Block-chain technology : A concept which can change the future economy of Pakistan.

As the world is moving towards Digitalization and becoming a global village with the help of the internet and other technologies. The Internet, which was introduced in this world back in the 1980s and was commercially accessible to the public in late 90’s promised people to give a secure element of trust and also the main aspect was to dissolve the strong Market Intermediaries. 

Yet, the promise holds a strong delusional effect in the element of Trust, as people are not trusting the products and services which are available in an online medium and this “internet” created the strongest intermediary like Facebook, Airbnb, etc. So the promised elements viz-a-viz trust and removal of the intermediaries were not delivered to the general public.

The loopholes which were created by the Internet were full filed by the Blockchain technology. Since the concept of blockchain holds a misconception regarding the sole purpose used in Crypto-currency. But you cannot generalize this concept for e.g. as the internet behind email, the Internet is a whole wide field and email is just a part of it. 

The same statement applies for blockchain technology as not the only sole purpose in the accessibility of the Cryptocurrency. I would not dig deeper towards the concept of how cryptocurrency works and whatnot but my main focus is how blockchain can be beneficial for the economy of Pakistan. 

So the basic framework of blockchain is to have a decentralized infrastructure. Contrary, we see and experience a centralized structure, where one authority holds all the information in their database. 

For example record of your land will be in a concerned government organization, if someone wants to verify he/she needs to go there and check it by themselves or you want to transfer your money to a foreign land you need to go to the western union and then they will transfer it with some fee and the transaction will take a couple of days. 

These strong intermediaries take their commission and take a lot of time to do the transaction.
Blockchain helps these long processes to cut short. It is a series of blocks which is created on the bases of a number of transactions going all around the world, you can say it a digital ledger which everyone in the world is maintaining even the intermediaries (Banks, Government, etc.) are also a part of it. These ledgers are converted into blocks and are secured through a strong cryptographic algorithm, so hacking or changing is not even possible because you need to change the whole sequence of the blocks which are linked in a chain. 

The economic usage of the blockchain can be multiple since there is no intermediary so the transaction or the interaction between both peers is direct. For example, people in Pakistan are generating a lot of electricity through solar systems installed in their houses. The excess of the electricity can be transferred to those houses which are deprived of this, and the rate settlement can be adjusted between both parties and a block will be created of the amount of energy produced and sold to the other party. 

Same goes with the land structure in Pakistan. One land is sold to many owners and the dispute remains throughout their life. Because the original record of that land might get tempered or the original data might get lost in their centralized database. So if the series of transaction get stored in a series of blocks and is cryptographic, no one can temper these blocks. 

So blockchain is the near future, even countries like Mauritius are named as Ethereum Island because they know their information will remain safe throughout their life and it will be easy to transact.

Say Goodbye to DoubleClick and AdWords–Google is Giving Advertisers the Next Best Thing

Let’s all bid farewell to DoubleClick and AdWords.

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is retiring the names, but not their services.

TALK ABOUT RE-BRANDING TAKING PLACE ON A WHOLE NEW LEVEL! After 18 and 22 years, respectively, both the “AdWords” and “DoubleClick” brands will cease to exist. As part of their comprehensive efforts to streamline their advertising offerings, Google’s complex line up of ad products is getting rebranded. 

It’s retiring AdWords and DoubleClick to streamline the admittance points for advertisers and ad sellers; however rebranding is not the only thing Google is focusing on, it is also introducing new solutions that simplify its advertising offerings. Senior Vice President, Sridhar Ramaswamy, who is spearheading Google’s recent ad restructuring, explained how they wanted to broaden their horizon by simply rebranding their current offerings and at the same time, pointing out where they wanted the product to go.

 The new Google ad lineup will encompass three focal pillars, and the rebranded set will roll out in July:  Google Ads, formerly known as Google AdWords, Google Marketing Platform, formerly known as DoubleClick and Google Analytics 360, and Google Ad Manager, which is a unified form of DoubleClick for Publishers and DoubleClick Ad Exchange.

What lies beneath all these innovations however, remains unchanged: AdWords. What started off as a search-based system more than 17 years ago, AdWords, has been renamed as Google Ads. This will basically act as a “front door” for advertisers enabling them to purchase ad space across all Google platforms, which includes (but is not limited to) displaying ads on YouTube videos, or location listings in Google Maps.

The introduction of Google Ads isn’t the only “next best thing”, because the internet giant is targeting micro businesses as well through its introduction of the new “Smart” campaign; its functionality would allow advertisers to quickly design and unveil the ad campaigns and offer enhanced audience-targeting features than ever before.

Next is the Google Marketing Platform­­–a combination of DoubleClick and Google Analytics 360­­–which is designed specifically for marketers. Under this umbrella, Google looks to launch Display and Video 360, which is a mixture of DoubleClick Bid Manager, Campaign Manager, Studio, and Audience Center; these will provide marketers the opportunity to unify all their Google tools, allowing for collaboration between the agency, creative and media teams.

 Last, but not the least, Google Ad Manager­­–a unified form of DoubleClick for Publishers and DoubleClick Ad Exchange­­–is a monetization tool for publishers. Although no technical changes have been made, Alphabet has made cosmetic changes such as the logo and the brand name, DoubleClick.

In conclusion, the only things that have been changed are the look and feel of the ad services; the principal functionality is left untouched. The revamped branding and solutions have been projected at advertisers so they can focus more on the aftermath of their ad campaigns, and less on the product assortment, to maintain stability in the momentum for next 20+ years.

The new ad campaign types and other solutions will be unveiled on the 10^th of July at the Google Marketing Live event. 

Maradona and His Outlandish Statements about Pakistani football – Let’s just say he’s better-off on the pitch.

What does Maradona know about Pakistan’s footballing abilities? Apparently, nothing much. The only knowledge that he might possess is that Pakistan hasn’t featured at a World Cup. He stated that his team is just like Pakistani football team after a devastating loss from Croatia last night.

This gradually leads to his comparison of the Argentinian Football Association (AFA) with the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF). He apparently implied that his country’s federation is as incompetent.

