The happening Bhartiya or the naive Bhartiya

In one of my recent posts https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/hum-kya-ch-hain-vikas-mehta?trk=mp-author-card, I mentioned about the son of a truck driver aspiring to be a chef on a cruise ship. Call it coincidence or fate but I actually met up with a Bhartiya chef who thought he was about to make it on the global stage. And therein lies a story.
My father, also based in Dehradun since his retirement almost 25 years ago has taken up the noble cause of teaching the underprivileged students and guiding the talented ones to a ground breaking career. And he does it all by himself. No NGOs, no funds, no awards. Just the quiet satisfaction of teaching around 30 students, daily, all from the lowest economic strata, sons and daughters of manual labourers, servants, small time hawkers….people who actually believe that another child means another pair of hands to earn, people who send their children to Government school so that they can have at least one good meal a day, people for whom education means schools with absconding teachers or non productive teachers, people who are understanding the power of education but are helpless to provide a proper one. My father with the able support of my mother has tried to change this in his small way. Everyday, around 30 kids of the neighbourhood government school come to him in 2-3 batches by classes and a parallel school is run in his verandah, six days a week, 48 weeks a year for the last twenty years.
Many of these are now engineers, accountants, qualified mechanics, programmers who have broken the poverty cycle and have lifted the family into the great Indian middle class. As a result, he has today more sons and daughters, more fathers and mothers, more benefactors and friends than he could have ever imagined.
But I am digressing. This post is not about my father.
One such family is our ex maid and her three sons and a daughter. All now married and well settled in life.
The eldest son, did his hotel management diploma in Dehradun and then started working in two star and three star hotels as a chef. Currently he is a chef at a three star hotel in Hyderabad. He is ambitious and has never stopped educating himself. Through the web he discovered that he could get bigger salary working in Europe, Far East or Middle east as a chef in Indian restaurants. He started applying to job portals and sometimes even restaurants and hotels directly.
This morning my father told me that he had a job offer with a contract from a hotel in London who were offering him a monthly salary of UK Pounds 3800 pm plus travel, accommodation and food. My father is old fashioned and believes that if it is too good to be true, it ain’t. He is not tech savvy at all and at age 82, has reluctantly started using a smartphone. But he was alert to the fact that there was a demand of paying visa fees, upfront, through Western Union to a private bank account in London. The receipt of the same had to be attached with the work permit application. He asked me to check it out.
In the meanwhile, the entire family of the chef was thrilled at the prospect. He had a 5 minute telephonic interview, had sent some recipes by mail and had been impressed with the 3 star hotel’s website. As far as he was concerned this was proper due diligence. But at my father’s insistence he forwarded me all the mails and papers.
The first thing I found dodgy was the contract letter sent by the hotel. It had poor English with simple grammatical and spelling errors. The signatory had no designation. And the letterhead seemed superfluous with no witness signatures required.
But the real give away was a mail that came from “ British Embassy World Travels” who introduced themselves as agent of repute working in Asia and Africa, and assuring their services to get the work permit. They had made the 700 GBP demand.
 
When I googled the name, the game was over. The net was full of stories about the scam perpetrated by this very “company” and spam.com issuing warnings about them. But their audacity in continuing the slam was amazing. Incidentally, the first story on Google was dated 3 years ago.
 
Just to be doubly sure I also sent a mail to the concerned hotel and was not surprised when I got a reply in 5 minutes, confirming that they had not made any job offer.
 
My father had to call the celebrating family and give them the bad news. They were not just shocked but it was beyond their comprehension as to why would someone play such a cruel joke on them. The poor simpletons could not believe that the world is such a twisted place.
I always knew that the small town Bhartiya did not lack the skill and ability to take on his urban Indian counterpart. I have been quietly sure that the Bhartiya youth is as tech savvy, as well informed as confident and as hard working as his urban counterpart. They are happening and they are cool too.
But I also knew that something was missing. Yes, he was a bit more shy. Yes he was bit awkward and definitely he was not as comfortable with the English language as his urban counterpart. But something else was lacking too.
This incident was like a ray of light to me. The Bhartiya youngster is still too naïve. He/she knows that the world is not an easy place. That people are not what they appear and things can be quite treacherous. He has seen and experienced corruption, inefficiency, sloth and nepotism. But he is too naïve. He believes that nothing bad will happen to him. He believes that having come this far, nothing can go wrong. So he drops his guard.
My chef friend, had heard about internet scams through mails or SMS. He had seen the Nigeria widow mails, he had also heard the phishing tales, the lottery frauds but yet did not want to believe that he could be the victim. His belief is a heady mix of destiny, effort and a rewarding God.
I know I am generalising, but post this incident, I realise that in the last two years I have seen similar behaviour in Bhartiya students and entrepreneurs. Their naivety is what sets them back. And please don’t get me wrong. All urban youngsters are not the cool calculative types. It’s not just painting the urban with black paint and painting the rural with white. But there are less grey areas in the Bhartiya youth and more of the white.
And this has left me confused too. I am glad that they have not lost it. They still believe in an ideal world and have faith in basic human goodness. It is the typical small town, I know all, I am friends with all, behaviour. Yet at the same time it is their Achilles heel. They are manipulated, cheated and made to feel inferior because of their inherent goodness. Should it be this way? Should the happening Bhartiya be no more the naïve Bhartiya?

