Under-estimating Marketing Time and Cost

 Most businesses underestimate the importance of marketing in their success - or lack of it, if they don't succeed at all. Peter Drucker had said long ago, "Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two--and only two--basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business." 

Surprisingly few have heard of him, or follow his advice.

While many new businesses concentrate on the product, or Finance, or whatever, they ignore the marketing effort needed to build a brand from scratch. This is also true of many companies that need scaling up, after their launch. Of course, positioning it wrongly is a mistake often made. But even the nitty-gritty, of planning a marketing communication campaign, is usually not well thought-out.

The promoters usually have no idea of why marketing needs a lot of attention, and get carried away by the advice of a few who surround them. Saving money is all very well, but after investing sufficient amounts in the first place. Cost reduction in marketing can hurt badly. Competition is one good reason for keeping marketing on its toes. But even otherwise, if you have a distinct product or service, communicating that to potential consumers or repeat customers needs a budget.

After sales service is another weak point that can kill a brand, even when it succeeds the first time. Sometimes the company is so involved in selling, that it forgets to take care of grievances. Sometimes this is because the sales have grown too much, beyond the company's capacity to handle service issues.

Two Moving Experiences

By moving, I mean physically moving things. One major lesson learnt is that u can fit your life's possessions in a truck. What, you want no truck with the puns? Ok, then let me move on to the REAL stuff. Two recent experiences.

One truck was sent from point A in a city to point B in a different city. The contract was for unloading the material on the truck. The driver flatly refused to do that last part, in spite of a written and verbal agreement in his presence while leaving.

Second, within the city from one home to another. The sales talk was sweet as honey. The day of the move, after some arguments on the modality of the move, size of truck etc., the guy coolly presents a bill that is 7,500 rupees more than the agreed upon amount. Of course, he got a mouthful as a bonus along with the agreed-upon payment.

But the point that arises, from both these, is why do people in these businesses (or any other, extending the logic to bad service anywhere) behave like this?

In contrast, we had a great experience moving stuff from Clemson via New York to Mumbai. No hassles, and delivered as promised, within estimated time. Americans better at service businesses? Maybe. Cultural issue? Could be. But certainly worth pondering.

Flying Zebras and More

There was this place called Flying Zebra pizzas that I happened to eat at in Siem Reap, Cambodia. A small, homely but distinctive eatery, it had a wood-fired oven that was right at the entrance, and you could see the pizza being put inside it- it was a big oven. The taste of the thin crust pizza was very different, may be because of the wood. Better than many I have eaten elsewhere. It was served on a wooden plate too.

The TV played Charlie Chaplin films- a couple of classics that I must have watched ages ago in a theatre were on, bringing on nostalgia. There was also an interesting drink available, made of crushed mint and ice, with lemon juice and water/soda that looked unlike anything I remember having before.

In other words, a nice touch here, a nice touch there, and service with a smile. What more can a customer ask for?

Another interesting feature in Phnom Penh is that all streets are numbered, so they are easy to find on a map. They have names too, but names are usually tough to find for outsiders. Tourist-friendly, I'd say. And US dollars are in use for public transport or any other purchases, so you don't have to change currencies, saving a lot of bother. The local currency is Riel, which is about 4100 to a US dollar.

Japan Experiences- Service

A recent trip to Japan resulted in several experiences, some unique, and most very good. I will share two service experiences because Indians will find both different, if not strange.

As we waited for the ANA flight (Delhi-Tokyo Narita) to take off around midnight at Terminal 3, we saw a strange sight. All the stewardesses assembled in the seating area near the gate, and got into an animated discussion with each other about various things, related to the guests on board that flight. They were speaking in Japanese, but one could see the sincerity of purpose and dedication that they brought to the job. I have never seen anything like it before, so I was stupefied. We tend to take work -any work- a lot more casually out here.

The second was an experience at a local bank in Beppu, Japan. We went in around 9.30 in the morning into an empty bank, and asked to change a few dollars into Yen, the local currency. The procedure took almost twenty minutes, after what looked like several layers of checks, or signatures, or verification of the currency's genuineness. This was puzzling, as it rarely takes more than a minute in many international destinations- I have tried this at least in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. We never found out the reason, but I assume that they are thorough in their doing things, which is not a bad thing. Couldn't help wondering that in India, given our crowds in banks, we'd never get any work done at this pace.

More experiences later.

Delhi Government and Governance

What is governance? The Delhi governance imbroglio inspired this one.

Defence is a part of it, and so is law and order.

Apart from these, it should ideally be, at least in a democracy, people who serve the citizens. Citizen services include transportation, housing, health, water, drainage, education and so on. How to provide these in a fair and just manner is what the government needs to decide- and implement.
It does not include showing undue favours, transferring officials every few months, or wasting time on activities detrimental to providing services to citizens.

Democratic governments can do a lot of damage by not doing any of the things they need to do. Also by doling out free goodies to sections of people (or all the people) forever. That kills motivation to work for a living. The poor and helpless deserve help but usually don't get it.

Also, by wasting time in controlling the private sector without a good reason. Rules can be framed transparently, and independent regulators with professionals left to regulate various sectors.

The challenges are vast, and sometimes technology can help. Applications for a passport, ration card, driver's license (barring the test itself), registration of land, and many more can easily be made online with scanned documents and verification within a time-bound manner ( a service guarantee?) by officials concerned. If not, it should be deemed correct. Responsibility must shift to the officials for proving anyone wrong. This would improve governance manifold.