Maradona condemned the Argentinian Football Association (AFA) and those in charge, by saying that they only understood football as much as Pakistan did. His absurd accusations were meant to tarnish the image of Pakistan football, as it would seem; Furthermore, this isn’t the first time that Pakistan has been a target to these accusations led by Maradona.

An icon in the footballing world, Maradona had a fallout with the President of the Argentinian Football Association, Julio Grondona, along with Carlos Bilardo, the Director of the national team, claiming that both Bilardo and Grondona had laid him off.

Four years later, further backlashing was not surprising, since the 1986 World Cup Winner wanted to be the coach of the Argentinian national team in the upcoming World Cup hosted by Brazil. He openly accused the AFA by stating that it had the audacity to play dirty tricks on him and claimed that he deserved to be Argentina’s coach at 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

The former World Cup Winner still hadn’t buried the hatchet with his former employers, nor did he forgive the AFA, and instead compared them to PFA, who are currently ranked 198^th in the world. He indicted the association leaders of not knowing how to carry out their responsibilities.

It is easy to speculate and be an armchair critic suggesting that football hasn’t grown in Pakistan, but there is a lot that has been going on in the favor of PFA.

For the last ten years, PFA has been led by Faisal Saleh Hayat, who has been running the Pakistan Premier Football League (PPFL) as well. There is not a single season that has been missed in the last decade, despite the shortage of funds.

In addition, KRL (Khan Research Laboratories) have been the undefeated champions for the last three years. They were the first club team to reach the finals of the AFC competition – Asia’s version of the Europa League.

Apart from organizing the league, a large part of PFA’s focus is on women’s and youth football.

Despite the internal mayhem, political unrest in the country, and most of all, lack of sponsorship for a majority of its tournaments, PFA continues to rise above all its hurdles.

The basic truth, however, lies in how football in a country cannot prosper until and unless the local football fans become fans of Pakistan football.

And as for Maradona, Argentina still qualified for the 2014 World Cup under the leadership of Alejandro Sabella. What can I say…it’s a classic case of sour grapes! 

Irrfan Khan and His Sombre Note : A legend on his death bed.

Irrfan Khan has been one of the most versatile actors in Bollywood. Khan made his shining debut in the Academy's Award nominated 1988 drama, Salaam Bombay! Since then Khan has bagged over a 100 movies among which Piku and Paan Singh Tomar were a phenomenal hit. He slowly paved his way into Hollywood making India proud by starring in Slumdog Millionaire, The Amazing Spider-Man, Jurassic World and of course the Academy Award Winning, Life of Pi. However, his deteriorating health has been a genuine concern for the people.

Irrfan Khan was recently diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumor, which he revealed a few days after being MIA from the public eye, on his Twitter account. At first, Khan revealed his disease and called it a “rare disease” on the 5^th of March, via social media and concluded that he would reveal the diagnosis in more detail once the medical tests would conclude. After 10 days, this is what Khan had to say,

The real question is, what is a NeuroEndocrine Tumour?

A NeuroEndocrine Tumour is a “rare/special” form of cancer whereby the tumors originate from nerve and gland tissues combined; these are the special cells that are present in either the gastrointestinal tract or in the lungs. An abnormal tissue growth arises in the hormone-producing the neuroendocrine cells of the body. A NET may develop slowly or aggressively, and can develop in the intestines, the lungs, and may spread to the rest of the body. Although there are various types of NET, no reports have arisen stating the type of NET Khan has been battling, and nor has he mentioned anything in his tweets. Meanwhile, when it comes to his professional life, Khan’s new movie is all set to release on 10^th August, titled Karwaan.

People all around the world are praying for his speedy recovery and long and healthy life, and so are we. Get Well Soon Mr. Khan.

A no "Sex" rule : FIFA World cup Russia 2018 . Don't infect us with your sperm.

FIFA world cup Russia 2018 is trending these days where Russia beat Saudia Arabia with a big margin of 5-0. It is the most watched sports on the planet earth is hosted by Russia this time. Approximately 1.5 million people from 31 different countries arrived at Russian to see this prestigious event. Russian people and authorities were advised to be more hospitable and start a campaign known as “ always smile”.

Recently a news was floated all around the world at Russian beauty can’t have sex with any foreign men. This statement was a counter-argument when Argentinian soccer body encouraged their men by giving them tricks and tips that how to seduce Russian women and have sex with them.  According to Tamara Pletnyova, their official lawmaker, a local politician (MP), and one of the close personals to President Putin states that Russia should not be infected with foreign people and that they bring foreign sex virus to our country.

She further clarified on the basis of statistics that foreign fathers abandoned their children and flew back to their own country. She said the exact same case happened in 1980’s summer Olympics in Russia. These children become the responsibility of the Russian government.

This statement put a fire all around the world and  Russians themselves, did not support this statement. She was asked on twitter to leave the Duma “Russian parliament” because Russia is made up of 185 different ethnicities and various different cultures. But few of the nationalist did support her by posting “we should support our own children, Russian women are not a toy for a one-night stand”. She further clarified that if they want to have sex, marry them and love them.

On her ironic statement which totally negates the official tagline of Fifa world cup “Say no to Racism”. FIFA did not respond to this statement and putting up a hold regarding her statement.

8 Simple rules to get the right job instantly. A case of students profile building and mistakes done by them.

In Pakistan, we are suffering from the scarcity of jobs in different parts and region of Pakistan. According to Pakistan today, approximately 5.3 million students both graduates and undergraduates from very well-known Universities are jobless. The major reason behind that is student's jump and say I want good paycheck job and other perks and privileges. Trust me you are not mature enough to demand that!!!!

 If you are in an age bracket of 25 and below, focus on the learning part and experimenting part, after 30 focus on selecting your favorite field and expand your horizon in it. If you are a fresh graduate, don’t expect you will start minting money. Good things come to those who wait for the right time.

Due to political reasons and economic depreciation, no foreign investor is willing to come here and do some business. Whichever jobs are opened, they are secured by graduates of Lahore University of management sciences and Institute of business administration.

