Ganapati Bappa Morya.wmv

‘Sorry’ is a powerful word

We keep saying ‘Sorry’ as the word left back by the British rulers when we are not happy with some one using the word, but ‘apology/Expression of regret’ has been practiced since ancient times. Probably without that the civilisation would not have progressed this far. Imagine if only Kauravas had expressed regret and given the share of kingdom to the Pandavas the entire Kurukshetra war could have been avoided, where 18 lakh warriors have been killed

I would like to narrate two incidents where I have personally experienced the effectiveness of the word ‘Sorry’

I had to take my daughter to participate in some colouring event organised by her Art school. It was some record seeking event, hence there was a huge gathering. As I reached the destination, I was trying to open my car door and suddenly a scooter driven by a lady with two kids zoomed in and my car door kinda got jammed with some part of the scooter. Lady who could not hold balance fell to the side with the kids n scooter. I could not come out of the car (being bulky as I am) as the passage was narrow, people around helped her to get up and lifted the scooter. She started hollering about my basic civic sense etc etc. However as I came out of the car first thing I did was to profusely say ‘sorry’ to express the regret of my action and repeated the word number of times. I noticed that no one around said anything more and all was well.

We notice many a time on the road small lapses leading to major fights just because a person’s ego does not permit them to apologise. Even when some one is at fault they will simply do not accept it, will not the world and more specifically roads be more safer if only the word ‘Sorry’ is said the way it should be said.

Second instance, When I was associated with a liquor company we had a product launch in a state capital, after the hype n hoopla was over with the launch, bar was thrown open for the invitees. Unfortunately, the crowd was not what we thought, it would be and in a jiffy the entire liquor got vamoosed. Some angry guest threw a glass at the display behind in the process hurting one of the bar attendee. I sensed situation was going out of hand, rushed to the hotel authorities to help me with security, they expressed their own helplessness. Then I had only one choice, went straight to the bar counter started apologising with the guests who were standing near the counter and demanding liquor ‘Maaf kijiye, abhi bar counter bandh hai’ with both my palms together in a namaste, by repeating this with most of them, slowly the noise around the counter started coming down, then I noticed my senior also doing the same job of requesting others. Probably this is what Gandhji meant when he said offer other cheek if some one slaps you on a cheek. We could peacefully shut down the show thereafter.

In life we keep saying ‘Sorry’ as the most misused word but let me tell you if used in the right situations it can work wonders. In most marriages, business partnerships, we notice differences and some amount of shouting, a quick apology once some one notices that they have gone overboard can work wonders for a peace in a marriage or a relationship. No doubt the problems will persist when we do not want to accept we are at fault, that is what ‘EGO’ does to one.

Making a regional brand National

It was in the year 2006 I set out to work with a Spoken English training company 'Veta' with a task to make the brand visible across India at the shortest possible time. By the time I joined they were quite well known in the southern India being popular in the three bigger states of the south. Incidentally there was a re-branding exercise carried out in the year 2005 in these markets.

One of the critical factors was the kind of arrangement which the company had with the franchisee. Company had committed to promote to ensure the required walk-ins to the centre to enable the franchisee to carry on the business profitably, for this purpose they had devised a method of sharing revenues on 50:50 basis.

When I started, the marketing department had none on board and it was I who had to build my team, what more can you ask the management, in spite of the handicap of not having any executors.

As I set of, realised there was nothing to show in terms of a presentation, to a prospective partner and had to first develop an AV for this purpose. Then came the entry into the northern markets, Bhopal was the first and later Delhi the capital. Meanwhile the management had a market potential study carried out for the Delhi market, and the study clearly indicated the need for an aggressive pricing of the courses and the need for displaying aggression.

By May 2006 we were all set to inaugurate the centres and a big budget was allocated for this purpose. PR agency said Delhi media will not look at us if we do not have a personality present, certainly not wanting it, but was pushed to accept the inevitability. Navjyot Singh Sidhu, A leading Politican who was cricketer and a commentator and who was also visible on TV did the honours of inaugurating the first branch in the capital and addressed the media too. While he did his best not to speak too much about cricket, the coverage was hijacked by his sheer presence, inauguration getting a passing mention. This is something any organisation has to keep in mind when planning to do a press meet in Delhi or Mumbai, avoid personalities, but insist on your PR agency to make the show relevant, am sure they can come up with a worth while idea.

