EuroTrip - Day 73

TitBits

A Swiss Bank Account
Yesterday a German friend of mine told me that he is a proud owner of a 'swiss bank account'. He had opened it while he was studying in Luzerne and then just did not feel like closing it even after leaving Switzerland.

Life in a Metro
What do two Indian guys do when the couple sitting next to them gets super passionate and get going? Against all general perceptions, they sit silent. Their awkwardness makes them stare in all possible directions except the couple. Interestingly, even though both of them are in same situation, they hardly look at each other or talk about it.

The American Ways
Only an American professor can come to class with a beer can in hand and finish it while teaching. Only he can talk about what his step-son has cooked for dinner and how he looks forward to go home for that. If you hear 'Son of A Gun' during a lecture, take my word - the professor is an American.

Man on the Street
Go to any popular tourist spot anywhere in Europe and you will find some Indian (he could be a Pakistani or Bangladeshi too) selling the souvenirs on the street. Afros and Blacks are his eternal competitors everywhere he goes. You can bargain hard with him. And at least once, he will try to let you believe that he is from your country and thus wants to do a fair business with you.
In contrast, you will find lots of European doing creative work to earn their livelihood. They are the street artists performing and entertaining the travelers. And they hardly talk about their nationality.

iPod therefore I am
My rough calculations say that atleast one third of the commuters on Paris Metro own an iPod. The number of people owning a smart-phone is roughly the same too. Almost one forth of them like to read something (from a news paper to French translation of Ramayana) while traveling in the Metro.

Bata
For most part of my life, I believed that Bata is an Indian brand. When I was a kid, this was the biggest shoe brand I was aware of. It's an altogether different thing that, like most of the other kids like me, I always aspired for Action Shoes; Bata was my Dad's brand. It was kind of a sad feeling to see the fall of this brand in Indian market (or atleast that is what my perception is) and transformation into a brand that survives on Half Price Sales.

However, its an altogether different story in Europe, where Bata competes with the who's who of the brands and shares the prime locations in the poshest of the shopping districts in most of the cities. Unarguably, it really is the only 'Indian' brand that I have seen in whole of Europe.
For the marketer in you (and me) the questions is 'how is it possible to have such a contrast positioning for a global brand in two different countries?'

And for those of you who don't really know about the history and origin of brand Bata, here is a clue. It was born in Czech Republic. Find more information here.