Here are some tips which can help your CV to land on the employer’s desk. The common mistakes which is done by almost every student is that:

•    Try to create a CV which is NOT more than one page.
•    Never ever float the same CV to different organizations. By the end of their last semester, most of the students had developed their CV or a Resume and mistakenly they float the same CV to FMCG as well as the Telecommunication sector.
•    Employers now use keywords and tag words to securitize all the CV. So first thing first, customize your CV according to the company and the sector which you want to get in.
•    The objective section in your CV should not be regarding that you are superman and you can work 24 hours a day. This is a primary part because it creates a good image once your CV is filtered. Focus on thing which are realistic, what is your strength, what roles you have done previously, your experience and talk about your skill set.
•    Majority of your good employers are using LinkedIn. Focus on improving your LinkedIn profile and start connecting people. Don’t use LinkedIn as your dating profile, start connecting right people and direct message them about an opening in their department. Put as many pictorial qualification as you can. Put your updated CV on LinkedIn so that employer can easily reach out to you. Don’t ever put your Wedding or Rishta picture as your profile picture.
•    Don’t focus on using Rozee.pk or Mustakbil.com as your primary source. It’s better to invest in yourself by getting premium services of LinkedIn.
•    Don’t ever lie on your CV or on your LinkedIn profile. If your employer caught you, which he will, he will blacklist you from his company.
•    Be precise and confident, don’t worry if you haven’t done anything. If your CV is blank, focus on getting the internships leading to jobs.

Uber, Netflix, Careem, Airbnb and Facebook : A case of Shared and Gig Economy and their limitations.

A famous quote by an Entrepreneur is “Never do business with your own money, do business with someone else money”.  This quote has changed the case of doing business all around the world. In today’s era, we have been doing business like Banks. This concept is known as the Shared economy or Peer to Peer commerce or Gig economy, which have its roots embedded in Collaborative Consumption. A concept where companies do not own a single asset and do business with consumer’s assets.

Their business model was to capitalize those assets which are underutilized by consumers. Due to the advancement in technologies, everything is automated. World largest taxi fleet, Uber doesn’t own a single car. World’s largest subletting company Airbnb, doesn’t own a single real estate. World largest social media company Facebook doesn’t own a single content of its own.

What makes these above-mentioned companies expand themselves into a billion dollar corporations. The answer lies in Bad customer service. Amazon did not finish the book and retail industry; bad customer service did. World largest online watching portal Netflix did not kill the giant Blockbuster, worst customer dealing and service did. Uber and Careem did not kill taxi business, harassment, non-automated fairs, and bad customer service did. Spotify did not kill the music industry, non-customized and bad value music did. World largest accommodation company, Airbnb did not kill the hotel industry, upscale pricing and limited availability of rooms did.
People talk about blaming technology for closing down their industry. But it was not the technology or innovation, it was basically customer service and not being customer-centric.

The next step for these companies is global expansion. Uber in Spain provides food delivery in different parts of the cities. Airbnb will be focusing on creating their own hospitality chain and compete with Hilton and Marriott. Netflix is moving towards their own production business by the name of “Netflix originals”.

Yet, the shared economy is the fastest growing economy in the world but it has its own drawbacks and limitation. The most important drawback is breaking the law and regulations. Governments are putting a microscope on these issues. Since hotel industry gives a lot of taxes, but when you go for Airbnb, you don’t have to pay a single dime in terms of taxes. Secondly, in terms of Uber and Careem, their cars don’t meet safety standards plus the majority of the cars are not insured or their insurance is expired. Recently in Pakistan, few of the cases were highlighted were the Uber driver was shot dead or Careem driver sexually harassed a girl. Focusing on these issues should be the most important part of these shared economies.

Become a #Makeupreneur and start earning money through YouTube and Instagram. A case of cosmetic Industry and duplicate products.

The cosmetic and make-up industry is growing exponentially throughout the world. An annual revenue of $62.6 billion, shows this market is going to be the next hit. Social media especially YouTube has given them a set platform where they can earn money by showing tutorials and also through YouTube AdSense program. This has given rise to make-up entrepreneurs or I call them #makeupreneur. These #makeupreneurs are also called beauty vloggers, where they provide information about new brands and give them tips and tricks regarding how to use it.

The pioneer of beauty vlogger was Huda Kattan, an American based online beautician, and a successful entrepreneur.  She started the concept of DIY (do it yourself) in the make-up industry, where you don’t need to spend a good amount of money to someone to give you a make-up which you can do it yourself. She was the nightmare for beauty salons as their market plummets to a great extent.

The cosmetic industry has changed their marketing strategies. They know that advertisement and billboard promotions are not the best solution to get to the right target market. What they do, is they send free newly launched samples to these vloggers. But again, they just don’t randomly select these beauty artists, they study them and see their following. Farah Dhukai, a 2.1 million subscriber base has recently become one of the top beauty vloggers. These bloggers and vloggers with substantial followers and excellent content are recruited on their PR package list and give them some monetary incentive to write content for them. Companies like Too Faced, Kylie Jenner, Tarte and Fenty beauty by Rihanna give them free samples to advertise their product. So eventually their core marketing strategy is to hire an opinion leader or an influencer and make them advertise your product to your actual target market.

These cosmetic products are very expensive, so people have created duplicates or in Instagram lingo we call it dupes, to reach that target market who cannot afford expensive make-up. Instagram is the vital source where you can do cosmetic business. Pages like “999rupeesonly” and “makeupshakeup.com.pk” are using this technique of selling duplicate make-up for the non-affording class. They sell the 1st copy make-up with a good quality. But selling dupes with a bad quality is something which you can easily see on Instagram as well. Lately, Instagram banned many pages who sell bad quality dupes and people have reported them.

Don’t waste your time to become a follower, be someone to whom people follow. Cosmetic industry will never be in demise, so make yourself an #makeupreneur, make your Instagram page, write excellent and niche content and start endorsing brands.

Destruction of Education in Pakistan. Make a right decision!!

What is education? According to the Oxford dictionary, it’s a process gaining knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits. But yet, the education system in Pakistan is dwindling with a passage of time. Parents pour tons of money into their children’s future. The education sector earns 80.1 billion rupees per year from the students, yet they do not learn any skills or value which they can practice in their daily lives.