The OYO experience

The aggregator business model has taken India by strong. After the likes of Ola and Uber, who definitely have made commute easier and more reliable, it’s OYO Rooms that is in the news. And yet the brand is not as much written about as the cab aggregators. One reason could be that OYO panders to the cheap hotel segments and as a result most of the opinion makers on social media have not experienced it first hand. I don’t consider myself an opinion maker, but having read about OYO and seen its digital presence, I decided to experience the brand. This post is about my experience at OYO Rooms in Delhi and Gurgaon.
The Booking Experience:
I must admit booking OYO rooms with their app was a breeze. It is totally user friendly and well thought through. For my first stay in Gurgaon, I narrowed my choice by area and was immediately given options. And to help me take a decision, the hotel locator was a very good tool. It gave me precise location, with distances from important landmarks. This was very important as one tends to be unsure, specially when two three choices are available in close vicinity to each other.
The best part of the booking was that one need not pay in advance. Your booking is confirmed without payment and one day before the booking date, an automated SMS/mail is received asking to give a missed call on a particular number to confirm the booking or a missed call on another number to cancel the booking. Literally a one click option. And SMS plus email confirmations about cancelling or confirming comes through within seconds. The other feature I personally loved was the call back feature where a customer service person calls back within minutes to solve a doubt.
 
Only two issues. As OYO is an aggregator it must display the original names of the hotels. That helps sometimes in connecting to the hotel, finding more about it through tripadvisor or such service and more importantly it helps in locating the hotel much faster. The second is about the customer service executive. The code of the incoming call indicated that the calls originated from Bengaluru. And the pronunciations and accents of the executives were little difficult for me to decipher. Not being a racist but faced this issue twice, so mentioning it.
Must also say that once, I by mistake, dialled the wrong number and cancelled my booking. But the cancellation email had quick links for rebooking. Most convenient!
 
Finding the exact Hotel
As I said earlier, Oyo did not give me the Hotel name for Gurgaon. And as it was a villa converted into a hotel, the lack of signage made things difficult. The directions, as you can see in the confirmation mail, were impeccable, but I was standing right outside the Hotel and had to call to confirm its location. The directions are really good with distances from major landmarks, local landmarks etc well explained. I had no difficulty in finding my hotel in Paharganj, which for the uninitiated, is a maze of lanes and hotels. I was quite sceptical while booking a room in Paharganj as I had never before stayed in such places except in small towns but the place was barely a two minute walk from the New Delhi Station and 5 minutes to the metro station, plus the OYO booking experience made me take the leap.
 
