Inspiration, dedication and the power of a brand

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Inspiration, dedication and the power of a brand

Life has many lessons to teach  and often these lessons arrive through unexpected sources. Recently, I received a lesson in hard work, dedication and the power of a brand through the most unexpected individual.

This individual was not a high ranking brand manager, he wasn’t even a well educated soul. The lesson was delivered through Kallu.

Kallu is a young boy who has a bun masks stall near my office. He wasn’t fortunate like some if us. He didn’t have parents who loved him and were well off enough to provide him with all he desired. Kallu started working when he was just 12 years old. His job was to attract customers. He had to charm the Didi’s to come visit his uncle’s lassi and masala chaas stall as the small tapir was hidden in a corner. He used to go all out convince them to come drink a cold beverage but despite his efforts and success he still listened to his uncle’s yelling that he was useless and a waste of money. He wasn’t allowed breaks and wasn’t allowed to play.

After three years of dealing with his uncle, he managed to find a job at a hotel. He had to clean up tables and wash dishes. This job was slightly better than the previous but it wasn’t perfect. His coworkers were hostile as he earned larger tips through a combination of a sweet smile, polite behavior and an helpful attitude. The hotel owner like his uncle liked to yell. A broken dish brought on shouts claiming he was useless and a wastage of money. Despite the hostile atmosphere he continued to work until the day he got beaten up by the owner of the hotel over a misunderstanding.

Kallu decided he didn’t want to work for anyone anymore. He and three of his friends decided to start a stalll of their own using the money they had earned in the past five years.

This decision started a new phase in his life.

Kallu no longer had to deal with abusive behavior but he had to give hafta to the policemen for allowing him to put his table in the footpath and keep his furniture – a table and stools safe. He also had to buy everyday raw material and packaging material for making bun masks.

Kallu taught his friends the lessons he had learnt from his past two jobs. He taught the manners he learnt in his hotel job and customer attraction tactics that he learnt from his uncle. Using these tricks, they found a visible location for the stall. They paid a few extra bucks for the location but they refused to make the same mistake as his uncle. People visited their stall because they recognized them. They were also quick to service as Kallu knew that delays caused customers to leave.

The first point he learnt was to be in a place where you are visible it’s only then that people would recognise you and come to you, this he learnt from the mistake made by his uncle. Even if calls for a few buck extra it was worth it. And he would be quick in response which he learnt from his hotel job, where he would see many customers go because of delay.

According to me Kallu is an excellent marketer who knows the basic rules of the game – customer acquisition and customer retention. The pillars of marketing.

Today, these four friends work in shifts, turn by turn. They also plan to expand. They also joined a chain of dabbawalas part time where they are learning the secret of time management.

Meeting Kallu has changed a lot of my own perceptions about life. I learnt that you cannot carry on the same attitude through out life. You have to adapt as you learn. So make sure to observe, adapt and inculcate the lesson life offers.

To me Kallu is a good marketer and someday when I train management grads, I would invite him to share his knowledge on all his learnings. As they say sitting in an AC room working on PowerPoint and excel is notas educational as real life experienc.

Kallu Ki tapir is now the landmark for hundreds and thousands who visit that area.

This is the Power of Brand

The curiosity

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We as human being are curious about almost everything in the world – right from our future to life after death. God has given us the most beautiful gift of our minds, which gives us the power to imagine and transform our desires into reality.

They say ‘you are what you think’ and that is true. Many in this world never grow, develop or achieve because they cannot imagine they could be more than what they are. Others use their strongest desires to transform their lives, challenge their situation and become who they want to be.

 

They say ‘happiness is a state of mind’. What makes you happy might not make another person happy.

Millions of people could fight for happiness, never realizing happiness is individual centric. In fact, the criterion for happiness for every individual keeps changing. What made us happy few years back, may not achieve the same result today. As our desires change, so does the path of happiness. We have to follow our curiosity to our core to discover what makes us happy while simultaneously understanding that we do not actually want to understand what happiness means nor do we ever want to challenge our capacity to remain happy once we reach there.

