Know you customers – need & usage

A disappointed salesman of Coca Cola returns from his Middle East assignment.

A friend asked, “Why weren’t you successful with the Arabs?”

The salesman explained, “When I got posted in the Middle East , I was very confident that I would make a good sales pitch as Cola is virtually unknown there. But, I had a problem I didn’t know to speak Arabic. So, I planned to convey the message through three posters…

Man exhaustedMan drinking coca colaMan is energetic

click on the image for a large view

First poster- Aman lying in the hot desert sand…totally exhausted and fainting.

Second poster – man is drinking our Cola.

Third poster – Our man is now totally refreshed.

Then these posters were pasted all over the place

“That should have worked,” said the friend.

The salesman replied “I also didn’t realize that Arabs go from right to left”

Kindly note: this was a forward mail, I liked it, so I am sharing with you all.

Do Freebies players actually worry about the market?

The answer is simply No.

Freebies players actually don’t worry about the market value, they just want their share.

This brings to an interesting note.

A store like Walmart or Saravana Stores (Chennai, India) wants to acquire a million copies of a product and shares it willingness with its distributors and their offering price being half the selling price, and their selling price to consumers being 40 percent off on the product. Remember the distributor gets huge monitory benefit from this deal.

If you being the distributor will you sell the product to them?

If you say YES, you end up as slave to Walmart or Saravana stores, as consumers are going to flood their stores and killing the entire availability of that product in small stores. You being a distributor, the willingness to buy the product from you by small vendors is going to be nil.

If you say NO, what will be your conditions?
The condition has to be. Walmart/ Saravana Stores can sell the same product at 10-20% less than the MRP (maximum retail price) and if they want they can offer any freebies as their wish to promote sales.

In that way the value of the product is still not lost. If you remember the popular tamil magazine Kunkumam their intial offer was with lots of other products as freebies and still maintaining the MRP.

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How Commercial Software, can fight against the Free Softwares?

Before you jumping in to making of a software you looked in to the market and realized there is enough market share. Now you made it, wanted to test them. You made it free as a beta Phase, you now started making commercial version of the same and by retaining the free version with limited features for people to try.

Guess what? A new player comes and provides a me too version of the software for free, only revenue channel being advertisement inside the product.

How do you fight the free version?

Now let us look at same problem solved by the big software companies, I am just taking 2 examples.

  1. Microsoft Windows VS Linux
  2. Camtasia snagit VS Firefox addons Screen Grab VS WINK (Free)

Microsoft Windows – People continue to make fun of the “Blue screen of Death” in Windows, but funny bone people continue to run their machines with the same Microsoft Windows OS at least the majority of them.

When the threat came from Linux for Windows, I remember every media said that it was death of Windows and even now people say that web will be the new OS, that is still speculative.

What did Microsoft Windows do?
If I am not wrong, they came with lot of advertisements to educate users about the benefits of using Windows. They came with Windows XP SP1, SP2 & SP3 and fixed as much as they could. They executed it well.

I believe the marketing spend on Microsoft XP could have been almost or significantly nil when XP sales was at its peak. Word of mouth still holds good in business. Techies still continue to say XP is stable compared to Vista and there is no major innovation in Vista, that people have upgrade to Vista.

To say, we are still dependent on Microsoft for most of our office productivity. Aren’t we?

The second story is the most significant one. Their product is easy to create and it requires less effort and they still continue to be leaders in their USP. I am taking about TechSmith the makers of Camtasia Snagit.

They did face the similar issue of free software from the open source community.

The popularity of Firefox add ons created a market slow down for Camtasia Snagit and on top of that was the Freeware software called WINK, it did almost the same functionality of Snagit and it was free and forums was available for support.

How did TechSmith Camtasia Snagit fight?
Camtasia Snagit 7.2.5 the earlier commercial version of the software was given free.

Do you want to know why they made it free?
The story goes like this in the Indian shop vendors or Medical Shops, If you ask for a medicine and if it is currently out of stock, they will send one of their members to collect the same medicine from the medical store just opposite their store or even few streets away to procure the same and give it to their customers. It is that the customer gets a feeling that any medicine he needs can be obtained. And that he will come back to the same medical store if he needed one.

TechSmith didn’t want end users to try free software instead allowed users to try the previous commercial version for free.

