another day at the office

normal people

2005-11-06T21:19:00.000+03:00

this week i got to appreciate the normal people – those with no extreme obsessions about anything. their world-views are balanced and harmonious with their inner groove, their goals are simple and easy to achieve, and the cutest thing is that…

they are happy this way.

2005-11-05T14:51:00.000+03:00

god, one has to love the crispy sound of a deep house track on a freshly acuired ipod mini 6gb...mmm...

P.S.
Steve, in case you're reading this, i'm ready to work for Apple marketing for 3 meals per day - as long as i get to be the part of the groove ;)

leadership & balls

2005-11-02T00:40:00.000+03:00

from who can you learn leadership if your boss has no balls?

a typical corpoate question…

underground

2005-10-31T23:17:00.000+03:00

seems like if i add every person i meet on the way home from the subway station, the total number will amount to 500 per day or more. most of them move the opposite direction - to the rails to catch a train downtown. where da heck are you people going at 10pm on monday?...

it's weird, but so is every one of those 500 random strangers. they smell with alcohol, their eyes are empty, the look on their face is dull and full of bitter regret for achievments not made, women not conquered, men not kept aside. are they happy? no bloody idea.

being different is a pain between the lungs amplified by cubic centimeters of cigarette smoke and leaded fuel emissions. seeing things bigger than they do, comprehending the finest details of this reality, knowing what their life will look like in ten years is hardly bearable.

this place has a remarkable skill to make you feel sincere compassion for them while you walk the streets of the city. sooner or later your mind turns on a self-preservation mechanism by limiting the amount of scarce brain energy you spend on thinking about their miserable lives. so you get into this hakkuna-matata kind of state of self-induced ignorance. but when you finally board the plan westwards, you start feeling the same pain between the lungs.

only this time it's guilt. for each of those you leave behind.

ma first ever post - Russian consumers

2005-10-30T18:11:00.000+03:00

so here i am, sitting at my office desk at 6:11pm Moscow time, setting up my Blogger account instead of writing a piece of analysis on the recently acquired market shares.

i bet that i'm not the only one who works weekends or, to be more fair to myself, tries to work weekends and almost always ends up browsing the internet or watching videos (using corporate internet access for free of course). so today i salute you, mr. fake weekend worker! your intentions are good while your discipline needs a US Marines boot-camp fix! (god, i love this campaign even though stuff like Men of Genius wont work on the Russian radio no matter how well you get it translated).

and since i mentioned an advertising capaign in this post, then i guess i should write about what works in this country. plain, simple, stupid benefit selling, nothing else. want your US cross-over product launch fail in Russia? launch it with a witty US/Western European campaign and you'll have your boss beating your guts out with a baseball bat, Dilbert style. and the more subtle the message, the less chances there are for your product to ring the consumer's bell in store.

knowing this makes us, multinational marketing managers, able to talk to consumers in the language they are used to. and i honestly wish i could sell my brands to them by being a little more intelligent and intellectual in my communications. this would give me a slight indication that my consumers have made at least one step out of their miserable life boxes (kids-stove-washing machine-vacuum cleaner-washing machine - stove - fake orgasm - sleep: this would be a daily life-cycle of a typical Russian 25-40 female, mid or mid+ income).

hopefully i end up with somebody with a better set of hobbies. yup...

time to hit the road. i'm taking the work home. let's see if i manage to write anything tonight. i really have to - because on wednesday i'm flying to Istanbul for 3 days. to get absolutely trashed - like there's no tomorrow.