Memoirs of a Fresher

This story has a brilliant mentor, a big fmcg company, some travelling conveyance, crazy heat, barking dogs, chasing security guards and walks on endless roads. My journey began with a great opportunity to work with the branding team of an FMCG company just to realize later that whatever Mr Philip Kotler said was easier to read in a book sitting on my couch than to face in reality.

My mentors first words (Eagerly waiting for the guru to share his gyaan, drops of gold for a fresher like me who was interacting with the CMO* of one of the biggest brands in the country for the first time) “Did you understand the essence of the project”. “Yes sir completely, I need to design a marketing plan to understand the unarticulated needs and the satisfaction gap ...blah blah…” Mentor – “Ok so you neither understood the head nor the tail of the project”. There it goes…

First lesson learnt from my mentor on pragmatism that day and all I could make out of it was that my project involved repositioning of an existing product and developing the communication strategy. I had no idea about this product category and hence took the first brave initiative and requested my mentor to tag me to a TSI** for a day to understand the market. Thus began the journey of a young market researcher. Everything learnt in the market research class made sense all of a sudden, right from preparing the research design to submitting my research proposal to my mentor. The words of my brand manager are still echoing in my head “Focus on the qualitative front than coming up with unique ways of showing simple data in a complex format by using SPSS***, do not complicate but simplify”

At the end of it what do you have? A 23 year old newbie armed with his deadliest weapon called a Survey Questionnaire roaming on the roads trying to find his next victim to fill that dreaded survey.

Hence the saga began with Mumbai as the first location of my project followed by Ahmedabad. The 1st month encompassed covering the length and breadth of Mumbai from Churchgate to Karjat in every mode of transport ever used by a Mumbaikar – Bus, train, taxi, auto, lifts from random bikers and cars. The field study in Mumbai led to the unlearning phase. It started with unique ways of getting the dealers, stockists and contractor to open up to me and generate qualitative insights to develop a blueprint for my product category development.

Ahmedabad (15th May) : Day 1 - Left my hotel room dressed like a bond in crisp white shirt and black trousers, with a little snobbish grin on my face when the hotel attendant saluted me on my way out of the hotel. Little did I know that when I would return in the evening this attendant would have the laugh of his life. I returned 8.30 pm, my face showing signs of freshly burnt skin, weary body, dehydrated look and the same crisp shirt looked like it needed some washing and the same attendant staring at my face. Then I realized why the hotel attendant had grinned at me in the morning when I asked him which was the tap for hot water.

For the next two weeks everyday my bag used to be loaded with a tube of sunscreen lotion, 2 water bottles and an extra pair of shirt. Walking miles in a dry heat of 43 Degrees was not something I was used to in Mumbai.


Myth 1
Branding is supposed to be glitzy and swanky - If you have an image that branding team would be full of jazz then you cannot be more incorrect. A lot of the quality brand management comes from plain consumer research and study of the behaviour. Many a times these are just simple people having a marketing bent of mind always knowing where there is an opportunity to fill gaps. During my stint of 2 months I met many marketing guys and almost half of them did not look like they could be a part of the branding team but they were bonds in managing their brands

Myth 2
Kotler is the bible of marketing - No book teaches you marketing. No concept of Marketing can be generalized. There are always always always exceptions which need to be taken into account for different regions, cultures and businesses. There is no bible for marketing not even Kotler. Kotler does give you a perspective which may hold true in 80-90% of the cases but god forbid if you get into a job which fits in the remaining 10-20% then you need to learn on the job and adapt. Not just adapt but adapt at a fast pace. When you have your boss sitting with the Targets pistol on your head no concept comes to your rescue, you have to devise your own plan.

Myth 3
Marketing is only for those who are super creative - This is the funniest statement made by people which I can never associate with. Yes innovation is important but if you are someone who has an eye for detail marketing is the place to be for you. My entire final strategy was not some creative thought that popped in my mind but developed from the insights generated post the interaction with my Target Audience.

Myth 4
Marketing Strategy is about brainstorming in boardroom - Jim Stengel (CMO of P&G)-If you want to understand how a lion hunts don't go to the zoo go to the jungle. My work involved a fair bit of an ethnographic study wherein I had to stay with my target audience for days at a stretch to understand their working pattern and behaviour. This study was later used to devise the right communication plan.

