Coz everything that has a story to tell, sells!

Recently after I started working as an intern for an FMCG company I’d got myself into a habit of following the news stories about this sector, any relevant snippets the growth charts of this sector, anything! The fmcg they say is a very dynamic industry where numbers can play surrealistic games at times and amaze you the next moment. I’ve had a good luck of living in these times where media, communication is flaring up all its tentacles to give out boundless amount of information to satisfy any soul. Everyday we are getting fired with these humongous bullets of information from all directions that we literally are impaled by it sometimes. Having said this, I can say I am not a very big fan of Harvard case studies, however getting enrolled in a MBA equals getting married to library package of fat Harvard books churning out the Harry potters of the Management world, giving out indispensable gyaan on companies like starbucks –how its positioning has made coffee synonymous with the name(atleast in the US!), Walmart’s exploitation of its supply chain and distribution network, the exciting turnaround stories of companies like Toyota, Chrysler…u got it right?!..i have really nothing serious against them but the point is that though these are a stack-full of prime knowledge penned down, well documented by “the geeks”(in the good sense) in the legendary Harvard halls after going through a lot of deliberation and data collection, they still don’t fit in the regular conundrum of events somehow, I cannot relate to them, and the reason being they are not custom-fitted to the Indian context.

That’s the catch!...that’s where the real story begins…and hold on to urself…coz this is where my excitement begins!!..India in itself is such huge mass of land of diverse multitudes , the biodiversity, the genographic diversity and blah blah…and all the other terminologies you are already acquainted with- “ the unity in diversity” popular folklore that we regularly talk about. But let me tell you as a marketer this diversity becomes such a crucial factor to explore, that one can base her entire study on this one aspect and make a living out of it(market researcher), and that too a lucrative one at that. The point is that I need to tap into “live” case studies, I don’t want to read millions of years old( well literally, for a marketer the world is changing faster than for the other normal mortals, so a decade old case study talking about a successful turnaround success story of a company, that strategy if used now may completely bring down the company, nosediving it through its ashes..so yeah!...a marketer has to evolve faster than a normal human being, she is altogether a different entity in lieu of the most evolved homo sapiens!...i can prove this bit ..but later!..continuing…)

