Is Marketing all about selling?

Their has been lot of confusion in the minds of individuals as well as organizations when it comes to hiring marketing professionals. "Marketing professionals are not direct sales personnel, they assist sales indirectly". Marketing begins much before the actual product is out for sale and continues even after the goods have been sold. Selling helps in generating revenues for business to meet up it expenses but the importance of marketing should not be sidelined, as its continuous process but people remember it only at times of crises.

A good once sold in market can't guarantee to sustain and retain its customer base in the long run, with no change in it. Its the marketing professional who come out with new and innovate marketing strategy to be ahead of their competitors. Customers today get carried away by those with which they are able to relate themselves with. Selling just focuses on get things sold out in market but marketing focus on developing product to be sold in market.

Best example of it - When diary milk came out with the ad campaign " Aaj pehli tariq hain" meaning you can have diary milk on 1st of every month when you get salary. Munch came out with new add to stating " you can have munch any day of the month not only on 1st".

Both "diary milk" & "munch" have hold in market but then also they keep fighting with each other to enter into others territory. They do such marketing campaign to create a goodwill for their product in market which will ultimately effect their sales. "At the end customer buys those things which see more frequently & keep hearing about it". Why do companies forget this fact?

Such notion have led to lot of confusion among MBA students which way to go "marketing or sales". They can't differentiate between sales / marketing and land into wrong job profiles. Then prefer to stick to it as a performer but an achiever. Very few people have the courage to change the profile when they know their track is wrong.

So next time when you hear about "marketing /sales" be clear about its meaning and reach...

A call from Veenit

Life has become so hectic these days that one need to find time to get in touch with friends. Yesterday got a call from Veenit my MBA days friends, though we were from two different streams but still had many things in common. He was from Mass. Communication but I was from MBA no where we had touch with each other in terms of studies.

Only thing which was common in both of us were that we did our graduation from the same college in Varanasi. He had seen me in college couple of time but I interacted only with my friends and didn't entertain strangers. He wanted to interact with me but couldn't muster courage to come forward. But when he saw me at AIT hostel, did come up to me for initiating talk. It was then I came to know about these things.

It was great fun being with him, a fun loving guy, always ready to crack jokes. Once had to shift to his room for couple of days as my new room was getting ready when I left hostel. Those were the most memorable days of my life. We used to wake up by 8 am freshen up have breakfast by 9.30 and again go to bed. Get up by 1 pm have lunch again to bed, at 5 pm have our tea take walk in layout, chat with friends by 8 pm have dinner talk for an hour or read newspaper by 9 pm were on bed. Both of us were experts when it come to sleep, thought we could win any competition in it.

But now our life has changed so much that we can hardly dream of sleeping full day as we used to do during our student life. Last year when he was in Bangalore, he was with me, we were discussing these things. We tried to repeat the sleeping session but couldn't succeed. That made us realize how professional life has effected our life's.

He was here only for a week on business trip, most of the time was preoccupied with phone calls and presentations. Didn't even get time to roam around the city, both of us were feeling bad about it but had no option, were tied by our professional commitment.

Nowadays we are in touch with each other either through phone call or through chat. Phone call usually fail as most of the time we may not be free to talk when calls are done. Later we forget to call each other, but still we are in touch with each other because of our mutual understanding.

Aren't we lucky to be friends..?

Season of "Swayamwar"

Seems like parents are in no mood to let their single ones to remain in bachelor state for long. Eligible bachelors also don't have concrete excuses to evade marriage proposals. Last year it was recession but this year market has picked up and many new job opportunities have also cropped up.

My case is no different, last year was able to save myself but seems like no excuse is going to work. My mom did come to bangalore for attending a swayamwar being organized by "Shri Narayana Guru Samiti, Bangalore"on 26th Jan 2010. There were 400 registrants for the meet. We took our respective seats as allotted by the volunteer.

Programme began at 11 am by lighting the lamp, soon profile of guys and girls were displayed on screens with specific details. Each individual was allotted a profile number, prospective brides / grooms need to note down. I handed over my notepad and pen to mom and asked her to select her daughter in law. Till lunch time my mom had selected 4 girls, I took the details of the girls to make our horoscope.

By the end of the event we had shortlisted 8 girls, now my parents need approach our astrologer to match horoscope followed by personal meeting etc. I am getting nightmare thinking about it, my parents are consoling me saying things will be fine don't worry.

Is their any way for all eligible to escape marriage till they are prepared for it?

A trip to the new flyover from bangalore to hosur

Traffic is major concern for commuters in any part of the world. People hate it but can't avoid it. Bangalore is no different, monday to friday people struggle to reach office and back home. Large number of fly overs have been throughout to decongest traffic in city. Road connecting Bangalore and electronic city was the busiest due to the presence of software giants like 'infosys,wipro & IBM'.

