While in school in India, one of our major dreaded subjects was trigo or trigonometry. We all hated it with a passion simply because we could never memorize the formulae for Sine, Cos and Tan. That is until one brilliant classmate by the name of Vineet came up with something so simple we never ever forgot it. The formula was:

Pandit (P) Brahm (B) Prakash (P) Hari (H) Hari (H) Bol (B)

In simplistic terms, Pandit over Hari gave you Perpendicular over Hypotenuse = Sine, Brahm over Hari gave you Base over Hypotenuse = Cos. And Prakash over Bol gave you Perpendicular over Base = Tan.

Once we got this funda (fundamental) right, we never looked back. Vineet was looked upon as the genius of our class.

Medical students will recall that the first two years of school is spent memorizing long lists commonly referred to as Organ Recital. First the cranial nerves: Olfactory, Optic, Oculomotor, Trochlear, Trigeminal, Abducens, Facial, Auditory, Glassopharyngeal, Vagus, Spinal and Hypoglossal.

A mnemonic to make this easy to remember (although sexist) is:

Oh, Oh, Oh To Touch And Feel A Girl’s Vagina – Such Heaven

Here is an easy way to remember the differences between Direct Marketing, Advertising and Branding...

You go to a party and you see a SEXY girl across the room. You go up to her and say "Hi, I’m great in bed, how about it?"

That’s DIRECT MARKETING.

You go to a party and you see a SEXY girl across the room. You give your friend a hundred rupees. She goes up and says "Hi, my friend over there is great in bed, how about it?"

That’s ADVERTISING.

You go to a party, you see a SEXY girl across the room. She comes over and says, "Hi, I hear you’re great in bed, how about it?"

That, apparently, is the power of BRANDING.

Although we use a lot of mnemonics to make advertising more powerful and top-of-mind in consumers minds, we somehow tend to miss out completely the mnemonic phrases used by clients. For practitioners and students of advertising here is a list to make Life simpler at work. Don’t say you weren’t warned!

"We want a slogan like "Just Do It"Translation: We want to be the Nike of plumbing accessories.

"We don’t want your creativity to be constrained by a budget."Translation: We are bankrupt.

" I personally think the ad is brilliant, but I think our target market isn’t ready for something that innovative."

Translation: I don’t want you to think I’m uncool, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.

"Make the logo bigger."

Translation: You advertising people are all the same. All you want is to do some hoity-toity ad that’s going to win you awards, take you abroad on some overpriced photo shoot and spend my company’s money on Bordeaux and Osso Bucco at four star restaurants. Well let me tell you buster, I’m on to your game. I may not know your fancy ad-talk, and I may not be able to figure out where you’ve hidden all the money for your hedonistic debauchery in my ad budget. But I do know one thing: people love my logo, dammit, and they want to see it. Personally, if it were up to me, I’d just buy a super-powered laser and project my logo on the moon. But since I can’t, for now I’m stuck with you idiots.

"What is the agency recommendation?"

Translation: I wouldn’t know good creative like differentiating between my ass and my elbow.

"I don’t think it speaks to the teen market."

Translation: I showed it to my attention-deficit 13 year old, and he was indifferent.

"We want a ‘bite and smile’ shot."

Translation: Even ‘Ogilvy On Advertising’ is too avant garde for me.

"Which one of you is the writer?"

Translation: We hate the copy.

"Which one of you is the art director?"

Translation: We want the logo bigger.

"So, how long have you been at (name of agency here)?"

Translation: Good lord, I’m old enough to be your father. Say, what are you doing for dinner tonight?

"Can we take the headline from this ad, and combine it with the visual of that ad?"

Translation: I am mentally challenged.

"This music isn’t appropriate for our brand."

Translation: The music you have selected isn’t on heavy rotation in my SUV’s 6-CD stereo system. (or) I haven’t heard this type of music in an ad for our competitive brand yet.

"Let’s get back to the basics of what made this brand great."

Translation: If I don’t see some tits and ass in this beer commercial, you’re all fired.

"Do you think that font is appropriate?"

Translation: I want you to know that I know how to use the word ‘font’ in a sentence.

"We’d like you to have a look at what the authorities are doing with this brand."

Translation: You don’t have an igloo’s chance in hell of ever seeing this commercial produced.

"May I have a look at the strategy again?"

Translation: I don’t want to appear uncool in front of the creative team, so I am going to blame the account team for this fiasco instead.

"Here’s how I think the headline should go:"

Translation: I am a frustrated ex-English major.

"We had a lot of learning on this one."

Translation: I have no clue about production costs. I am hoping to score points with my boss and save money by eliminating those expensive backgrounds.

"I love the layout."

Translation: I hate the idea.

"I hope you guys didn’t have to work all weekend on this!"

Translation: The power I have over you amuses me.

Now let’s take a look at how mnemonic terminology is used in an advertising agency, particularly during appraisals.

