Jugaad marketing

Anisha Motwani / New Delhi March 16, 2010, 0:20 IST

There can be some interesting build-on or Jugaad to the existing vending systems. Modern brands can ride some natural rhythms that exist in our socio-economic fabric.

We were at one time the people who took giant leaps in discoveries Aryabhatta came up with the zero, and Sushruta performed miracles in medicine and surgery. Sadly, today we have become a people of incremental improvements. You could put it down to the lack of time. This is a post-modern reality catching up with India, I guess. Everything that had to be discovered has been discovered. But that should not deter us from exploring a little more. One never knows what good may come out of it. Coping with the need for indigenous transport solutions where none existed, rural India combined a steering wheel with four tyres, the diesel engine of a water pump and some used parts to fabricate a vehicle for rural transport. When it is not laden with people or farm produce, the engine can be found in service in the fields as a water pump! The Jugaad can be seen all over the countryside. No word in the English lexicon comes close to describing the phenomenon. Jugaad is omnipresent in our lives; so much so that it has become inconspicuous. Modern business practices, where everything is perfected to a science, end up completely missing this trick. Take retail, for instance. The word throws up pretty pictures of swanky new shops with rack after rack of glitzy merchandise. The point missed by most is that there can be some interesting build-on or Jugaad to the existing vending systems. The lettered world will call it mash-ups. So be it! While the larger metros have had their share of organised retail investments, the upcountry geographies are still potential markets. Take a city like Agra, for instance. There would be a large mall somewhere on the outskirts, where every modern retail brand would want to be present. But the credo of retail is last mile availability. Why cant modern brands ride some natural rhythms that exist in our socio-economic fabric? Why cant the contemporary ride the conventional? Inventive retailing At Max New York Life, we too have embarked on an innovation, the most significant aspect of which is the distribution channel retail. Marrying insights from the so-called mid-belly of India with a product proposition, we developed an entirely new product platform called Max Vijay in the low-ticket savings and insurance space. We created an industry-first initiative in operational backend and marketing. We packaged insurance in a box, offered subsequent premium payment options through scratch cards and parked it in the nearby retail shop. This is a classical three-way symbiosis: Adding value to an existing distribution channel, creating accessibility and freedom for the consumer, and developing an all-new, low-cost distribution model. We are still on the journey of proofing this model in a few markets before a national launch can take place. Take now the example of your green grocer (sabzi wallah). With unerring regularity, day after day, the man makes the trip from the wholesaler to do the rounds of your locality. He is

the ultimate front end of a successful customer relationship management programme. He knows what you like and what you bought yesterday, and he remembers to get what you asked for! Marry the current craze for CDs and DVDs on rents and there is a business model lurking somewhere there. He can deliver one day and collect the next without any extra investment in distribution! Smarten the cart. Make provision for a water-proof compartment (remember the tendency of the man to splash water on the veggies to make them look fresh), and you have a good thing going. One often wonders why the barber has not been used frequently by marketers. After all, the man holds a razor to your throat ever so often. Imagine the persuasive power that he wields! Jokes apart, a barbers shop is ideal for receiving messages. The audience is captive, waits patiently for its turn and has nothing much to do except leaf through some magazines or watch a small TV placed high in the corner. The radio is the substitute. Let us not forget the power of the hajjam of old as a carrier of messages. These hidden persuaders have the potential for non-disruptive, subliminal delivery of a brand or a social message. They are relevant for sectors where a concept sale necessarily precedes the product sale. Polio awareness in areas that have not opened their minds to this programme yet could be an example. They could be a dissemination window for simple steps to aid the financial inclusion agenda of the government or for the savvy marketer. Could this be a new window for insurance? What about the three other people who have access to your house everyday: The newspaper boy, milkman and the washman. The door opens to them willingly. Sure, they are critical to our appearance in a manner of speaking. One ensures that we look right. The other ensures that we talk right and are well informed. Can they be distribution extensions for fabric care products and detergents? The milkman is the last piece of a cold-chain and distributes his merchandise in a fixed time. Can cold-chain products look at this man? Other milk products can be the first natural extension. Products packed in PET bottles and soft-drink concentrates can join the bandwagon. Flexible thinking Then there is the favourite haunt of the young the chai-wallah! Ideological and heated exchanges aside, the tea-stall remains the place where they sit and exchange views on life and the world in general. There one sees evidence of evolution. The chai-wallah becomes the first outpost of retail and vending expansion. The counter, across which money changes hands, holds a variety of packaged products from edibles to personal care products to tobacco. More often than not, the stove has a pan on top, on which eggs and paranthas are fried. Thus is born instant food. This may hold interest to the many ready-to-eat, heat-and-eat and instant food preparations. Now, marry this favourite haunt of the youth with their favourite hunt jobs. What stops a job portal from upgrading the top 50 haunts in a town like Bareilly to a brick and mortar lead generation system for resume services, job search et al? The man on the counter is suave and smart. Give him the right script and support him with the right backend and you have access to an entirely new database to market your services. This Jugaad spirit can find a role in the supply chain of many a business. But to do that, businesses will need to think true to the meanings of this word: Improvisation, inventiveness, ingenuity and cleverness. And taking it literally, it seems a leading soft drink company has started using the Jugaad, the rural transport solution, to spread its distribution to rural areas!

Why have these not been exploited or explored in adequate measure? To be fair, some brands have tried this. Some of us will not forget the return of Coca-Cola to India splashed on the cover of business magazines with Jaydev Raja standing proudly beside a push-cart in the streets of Agra. Was that an idea before its time? Perhaps, it was. Now, to promote on-the-go opportunities, soft drink brands have taken to the streets, in a manner of speaking. The wheel does come full circle. Closer home, the Samaan Foundation seems to have taken a step in this direction. It has given rickshaw pullers an opportunity to increase their income by carrying advertisements on the vehicles, stocking bottled water, fruit juices, mobile phone top-ups, newspapers and magazines that they vend as value-added services to their fares. The rickshaw puller gets a certain commission on the sale of every item! Its only a matter of time when some enterprising mind will come along and amaze us with the simplicity of his quintessential Indian Jugaad tactic and show us a business model that always existed, right here in front of our own eyes. Anisha Motwani is the chief marketing officer of Max New York Life