Universities in Pakistan are minting money yet very little is produced which we can attribute to quality education. All they are giving is a 6-inch rule and have a dress code. Their vision is micro, not macro. The best motivation quote I want to publish here is " Learning is voluntary" you cannot force someone to learn. The reason behind that is education has been commercialized, resulting in students losing their respect for learning.

When we see the educational model of Harvard or MIT, one thing is very common in both of them, they produce excellent graduates who can become entrepreneurs. In Pakistani culture, we design students in a way to get a job and work 5 times a week and 9 hours a day. This needs to be changed.
Faculty in major universities are not investing time on their students because the university is not investing a dime on them. One question which needs to be asked, If Allah has praised teaching profession as the most respectful one, why are teachers all over Pakistan still struggling to make ends meet. For me, the most important job in this world is teaching. Because teachers create future CEO’s and politicians and working professionals. One wrong suggestion can destroy their student’s future. Yet again, the faculty and teachers are underpaid and their perks are as low as a low-level employee.

Universities are producing low-level Ph.D.’s just because if you are a Ph.D. your salary will be double and you get a title. No one is actually doing Ph.D. for the real reason like social welfare, making research strong for the society. Many of the head of departments and university professional have done a plagiarized Ph.D. just to have good money and a position. Across the world, Academics do Ph.D. when they think they can change something or when they are ready. They are not forced by their Universities to undertake Ph.D.'s as a requirement for a promotion. One thing which needs to be understood is that there is a big difference between a lecturer and a researcher.
But in Pakistan, we make lecturers to do research and we force the researcher to teach. In Scandinavian countries especially in Sweden, the salary package for the teachers is as equal to a company CEO. Because they know the importance of teaching in their national growth. But hello! We live in Pakistan, we do corruption in any way we want and desire.

Students and teachers have a similar bond just as between their parents and Children. Students are undermined with their capabilities and follow a rule which their teacher wants. The concept of open learning is defeated when teachers are forced by their administration to follow a rigid structure. Bookish knowledge should not be the criteria of teaching. Faculty should focus on problem-solving skills that need to be developed in their students.

Chapter 7 : Importance of secondary association for enhancing brand equity.

Creating a strong brand is not enough for the companies, but at the same time companies need to leverage it with some external associations. The possible outcome of secondary association is that they generate greater loyalty. Companies can create a substantial competitive advantage through these strategies. The main purpose of using these associations is to create a new brand association.

The first kind of association is people where you endorse your brand through celebrities and sports personalities. The best example is Rolex and Roger Federer. Since an elite watch company is endorsed by a sports person, as Wimbledon is an elite event where top-notch celebrity and royal families come to see this sports. So  Rolex has created an association with this sport.

 The second type of association is through things, events are the first type where you do public relation and organize events like charities. The second type is the third-party endorsements. Where you get yourself endorsed by an external third party to gain more trust, for example, Bahria University is endorsed by Higher education commission of Pakistan.

The third type is Places, where we endorse our product by using the name of the country or the origin of that product. For example, Loreal Paris, the major emphasis is on Paris because of its fashion and cosmetic heritage. Plus you can advertise a country by endorsing its place or a monument. When I talk about Eiffel tower, the first place comes to your mind is Paris and same goes with Statue of Liberty, we can easily recall New York.

One of the most common ways to endorse your brand is co-branding. This concept holds a good position in today's market as well. In this concept, we actually make a small duration partnership with two companies. Sony and Ericson, two different companies combined there resources and expertise for some amount of time and developed a new product, Sony Ericson. Why companies do Co-branding?. The main reasons are they needed some expertise from the other brand. More market expansion, Reduce the cost of production and combined marketing with both names combined create a huge impact. But it is not that easy as it sounds, co-branding has their de-merits as well, for example, loss of control of the power between both entities or the ambiguities of profit sharing

A special case of co-branding is the ingredient branding where a certain part is installed and is marketed with the brand. For example, Intel and Centrino created a mobile technology which was installed in PCs.

End of the Phenom : Zidane took retirement from Real Madrid : Puts everyone is Deep Sorrow.

Zinedine Zidane, a 45 years old football Phenom, just took his retirement from Real Madrid Football Club. This news was a shocking element for the football fans and other teams. He put his resignation just after 5 days when his team won from Liverpool in Champions League final by saying that "it is good for the club that they now need a change". This news was shocking for Florentino Perez, the President of Real Madrid football club, as he stated that Zidane did not put me in confidence when he made up his mind. According to him, the legend will come back and join again. Zidane left his position in his prime and with grace. Zinedine Zidane reportedly said that I don’t want to leave this club as a failure I want to leave it as a memory where people can link me with the victory.

He was always famous for making the spontaneous decisions, as we had witnessed in 2006 world cup. Having a controversial world cup after a headbutt to Materazzi in 2006 and there he announced his professional national football retirement. His success is all around the world where he first won his world cup in his home country France as a team Captain. Zidane was also known as Zizou, was named the player of the year 3 times. He then grasps the opportunity by becoming the assistant manager of Real Madrid under Carlos Ancelotti. He was profound of his natural charisma and strategic planning in the pitch. He was the only coach in the Real Madrid history to win 3 Uefa Championships in a row.

His annual salary was 4.6 million euros which he took from Madrid He was the primary endorser of Adidas, Orange, Kanakia Group and earned almost 9.5 million euros each year.
He was just not a coach or a professional football player, he is a philanthropic worker as well. He worked and raised millions of dollars under the name of "Soccer Aid" and AID’s charities.

Zidane said that he will be taking a break from football and he puts his retirement from football forever. He said he wants to do some charity work all around the globe and portrays a good image regarding football all around the globe. He is an ambassador to UNDP programs in Africa.

Rumors are there that Antonio Conte will be taking over as a club manager from Chelsea Football club. He seems to be very passionate about carrying Zidane legacy and continue to win Champions league.

Don't invest until you see clarity : A delusional effect of a Cryptocurrency, Blockchain and the Dark Web Transactions.

