Month: February 2016

Bobbi Brown

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If there is one word that describes Bobbi Brown’s website, it has to be simplistic. The high-end cosmetic company has integrated the use of two bold colors, black and white, both lying on the extremes of the color spectrum.The combination is even more crucial because it underscores the broad range of diverse colors in makeup. The use of sharp and potent typography adds depth, saturates and enhances the user experience and makes the website seem lucid and customer friendly.

The website is systematic and methodical. The home page is mostly black white, with a dash of pastel colors in the frames, only to add zest and youthfulness. ‘BOBBI BROWN’ is written in bold and aligned to the center of the page and navigates the user back to the home page, making it easy to browse through the website. The website is designed for touch, mostly for the sake of mobile and tablet users. The company has also released an App on Behance for its customers wanting to purchase makeup using their smartphones.

I wasn’t surprised to see the 99/100 score in terms of Bobbi Brown’s User Experience test which I did by using a Google product called Page Insights. The experience truly is extremely methodical and seamlessly easy.

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There are certain noteworthy features about the website that stood out for me as a customer. There are online tutorials and makeup content available for us to peruse. This is an innovative strategy of combining content with commerce, as at the end of the video, there are certain products that the brand lures us to purchase. There is a live chat option with sales assistants, who also have makeup expertise and in addition to the live chat, customers can email makeup artists for clarifications and make-up application help. There is also a click to call button, which makes the company even more approachable and accessible for its consumers. What I also liked about the website was that as a customer, one can checkout without signing up for newsletters and not be inundated by a plethora of daily, unwanted emails. There is also a site search option available, which helps expedite the whole shopping experience and helps convert quicker. The home page also provides an interactive permutation and combination of the product choices one could choose from.

There were however, some important flaws that I would want to mention. The website lacks personalization. The design is not as visually appealing or innovative as it uses a mundane format, with no detailed visuals. I am also concerned about whether the brand is able to communicate its story to the customers. If I was to remove the label of the website, I couldn’t tell it is Bobbi Brown’s website, which to me is a profound objective of any company – to be able to recognize the brand without the label on it. In terms of functionality, I was disappointed to see the speed of the website on Page Insights for both Mobile and desktop users.

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Hence I believe, in terms of functionality, the brand has done a terrific job to make the website across all media an enjoyable experience but the brand lacks in storytelling, as it is not able to create the exhilarating thrill and sheer happiness that I experience when I enter its store on Fifth Avenue. The brand needs a little more exuberance, cheer and liveliness to be able to communicate its brand appeal better.

Bhavini, the intrigue

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Taking the Fascination Advantage Assessment was an absolute delight. It was as heartwarming as my Eisntein mother unfolding the petals of my life, one at a time, with gentle compassion and complete wisdom.

 

The test accurately highlights passion as my primary advantage, which is nothing but the person I see in the reflection of my true self in the ocean of my heart. Passion to me is what ignites the fire in me, lighting my path and guiding me towards my purposeful and single-minded goal. It is the chaotic hustle I create when I buy scented candles from Anthropologie, it is the adrenaline rush of acing a brain racking exam, it is the outburst of endorphins when I finally find vegan donuts in Doughnut Plant or even my undivided attention to stacking the freshly toasted clothes in my cupboard. Whatever I do, I do with passion.

 

I call my heart an ocean because it is an ocean of secrets, emotions, feelings that flow gently amidst the tightly locked sealed trunks of treasure buried deep beneath my seabed, which is probably why the assessment mentions my aura of mystique as my second advantage. I don’t believe in opening my heart to anyone, I wander in my own dream world since childhood.I began to cloister even more when I felt none of my friends, teachers or relatives understood what I was going through during my mother’s chemotherapy and now I only confide in the supernatural power I share with my spiritual guru.

 

The report throws light on how I use a combination of emotions, intellect and thorough analysis to make prudent decisions. This is undeniably true. While I was working in my father’s business in India, I formulated a strategy for the workers who were fasting for the Ramadan. The strategy entailed working half days and yet meeting the daily production volumes. The workers didn’t just meet the daily targets, they beat them. I achieved this by reiterating leadership and motivation skills in them, which is also an aspect of my personality reflected in the assessment. The workers, who had become my family, were touched and moved by my humble attempt to respect their culture and the management on the other hand, was highly impressed by the exponential growth in the productivity.

 

 

The report also reflected a very important aspect of my personality, which is the zest I have towards entrepreneurship. I am absolutely certain that one day I will put my passion for creativity to constructive use by firing the imagination of people around the world and ameliorating their lives with the quintessential marketing services I will provide to them. I want to capitalize on my sensitive exterior backed by an interior made of steal and valor to maintain an equilibrium when faced with trying situations. I want to use my communication skills to lead, engage and motivate my colleagues and create everlasting relations , not just professionally but also the ones that go beyond the realm of work.

 

I am still extremely baffled by the credibility of the test as it made me connect the several dots of my enigmatic personality and helped me discover my true self. Bhavini, the intrigue, is excited to unravel the several layers of her personality over the course of her blogs. Read on!

Welcome to my blog

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Welcome to the first page of my effervescent journal!

I am a forever-conflicted, entangled knit ball, tossed between the decisions of my heart and mind. I call myself a knit ball because some day I’ll pride myself with the perfectly blended, intricately woven cashmere shawl, patterned by my differently shaded decisions in life.

 

Hailing from a business family, numbers came naturally to me. Finance, economics and marketing were subjects embedded in my DNA. I picked up business concepts subconsciously and I realized profit was the real elixir, even the oxygen of life. So I studied business throughout school and college and did well academically, very well. But it never made me happy. Nothing made me happy. May be I was doing something I didn’t want to do or may be I was just a pessimist. I don’t know.

