because they can afford to – because their literacy rates are way higher than ours... then it’s high time we start educating our audience through our advertising .

It’s more of a duty since we have the most powerful people-reaching medium in our hands. Little drops of change won’t go to waste. There’s nothing to lose when you know you’re brand is going to be out there making a presence anyway. Isn’t that what we’re all doing, just making a presence. But we’re really not going anywhere if we continue down the same path. Raising our advertising standards means raising the minds of our people, and we can do it with just the right doses of empathy, reality and the unifying will to change.

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THINK BIG

“The major problem with most of our nation is that we are followers and not initiators.�

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LIFE IS A CONSTANT LEARNING RED CUT’S EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH MR. NABEEL SAYEED, Vice President Communication, Dawlence

Nabeel Sayeed Vice President Communication, Dawlence

I am sure you have heard the statement that the grass is greener on the other side. I have lived in Saudia, I have lived in Cambodia, and I have lived in Qatar but honestly speaking there is not much of a difference while working abroad or working in Pakistan. Fine, there are other aspects in terms of security, electricity, running water and other things but in terms of work if you consider the Pakistani market, I would say Pakistan is 5 years ahead of what is happening in Qatar at the moment, even though they are technologically much advanced. They also enjoy all the basic necessities of life.

But in terms of media execution and creativity Pakistan is far ahead of all of them.

“The prevailing situation is really difficult, you need to have a strong background.”

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THINK BIG

Mr. Nabeel Sayeed

Q. Tell us your story. How did you start your career?

A. I have lived all my life in Saudi Arabia, my father was working there. I completed my Intermediate from Saudia and then came back to Pakistan. I joined Hamdard Institute of Management Sciences back in January 1996 and did my BBA in marketing followed by an MBA. Then I started with advertising and communication, the n moved to Mindshare. From Mindshare I moved to JWT Advertising and from there I went to Cambodia. There I was worked for countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, and China. But then really soon from Far East I went to the Middle East, Qatar, there I was working for a multinational media group. Unfortunately I couldn’t work there for long and came back to Pakistan and here I got an opportunity to work for Dawlance. So here I am today.

Q. Technology? You have always been doing creative things before and now you are into technology?

A. No, amongst all the companies I have worked with, my job has always been with the media whether it was in Cambodia, Qatar, Mindshare or JWT. I was part of the team media which is media information wing.

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THINK BIG

Q. Do you enjoy your current jobs or the previous ones? And how did you learn from them?

Before Dawlance I have worked with all FMCG brands one of the big names in the industry for Eg. Unilever brands, I have worked with real estate planning in Qatar, I have worked with Gillette, with Panasonic. I was a part of team media for Shell. You might say it was a master plan , I wanted to learn how media works and what media planner has to do there are different of aspects of Marketing however media is a very integral part of it In terms of the execution the ideas fine creativity is a very important part but the way you implement that particular creativity on to various platforms is also very important in media whether that is print, outdoor, Tv, BTL or activation it doesn’t matter if it is done right then that particular creativity is affecting your brand. You know when you are working with the agencies you think you know everything about the brand but when you are on the opposite side of the table it is a completely different game. Media today is one part of my job. But ensuring who will be the customer of a particular product and the stance and the message is what I do today and until and unless that is not conveyed they will not be able to purchase the product.

Q. What are the strategies used by Dawlance in order to restrict competitors from penetrating in to the market?

A. Dawlance started approximately 30 years ago and at that particular time we were only manufacturing smaller refrigerators through a factory at Hyderabad. We grew with the passage of time and even if today you ask someone that what they know about Dawlance, they would say that we are the manufacturers of refrigerators in Pakistan. So the top of the mind recall of Dawlance is of refrigerators. Fine other categories are also growing but Dawlance is synonym to refrigerators in Pakistan. We have gradually realized the potential of the market and the impact of the spill over media cannot be ignored in the case of Pakistani market. The most affluent channel in Pakistan would be that of a neighboring country. So, all the information from these channels is passed on to your market.

Even if it is not completely absorbed it does raise the level of people’s expectations.

From here Dawlance has concluded that we

have to constantly upgrade our products we cannot afford to remain stagnant. We have to upgrade in order to meet the constant upgrading expectations and lifestyles of the product. We are a very research based organization and every step taken is backed by research.