What is a Cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency, a concept which was first invented by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 in his research publication, where his main purpose was to change the behavior of transaction people do all around the world. He imposes to have a digital currency where data (money) is transferred between peer to peer in an encrypted form. Till this date, there are almost 1600 cryptocurrencies which are working on different platforms like Litecoin, Ethereum, and Ripple. The most famous is Bitcoin which was launched in 2009 at a price of $0.08. In 2017, its price skyrocketed till $19000. Till this date, its price is closed at $7300. Nakamoto invented 21 million bitcoins in totality and only 4.2 million bitcoins are left to be mined.

What is the hype regarding the Blockchain technology?

This invention was very difficult for the people to understand, that how does cryptocurrency work?. The backbone of cryptocurrency is known as the Blockchain technology. Since in tradition transaction, we have a trustable entity known as the "Bank" between sender and the receiver, in cryptocurrency, there is no bank. People who are transacting with each other they have a digital ledger where they write each and every single transaction going on in that medium. For example, Alex sold 2 bitcoins to John, this information will be floated in cryptocurrency ecosystem where every single one will write 2 bitcoins are being transferred to John and they will maintain that ledger. Again, there is no Bank involved, so how to make sure there is no fake transaction.  Some people might write 3 BC or 1 BC, here comes the part of the blockchain technology. We will see the common transaction written in everyone’s ledger and through these common transactions, we will create a chain. The longer the chain the most trustable it is. This will tell newcomers or other investors that which one is the legitimate chain.  Everyone in the ecosystem has a wallet which contains two keys; a private key and a public key.

How does the blockchain technology work?

But creating blockchain is not an easy task. You need special expert people with the fastest computers to create a trustable chain. This concept is known as cryptocurrency mining. The blockchain is based on an algorithmic software known as SHA 256, where the miner will have to solve a query with a probability of 256 outcomes. The fastest your computer is, the easier for you to mine. But in return what will the miner get in return.? Once they have solved and build a trustable blockchain, some bitcoins or any other cryptocurrency will be created from nowhere and transfer it to their digital wallets. So miners are basically providing services to build the blockchain.

Usage of Cryptocurrency? 

Cryptocurrency was launched so that people can do illegal transaction off the radar from the federal government. People usually transact in dark webs where you want to hire an assassin or do drug dealing. From this concept, it has become a Fad (short trend) where people bought it for the sake of fashion and then it became a digital reality. The more people buy, the higher the price will go. Corrupt politicians and non-tax payers top management converted their black money into cryptocurrency. There is no money trail or tax to pay for it. No earning records so investigating authorities have no trail to follow.

Why you should not invest a dime in a Cryptocurrency?

Now some of the reasons why you should not invest in any cryptocurrency. The prices are not being regulated by any authorized entity, that means its prices are fluctuating without any reason. You might face a huge amount of risk associated with your investment. Cryptocurrency is neither a commodity or a currency, again, you cannot touch it or spend it anywhere in the real world. Some countries like Pakistan has started to ban this digital currency because of no money trail. Most people are investing in Bitcoin just out of fashion, they don’t understand the real deal in it and how does it work.

Tech war between Apple, Google and Samsung 2018, Samsung loses $539 million over Copyright Infringement

Copyrights and patents are the major issues in today’s technological era. There are two types of patents. The first one is utility patent (protection of machines and new upcoming innovation) and other is design patent which includes the curves and edges, the way the product will look and the way they perform. Since the level of innovation in Mobile technology is very thin so companies are mimicking their direct or indirect competitors.

The same case happened between two worlds biggest tech giants; Apple and Samsung. A case which was started in 2011, when Apple Inc. sued Samsung for illegally copying some of the feature and design from them. Initially, they demanded $2.5 billion, but the settlement reached at $539 million dollars by the court's jury of California. Samsung has illegally infringed 5 different types of designs which include “slide to unlock screen” which was invented and patent by Apple. Another infringement was an "auto-correction" and "background syncing" which was again a property of Apple. Six of the Samsung devices including their flagship products like Galaxy S2 and S3 were embedded with infringed technology. Apple’s major emphasis was on “915 patent” which is “Pinch to Zoom” and they said this feature was patent back in 2011, which Samsung used in their flagship products in 2012.

Samsung also put their lawsuit against Apple. As a South Korean company accused Apple of copying their face to face technology which Apple afterward named it "FaceTime" and other was "organizing folders". But their decision is pending to review. Samsung recently filed a “writ of certiorari” which means they want to move this case up to the supreme court. Samsung repeatedly said they did not infringe any technology, they adopted the accused feature from Google Android. At the moment, Google did not respond with any statement regarding their war, but some analysts are now pointing out that Apple.Inc might come after Google by infringing some parts of IOS to Android. By just highlighting Google in Apple and Samsung’s war, Google’s stock price took a nosedive up to 1.4%.

Yet again, Samsung till this date loss this case and have to pay the infringement money to Apple. Due to which their brand image is in danger and their stock price plummet to 1.1% in wall street and 7.5% in South Korean stock exchange, which means around $12 billion loss in just one week.

Chapter 6 : Integrated Marketing Communications

This chapter talks about creating and using Integrated marketing communications. But first, we should know about marketing communication. The main purpose is to inform, persuade and give your customer a nudging reminder about your product and services.
IMC is basically a technique where you combine different tools of communication and find the optimal mix so that your desired message can easily reach to your target market. In the previous chapter, we had discussed digitalization, so mainstream marketing techniques are cliché and companies are using digital marketing as their primary source of communication.

The first and the most renowned tool of IMC is the advertisement. The vital element which differentiates advertising from the promotion is in advertisement sponsor is identified. The controversy and the limitation of advertisement is that its effects cannot be quantified. For example, I poured 100,000 rupees on one advert, I don’t know whether and when my investment on this ad will give me revenues. Normally people see the ad and do not buy the product.

For Ideal ad campaign, your ad should be displayed at the right time to the right audience. For example, food ads before lunch and dinner. While creating an ad, make sure your product is not undermined by any celebrity or an endorser. Your ad should be easy to interpret and the customer can actually understand the intended message in it. In the end, your ad should not be only for awareness but its goal should be to make a sale. The strategies of advertisement are ATL, BTL, and TTL.