 

So I began to do other things. I sang, I drew, I wrote but I was too afraid. Too afraid to fly off, away from my nest of my comfort zone. Then finally, I couldn’t stop the fire of creativity that had sparked me and I began my expedition towards the most creative aspect of business, marketing.

 

Sitting on the 51st floor, overlooking the skyline of possibilities, I promise myself to discover true, unadulterated, boundless moments of immeasurable laughter and I hope you will walk with me because may be … May be you discover your sheer source of joy and happiness too!

 

 

Labels are for cans, not for people.

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The reason why I chose this 130 year old cola giant company is because of its unending effort towards constructive  and meaningful marketing efforts. The marketing done by this brand is heartfelt , emotional , touching and essentially moving . It is truly inspiring to see how this brand has created and sustained a monopoly over a single drink that brings nothing but joy to every single one of us. Among the plethora of campaigns undertaken by Coca-Cola, the one that I want to emphasize on,  is the beautiful campaign executed in the Middle East during the month of Ramadan, which was released to primarily promote tolerance, equality and justice.

The two minute thirty two second video starts with how we judge people and develop prejudices within the first seven seconds of interacting with them. Coca Cola invited six strangers, who had to interact with one another without lighting. Through conversations , each person developed notions about the others and when the lights were turned on , they were all taken aback by their ironic assumptions.The campaign draws attention to how we quickly jump to conclusions and rely on preconceived notions towards each other.

 

This campaign left an indelible imprint in my mind. It made me think , ponder, introspect and most importantly , celebrate – celebrate the differences among us – differences on the bases of our creed , color, gender, religion , caste or status. It makes us defy the norms of the society and look inside the heart of every soul and love one another unequivocally , without a shred of superiority. Every time I see a label , I am reminded of this campaign and how simply it tarnishes the deeply engrained feelings of discrimination among us. The video takes me on an emotional roller coaster ride and makes me teary eyed even after watching it a countless number of times. I think the brand has been very successful because it managed combine marketing and social activism on a digital platform. The video managed to instill a feeling of love and oneness among people and even urged people to imbibe in themselves , patience and tolerance.

The place where I thought they fell short was the lack of women in the video. Had I been in the marketing team , what I’d do differently is that I would put women in the video too and go beyond the prejudice of gender. It could be controversial or even revolutionary but it was my heart immediately said after I watched the video. My other problem with the campaign was the limited-time it aired for due to its Ramadan theme.The short time period raises questions pertaining to the long-term impact in the perceptions of people towards their near and far ones.

The advertisement that was made in collaboration with FP7/DXB and Memac Ogilvy used digital tools  such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram , made the campaign more real and easier to relate to. The campaign received an enormous amount of shares , likes and mentions in social media with people discussing ideas about creating the world into a melting pot of cultures.

I would just say that the campaign was heartwarming, went beyond stereotypes and broke the restraints of the deeply embedded norms of the society. This attempt superimposed with the brand’s happiness forte made it very powerful to me so much so that every time I buy a can of Coca-Cola , I know that I am having a drink by a company that believes in an egalitarian world. Coca Cola has had a tradition of adding culture to their advertisements, they don’t just sell bottles of an aerated drink , they sell bubbles of effervescent happiness.

 

The irony of life

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That person who dyed your clothes into the color of your choice doesn’t have the ability to soak himself into the myriad of colors and cleanse himself off the cloak of darkness that his life entails.

That singer who you never clapped for in the restaurant , closes his eyes , sings from the heart , unites with the divine only to see the thankless disconnect with the audience when he opens his eyes.

That cartoon character you ran away from when she chased you on Times Square howls with bloodshot eyes behind the veil of the plastic smile she slaps on her face only to make you laugh.

Life is sometimes as ironic as a coconut – tough from the outside and hollow from within – so enjoy the view from the top of the tree and see the tide of time flow!

About me

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Am I a reservoir of latent potential or am I an empty swimming pool? That’s the feeling I had 6 months ago when I had never experienced everlasting joy in doing anything. The law of diminishing marginal utility applied to everything I laid my hands on and it had begun to scare me. Or may be I was a river that ebbed and flowed, denuding and exploring a new particle of sand every second. So I thought and pondered – when do you know that you’ve reached the ocean and there’s no more exploring ? When do you know you’ve to become still and calm? When people say chase your dreams, what if you don’t know what your dream is ? What if your dreams are like clouds, floating endlessly and lacking shape? I realized, sometimes, you’ve got to catch a flight and you’ve got to experience the turbulence of a cloud to know that may be that cloud , that dream was not the one you aspired for. If that’s not your cloud, what is?

 

So here I am, voyaging on the cloud of an Msc in Integrated Marketing at NYU. It has been a challenging experience so far. Living in New York City is a beautiful struggle and I use the oxymoron because life here is truly ironic – the city is bubbling with people and yet people dine at restaurants alone, each individual wants freedom in every walk of life and yet everyone suffocates in tightly packed jars which they call their homes, there’s more kindness with strangers than family and the blaring sirens of the fire brigades are silenced by the peace and tranquility of the exotic Central Park. Subway stations are forever flocked by millions, the millions that oscillate like a pendulum, day in and day out, with the same goal, but I want to go beyond the measure of this fixed wavelength. I want to transcend beyond the boundaries, beyond the usual humdrum, beyond my comfort zone and belie every expectation, norm and the usual.

 

Over these few months of my course, I have realized the importance of marketing, strategy and communication. I want to imbibe in me the energy of this volcanically changing field and use it to be an entrepreneur eventually in life. I believe in the saying that if your dream doesn’t scare you , its not your dream and I wake up every morning with the Mt Everest of fear lurking in my mind backed with a burning fire of resilience in my heart and I know , someday I’ll make it!