Q. Has it ever occurred to you that you should become an entrepreneur?

Actually I want to open up a restaurant, the name of the restaurant was supposed to be “ KAHIN BHI” and the name of the dishes would be “ KUCH BHI” so the tagline would be “when you like having kuch bhi come to kahin bhi”. This is because when you ask people what to eat, they would reply “kuch bhi” and, where to go, the sudden answer would be “kahin bhi”. 99% of the times you will get this response only. So, my idea is just like capturing the generic. Just like Surf excel, people go to the shop and say give me surf and when the shopkeeper asks which surf then they will mention Surf excel same is the case with Pampers. So you capture the generic market same way I believe kuch bhi kahin bhi will also get its place.

Q. How do you see the current situation for new and current entrepreneurs to keep their venture going?

A. The prevailing situation is really difficult you need to have a strong background. Apart from the cost of running such a venture you need to have a strong background to keep yourself at that position.

Q. if you were given a choice to change one thing from the Pakistani corporate sector what would that be?

A. Well, this is a difficult one. There is one particular thing in the Pakistani market that people follow a path. They do not want to change the set pattern or use their brains to figure out whether the shortest route from point A to B is a circle or may be it could be a line or somewhere around. They only know what their boss has told them. So, basically we are followers. We are not initiators. If you compare us with, say Cambodia, who got its independence in 1999 but if you look at their

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THINK BIG

structure or their planning. They are all working to make there country a better place. They are backward than us in terms of education and other such things but they are working to improve their condition. Where as we are continuously losing our position going backwards. We don’t even have the basic necessities of life. We need to have a stand by generator for that matter and the condition is worsening day by day. Everybody knows that we have illegal connections of water but nobody is ready to take an action.

Q. What advice would you want to give to young entrepreneurs and managers in this filed?

A. Just don’t get overconfident. Life is constantly about learning. You think at a certain point of time that you know everything but then one fine day you realize that the ways have changed in order to produce better results. My eleven years of experience 9 at others and 2 at Dawlance has taught me that you have never learnt enough there is always a scope to learn more.

Q. One thing about yourself?

A. I am a self made man. I have never got a job from reference or any such thing. I believe you should never take favors no body can either get you a job or take it back. You take favor than you will have to oblige as well. So why take favors irrespective of the fact whether you are deserving or not.

Q. What has been your role in the company’s success and how important do you think is the communication between the company and the consumers?

A. My contribution to the company as individual is none but as a team, the sales contribution of the last year is highest in the last 30 years. We all work together, the HR, sales, marketing, communication and finance, and if we don’t produce good quality products and we market it then it will sell for the initial phase and will eventually decline. So we cannot say that one person has brought this change, it is always a team effort. In order to answer the second part of the question I would say that the most important thing for any organization is the customer primarily. The customer is the person who guides you in terms of what they need.

So, you have to figure out the unmet need of the customer based on which you design or revive your product.

Q. How do you manage you human resource? the attitude? the behavior? and environment within the organization?

A. I have team of 5 product managers and 2 research mangers. We have a love and hate relationship. That is the whole dynamics of work here you want to wake up every morning face the

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difference opinion, fight for your idea, convince others. This makes you wake up every morning and get to work with a brand new smile on you face. It has to be a much decentralized kind of environment. If it is centralized then you are told to do and in that case you don’t use your brain. There is no senior no junior in our team. Just this other day, a junior member of our team, gave an idea which will be seen by all of you soon as an astonishing new product. So, we value difference of opinion as it helps to generate better ideas.

creative & print SOLUTIONS We at RED CUT work really hard to give out these colours to you so you may SHINE amongst the REST! Call 0300-3624911 & see !

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STATS

Pakistan Facebook Statistics

A highlight over the biggest social medium of the world with regards to our country.

Total Facebook Users: Penetration of population: Position in the list: Penetration of online pop.: Average CPC(Cost per click): Average CPM(Cost Per Thousand impressions)

4 332 460 2.44% 26.

