Paper v/s Pixels.....A company's blitzkrieg for survival in the digital world!!

We all know that smartphones and tablets have taken market by storm. there is no doubt that it is just a dawn of digital era. Smartphone sales are expected to have crossed a billion units in 2013, a growth of 40% over a year ago. And, tablet shipments are estimated to grow over 50% to 221.3 million units*. These facts highlight the intensity at which we will be overwhelmed by these gadgets.

The Last Man Standing

It is not a surprise that every other magazine, tabloid or newspaper is shutting down or going digital ( ala Life magazine where Walter Mitty worked :p ). Not any more the print copy sales remain the bread earner, are they? But what is it that people continue to buy a premium range of notebooks (not digital but a black oilcloth binding hardbound notebook). I am talking about is Moleskine, a premium range of notebooks being sold across 100 countries with 30 exclusive outlets spread across the world.In 2012 Moleskine had revenues of € 78.4 million a growth of 16% over 2011 while profits grew at twice the rate to € 18.2 million. These numbers may not seem significant enough but for a notebook company they are strong. Consider these in the atmosphere of digital onslaught, they are spectacular!!

What keeps Moleskine hardbound?

Brand Equity

Moleskine is the apple of stationery world. World's best brands stand more for than the product they denote like Apple, Coca-cola, Mc Donald's etc. Whenever you think of an artists notebook or a premium notbook, you think of Moleskine People swear by Moleskine. It has its strong loyal following. Did I say Loyalty?? Yes, in today's world, Customer Loyalty is one thing that Moleskine takes pride in. In its 18 years of existence, Moleskine has got fiercely loyal bunch of followers who avoid sketching in any other notebook forget about taking notes.

Inheritance of History

Bruce Chatwin famous british writer who moans the death of his favourtie notebook in his book the Songlines as 'Paris Notebook', eponymously called by writer for its place of inception. Other famous users include Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemmingway, Vincent Van Gogh and Henri Matisse to name a few. It was discovered that the guild of such notebook makers has gone distinct in Paris. Then, Arggigo Berni started delivering authentic 'Paris Notebooks' under brand name Modo & Modo which was eventually renamed as Moleskine after being bought by private equity major player Syntegra Capital in 2006.

Though investors have taken issue with Moleskine's "Faux History", Customers do not seem to care at all about it ->

CAGR 2009 -12
Revenue : 24%
Net Profits : 34%

Differentiation through Digital Media

For a strong digital presence, what most brands do is having smartphone and tablet apps. Moleskine has done much more that. It has used apps to its own advantage instead of seeing them as threat. It launched a collection of notebooks with the popular notetaking and archiving app 'Evernote' in 2012 where you can capture the content in the squared and ruled Evernote notebooks on the app's camera, which makes the text searchable and shareable.

This October, Moleskine joined hands with popular iPad design app 'Paper' by FiftyThree, which allows to create your own designs on Paper and then have 15 pages of your sketches on it printed on a customized Moleskine notebook for $40.Moleskine has a plan to get you to buy its books instead of just sticking to apps. Well, that could be the differentiator between itself and its competitors

No ATL (Above the line) but Thought Leadership & Word of Mouth

Marketing as we knew is over. ATL activities no longer hold significance instead are part of the game because of Game Theory. Instead to create mind share, firms are adopting to Thought Leadership and Word of Mouth. Arggigo Berni, CEO of Molenski did not use any ATL activities in its market penetration and market expansion activites stuck of ' Word of Mouth' due to its wonderful history and cult following. This was further consolidated by Thought Leadership demonstrated at events like Jaipur Literary Festival 2011 where Moleskine released a special edition pocket notebook designed by graphic novelist Sarnath Banerjee

*http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS24461613

Hamaari itni phat ti kyun hai?

