Markathon November 2011

Dear Readers,

Today’s world is cluttered with marketing messages which reach out to us no matter what we are doing. Media impacts us in more ways than we even realise at times. The Socio-cultural impact of Media has only been expounded by the rise of technology. Today, media is more powerful and far reaching than it was a decade or so ago.
Public voices are more prominent in the newer media forms and revolutions have taken shape using these platforms of communication. The scope of these media is wide and since they are immensely powerful, regulation is paramount.

Media and specifically the Press have always served as the Fourth Estate keeping a watchful eye over the functioning of the states. Media regulation has come into the picture because of the growing use of media in an often derogatory manner and also to further ulterior motives. The eternal question remains “Quis custodiet ipsos custodies?” the Latin phrase which translates to “Who will watch the watchmen?”

Our cover story for the month on “Media Regulation” aims to answer just that. We look at some forms of the media, and how they are regulated. The story also charts out how the need arose for such regulations in media and how the regulations differ across the different media platforms right from television to the Internet. The regulations also address false claims which companies make about products in their marketing communications. We hope you enjoy the story.

Our Vartalaap for this month is a tete-a-tete with Mr.Atul Sobti, who gave up a corporate career as the CEO & MD of Ranbaxy Laboratories and ventured into the world of Media. Mr.Atul Sobti founded Friday Gurgaon – weekly newspaper serving up local news for the residents of Gurgaon. We’re grateful to Mr.Sobti for his wonderful interview. Our academic Vartalaap for this month has Mr.Sudhir Voleti who is an Assistant Professor in the Marketing Department at the Indian School of Business. He talks to use about his work in the world of branding and Market Research.
We also have a refreshing article which talks about the sensation of this season “Why This Kolaveri Di”, which is arguably the biggest viral hit ever on Indian Media. The number of views this video has amassed keeps growing exponentially every second.

Team Markathon has dissected its success from a marketing point of view and analysed what the song and the video got right. We are sure you will enjoy this article a lot. Team Markathon is also proud to welcome on board the magazine team for 2011-2013 comprising of G S N Aditya, Piyush Agarwal, Mayur Jain, Sowmya R, Swati Nidiganti and Umang Kulshreshtha. In the design team, we have Priya Agrawal and Rushika Sabnis. We are sure they will ensure the magazine keeps scaling new heights.

Sit back and enjoy this edition!
Jitesh