Mr. Sreenivassan Ramaprasad
Executive Director, CADD Centre

”Modern Trends and tools in PR - Feel the World in 3D"

Mr. Wilson Matthews
Director - Makerting and Sales,
TVH Group

"Brand Positioning and its Impact on Consumers "

Mr. S. Muthiah
Editor, 'Madras Musings',
Senior Journalist, Author and Storyteller

"Madras - Its Past and Its Present"

Mr. Sreenivassan Ramaprasad
Executive Director, CADD Centre

”Modern Trends and tools in PR - Feel the World in 3D"

'3D can be effectively used to manage relations better '

Using 3D technology to communicate brings clarity, enables faster decision-making and builds better relationships, says Sreenivassan Ramaprasad, executive director, CADD Centre, which has pioneered the use of such technology in creating architectural designs and validating them. According to him, 3D technology will become a major communica-tion tool in the present decade.

Years ago, in 1984, there was a Malayalam film called My Dear Kuttichathan that attracted audiences to the theatres in droves. The reason: it was a 3D film, the first of its kind made in India, and special glasses were given to those who entered the hall. It was a film that was much talked about, and still remembered. So much so that when '3D' is mentioned, My Dear Kuttichathan is often recollected. However, despite more than a quarter of a century, the use of 3D has not progressed much in India, at least from the common usage point of view.
Bringing the aspect of 3D to the fore, Sreenivassan Ramaprasad, executive director, CADD Centre, offered PRSI Chennai Chapter members a perspective of how to build better relationships using 3D technology. Communication is the key to building better relationships. Newspapers and television continue to be the chief means of communication even today. “When we talk about 3D communication, we perceive it through the following
senses: hear, touch, see, taste and smell. The success of any technology depends on our ability to understand it, store it and communicate; the cycle continues till the technology becomes a common man's tool,” Ramaprasad said, adding, “Fifteen years ago when mobile phones arrived we were wondering whether the technology would do anything at all because it was so expensive; today, how many of us use landline phones? Development of technology has developed the way we communicate.”
Referring to the presence of the 3D television viewing experience, Ramaprasad said that there were mechanical and architectural drawings
in 3D, as well as graphics. He was convinced that the technology would become a major communication tool in the present decade. “Towards the end of this decade, people will be carrying more of 3D communication tools rather than 2D. We will thus enable society transformation. Lack of a 3D creation tool led us to use 2D, so instead of thinking in 3D, communicating in 2D, and producing in 3D, why not communicate in 3D?”
Ramaprasad then played a couple of video films to demonstrate to the audience the kind of 3D technology available today. “Just as you can design in 3D, you can create products in real life, solid models,” he said, pointing to real-life models produced on paper and other material by a printer. “The technology (rapid prototyping) was available earlier, but was confined mainly to big manufacturers such as in the automotive or machine-manufacturing sector, and confined largely to the pre-manufacturing stage. 3D prints will enable you to understand things clearly, avoid ambiguity, create better impact,” he added.
Indeed, 3D technology is now moving up the design value chain and is being used to validate designs before they are used for mass manufacturing. Ramaprasad mentioned CADD Centre producing a 3D map of Mumbai, which proved useful to civic administrators. Another application he referred to was in the medical field, where 3D was used worldwide.

Mr. Wilson Matthews
Director - Makerting and Sales,
TVH Group

"Brand Positioning and its Impact on Consumers "

'Brands define personalities, and consumers define brands'

The challenge in brand-building and positioning is to show the finished product to the prospective buyer, and to build trust. Taking the needs of the customer into account and making no tall promises is important for a brand to succeed, says Wilson Mathews, director-marketing and sales, TVH Group.

For Wilson Mathews, director-marketing and sales, TVH Group (associated with real estate), work and its execution have to come from the heart, the mind comes later. Describing brand positioning as an act of seeking, placing and optimising something in relation to competition and the environment, based on customer needs, company and competitor relationship, Mathews emphasised that the customer was the king. “The company has to innovate and evolve, reflect a healthy environment. Customers must buy your brand in preference to others; customers drive brands because brands determine personality in a way,” he said.
Explaining why brand positioning was critical and why there was the need to keep risks to the minimum, something all business leaders were concerned about, Mathews said the marketer had to understand the product being offered, the target group, the psychology, the attitude, the economic status, consumer tastes, the market segment, the competition etc. “What is the segment you wish to create? It is also about increasing operational efficiency, providing measurable results to management, building capacity for training, best practices, leveraging existing investments and platforms, global capability for geographical capability, building human capital for the company,” he said.
How does brand building and positioning really impact business and customers? “You create a personality for the brand. Put an ideology before a brand. It's finally about getting people to buy your product and creating a strong impression about the brand in their minds,” Mathews pointed out. He named the elements for branding as product benefits, value proposition, customer service, company name and logo, and repeat business. “If I combine all, branding is in place,” he added.
Mathews traced the evolution of brand building from the 1800s, when it was all about authenticity, local brands, indigenous products, being more physical (herds of cows tattooed), a high level of commitment. But there was less exposure in those days, no packaging as such, less volume, and products were mostly home-delivered, according to him. The 1900s saw innovation and creativity, with brands such as Mercedes, Coke, and McDonald making a mark. It was a period when the movies were popular; and packaging and branding began. People were travelling and a sort of shopping experience was triggered. Cut to 2000, and you had a larger market, education was the key, there was outsourcing, and there were larger volumes, social networks, peer influence, fast-changing trends, more innovation, and a certain level of service.
"I am the brand. What I wear is my personality", said Mathews, speaking of developments and the mindset of people in 2010. Today, there is greater expectation from customers, and if the seller delays, he loses. People cannot wait, they look for prompt service.
The trust element remains, however. Online shopping business is booming, customers look for variety, and members of a family prefer to use the brands they like.
Today, consumers define brands, unlike the way it was earlier. “Hand-made material has gained prominence. Customers provide feedback online; it helps the seller as well as other customers to decide whether to buy the product or not. Quality is still important. It's brand recall that keeps brands going and up the charts. Brands also reflect lifestyle,” said Mathews. He later spoke about the key drivers in the real estate sector selling a dream, a home, and improving an asset.

