We Just Crossed the 11,00,000 Readers Mark!

 Our blog has just crossed the 11,00,000 readers milestone! 🎉

What makes this moment special is the speed of the last leg. The journey from 10,00,000 to 11,00,000 readers took only 81 days, which means we are now averaging 1,282 readers per day.

To put things in perspective:

The journey from 0 to 10,00,000 readers took 15 years at an average of just 183 readers per day.

Clearly, perseverance pays off. If you stay consistent and keep at it, results eventually follow. There is, however, a bittersweet side to this milestone. In the past 120 days alone, we’ve had 1,20,000 readers, and interestingly, 70% of them came from the USA, Brazil, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Singapore.

Only 2% of our readers are from India — a little disappointing, but I guess that’s the way the cookie crumbles. Still, every reader counts, and this milestone is a reminder that persistence, patience, and passion always bring rewards. 

Keywords: Blog growth journey, 1.1 million readers milestone, Blogging perseverance, Global blog audience, Blog success story, Readers from USA Brazil Hong Kong Vietnam Singapore, Indian blog readership, Consistency in blogging

Brilliant innovation - Eyebrow pencil

 

The simplest of the problems can lead to the  greatest of the innovations.  As children we used pencils a lot. The only problem or problems was the sharpening the pencil and the protecting the nip part from breaking. of course we had a chakmar (Sharpener for the uninitiated) but it was borrowed and was never returned.  We struggled our entire childhood without a solution. 

But a solution was invented and what a brilliant solution it was!!. 

The eyebrow pencil makers came out with a solution. They designed the cap of the pencil to be a sharpener. What a breath taking solution to a complex problem. Three issues were tackled at a time. The pencil could be sharpener, the nip would not get cut or broken and third the eye brow pencil as it was sheathed would not smudge and spoil the ladies handbag. 10 out of 10. 

Opportunities are just waiting behind the curtain called the problem. Open the curtain and Voila there could be a opportunity of a life time.

From Rs 5000 to Rs 50: The Wild Spectrum of Impulse Buying

How Impulsive is Impulse?

Ever wondered why you’ll happily blow up  Rs 5000 on a movie night but still grumble about paying Rs 50 extra on BookMyShow? That’s impulse. It’s weird, it’s emotional, and it makes no sense until you realize it’s less about your bank balance and more about your brain’s wiring.

Marketing folks always talk about impulse purchases. But what is impulse buying really? Buying without thinking? Buying without guilt? Most people link impulse buying to purchasing power with the presence or absence of cash. In simple words, the level of poverty.

But honestly, I feel there’s a level of emotional impulsiveness that is more personality-driven. Take watching movies as an example.

 

• For Gen Z, going to a multiplex with a friend and spending ₹5000/- can be impulsive.
• Even booking tickets on BookMyShow and paying that “extra” ₹50/- convenience fee is impulsive!
• Someone else might cap it at ₹2500/- in a smaller multiplex.
• A cautious family could happily finish it off at Rs 500/- in a single-screen theatre.
• The true family man might say “Wait! My whole family will watch it for Rs 149/- when it streams on Amazon.”
• And the super-disciplined type? They’ll impulsively jump when it’s available for just ₹50/- during an Independence Day deal.

So impulsiveness can swing all the way from  Rs 5000/- to Rs 50/-. And trust me, this has nothing to do with salary or purchasing power. It’s about perceived value, urgency, FOMO, curiosity, and that emotional itch to experience it right now. Impulse is less about your wallet and more about your wiring!

 

Keywords: impulse buying psychology, emotional impulsiveness in consumers, FOMO and consumer decisions, Gen Z spending habits India, multiplex vs single screen movie experience, BookMyShow ticket booking behavior,  Amazon Prime movie rental deals, perceived value in consumer behavior, cash vs emotional spending power,  psychology of spending without thinking, why people make impulsive purchases,  impulse buying examples in India, entertainment spending patterns Gen Z, difference between need and impulse buying,  consumer psychology behind small extra charges,  Rs 50 vs  Rs 5000 impulse decisions explained!!

Flipping the Script: The Inspiring Long Tail Lesson from Aamir Khan

All management professionals talk about the famous 80:20 principle or the Pareto Law, where the focus is on serving the 20% of customers who give 80% of the business. The usual assumption? Leave the remaining 80% of the customers alone or serve them at a minimal level.

But what if the story could be flipped? What if we could fit square pegs into round holes by thinking differently? Years ago, Dr. Kota my ex-colleague, dear friend, my research scholar, and now B-School professor gifted me a brilliant book – The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More written  Chris Anderson.

Dr. Kota, like me, loves to read, and this book was a true eye-opener. It challenges our default way of thinking. Chris persuasively argues that even though the market is cluttered with 80% customers the market size is still 20%. And the beauty is that not many competitors in that market and there is less focus too. companies can operate in stealth or under the radar mode. Amazon and Netflix are perfect examples, they thrive by serving niche markets with vast selections, catering to diverse tastes that the mainstream ignores.