Sales promotion is a short-term tool in IMC, where you go trail of your product outside malls and stadiums. Kanas, a brand of Tehzeeb foods, when it was launched they put sales promotions in Safa Mall, Chilman restaurant and every outlet of Tehzeeb bakery.  Sales promotion are of two types; Consumer promotion, the scenario mentioned above and Trade promotions its basically b2b.

Event marketing and sponsorship is basically where companies try to create a good image out of themselves. Pakistan Tobacco company is banned from doing advertisement, so they arrange Golf Tournaments to have a good exposure for their customers. Redbull arranges sporty events and tries to endorse their brand using sports activities and celebrities.

Public relations and publicity, a concept which is synonymous to a layman person, yet they are poles apart. Public relation, a concept where companies try to defend their image by showing the positive side only. Press conferences and press releases are few tactics of public relations.  On the other hand, publicity is dual in nature where it can be positive or negative. Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy recently put a publicity stunt to get on the trending list, same goes with Misha Shafi and Ali Zafar’s using #metoo as a publicity stunt.

Marketing communication guidelines are critically important for companies because it helps them to develop their optimal marketing communication strategy. We will start with, you have to be analytical and deeply understand the consumer behavior model. Since everyone is different from each other so your managerial decision should develop a well-executed and researched communication strategy.
Only one-time value is not enough for your customer, you need to be curious about their changing need and demands, keeping your strategy aligned with market trends and competitors.  You cannot reach and customize your ads to the whole population.
Be single-minded and focus on your actual target market rather than focusing the whole mass. You have to be integrative which means you have to be consistent and keep reinforcing your message to your target audience. Showing one-time ad is not enough you need to keep showing them again and again until it jumps to the recall point in your brain.
Break the clutter and be creative, because a creative ad can easily be remembered because it has the element of uniqueness in it.
Observe your competitors and see what they are doing, how customers are responding to their strategies. Keeping the budget in mind, be realistic about which tool should be used and when. Lastly, be patient and trust your communication strategies. Success won’t come overnight.

Chapter 5: Marketing programs: Types of Personalize Marketing.

Marketing paradigms and parameters have changed with the passage of time. Companies are changing their marketing tactics and strategies. Through the concept of digitalization and more connectivity, the world is now shrunk due to the internet and companies are doing businesses offshore. In Pakistan, some of the U.S based companies are working because of cheap labor and fewer taxes.
Digitalization has prevailed so much that companies are now interacting with the customer directly and excluding the middleman. For example, Bahria University wants to buy Hp laptops for the faculty, they will directly contact the manufacturer rather than involving vendors and distributors. But again re-intermediaries ensure trust. E-BAY, a customer to customer e-commerce portal included Paypal, a digital bank, which ensure trust between both customers. Through digitalization, two concepts also evolved customization (you can alter a product through some extent) and customerization (where the customer can modify the whole product to his limits, for example, tailor suits or customized cakes).

The market is cluttered with non-sense ideas and conservative techniques. Firms are using a lot of "out-of-box" techniques to capture the attention of their potential customer in a very unique way. The customer wants the ownership of the products.
Remember the Global campaign by Coca-Cola “share a coke” where different names were labeled in their packaging. This was the concept of mass customization and customer felt the ownership. Because that is how you create a relationship with your customer.

Experiential marketing, a concept with a boom in the industry, talks about create an ultimate experience for the customer that they will never ever forget about it. London Olympics 2012, Samsung installed their stalls outside the stadium and they displayed their latest mobile phones so that people can experience the product before their purchase.

One to one marketing is basically you engage the customer to create value for your product. You interact with them in an individual level and engage them. But for good engagement, you first need to identify your prospect customer and treat them individually. The second step is differentiating them by segmenting them in their belonging class. Interact with them in an efficient manner and try talking to them about their need and wants. Customize their need and behavior according to your firm’s requirement and try to create value. Lastly, build a strong and everlasting relationship with your customer and try to make him your brand evangelist.

Guerilla marketing, again a new way of marketing where you advertise your product in an unconventional way where normally people were not expecting it. Like Colgate partnerships with a local ice-cream manufacturer to have their sticks shaped like toothbrush so that children can remember they have to brush their teeth after having this ice-cream.

One of the most important technique is Permission marketing, a concept given by Seth Godin. He talks about not to irritate or invade customer’s privacy and stop doing interruptive marketing. His major focus was on to develop a deep and meaningful relationship with the customers. He said we need to engage and encourage the customer to participate in a long-term marketing campaign and the customer will be given some sort of reward for it. Reward or compensation is compulsory because it can enhance the level of concentration of your customers. Permission marketing revolves around to offer an incentive to your customer so that he can concentrate on your brand. Make him understand your product. Keep giving him incentive so that his concentration level is maintained. Lastly, once his concentration is permanent, change it into sales and earn profit through it.

Retailers are customers too. Since retailer is the middleman between company and customer. The cooperative advertisement is a partnership between retailers and the company. You have seen multiple time Coca-Cola fridge in a small retail store and with their main board (brand name) you can see Coca-Cola’s name with it.

Chapter 4 : Brand Element : Choose your brand elements wisely.

In this chapter we will be discussing about brand element and the criteria of selecting brand elements. The worth of apple logo is  $39.9 billion, this worth is not created overnight. A team of well-established logo architects and designers put their mind in the creation of this logo. But again logo is a brand element, but to select this brand element we need to see the criteria’s as well. Keller defines criteria of selecting brand elements as the selective filter which is applied on each brand element. He categorized these criteria under 6 filter.

1) Memorability (Your brand element should be attention grasping and can be easily identified, for example, Mcdonalds, A big yellow “M” can be spotted miles before and can easily trigger recall and recognition.
2) Meaningfulness (brand element should be meaningful in terms of detail description of your product and benefits. Like Fair and lovely, they describe their product as a whitening cream and they put challenge in their advertisement that in just 10 days you will have fairer skin.
3) Likeability (Your brand should be aesthetically sound and appealing. Color combination used in the creation of any elements creates a big difference. See which color and design have associated feelings with your brand.
4) Transferability (You cannot stick with your brand with only one product, for more profits companies diversify their portfolio. Your brand name, logo and other elements should be made in a way that they can be easily transfer to other products in your portfolio.
5) Adaptability (Again very important because you need to adapt and adopt your brand elements with the taste and culture of your target market and continuously try to improve your brand elements by keeping in mind the element of technology.
6) Protectability (Select the brand elements which can be protected internationally in terms of copyrights and trademarks. In Pakistan, we register our company and brand under the umbrella of SECP (security exchange commission of Pakistan).

