Marketing, lobbying, bribing...

I was always amused, if not irritated, by marketing. There used to be this competition called 'ad-zap' in schools and obviously I neither liked it nor wanted to be part of it. I, for one, am never going to buy anything because XYZ is modelling for the same or if the ad is good. Appreciating an ad does not tantamount to 'buying' into it. Maybe I am a 'serious' person but I believe that a good product talks for itself. I need not convince another person that it is a 'good product'. The problem is with 'good enough' products and to decide how much is 'good enough'. When there are umpteen 'good enough' products, the right and easiest way is to go and buy the cheapest. My classmate who was working in companies that made televisions, used to say that television has become 'standardized' and there is no point in saying LG is better than Samsung or Sony is better than Philips.

I can understand in 'marketing' products like television or refrigerator because it is after all bought by any 'average' person, who need not be knowledgeable on the product and has to be talked to in the 'language that he can relate to'. In companies or atleast in semiconductor companies, I am aghast that marketing takes the form of 'lobbying' and is rampant in almost all Indian companies, if not worldwide. In one company that I worked, tools from Mentor Graphics were used, maybe because manager had worked in Mentor Graphics. Similarly in one interview that I attended, the interviewer was adamant that Tetramax is the best and he knows it because he had worked in Synopsys :x In my opinion, 'tools' are just tools to perform some function. We should be 'patriotic' towards some tool needlessly. In that sense, my experience in Texas Instruments especially in ASIC was more than handy. The tools can differ according to each customer as per the convenience. Some customer may have some deal with Synopsys/Mentor and had to use Mentor tools. So we too had to work on what the customer can use. We were 'EDA tool' agnostic, which was good.

Even during my 'last days' in TI, there was a move to use 'Synopsys' tools only and we did joke/resent about the same, even alluding that 'suitcases' were exchanged between Synopsys and 'TI management'. I was glad to read this 'Hindu' editorial today - especially how it ended

Critics say that what is called lobbying in the west is called corruption in developing countries; and one Indian campaigner says corruption stinks but it is at least a stink that everyone knows. There can be no doubt that lobbying will continue to pose a serious threat to democratic processes around the world.

It is funny indeed that those who shout in roof-tops about 'no transparency' or 'nepotism' in Governments dont even think/mumble about corporate corruption, which according to me is rampant and enormous, to put it mildly.