This is how we are made. We have this power to think and we keep messing with the productive side of this virtue. We become our own enemy; we keep following others who we feel are principally strong without realizing that we never looked into our own strengths. We definitely need a Guru who would direct our ways to get answers to those curiosities but we don’t have to follow his path towards getting our answers. We are given this life to have our own experiences.

Be curious but reasonable, this is what I have learnt from life because happiness lies within you only thing we need to do is accept.

Have a happy life guys. Keep your curiosities working for you…..!!!

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The Cricket Fever

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“Ma’am I am feeling extremely low today. I wish I could travel back in time. I was so excited about the match yesterday,” said Amit, my colleague.

 

Amits’ enthusiasm for cricket is crazy. On his only day off, he travels all the way from Navi Mumbai to Malad to play cricket all day. The next day, he was always arrives at work on time without any sign of tiredness.

 

Today, he is disheartened and tried. He is disheartened by India’s defeat. It is such a different look for this normally fervent man.

 

Amit represents the teaming of fans that live for cricket. They not only know the sport not only by the rules but by the cricketers’ history and their family background. To them cricket is a religion – they eat cricket, they play cricket, they pray cricket, they talk cricket and they even walk cricket.

 

I noticed this love for cricket developing amongst boys during childhood. My chotu brother had just reached the 4^th standard, when he started walking and talking cricket. He made me laugh as he constantly bowled or batted as we walked. It was odd but I realized that most boys his aged acted that way as their love for the game of cricket grew.

The craze for cricket not only affects the young. It also keeps India young. During matches, a common and fun sight was my 75 year old my grandfather advocating cricket. My friend’s home was even more entertaining. My friend’s enthusiast mother used to prepare menu based on the cricket match. The menu ranged from South Africa-India bhindi masala to Pakistan-New Zealand cricket tadka dal. The family is so cricket obsessed that even their maid is given a day off from work to join them watch the cricket match on TV.

 

Let not forget, cricket and work. Most offices with television sets are set to watch the live telecast. We sneak away from work to watch the match. We get so involved in the match that it often seems as if we are playing the game and not those two teams. It makes the victory or defeat personal.

An emotional connection exists between game and all fans which is far far beyond the religion we follow or language we speak.

 

We bleed blue, we breath blue, we support blue because we believe in blue.

 

We might have lost in the semi finals this time but this is not the end of the world. Team India performed well and we are proud of them. The regrettable remarks made by some disappointed fans, about the personal lives of cricketers, do not truly show the true spirit of the hard core cricket lovers. It does not show the right spirit towards the game. Cricket is a game and we have to enjoy the spirit of it.

 

May the best team win and I am sure next time it will be India!

 

 

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The Branding Logic

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Last 40 years has seen a fight between the human mind and the men who create Brands.

There are many products and many Brands. Human brains waste time guessing which brand is the best and why is it the best. While the Brand Gods spend their time thinking how to make a space for their brand within the human mind. They also ponder on how to prevent the minds from forgeting about the brand when its time to take out the wallet and purchase. 

  L 

Branding
Branding is a science just like cooking, playing or driving. The right ingredients cooked at the right temperature creates the right dish for the right occasion, so, that the right person praises it and you.

To develop the right dish or formular, you need an alert mind, right time and, practice. Only then can the game be won.

Branding is also an art as the men who create Brands are expected to be creative. In realtity it is a combination of art and science. It takes creativity to conceive a piece of art but requires the  science of research, to gain an in-depth understanding about the subject.

The men of Branding
People who create brand are often termed as politicians. They are devils as they play with human emotions to attract consumers. They make advertisements, packs and other materials to reach to their consumer through every way. They sweeten the deal by offering freebies to entice customers to buy. However, human minds don’t realise these things are not done to trap consumers but to ensure that the benefits of the products are well known.

People and Brands
Brands inform people of the quality and features of a product. However, to inform human minds about the existence of brands, the men of branding hammer about the existence 24×7 on television channels. This causes consumers to flip the channels instead of learning more about the product and brand. 

Brands will keep making attempts to make lives better, knocking on doors and entering whichever way possible. A balance needs to be reached to ensure consumer education without causing irritation. 

Eleven years of my career in Branding, I have learnt patience is important. I am lucky to have received such a lovely exposure and so, I couldn’t help but share some of the insights into the branding process.