The Indian Cinema Parallel: Take Indian cinema. Almost 99% of movies won’t cross ₹10 crores in theatrical business. Yet, 1,500 to 2,000 films are made every year. Can the script be flipped? Aamir Khan seems to think so. His film Sitaare Zameen Par reportedly did a solid ₹293 crores at the box office. But here’s the twist – Aamir refused to sell the OTT rights to the big streaming platforms.

Why? Because while Indian cinema is widely watched, only 2–3% of India’s 1.4 billion people go to theatres. In comparison, a staggering 491 million people in India are actively engaging with YouTube content. That means theatrical releases are the long tail of the real market!

Beating the OTT Game: OTT platforms usually operate in two ways – they either buy the film outright or stream it on a pay-per-view basis. But the real viewership numbers are murky. They only publicize their “top 10” lists, and their algorithms are laughable.

Netflix, for instance, counts a two-minute watch as having “watched” a movie. By that logic, I “watched” at least 730 movies last year (two movies per day)! And if a film underperforms, the data vanishes into a digital Fort Knox. Aamir Khan was done with these games. He announced he wouldn’t stream his movie on any OTT platform. Instead, he went direct-to-audience: pay-per-view on YouTube at ₹100 for multiple views within 48 hours.

Let us do some back of the envelope calculations. Even if five people watched together, that’s just ₹20 a head cheaper than a half-litre water bottle in a multiplex.

The Math That Changes Everything

Let’s assume only 1% of the 491 million Indian YouTube audience watched the film, 49.1 lakh views ×  Rs 100 =  Rs 49 crores.

If 5% watched that would be Rs 245 crores , almost the same as the theatrical gross, but with far higher margins.

Aamir pushed the envelope further, from 15th to 17th August, he is offering the film at  Rs 50. If 10% of that YouTube audience watches at this price (4.91 crores people), that’s another Rs 245 crores. Add the two figures and you’re looking at ₹500 crores, double the theatrical revenue  and likely with almost 100% margins.

The Takeaway:  Don’t just be a follower. Be an innovator. Be a disruptor. Chart your own path and become the role model others follow. Aamir Khan’s move is not just about selling a movie differently – it’s a masterclass in turning the long tail into the main act.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Key words: Aamir Khan, Long Tail theory, Chris Anderson, The Long Tail book, Sitaare Zameen Par movie, Indian cinema business model, OTT vs YouTube, digital movie distribution, direct-to-consumer film release, pay per view movie model, Indian film marketing strategy, innovative film release ideas, cinema revenue optimization, Bollywood box office trends, alternative movie distribution channels, YouTube film release strategy, film monetization on YouTube, bypassing OTT platforms, niche market exploitation in cinema, case study on Aamir Khan marketing, Indian entertainment industry innovation, Bollywood business disruption, film revenue maximization, independent film release strategies, long tail in entertainment, data-driven film marketing, online movie monetization models, lessons from Bollywood marketing, Aamir Khan business decisions, Bollywood digital disruption.

What a thermometer kink and bubbles in an oil bottle can teach us About product improvements and Innovation!!!

Often, the simplest inventions come from keen observation and plain common sense. Have you ever wondered why there’s a tiny kink in the old-fashioned analogue thermometers doctors used in the past?

Mercury expands with heat, making it ideal for measuring temperature. In regular thermometers used for weather, mercury rising and falling with daily temperature changes isn’t a problem. But when measuring human temperature, doctors faced a challenge. 

As soon as the patient removed the thermometer from their mouth, the mercury would start dropping to room temperature, which is almost always lower than body temperature. That’s where the small kink (constriction) at the base near the mercury bulb came in. It acted like a stopper, holding the mercury at the highest point reached so the doctor could note the correct temperature before shaking it back down.

The same principle, solving a problem through simple observation, applies to many other products. Take the example of oil cans and bottles from earlier times. Opening them often caused oil to splash onto the container, spill on the kitchen counter, splatter on the person, and worst of all when hot oil was being topped up, it could lead to painful burns.

A smart product development manager came up with a simple fix: leave a little extra space inside the container. This allowed air bubbles to form and oil to pour out smoothly, avoiding splashes altogether.

Management and especially marketing is all about spotting these small but powerful opportunities, often by borrowing ideas from other fields. At the end of the day, what matters is what works especially when it improves customer safety, convenience, and comfort. So, what small tweak will you spot today?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Keywords: Product innovation, small design changes, everyday inventions, observation in product design, thermometer kink, oil bottle bubble design, simple product improvements, customer convenience ideas, product safety tips, marketing through observation, problem solving in design, everyday product hacks

Hashtags: #ProductInnovation #DesignThinking #EverydayInventions #ObservationMatters #MarketingInsights #SimpleSolutions #CustomerConvenience #ProductDesign #InnovationInAction #SmallTweaksBigImpact