Check in experience
Flawless both the times. My reservations were in order. OYO has supplied Tablets to member hotels and all my details were available to the receptionist. Both Hotels though asked me to fill registers. And yes! OYO guests were given a welcome kit. A distinct, small red pouch with soap, body wash, body cream, a small post it size pad and a branded pen. Nice touch, I thought.
The stay
In Gurgaon I had a room which was about 15 feet by 12 feet, an ensuite wardrobe and an ample sized bathroom. It was well furnished, nothing outrageous, bare minimum, but all utilitarian. The room and bathroom were spotlessly clean and so were the towels and bedsheets. There was nothing shady or covert about the place. The staff, just three people, were polite and helpful without being intrusive.
My package included free breakfast, free wifi, room with heater/ac, geyser and free parking. And all this cost me Rs 949 per night. All inclusive. I thought it was a steal. Of course the breakfast just meant choice between toast omlette and parantha with curd and butter, but I for one was not complaining. There was no restaurant but menu cards of nearby hotels and establishments were available in the room and they would deliver free of cost. I had delicious mutton biryani for Rs 200. For breakfast, a small kitchen was where the cooking was done and it was then delivered to the room. It had a nice exclusive touch.
The Paharganj hotel was a proper hotel. It had a restaurant, an elaborate room service menu and a lift for its three floors. The location by itself was great but the area was typical Paharganj. Small bylanes, dirt everywhere, crowded streets and noisy. The room was smaller than Gurgaon but again neat and competent. Bathroom was spacious and hygienically clean. The usual pouch of goodies along with free wifi and breakfast was the package again. This time for Rs 1398 per night, all inclusive. Again I was impressed.
The staff was over friendly. Guess it was a function of the location. As Paharganj caters to the low value foreign and Indian tourists, the staff was in a hustling mood. I was constantly asked if I wanted to do some shopping or go to Agra. But thankfully there were no midnight knocks or hints of any shady deals. The food had a good variety, it was delicious (I had two dinners) and neither oily, nor too spicy nor too salty. At check out time, I mentioned this to the receptionist and he did say that as they cater to a lot of foreign tourists, they try and make the food ‘more healthy.’
An aside, but worth mentioning was that almost all the staff was well versed in english. In fact the young man who got my dinner on the first night, saw me watching Two and a Half Men ( mea culpa ) and informed me that it was his favourite serial. I was slightly taken aback but he mentioned that though he finds the English and the pronunciations difficult to follow, the sub titles help him. He also informed me that he and all his friends brush up on their English by watching English serials on channels like Zee Studio, FX, Star Plus and depend upon the subtitles to understand and learn. As they come from an environment where speaking in English and talking to each other in English was rare, the English channels are of great help. For once I did see the positive side of jugaad! I wanted to chat more with him but it was his busy time and the next day was his off.
Check out
Smooth, no hiccups, no extra charges slapped. The only issue I had was in Gurgaon where they had no credit card facility. I wish I had been informed earlier. And no sooner had the receptionist checked me out on the tablet, I had my bill via email along with a satisfaction survey.
 
I am convinced that OYO is onto something good. I know at the moment it’s the price which is making the big splash. But trust me the deal is just not price but what you are getting for the price. If it was not for OYO, I would not have dared to stay at a Paharganj hotel. And mind you the normal room rent in that hotel was only Rs 300 more than what OYO charged me. And if I am assured that a Paharganj hotel would give me neat, clean, hygienic rooms and food, all at even Rs 2000, I would pay for it. That to me is what OYO has brought to the party.
Oh and one more thing, they are good at automated software. Today, I was looking for a place in Gurgaon on the app. But didn't book as the trip is not yet confirmed. Guess what. I had a mail within 15 minutes. With a 30% discount offer!
 
Sounds too good to be true? It is. Check it out yourself. And send me your feedback.

Will history repeat itself?

The story of the day has been Freedom 251. A virtual unknown brand, from a virtually unknown company has taken the digital world by storm by launching a smart phone for Rs 251. Even a regular phone, forget a smartphone, never came this cheap. Like many others, I also tried booking the phone but the website had crashed and later on in the day the website had posted an apology.
So a two day press blitz across publications in English and vernacular; ironical that a digital brand still needs press to sell its cause, had done its job. Or has it?
 
Let’s pedal back into three cases in the past and not so recent past where brands sensed a price opening, too good to be true, and failed.
The most recent example of course was the Aakash tablet. Launched amidst much fanfare and supported by the Government with subsidies and excise exemptions, the brand was supposed to be available for as little as Rs 1130 for college students. But the product fizzled out due to production issues. It could not deliver the promised product at the expected price, on time and the government walked out of it. The project was dropped in mid 2015 and now the product is being promoted and sold by the private vendor under a different brand name Ubislate, with prices from Rs 3500 upwards. The brand though lists in the top 5 selling tablets in India. A case of overpromise and under delivery.
 







The next example is the well known case of Nano. A car brand which took the world imagination by storm, failed for a simple reason. In India car is an aspirational status symbol which cues that one has achieved middle class status. So a car, whose only appeal lay in its low price, failed. The brand though soldiers on. Now being repositioned as an entry level, fun car for the young minded, the brand is virtually history.
 
The third example was of the early nineties. Colour TV in those days was a small, expensive category. 70% of TV sets sold in India were still B&W. Akai stormed the market with its audacious exchange offers. It was virtually selling you a colour TV at a price that was less than half of the established brands. An average 21”colour TV costing around Rs 12,000-Rs 15,000 was being sold at Rs 5900 in exchange for an old B&W set!
The strategy was well planned by Kabir Mulchandani a scion of the Mirchandani family who owned Baron Electronics. They tied up with Akai, a Japanese brand, owned by a Macau based merchant, with no production facilities. Baron imported TV sets from various suppliers in Taiwan at rock bottom prices with bulk orders. These were then branded Akai and backed by enticing offers and advertising, launched in the market place.