23.42% $0.24 $0.10

Top 5 brands in Pakistan djuice pakistan Telenor Pakistan Easy Paisa HP Pakistan Movenpick of Switzerland Ice Cream

120 083 65 900 48 127 40 574 33 041

Users & Demography of Pakistan FB USERS

4 400 000 4 222 222 4 044 444 3 866 667 3 688 889 3 511 111 3 333 333 3 155 556 2 977 778 2 800 000 11.11

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11.12

10.01

09.02 penetration of population

11.03

10.04

10.05

Age Growth on Facebook in Pakistan 3 months 2 months 1 months

400 000

300 000

200 000

100 000

0 13 - 15

16 - 17

18 - 24

25 - 34

35 - 44

45 - 54

55 - 64

65 - 74

User age distribution on Facebook in Pakistan

Male/Female User Ratio on Facebook in Pakistan

source: socialbakers

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CORPORATE FASHION

Importance Of Wrist Watches For Men A watch is very important for man as it tells people many details about him such as social position, taste and wealth. If a man wants to have good image, a timepiece is an essential accessory for him.

All of us know about the importance of having a wrist watch. It plays an important role in scheduling your life.

In old times, there was not the concept of watch and people used to estimate about time from sun rise, sun fall and stars. As, science and technology developed our life style changed in a great way and we, the human beings, learned to depend upon machinery. Watch is an important invention and is widely used to tell you about time and date.

Women are luckier than men as they have more accessories than men do.

They can wear beautiful dresses and change their hair styles whenever they want. And they can buy various accessories to match with their clothes.

Men are quite different.

It helps a man to be successful in career

A man who wears a wristwatch knows what time it is whenever he wants to know. Even though there are more and more ways for people to know the time such as laptop, cell phones, and even MP4, MP5, a wristwatch is still the most convenient tool. If it is an automatic one, people don’t have to worry about the energy of the battery.

It declares success

What a man proud of is always his wealth. If he is wealthy enough, a high-end timepiece is necessary. People usually judge a man by seeing the timepiece he wears. Thus, a good watch is essential if a man wants to show off his wealth.

Even though a man is not wealthy enough, he also needs a classic and nice timepiece if he wants to leave deep impressions to others.

Shows responsibility and punctuality

Also, a man who wears a timepiece on wrist is responsible and punctual in many people’s point of view. It tells people that he care about time. Such a person is always considered as responsible for both family and work. That means a man who wears a watch leaves good impression to others as more and more people realize how important time it is today.

It helps a man to have good images

What’s more, a watch tells people the wearer’s social position. As we know, famous people like to wear a famous timepiece. They pay much attention to their images. And they usually attend some important social activities. If a man wants to tell people how important he is in such an occasion, the best way is to wear a branded timepiece. A person who is respected by people surely wears such a timepiece.

Besides, a man who wears a high-end wristwatch shows his good taste to people. From the timepiece a man wears people knows his taste. Therefore, it is important for a man to have a good piece.

Do not ignore th e importance of a wristwatch for a man. It decides whethe r a man is successful or n ot sometimes!

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What they need is simple. A tie, a belt, a watch, a pair of good shoes and perhaps a briefcase; these are all what they need wherever they go.

People are busier with their work than before. Therefore, they need to arrange everything in order. And it is necessary for them to know the time in order to arrange their timetable well. Time is money today. By wearing such a timepiece a man is able to know what he is going to do next. All his works can go smoothly with it. Of course he will be more successful in his career when he pays attention to time.

PROFILE

SAAD HAROON Importance of humour in corporate world of Pakistan I never thought that far ahead, if you think that far ahead you might doom yourself to failure if I would have been saying that I want to be a comedian and I will make that much amount of money , I don’t know that stuff.

Also being an entrepreneur is embracing that fear is telling yourself that you are doing it for the love of the game and at the end of the day if you don’t make money that should be enough for you. If you want to have a conclusion to life you should be an entrepreneur. When you are willing to take a risk, then you stand proud either without clothes or with an Armani suit. You stand proud as you know it is your reward.

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I think laughter is very important for the Corporate Sector because you have a group of people whose lifestyle is very rigorous, tough and time consuming and it takes a lot of energy to get through the day and I think any kind of avenue which will get you happy or laughing or help seeing the lighter side of life is great and very necessary. I think in the Corporate the job is to keep everything going, like they keep the economy going and keep the country going so it’s our job to keep them going, to keep them happy.

