How not to promote your brand

A number of new ways are being used by people to reach out to the prospects. There are usual ways where people stick posters almost anywhere in a train advertising their services like earn two lacs in a month or loans within five minutes or advice on love, sex and what not and recently they have a found a new place to promote their services: Handles. New locals have transparent plastic handles where it is possible to push in a visiting card. I saw one Insurance advisor's visiting card nicely tucked in 4-5 handles enabling him to reach out to even those who were standing near the door and all this for free. At the same time there are some who have failed in their attempt to advertise even after spending money on it.
You must have noticed a huge poster of some well known Commerce classes just in front of Vidyavihar station’s platform. It is just a few feet above the ground and considering the height at which the passengers stand the poster comes right in front of you if you are standing outside. One may feel at this stage that the particular commerce academy has placed its ad in the right place but it is not the case. As whenever a train comes to the platform you would see people spitting paan on the posters. I had the privilege of seeing one guy spit right on the face of a student who was one of the toppers!! It is almost impossible to recognize the face of the students. Thank god I have never been a topper. Lesson: Make sure you put your posters above and away from people and not in front of them even though you are targeting them!
Even worse thing I observed outside Belapur station where somebody was giving away free copies of one of the respected newspapers. I am not saying giving away things for free is bad for publicity, in fact they are welcome! Problem here was that the person who was giving away newspaper for FREE was standing just two feet away from a newspaper vendor who was SELLING the same thing!! Company should try and avoid this kind of situation; the person should have been instructed about this. This is insult to those who actually pay money for that newspaper and that too just two feet away. Giving things for free may work in case of product launches or magazines like JAM or JLT which target youngsters and give away the copies of last issue (not the current issue) for free and people don't mind as it doesn't contain any current news but this can not be done with newspaper which loses its value the very next day. But this should be avoided with newspapers if possible and even if you are doing something similar to this make sure the ones who are paying for it are unaware of this! The worst part about this thing is that this has been happening for more than a week now. If I have subscribed to that newspaper I won't mind if it is given away for free once or twice. But if this goes on for a longer period of time than it just loses value.

Few more victims of the replacement drive

Okay I agree I have already written about a similar topic earlier but last week I came across a few examples which made me think of it once again. And the peculiar thing about these examples is that all of them involve instances of individuals getting replaced and not the businesses. I'll tell you about these examples in the order in which they occurred. I work in Belapur (yes, the same place where your neighbor would have gone for a one-day picnic last Sunday) and I stay in Ghatkopar (the most happening suburb), so everyday I have to change trains from Ghatkopar-Kurla-Belapur and back. It’s been almost eight months since I have been doing this. Any person who has done the same would agree that I actually deserve a Bharat Ratna award for this! Though traveling from Kurla to Belapur is not that much of a pain but it is the Ghatkopar-Kurla route (distance of only two stations) which squeezes all energy out of me, literally! So I actually plan to write this as one of my achievements on my resume.
It is during the journey from Kurla-Belapur that I get to listen to radio and this is when I came across one of the examples which I wish to mention. Though this has been happening for a long time it struck me just last week. I heard Raju Srivastav radio jockeying on one of the radio stations. I agree we all know this and there is nothing shocking about it but I was just thinking that when he first appeared on some channel he was competing with other stand-up comedians and now suddenly he has replaced some radio jockey! On reaching office I met a friend of mine who was busy making arrangements for an auction to sell secondary products and this is the second example. Earlier the secondary products used to be sold by individuals who would meet the prospective buyers personally but today a system is in place which makes it possible for the prospective buyers to just log in online and start bidding. Again, auction is not a new thing but it's just that it is being used for something which was earlier done by individuals (who were highly paid). What happens now is that only one person (he need not be qualified, so less costly to hire) is required to handle the whole auction and once it starts the person can go out for a coffee as he is also not required to remain there! On coming back home I saw my brother ordering food from a nearby restaurant. When asked, he told me that there was some problem with the LPG stove and that mother had gone to purchase a new stove. Next day a rickshaw wala, who had been sent by the store where my mother had placed the order for a new stove, came with the stove. But no one from the store accompanied him so I assumed somebody would come later on for the installation. But then I saw that the same rickshaw wala started doing the installation. Later he mentioned that he had been trained by the store to do the installation as well so that no other person would have to be employed!
It seems everyone is under threat of being replaced unless you are actually doing something which only you can do as I am doing (writing long and boring blogs about topics nobody is interested in).

