Lets talk Business

Brittania, Lays, Centerfresh, Milo - the titans of marketing by giving-away-useless-products-for-free strategy.

All such business tactics are manoeuvred to ascertain no-bargain sales of the product and its target zeroes in on the most profitable age bracket - kids. Human's innate tendency is to grab free stuff. Never mind the cost of the actual product man. You are getting something FREE. Something that you dont deserve to have and consequently never mind losing. No responsibility hovers over the free item. Gets damaged? Nomatter at all, its anyway FREE. You can hand it over to the deprived, be a good philanthropist with a wide stupid grin... Philanthropy at no cost, i.e FREE.

Indians are really good bargainers, probably the best. Ability wise on par with Aussie cricket. Even while buying stuff that is not legally or ethically right, they bargain, asking the seller to be noble (manasatchi) and just to his business. Sounds like be good while doing bad or be fair while doing unfair acts ! And more than often walks away with a substantial bargain, floating in euphoria at his moment of 'glory'.
Bazaars are selling dvds like hot cakes. No longer do they start quoting the price of a DVD at 80 bucks, get bulldozered by bargain and finally settle for 20 bucks. Its point blank Rs.20 everywhere. Save your time. Doing some simple math, 5 div-x quality movies in a single dvd which implies 4 bucks for one movie. Producer's graveyard the bazaar.
A dose of nostalgia... Tuesdays and Saturdays were invariably the power cut days back in the late 90s and the dawn of 21st century in Madurai. 9am - 5 pm was the traditional duration when the city goes un-electrified and I would be at school for the most part of it playing swatkats with my benchmate using scissors and getting punished for being the lone soul submitting assignments a week after the deadline. Saturdays though were rueful in having me nailed at home, with no power and hence no tv,taperecorder and fan, and wondering intelligently why they cant run on batteries. And last summer, I used to start off to the bazaar,spend my time lavishly in each shop and rummaging through the stacks of dvds for nothing!

Let me take you back to 1995 when Britannia gave away freestuff on the basis of point system by collecting wrappers( both yours and those that you steal from the kid next door) and handing it over to the nearest vendor in return for a spin-top like the blades of a miniature helicopter. It was the rage of my school and I fended off any possibility of buying anything thats not Brittania. The big pack of Goodday fetched twice the points of its closest rival and with gleaming pride I used to buy it at the store near my school everyday. The wrapper seemed precious to me than the enclosed eatable ! Wonder why I spent hundreds on biscuits (main constitiuent of my boyhood diet) for a piece of simple plastic toy, easily available in namma oor thiruvizha at infinitesimal cost.

Now get propelled to the end of last millenium. Centerfresh and Big Babol offered cricket trump cards(again plastic!) free with every piece of chewing gum and getting the elite player's cards was reckoned to be the most crucial aspect of any serious collector. I was really lucky to grow up in a hood with atleast two shops selling chewing gum in every street. I gathered news from the Remuki beeda kadai shopkeeper about when his stock of chewing gums will be replenished every week which turned out to be Sundays. So, every sunday, when that middle aged man at the shop goes home for lunch and his dad, an octagenerian stands in, I sneak out of my home through the backyard ( not to alert my fellow card-collector/competitor and yeah also my friend! who lives across the street), buy a dozen gums and ransack the whole set of cards for the exquisite/rare ones and slip two-three cards into my pocket when he turns away for a splitsecond. I leave with a smile.
Mission accomplished !
And I head straight to my rival's home to flaunt about my new addition of cards and give a deep guffaw...

Now, move few more years forward to 2002-03,when Lays bolstered its foothold on the snacks sector with tazos(plastics yet again!). I had an edge over all other competitors when it comes to tazos, the free amusing plaything inside a Lays pack because I got addicted to Lays since I set my eyes upon it. 80% of the days in a year I dint miss out on Lays. If you are lucky enough to get two tazos in a single pack,it will make the next day's top news in school and friends exclaiming in awe and considering you a special blessed one,though cursing you bloody wretched child,under their breath.Tazos along with GIjoes was the ultimate combination of an indoor game and which provided more than a quantum of solace during those days with a powercut and helped me innovate new indoor games based on adventure. Looking at all the junior-school goers playing NFS for hours and Unreal Tournament for days, I can say they are missing something big in their life. Playing indoor/outdoor games with friends (well to all the detractors n those who know me well,I used to be passionate about playing outdoor years ago), helps you both bond well with them and also sharpens your creativity. Even Lays,Centerfresh and Brittania have stopped the practice of giving exciting free gifts, rightly though.

Cricket cards? Google up the name of the cricketer and voila,you get his pic,details and even about his secret affair and the his innerwear brand!
Swinging Tazos? Grow up, think of a kalashinov or a Shotgun!
Times are changing and change is the only thing permanent. But the pleasant niceties of the nineties are too good for me to stop thinking about and get carried away.
And its time I grab a pack of Lays, sadly though, without any tazo(s) in it...