Q: You specifically chose this field, apart from all the other fields in this world. Why? A: I consider myself a Comedian and it comes from a very basic desire to be a story teller and so I have also produced television programs, worked on projects such as workshops and I teach too. All this comes under the big umbrella of being a story teller, of teaching people how to tell a story and humor is one of those avenues. I am sure in future I will also try other different avenues. In response to your question why did I chose this field I would say “ I chose it and it chose me” I came into at a time in my life where I realized I really want to do something that and makes me happy for the rest of my life I want to wake up and enjoy my job have fun doing what I do. And before that for many many years I wasn’t happy with what I was doing but I was doing it every day, in and out and you can live your whole life doing that. And now, obviously I think it’s a different challenge like you can be in banking and you can be very happy with that because you make a lot of money and you know in a country like ours financial stability means a lot of happiness and so there are a lot of pluses and minuses to what I do but at the end of the day there is no bigger plus than you wake up every day and you know that what you do doesn’t only makes you happy but also makes others happy too.

Q: Do you think through humor you can impart your message in a far better way? As in today’s world, the general trend to impart message is by making people depressed and worried?

A: I think humor is a very good vehicle by which you can express your opinion, even in genre’s which were very very sober like news. You see different kinds of format like 4 Man Show which take a vehicle like comedy and take information like news it is like imparting a point of view that way, and it is being very popular because at the end of the day we are at an age of “Infotainment” as much as I hate

that word but it does work sometimes as you have to inform and you have to entertain as well. Comedy is a very powerful tool and even when we do comedy we take a pause and decide that this is the message we want to impart.

Q: If we concentrate totally on the Corporate Sector, what is the one thing you think is not right and you can change it with your humor and perspective?

A: I think in the Corporate the biggest problem, and I don’t know whether this is because of the “Seth” run system in Pakistan that the people are very risk averse. A lot of corporate will not take risk to do fun and that’s an interesting thing and that has depressed me and so you always feel a status quo without advertising and marketing and that is why to a larger extent I was hesitant and before I started doing the Sprite Campaign I did not link myself to any brand although I have been doing it for a good time now near about 10 years. It’s mostly because there was nothing fun or exciting going on and there was nothing you would want to get linked up to.

Q: You have never been associated to a brand.

Why did you choose Sprite?

A: Yes! I have never been associated to any brand before Sprite and this is because when the Sprite people approached me for the “University of Freshology” I really liked the idea because the whole concept was to make people learn how to think fresh. We do not want to re think our brand. The idea is how the brand wants to re think everything.

The brand wants to encourage you to rethink everything. Forget thinking outside the box! There is no box! We just want you to have fun. The idea is very exciting for me. And it is really focused on getting young people involved. A lot of people say that we want to get young people involved but it is all crap because they don’t really involve young people. So this is actually done to get one on one interaction and get into universities where these people eat, breath and play and even after going home they think about their school only and everything else is secondary for them. So, we want to be in their comfort zone and want to play and talk to them and as much as I wanted to teach them how to re think they were also teaching me how things have changed from the time. I was in university and they taught me how to re think a little bit. We have just been a quarter way through but it has been a real fun to be a part of.

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PROFILE Q: When you are on stage and trying to connect with the audience, has it ever become difficult for you to extract their problems out of them?

A: Yeah the idea is to take their “Masla’s” and to play with them. We realize that the “Masla’s” of them are the same as we may have. It is for us to make them think in a different way.

Our idea is not to solve their problems its our job to help them solve their problems. It’s like teaching a man how to fish so that he can feed himself for the rest of his life. We want them to see the lighter side of life; we want to help them to communicate. We are not telling them a solution to their problem. We are not giving them life coaching, we are coaching them to think.

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Q: So far we have seen in the Sprite Campaign that it revolves around “Love” and seems as if it is the focus point. Don’t you think that it is all coming from only one point of view? They might have other problems as well.

A: No, the campaign is staggered; I have seen the other commercials as well. The first ones are very geared towards relationships. And you would be surprised that 90% of these kids have problems related to relationships as they SMS their problems. The kids want to discuss this stuff. Their life, their love, their emotion, they have massive raging hormones right now. The need to connect, an emotional connect. You can take love as a larger world; a lot of Masla’s are related to your parents and we also get a lot of issues like “Berozgari”. So the other advertisements in the campaign deals with mother issues, father issues, study issues, so this is a huge category and you will see them.

