What the best MBA schools in the country couldn't teach in the classroom was learnt by Mr. M in a few months. It was a highly valuable marketing lesson and it would definitely go in the annals of the sales and marketing literature as a great case study. Was it how to sell or how to be a sincere customer, we will know very soon.
It was just another SMS on Mr. M's cellphone today like many of junk SMSes that he received everyday. Somehow Mr. M found the sender's name interesting and decided to read it. The name spelt something like slapdeal.com. Mr. M decided to check out the website. It was soon to cast a spell on Mr. M as the website offered everything starting from the meanest undies to the most technically advanced gadgets of the modern world and offered everything with an offer. Some offers showered 20 % discount, some 40%, some 60 % and some even more than 100 %. 'Offer' was soon to become a favorite word of Mr. M. It was something like what Vito Corleone said in Godfather - "I will make you an offer you can't refuse". So got started Mr. M. The slapdeal always made an offer Mr. M couldn't refuse.
The slapdeal kept slapping the offers and Mr. M kept snapping them. The slapdeal never gave Mr. M to have a second thought as whatever Mr. M ordered were delivered by slapdeal to him at his doorstep in a day or two. In the meantime he could consider rather oblige other offers from slapdeal. The bank balance of Mr. M kept flowing, oneway to slapdeal and in return slapdeal always kept the promise. The promise of never letting Mr. M go. They became rather inseparable from each other like the coral and the colourful algae. The coral shines in a multitude of colours because of the algae that attaches to it for its food - in a symbiotic relationship. The only doubt was, who was the one shining here.
Mr. M left nothing to buy from slapdeal. Number of undies to last for eternity, boxers to last for all the summers, the boxers which if all opened up and stitched together could fit Gulliver in a different world, pen drives together spacious enough to take 100 times over back up of his hard disks, beds that could be stacked to reach to the ceiling in his flat, the T-shirts which overflowed in his wardrobe, the suitcases which he started using as tables after stacking, the watches that he never wore, the shoes that became the scale to measure the level of dust settling in the room, the things he never knew the use of and so on and so on.
Thus, the time went on and Mr. M kept himself hooked to slapdeal. In the meantime he got introduced to many other such websites as well and kept an affair with them all at the same time. Soon a time came when just his name sufficed on the delivery package. It was only Mr. M that had to be inscribed on the package and the courier company at once knew where to deliver it. He was no less than a celebrity among slapdeal and all other fraternity. Even the courier company started giving him offers. One of them was - 2 couriers free with 1 courier and these couriers could be booked from anywhere to anywhere within India. The courier company even got a new idea of introducing 'city points' ; only because of Mr. M. Mr. M even got the best customer award from one of these courier companies. Of course he was always the choice for the best customer award from slapdeal and fraternity.
The love kept blossoming, the attraction never fading and the offers kept coming. Suddenly something happened. One fine day Mr. M woke up, straightened up and tried to get down from the bed. To his horror, there was no space left in the room to put his feet anywhere on the floor. He had received the last package from slapdeal only the other evening, had kept it on the floor, then got busy with his laptop and then slept with it. It was now only in the morning that he knew that was the last square foot of floor left in the room to keep that package. He had become a prisoner in his own room; a prisoner of his own making. The offers had made him blind, too blind to see how his bank accounts, credit cards were getting drained down the offer lane. He switched on the laptop lying besides him and checked the status of his bank accounts. For the first time after months he could see crystal clear. His bank balance had remained a zero sum game since months. Within 2 days of the salary coming to his account it had always vanished like anything. And his credit card was heavy with debt.
Mr. M's heart sank. He looked up and the ceiling felt like rotating with a high speed. Then he looked down and sounds came from every corner of the room - "Use me use me, you bought me with an offer and never used me. you cheater, you an offer freak and so on". He could now feel the noise but couldn't hear. He could see everything around but couldn't recognize.
What were all these things lying in his room? From where all this came? What use of they were? He asked all the questions and got the answers for none. Then he screamed, screamed louder and louder and to his surprise he heard none. Then he became quiet. He tried to recognize everything around him again and tried to recompose himself. He slowly started to think and moved down the memory lane, the lane that had been so enticing since last few months and now the same lane looked all parked with thorns. The thorns which had now pierced him all over.
Mr. M started thinking again, the thing which he had forgotten to do since last few months. The stuffs have already been bought. They can't be returned anyway. What to do of all of this and how to repay the credit card debts. Now his mind was working fast. He had learnt two valuable lessons of marketing. First, if you have to sell a product don't tell the consumer of what use it can be. Just tell them about the offer on this product. Second, as a consumer don't get trapped in these offers. A big bulb brightened inside his head and a wide smile swept across his face. He had decided what he had to do. He had already learnt the second lesson the hard way. It was the first lesson which he had to earn.
While I'm doing countdown to publish this blog, Mr. M is sitting comfortably on the cash counter of a big shop in an upmarket area in Delhi. Everything is on sale and everything with an offer. It took him only a month to dispose of all the stuffs he had bought on offer from slapdeal and fraternity.