1. Opportunity to work with the CMO and brand manager of a product which is the market leader in Asia
2. Numbers are not always important (Yes even in such a top fmcg some decisions are taken based on gut instinct and past experience)
3. An opportunity to present to the top management including the CEO, CMO, Senior presidents and brand managers of my company.
4. Once your into it only your skills and your talent matters – No one cares whether you’re from some sri sri sri vidyalaya institute of management studies (SSSVIMS) or some Ivy league B-school. Your work does the talking and not the brand image.
5. Amazing insights gained by hours of discussion with the Branding team

Highlight of the project is when your suggestions are accepted and it takes you directly to the state of nirvana and dreams of becoming a Brand Guru. Just to realize minutes later that you have your final presentation in some hours wherein the top management is all set to rip you apart. All in all it was one heck of an experience living the life of a Sales man, Sales manager and Brand manager within a period of 2 months.

P.S
*CMO – Chief Marketing Officer [The man who has done it all with a stature that makes a pro look like a rookie and my project mentor]
**TSI – Territory Sales In-charge [A snazzy name for one of the toughest jobs in the FMCG industry – Respect]
***SPSS – Statistical Package for Social Sciences [Every B-school grad must have used this software atleast once for sure, a delight for Market researchers and statisticians]

Numbers lead to Slumber

This is what i did in my Economics Class......felt it so much that penned it down in flat 5 minutes....this isnt one of my best piece but just the state of mind during the Economics Class


Trying hard not to sleep
But boredom does sometime creep
Thousand numbers being thrown at
That’s the reason why I hate stat

Graphs and equations I hate them both
And never to sleep is still my oath
To sit on the first bench was a mistake
Now it feels as though my life is at stake

Some bright minds are awake in class
The solution is to stay away from the mass
The air smells of many numbers
Somebody get me out of my slumbers

Png and Lehman are the real culprits
I so wish I could burn their scripts
They mastered the demand and supply
But sadly to me none of them apply

The first time I saw her

I am uploading two of my recently composed poems and what better than Today's Date to upload them on my blog

So here it is for all those in love :

1] THE FIRST TIME I SAW HER

The day was as pleasant as your face,
I entered the room with many eyes staring at me,
But you were the only one, who caught my gaze,
It was the first time but it felt like eternity for me,
Love caught me like a grapevine, though it was the first time,
It touched me the same way every time.

Days flew by staring at you,
As busy as a bee you seemed to me,
Adoring you all day long was all I could do,
Every passing moment drowning you in me,
Love caught me like a grapevine, though it was the first time,
It touched me the same way every time.

Then came the flash I was waiting for,
You saw me the way an angel would look at me,
That was the day I fell for you all the more,
The thoughts in my eyes were known only to thee,
Love caught me like a grapevine, though it was the first time,
It touched me the same way every time.

Love was in the air, for that was all I could see,
This was time I cherish the most,
As days and nights went past with glee,
Seeing her the first time was like dying almost,
Love caught me like a grapevine, though it was the first time,
It touched me the same way every time.


2] IF IT WASN'T FOR YOU


If it wasn’t for you who would love me the way you would,
If it wasn’t for me who would gaze at you the way I would,
If it wasn’t for you who would fall for me the way you do,
If it wasn’t for me who would ever give you that clue,

If it wasn’t for you who would look me in the eyes,
If it wasn’t for me who would make you break the ice,
If it wasn’t for you who would know me beyond my senses,
If it wasn’t for me who would make you cross your fences,

If it wasn’t for you who would adore me all day night long,
If it wasn’t for me who would write you this song,
If it wasn’t for you who would make my life complete,
If it wasn’t for me who would make you feel incomplete.

The love for the path or its derivative

Days break, nights fall, time seems to be passing at its own will, And here I am back to my favorite pursuit of self retrospection.

The search for an emotion which can be a solution to all conundrums has not been easy. And the answer being right in front of our eyes – ‘Love’, this feeling by default is ubiquitous. We still prefer to look for something else, though it’s present around us, within us, right in front of us.

All auxiliary emotions are just a reduced derivative of love. As simple as it sounds love is the root cause for joy, sorrow, pain, jealousy, passion, obsession, enthusiasm, hedonism, asceticism.

History has given us many illustrations to prove the above assumption right.

Sorrow-‘Adolf Hitler’ made millions undergo grief and sorrow for his love for absolute autocracy.