To give the devil his due, the market with low penetration of colur TVs was waiting for a disruption. Also it had a great insight. Indian families are not known to junk anything. So he found value for old sets. So the exchange offers hit the nail on the head. Within a year Akai had become the market leader in CTV’s, beating established players like Philips, BPL, Videocon etc and expanding the market. Soon all brands started their own offers. It spend heavily on advertising and had some interesting media innovations too. For example, Akai offered to take all outdoor sites which were not rented, and lying unpainted at no cost. It paid for the painting cost and just used the Akai logo in full red on the signages. When any other brand was willing to pay for those sites, Akai would pay for painting off its brand name. So for the cost of two paintings (flex skins were not prevalent those days), he would get dozens of hoardings in each town, virtually free.

But Mr. Mirchandani was playing with fire. He had exploited a loophole in the customs and excise act and was paying low duties thus managing to keep the price down. Given the way the Indian system works he was caught out after a few years and slapped with a heavy excise penalty notice. He skipped the country, went AWOL, reappeared in Dubai to dabble in real estate, got arrested after the global meltdown on fraud charges, spent more than a year in jail and was then released. As far as I know he still has a look out notice against his name in India.
Meanwhile the brand after having great success started faltering. It had done a great job in promotions but had forgotten that a key ingredient for success in durables is after sales service. Akai had virtually ignored this aspect. With wafer thin margins they could not afford to provide the same too. Plus, as it had tied up with various vendors at various times, it did not even have spare parts inventory. The initial flush of the promotion gave way to customer dissatisfaction and ire.
The Mulchandani family also had royalty issues with Akai. It broke up the franchise agreement and the brand has since struggled with various partners, the last being Videocon.
For those more interested in this case read http://www.business-standard.com/article/specials/akai-dissecting-a-discount-brand-198010301123_1.html
Each of the above three cases, in my mind had unique learnings. And all these should be a good lesson for a start up like Freedom251.
Akaash was simple. No groundwork was done, no logistics were worked out, overall points were hashed through but the finer points were missed. Freedom251 are you listening?
Nano, had a solid functional reason but failed on emotional ground. You don’t buy a car. You buy a status symbol. Of course the functional reason too started failing with quality issues like “stories of unexplained fires” spreading like wildfire. Freedom251 are you listening?
Akai had a solid promotional story, a great insight but lacked the full business model. Plus it had some dubious business practice. Freedom251 are you listening?
Will history repeat itself?

Incredibel india

No, that’s not a typo. It’s the name of a shop that I saw somewhere between Roorkee and Muzaffarnagar during my recent bus ride from Dehradun to Delhi. I have been doing bus rides on this sector since my childhood. And the quaint signage made me realise how the Indian countryside had changed and yet remained the same. Below is my observation with a few photographs. I was sitting on the front seat so had a good view but was not as lucky with the photographs.
The travellers:
Since I was travelling in a Volvo, whose fare was slightly higher than a 3 AC train berth, I was delighted by the mix of my co travellers. There was a young couple back from a honeymoon (the chooda bangles and the mehendi were a dead giveaway). A salesman for a fertiliser company (he was moaning about the poor rainfall on his mobile). Two college students animatedly discussing if Dhoni should retire or not. Two elderly couples who were in touch back at home and at the destination, on a regular basis. A middle aged lady with two ten year olds who were demanding chips or kurkure at every stop and of course the Roadways free loaders, who to my discomfort, were distracting the driver right throughout with not just banter but also sharing videos on their mobiles with him!
I engaged in small conversation with the youngsters and realised they were B. Tech students going to Delhi for some job interviews. Both were clear that job was a short term option. As they wanted to work for two years, save some money and do an MBA. But that’s a different story for some other day.
Thanks to the non existence of mobile etiquette, I had a decent pen picture of at least the first 4-5 rows of passengers!
What had not changed, of course, were the constant unscheduled stops to pick up and drop passengers along the route. Including waving off those who could not afford the Volvo with an unusual decency and warmth (mai, peeche wali bus lele, who tez pahunchaygee; yaar, aage se booking hain). No mention of affordability. I asked the conductor about this and he smiled and said, sahib unko thens nahin pahunchani chaihiye (sir, we should not hurt them). Maybe I am generalising, but the small town humane approach was gladdening.
Food
Bus journeys thirty years ago would mean carrying your own food or indulging in roadside dhabas with maa ki daal and tandoori rotis. Not to forget the “Mooli, Kheera, kakdi” sellers with their unique blacksalt, chilli masala concoction. Since this was winter time, the kakdi and kheera were not to be seen but the spicy dalmoth with onion, lime and chilli warmed one up, just like good old days! What amazed me was the the whole business contraption of the vendor. He had a wicker basket not more than 1foot in diameter with neat compartments for each ingredients, served on old newspapers with thicker GSM paper spoons!
The whole route was also dotted with the chat thelewalas. The only difference was the thelas were branded with bright colours. As were the multi-coloured dhabas. But the dhabas had interesting segmentation. Veg dhabas, vaishnovi dhabas, dhabas with Marwari food, Jain dhabas without onion and garlic…..Talk of choice by community!
And the highway was dotted with men waving colourful clothes outside the dhabas, trying to woo you inside. A uniquely Indian sight.
And then there were the ubiquitous food courts…here also the distinction at least between veg and non veg stood out. The Uttarakhand Transport buses stopped at Bikano food court which offered only veg fare. And the veg fare was not limited to just north Indian or south Indian specialities, but it had a corn stall offering 8 varieties, gelato icecream stall, stall selling different types of pure jaggery, jalebi made in pure ghee…..
The UP and Delhi buses stopped at food courts with McDonalds, Dominos, KFC, Chappan Bhog etc. Intrigued as to why did Uttarakhand buses stopped at a veg food court, I was explained the concept of positioning. Uttarakhand is Dev Bhoomi…the land of the char dhams, Haridwar….how could the buses stop at a food court with non veg food? As an aside do you know that Haridwar is a totally meat free city?
What has changed big times is the loos. The loos at the foodcourts are clean, hygienic and useable. A far cry from the days of doing it on the roadside.
 