Moving towards the tactics of brand elements. These tactics are made and developed by the above-mentioned criteria’s.
The first tactic is selecting the Brand name. Since it is not easy to select a brand name. There are certain criteria’s which needs to be fulfilled like it should define your objectives, through these objectives, generate a list of brand names, screen them out on the bases of favorability and then research the final candidate nationally and internationally as well. 
Second is URL (uniform resource locator) a web name for your digital campaigns like Daraz.pk, where Daraz means closet. People normally put logo and symbol under one category, but yet they are poles apart.
A logo is a term derived from logotype which is the written part and symbol is graphics part, for example, Starbucks (the written part is the logo and the naked siren is the symbol).
Characters are the symbolic and rememberable personalities associated with a brand for e.g. Colonel Sanders of KFC, Reynold McDonalds of McDonald's.
Packaging is an important brand element because it can influence the taste (orange juice), it can change the buying behavior (orange juice as a normal drink).  And Lastly, Slogan and Taglines, the difference between both of them is slogan is for a short marketing campaign and tagline is for the company and it remains constant forever.

Save the world, Save a life : Innovations from Apple, Amazon and Tata Group.

Competition in electric cars domain is increasing day by day. The world is moving towards the concept of "save the world and save the lives". Apple incorporation has announced that their upcoming project will be totally different from their current portfolio. Rumors are there that Apple is currently working on a project known as “Titan” an Electric car. Some of the internal employees stated that a heavy force of technical employees are working on this project. Apple had identified the current market niche and do not want Tesla Motors and Tata motors to enjoy their full share in the electric cars category. They want to be the first mover in the electric car market of a self-driven car. Since the majority of the countries are now focusing on the removal of petrol and diesel cars. Scandinavian countries are putting emphasis that no car will be operated on Gas until 2030. Indian technological giant Tata group announced that they will be launching their electric car named as "E-Vission".

Amazon is world’s biggest giant in terms of e-commerce and cloud computing. Jeff Bezos was named as one of the most influencing and richest CEO. Rumors are there that Amazon by the end of 2018 will be entering into the pharmaceutical business. Their main aim is to reduce the element of intermediaries. They want to eliminate pharmacist between the doctors and the pharmacy. They want to do innovation through putting a QR (quick response) code on doctor's given prescription and you just need to scan that code through your mobile phone, money will be deducted through your linked bank account and medicines will be delivered to your address.

Another important innovation which is just around the corner for commercialization is Alexa of Amazon. Alexa is a digital voice search engine and a voice-powered digital assistance. Since you have seen Google has recently launched its Artificial intelligence voice-operated assistant. It can help you set appointments and plan your day. They will call on your behalf and set appointments for you. Again innovation is the key to success, Amazon and Google keep on innovating themselves on different platforms.

Furthermore, Amazon is now expanding and continuously improving their domain of grocery. They have this digital card, from which you don’t need to check out, you just need to pass through a scanner and money will be deducted from that Amazon card.

Why positioning is vital for companies : a case of TATA Nano.

This chapter talks about how and why positioning of a certain brand is critically important. Normally, we define positioning as the placement of a brand in consumer's mind. But it is not an easy task to do so.
Let's discuss a case about TATA Nano, a revolutionary car which was launched by TATA group in mid-2000's in India. The car was a small compressed hatchback with a 624 cc engine in it and it was priced just above iPhone. By the looks of it, it was a good value for money but yet, it was a failed product. The reason behind its failure was its positioning statement. They advertised their car with a statement “worlds cheapest car”, the word “cheapest” was its demise. People usually see this word as a negative connotation. That was the main reason behind its downfall. Customers will position negatively if there is a negative feeling in your statement.

For this, companies need to develop a competitive frame of reference. A framework which is renowned among all the marketers. For this, you need to identify your potential target market, whether you will be targeting the niche or going for undifferentiated selection of people.
Secondly, you need to focus on who are your direct and indirect competitors.  For example, if you are in a clothing business, so your direct competitors will be Khaadi or Sana Safinaz but your indirect competitors will be Hyperstar as well because they also sell clothes.
Thirdly, you have to focus on Point of parities (similarities) like to be in a category you need to have some sort of similarities among your competitors but at the same time, you also need to have differences (USP).

Brand mantra, a strategy made by companies to identify what a customer should feel about their brand. It is the mixture of both heart and soul. The sole purpose of this strategy is to have a good positioning in a consumers mind. There are three considerations regarding brand mantra: Communicate, simplify, and inspire. The three criteria or domains of this theory are Emotional modifier (feelings), Descriptive modifier (who is our target market) and lastly, Brand function (Nature of your product). For example, Nike brand mantra is (EM is Authentic), (DM is Athletic) and (BF is Performance).

A Brand audit is a phenomenon which tells us about the health of a brand. It consists of two parts, brand inventory, and brand exploratory. In the brand inventory, we discuss how to position our brand. The tools which are required in brand inventory are, creating a good brand element for e.g. Logo, slogan, taglines, jingles. Secondly, Create a good strategy for your IMC. Develop your direct competitor’s profiles and see how they are developing and using their business model. And lastly, focus on the creation of innovative brand mantra. Brand exploratory tells us how to develop your CBBE model and how the consumer will perceive your brand on the basis of brand awareness, favorability, and Unique associations.

Brand Management : Consumer based brand equity : Chapter 2

Consumer-based brand equity, a concept which is undermined by many researchers and academicians. Normally companies focus is to create brand equity to get maximum profits and gain sustainable future revenues. Kavin lane Keller, put emphasis that equity is derived from the customer and it is for the customers. He defined Consumer-based brand equity as a differential effect, it can be a USP for the customers or a unique way to showcased your brand, that a brand knowledge has on consumer response.