Passion- Would ‘Romeo and Juliet’ be known as the most passionate love saga without Shakespeare’s diligent love for Theatre?

Jealousy-Though Pandavas being the rightful heir’s, Duryodhana’s love for the Hastinapur’s Throne provoking the Mahabharata

Obsession- Mira’s ever-growing love for Krishna leading to her obsession with everything related to Krishna

Enthusiasm- Dhyanchand’s love for hockey turning him into a national hero and the sport into India’s National Sport

Hedonism- Ted Bundy, Jack ‘THE RIPPER’ both being self obsessed individuals with immense love and respect to self needs than the needs of the society resulting in creation of worst maniacs in the history of mankind

Asceticism- Buddhism originating from Gautama’s love for search of the ‘Truth’

It is this love which drives us to perform tasks which look rather impossible for mere mortals. The search for the rightful path may differ from every individual. Also the results may be different but the driving force is exactly the same. This inherent sentiment is our strength, source, salvation.

It is only when we start focusing on the end of the path does ‘love’ give rise to further derivatives like joy, sorrow, pain. The path chosen is more important than the end, as journey is equally important as the destination. The adherence to one’s interest is more valuable than the successful fruits borne on its tree. For love is riding on the path not on the result.

Hence if love has to be nurtured till the end- Enjoy the journey and forget the culmination for zenith is inevitable if the path chosen is not for success but of success

Better be educated than be an idiot

Rarely does my conviction about a particular thought get overthrown so easily. But this did happen when I came across a piece of writing in HT on Jan 16 by Sagarika Ghose “Idiot is as idiot does”.

“3 Idiots” – The nation seems to be caught by this whirlwind slating this movie as the highest bollywood grosser. The flick thoroughly impressed me with the innovative humour and smart characters-Centimeter, Virus et al.The exponents of the movie went bonkers showering all the adjectives in the dictionary, myself being one of them till I came across the write up in HT. The movie does make an impression but the point is whether the education system needs to be denigrated to this extent. It makes a strong statement using caricatures such as ‘Virus’ to blame the rising incidents of suicide and stress among students. But the point to be noted is how many of us have actually come across such a person in real life, very few.

The movie talks about pressure but fails miserably to explain which pressure is acceptable and which isn’t. There is a clear cut demarcation between positive pressure and negative pressure. Without pressure exerted some students may never realize their true potential and may jus resort to fate. It is only when you push yourself does the true self come out. It’s said “Necessity is the mother of all inventions” which is more than apt for this situation. The extent to which we may be an idiot at times is limited. If education is a waste we might as well throw this country away into hands of foreigners and sit brainless.

Most of us may actually never come across a “Virus” but just a negligible clone of his who may to the maximum just make us pull our hair, not more. Instead at times it can be seen that a teacher would go out of the way to help their students especially in esteemed institutes .More can be done than jus blaming the professors and restless parents, all they want are a bright future for their child. If given a thought we would realize the problem does not lie in IITs, Parents or demanding professors.

The primary problem staring us in the face is we have too little of anything to satisfy everything. We have only a handful of IITs, IIMs to cater to a population of a billion. Even more shocking state would be that of having just a single All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for the 2nd highest populated country on this earth. The underlying theme of the movie is based on IITs is evident though it’s named Imperial College in the movie

The stress is not that Indian students are finding it difficult to study or do not want to study; rather it’s a well known fact that they are much better at it than their European counterparts’ .It’s this cut throat competition which is giving rise to stress related problem. When questioned many IIT students have confessed to the fact that with the facilities provided at IIT it’s much easier to study. The difficult part is they cannot afford to take a breather during the session as everybody is working hard to get that coveted placement. The fact that they have overcome a lot of competition to get a seat at the esteemed institute is just adding oil to fire.

The movie is undoubtedly funny but shows education as a mere waste unless people have immense potential. The major flaw is Ranchodas Chanchad was a topper, whatever the constraints may be but he had to prove that he was academically brilliant and had excellent technical knowledge to show his superiority over ‘Chatur’ at the end. Targeting education as a major failure can have disastrous consequences. We would not want our future generation not taking education seriously especially when India being breeding ground for talent. Playing the blame game on individuals, parents, professors would not serve the purpose.

The condition is that of “too less for too many”. This nation has tons of quality students but only a handful of quality institutes. The main issue is of wants, we have many to ask but very less to satisfy. Lesser the resources higher will be the competition.