I use Camtasia Snagit free edition as I experience the reliable, proven and easy to use screen capturing/recording software. BTW, I have already tried the software and its features, and even know each and every interface. It is just that it is easy to use, Comfortable. The only feeling being left out, that I am unable to use the advanced features, which are available in the current commercial version.

For the extra mileage they have contributed few projects called Jing Project and ScreenCast
That takes care of community etc etc

Final Notes: Winning over Free is difficult, but not impossible. If you believe in Free, you can’t win over Free. Undo the learning and fight against Free. If you wish to.

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Egg logic – apply to reduce Fuel price

The below mail was forward, I think it is worth a read for people who want to reduce the price of Petrol. If not many, I would like to still support this movement. Wish there was some website to educate people.

A man eats two eggs each morning for breakfast.  When he goes to the
grocery  store he pays 60 cents a dozen. Since a dozen eggs won’t last
a week he normally buys two dozen at a time. One day while buying eggs he
notices that the price has risen to 72 cents. The  next time he buys
groceries, eggs are 76 cents a dozen.

When asked to explain the price of eggs the store owner says, “The price
has gone up and I have to raise my price accordingly”. This store buys 100
dozen eggs a day.  He checked around for a better price and all the
distributors have raised their prices. The distributors have begun to buy
from the huge egg farms.  The small egg farms have been driven out of
business.  The huge egg farms sell 100,000 dozen eggs a day to distributors.
With no competition, they can set the price as they see fit. The
distributors then have to raise their prices to t he grocery stores. And on
and on and on.

As the man kept buying eggs the price kept going up. He saw the big egg
trucks delivering 100 dozen eggs each day. Nothing changed there.   He
checked out the huge egg farms and found they were selling 100,000
dozen eggs to the distributors daily. Nothing had changed but the price of
eggs.

Then week before Thanksgiving the price of eggs shot up to $1.00 a
dozen. Again  he asked the grocery owner why and was told, “Cakes and
baking for the holiday”.  The huge egg farmers know there will be a lot of
baking going on and more eggs will be used. Hence, the price of eggs goes
up. Expect the same thing at Christmas and other times when family cooking,
baking, etc. happen.

This pattern continues until the price of eggs is 2.00 a dozen. The man
says, ” There must be something we can do about the price of eggs”.

He starts talking to all the people in his town and they decide to stop
buying  eggs. This didn’t work because everyone needed eggs.

Finally, the man suggested only buying what you need.  He ate 2 eggs a
day. On the way home from work he would stop at the grocery and buy two
eggs. Everyone in town started buying 2 or 3 eggs a day.

The grocery store owner began complaining that he had too many eggs in
his cooler.  He told the distributor that he didn’t need any eggs.  Maybe
wouldn’t need any all week.

The distributor had eggs piling up at his warehouse.  He told the huge
egg farms that he didn’t have any room for eggs would not need any for at
least two weeks.

At the egg farm, the chickens just kept on laying eggs.   To relieve
the pressure, the huge egg farm told the distributor that they could buy
the eggs at a lower price.

The distributor said, ” I don’t have the room for  the %$&^*&% eggs
even if they were free”.   T he distributor told the grocery store owner
that he would lower the price of the eggs if the store would start buying
again.

The grocery store owner said, “I don’t have room for more eggs. The
customers  are only buying 2 or 3 eggs at a time.  Now if you were to
drop the price of eggs back down to the original price, the customers would
start buying by the dozen again”.

The distributors sent that proposal to the huge egg farmers but the egg
farmers liked the price they were getting for their eggs but, those
chickens just kept on laying.  Fin ally, the egg farmers lowered the price
of their eggs.

But only a few cents.

The customers still bought 2 or 3 eggs at a time. They said, “when the
price of  eggs gets down to where it was before, we will start buying by
the dozen.”

Slowly the price of eggs started dropping.  The distributors had to
slash their prices to make room for the eggs coming from the egg farmers.

The egg farmers cut their prices because the distributors wouldn’t buy
at a higher price than they were selling eggs for. Anyway, they had full
warehouses and wouldn’t need eggs for quite a while.

And those chickens kept on laying.

Eventually, the egg farmers cut their prices because they were throwing
away eggs they couldn’t sell.