Observations on Road Travel

Road travel takes a toll. And inefficiently, at that. The toll amounts are not in round figures, leading to huge delays in taking or giving change. One does not mind paying, but can't the process be easier? That's true of every payment made to anyone, actually. Message for all service marketers- make life convenient, and customers will pay. Offer excellent service, likewise.

We have made a lot of progress in road quality, but speed breaker (the term is a funny one too) quality is atrocious. Needs lot of thought on humane speed-breaking. Without breaking necks.

Went on a quick road trip Pune-Mumbai to attend a wedding reception of a friend's daughter. These observations are born out of that. Thankfully, on a Sunday, the traffic was manageable. If not, I would have taken a bus. And saved my neck from the breakers.

Delhi Musings, Customer Service and More

Two incidents of customer service first. We had gone in a group of seven to eat lunch at a fairly expensive restaurant in Bangalore e-city recently. The lunch buffet was excellent. But at the end, we had to wait 20 minutes for the bill, because the cash register had failed!

The second incident is of a private sector bank which did not feel like crediting a cheque I wrote, because my payee's (wife was the payee) middle name was not written along with the long first  AND name. I am sure the idea was to prevent large gangs of cheque-stealers from raiding a poor prof's account, but it was not amusing!


Anyway, on to more pleasant stuff. I have found at least one good bookstore (Om book shop), though it's in Faraway  Gurgaon. But there is a metro station near it (MG Road), so it's accessible. I also found the bus system is good to use on weekends. Friday evenings, the traffic seems quite terrible, but OK on others.

Also celebrated the 50th birthday of a dear childhood friend yesterday at his place. Having had mine a couple of years earlier, I know the feeling- of having lived about two-thirds of your life. And I caught up with more friends from my teen years a few days earlier, so it's not too bad.

The Pleasures of Inefficient Service

The title may sound oxymoronic or simply moronic, but there are occasions when slow and inefficient service is better than the quick, cut and dried version. I had an experience like this at a McDonald's a couple of days ago. With some friends, we ordered three things, one of which was promised to us soon at the table, and it never arrived for about 45 minutes. We reminded a passing body (employee), and then it did arrive. If we had not, maybe it would have been even later! The whole point of the Irani chai joints in Hyderabad and elsewhere was to have a long chat with friends with a single chai (half a cup of tea). You can of course, carry on at a Coffee Day or a Barista too, albeit at a higher out-of-pocket expense. And you may get some dirty looks if the place is full. This is guaranteed not to happen in an Irani chai place. Here is a pic of one here that does not exist any more- used to be in the Osmania University campus at Hyderabad, and a favourite with students.

Anyway, we were doing nothing in particular except (real) chatting, and so, it actually did not matter. Gave us more time to do the needful, anyways. So there are occasions like these, when slow service may be better than fast service. Elderly citizens may go to a bank to socialise if they are lonely, and turning them out in a jiffy might offend them. They don't use ATMs in some cases, because you can't talk to an ATM.

Services Marketing- Lessons from Thailand

Why do I get the feeling that we are a nation of sour-pusses whenever I visit Thailand? What does it take to smile, joke, be friendly with anyone you come across? Why are we 'like this only?'

Just came back from another visit to play golf there. But this is not about golf. It is about service. Even apart from the smile, I saw a few things and they left me thinking, "Why can't we be like these guys?", on the lines of the My Fair Lady Song, "Why can't women be (more) like Men?" The Thai people are prone to smiling, and even joking, with the limited knowledge of English that they (the people on the road) have. More importantly, they take pride in doing their work, mostly without direct supervision. Can you imagine that happening in our country? I can't. One of the managers in a company (in India)used to joke that"follow-up" was the largest industry in our country, because people will not do what they are supposed to, or what they promised they would.

All appointments, like the taxi driver, the tour guide, were kept meticulously. People apologised even when they didn't need to, because it was not their fault. Smiling is like a religion. So is light hearted banter with anyone at all.

I also saw Alcazar, the revue or variety show again. It was amazing the second time too. Why can't we do something on those lines, beats me.

Of course, it's not all hunky dory. They have their problems. Education seems to be missing in a big way, for example. But looking at them, you wouldn't guess it. We seem to be carrying the burden of the whole world, on the other hand.

One other thing. Their lyrical, sing-song way of talking is really nice to hear.

Self Service

In the good old days, there was selfless service. And there was no self service. Now, we have only selfish (commercial) service- sorry, Gandhiji. And we have a lot of self service. If we have to do anything at all, we need to be an expert on computers, or something else.

I will illustrate. In the good old days, if we needed to play, we just went out. At the most, you needed a ball of any size, or some makeshift stuff like a gilli danda, or some stones or marbles or a top (the wooden, spinning variety). Now, if you are a self-respecting kid who wants to play a game, you need a Sony Playstation, with games that mimic a James Bond movie- by implication, you are saving the world, so it's no longer just a game.

Self service was invented by a genius, and perfected by McDonald's. But all online stuff is also the work of a genius. Want to transfer money? Do it yourself, after remembering half a dozen passwords. Want to get married? Run around and do everything yourself-parents are now reluctant to find you a bride/groom too. The self service mania is getting so pervasive that you may have to give birth to yourself in the next janam, coz the doctor would be busy playing computer games on his playstation. And maybe, you will have to learn how to bury/cremate yourself, because there are only self service undertakers. Service, anyone?