The state would do better to set up more educational institutes rather than setting up counseling centers to console grieving parents and students. Some resources used to set up SEZ’s, cricket stadiums, bridges can very well be diverted to setting up world class institutions which would cater to generating knowledge pool. Infrastructure can originate from knowledge but without knowledge there can be no infrastructure.

Unlearning the new Mantra ; Why follow?

I seem to be spending this particular period of my life thinking over my existence. Is it worth something or rather anything? Am I here to perform something substantial? Or should I continue breathing away my life just the way I have been doing since I had a mind of my own? What if I do not want to flow with the river and wish to make my own path which may not be as exciting as flowing with the water?

Since times immemorial we all have been under the aegis of our guardians. Someone once rightly told me that in an Indian environment you’re always kept under a protected guard by your progenitor, always avoiding us from committing any foolish act, thus stopping us from thinking. Forcing us to enter a framework already established by supposedly experienced insane mortals. The result being every child in this particular environment follows the child ahead of him (ahead in the sense of queue and not intellect), none of them bold enough to take the much needed risk to break free of the shackles

The concept of lateral thinking seems to be fading in the hazy nebula. Edward de Bono though trying his best to propagate the concept.

The inherent attribute of man which has led to the globalization and technology was risk taking ability. Rigid Mechanical Framework can never lead to innovation. But the day we start exploring world outside the module we might achieve the much needed thought progression

Some of the compartmentalization was evident in ancient India as well. When a carpenter’s son was carpenter; a blacksmith’s son was blacksmith; a vaidya’s son was a vaidya.

Improvement of the human race takes place when a blacksmith’s son questions his forefathers and the environment why he can’t be a goldsmith or a soldier or for that matter be nothing and live an ascetic life

This ‘break the shell’ bug does not bite every individual. Hence the mind numbing size of individuals getting their degrees and diplomas in a particular concentrated field is very high. The grim reality is not the astronomical size of concentration in a particular arena, but the reason behind it. Almost 40% of the population ended up where they are not because they wanted to be there but because everybody else was heading there so none care to question other people’s authority

Till the day we do not commit foolish acts, lose fights, lose money, face criticism and end up bruised we do not learn. Learning is a gradual process and if observed the largest proportion of our knowledge has been acquired outside the framework, especially when we questioned the system and refused to follow something because the world follows it. Hence today’s mantra would be to unlearn.

The power of ‘WHY’ is immense.

Season has well and truly begun

The management entrance test season seems to be in full flow with 3 exams down and 5 more to go. With SNAP coming up this Sunday and XAT, FMS, NMAT, CET to follow the coming months may well decide my destiny

I have well put the debacle of 3rd Dec behind me. It started on a bad note with a tiff with mom, which left me in an irascible state. I started my grumpy ride towards my centre hoping that my slot would get an easier nut to crack. After a horrendous start to the D-Day I found some relief in the train. Unusual as it may seem it took a brawl in the local compartment of train to cheer me up. And believe you me it was hilarious. Pardon my attitude, such sadistic pleasures do not excite me but I was really irritated with my mom’s reckless behaviour on the morning of such a crucial exam in my life. The best part was that it was one of those typical fights in which no blows were exchanged instead both the parties engaged in what we call “Bol Bachan”. These fights are not new to mumbaites especially those prone to trains.

I reach the centre bang on time to meet my friend who seemed to be armed with all the essentials to crack the exam. The next 2 hrs were spent by us discussing the strategy.

I was thoroughly impressed by all the snazzy gadgets at the centre-Lenovo LCDs, Biometrics, Digital Cameras etc. Just when I was going gaga over the professionalism shown by prometric came the bomb, our systems crashed. Then started the long agonizing wait on the chair for 6 hours with no provisions of food or water. I had selected the morning slot of 10-12 since I am a morning person and can concentrate better in the morning. Ended up giving the same exam at 3:30 slot, which ended at 6

Calls started coming immediately (Not the GD/PI’s sadly but telephone calls) but by that time was exhausted to talk to anyone, worn out to discuss, tired to blame prometric, dog-tired to give CAT again. The feeling was that of relief, relief that it was over

Just when I thought it was over got the worst attack of migraine that night and could not sleep till 11,did later only after the doctor administered sleeping pills and some strong doses of pain killers. Guess the exhaustion took its toll over me