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November 30, 2021

Heart attack Grill – Anti- Marketing at its best!

 


In the world that we live in everything is available on a tap. Information is so much in excess that people are jaded and experiences are no longer treasured. Attention spans are incredibly low and are down to 8 seconds for the Generation Z.

 

So, what should a marketer do? Normal Marketing will not work. What customers want is a shock, that too a 1000-volt shock, that should jolt them, almost to death!

 

Almost on cue we have Heart attack Grill, a restaurant from Los Vegas, USA. Jon Basso the owner has created a controversy and built a restaurant around and named it Heart attack Grill. Savour some of the unusual things that happen at Heart Attack Grill that would pop our eye-balls out of their sockets,

 

1)          Name itself a big shocker Heart Attack Grill – Challenges the customers!

 

2)     The normal offering is a 9,982 Quadruple Bypass burger (almost 4 days calorie requirement for an average man) and French fries cooked in fat, Jon Basso himself says "Don't come here every day of the week; it'll kill you,'" How many owners dare say “don’t come every day to my business/shop””.



3)         The Owner calls himself a doctor, all male employees are called doctors and all female employees are called nurses who dress seductively and appear to be girls out of an adult magazine. The restaurant ambience is that of an hospital!



4)            All the customers have to wear a hospital gown before they start eating food. 

5)            Customers are called patients.


6)            The nurses are loved and are a huge attraction for the customers.

 

7)            Any one not finishing the food is spanked on the back side with a wooden paddle by the “nurses”.



8)       Payments are strictly cash only. (What is the guarantee that the customer would survive the meal. What if he/she dies before the cheque is realized).

 

9)       Patrons weighing more than 350 pounds (160 kgs) eat free! They have to stand on a weighing scale that flashes their weight on a huge screen!


 

10)       Heart Attack Grill’s tag line is "taste worth dying for," 

 

11)    Nothing healthy is allowed, no lettuce on the Grill's burgers. No Diet Coke, only full-sugared soda is sold.

 

12)    The nurses wheel out "patients" who are able to down a Quadruple Bypass Burger to their car in a wheelchair.

 

13)        Diners find themselves surrounded by posters that glorify obesity.

 

14)        An oversized pill bottle dangles above the bar where the “doctor” mixes drinks and pours beer.

 

15)     Their biggest, the octuple bypass burger, has 19,900 calories (almost 10 days calorie requirement for an average man) and contains nearly four pounds of fat -filled meat.

 

16)        Full bottles of wine are served in IV bags, 3.4-ounce shots in pill bottles, and Jello shots in syringes.

 

17)     Two people considered to be spokespeople of the restaurant died due to obesity-related conditions. The first, Blair River, died at the age of 29 in 2011 after a bout with the flu that had become fatal due to his obesity. River is still pictured in many of the restaurant’s advertisements and décor.

 

18)      A second spokesperson, John Alleman died at 52 in 2013 after suffering a heart attack on the premises itself. He ate at the restaurant every day,

 

19)        The ashes of John Alleman and his ashes sit atop the bar, on display.


20)      I am speech less. People are craving for experiences that is out of the world and they are ready to do anything to have that experience including risking their own life whether it is eating at Heart Attack grill or trying out a dish of FUGU fish (a dish that is so dangerous that, one has to sign a document of release before sampling it). Every year more than 100 people die eating the deadly Fugu fish!




November 28, 2021

Looking at things differently - LENOVO - We got your Back!


I always advocate lateral thinking, out of box thinking, and being a devil's advocate (thinking differently). 

"We got your back" sounds nice, but isn't showing one's back means retreating or being a coward (Peet batana!). 

And showing one's back is being disrespectful. 

What say LENOVO!.
 

November 27, 2021

Lies, Damn lies and Statistics, misleading surveys!

What sort of a survey is this? Who sanctioned it? National Family Health survey asks a question, "in your opinion is a husband justified in hitting or beating a wife?". 

In research we call this sort of question as a loaded question. It almost legitimises the action. 

What is the sample, what is the sample size, who are the respondents. Can the results be generalized? . 

And the results are published and given publicity. And 84% men and 70% men from Telangana answered in affirmative. Wife beating is justified! We get the surveys we deserve.

"Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."

DON'T SHOOT THE MESSENGER, THIS QUOTE IS BY MARK TWAIN! 

- Autobiographical dictation April 1904. "Notes on 'Innocents Abroad.'" Published in Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1 (University of California Press, 2010).

November 20, 2021

The Cloak and Dagger world of OTT platforms!

 

Picture Credit https://pixabay.com/photos/secret-top-stamp-spy-army-3037639/

 

Covid-19 pandemic has triggered the OTT wave in India. What was a trickle, turned into a flood and later into a raging tornado. The OTT penetration which was first thought of and dismissed as an urban city phenomenon took the country by storm. 

OTT has become all-encompassing and threatens the very existence of a deep-rooted film distribution and viewing industry that includes the omnipresent cinema halls or theatres. Many theatres are shutting down and especially single screens will soon be like the Indian tiger, a fast-disappearing species unless special protection status is accorded!

The OTT platforms boost a surfeit of content. The major OTT platforms like NETFLIX, AMAZON PRIME, Disney Hotstar, Sony LIV, ZEE 5, AHA, and many others have so much content that it is mind-boggling and even mind numbing. The content is so much that no viewer can watch even 10% of it, even if he/she were to watch it for the entire day.

Apart from the surfeit of content, no one knows exactly how the OTT platforms operate. Figures of hundreds of crores of rupees are thrown about for getting a movie onboard but no one knows for sure.

There are whispers that most movies are on the platform on a free basis and that the moviemakers are paid according to the number of views just like KDP (Kindle Direct Publish) where the authors get paid according to the number of page reads!

Unlike the movies that are released in theatres, aired by satellite channels, or through YouTube no one knows exactly how many have actually viewed a movie. The only indicator is the IMDB ratings that a movie generates. And with the huge Indian population, IMDB rating can be skewed and can be boosted by encouraging the viewers to give higher ratings. And ratings are not a good indicator as many do not rate a movie and non-raters might even be a majority. Generally, ratings are given by viewers who either have loved the movie or have hated it. The fence-sitters are not really bothered!

The OTT platforms even though driven by technology are loathe to share numbers. I suspect that they do not want to admit that they carry Duds (movies with hardly any viewership). So, the entire viewership issue is swept under the carpet.

It must be disconcerting for the producers, directors, actors, and technicians not to know the exact viewership details of the movie in which they have invested so much money, time, and energy. At least YouTube is transparent and anyone can know the viewership details with a mouse click.

Analytical sites like Social Blade furnish jaw-dropping statistics about videos uploaded on YouTube but are totally silent on content hosted on OTT as there is no data shared in the public domain.

The OTT annual charges are ridiculously low. Maybe the OTT platforms are treating the first few years' subscription charges as invitation pricing. Invitation pricing is a low price that would hook the viewers and once the viewers are hooked and addicted the prices can be jacked up. Time to open up and share information, OTT platforms!!!