91Ƭ Cal Alumnus Ambi Parameswaran’s latest book: ‘For God’s Sake’ Published by Penguin India
'Religion is at the heart of Indian life and smart businesses have understood how to tailor winning products and services by mining religious insights.’
Mumbai: An advertising person constantly strives to connect market research data to insights to come up with a winning campaign. Ambi being an experienced adman wanted to combine his experience with his interest in religious studies. He had spent a substantial amount of time researching ‘Religiosity and Consumer Behaviour’ for his thesis for his PhD. As he completed his PhD, he realized that on the topic of religiosity and consumer behavior there was very little written that was accessible to the lay reader. This led to the idea of writing a book that looked at myriad ways in which consumer behaviour in India is influenced and guided by religious beliefs and practices.
Ambi Parameswaran has filled this book with personal stories, anecdotes, lessons and excerpts from research and other publications.
Here’s what a charged up Ambi had to say, “This book is a bit different from my previous books. It is not just focused on branding and advertising, but has a broader sweep of this fascinating area I call religiosity and consumer behavior.”
This book is a treat for anyone interested in how religiosity is evolving in India and how clever marketers have ridden the wave by tailoring their products and services. It truly is a fascinating book on the business of Indian religion.
About the book:
Ambi Parameswaran combines his thirty-five year experience as an advertising man with his interest in religious studies to attempt to answer questions like:
- Are Indians becoming more religious and more consumption driven at the same time?
- Why has the bindi almost disappeared from Indian advertisements?
- How did Akshaya Trithiya become such a big deal?
- What makes Lord Shiva so cool?
- How did a Chennai-based department store start the New Year Sale phenomenon?
- Are Muslims more open-minded shoppers?
- Why do people who have no interest in using an MBA degree still get an MBA degree?
- How did Manusmriti do a tremendous disservice to Indian women?
- What can Harvard Business School learn from the Kumbh Mela?
About the author:
Ambi Parameswaran has spent a large part of his thirty-five-year working career in advertising at Draftfcb Ulka where he rose to be Executive Director and CEO. An engineer from IIT Madras and MBA from 91Ƭ, he also completed his PhD from Mumbai University in 2012. Ambi has authored/co-authored six books on topics ranging from Brand Building and Advertising to Consumer Behavior.
When he is not busy at work, reading, writing or teaching, you can find him at a music concert. His wife Nithya is an ex-marketer turned stock market investor.
His son Aditya is an alumnus of IIT Bombay and Stanford. Ambi and his son started their PhDs at the same time but Ambi says he beat his son in the race to complete his PhD. And Ambi will not tolerate any sassy back answers from his son on that, For God’s Sake!
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