The distributors started buying again because the eggs were priced to
where the  stores could afford to sell them at the lower price.

And the customers starting buying by the dozen again.

Now, transpose this analogy to the gasoline industry.

What if everyone only bought $10.00 worth of gas each time they pulled
to the pump?  The dealer’s tanks would stay semi full all the time.  The
dealers wouldn’t have room for the gas coming from the huge tank farms.
The tank farms wouldn’t  have room for the gas coming from the refining
plants. And the refining plants wouldn’t have room for the oil being off
loaded from the huge tankers  coming from the oil fiends.

Just $10.00 each time you buy gas. Don’t fill it up.  You may have to
stop for gas twice a week but, the price should come down.

Think about it.

As an added note…When I buy $10.00 worth of gas that leaves my tank a
little under quarter full. The way prices are jumping around, you can
buy gas for $2.65 a gallon and then the next morning it can be $2.15.
If you have your tank full of $2.65 gas you don’t have room for the $2.15
gas.

You might not  understand the  economics of only buying two eggs at a time
but,

you can’t buy cheaper gas if your tank is full of the high priced stuff.

Also, don’t buy anything else at the gas station; don’t give them any
more of your hard earned money than what you spend on gas, until the prices
come down…”

just think of this concept for a while.

………………please pass this concept around….reaching out to
the mass ..the world …..the universe

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What it takes to win in Marketing?

You must have had this aptitude test questions asked by some marketing guys or hot sexy ladies during interviews or during a casual talks.

Suppose you are the conductor, and there are 2 tracks, on one track 5 kids are playing which is the usual path for the train the track 1 and on the track 2 has one kid playing, Now which track will you allow the train to pass through

What would be your choice?
I choose the track 2 with the one kid, because I didn’t want all of them to die.

Here comes the Smart marketing guy’s answer. Hey, the 5 kids on the track 1 know that it is the usual path for the train. They expect the train to cross on this track, so they will move away. So don’t kill the single kid who doesn’t expect the train to pass on track 2.

Wow, a smart answer isn’t it.

Is there any one in the crowd wants to fight with this Smart Marketing ass.

Well I do, Did you ever notice the missing pieces of text from the above question.

Suppose you are the conductor, and there are 2 tracks, on one track 5 kids are playing which is the usual path for the train the track 1 and on the track 2 has one kid playing, Now which track will you allow the train to pass through. Well the 5 kids do know that the train passes through this track 1 apart from that, the kid on the track 2 also know that the train passes through track 1.

So ask the above question to a close friend to find the answer?, You will get the answers.

The trick comes by concealing vital information, Like saying it is obvious or known fact or even by jumbling words to make it look like it conveys the meaning.

So be careful, when you have conversation with a marketing guys and sexy marketing women too ;) . Mostly they win by their words, it’s Ok to loose, but gain the experience.

That is marketing – all marketers are lairs. I didn’t say that, “Seth Godin ” said that.

Well I  just pulling my close marketing friends in to debate.

Tested on animals – Mahindra Renault Logan

Event: Mahindra Renault Logan Drivathon
Date: 25-12-2007 (Christmas Day)
Venue: YMCA, Nanadhanam, Chennai
Contact: S.Kumar
Mobile:98409 47464

It is supposed to be fun rally organized by Mahindra Renault Logan to test the mileage of your Mahindra Renault Logan.

  • Do you want to know who where the animals?
  • and Who tested on them?
  • and Who benefited out of this Mahindra Renault Logan Drivathon?

Before we start, Let us understand on how to test Mileage

  1. Fill up petrol- full tank
  2. check the odometer reading
  3. If you have trip meter, set it Zero
  4. take a long drive say about 100 and odd KMS, never switch off your car in between your drive (to get good readings)
  5. Follow the speed limit (45-55 KMS/hour)
  6. Once you reach 100 and odd KMS, go to next fuel station
  7. Top up the fuel, to full tank.
  8. Note the KMS traveled from your odometer, check the trip meter reading
  9. Note check how much of fuel was needed to have it full tank
  10. trip meter reading/ top up fuel needed to full tank will give you = Mileage i.e KM per Litre

So what happened at Mahindra Renault Logan Drivathon – car rally
I was there for the event at 8:30 AM at the venue. The event is supposed to start at 9:00AM which didn’t happen, because of the lack of management skills. Flag off happened, after few apologies made by the announcer.

