It was around 9:00 pm in the night of December, when the chill of the cold winter was running through my spine when I was heading back home. Like a common habit or the natural human behavior I couldn’t help but observe things around me and read every billboard, every sign and every person. Sometimes I wonder while waiting at the junctions thinking what the other person who is waiting next to me is thinking at that moment. I know its sounds a little crazy or you might think I might be just bored and jobless that I am thinking such random stuff but if you’ve come so far reading what I have written you might as well read what I intend to squeeze out of my observation. This random observation or noticing things inspired me to write this next post.
Like everyone, once while traveling I was waiting at the red light of a junction waiting for the light to go green. It was a tiring day at college listening to all the management & business related lectures and the never ending list of pending assignments. With a long sigh I just stood there at the junction. Slowly from the corner of my eye I noticed an old man with unwashed grey hair and dirty torn clothes with the expression of misery and hunger on his face approach me. Like most of us I tried not to notice and play cold to him but he just wouldn't go away until I gave him some money. I couldn’t help but wonder whether the beggar was the true MBA. Right from the STP analysis to branding himself as icon of hunger & misery, from consumer perception to meeting targets by the end of the day, he does it with planning, control and leads by example among his fellow colleagues. Their school begins at the footpath and they gain their practical experience on the road. Their men, women, half naked children, women with sleeping babies wrapped around them, the old men with sticks and shivering hands, handicapped, amputated arms and legs, there is every product for every customer.
At first he picks up the target customer at the junction, then analyzes by which vehicle he is traveling then comes with the approach strategy for it all this in just few seconds and end of it meeting the targets of having enough money from every red light. I feel that the best branding strategies can be learned from these beggars- the people in financial trouble.
