Kabal Batti and Green Tea!
Folks, its ages since I blogged...my new venture is keeping me away from this but I will start blogging more soon...so no escape!!!
I have, in the last one year, practicing Kabal batti (thanks to Baba Ramdev) and  been taking two cups of original green tea which I get from Laos.
The effect is just unbelievable!
I have lost 5 kgs of weight ( I was never fat but still) with my sincere practice of KB every day morning and the two cups of GT.
Also my overall digestive system has phenomenally improved!! Of-course, I have a regimented work out session every day which includes 25 minutes on the tread mill and 1 hour of power yoga but after adding the KB and GT the effect is much greater!!
My energy levels have also increased....
So, those who want to lose weight and also improve their overall well being, I would seriously suggest to learn KB first from a good guru who has been practicing....those who are in Madras and are serious, pl contact me.  I would either guide you to someone I know or would teach myself. For the green tea, I am yet to find the right stuff in Madras but am positive there would be speciality stores selling imported Chinese/Japanese GT...The basic quality of a good green tea is --- its bitter!!!
So, all those weight watchers.....get set and GO for KB N GT!!!
Cheers

Live life without money-a true and inspiring story.

Folks,

Its long time since I wrote on my blog.
I recently read an article on Heidemarie Schwermer, a former school teacher in Germany who has lived without money for over 13 years. This author of this article talks about how she managed to do it.

Quote:

I wanted to get this phenominal ladies photo on the blog but sorry, could not figure it out.
You may be lucky if you google search to see how she looks!
I am sure you would enjoy reading this and I would be too happy if you get inspired by this story and stop accumulating unwanted stuff around you!!
Stefanie Marsh
Twenty-two years ago Heidemarie Schwermer, a middle-aged secondary school teacher just emerging from a difficult marriage, moved with her two children from the village of Lueneburg to the city of Dortmund, in the Ruhr area of Germany, whose homeless population, she immediately noticed, was above average and striking in its intransigent hopelessness.
Her immediate reaction was shock. “This isn’t right, this can’t go on,” she said to herself. After careful reflection she set up what in Germany is called a Tauschring — a sort of swap shop — a place where people can exchange their skills or possessions for other skills and possessions, a money-free zone where a haircut could be rendered in return for car maintenance; a still-functioning but never-used toaster be exchanged for a couple of second-hand cardigans. She called it Gib und Nimm, Give and Take.
It was always Schwermer’s belief that the homeless didn’t need money to re-enter society: instead they should be able to empower themselves by making themselves useful, despite debts, destitution or joblessness. “I’ve always believed that even if you have nothing, you are worth a lot. Everyone has a place in this world.”
But the homeless of Dortmund seemed not to take to Schwermer’s plan, few ever turned up to the Tauschring. Some, they told her angrily to her face, felt that a middle-class woman with some education would never be able to relate to the circumstances of the dispossessed. Instead it was mainly the unemployed and the retired who began, in snowballing numbers, to flock to the Tauschring, their arms full of things that had been lying around their homes unused for years, or skills that they possessed but no longer exercised: retired hairdressers volunteered to cut the hair of out-of-work electricians, who would wire their kitchens in return; retired English teachers gave language lessons in return for the services of a dog-walker. The point was, not a single pfennig changed hands.
The Tauschring grew exponentially, was written up glowingly in a couple of local papers and turned into something of a Dortmund phenomenon. Its success also prompted Schwermer to ask serious questions of herself and her way of life. “I began to realise that I lived with so many things I didn’t need. So I decided that I wouldn’t buy anything without giving something away. That’s how it started. Then I began to really think about what I needed, clothes for example, and noticed that I could easily get by with what I could hang on ten coathangers. Everything else I gave away. I had so much stuff in the house that was superfluous. Getting rid of it was a relief.”
After a while even her vast collection of books began to assume an excessive presence in her home and one day Schwermer marched to a second-hand shop with her entire library. “The woman in the shop was upset. But I felt that giving them away was a good thing. I love books but I knew I had to get rid of them. I didn’t miss them, which surprised me. I just wanted to pare things down to their essentials.”
What had, in part, led Schwermer to her conclusions about “stuff” was a year of psychotherapy after the breakdown of her marriage in the mid-1980s. It was a difficult year, she remembers: “I was in floods of tears nearly every session, but at the end of it I felt so happy and decided that I wanted to live more simply. I also wanted to pass on what I learnt in therapy to other people, and that’s when I began to train as a psychotherapist.”
Other things changed. She took up meditation and began to realise how dissatisfied she was in her job. “I was always ill with flu or had backache and never realised the connection between my physical symptoms and my unhappiness at work.”
In the wake of setting up her Tauschring, she began to experiment with other sorts of jobs on the side. “I was working in a kitchen for ten deutschmarks an hour and people were saying to me, ‘You went to university, you studied to do this?’ But I thought, well, every person has an intrinsic value, why should I be valued more for being a teacher or a therapist than for working in a kitchen?”
The more ascetically she lived, the happier she became. By 1995 she was deeply involved in the Tauschring, house-sitting for short periods in exchange for cleaning or light maintenance work. She was buying virtually nothing: “When I needed something, I found that it would just come into my life. My glasses, for example. There was an optician who was a member of the Tauschring and he gave them to me in return for some therapy sessions.”
It was in 1996 she realised that “I had to go farther” and took what would be the most radical decision of her life: to live without money. She gave up her apartment and teaching job and resolved to live nomadically, an “extreme lifestyle”, she admits, moving from house to house, in return for menial work. Her new way of life was intended as a short-lived thing: she had given herself 12 months. But she found herself enjoying it so much that it never really ended.
Thirteen years on, she continues to live according to the principles of Gib und Nimm. “Life became much more exciting. More beautiful. I had everything I needed and I knew I couldn’t go back to my old life. I didn’t have to do what I didn’t like, I had a more profound sense of joy, and physically I feel better than ever. Living without money was just the first step. I realised that I wanted to change the world and I wasn’t going to do that by looking after someone’s cat while they were on holiday.”
She still lives — a week at a time — in the spare rooms of members of the Tauschring, cleaning or working in return for accommodation. Only very occasionally has she had personality clashes with her hosts and she tries to resolve any tension within herself “by going for a walk”. She has emergency savings of €200 (£180) and any other money that comes to her she gives away. “I decided it was OK to collect my pension but I give most of it away, except for what I need to pay for train tickets.”
She has no health insurance because she didn’t want to be accused of scrounging off the state. Instead she relies on what she calls the “power of self-healing. When something hurts, I put my hand on it and say to myself I have the power to heal myself and the pain goes away.” What if she becomes really ill? “Cancer? Then I suppose I’ll die. I’ve already prepared myself for death several times — times when I thought, ‘This is it, it’s over’. But then I got up the next day and everything was fine.”
Her entire material world is now contained in a single black suitcase and a rucksack. No photographs because, she says, “I don’t need them”.