Can't 'imagine' the logic behind this

Finally some respite for people who like watching good comedy shows on TV as I do. I am talking about the new show that has just started on NDTV Imagine: 'Rahul Dulhaniya Le Jayega'. The other day I was watching one of its episodes where more than a dozen girls (wannabes) coming from all parts of India were trying hard to woo Rahul in order to make him desire them! I could be tried and imprisoned for sacrilege by the aesthetics society of India if I referred to all of them as ‘girls’ as some of them seem to have been gracing the earth since an eternity at least! Apart from this, one more observation made was that whenever there was a break during the programme (the funniest programme I mean), a countdown would begin on the left-top of the screen. This countdown indicated the time remaining for the ads to get over and the show to start. One more thing to be noted here is that this countdown doesn't begin as soon as the ads start, it starts only when about 3 minutes are remaining. May be their thinking behind this is that it would take a few moments before people would start getting irritated with ads and switch to other channel and before they do so, the timer will appear and make them remain on the same channel as no one would like to miss out on their favorite shows. But I have a different story to tell and I am sure you would agree with this. While I was watching this show and there was a break, quickly my brother switched to some other channel without waiting even for a second and even if he had managed to stay with the same channel till the timer appeared I am sure that warning (i.e. only 2 minutes to go) wouldn’t have stopped him from switching to other channels as we all know that it only takes few moments for us to browse through all the channels that our Cablewala has to offer! In fact I feel this may go against them as I experienced yesterday when I was watching the same show and ads came, my brother snatched the remote from me and switched to some news channel (one more source of comedy nowadays) where one reporter was speaking confidently about the place where he thought Laden was hiding (as if he only booked the ticket for him). When I told my brother to not change the channel as only two minutes were remaining he said two minutes is a lot of time and that he would switch to this channel before it starts and that he can’t wait for two long minutes as there are others channels to be explored! People consider themselves fortunate if they are able get daily dose of their favorite show for two continuous minutes without any ads in between them. As sometimes it feels like we are watching ads and in between some show is being telecast!

Irreplaceable is nothing

I remember studying one article 'Marketing Myopia' by Theodore Levitt while I was in college. It explained how parochialism on part of the companies or the industries could eventually lead to their destruction. It also talked about industries which defined their business scope narrowly and didn't give a thought to what future could have in store for them. Article gives examples of some industries which went out of business and some others which almost suffered the same fate due to their narrow outlook: take railroad industry which believed it was in railroad business instead of transportation, Hollywood thought it was in movie making business instead of entertainment business and how incandescent lamp replaced kerosene light. Levitt emphasized that companies should be customer oriented rather than product oriented.
Recently I came across one such example though on a much smaller scale i.e. manufacturing of LPG cylinders. There was an article in one newspaper which mentioned as to how the bulky LPG cylinders that we are using now could get replaced by cylinders made of fiberglass and polymer. These cylinders will be non-corrosive and more stylish though there will be no subsidy and they will be more expensive than the regular ones (Regular Cylinders cost The Oil Marketing companies (OMCs) around Rs.1050 but the new ones will cost around Rs.3200). They are planning to import around one lakh cylinders on a trial basis for metros. Secondly, at many places these cylinders have already been replaced by gas pipelines so some business is lost there too. I don't know whether the companies which have been making the conventional cylinders have the technology or the manpower to switch to making this new type of cylinders (I have no idea whether the new cylinders will do well or not) but this development certainly provides a reason to give it a serious thought. One more aspect to this could be the Steel companies which supply steel to these manufacturers. Agreed Steel companies cater to a number of sectors but LPG business is relatively more consistent compared to other sectors accounting for reasonably good sales for them.
However it is too early to jump to any conclusion at this stage but if things go well for the new cylinders then the B-School students could have one more case study to discuss when they study ‘Marketing Myopia’!

Relationship between Laziness, Automobile sales & Pollution

Whenever I go out with my family the first thing that I do once I get out of my building is to look for a rickshaw whereas my father would continue walking. This actually sums up one-third of my argument in this post i.e. present generation is lazier than the previous one. The other one-third of my argument being that this laziness is leading to more sales and the last one-third of my point being that everything that I have just mentioned is leading to more pollution!

Last week on my way to Ghatkopar station I made an interesting observation that majority of the people walking belonged to the 30-plus age group and those below 30 preferred going by rickshaw or private vehicles. This pattern has remained consistent since then. This is shocking as one would actually expect the reverse. But as I mentioned above, our parents don't mind walking a long distance whereas we wouldn't mind spending Rs10-15 just to cover a couple of alleys. The only positive that I see here is that youngsters are actually helping in automobile sales but the negative part is that it is creating pollution. As if this wasn't enough, we have found out a new way of increasing pollution i.e. home delivery. It has become a norm to order food which has forced restaurants to employ a few delivery boys and there are many who use scooters, bikes for the purpose which is again leading to pollution though even this is adding to vehicle sales! One may argue that even if one doesn't order and decides to go to the restaurant he will use some mode of transport which will again create pollution so the situation remains as it is. It is this attitude that needs to be changed. Why can't we just walk to a restaurant and also save some money in the process?

If not for environmental reasons one may do this for personal reasons i.e. to reduce flab which is becoming more and more obvious with an increase in the sales of XXL T-shirts! Speaking of environment reminds me of latest Idea ad which talks about tree conservation. Nice ad that by Idea (I have no idea whether it is leading to sales). Anyways, the other day I had gone to a restaurant with friends (of course I didn’t go by rickshaw or car!) where this idea came to my mind that why can’t we have a system where while we give order we also give our cell number and the bill is messaged on that number which we can show to the person at the counter and make payment accordingly. Even this can do wonders as far as tree conservation is concerned as a lot of paper can be saved.