An elephant drinking at a water pond in the jungle suddenly spied a turtle. With a mighty kick he sent the turtle flying away. When the other elephants asked him why he had done that he replied that several years ago when he had come to drink water at the same pond, the same turtle had bitten him.

"But how did you know that it was the same turtle?", asked one elephant.

"Turtle recall", he replied.

That’s what mnemonics is all about, ‘total recall’.

After a prolonged promotional campaign for its Pepsodent brand as a fluoridated toothpaste, Nepal Lever Ltd. has now started the same with its premium segment toothpaste brand, Close-Up.

Lever’s global competitor Colgate-Palmolive (which also has manufacturing facility in Nepal) has not yet fluoridated any of its brands made in Nepal.

The often-promised satellite link-up for Nepal television (NTV) programs is going to be a reality very soon as NTV has already announced the technical details of the proposed arrangement, though it is yet to fix the date when the service is to start.

This may be a welcome step not only for those viewers who complain of poor reception of NTV programs, but also to those advertisers who want to address wider range of consumers.

However, this development is going to coincide with the sudden suspension of license to the private sector Channel Nepal, which was to go on the air via satellite from the Nepali New Year day.

Him Electronics (P) Ltd., a Golchha Organisation Company, has now entered into alliance with a Korean TV marker and started assembling Samsung brand of color TV sets.

Earlier, Ashok Trading Concern was importing the brand in Nepal.

Him Electronics is offering five-year warranty in its Samsung brand CTV. Such a long warranty is first in TV in Nepal.

The company has capacity to produce 150 TV sets in a single shift. At present it is turning out 105 sets per shift, according to Shekhar Golchha, Director of Golchha Organisation.

Golchha also informs of a plan to start production of audio and household appliances of Samsung brand in the near future.

Himalayan Hygienic Snax and Noodles (P) Ltd. (HHSN) has added a second variety to its Mayos brand of instant noodles.

With this, Mayos is now also available in pure vegetarian soup base. The company first launched Mayos brand in Nepal only last year in technical collaboration with Thai President Foods PCL of Thailand.

Taking some of their production activities to locations outside Kathmandu valley, some national level daily newspapers have shown that business is ready to move out from the capital if it is economical.

While Nepal Samacharpatra, a broadsheet vernacular daily, has already started publishing also from Biratnagar, the business center of eastern Nepal, its competitor Kantipur is readying to do the same.

Being published simultaneously from the capital as well as Biratnagar, these two newspapers will be available to the readers in those areas early in the morning. In the past, the readers in the eastern Nepal had to wait sometimes till in the evening or even the next day.

While the political wrangle on the opposition’s demand for the Prime Minister’s resignation is continuing, the issue is now being used by a brand of adhesive for its advertisement.

Rathicol, which is being promoted with the punch line " Stuck For Life" has in its recently issued print ad a cartoon in which a number of hands are shown as trying to pull the chair on which a man is comfortably seated.

In obvious indication to the recent politics, the cartoon has some Nepali letters on the background that refer to Lauda Air scandal and demand for the Prime Minister’s resignation.

But the cartoon character says, "No use trying, friends ! It is Rathicol bond: Stuck for Life".

Claiming a mega success in its previous offer of Kathmandu Residency, Ansal Chaudhary Developers (P) Ltd. has come up with its second housing development project called Mount View Residency.

Situated in the south of Kathmandu Valley, the "self-contained, integrated, well-planned modern residential complex" will have duplex homes and independent homes to be developed by this joint venture company of India’s Ansal Buildwell Ltd. and Nepal’s Chaudhary Group.

The homes are priced at Rs. 1.898 million and Rs. 2.198 million for duplex and Rs. 2.598 million for independent.

Meanwhile, another housing development company, Kantipur Development Pvt. Ltd., has entered this business and announced its plan to develop multi model residential and business complex at Madhyapur Thimi.

Morang Auto Works has launched 105.6CC four-stroke bike ‘CRUX’ from Yamaha Motors Escorts Ltd. of India.

Priced at Rs. 83,900 as special introductory offer, the new bike is presently available at MAW show-rooms all over the country.

Being marketed as a "complete bike", the CRUX is claimed to be comfortable, dependable, strong and requiring low maintenance expenses.Its classic styled model is meant for both the youth as well as aged riders, say the company sources.

Within ten days of the launch, 200 of the new bikes were sold, the sources claim.

Continental Trading Enterprise Pvt.Ltd has launched in Nepali market Rio, and sephia II cars from Kia Motors.

While 1300CC Rio is priced approximately at Rs. 1.5 million, 1600CC Sephia II is for about Rs. 1.75 million with full options.

Cashing in on the growing shortage of pure drinking water and the changed life style of Nepali consumer, Asian Drinks (P) Ltd., a recently operational company has launched Aqua Smile brand of bottled water in the country’s townships in one litre and a half litre bottles and 20.5 litre jars.