In the flesh Schwermer is charming and engaging as well as lively and youthful-looking with strong jutting teeth and eyesight that she says she has halfway managed to correct herself with exercises she has picked from the people she meets. She is well dressed, neat and tidy and, it may come as a surprise given her lifestyle, 67 years old. Her two children — now a music teacher and a therapist — support what their mother does although the family don’t spend Christmas together. Though single, she has relationships every now and again, but is adamant that any love affair will always come second to what she calls her ideological work with Gib und Nimm. “I can imagine having a serious relationship with someone who is spiritual and who believes in what I’m doing, but not one where I live in a nice big house. I can fall in love but I can’t imagine living with someone. ”
Given her constant roaming about the country, it is almost impossible pinning her down. We met in the Greenpeace offices in Münster, near Cologne, where she was to address a group of young people who had been inspired by her work to live without money for week (Schwermer spends much of her time giving lectures about her lifestyle). Accompanying her was an Italian/ Norwegian film crew and we watched as successive teenagers stumbled in and out of the office, having been given the task of bartering for food with the offer of work. “We already live in a barter economy. We go to work to get money. I want to go farther.”
What is farther and how far is far enough? Ideally, Schwermer would like to lead by example and give other people courage to change their attitudes towards money and how they live in and contribute to society. The pressure to buy and to own, she feels, has intensified in recent years. Consumerism is essentially about “an attempt to fill an empty space inside. And that emptiness, and the fear of loss, is manipulated by the media or big companies.” There is a fear, she says, that in not buying or owning an individual will fall out of society. The irony, she claims, is that material goods can never plug a spiritual hole and shopping and hoarding are more likely to isolate people than bring contentment. Does she intend to start a revolution?
“No, I think of myself as planting the seed,” she says. “Perhaps people come away from my lectures or seeing me being interviewed and decide to spend a little less. Others might start meditating. The point is that my living without money is to allow for the possibility of another kind of society. I want people to ask themselves, ‘What do I need? How do I really want to live?’ Every person needs to ask themselves who they really are and where they belong. That means getting to grips with oneself.”
Does she really think that she can convert other people to her life philosophy? “Yes, that’s our future. One day we will all live without money, because we don’t need it and because it is only a burden. We’re the way we are because it’s how the system allows us to be. We can buy everything we want but we need so much less than we realise. If you think that the capitalist system we live in now is the only system, well that’s just ridiculous.”
Though she no longer owns any of her own, she has written two books on her adventures (and has given away her royalties). The first, My Life without Money, turned her first into a minor hero in Germany in some quarters, the kind who, last week for example, was invited on to a late-night TV forum to discuss whether Money Can Make You Happy. Surrounded by dot-com millionaires and lottery winners, she spoke while the other guests peered at her, visibly disconcerted to meet a woman who had given up everything and who claimed to be happy. “I live completely normally, only without money,” she said. “There are people who do so in Siberia. And in Africa there are many people who survive only because they all help each other.”
Schwermer knows from experience that not everyone will take her seriously. When she began with her project, “I was attacked frequently by people telling me that I wasn’t living without money at all, that I was just being provocative or scrounging, which made me cry! But then I realised it isn’t just about giving and expecting something back, or about giving and allowing oneself to be taken advantage of, or becoming a victim. It is about the possibility of having another life, of letting go of the stuff around us and examining our deepest fears.”
She tells me about an episode three years ago when she became convinced that she was going to starve to death: “But I really asked myself what that was about and realised it was about my childhood, and it had no bearing on reality.” (Schwermer is the child of refugees who lost everything after the war). Her only real terror now is appearing in the media. “I hate being on TV because it makes me so nervous but I know I reach a lot of people that way.” The people she does get through to, judging by the demographics of the lecture halls she visits, tend to be women. Why? “Because women are more open to new ideas.”
Is Schwermer a lunatic? Certainly she has been called “naive” and “idealistic” by the author of an article in the right-wing Die Welt newspaper, who asked her whether she was pursuing a communist-lite agenda when communism has been proved to be a failure. “It’s true that communism didn’t work,” she says, “but human beings need to learn to be a little bit different before we can learn to share what we have. We are going to run out of oil in ten years. We don’t have infinite resources. That just isn’t sustainable.”
Is her own itinerant lifestyle sustainable? She thinks so. She feels young but, in the event of death, she has organised her own funeral. She’s “paid” for it by striking a deal with an enlightened clergyman, who agreed that she would cover the costs of the burial by offering counseling sessions for the bereaved. Such deals are a regular feature of her new existence: only the managers of the German rail network seem to be immune to her formidable powers of persuasion, hence the few euros she still needs at her disposable to travel long distances.
Schwermer often talks enthusiastically about “the new world” she is in the process of discovering. She is esoteric but not mad or prone to ranting. Most people find her to be engaging and likeable: there are now many members of her Tauschring. What about those who live without money but not through choice? What about the poor and the homeless? Has she ever converted a homeless person to her way of thinking?
“I haven’t managed to reach the homeless,” she says. “I did hold lectures for the homeless but only six or seven showed up. They didn’t want to hear it. One of the men there accused me of having ‘connections’, that I’d only been able to do what I have been able to do because I knew people. I do have contacts, that’s what this new world is all about, forging links and contacts. Otherwise it wouldn’t work.”
She never managed to convince her interlocutor and not long after their conversation he had resumed his place outside on the pavement begging for spare change.

