Buxfer

Many who will read this might not even know what "Buxfer" is. Buxfer is for all those people like me who are not so good in hisaab kitaab. It is a friend you can (read "hope to" after the latest episode) rely on to make you manage your money better. It is a savior to all those who have been living with a room-mate to track the endless IOUs. For some it is a money mantra that also reminds them when to pay the bills, and for some a planner to a better financial future.
And unlike many of our other friends ;), it doesn't ask much in return, or in my case, doesn't ask anything. As they say "the best things in life are free". (visit http://www.buxfer.com/)

Recently Buxfer suffered a 4-day long outage. I have to say in today's competitive world, for a financial software to go down for four days is a big deal. Anyways, I don't have any updates that cannot wait for 4 days. So this didn't affect me at all. 
When the Buxfer website was back up and running, I had an update on my account that read:

Buxfer was offline for the last four days. Our hosting provider had severe availability issues because of which our servers were down. We had to migrate our service to new servers in order to get the site back up. In the process, some data might have been lost and we sincerely regret that.

This was a bit surprising as I had never faced any issues with Buxfer over the past three years.  But what was more shocking was that my past one month data had been completely wiped out from Buxfer. They just lost all that data.
And I think more than the outage, it is the loss of data that has hit Buxfer the hardest... on the face (with a book). People started tweeting about this episode and how they have started to look for other alternatives. But then I became curious and starting googling about Buxfer. I found some very interesting facts, and I am so surprised that I never knew this. Nor did it ever struck me to try to find about the Buxfer story (unlike the Facebook story, there is no Hollywood movie for Buxfer, but it still has a Facebook connection though. Seems like Facebook has a role to play almost everywhere these days).

Buxfer founders (Shashank Pandit and Ashwin Bharambe) took jobs at Facebook. This happened in either 2008 or 2009. Couldn't find the exact confirmed date, but bottom-line they took their jobs at Facebook. So who is running Buxfer now is a very good question I would say. Both Shashank and Ashwin worked towards their PH.D.s from Carnegie Mellon. I never knew about this Indian connection to Buxfer till a couple of days back. Usually I always do a basic research of all tools, gadgets, applications etc. that I use. Don't know why I was so ignorant with this one. Anyways, I don't know for sure who is running Buxfer now, so I am not going to write it here.

(An interesting read and source: http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/17/buxfers-founders-both-work-for-facebook-who-works-for-buxfer/)

Buxfer had the following update when I logged in yesterday:

"Since the past year, Buxfer is being maintained part-time by one of its original founders. The goal of Buxfer is no longer to make a profit, but to continue to serve its users the best way it can. The membership fees we charge are barely sufficient to cover the costs of running this service. Many of you have written to us saying that it might be better to shut down the service instead of providing a service with lack of proper support. If that’s what most of our users feel, we are planning to shut down Buxfer in the near future"

Then there were a few voting options, whether we wish Buxfer shuts down once and for all. Or we still want Buxfer to continue operations.
It would take me more than one such bad experience to completely go as much against something that I start vouching for its complete shutdown. I value "brand loyalty" so no ways could I ever vote against Buxfer so easily.
It is very surprising for me to see people going so much against Buxfer, when it has been serving us for past 3-4 years with most of its features (that we really need) completely free of charge. Helping us to get rid of the excels, files, spreadsheets, emails etc. IOUs can get crazy sometimes (like they did for Buxfer founders) who came up with something that is so elegant, clean, organized and "free".

I don't know what is going to be the future of Buxfer. May be it will get open-sourced, or will get shut-down, or will continue as is, or may be google/yahoo owners will feel a bit itchy and will go for their grocery shopping, and come back home with Buxfer. But I really hope Buxfer survives.

Romancing Apple

I always wanted to buy a Mac, or as it was called - a "Macintosh" during my school days. Remember?
And I still don't have one (poor me). So I bought the next best thing a Vaio (geeee :P . I'm not that poor.)
But for now let's stick to Mac (or in fact Apple Inc.)
Apple (http://www.apple.com/in/) achieves incredible Brand Loyalty by delivering on its mission as defined by its co-founder, and CEO Steve Jobs: "To create great things that change people's lives."
Thanks to its great advertising and consumer focus it has an army of evangelists.