Mr. S. Muthiah
Editor, 'Madras Musings',
Senior Journalist, Author and Storyteller

"Madras - Its Past and Its Present"

'Celebrating the founding of a city'

The inauguration of the Public Relations Society of India's Chennai Chapter activities for 2011-12 coincided with Madras Week celebrations. And who better other than senior journalist S. Muthiah, editor, Madras Musings, also a past chairman of the Chapter, to talk about Madras, its past and present? Muthiah, with support from D. Krishnan, picture editor, The Hindu, and adjunct faculty at the Asian College of Journalism, brings alive images of the Madras that once was. He urges PR practitioners to take more active part in the yearly celebrations.

S. Muthiah's presentation was about a book he had authored, Madras - Its Past and Its Present. At the conference room at the St. Clare Centre, Stella Maris College, he began by explaining to PRSI members and others the origins
of the city. “Before the British there was no Madras, there was no Chennai either,” he said. On August 22, 1639, three square miles of “no man's sand”,
a stretch of beach, between the Cooum in the south, the Bay of Bengal in the east, and a river that has now become the Buckingham Canal in the west, was granted to the East India Company by one of the governors of the waning Vijayanagar empire, Venkatadri Nayak, whose headquarters was in Wandiwash. Nayak was the head of the remnants of the empire (Thondamandalam) that stretched to Kanchi then and he negotiated with the East India Company. Nothing existed in the area except for a couple of migrant fishing villages, which were surrounded by towns and settlements, with Mylapore probably being the biggest town. Villages such as Thiruvottiyur, Elambore, Thiruvanmiyur, Nungambakkam etc. were separated by paddy fields and shrub jungle much like the Guindy Snake Park today.
Muthiah also traced the beginnings of Madras Week celebrations. It was to create more consciousness than merely the written word, he said. It all started as Madras Day celebrations in 2004, on August 22, the celebrations culminating in a four-hour meeting at the Rajaji Hall. It was purely a voluntary celebration but the response was overwhelming. Urging more voluntary participation, Muthiah said: “A school can have a whole day of events; indeed, a school in Chennai has Madras Week marked in its calendar. Much of the events are driven by coordinators, not as voluntary as it should be. There is a lack of spontaneity although Anna University, IIT-Madras and the Madras Ophthalmology Institute came up voluntarily to participate this year. Institutions like Stella Maris should begin to think what to do during the week. If this (the celebration) is to really survive and go forward, it's not the coordinators but the people, the companies/corporates who have to come forward. It has to be driven by the PR men and women.” He spoke about how the Murugappa Group, committed to preserving heritage in some way, had sponsored a quiz in 1989 as well as a coffee table book, Madras, the Gracious City.
Returning to the history of Madras, Muthiah referred to the Company representatives based in Machilipatnam, Andrew Cogan and Francis Day, who built a square building in one corner of the land given to them, north of the Cooum river, with a dome in the centre. There were several thatched huts inside, and no foundation as such for any of the constructions; it was more like trading settlements. In 1640, the establishment was grandiosely called Fort St George. “And it is from here that modern India grew. Believe it or not, virtually every single institution in modern India today had its beginnings in that stretch of no man's sand. Whether it was municipal governance, we have the oldest municipal corporation in the country; we have the oldest engineering college (Guindy College of Engineering) east of the Suez; the first general hospital was started in the Fort. All of us today are consequences, results or victims of the Western form of education. Whether Malayalam or Telugu or Hindi, our system of education is the same the British left us; we haven't changed it one bit in our collegiate, high school and primary school systems. And the beginnings of that system are in a school that still goes strong in this city (St George's had its beginnings in the Fort),” he explained.
The audience was shown some breathtaking pictures, most of them taken around the late 19th and early 20th centuries: the Roundtana (on Mount Road) that had a fountain meant for people to rest, the Venkatapathy Naidu building that was the Wiele and Klein (photographers) office, Klein, a large man, being carried up in the Nilgiris with his trunk and photography equipment, the first Parry building, the Madras Christian College School building, Dare House, Fort St George, the Parade Ground with the band playing, fishing at the two moats at the Fort in an evening, Kamarajar Salai leading into the Fort, the old iron bridge built by Lord Napier, Triumph of Labour statue at the Marina, the magnificent Chepauk Palace of the Arcot Nawabs built in the late 18th century that marked the beginning of Indo-Saracenic architecture, Rajaji Hall or Banqueting Hall, Mount Road, the changing of the guard in Madras, the D'Angelis Hotel later to become Bosotto Hotel (the rooms are now occupied by businesses), Spencer's, Spencer's Hotel, Triplicane, Mylapore Temple, Pycrofts Road with jutkas (horse-drawn carriages), North Beach Road, the old Madras skyline, George Town, the boundary pillar for the Esplanade (now maintained by the Murugappa Group), Poonamallee High Road, Central Station, gasoline vehicles, Buckingham Canal (sailable once from Kakinada to Marakanam) and the Victoria Public Hall.
For the book, many pictures from the past were matched with ones from the present by Krishnan and his colleague, Vijayan. Krishnan has more than 10,000 images of Madras that is Chennai. Has
a record of the city between 1880 and 1930, all on glass plates. Krishnan spoke about the special technology involved in the photography of the times that produced some wonderful pictures. Muthiah stressed that the property must be protected at any cost.