Humanity!

Folks,
Last week i was travelling back from one of the ME countries to Dubai and met up with this guy.
The airport authorities changed the boarding gate just an hour before the scheduled take off. ( this happens very often now a days, and one has to keep an eye on the TV monitors and keep checking the boarding gate and the time)
We were waiting for our turn at the boarding gate and as I was getting my passport and boarding pass checked, our friend, who was standing behind me, realised that two of our fellow passengers, whom he had helped earlier while checking in, were walking towards the other gate!(the old one) He told me that they dont speak English or Arabic and obviously not guided properly about the change in the boarding gate, by the airport staff. He ran, probably around 3-400 meters to catch them, informed them, came back running and stood at the tail end of the queue. I was overhelmed by this 'gesture'. Many of us, in our rush to get inside the aircraft, secure the overhead bins, would have just informed the staff to help and manage the situation! Such kind of gestures have become rarity in this fast paced world. I could not see him again as he rushed off, upon landing, to catch his connecting flight. The fellow passengers whom he helped were Srilankans and they knew only Sinhalese! I said hallo to them and they were immensely happy with the help they got from our friend.
He is Suman Avula and he can be reached at sumanavula@neulandlabs.com
I would appreciate if you can just send him a mail appreciating this gesture!!
This world need more Sumans.
Cheers

Memoir....Musings of a Sales guy at heart!!

Friendship as per Khalil Gibron

Episode 7

On Friendship:  

And a youth said, Speak to us of Friendship. And he answered, saying: Your friend is your needs answered. He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving. And he is your board and your fireside. For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace. When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the ‘nay’ in your own mind, nor do you withhold the ‘ay’. And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart; For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unclaimed. When you part from your friend, you grieve not; For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain. And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit. For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught. And let your best be for your friend. If he must know the ebb of your tide, let know its flood also. For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill? Seek him always with hours to live. For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness. And the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed. Your Friendly

RL Rajah

20/06/21

Perseverance.

Memoirs.....Musings of a sales guy at heart.....

Episode (10)

Before I start writing on my Madurai days, I thought I would share this with you.