Transport
What has never ceased to amaze me is the constant jugaad that is available in the countryside for transportation purposes. The way the ubiquitous tractor is converted into a truck or an overloaded van or a people’s carrier is not funny. And there are also the weather options. Poles are attached at the ends which in monsoon and summer take the load of a tarpaulin and in the winters it is removed to provide the warmth of the sun. Benches are fixed to allow sitting comfort.
Then comes the scooter. I mean just the engine. It becomes a motorised cart or even a taxi.
And if you think that the days of bullocks carts and horse carts is over, just travel on the Muzaffarnagar by pass road. The bulk of sugarcane which is transported to the sugar factories is carried by bullock carts and so are the molasses back from the factory. At Modinagar, outside the sugar mill, bullock lanes in a u shaped formation moved at a snail’s place for weighing, often contributing to the jam on the highway.
Of course the e-rickshaws have also made their presence felt on the highways! At top speed of 30 kmph!
These co exist with the truck by lays which are mostly full of the big car or motorcycle transporters. Yes, India has progressed.
I was also thrilled to see some Reliance petrol pumps, operational again. Am no fan of the company but they do give some serious competition to the HPs and BPs and IOCs. Specially in the toilet sector!
 
The great Indian outdoors
If one thing has changed, and changed drastically is the outdoors. Right throughout the trip the Indian outdoor reared its ugly head. I call it ugly as there seems to be no regulation or control on the outdoor sights. While earlier you had wall paintings galore, now the horizon is choc-a- bloc with outdoor signages.
But it was heartening to see proliferation of local brands. There was Ultratech cement jostling for space with Muzzamil cement. Tata Steel proving its strength next to Rana Steel. Padmapraksh Jewellers with a local beauty, face to face with Aishwarya Rai pitching for Kalyan Jewellers. Aksahy Kumar pitching for Eveready LED bulbs shining bright next to Anandi of Balika Vadhu fame for Summercool LED bulbs. Taaza tea vs Pataka tea. Kuber Pan masala vs Kuber incense vs Kuber spices. It was all happening at the great indian outdoors.
And while we have debated the success of Patanjali, it was one outdoor that captured the mood of the country “Sabko karenge suit, Patanjali ke do ghoont” (two sips of Patanjali will suit all)
Wall paintings had always fascinated me. Specially the mysterious “Rishte hi Rishte” or the “Gupt rog” types. And these too had evolved. “Shukranu ki kami” (low sperm count) shouted one to “rishton mein tazgi”(freshness in relationships) said the other. The land of Kamasutra had kept up with the times.
 
Education institutes
This is a totally new phenomena. But it’s a phenomena that has taken the countryside by storm. On the outskirt of every city we passed, Roorkee, Muzaffarnagar, Merrut, a plethora of educational institutes have sprung up. Engineering colleges, pharmacy, management, dental, hotel education and even schools. I reckon I saw at least 40 of the graduate and post graduate institutes. And around them ancilliaries have sprung up. Hostels, hotels, food joints, small shops….
But what fascinated me was the schools. So while I saw two Delhi Public School campus within 15 kms of each other, I saw names that I was not sure could be pronounced in the hinterland. Springdales, St. Benedict, Rushmore…..
Now beat this. St. Kabeer. How would you pronounce it? Saint Kabeer or Sant Kabeer?
Welcome to Incredibel India!

Patanjali- Can it last the distance?