Q: The solutions you are providing to these kids, from your ongoing campaign of Sprite,where have you learnt them from? For example there must have been some incident which helped you learn to think in a different way?

A: The chances are you don’t have one experience, there are a multiple of them, but one thing I can talk about is that when I was in university my family used to be in Textile business, it was decided from a very young age that Saad would grow up and he will do business with the family and even when I went to university and was taking textile classes, it was okay, it was fun but I was attracted by film department. Now the textile thing was on one side and the film department on the other and this was a huge masla in my life . I never let my grades come to my place, I changed my address at school because this way my parents would get to know that. I was taking theatre and film classes and I kept it a secret for a good nine semesters so this was a huge masla in my life but half of my masla was solved by “Jugar. I wish we could live in a world where Pakistani parents would say, ‘do whatever you want to do’. But I think we are teaching the younger generation to think fresh because it’s sad that their parents were not taught to think fresh, they were taught to think practical. It’s a new age now and if you don’t start thinking fresh then practicality will die out f you. We have enough doctors and lawyers. We export doctors and we have zero artists. We are a society where kids are not doing what they want to do. And it’s a huge issue. If you love what you do you will make money out of it. There is no reason in this world that I should be making money as English speaking Comedian in Pakistan. I am doing it as a full time job in Pakistan. There is no one who would have said that it is possible. But it is, and I urge everyone to follow what they are good at, and no one can stop you from making money if you do it passionately. People will call you and give you money to do what you want to do. We are talking about a campaign which tells people to think differently, a brand does not do that. A brand tells u think THIS. We are telling you think fun, think different, think crazy and that’s how you should live your life. Imagine the kids are 20 and they are already worried about sending their kids to college. That’s not fair! It is because of the instability in future but this should be the fuel to get you through not the fear to keep you back.

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TECHNOLOGY

Truth Behind IPAD Usage How people really use their iPads.

Business Insider is extremely curious about how you use your iPad. For the second time in the past six months, the media site surveyed its readers and assembled its 855 responses to show some interesting trends about iPad customer’s usage, apps, data plans and competition.

Reinforcing the prediction that tablets are replacing laptops and desktops, 39.7 percent of those surveyed said the iPad is their primary computer, up more than 10 percent from their earlier survey in November 2010. The average number of hours spend on the iPad has also increased gradually, though the highest percentage still spends roughly 2-5 hours on the iPad per day.

The iPad’s most common functions are web browsing, using email and social media, or using other apps. Only 12.3 percent view playing games as the iPad’s primary function. At the same time, 72 percent of users claim to read books with their tablet. Over 65 percent of those surveyed claimed to have 20 to 50 apps, but most admitted to only using a quarter of these.

The survey also emphasized Apple’s monopolistic control of the tablet industry. When asked if users considered buying an Android tablet before buying an iPad, 87.4 percent said no.

Read more from Business Insider.

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Truth Behind BLACKBERRY PLAYBOOK Can this new tablet PC really beat IPAD?

Business Insider is extremely curious about how you use your iPad. For the second time in the past six months, the media site surveyed its readers and assembled its 855 responses to show some interesting trends about iPad customer’s usage, apps, data plans and competition.

Reinforcing the prediction that tablets are replacing laptops and desktops, 39.7 percent of those surveyed said the iPad is their primary computer, up more than 10 percent from their earlier survey in November 2010. The average number of hours spend on the iPad has also increased gradually, though the highest percentage still spends roughly 2-5 hours on the iPad per day.

The iPad’s most common functions are web browsing, using email and social media, or using other apps. Only 12.3 percent view playing games as the iPad’s primary function. At the same time, 72 percent of users claim to read books with their tablet. Over 65 percent of those surveyed claimed to have 20 to 50 apps, but most admitted to only using a quarter of these.

The survey also emphasized Apple’s monopolistic control of the tablet industry. When asked if users considered buying an Android tablet before buying an iPad, 87.4 percent said no. Read more from Business Insider.

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