Conflicting Minds

Brands are known to build relationships with people and today as the pandemic got everybody homebound, it's a way of brands assuring, protecting and delivering quality products & services. Food, Health & Hygiene sectors turned this to their advantage, more and more products, new launches, emerging formats to address convenience became the talk of the town. From the virus affected panic phase, we entered into the so-called 'New Normal'. Brands portrayed the fear factor and stood to their beliefs. In such strong times, we learnt to build patience and resilience to come back to living our life the digital way.  From making it relevant to people and delivering product benefits to address their needs, brands have also connected emotionally and touched many lives. Innovative product offerings and E-commerce services came up with speed, agility and capturing mind space in our lives. Thriving in this situation and striving for excellence are the factors that brands still ma...

  Fragrances drive emotions and sentiments, taking you back to memories and inspire. They make a mark on your sub-conscious mind, works as a mood reliever and works miracles. Ancient perfumery was born when fragrances were created manually from scratch and today, technology is driving it and has taken it to the next level. Our sentiments are connected with scents, very subjective...scents we like, appreciate and are addicted to. Scents build familiarity and create strong associations to live stories, incidents, seasons, people, places and childhood times. Brands create mind space aiming at emotions, similarly even fragrances are intuitive and inherent to our daily lives. We are exposed to various smells and products that we use our everyday lives make an impact. Being Scenti-mental is being a part of this circle of emotions…there’s no better way to touch lives than this !

I remember Martin Luther’s famous speech of “I have a dream…” - was the hope to freedom for America. Today, when I look back on how our nation India fought for freedom, it reminds me of a united India – a country who really wanted slavery, casteism to end. The question is: Are we really free today? And we think and debate on this every year on Independence Day. Surprisingly, we have fallen not risen to the freedom we fought for. There is nothing impossible, we have the best of resources, be it agriculture or industries or even people for that matter, talented and prosperous. Indeed! We have no dearth of people. It’s ‘WE’ who can make it work. We have so many opportunities to prove that we can stand tall neck to neck with other nations. Faith as little as a mustard seed, when sown right, it will grow and bear fruit. It will bring harvest and joy to our Mother Land, to make our country proud! Driving away all negative forces and winning against all odds, be it our national games or a...

Girls are taught to speak, dress and behave sensibly and decently, Even decent Maria Gorretti wasn’t spared by lust, she chose to not give in rather die bravely! She’s meant for managing the house, why send her to school, Dressing like men, earning more than them, is not so cool! Burden to families, get the girls married; Why isn’t she conceiving, she must be barren! Give on the myth: If there’s an accident, it must be a woman driving the car, When she was burnt alive by her in laws, did we notice those scars! Times today have turned turbulent with kidnapping, rape, murders and sexual molestations, Vultures are out on their prey, little girls you better watch out! …is what the elders mention!

The world is in love with this word called ‘perfect’ It’s applicable to us imperfect humans… Expected to be perfect, born to be perfect, Life partner to be perfect, employee to be perfect. Are really families, marriages perfect? Are really jobs and ideals perfect? Perfection doesn’t drive excellence… It leads to frustration and sadness, It discourages and breaks you, It drives you up the wall, To the one, you’re not perfect at all… We have our worth, and we rarely see, To be perfect is always complete. Our appraisals ask us to improve, Our teachers focus on our weaknesses, Our partners accuse us of not being true, Our society compares whatever we do. We plan, we try hard, we give our best… We make our compromises and adjustments… We realise our faults and look to amend… We are given no chances, we fail to commend, So competitive, we push harder… In the bargain, we try to be someone else to just get to the ‘perfect’ stage We lose our ourselves, we lose who we real...

‘Technology’ as stated in the dictionary means application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in the industry through a machine or device. We all know that technology has brought in advancement and progress to human civilization; has made things easy, quicker and much more accessible. And the power of this is its speed and influence on us! From computers to mobile devices, the power of transmission of information to other means and across the globe is phenomenal. The power on a ‘click’ or a ‘button’, the whole idea generation along with the entire creative process, operated by manpower and supply of energy is just incredible. The dependency on technology has made man lazy and succumb to visual pleasures rather than indulge in face-to-face expressive conversations and formal polite language. We feel the world is changing, things around us are evolving, market and consumerism is dynamic, the greed of more and more emerges from the seed of ‘the spirit of lack’...

If only Shakespeare knew “What’s in a name?”…there would be an answer to this rhetorical question. Name given to any person, place or thing stands as a unique identity and because of its distinct features, it builds recognition and recall. Brands are all about these, they become an identity which is memorable - it could be good, bad or ugly. They have a personality, a distinguishing character and n imagery. Brands play a very important role between reality and perception, what values they stand for and how we perceive them to be. Just like how we want to be noticed, pampered and treated royally, brands need attention and care, too. Visibility and trust are key factors to a brand’s survival, and they become part and parcel of our everyday lives. Brands have found a home in our hearts and minds, and have to constantly meet up to our expectations to retain the position they have earned and fought for. Brands promote themselves as symbols or catchy lines to attract attention and kee...