Over the last few weeks media has been full of stories on the success of Patanjali. With turnover of around Rs 2500 crores and all projections indicating the brand touching Rs 20,000 crores in the next few years, the media attention is well deserved. Yet amongst the host of articles and analysis I couldn’t help but feel that the brand still has a long way to go before it becomes a formidable brand. In the next few paragraphs I will try and raise certain issues which could make or break the brand.
It all started with the brand itself. Which brand are we talking about? Patanjali or Baba Ramdev? Are the two the same? Does one complement the other? Is the relationship symbiotic? Is it like Virgin and Richard Branson?
To me this is the most critical question. My view or opinion is not what matters but what matters is the consumer opinion. So in the city of Doon where Patanjali has at least three outlets within a 3 square km radius of my house, I did an informal research. I spoke to some buyers, Patanjali dealers and some young graduate and post graduate students. I am not claiming that this is a scientific research but it definitely helps to form certain hypothesis.
Almost everyone I spoke to was clear that Patanjali is Baba Ramdev and vice a versa. The buyers at the retail outlets, the retailers themselves, all believe in Patanjali because of Baba Ramdev. His yoga prowess, his knowledge of Ayurveda has convinced people that the brand he peddles is as good as him. Some of them had been to the Patanjali ashram in Haridwar too. Most of them had tried Patanjali Ayurveda medicines and traditional Indian products like Chywanprash or Amla murubba and were very happy with the products.
For the uninitiated a small diversion. Patanjali has been running an Ayurvedic medicine ashram which treats almost all illness and diseases. It is situated in Haridwar and is renowned for its medicines and cure. Before it went into FMCG and such categories Patanjali had a retail Ayurveda presence, specially in the hindi belt. Patients would visit the Haridwar ashram, would be diagnosed and then they could get their medicines through the Ayurveda retail shops in their towns and villages. Many, I know swear by the same. This actually was the genesis of Patanjali.
Getting back to my research, I noticed that most of the consumers I was talking to were thirty plus men and women; in fact 40+ would be a more accurate description. So I asked the retailers about the profile of Patanjali buyers. And they conceded that it is the thirty-thirtyfive plus segment. Dehradun being a city of floating student population, I was surprised that the young student was not really buying the brand.
So I sought out the students. Did an impromptu discussion at a students hostel. And my findings were surprising. Most of the students are from in and around Dehradun….Punjab, UP and other areas of Uttarakhand. For them Patanjali was Baba Ramdev and Ayurved medicines. But Baba Ramdev to them was not a respected or even a genuine person. They saw him mostly as a clever and astute salesman. They were sceptical about Patanjali claims and considered it no different than any other product. One wag even questioned the relationships between jams, noodles and Ayurveda! And they just laughed away the whole “Bharat Swabhiman” issue as just a gimmick.
As I said earlier, this, by no stretch of imagination is a conclusive research. But such observations in the heart of the hindi belt, which is Patanjali’s core geography, do point to certain issues which could make or break the brand.

• Is Baba Ramdev’s appeal limited to the older, thirty five plus segment, people who have been his followers for the last twenty-thirty years? The youth of today, who is the customer of tomorrow, is much better informed and is not too enamoured by Baba Ramdev. My hypothesis is that many youngsters, even in small towns, with access to the net, are much better informed and knowledgeable and do not take Baba at his face value, unlike maybe their parents.
• If Patanjali and Baba Ramdev have a symbiotic relationship (and let’s not forget that each communication of the brand ends with a mug shot of Baba Ramdev and his aide Balakrishnan, so the relationship is being flaunted), will that in the long run hurt the brand? The youngsters are sceptical about “Babas” and Ramdev’s alleged misdeeds are easily available on the net. Also his political leanings and dabblings could harm the brand.
• Is the Baba Ramdev/Patanjali appeal making sense to the youngster? Is the youngster convinced more about yoga than gyms? I see more fully equipped gyms in Dehradun than yoga centres.
• Yes, many would say Baba is about Indian way of living but in today’s interconnected world is that a good enough differentiator or even an emotional motivator?
• How is Patanjali Noodle, Ghee or even Atta really different from Maggi Atta Noodles or ITC Aashirwad atta. The product story is the same. The claims are the same. The ingredients are the same. Even the preservatives and permissible colours used are the same. So what is the differentiator? Just the pricing? Is the Patanjali brand stamp good enough?
• What exactly does Patanjali stand for? Is it Ayurveda? Is it Bharat Swabhiman? Is it both? If it is Ayurveda then can it justify its existence in categories like Noodles, Biscuits, Jams….? To me it sounds a bit confused. Is Patanjali into Noodles or Jams just because of Bharat Swabhiman? Is it just a feel good? I think to bring Bharat Swabhiman alive it needs to actually have rational product differentiation. For example not sell jams but sell murrabaas. Not sell noodles but rice vermicelli (sewiyan). Not sell squashes but sherbets. It needs a much more thought through product strategy.
• And that gets reflected in the communication too. Noodles and toothpastes are not traditional Indian products and so the strategy is to attack them and call them bogus or unhealthy. But for Ghee which is a traditional product the communication is that much more simple, lucid and believable talking about the Goodness of the product.

