Ask anyone who's been to polo in Delhi- the best polo action, for some reason, happens at the far end :).

What Jaipur Polo Ground needs, is this:

or this:

Images: 1. videoprojecteddisplays.com 2. videoscreens.net

I have known it for a bit now: My next car is going to be a Scorpio!

So having made up my mind to go ahead with one, I contacted a dealer for a test-drive, to figure out if my dad could get in and out comfortably. After not keeping the appointment on a couple of occasions, the young lady from the dealership arrived one morning along with a vehicle and the driver.

I asked her if I could drive it off-road (where we stay, allows us the luxury of wide smooth roads, and yet unmetalled surfaces and fields are not far off either). She was hesitant and I didn't push.

We set-off on our little journey. The handling was super light, and the vehicle managed the curves ok- I asked my father to buckle up tight - and decided to push the peddle. As the girl listed out the 43 new features of the 'all new Scorpio' we went over a bump - not great speed, but not slow either- and the young lady, the driver went up flying. "The suspension is not good," I complained. A little baffled, and still rubbing her head, she replied, "Sir, pehle se to bahut improve kar diya hai hamne".

We zoomed around some, I made some crazy turns. Finally, mostly happy, I turned back.

I asked her if she had been on a test drive like this before. "No", she admitted.

"What did you think, I will drive a SUV at 40 kms/hr?" I asked, smiling at her in the rear view mirror.

Haven't picked up the vehicle yet, but the all new Scorpio/ with 42 new features/ it will be - the suspension needs to be still better I think :).

Even as multiplexes expand their presence into B cities and serious talk is now beginning to be heard about cinemas going digital, I think the overall movie going experience has however come down over the years, in cities like Delhi.

The quality of screen, projection and sound is all superb, but what about service quality? I have been thinking about this for the last couple of months and was on a specific lookout today as we went to watch 'Devil wears Prada'.

Compare your cinema going experience with one in any hospitality environment - a restaurant (fast food, casual or fine dining), hotel/ resort; an airline or for that matter any other service industry segment, I think the customer is being short changed in the first. For example, even though the entertainment tax got cut substantially, the ticket price has stayed constant. But let's forget the ticket price completely today and just concentrate on the experience...

My innumerable attempts to buy a ticket over phone have always yielded the same outcome - failure (phone is off the hook or no one picks it up); irrespective of which brand you try it with, the payment gateway on their websites doesn't work (irritating if you have spent 15 minutes, each, registering on respective sites); there's a queue at the ticket counter but only one window, of three, is manned; even when reasonably free, the staff at the counter doesn't even look you in the eye as they talk to you, leave alone smile - the voice is harsh and untrained; the guard's touch doesn't differentiate between a college student, me or my father - it's equally rough; the washroom floor is wet; carpet inside the cinema smelly; air-conditioning gets too cold and needs to be switched off from time-to-time. This is my personal experience with several multiplexes, but of course there could be exceptions and experiences may vary.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to reach out to the cinema manager when the young gentleman manning the ticket counter arrogantly said he only had front row seats left, but his body language was telling me something else. I asked the cinema manager if that was true, he apologized and gave me 2 tickets for the back row!

It's not all complaints, there are a few nice experiences too. Last week, after waiting in the queue for about 7-8 mins (and after being told by everyone that Lage Raho Munnabhai is sold out) I decided to opt for 'Devil wears Prada' and even as the gentleman manning the counter punched my request into the computer, I asked availability of LRM tickets for a show later that evening. He stopped, looked at the chart, gave me 2 tickets of LRM that I wanted- for the current show! I was speechless!

I remember this instance, a few years ago, when I had gone to meet a good acquaintance of mine - head of marketing for one of the multiplex chains at that time - he had called for a fizzy drink for both of us, but upon finding it flat not just did he send it back, but also asked his staff to recalibrate the dispenser immediately; I left my feedback with him about smelly bathrooms at their flagship property and the problem had disappeared next time when I visited the cinema hall. I asked the guard manning the gate today, if they ever greeted their guests with a 'Good Morning/ Afternoon/ Evening' etc. and if they had received any training towards that - the answer was a 'No' on both counts.

I am convinced that a great customer experience has nothing to do with big monetary investments, rather is about training & empowering the staff to delight the customer with little things when they are least expecting it, as my Munnabhai experience would perhaps validate.

I was listening to FM today...

Radio has always thrived on non-traditional & local advertising and one of the prime advertising categories on radio these days, thanks to the continuing boom in the economy, is real estate. There is a constant flurry of ads by builders and land developers, one more obscure than the other, but each claiming to have your and my vishwaas, as if trust was an overnight phenomenon, their right (almost) from the moment these companies were born. It doesn't seem to matter to them that we haven't even heard their names before.

However, an appealing ad 'on air' for the last couple of days is Bank of India's new campaign - the voices are engrossed in an engaging conversation that would usually take place between close friends or relatives, except that one of them eventually turns out to be a banker, from Bank of India, bringing cheerful news (about money of course :) ) to an account holder- Rishton ki Jamaa Poonji. I truly hope it is like this at BoI and that is not just a punchline. My own experience with the banks has been very different and I would happily switch to a bank that invests into relationships - am tired of negligent bankers, intrusive tele-sales agents, recorded voices...

It made me think though - when finalising messaging for clients, the biggest challenge is to identify a true differentiator (What's the offerering? How are we really different? Reasons that the recipient of this information should believe us?). It is an intense exercise and from this is supposed to come the unique promise of a brand. A lot of advertising today seems to just invent a punchline, without much worry about whether the brand really stands for or fulfill the promise?

So just catchy advertising or truly about 'wealth of relationships'? I will have to open an account to find out! Might just :).

Shah Rukh Khan was on Radio Mirchi promoting the Don remake. "This Don is more evil," SRK promised. Even as he spoke about the how and why it came about, I was already drowned in memories of the original.

Don is such a cult movie for many among my generation - or even my dad's - "This is where we entered the cinema hall," commented my father as we watched the CD yesterday, reminding me that we had first seen the movie during a vacation in Bombay. Amitabh Bachchan, playing Vijay, was earning his daily bread as he performed 'Eee hai Bambai Nagaria'. It was an innocent movie I think. Don and his gang's badness was limited to smuggling gold and stuff - maybe kill once in a while but no narcotics and terrorist stuff the and Amitabh's portrayal of him made him a friendly character. I think Amitabh is perhaps the only actor who can play the baddie and still not be seen as bad.

The new Don promises to be much darker but I hope some of the original charm wouldn't be lost.

Am salivating, cannot wait!

Original post here.