Folks, A few days back I met up with a very young boy who has just joined the industry in sales. Very enthusiastic and eager to learn. When he learnt this is my 4th decade in this industry, his first question was whether I have ever been insulted/humiliated and if yes, how did I manage it? I countered him and wanted to know why he used 'humiliation?' instead of any other expressions? Simple...he had a very bad experience with one of the customers few days ago and felt very humiliated and yet to come in terms. Never happened to him in his life as he always got what he wanted! So, welcome to reality!!! Yes, looking back, down in the memory lane, there were so many instances, where customers/consumers didnt want my products or services and expressed their indignations in different ways. Some were polite, some were satirical and few were rude! But this is part and parcel of this profession!! I remember one episode which is indelible in my memory! In 1991, I got promoted as Regional Manager and transferred to Bombay. My first stint in this lovely metropolis. My region was the poorest performing amongst the 4 regions in the country and I was given the task of infusing energy and turning it around! I am not getting in to what happened finally but just sharing this episode which I did with the young guy whom I had mentioned beginning of this post. I was with one of my sales guys on my first trade visit and while reviewing the list of outlets to be visited during the day, against this retailer there was a big X. Not to visit!!! I probed and was told that the retailer is No 1 in terms of business but has stopped selling our products. Someone has rubbed him on the wrong side and he has put a 'NO ENTRY' for Herbertsons!! My colleague's attempts to meet up with him failed and he was thrown out and was in no mood to visit him again. I told my colleague that I must visit him in his shop! My colleague was not happy but could not say no to me and just followed me like the goat to the slaughter house! I went in and greeted the 'boss' who was seated at the cash counter and introduced myself. The 'boss' got up, told his young son, that he didnt want to see me and asked him to show us the door!! I, with a big smile on my face, pretending his ire was not directed at me, told him that I had come to say hello to him and just needed few minutes of his time!! This infuriated him further and he just walked off!! His son told me to leave and I was left wondering on what should be my next move!! This happened at around noon and the shop was decently crowded. My colleague pulled me out and told me the whole story about the relationship issue and tried convincing me not to waste time. Perseverance is one of my virtue and I decided to take this to its logical conclusion. For my colleague it was another humiliating experience in front of many consumers whereas it was a different challenge for me! I told myself I should crack this and started working on the same immediately. I met up with my distributor who was servicing this outlet. He told me the customer is his biggest and buys huge qty of all the other agency products except my company's. Reason? Some issue with the earlier bosses!!! What's the best time to catch him? 9 p.m when he is closing the shop. Next day at 9 p.m I was there, all alone, outside his shop. Around 9.30, after all the staff left, father and son with two of their staff came out to pull the shutters down and saw me standing there! They first thought i was one of their regular consumer and told me that the shop is closed and in a very apologetic tone!! I immediately rushed up to the father and held his hand and re-introduced myself. Without giving him a chance to say a word, I gripped his hands tightly and told him I just needed a couple of minutes of his time. I mentioned that i am new to the city and I have come from Madras with lots of dream and I need his help(wore the shoes of Shivaji Ganesan for a while). I told him I dont want to have a conversation with him at that moment as he must be feeling hungry and his family would be waiting for him to have dinner together and sought an appointment next day for just 10 minutes. I could see a sense of disbelief in his eyes and he told me to come next day at noon again but not with any hopes!!! I shook his hands again, hugged him(this habit continues still), and left! Next day dot at 1155 hrs, I was there, outside his shop. He called me in and, believe me folks, I spent the whole afternoon with him and when I left his shop, it was 1730 hrs!!! I dont want to delve  into what was the issue and how I sorted it out but just wanted you to know that one should not give up and take every issue to its illogical conclusion!!! And especially if you are in sales, never look at anything as 'insult/humiliation'. Yes, it hurts and embarrass when we are shown the door in front of fellow human beings but take it as a 'challenge' with a pinch of salt as they say, and how you could turn it around into an opportunity!! I have developed a great relationship with this customer and when I joined IDV the first case of Smirnoff was sold to this customer! ( there is another juicy story on this SMV first order but that would be posted later!). We still keep in touch and he is one of my well wishers! So, if you ever feel insulted/humiliated by any events, dont get bogged down as you can learn a lot from such 'episodes' and the beauty is to convert those episodes in to 'challenges' and 'possibilities'. Whenever I see a consumer buying competition, i would go to them and push my product. Many a times I have failed but I would never stop pushing!! I dont take it as an insult or humiliation!! I do it with pride and real service to the consumers. After all I sell the best products in the world, right!!! When you are in 'sales' first thing you learn is to shed all your inhibitions!!! I shared this episode with the young guy over a Dalmore GR and felt really good. This episode happened 30 years ago and still fresh in my memory!!! Enjoy life!!!

P.S. The retailer is Shah & Co in Crawford Market, Mumbai. Rundeep is currently the boss and running the show.

Mathi Yosi!

Folks, A long break, indeed! April was quite a crazy month with a week long stay in Glasgow and chasing every penny of the business in this trying conditions!! As mentioned in my profile, am a strong believer in 'possibilities'. Many people look at opportunities but do not know how to convert them in to possibilities. The key to success is converting opportunities to possibilities. This world and market is full of possibilities irrespective of the much talked about 'slow downs'. MATHI YOSI is the Tamil slang for 'think differently'. Many of us keep preaching this in our daily life but how many of us practice? People get bogged down with their routines and never try and get out of it to practice this great mantra 'mathi yosi'. Many of us, as soon as enter the office, switch on our computers. There are mails and emails and mails to attend to and meetings after meetings after meetings!!! Added to this is the instant chattings and G chats!! Where do we get time to move and look around? I strongly advocate to my guys to move around and look for new possibilities and ideas. Don't reinvent the wheel, that's not required but look at how you can make the wheel to run/turn faster!! Thats what will make you stand out!! There are so many examples to get inspired from. Great innovations. Developed from just a spark. Challenged the established ways and some great 'outside the box' thinking. 'Break through' as it is commonly known in the corporate circles. Many managers, responsible for delivery, keep looking at break throughs every second but from others and not within. Make it a habit to challenge the established way of working and thinking and imbibe the habit of breakthrough thinking-MATHI YOSI!! Walkman, Ipod, mobile phones, digital cameras all these happened due to someone challenging the current thinking and looking at breakthroughs. Examples of 'Maathi Yosi'. If you are following cricket, look at IPL. Isn't it a great example of this theory of 'Mathi Yosi?' I would be posting a lot on this subject and share with you some very inspiring stories. Whichever field you are in, whether sales, marketing, manufacturing, logistics or finance, start practicing this fine principle of 'Mathi Yosi' TODAY! Look within, look outside for inspirations, as you and your team on how they look at things? There is always an opportunity waiting for someone to convert it in to possibility. Keep it in mind always!!! Cheers!!!