I am sorry, but long term if these questions aren’t addressed, if what the core brand stands for is not sharply defined, if the affinity of tomorrow’s customer to Ayurveda is not clear, if the relevance of Bharat Swabhiman is just a jumla, if the product offering is deviating from the core then Patanjali will be a flash in the pan.
Agree? Disagree?

Decoding Bharat with classified ads

Since, I belong to an era where reading newspapers and listening to the radio was a must to know more about the world, reading through classified ads became a good past time for me. And when I travelled, I realised that going through the classified ads of local newspapers allowed me some interesting observations of the local city.
The habit has worked well for me. I consider myself a decent city profiler by going through the classified columns (Criminal Minds anyone!) of the newspapers, particularly in vernacular. And the fact that I can read and understand around 5 languages, helps a lot.
Having spent the last two years in Dehradun and having travelled to nearby cities I do consider myself some sort of an expert in small town (read Bharat) profiling. So here are some interesting nuggets
1) As everywhere (including the Islamic states like UAE and Malaysia) sex sells. But in Bharat its not the straightforward "massage ads". The ads are couched in "Friendship and Friendship clubs". A typical ad will talk about meeting high profile ladies and college girls. And some have the audacity of asking for a registration fees. Maybe these should feature under the scam columns.

2) But then who says that Bharat is conservative. Ads for Gigolos are rampant. Not in straightforward terms but couched in some interesting 'friendship speak". "Khule vicharon ki high profile aur ameer mahilayon se milen" ( Meet open minded high profile rich women). Of late the ads are getting more bold. "Unemployed youngsters, earn more than 25-30,000 a day by massaging hi profile rich ladies!"

In a regular newspaper like Daily Jagran or Amar Ujala there are on an average 8-10 such ads per day, implying a market and an available product.
What it tells me that some smart alec is capitalising on unemployment. That the Police force is corrupt and that all jacket clad, mobike riders that saunter into your building complex are not courier delivery boys. For I am told that courier delivery boys have replaced door to door salesman as the cover for gigolos.
3) Health problem ads are mainly of four types. One is sex problems; chota ling, josh mein kamee, jaldi chootna are some of the common headlines. The second is about white spots and the third for couples who are childless. The fourth is about gaining height.
Obviously, quacks abound. No wonder medicines like Patanjali's Putra jeevak beej abound and flourish. On a lighter note, I wonder why Baba Ramdev even needs to get into non Ayurvedic products like Noodles!
4) Part time jobs: These are distinct from regular job ads. Most of these are for data entry and promise a monthly income of Rs 10,000-30,000 a month, a princely sum in small town. But some interesting ads are also emerging. Ads for gym trainers, ads for henna applying, ads for teaching girls make up, ads for working in Cafes during evenings....
What it tells me is that the youngster today, is open to doing variety of part time jobs. And of course that an alternate economy is booming.
5) Ads for immigration services: Bharat is now being wooed with immigration dreams to Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Daily at least 2-3 such so called immigration experts advertise in the classifieds.

6) Films related: This is an interesting category. It has collection of ads that are related to the film industry. These are ads promising youngsters walk in roles in films and TV serials. Some also offer to train as actors and models.
7) Alcoholics: Most of the ads are for getting rid of liquor habit in days. But these point to a dangerous problem of alcoholism.

8) Mobile Phone towers: This is the latest scam to hit small towns. Agents who tout themselves as representatives of Idea, Vodafone, Airtel fix a rooftop for mobile phone tower, promise monthly rents in excess of Rs 50,000, guarantee job for one person and then take a deposit or registration fees of Rs 10,000 to 50,000 and vamoose!