I will tell you an interesting story. 2 Years back when I came to Pune, on July 31st 2007 (yea on my Birthday :P ) I threw a party at Indyaki - a lounge here at Koregaon Park in Pune.
The place was nice but the music was kinda sad. One of my friends Doga (who incidentally shares my birth date and we threw this party together) went to the DJ. And the DJ console was iPod powered, I think it's called the iPod Mixer DJ Console. Doga always carries his iPod. He plugged his iPod to the console, and played some great music. And the party was rocking after that.

So when I read about the Open iPod DJ Parties happening in Manhattan, it didn't surprise me a bit. We guys started with it two years back :P .

In 2003 Apple spent more than $293 million to create 73 retail stores.
Since I have visited quite a few Apple stores now (http://store.apple.com/), I am thoroughly impressed with their retailing concept. Apple believes that more and more people should be able to see, touch and use Apple products at their stores. If you visit any Apple store, you are free to use their products with or without assistance (your choice). I remember when I actually used the MacBook Air, I was truly impressed. Not only by the technology but also with the fact that it came to India just weeks after being launched in the US, and that too in Pune.

Apple has a distinctive advertising campaign. There is a lot to read on the internet, however, the ones that really caught my attention are: "Think Different" campaign, and "Get a Mac" campaign.

"Think Different" was an advertising slogan that Apple Computer used during the late 1990s. It was used in a famous television commercial and several print advertisements.
This linked Apple to famous social figures like Mahatma Gandhi, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Richard Branson and many more.

"Get a Mac"
Apple (2006) released a series of "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" advertisements.
Actor Justin Long introduced himself as a Mac, and John Hodgman introduced himself as a PC.
In each ad the Mac is depicted as being able to do whatever the PC does, but does it quicker, more safely, more creatively, with more versatility.
These are are so much fun to watch. I'm posting one such ad from youtube, but do take a look at others.

If there is something called creativity in this world, then it is truly epitomized by Apple.
There are very creative "Apple iPod" ads, and even more so are the "iPhone" ads.
But if I start writing about Apple advertising, it will turn out to be a never ending edifice.

Apple has a huge customer base that is devoted to the company and its brand. It has an endless list of products and software available in the market.
Poor me only has a single Apple product, an iPod. And I am totally addicted to it. And ever since I started using the iTunes, I have not switched to any other music player.

I read an article on Apple, on the Time magazine's website. I will just quote a snippet from that article:
"Apple makes its own hardware (iBooks and iMacs), it makes the operating system that runs on that hardware (Mac OS X), and it makes programs that run on that operating system (iTunes, iMovie, Safari Web browser, etc.). It also makes the consumer-electronics devices that connect to all those things (the rapidly multiplying iPod family), and it runs the online service that furnishes content to those devices (iTunes Music Store). If you smooshed together Microsoft, Dell and Sony into one company, you would have something like the diversity of the Apple technological biosphere."
Isn't that fascinating?

My friends are more Appleofied than me actually :O . Sam owns a MacBook who is in fact a Mac Evangelist himself, Prashant also owns one along with an iPod Touch. I don't even want to talk about iPods right now. Almost all my friends have it. All my colleagues in the US now have an iPhone, and my friends here Vishal and Anil have had an iPhone for so long now.

Talking about iPhones, well, an iPhone is an iPhone. You cannot call it a cellphone. There are so many smart phones and touch phones in the market. They could be even better than an iPhone, who knows. But ask people who own an iPhone, they will give you the answer of what iPhone means to them.

Similarly for an iPod.
I read in my marketing class: they say a brand is successful when its name becomes synonymous with its product category.
e.g. this happened with Cadbury's in India. People started asking for " a Cadbury" when all they needed was a chocolate.
Similar happened for the iPod. People started asking for iPods, when all they needed was just an MP3 player, and not "Apple's Mp3 player - an iPod".
iPod became so popular that people who had not even seen an iPod wanted to buy one.

This is how a brand can influence lives. And there are in fact more concrete examples.

