Pain ball

So I went for the latest craze in town – Paintball. Here is what happened in 8 easy sentences:

1. Got up at 07:00 AM.
2. Spent an hour travelling to the arena by road.
3. Spent 1 more hour waiting for our chance of the action.
4. Spent 1/2 an hour listening to the briefing – do’s and don'ts of paintball.
5. Entered the arena.
6. Got shot 5 times in 53 seconds.
7. Sat 2 more hours for everyone else to finish.
8. Travelled an hour back.

Now I got 5 bruises on Mr. T which proclaim my stupidity. I bet for my opponents I was just a sitting duck waiting to be shot at (target practice!). Or worst still, I looked like a grazing cow! But I consider myself to be a brave soldier. It takes more than guts (read sheer stupidity) to go head on into the line of fire of 5 Singaporean active military personnel poised to shoot anyone coming in there (It takes suicidal instincts :) !!).

All and all I figured I am not the paintball kind of a guy (I know that's what losers say ;) !). I am more of the bowling kind.

Live’s dilemma

Too much “Marketing” is going to my head :) !! Two posts on the same topic in a day does show that I am taking my courses seriously …

Read this article about how the most searched term on “Live.com” (formerly Microsoft MSN search) is actually the term “Google”. I can think of one reason why. Internet Explorer uses Live as its default search engine. And most people do not bother to change it (even though its quite easy to do so!). And then they go around searching for Google every day morning even to check their emails!!

This kinda reminded me of a very old Pepsi commercial in which a kid bought Coke cans so that he could buy Pepsi .. ultimate test of Brand loyalty?

Brand Loyalty

My Brand Management course has somehow made me more aware of the brands around me. In one statistic, it says that on an average every person sees close to 3000 advertisements everyday! And every advertiser yearns for is a loyal customer who would not only buy their products but would also recommend it to her friends!

That makes me an advertiser’s worst nightmare! I cant think of absolutely any brand that I am loyal to! I have changed brands in everything from shoes, clothes, microprocessors, speakers, MP3 players to Mobile phones. So much for brand loyalty!

Well the only brand that I might honestly recommend to anyone is CASIO. The kind of abuse that I met out to my G-shock, makes me wonder, am I evil? That watch has survived with me every where and anywhere I have ever been. White water rafting, kayaking, swimming (everyday!), shower (occasionally), holi, washing utensils and ahem … mud wrestling (haha, never, but I would wear it if I have to do that too :) !!).

Harley Davidson is the brand that most people are ready to tattoo on their body. This is an interesting statistic. If you think of a Harley owner (sorry for the stereotypes!), you always think of a guy in his late 50s, with flowing beard with a beer belly and ridding along his Harley wearing leather jackets and a huge tattoo on his arm. Well, you guessed it right, people who already have had tattoos are more likely to have one more. People like me, who never dreamt of having a tattoo wont ever wanna tattoo a CASIO on their arms even if we are loyal to them :) !! So this “most tattooed brand” metric kind of anyways skews the results in favour of a Harley.

And before I end, some more CASIO brand “goodness”. CASIO is apparently launching a new line of cell phones (G’zOne) which are resistant to even the kind of abuse that you would meet out to your enemy than your mobile. See the video to know what I mean :)