9) And of course there are the regular ads like name change, family break up etc. But two things here have caught my attention. Most of the name changes are being done by youngsters. Names are changing from "Radhey Shyam Kapoor and Parvati Nautiyal to Anurag Kapoor and Simran Nautiyal." Are youngsters rejecting the traditional names given by their parents?
The second thing was the obvious break up of families. I see enough ads from fathers who have disassociated or even broken up from sons, specifically mentioning that they will not be entitled to his money and property. Old care home ads are also mushrooming in a small way.
So now what does me as a profiler have to say about Bhartiya towns like Dehradun
a) Bharat is not as prude as we expect it to be.
b) The unorganised work scenario is booming...and so is the indirect economy. I call it indirect as am not sure how much of it gets reflected in the books and tax documents.
c) The Bhartiya youth is as adventurous and as open to opportunities as an Indian youth.
d) Quacks, scamsters and obvious fraud abound. It also reflects a certain sense of naivety, desperation and jugaad in a negative way.
 e) Social issues like alcoholism, prostitution are also as rampant as in any major city.
And they also reintroduced me to some old hindi/Urdu words: bedakhal (disassociate legally), Indri (organ), yantra (machine), swapan dosh (wet dreams), samadhan (solution)....
Now to check in the film related classifieds; can I get a role in the next season of Criminal Minds?

Hum kya ch...... hain?

Pardon the headline, but those were the exact words used by a twenty something, 12th passed helper, at my dentist’s reception.
So let me pull back a bit. Three unconnected events in the last few days have made me think again of the power of digital media. Are we underestimating it in India? Are we being made chu….?
The above outburst was a result of a reporting on Zee News. The channel was lambasting the JNU students on their alleged anti national slogans. While the host was passionately being nationalistic, the helper blurted out these words to none in particular. Intrigued, I had a chat with him.
A student at the local government college, Anup is doing part time jobs to help his family of mother, brother and a sister. He has a Micromax smartphone, which he bought second hand for Rs 1800 which he paid in three instalments to his neighbourhood mobile repair shop, who peddles in such phones. Anup buys a 2G pack of Rs 7, yes Rs 7, valid for one night which lets him download 1 GB data. Or sometimes he takes the 3G pack for Rs 29 with same data download and validity. He tells me that he uses these on Saturday or Sunday, post midnight when traffic is less and speed therefore is not an issue. He then watches FB and You tube on those days.
For his normal consumption he uses Whatsapp plan for which he pays Rs 75 per week for 500 mb use. A quick calculation reveals that he pays less than Rs 500 pm for his internet adventures (out of a monthly income of around Rs 5000-6000 ) and boy, is he informed!
He had seen certain videos about Kanhaiya’s (the JNU union leader under arrest on sedition charges) speeches and had also read some news report on it on his whats app group. And his angst was that the TV media was misreporting everything. This blog is not about the JNU politics, but suffice to say that social media has set the cat amongst the piegons.
The second incident took place yesterday during my cycling/walking early in the morning. A dumper truck laden with construction material had a puncture on the side of the road. The driver was manfully trying to change the tires. I offered to help him which he accepted gladly. So while we sweated in below 5 degrees temperatures I got a pretty decent insight into his life. While not boring you with his details, he had just got his son admitted to a diploma course with a private catering college and gifted him the smartphone which he himself was using till now.
“Ladke ko bawarchi bana rahe ho, aurton ka kaam sikha rahe ho?” was my Naradmuni type query. And his response was quick “sahib, aajkal ke zamane mein ladke aur ladki mein kya farak?” I was then given a polite spiel on gender equality and opportunities in the big world. He wanted his son to learn cooking “bidesh ka khana” and then join a cruise company as a cook! He also rattled off some cruise destinations and route. No need to guess his source of information. And he proudly mentioned to me that his son has already started to use the phone to learn some bideshi dishes.
The third event also happened yesterday. All newspapers had front page wrap around sheets informing the impending launch of a smartphone for Rs 251. And I furiously started connecting the dots.
 
Even today, the smartphone and internet revolution has been impressive by any standard. But we still pass it off as an urban phenomena. The middle of the pyramid phenomena. I though get a feeling that it is already a bottom of pyramid phenomena. And if phones get as cheap as Rs 300 or Rs 500, the revolution will be complete.
That to me is what our marketers are scared of. We still look at digital at best as a middle of the pyramid phenomena. We still have TV ads followed by digital activation. Why is no one testing the waters with a bottom of the pyramid digital campaign?
India I know is not very strong on upto date numbers and statistics. But has anyone done an analysis of the type of data plans offered by players like Idea or Telenor which are the equivalent of sachets in FMCG categories? And what are the subscriber numbers associated with these plans. Is it that the planners themselves are too top of the pyramid or middle of the pyramid and therefore ignore bottom of the pyramid?
The more I spend my time in small cities, the more I am convinced that brands are losing out on a great opportunity. The digital divide between haves and have nots is now a myth which is begging to be broken. I know my sample size is too small, but it is a trend I have been noticing and the data plans offered provide a rich insight into the way the bottom of the pyramid are being lured into the digital medium.
Are the marketing and media experts being lazy? Should TV continue to be the holy grail? Has someone experimented and failed?
Or is it truly a case of “hamara ch…..banaya jaa raha hai?”