Sales and marketing-two key functions.

Sales and Marketing...the tug of war....

Episode 6.

In my 4 decades of professional life I have never seen a day go without some issues cropping up between marketing and sales! Its amazing and not a single company can boast of 'no conflict' between these two functions? During the initial days of my salling career, it never was an issue as once a while, we used to get someone from marketing for a market visit and they would go around with us, visit some outlets, try to understand the shelf movement, enjoy local cuisines and leave next day..We need to ensure they carry good impression about us as they are from HO and a nice word from them would help us. Even as ASM never bothered about the marketing guys as most of our activations are customer oriented with visibility drives and on pack offers. The on pack offers are on allocation basis and hence not much of fights or difference of opinion. Things started looking different once I got a taste of 'pull' based markets like AP those days. Those in the alcohol trade and are very much used to TN, Kerala and the current AP, Chattisgarh 'pull' doesn't play any major role in these markets but if you look at Maharashtra, Goa, Delhi, Calcutta it's a different ball game. I started to understand the role of marketing only after I moved to Hyderabad as ASM-HL in 1986 immediately after my wedding. After joining IDV/Diageo the understanding of marketing/trade marketing/consumer activation became very clear and the disagreement and fights started. Lets understand the fundamentals first. Just the FUNDAMENTALS only...am not going deep.

The difference between marketing and sales. Many use the word 'marketing' even if they are just doing selling activities only. Someone who is in to managing a region like Madurai in TN to deliver his monthly numbers and when asked his role, he would say he is in marketing. This I had come across many a times. I used to take the trouble of correcting them.

So a typical marketing guy would be working on how to pull the consumers to a particular product/brand whereas the sales guys job is to ensure the stocks are made available in the right kind of outlets when the consumers demand them. In simple term, marketing is all about 'pull' (pulling the consumers to the brand) and sales is all about 'push' (pushing the brand in the outlets for meeting the consumer demand). Clear?

In marketing you start as product manager and later move on to become brand manager /marketing manager et al. Same in sales too...you start as TSE and move upwards as RSE-ASM-BM-RSM-National Sales Manager/GM Sales.

