Deen Sheikh On the road less travelled.....

To me it feels like just yesterday, that I arrived at the South Kensington campus of Imperial College London for what was for me the start of not just a new academic year but an opportunity of a lifetime, an opportunity to be part of the Imperial College experience. I was to be once again in life a Post graduate student, but a first time Postgraduate student at Imperial College London. The day at Imperial for me began with a welcome talk for new Post graduate students that was conducted in the great hall, where new as well as continuing Post graduate students from the UK as well as overseas got together to mark the start of their time at Imperial. A classmate of mine had organised an informal get together of us future classmates at the East Side Union bar which was to take place as soon as the Welcome talk concluded. Even though everyone from class could not make it to University on the first of October, for those of us who did, it was a great opportunity to get to break the ice...

The concept of the product life cycle can also be applied to individual brands themselves and just like the products brands themselves also make the move on from the launch phase to the growth stage of their respective cycles. The growth stage for a brand implies that it has started receiving mostly positive widespread public appeal and the brand along with its respective product is generating sales and profitability for the organization or the entrepreneurs behind it. The widespread belief amongst most marketing practitioners and brand managers is that most organizations should adopt a cautious and calculated approach with their regards to the marketing activities that they have planned for the brand. Be it branding, public relations or integrated marketing communications, most experts recommend playing it safe especially during the early days of the brand’s growth. This is particularly relevant for brands and products that are new to the market or have just started achieving som...