Day 336 - 20th November 2011

Had our make or break MCL game in the morning, which we ended up losing by 14 runs. So that marks the end of the MCL for the Chatur Chachas. Had a full day of classes line up after that. BA continued with behavioural sciences and how the brain functions and its application in retail marketing. It was also the last session of the course. Caught up on some sleep in the lunch break between BA and the course on FMCG branding. Had missed the first half of the FMCG branding course since I was travelling on FIF1 work. The course was conducted by a brand manager from HUL who took us through the brand management framework used by them. The thing I liked about the course was that apart from showing what worked in the market, he also took us through campaigns that bombed in the market. Learning from mistakes is a highly effective method. Got done with classes by 6 post which was doing general tp and reading some stuff off the net. Have a lot of books in the pipeline which I want to read, should start sometime soon. MCSA work took over after dinner, which incidentally was quite good today with Hot and Sour soup being the highlight. Saw a couple of episodes of Futurama before calling it a day. 

Day 335 - 19th November 2011

Managed to wake up on time for the BA class in the morning. But the lack of sleep meant that though the class was interesting, had to keep fighting sleep to pay attention. The sessions continued from where we had left off last week. How the brain functions and how we construct ideas/memory based on a context that is prevalent. Some examples from certain marketing gimmicks were explained as to how one option was made to look superior compared to another. Class got done by 1145 after which I was free for the rest of the day. Had a 3 hour long siesta, could have been longer had it not been for a phone call. Played cricket in the evening for a good hour and a half. Have an MCL game tomorrow which is a sudden death match. The match is at 7 in the morning followed by classes till 8 in the night! And we thought Sunday's were there to relax.

Day 329 - 13th November 2011

Had the second session on BA today. The session was more about how the human brain functions and also how context plays an important role for the brain to process information. Another interesting fact was that the brain reconstructs and doesn't retrieve information from memory. The sessions on BA were followed by Corporate Communications and Reputation Management (CCRM). There was a visiting faculty who was conducting this course. He was with Cadburys during the worm infested chocolate controversy. He gave a brief  theoretical setting before going into discussing how Cadburys tackled the issue. An important learning was how they tackled the issue internally as well, by sharing all information with employees and keeping their morale high.  That was followed by a session on media training called media training 101. It dealt what needs to prepare for if he/she is the spokesperson for his/her company. The session also had a few mock interviews which were quite interesting and some good learnings came out of it. Classes got done by 530, didnt have much to do after that. Have been watching futurama over the past couple of days. Munched on some midnight snacks from MICARE, continued watching futurama before calling it a day.

Day 328 - 12th November 2011

Had our first session on behaviour architecture (BA) today. The course is introduces the concept of neural marketing and how consumer behaviour can be influenced by marketers. Today's session was more about how the human brain functions. How much of our conscious and unconscious mind is used in making decisions was illustrated through a Sachin Tendulkar interview in which he explains even he doesnt know how he reacts and plays an incoming leather ball at 150 kmph. A good session overall.

Post lunch Kore, Kalkar, Apar and I went to the old city to meet a vendor for sweatshirts. The nights are becoming cooler now and sweatshirts will be required soon. Got back to campus by 5. Played a little cricket in the evening. Post dinner have been reading articles on the net about the prevailing airline crisis. Have also started watching Futurama. Will watch a couple of episodes before calling it a day.