I started to take the drive at 12:09 PM, went to the Fuel station at Venkanarayana Road.

A gentleman approached and said “Sir we will fill the tank full, out of which 5 litres of fuel price will be waived off and the rest you have to pay, Is that fine with you”.

I accepted, this is how they filled the fuel

My odometer readings were noted down and written on the card. My trip meter was made zero. And I started of to the rally.

Most cars had ladies and kids in the car – the best part was that, some car drivers took a break on the road side to take a leak. “What about the ladies and the kids?” What a shame?, Even if they had arranged for some nice place to take a short break for 2 hour long drive, it would have been nice. Well, my family did take a break at the Petrol Pump station at Venkatnarayana road, before the rally started. I realized, so was happy for my family too.

So my trip meter reading said 103 KMS when I was back from Mahabalipuram to Venkatanaraya road Bharat petrol pump station. I was doing between 50 and 60 KMS/hour. I was driving like a monkey as ordered, to execute things as said.

Now the top up started at the pumping station which recorded about 4.155 litres of petrol. So that means 103/4.155 should be my mileage. Which is actually wrong, because the Car fuel indicator says that my petrol tank is still not full. (Check the video)

My mileage is 24.789 KM per litre, WOW, I could believe it. The same car was doing last week, having a mileage of 9 KM per litre

Here is one more catch my fuel indicator was not saying that it is full tank, see the video to believe it. See other photos to know what was my readings.
data sheet
Click on the image for a larger view

Did you notice the time, which I referred while I entered the pump station 12:09 PM and at what time did I start 12:35 PM and at what time I reached the pump station again 2:59 PM
You want to why the delay
Mahindra Renault Logan - in queue just outside the pump station

Mahindra Renault Logan - in queue just outside side of road outside pump station
Click on the image for a larger view
Do you see the Mahindra Renault Logan on the opposite side of the road in a queue.



What is explained in the video?
If you noticed the video, I had taken at the time when I reached the YMCA ground, still wondering WHY the fuel indicator is not showing the fuel tank full. So it means that there is enough space to fill up some more fuel to make it full tank. Which most of them didn’t realize.

Now to answer the questions

Do you want to know who where the animals?
there were 100 and odd drivers with their family, driving their cars, following orders and not not having fun on the gracious day Christmas

and Who tested on us?
Mahindra Renault Logan Marketing team

A surprise did happen during the prize distribution ceremony. A owner of Mahindra Renault Logan was agitated and trying to claim for the prize as his car did a 40KM per litre mileage (Diesel version owner)

and Who benefited out of this Mahindra Renault Logan Drivathon?
Can you imagine 100 and odd drivers spending their money to filling up the fuel tank full and driving their own cars and following orders at the mercy of Mahindra Renault Logan team for only one reason to prove that Mahindra Renault can do 33KMs per litre for the petrol version and 37KMs per litre on the Diesel version.
I should say that the marketing guys made little spend by gaining more

  1. breakfast (bread sandwich and water, if you like it eat it else leave it. That was stance. Hospitality ZERO)
  2. 5 litres of fuel waived off during full tank session
  3. lunch (Saravana bhavan – Mini meals)
  4. and another 4-5 litres of fuel for top up total of 8-9 litres of fuel while including the 5 litre of fuel which was waived off during the full tank session (Petrol or Diesel)
  5. Spend on venue
  6. And of course the event management team.

Who are the loser?

  1. Fuel to fill up the tank
  2. quality family time on the Christmas day
  3. apart from that those god damn sponsor stickers from JK tyre and those numbers sticked all over the car. Who is gonna pay to remove that, With out spending money.

Car stickers
Mahindra Renault Logan owners are the ultimate losers to gain new customers

Who were the gainers?
Mahindra Renault Logan Marketing team – to make fake mileage result. It is pretty simple I say, you have around 100 odd drivers at your disposal feed them you have the results.

Do you want to know how this Viral Marketing is supposed to work?
Let’s say 100 and odd Mahindra Renault Logan happy customers, who had good mileage experience is about to unfold the secret to all their friends and relatives, well sort of boasting off that their car did give an ultimate mileage.

