Marketing practices in India generally try to superimpose experiences from Western books. Let me illustrate why I?m convinced that culture connect marketing is desperately required for India. Returning home about 30 km from Sealdah railway station after art college in Kolkata was a nightmare every evening. Even before reaching the terminal, the train would fill up with upcounty passengers. To get a seat I?d sprint to the platform?s end, compete with other passengers to jump into the train still chugging in, even as outgoing passengers were rushing out. Ignoring physical danger in such antics, we?d focus on grabbing a window seat to escape the boiling 50-degree summer heat and humidity, fans not working and smelly, jam-packed standing room only. Those who couldn?t make the door would throw in a handkerchief to reserve a window seat, and fights among passengers about owner authenticity of the handkerchief were commonplace.
Train departures were regularly delayed about 40 minutes; in that time some passengers would already start sleeping and snoring in stand-up positions, holding on to hanging handles. Once the train started the compartment got noisy. Suddenly a betel leaf chewing man, about 45 years old, wearing khaki trousers, blue shirt and carrying a small suitcase, would shout in a very high pitch tone, “Gentleman!…? In Bengali, ?Aeje moshaira…kukurer…shuorer… (soft muffled speech sounds interspersed with loudly heard words meaning son of a b***h…… son of a p*g……).” Shocked silence would immediately prevail; he?d pause long enough to look at people?s faces, their reactions to abusive language. When he?d gauge somebody’s ready to retaliate, he?d dramatically say, “If they should bite you, the cure is here!” He?d flash out several small glass jars from his pocket, expose them to his audience, saying, “This is Kalipodo Dey’s miraculous ointment (ascharjya malam).” Without bothering to ask permission, he?d directly lift the shirt of a passenger near him, and start applying the ointment to create his experiential demonstration. Then he?d mobilise other passengers to smell his ointment and offer stress relieving application experiences that the ascharjya malam also provides.
As I was a regular traveler, he became familiar and answered my query. He said he needs to run on for eight stations, change compartments and finally sells 170 to 200 pieces per day. This was in 1971. I have never experienced such theatrical sales in suburban trains from Paris, London, New York, Tokyo or Sydney. This is India?s typical experiential, cultural brand promotion. The salesman knew how to attract people?s attention in their uncomfortable, overcrowded condition, spectacularly articulated the benefits of his miraculous ointment supported by swear words, and went on to human body application for the product feel experience to knock-out any doubt about quality. I?d seen this salesman?s ingenuity several times, his pitch was always the same, but he?d use different vocabulary variants to engage regulars like me. When I visited my parents in Kolkata in 1984, it incidentally was mango season. Accompanying Father and me to Gariahat market, my eight-year-old, France-born son spoke enough Bengali to ask the mango seller if the mangoes were sweet. The seller looked at my son and me, obviously understanding we were stupid NRIs, and said, “Don?t keep the mangoes near salt.” At home, my son insisted his grandmother keep the mangoes away from salt. Confused, my mother asked father to explain what the grandchild was saying. Father laughed and elucidated that the seller?s metaphor for mango sweetness guarantee was that salt will become sweet near these mangoes.
The next day I verified with the mango seller if my father?s story was what he?d meant. He looked at me bewildered and said, ?Of course.? I realised I?d been distanced with this culture already, what was my father?s matter-of-fact understanding totally bypassed me. But the mango seller?s mystifying selling pitch proved my theory that “marketing is story telling of a selling proposition which has differentiating extra benefit.” This is the way he?d become my parents? regular mango supplier.In 2001, Bangalore IIM professor Dr Mithileswar Jha invited me to take a marketing session for a combined students and guests forum at IIMB?s big amphitheatre. As I started speaking about my marketing fundamentals of ?visibility, proximity and availability of the product to consumers,? three peanut vendors came in front of the stage with their carts, roasting peanuts and making the familiar iron-ladle-on-hot-iron-vessel sounds. The inviting aroma of roasted peanuts wafted through. The students couldn?t help themselves; they quietly approached a vendor, and came away with a notebook-paper cone that upturned easily to drop warm peanuts into their hands. In my 90-minute session they?d finished the peanuts of all three peanut sellers.
Nobody had understood that I?d deliberately organised the peanut sellers. I used them to demonstrate their incomparable creation of visibility (the cart, the ding-ding ladle sounds to attract people); proximity (the inviting aroma, the instantly-made, easy-to-pour, takeaway packs) and availability (when a little hunger comes, peanuts are easily available to munch). Knowing that I give lectures, seminars and workshops in different prestigious institutes in Europe and the US, the students were expecting sophisticated Parisian marketing jargon from me. Instead, they learnt lessons from a live example of cultural connect marketing that?s very Indian, experiential and truly practical. At the end I told them not to waste money on learning sophisticated things while overlooking the basics. Mithileshwar asked, ?What?s your message, Shombit?? India?s cultural marketing is simple, I?d said; people need to learn these tactics and convert them into very effective marketing with strong activation according to Indian culture.
This peanut story may have a sophisticated counterpart in Starbuck?s history. Starbuck?s visibility is emitting a specific coffee aroma into the street, its proximity is that being able to spend as much time you want at Starbucks, and its availability is being ever present in US street corners. Western marketing is highly related to their cultural aspect. We need to extend our cultural stories as marketing case studies to understand and deploy. We can learn technical processes and discipline from the West, but deployment should follow our multi-faceted culture in different geographies. In any category, we don?t pay serious attention to product engineering, consistency, coherency, the product?s good looking and fresh retail presence. Instead, marketers in India spend excessive time in advertising communication.
A brand will have good national penetration if you execute the fundamental marketing job of cultural association like Kalipodo Dey’s miraculous ointment, the mango seller and peanut vendor did, and maintain the product?s quality and aspiration at any price point.
?Shombit Sengupta is an international Creative Business Strategy consultant to top management. Reach him at http://www.shiningconsulting.com