First an idea emerges which is developed further and then the idea/concept is given a shape in terms of a product. This is for any new product innovation...an example here would be Bailey's Irish Cream in alcohol industry...this was the first product with irish whiskey and irish milk cream perfectly blended-in consumer category the detergent bars. These would come under new product innovation and development. Where as many companies today do not bother to get into innovation as it is not only time consuming but also very expensive. So what they do is, copy existing concept and come out with their own variations. For example 'Viagra' was the invention of Pfizer and many just copied content and concept and came out with their own brands. In alcohol industry no one comes out with any new concepts. Baileys, RTD's (Ready to Drink) are exemptions. So let's take the case of  a new entrant with lots of aspirations and big pocket. Be it alcohol industry or FMCG. First the top team/promoters discuss what kind of products they should have in their portfolio, the markets they would start with, dynamics of the market, sales data, route to market, kind of team they require and finances. They would first appoint a CEO giving him the objectives and the CEO would look at the road map and go for recruitments. When it comes to product development it would be done in conjunction with the marketing, sales, finance and manufacturing. Once the road map is cleared, the product/brand development team-marketing- would start working on the product and get it ready. Once the product is ready, consumers research is conducted (in terms of content, comparisons, packaging and price et al) and based on the findings would tweak/change and come out with the final product. This would be submitted to the leadership team, discussed and cleared. The most important thing in NPD is differentiation or USP (unique selling proposition). Differentiation is all about the 'why' factor. Why the consumer should change from his existing choice to mine...what is that differentiating factor for the consumers to switch? This is so true if you are positioning a product in a category which has many similar products. And what is the USP of my product? Unless this is clearly stated, the product would fail to take off and sooner become more of a 'push' brand. If it's innovation, we have to clearly communicate to the prospective consumers on the 'what' factor of this brand. For example, take Viagra or Bailey's-initially it's all about the content -the what- and 'how' it would work. This is where the marketing has to get it right. Once these are all figured out, the marketing guys will sit down with the sales team and also with the Trade marketing guys and chalk out consumer activations. Trade Marketing is the connect between marketing and sales. The Trade marketing key responsibility is to execute all the marketing activations through the sales team as planned. In terms of activations also there are two kinds. One is tactical and another one is strategy. In simple terms ATL (above the line) and BTL (Below The Line). ATL is all about media advertising, visibility drive, digital marketing, celebrity endorsements et al. BTL is all about trade push and also consumer offers. ATL is to get the consumers on your side and for long term gains. For example, take Coca Cola. This company would be spending huge amounts on media be it conventional or digital, celebrity endorsements and also in BTL with purchase linked discounts to the customers/trade and periodical consumer offers. Offer for the customer is to block his space with Coke. The consumer offer gets good publicity by huge displays in the retail outlets and also media advertisements, where possible. Many companies focus on the Point Of Purchase (POP) or Point of Sale (POS). In the current scenario, hyper/supermarkets play a big role and hence POP/POS plays a huge role. And this comes with a cost which has to be factored in the brand cost summary sheet. What happens with these kind of consumer offers is two fold. 1) We retain our own consumers by offering them some freebies for their loyalty and 2) pulling competition to Coke during the offer period. There would be some %age of competition switching over to Coke even after the offer gets withdrawn. This is the idea behind any consumer offer. In alcohol industry only the MNCs and National players focus on ATL whereas the regional players due to lack of resources focus on BTL only with trade discounts, offers for consumers, window displays, Counter Salesman schemes et al. The problem here is that the counter salesmen would shift loyalties quite often based on which side the butter is stronger. And also from my experience, most of the salesmen do not promote any product unless it is TASMAC kind of situation. Also the consumers, mostly are brand conscious when it comes to things which are consumable-be it alcohol or cigarette. One has to really have a winning strategy to convert the consumers. That's why in alcohol industry the trade plays a huge role and also the distribution. 