If you care for fellow car owners please digg this or post a link on your blogs. Atleast the new car owners can be spared.

some related posts regarding Mahindra Renault Logan

Some more post which are in continuation with Mahindra Renault Logan

  1. How I bought my new Mahindra Renault Logan – space, value for Money- Review
  2. Why Mahindra Logan, Renault Logan, Dacia Logan?
  3. Mahindra Logan – Usability Explored
  4. Is your Mahindra Logan in safe hands – After sales, What service
  5. Mahindra Logan – Look out for the new version
  6. Mahindra Renault Logan free service – unveiled
  7. The Devil in my Mahindra Renault Logan

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Why Mahindra Renault Logan, Renault Logan, Dacia Logan?

Dacia Logan

Renault Logan

Mahindra Logan

Mahindra Renault Logan

Did you notice the contents of the links, Yes it is the same car. So ultimately it is Dacia Logan under the rebranded name of Renault and marketed in India under the name of Mahindra and Renault.

So why choose a Logan?
I just fell for the price and the boot space.

  1. Price: A entry level sedan at the price of premium hatch back.
  2. Boot space: more than, Honda City WOW. I travel to my native place. All the time I had baggages placed inside the cabin of my Maruti 800. Didn’t want things around me any more.
  3. Lots of Space: Room/ head space.
  4. Of course the tubeless tires

Just like Maruti 800 is the entry level for hatch back, I would say Mahindra Renault Logan is an entry level for a Sedan. Don’t expect too much…

Here is my test drive experience on Mahindra Renault Logan

Some more post on Mahindra Renault Logan

  1. How I bought my new Mahindra Renault Logan – space, value for Money- Review
  2. Mahindra Logan – Usability Explored
  3. Is your Mahindra Logan in safe hands – After sales, What service
  4. Mahindra Logan – Look out for the new version
  5. Mahindra Renault Logan free service – unveiled
  6. The Devil in my Mahindra Renault Logan

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Is your Mahindra Renault Logan in safe hands – After sales, What service- Review

Mahindra Renault Logan

After buying the brand new Mahindra Logan 1.4 GLX, How do you expect your car to be delivered on the delivery date?
Brand new. Well I didn’t.

This is how I received my car.
With stains all over in patches here and there.
Logan stains

Logan stains

Gear box covered

The wrapper was intentionally made in order to cover the stain in the gear box, Damn thing was sticky after I removed the wrapper.

Gear box dirty

When other customers receive the Mahindra Logan as brand new, Why choose me to have a stained one.

Well now to the RC book, I had to call up after 3 weeks and I receive them like this.
RC book small

Click on the image for a larger version.
Mahindra Renault Logan Floor mat
Mahindra Renault Logan under Floor mat stain
Mahindra Renault Logan under Floor mat stain
Above are the floor mat and the stain under the floor mat.
Well What is the mistake on the above RC book. Did you find my 1.4 GLX and it is mentioned diesel version. How come the petrol version be diesel.

I am yet to receive my RC book, let me see. whether I have to call or will I ever receive it corrected.

Here is one more customer experience:

A friend of mine had bought the Mahindra Logan 1.6 GLS petrol version. Here is the problem which he faced on the second day ( he was able to notice the problem the next day after filling the petrol tank full on the day of the purchase).
Mahindra Logan 1.6 Petrol cable punctured

Mahindra Logan 1.6 Petrol cable punctured
Mahindra Logan 1.6 Petrol cable punctured
Above Mahindra Logan 1.6 Petrol cable punctured. Click on the image for a detailed view.

What was answer from the Service professional for the above?
“Sir, it is rat bite, You will need to replace the cable, that would cost you”, At last after few talks with the sales guy the cost of the cable is supposed to be adjusted during the first service (reimbursement).

What happened to the pre delivery Inspection?

So how do you trust Mahindra Logan Service center dealers. It is almost 2000 KM, it is time for my 1st service. I am worried on the service looking upon the quality of response from Mahindra dealers.

Some more post on Mahindra Renault Logan

  1. How I bought my new Mahindra Logan – space, value for money
  2. Why Mahindra Logan, Renault Logan, Dacia Logan?
  3. Mahindra Logan – Usability Explored
  4. Mahindra Logan – Look out for the new version


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