He even earned some profit on them by doubling their price and then giving huge discount offers on them. And he only knows of all the diverse arrows in his armoury of selling skills he has acquired since setting up his shop and he keeps firing them everyday from the bow of offers. The board of his shop reads - "Everything on offer".
It was just another SMS on Mr. M's cellphone today like many of junk SMSes that he received everyday. Somehow Mr. M found the sender's name interesting and decided to read it. The name spelt something like slapdeal.com. Mr. M decided to check out the website. It was soon to cast a spell on Mr. M as the website offered everything starting from the meanest undies to the most technically advanced gadgets of the modern world and offered everything with an offer. Some offers showered 20 % discount, some 40%, some 60 % and some even more than 100 %. 'Offer' was soon to become a favorite word of Mr. M. It was something like what Vito Corleone said in Godfather - "I will make you an offer you can't refuse". So got started Mr. M. The slapdeal always made an offer Mr. M couldn't refuse.
The slapdeal kept slapping the offers and Mr. M kept snapping them. The slapdeal never gave Mr. M to have a second thought as whatever Mr. M ordered were delivered by slapdeal to him at his doorstep in a day or two. In the meantime he could consider rather oblige other offers from slapdeal. The bank balance of Mr. M kept flowing, oneway to slapdeal and in return slapdeal always kept the promise. The promise of never letting Mr. M go. They became rather inseparable from each other like the coral and the colourful algae. The coral shines in a multitude of colours because of the algae that attaches to it for its food - in a symbiotic relationship. The only doubt was, who was the one shining here.
Mr. M left nothing to buy from slapdeal. Number of undies to last for eternity, boxers to last for all the summers, the boxers which if all opened up and stitched together could fit Gulliver in a different world, pen drives together spacious enough to take 100 times over back up of his hard disks, beds that could be stacked to reach to the ceiling in his flat, the T-shirts which overflowed in his wardrobe, the suitcases which he started using as tables after stacking, the watches that he never wore, the shoes that became the scale to measure the level of dust settling in the room, the things he never knew the use of and so on and so on.
Thus, the time went on and Mr. M kept himself hooked to slapdeal. In the meantime he got introduced to many other such websites as well and kept an affair with them all at the same time. Soon a time came when just his name sufficed on the delivery package. It was only Mr. M that had to be inscribed on the package and the courier company at once knew where to deliver it. He was no less than a celebrity among slapdeal and all other fraternity. Even the courier company started giving him offers. One of them was - 2 couriers free with 1 courier and these couriers could be booked from anywhere to anywhere within India. The courier company even got a new idea of introducing 'city points' ; only because of Mr. M. Mr. M even got the best customer award from one of these courier companies. Of course he was always the choice for the best customer award from slapdeal and fraternity.
The love kept blossoming, the attraction never fading and the offers kept coming. Suddenly something happened. One fine day Mr. M woke up, straightened up and tried to get down from the bed. To his horror, there was no space left in the room to put his feet anywhere on the floor. He had received the last package from slapdeal only the other evening, had kept it on the floor, then got busy with his laptop and then slept with it. It was now only in the morning that he knew that was the last square foot of floor left in the room to keep that package. He had become a prisoner in his own room; a prisoner of his own making. The offers had made him blind, too blind to see how his bank accounts, credit cards were getting drained down the offer lane. He switched on the laptop lying besides him and checked the status of his bank accounts. For the first time after months he could see crystal clear. His bank balance had remained a zero sum game since months. Within 2 days of the salary coming to his account it had always vanished like anything. And his credit card was heavy with debt.
Mr. M's heart sank. He looked up and the ceiling felt like rotating with a high speed. Then he looked down and sounds came from every corner of the room - "Use me use me, you bought me with an offer and never used me. you cheater, you an offer freak and so on". He could now feel the noise but couldn't hear. He could see everything around but couldn't recognize.
What were all these things lying in his room? From where all this came? What use of they were? He asked all the questions and got the answers for none. Then he screamed, screamed louder and louder and to his surprise he heard none. Then he became quiet. He tried to recognize everything around him again and tried to recompose himself. He slowly started to think and moved down the memory lane, the lane that had been so enticing since last few months and now the same lane looked all parked with thorns. The thorns which had now pierced him all over.
Mr. M started thinking again, the thing which he had forgotten to do since last few months. The stuffs have already been bought. They can't be returned anyway. What to do of all of this and how to repay the credit card debts. Now his mind was working fast. He had learnt two valuable lessons of marketing. First, if you have to sell a product don't tell the consumer of what use it can be. Just tell them about the offer on this product. Second, as a consumer don't get trapped in these offers. A big bulb brightened inside his head and a wide smile swept across his face. He had decided what he had to do. He had already learnt the second lesson the hard way. It was the first lesson which he had to earn.
While I'm doing countdown to publish this blog, Mr. M is sitting comfortably on the cash counter of a big shop in an upmarket area in Delhi. Everything is on sale and everything with an offer. It took him only a month to dispose of all the stuffs he had bought on offer from slapdeal and fraternity.
He even earned some profit on them by doubling their price and then giving huge discount offers on them. And he only knows of all the diverse arrows in his armoury of selling skills he has acquired since setting up his shop and he keeps firing them everyday from the bow of offers. The board of his shop reads - "Everything on offer".
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