A giant flyover was being built to connect city to silicon valley covering 10km in all. Finally it was inaugarated on 23/1/2010. I wanted to go for a ride but was not getting a partner, luckily my friend dropped in to accompany him to petrol pump. As we were talking 2 more friends joined us and we all planned to drive to the fly over.

Within minutes we were ready for the drive with bikes, helmets & jackets. Had to struggle a bit to find the entry point, I told my friends before hand we would be driving slow. Once on the fly over we enjoyed the ride fullest on our bikes. They was parking lot on the way to stop for sometimes. Parking area was almost full with people stopping and posing for photos. We also took some snaps on our mobile and went ahead

We could easily peep into the campus of IBM, which was just a dream for most of us. Entire trip was enjoyable but the biggest joy was being able to use the fly over before most of my friends.

Mom @ bangalore

Who doesn't want to stay with their parents? I guess all of us reach would love to do so but can't turn their dream to reality. Students & bachelors working at different place miss their parents most than others. They eagerly wait for their parents or relatives visit mostly to enjoy home made food.

My mom has been trying to come down to Bangalore since I moved to my new room an year ago. Finally she came down this sunday to attend a family function. I was very happy to have her here. Though her bus was suppose to come by 7 a.m I was their at bus stop by 6 a.m thinking what if bus comes early bus reached @ 6.45 a.m.

This was mom's first visit to bangalore so was bit protective. No sooner did the bus stop than I got into it to find mom. She was standing in front of me and I was searching her. We unloaded the luggage and headed towards home. Cleaned room a day before to create good impression as my parents are aware about my lazy nature.

After freshning up we had our breakfast together dad had send chapatties. Then went to bed as both of us were feeling lousy. Mom was tired due to journey and I hve the habit of waking up late on sundays.

Seems like mom will be with me for a fortnight but will surely try to extend it for a month, shouldn't I?

A friends "Bachelors Party"

Who doesn't enjoy their freedom especially guys? Guys doesn't want to take any tension life as they are interested to lead a cool life. But such things can happen only in fairy tales not in reality. Marriage is a barrier to a guys rocking life as post marriage he is answerable to his wife. Wherever he does his better half needs to be informed about it. As soon as a guy is about to about to get married his friends throw a bachelors party to remind him that his days of freedom are numbered.

On of my friend is going to tie knot on 26th Jan 2010. Today he will be leaving for his home town to return back as a family man. Yesterday was his bachelors party, a night for him to remember before marriage. Party was rocking but had few bachelors like me, others were married guys ready to enjoy their lost days.

There was drinks, music, etc to entertain an individual but the going to be groom was not happy as we friends were pulling his legs. We felt it was the last time when he can be himself without any restriction and enjoy things to the fullest. Best part was all married guys were sharing their experiences with to horrify him but these talk didn't change his mind. He told" I am ready for the after effect of marriage, you guys need not worry about it. Anyways I am planning to discuss it with your respective wives." That was a bouncer, expression of all married turned bachelors was worth watching.

Didn't realize how time passed by and it was time to bid goodbye, as most of us had office next day. We all wished him "happy married life" and left for our houses. Don't know who's next to get married but "bachelors party is for sure"...

Great service from whirlpool washing machine

Kids at time create menace which cause big problem for grown ups. Something like that happened at my cousins place 2 weeks ago, when a 3 year old kid turned the timer of washing machine in reverse order, resulting it to stop all its function. Washing machine is more of a necessasity for us than comfort us as my bhabhi has back problem and our maid has also left us 1 month ago. Its not easy to locate on in short span of time though the hunt is on.

My cousin brother went to the shop from where we got the machine, to send their service people as soon as possible. Though they promised but didn't sent anyone, with every passing day clothes were piling up at home. Finally bhabhi called me one day to get whirlpool service center details from net.

Within in minutes I collected information from net and called their customer service and gave our residential address along with 3 set of contact numbers to reach us. They gave me complain number and told within 2 hours will receive a call from their end. 4 hrs post lodging the complaining called them back as we didn't receive the call. Then customer care executive told me by evening 8 pm concerned person will call me.

When I reached home at around 7 pm found washing machine has started its function once again, as whirlpool had sent their service engineer and he did fix the problem in short span of time. Was surprised to see their dedication towards customer grievance. Hats off to these guys who keep their words when it comes to satisfaction.


The day when bhabhi called me to check details from net, bhaiya had planned to get a new washing machine even though we got this machine an year ago. Now have no worries as I know whenever our washing machine develop some trouble its engineers will be their to help in short span of time...