Vision & Mission: Relevance in present scenario

Just attended one seminar last Sunday which was basically about how the companies should try to work towards business excellence. There one of the speakers talked at length about the importance of vision & mission of the company as to how the company’s character is communicated through its vision & mission and how people develop a certain attitude towards a company that has a clear vision of where it wants see itself certain years down the line and how it plans to reach there. But somehow I feel that these things don’t hold too much of importance in today’s world where everyone is looking for a best deal and not the best company to deal with! So I questioned the speaker about this but he got offended may be because I questioned the central theme of his lecture! So I left it at that.

But since then I have been thinking about it and the speaker whose mission, it seemed, was to convey the importance of vision to the audience! He kept on stressing on one thing i.e. the stakeholders. He held the view that the stakeholders would deal only with those companies whose vision & mission coincided with their belief and principles. Let’s consider a case of some company whose stakeholders would obviously be shareholders, employees, creditors, suppliers, government, society and customers. Now what percentage of these stakeholders would know the vision & mission of the company they are dealing with? Let’s take one by one.

Investors: Barring a few who actually do a thorough analysis of a company (whether it involves the analysis of vision & mission is still a question), most of the people invest in a company on the basis of tips they receive!

Employees: How many employees would recall their company’s objectives? Not the job hoppers at least! I am sure all the B-School graduates would remember though as they have to mug up the vision & mission of all the companies that come to campus but they forget it as soon as the company leaves!

Creditors: Even in case of creditors, I feel, they would see the financial ability of the firm before dealing with them. They wouldn’t just lend to the companies having a nice vision statement.

Suppliers: Suppliers would obviously look for long term relationship and location advantage while dealing with the companies regardless of its vision.

Government: I don’t think the government would have any problems as long as the company pays its dues (taxes and other payments!) on time.

Society: The society is okay with a company if it has not specified its vision and mission as long as the company carries out some socially responsible activities and contributes towards social welfare.

Customers: Last but not the least, the smartest set of people alive: the customers. When was the last time you heard your friend saying that he didn’t buy a particular pair of jeans for his girl friend as the apparel company didn’t have a good mission!

So where do we stand now? Does a company need vision? Of course it does! I was fortunate enough to have read the book ‘Made in Japan’ (about Akio Morita and Sony) before I wrote this post where he explained the importance of having a goal in life and how that goal gives directions to all your efforts otherwise things go haywire. He mentioned how after Russia became the first country to reach outer space; President Kennedy announced mission to reach moon within ten years. It was that announcement that set the ball rolling and all efforts started being directed towards the accomplishment of that mission or vision whatever one may call it. So vision & mission are important but what is more important is its communication to its stakeholders and sincere efforts on your part to show that you actually mean everything you mention on your flashy site and that you are taking pains to work towards their realization.

Before I end this post, I would like to mention one more thing to confuse you all. Though I have been using Google (arguably the biggest brand) regularly, I had never bothered to know its mission & vision. But while writing this post I decided to find it out. After a lot of search (of course on Google) I came to know that Google doesn’t have a vision, it only has a mission! So now it’s up to you to decide whether vision & mission are necessary or not. Because I am not committing anything!

Please read this

Life of Hijras has always been a mystery in India. I was looking for some information when I came across an interesting article on Wikipedia where I found out a few interesting things about them. One of them being that the Hijras used to be employed as the servants for female royalty in the imperial palaces and enjoyed a very high status in those times. In fact many families converted one of their children into a Hijra so that the child could get a good job in one of the palaces which would ensure a steady income for the family. Later this practice was banned by Aurangzeb in 1668. Compare that to the present time where they are not being given the respect that any human being deserves. Agreed their blessings are revered by many families who welcome them whenever a child is born or there is a shop opening where they come, sing, give their blessings and in turn get sweets, sarees and money from the families and that is it. This doesn't guarantee a livelihood as we see them asking for money at traffic signals, in trains etc. They don't get jobs as people are not ready to accept them for what they are. Today, as we see, they are suffering and being deprived of a normal life for no fault of theirs which is very unfair. So the least that we can do for them is to create opportunities where even they get a chance to live a normal life as we do.

One solution that I suggest is this: Pharmaceutical companies can develop a new distribution channel with their help. Their network is very strong and they are always aware of the number of births taking place in a particular area. Since they visit all those houses where a birth takes place, companies can ask them to sell their baby care products to those families and at the same time companies can also get data about the likely births in a particular area which can help them predict demand and make arrangements in advance. People are more likely to listen to them than those salesmen who at times can irritate people to death. This will lead to a situation where the Hijras will get a normal livelihood and companies will develop a new distribution channel and it will also act as a CSR activity. I know that their reach is restricted to certain areas but still that shouldn’t stop companies from taking their help in selling their products as they, I certainly believe, have the potential to become the best sales force.