 
 A rhetorical question put by my senior in the office: "Hamaari itni phat ti kyun hai, yaar?" {What are we so afraid of?} But the question I am going to ask is not rhetoric. Its simple to ask: "Why are we so afraid?" Does being afraid change the consequences? Here comes The Good , The Bad and The Ugly of it.The Good: Good continues to be afraid of doing any bad; The Bad: Evil continues to be ruthlessly fearless; The Ugly: Normal continues to be unbothered.Thats the philosophical touch to it. The part that I want to lay emphasis on is: "What our lives would be if were not so afraid?"

   We will be fearless to leave our academic courses, our jobs, our bindings that we dont like.Please dont mix fearlessness with foolhardiness. One should be passionate enough guided by the inner light to achieve.And pursue what we really want to do in our lives. Wouldn't this symbolise that we have more faith in ourselves, our abilities, our beliefs. So, I come to some derivation that Fear can be killed by Faith. Faith should not be misconstrued as faith in some traditions created by humans but in self. I have a belief that Almighty is in US. In You, In Me and In All of US  We are all same, endowed with beautiful gifts in US... Each bound to become great. Then, why dont we all achieve greatness?

  We have inkling to the answer of these questions.
Marianne Williamson said "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us".
Ralph Waldo Emerson said "Every Man is a God but playing a fool"
  That says that all of us have fire within but with fear we douse the fire under us to achieve our greatness.What would have happened if Captain Gopinath would have continued to be afraid and serve in the army, he would not have made possible flying to the common man in India. What if Milkha Singh had continued to do petty jobs, He would not have become 'Flying Sikh'. It is only us who has to break our shackles and be free

 

Kites in the sky

          

              It was 14th January, Makar Sankranti : Uttarayan. People fondly celebrate this year by eating sweets made from Sesam seeds and Jaggery and by flying kites. I attended a Kite Flying Festival at YuvaJyothi, Indian Centre for Integrated Child Development, Martin Nagar, Nagpur. It is an orphanage and also a shelter home for kids in trouble. It is part of my Course, We Care, at NMIMS. Before the function began, children were enthralled to see the host of visitors coming to the place normally no one visits. Soon the function began and Father Harold was asked to talk about it. He said I dont know much about the festival and how it originated . But, yes I can definitely cite my obervations. These coming words were the words that knocked many of us down from the place. He said whenever I see kids flying kites. I watch them in rapt attention. They inspire me. When these kids are flying kites, they are glued to their kites in the sky. They dont look at stones and thorns they are walking and runnning over while flying a kite. They dont hear what the others what they are saying. They also dont hear when a street dog is barking. Their Kites have their full attention.

                     

             He said, "My dear children, aise hi aap life mein bhi aagey bado. Aap jo karna chahte hain, use karo kahin aur mat dhyan do, log kya kar rahe hain, woh kya keh rahe hain, koi aapki buraai kar raha hai. Aap sirf apne patang ki taraf dhyan do." ( My dear Children , Live your life in the same way as you fly the kite. Don't look what others are doing . Dont hear what they are saying. Dont listen to your critics. Just concentrate on your target on your Kite: Goal ).

              The next place I happened to visit was a Bal Sanskar Kendra, Shri Asaramji Bapu's Yog Vedanta Sewa Samiti (pic above). I saw children learning lots of good things. There was one that went with me and that was one verse they were chanting together in a spirited and musical way. That was,

                "Lakshya na ojhal hone paaye,
                 Kadam milakar chal,
                 Safalta tere kadam chumegi,
                 Aaj nahi toh kal."

               ( Dont let your eyes go off from your aim, Together Lead your way ahead, Succes will kiss your feet, if not today then tomorrow).

              

               Then, there I was with kids flying kites. A young boy asked me to help him fly a kite. He was a learner. He asked me, " Bhaiya, how far can my kite go?". I answered him, " how far you want it to go." Thats where I realised that is all upto us how far do we want to go ahead  with our goals to achieve them and achieve them. Nobody is stopping us it is only us who can make it or break it.

               When I was walking out of Bal Sanskar Kendra, I did not see Kites in the Sky there were thousands of ambitions, goals in the sky tring to soar higher and higher.