As I said in the beginning I have been lucky to be a spectacle to events that have been extreme in nature that have shaken up this world and I thank these events under my breath silently, coz they have provided me with such “live feed virus” of pathological significance (just as a metaphor)that a biologist can easily claim a nobel for his reaserch in these ground breaking studies. First the markets tanked in the September 2008 financial carnage, the reason may be- many call them CDOs or some fancy named derivatives , it gave all the intelligentsia around the world such a huge titillation, well arousal is more like it, that everybody seemed fit to form and pass a radical opinion about the whole thing and get the masses talking at the same time. It was wonderful, everyday a new theory would fall from above like a newton’s apple giving a Eureka moment to to every Tom, Dick and Harry!..everybody had a theory about what went wrong and how the wounds going to heal in future. Even a novice like me after reading up a couple of pink papers a day could rustle up a judgment or two and astound laymen which were looking at all this bespectacled drama all this while like a greek odyssey!- illegible yet astounding !... now the story of a marketer begins. She was a pretty happy lady pre this chaos, markets were strong, large disposable incomes insured people bought stuff on impulses and not just for necessity, in short the life was a beautiful dream-like situation where the high rising quarterly results brought that angelic glint of smile and higher aspirations as well! But we know, happy endings are not a part of real life always, some sadist( I always imagine a animated baddie in these kind of situations –the Japanese samurai kinds, emerging from within the dark smoke, with that morbid death freak look…with a long slung katana besides his dark black velvety flowing garb of disparity and darkness …enuf of my imagination, getting out of my funk, well moving on..)had to crook it up and ruin the whole pink floss candy dream and garishly display his devilish acts of despair. Nevertheless I got an opportunity to study a real life grotesque apathy and the brand new challenges which were facing my marketing-mankind!
There was no money to spend- marketing departments’ budgets were saddled down with ridicule. Innovation became a key word to utilize the scant resources in optimum ways. Ways which were never heard of before, be it targeting the rural folks in an effective manner( CK Prahlad-“Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid” became the new GOD in marketing parlance) to keep the sales buoyant or be it exploring the ruffled urban mindset in times of traumatic inflation and other insecurities( which were major sidekicks of this dark devil ). So and as the story goes, the Indian markets survived the worst, the worst of this decade or so, and this story kept me engaged and awe-inspired for a pretty long time. Then came the “dirty” laundry war that caught my rapt attention, two goliaths battling it out like small kids- a minor altercation- my candy is bigger than your candy! Getting to be out an out fist and cuff ugly fight. It attracted so much eyes that people who don’t even use these brands were drawn in by the curiosity. Ugly and a fully publicized laundry drama followed(talk about washing your dirty linen in public..hehe..lolz…well almost literally!!), legal suits, editorial arguments, smearing one another in ad world – all kinds of stuff legendary legendary 70’s Bachchan movies were made of..well almost! Nevertheless, it again gave me a live feed to study. The most interesting mind war I personally went through was, was this whole drama after-all just a pre-meditated “agreement” between the two companies to flare up the excitement of millions and just add to cheap titillation that we are so used thanks to an unending soap saga- thanks to a whole new generation of ekta kapoor “do- alikes”. In this dirty world of detergents where these two biggies, certainly the goliaths, however the mass kings-“garibo ka messiah” is still a slew of local Indian brands like Ghadi, Nirma, Sasa and Fena , which I guess kept them pricking their huge EGOS somewhere ! Until, they decided to join hands against this common enemy to fight against it. Hmm, sounds melodramatic and straight out of an all sweat and tear bollywood potboiler, but I guess I couldn’t restrain myself from having my own metaphor theory weaved around this saga. It was interesting how these two biggies have customized themselves as per Indian tastes and sensibilities over the years. It is so overwhelming that a whole new bank of thesis on behavioral economics can be written, on the psychology put into use to sell FMCG goods. Never before in my life till now had I felt so crucially fixated to never miss out on the small details- they carry the maximum data, the data that may become tomorrow’s biblical truth for the marketer to transform her product from a mere wannabe status to a much touted respectable brand where it becomes synonymous with the product- the epic victory for any marketer!

As I rummage deeper, plunge into this ocean, I take my first baby steps in this radical and overwhelming world of marketing I get increasingly aware of people around me which I wasn’t before. If a marketer cannot observe he cannot become a marketer in the first place- he killed his own dream! I just regret I should have taken up a pre-course on psychology to understand the human psyche better, coz marketing is like being a social anthropologist- u observe people at micro to macro-cosmic grand scales. Nevertheless, I gain a new perspective every time, and I get to enhance and broadbase my studies. And as I save these discoveries I’ve made, and as the next moment another new pop-up of info emerges, I wade through this sprawling database and try to join the dots. Marketing is more of a people science, understanding why something triggers a very specific behavior- this is the underlying basic tenet which is driving the billions of dollars of research every year where companies trying to figure out how do they sell! And how do that they effectively!!...the best part its not an exact science, don’t get me worng, I’ve been poor in maths since binomial theorem and intergartion started playing havoc in my life!..where LHS has to be RHS, it was an unsaid rule I had to make some dumb mistake!..nevertheless, till it is not LHS =RHS I’m good!...coz life is not always like that!...and marketing imitates life so closely, that is why it makes even more interesting to study it more thoroughly!
And as I discover my new found love , I try to stay clear from stereotypes and biases! As humans we are so designed to be form our prejudices subconsciously that sometimes we ourselves not aware of it! But yet I try to find more new awe inspiring insights as I take deeper dives into this beautiful world of marketing- coz everything which has a story to tell, sells!