The consumer should be treated like your wife. You have to take care of them whether you like it or not. Brand knowledge is a concept where a consumer thinks or feels about a particular brand. They are the brand nodes which are linked to your brain. It has two components, firstly, brand awareness and brand image. Lastly, consumer response is how often a consumer can recall your brand when it is needed in a particular situation.

The concept of brand equity as a bridge basically shows that your past investment in a brand was not your expenses. Because revenues won’t come overnight and you need to have the stamina to bear losses for sometimes. So when you invest in something wait a while so that it can bring some profits in future.

He further put emphasis on how to create a strong brand. Firstly, you need to create a good positioning out of your brand so that consumer can easily recall good points. Secondly, A good brand meaning mean how much are you creating a value for the customers. Furthermore, through your positioning and brand meaning, drive a good consumer response and lastly convert that response into a set of good loyalty and strengthen your relationship with them.

Moving towards the most important part of this chapter which consumer-based brand equity model. The anatomy of this model is in a pyramid shape which shows that if the first level is not cleared, you can’t jump up to next stage.
The first part is a salience which tells the basic things about the brand. The two components of salience are depth (ease of recall and recognition) and breath (how and when you purchase) of a brand. In short, salience tells us about the category identification of brand. Moving up the ladder we see imagery and performance.
Imagery talks about the heritage of a brand, the experiences which are associated with a brand. And what is the purchase and usage situation of a brand.
Adjacent to it is the performance which includes features and primary characteristics of a brand. It talks about how durable and authentic a brand is.
Climbing up we can further see two adjacently marked domains. First is Feeling, which is right above the imagery part, shows that what kind of feeling a customer had when they buy your brand. Adjacent to it is Judgment part, which elaborates the quality and superiority of brand. And at the top of this, we can see the brand resonance part or the loyalty part.
This model is dissected from the middle in a way that imagery and feeling are on the right side and performance and judgment are on the left side. So that right side is the emotional part and the left side is the rational part of this model. When we combine both emotional and rational part of our body, we get loyalty.

Lastly, we will be focusing on brand building implications where will discuss what should brand do to have an optimal positioning. Firstly, consumers buy brands, not products. So they practically own the brand. Don’t ever take shortcuts with your brand, because your ultimate goal should be on the creation of loyalty and it won’t come overnight. Brand should provide value and should have a part of augmentation in it as well. It should have duality means, a brand should trigger your mind as well as your heart

2018 Top Strategies for SEO. Bring instant traffic to your website.

The first technique is to do your in-depth content research. Select the right keyword and use them in a very subtle way so that you can avoid the Blackhat SEO. Your Parent topic should have the right keywords because it has the highest volume of search. Just make sure you select the right keywords or long-tail keywords because these keywords can make or break your website. 

Getting massive traffic on your website should not be your goal, but your target should be bringing right traffic to your blog. The reason I am saying that is because your right audience will increase your session duration in Google Analytics. Getting into bids is not an easy task sometimes it can become an expensive and time-consuming task. Use bucket bridges words to increase the attention of your reader for example “look” or “you need this” or “how to solve your problem”.

Re-writing your content and publishing it again is a good strategy as well. Since you are not sitting on a content goldmine where you can create a unique content every single time. So re-share your most important and highly readable content. Once it is done you can run a content audit which tells you the health of your article whether to remove or merge with other content.

Search analytics tells us to see your users search patterns. Backlinking is critical for your website health because it shows if you have good content and how many people are syndicating your website. This is shown in the link to your site section. Internal links show the pattern of your navigation on your website.

You can identify your user experience through heat maps and what areas you can improve to engage more users. Heat maps shows the way a user clicks and navigate towards your website and scroll map shows about the length of the page you scroll down. This can be done on Crazyeggs.

Short-term strategy for your website to get massive traffic, get it pinged. About 200 different websites help you to index and share your website URL. Link your website to other social media platform, and start social sharing. 

Brand Management : Chapter 1

This chapter talks about what is brand management and what is branding. The historical story tells us about branding is that there were multiple farms located in one facility and when all the owners open their herds of cattle, when they come back they couldn't recognize which one was theirs. They got an idea where they make a symbol at the end of an iron rod and burnt stabbed them at their back. This can easily tell which animal was theirs. From this concept, the world picks out the concept of branding. So what is branding?, It can be a term (name), symbol, sign, color, or anything else which separates your product/service from your competitor's product or service.

So ultimately, companies should focus on creating a sold brand equity by giving them value. Aaker defined brand equity as a some of assets and liabilities associated with a current brand.

Theodore Levitt talks about the intensity of the competition. He said the real competition is not what the companies are creating in their factories but the competition lies in the augmentation in terms of packaging, add extra service and creating a mix to create a decent amount of value for the customer. The other theory which he put emphasis was on Market Myopia. A concept, where companies become profit centric and forget about their customer's actual needs and want. They don't innovate themselves and lack behind in the fierce competition. This is what happened to Nokia and Kodak.

Another famous example regarding branding is given by John Stuart, a former CEO of Quaker Oats. He said to take whatever you want from my company, my assets, my team, my resources, but I would not give you my brand name. To create a solid brand name you need to put every single smidge of your blood to make that brand popular and recognizable. But one silly mistake can ruin your brand name as well.

Importance of brand to Customers is very important because brand name gives the source of the product and can enhance trust. Ultimately, it reduces the risk for e.g. would you ever buy a bottle of water with no label, no name, no description and no brand sticker. Probably, the answer would be no because you can't risk your life with no authentication from the product.
Importance of brands to the firm talks about the legal property, influence consumers to buy your products and lastly, the most important factor is future sustainable revenues. One thing should be very understandable is that companies always think of themselves. They don't think about customers, they have to create value so that they can sustain in a market and consumer can buy their product. So all they think of is the profits.

The source of the brand strength lies in two phenomena, vision, and will. Some people have the vision that they can make a change in the world and they can do that and this, but they lack Will. Contrary people have the will to make a change but they don't have the vision to accomplish that thing. So both phenomena should be working with each other so that success can be achieved.