Four leading news papers carry a front page solus announcing the inauguration and FM radio was used too. Response was tremendous, we were inundated with calls, first batch started in no time, it was really hunky dory. We continued our visibility exercise to attract the walk-ins, After a while enquiry conversions were not happening.

A leading player not getting the required admissions was a shocker, when we started doing a small study on those who didn’t opt to join, we realised ‘Regional leadership doesn’t guarantee national acceptance’ and this set our minds to think as to how do you correct the situation having spent some good monies on the Delhi launch. We had to say it out loud and clear that we were the best.

For some reason the agency that created the brand, could not come up with a suitable thought process to address the problem on hand.

We had to look out for a new agency and it is a time consuming process, how ever we didn’t stop there but worked out a plan with the help of the media agency for a campaign on national television, a budget of Rs.2.5 crores was allotted for this purpose. Fortunately we had a good commercial, hardly used, ready with us and we started the campaign

Break of the campaign and the selection of the new agency almost happened simultaneously. TV campaign started helping us with lot of fresh enquiries both for franchise and students happening. New centres that started were getting filled up in no time, it was gung ho time for all of us at the HQ and my small team was bubbling with the laurels.

We had to now focus on a unique identity through a common signage at all our centres, this was entrusted to the new agency who gave us the tagline of ‘Experts’. They came with a good signage design and we had to roll out the same at all the centres.

We had one major disaster of a campaign that misfired, we took up the speed gun option in a cricket series on a TV channel and both were doomed. Tri series became a one to one due to some bombings in the host country, rain disrupted play, the sports channel had distribution problems. Lot of good money was wasted due to things beyond any one’s control. We should have pulled out, but we were so gung-ho on cricket we never saw a reason to fail. So much water has flown under the bridge since then, Cricket viewer ship has taken some new dimensions.

It was observed that the kind of business we were in it had seasonal implications and a need to keep attracting new students on a regular basis. Being visible 365x24 was a must. So one way of doing that was, to think Global and act local. One of the main reasons for this is we have the peculiarity of each city having some restrictions and certain freedom. To plan this sitting at one end of the country and to think for each city is the challenge, except TV, using other media had to be a very research oriented exercise. While most cities ban posters, the activity keeps going on as the authorities tend to over look the offenders, however problem was with some cities where any kind of Out door was not available, one had to really innovate to be visible in those places. Market feedback becomes the key element in this regard.

Since this business needs constant visibility, it is best to be seen on roads where the TG passes through, news papers most of the time are not read by this TG. FM Radio started becoming an option how ever their pricing was not in sync with the market reality. Out door becomes one of the best options, so we worked more on traffic medians, crash bars, pole ads etc. These did give us a lot of brand recall.

Our business needs testimonials, at the same time there was a peculiar problem where a student doesn’t want to own up to going for a training class to improve his English. So we had to give our students a unique identity which helped in the required acceptance to the fact of being part of the organisation. We started printing out a news letter called 'Vetalk' too, with tips on English and lots of testimonials. Physical copies of the newsletter were made available in the centres and online, down loadable copies were posted.

Mean while due to certain lethargy on part of the agency-2, they prompted us to look for an alternative, we had to come up with a third agency in a short span.

During this entire process we had some good PR work happening and the PR agency was keeping us in the news in most of the places.

By the time the third agency was in place we were very much in the lime light and there was general acceptance among the student community. We had funding happening too. However the need to establish as a superior player was the need as comparison was normally with the best local player in terms of pricing, training etc.

To implant the brand of the company in future learners of English, we started an effort as part of CSR activity by starting safety clubs in schools, an idea well appreciated by the school authorities.

Key factors for the successful branding were the support of the management, keen involvement of the marketing team in executing things. Things to watch out for are, always be in sync with what is happening at the operational front, ensure on time delivery of promo material for which ever is the event. Ensure top of mind recall in the local area by acting local, without compromising the image of the brand.

Once the brand was made popular the next thing was looking at brand extensions. We revamped our correspondence course material and called it 'Veta Best' (Best English Self Tutor) with the guidance of the Marketing Guru Sri Jagdeep Kapoor. We also decided to go into smaller towns with 1-3 lakh population with our new centres 'Veta One', where the franchise was given only the promo designs and he was to carryout his own campaign.



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