So when I was in sales, I used to have my share of fights with the marketing guys but as you keep moving up and maturing you realise there are ways of managing the conflicts. First of all one should understand the role of these two important functions as explained above. In FMCG companies the roles are well defined but in the spirits industry, due to restrictions in marketing there are still unresolved issues between these two functions. My opinion on this is that the marketing guy, let us call him the brand manager, has to take ownership of the brand in terms of its overall performance encompassing everything. He is the guardian of the brand. He has to set very clear goals for his brand and explicitly share the same with the sales guys. The major issue here is that many of the brand managers, tend to become, what we call, 'armchair managers'. They google search for everything and rush to their agencies for even minor things. They dont, most often, take the pain of keeping their ears to the ground. Get confined to their table, agency meetings and fail to take notice of what the consumers are seeking. They can become great brand managers if they take time to visit the customers, spend time with them to understand the consumer and market trends. Spend time in the super markets to figure out the shopping trends of consumers in terms of what they are looking for, how they get influenced and what role the displays, promoters, billboards, offers and the sales team play. They should never compromise and make the agency to work hard to create the right kind of proposition! Many a times brands fail due to lack of propositions. Why should a consumer change from a particular brand to a new one? The brand managers have to always look for insights. WHY & What should be the question asked frequently to arrive at breakthroughs. The sales team have to also understand this and dont get excited with cosmetic things. They should always figure out how they would make an impact with the ammunitions they are given with. At the end of the day, especially in adult beverages business, it is the sales guys who have to not only make the product available but also ensure it is moved off the shelf. If one is launching a bathing soap, you can air few commercials on whatever medium available and drive demand. In adult beverages that's not possible in many markets in India and also in Middle East, due to restrictions on advertising. Also it is not like taking the goods in the van and going for spot sales. There are processes involved in every step in the alcohol industry. IF one is working for an FMCG and launching a shampoo, it can be made available the same day across a city but in alcohol industry it would take some time as the processes have to be followed. The government controls the movement of stocks from manufacturing to distribution points and to retail point. Each point one has to take an approval in writing to move the goods. The Trade Marketing guy, the brand manager and the sales guy have to work in tandem to achieve the desired results. Many a times i had seen this '11th hour' rush. The promotion has to start on the 1st of the month and the guys would be running for gift items logistics till the 31st. Planning is so important as you have to make a huge impact of whatever activity you are doing! Remember, consumers are not fools. They always look for value. The challenge is communication with the consumer. How do you attract their attention? How would you stand out? How do you ensure that they hear you out before they hear out competition? The sales guys, if they want to be successful and climb the ladder faster, have to understand brand commercials. The difference you know! Instead of just pushing and looking at numbers, start looking at creating value. Managing for value is the mantra here! Especially when the market is becoming tighter and more competitive. The sales guy must provide periodical feedback on the brand performance, market trends and competition to the brand guys. Ensure you capture everything and pass it onto the brand guys. There is no competition here between the marketing and sales guy! They are part of the same organization and both functions are equally important for the success of the organization. Empathising with each other and helping each other is the key for the success. Both the brand manager and the sales manager should know what the brand contributions are. Brand Contribution (net sale value-cost of goods-manufacturing-cost of sale-discounts), is so vital and hence should be clear to both the functions. Periodic customer and trade visits together would help to 1) understand and 2) iron out issues if any. There is no 'ego' war here. The guy in sales today would get transferred to brand management tomorrow and vice versa. So to be a complete manager, a stint in both sales and marketing should be made mandatory by every single company.

The advice to both marketing and sales guys-pl understand the cost card...this is the 'Gita' followed by the management. Understand every bit of the cost especially if you are in marketing as sometimes due to market dynamics there could be cost push which may have to be absorbed by the brand....so one has to understand the value engineering also. How one can cut cost without compromising on the content or quality of the product. Brand communication has to be uniform.

What we do for the brand at the consumer level would leave a lasting impression so be very clear about it. 

Also the seasonality factor depending upon the category you are in. For many the Diwali-Xmas-NY-Holi-Pongal are major selling seasons. If you are looking at achieving your 60% of the volume during this period, plan your activations well in advance and keep things ready. Always keep an eye on what's new. Avoid repeats as consumers would get bored of taking the same.

I will give you some examples here for some great promotions-tactical. 1) Value packs ( buy a lit at the cost of 750 or 3 for 2 et al). 2) Upgradation offers. Take JW series of whiskies. What's the company would be looking at..upgrade consumers from Red to Black to Double Black to Gold to Blue--right? So if you want to run a promotion on JW Red and at the same time remind consumers that Black is more premium and they should go for it on special occasions then the offer should be 'buy two bottles of Red and get a 20cl Black free...or in the bars, Black at the price of Red-only today...this will increase the trials and should result in conversions too. Once during my trip to India from Dubai, on landing I find out that on Blue label the shop was giving 50cl Black free. I immediately called my colleague in Bombay and told him to stop it as it leads to downgrading. When you visit supermarkets you would get lots of ideas. Sometimes it is better to copy and spin than reinventing the wheel. One of the best promo we reaped maximum was a SS Table spoon free on every bottle of whiskey. Initially there was lots of objections as the distributor was not able to relate these two but the consumers grabbed it. Communicating the offers at the POP level is vital here. Be it consumer brands or adult beverages. 

Compared to 90s and 2000s the market dynamics have changed a lot now. Consumers preferences are changing. They are getting influenced right left and center. They have huge choices to exercise from. So as a sales/marketing guy how you are going to play your role efficiently?

My key learning is that marketing and sales have to work in tandem for exploiting the market potential and also within the allocated budgets. Key is right thing at the right time. WHAT-WHY-HOW...

As stated, I have touched upon only the basics....in my future posts will also look at specifics...

Till next post....

Stay safe and enjoy life.