Hey, folks.

It’s D-Day. It’s the final of the Cricket World Cup. And that’s all we’re going to say about this right now. Know why? Well, #OreoBolaMatBol (Loosely translated into Oreo telling us ‘shhhhh’). If you haven’t seen the biscuit brand’s ad with MS Dhoni, it has hit nearly 13 million views already on YouTube. And can I just say it’s my favourite ad of the season?

But while we wait for the day and night to unfold, there’s a winner already at the World Cup. We’re talking about Disney+Hotstar. The streaming platform had a concurrent viewership of a whopping 5.3 crore people during the India vs New Zealand semifinal. And they’ve left Jio’s earlier IPL record of 3.2 crore million concurrent viewers in the rearview mirror. Looks like the viewership promise they made to advertisers has come good.

But the question still remains — will this make Hotstar a hotter property for someone to buy them out from Disney’s stable now? Or will Disney try and salvage the situation and hold on to it?

You tell us

Sidebar: The ad is in Hindi and there are no subtitles. Also, this isn't a sponsored post. We just liked the ad and it fits the mood.

Here’s a soundtrack to put you in the mood 🎵

Mokto Kore Dao by Arijit Singh

A few things that caught our eye this week 👀

Oreo’s shenanigans

Talking about Oreos, the world’s best-selling cookie has found itself in the midst of a scandal — call it shrinkgate, if you will.

Now, just in case you’ve never seen an Oreo before — let’s paint a picture. You have two dark discs of biscuit, the colour of dark chocolate, and in between those you have a nice, thick smear of white cream. Or at least, it used to be thick. Apparently, Oreo has been cutting costs by quietly reducing the amount of cream in the cookie.

This folks is classic shrinkflation. It’s a term to highlight the tactics used by companies to combat rising costs for their raw materials. So assume that a typical packet of cookies costs ₹5 to make. And it sells at ₹10. But now, the raw materials costs have gone up and it costs ₹6 to make. It’s quite unlikely that they can command the same margin and sell the cookies at ₹12. People might baulk at the price rise and cut back on spending. Especially since ₹10 is quite a sensitive price point. So what will the company do? They might reduce the grammage of the cookies. Instead of the pack being a 30g pack, it might drop to 26g. It’s a subtle change that could well go unnoticed by the consumers. And the company could salvage the impact on profit margins.

So yeah, if Mondelez, the company that makes Oreo, wants to cut costs, reducing the amount of cream seems to be an easy way out!

But Mondelez has denied these allegations. It says it hasn’t messed with the cookie-to-creme ratio and that doing so would alter the taste. That it would be quite suicidal for the brand.

So yeah, maybe your Oreo hasn't changed all that much. Maybe it's all in the mind.

***

The Everything Store now sells Hyundai cars

Want to buy a Hyundai but too lazy to trudge to the showroom?

Well, if you’re in the US, you’ll just have to fire up your Amazon app, choose the car, fiddle around with the colours, narrow down on financing, and hit buy. The car will arrive at your doorstep and you needn’t even step out of your door.

Yup, people are so used to the convenience of online shopping these days that even carmakers want to tap into this buying behaviour and boost sales. But will it work? We’re not quite sure. Because it does seem farfetched to think that the impulse purchase behaviour found on e-commerce platforms will find its way to cars that cost thousands of dollars.

Also, let’s get one thing straight, this isn’t actually removing the middleman or the dealer. It’s not like Hyundai is selling the cars straight from its own factory. If it did, that would’ve brought down car costs by at least $2,000. But here, it’s the dealer inventory that will be listed on Amazon. So the traditional structure isn’t really changing here except for the ‘digital’ aspect of the buying process.

But wait…does that mean the cost of the car will go up now since Amazon needs a cut too?

Well, Amazon hasn’t said how it’ll make money yet. But Hyundai’s probably not going to risk tacking on an extra ‘e-commerce charge’ to the car. It’ll defeat the very purpose of online sales. And Hyundai has said that the dealers won’t have to bear the cost either.

So guess it’ll be Hyundai which will find itself making lower margins? That’s the very opposite of why companies opt for online channels, no?

Money tips 💰

Think back to your first income straight out of college. And now think about how much you earn today. I’d imagine it’s quite a bit higher today, right?

Now with a higher income, you’ve probably upgraded your lifestyle through the years. Maybe you’re eating out at fancier restaurants more often. You see yourself constantly checking tickets to international destinations. The mobile in your pocket gets more expensive every year.

But are you truly happier? Or are you stuck in the race doing things that social media throws at you?

Now the reason I’m asking you this is because a tweet by Ramit Sethi, a popular personal finance guru in the US with his own Netflix show, caught my eye recently. He said that in his experience, when people cross the $150,000 a year income bucket, they don’t often realize how much money this really is. They don’t step back and celebrate what their new “Rich Life” is. They simply slide into the next phase of their lives pretty much on auto-pilot.

But wait…what does he mean by Rich Life?

He calls a Rich Life as the ideal life you see yourself living. It could be being able to pick your kids from school everyday. Maybe it’s buying organic grocery without worrying about costs. Or it could even be taking your parents on that international trip they’ve always dreamed about.

That sounds a lot like goal setting. And it’s quite specific goal-setting. If you step back and think about your goals and how you can use the higher income to pursue stuff that actually makes you happy, then maybe you can design the life you truly want. And sometimes that might mean cutting back on stuff that doesn't give you so much joy. Stuff that you could probably do without. For Sethi, he drives a Honda because expensive cars and driving them don’t give him joy. But he does spend on luxury hotels and business class flight tickets. That’s his Rich Life.

So, take a moment to think about your individual ‘Rich Life’ too?

Jargon of the day ✏️

Readers Recommend 🗒️

Creativity Inc. by Amy Wallace and Ed Catmull

This book recommendation is courtesy our reader Anuvrat Pandey who says that Ed Catmutal, the co-founder of animation studio Pixar, talks about growing a great team and being a leader through his personal anecdotes.

Finshots Weekly Quiz 🧩

It’s time to announce the winner of our previous Weekly Quiz. And the winner is…🥁

Ashima Setia! Congratulations. Keep an eye on your inbox and we’ll get in touch with you soon to send over your Finshots merch.

Now if you’re wondering where’s the quiz for this week, hop on over to our weekly wrapup. Answer the question correctly and check back in next week to see if you got lucky.

Until then, don’t forget to tell us what you thought of today’s newsletter. And send us your book, music, business movies, documentaries or podcast recommendations. We’ll feature them in the newsletter! Just hit reply to this email (or if you’re reading this on the web, drop us a message: morning@finshots.in).

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