What I have written about Apple, well, it is not even the tip of the iceberg. Or should I rather put it: "A small bite of the big Apple".Some food for thought for guys: What is the meaning of the Apple logo, or should I rather put it:

"an Apple with a bite out of it"

Romancing Brands

"I got up today morning, wore my Adidas slippers. Did a quick morning shave with my Gillette Mach3 and Gillette shaving gel. Took my morning shower with Palmolive Shower Gel. Wore my Levi's jeans, Reebok T-shirt, Nike shoes and Ferrari Cologne. Had my morning breakfast of Kellogg's Cornflakes and Nestle Milk. Put on my Fossil Sunglasses', and I was ready to go for work.

In the office had my usual cup of Nescafe Coffee. After that I was busy working on my HP PC. Had a telephonic conference on my Nortel IP Phone with guys in the US. In the mean time got some disturbing calls from the HSBC Bank Call centres on my Samsung Cellphone. It was lunch time when I shared a bottle of Sprite with my friends.

In the evening I went out with my friends. We were driving around in a Honda City. We did not like the music on the radio, so my friend connected his Apple iPod to his Sony Car Stereo. After the dinner outside, I was back home. Switched on my World Space radio, and finished the day by sending a few important emails using my Sony Vaio Laptop."

What I have written above, is just a daily routine for most of us.
And I am pretty sure that you guys have been able to catch the point that I am trying to make. This is how our lives have become so much influenced with Brands.
And in fact there is so much that I did not cover in that daily routine, but if you think about it, you will realize almost every bit of our lives is associated with one brand or the other.
Just think about it.



But it is a possibility that many would actually miss out an important point reading above. All the Brands that I have mentioned above are not Indian Brands, but they are Brands in India. (or for that matter not Indian Companies, but Companies in India).

Bottom-line:
No more is the Indian Industry synonymous with India-Owned Industry. In the new globalized world of business, Ownership is an extinct issue and that dogmatic approach is long-gone. Ownership is seen as an anachronism in today's world.
Eventually, for the end-consumer, it is the value created that counts. Today we people are not worried about the color of money. And similarly, as long as the company/industry coming to India is creating jobs in India, and is providing value to its customers is taken as an Indian Industry.
With this mentality we are becoming more and more "Brand" conscious. And Brands are becoming more and more important, not just with the higher echelons of our society, but in fact throughout the nation.

I Not At All intend to write a detailed description of Branding, Branding Strategies, Brand Equity Models, or such concepts. Absolutely not.

The motive of mentioning "Brands" in this blog is pretty simple, and two-fold.
1. How important Brands have become to us, and in how many ways they influence our daily lives?
2. To share interesting "Brand Stories".

Also, it is extremely important to understand, the difference between Indian Brands and Brands in India, and in fact, is there actually any difference and what is their relevance in the Globalized world. Adding to that we need to understand, why are there still hardly any Indian Brands being recognized as Global Brands.
This is a very elaborate topic and I intend to take it up sometime later, and not in this post.


I was not surprised when many "Brand Stories" started to fascinate me of late.
I have always held myself close to my favorite brands, for so many years in fact. So now when I have started to learn about what branding is all about, in my Marketing, and Business Policies & Corporate Strategies' classes, it has ignited my mind even more (as would say Mr. APJ Kalam) and really fueled up my interest in the concept.
Thanks to my teachers: Prof. Shastri, and Dr. Sane.

Before going any further, I just wish to write couple of lines each on Brand, Brand Equity and Branding.
There are many definitions on the internet, and the formal ones put by "The American Marketing Association", but being a hardcore Kotler fan, many of the concepts that I will use in my blog actually find their original place in Kotler.
A Brand, simply putting, is a product or service that adds dimensions that differentiate it in some way from other products/services designed to satisfy the same need. Such differences could even be emotional or intangible or just symbolic.

Brand Equity is the added value endowed to products and services, which may get reflected in how consumers think, feel and react w.r.t. the brand, and the price and market-share that the brand commands. Brand Equity is a significant intangible asset.

Branding is not about getting your target market to choose you over the competition, but it is about getting your prospects to see you as the only one that provides a solution to their problem. To succeed in branding you must understand the needs and wants of your customers and prospects.



There are some very interesting Brand Stories to share. And I am going to share them very soon…
Till then. Cheerio...