India is a complex market with the social classes varying from adowntroddena to afilthy richa; with the varying aspirations of Indians, from lazy snails to go-getter shatabdis. The Indian consumer is very unpredictable because of these variations. To study this intriguing being, the students of Post Graduate Diploma in Industrial Engineering (PGDIE), NITIE set out to different parts of an even more intriguing city called Mumbai as a part of the unique annual field sales exercise called Mandi, 2006 on Sunday, 22nd January. It is an endeavour to explore the marketing world beyond Philip Kotler, the real world; the streets of Mumbai. As part of it, the students sell products of an NGO called Navnirmiti and they are all learning aids aimed at instilling creativity in children. The sales collection becomes a part of the Navnirmiti fund that supports the noble cause of promoting education among the poor children in Mumbai. Groups of six were provided with inventories of Rs. 10000/- each, of which the minimum acceptable sales was set at least 30% of it. But as it turned out, many groups were completely sold out. The total sales figure stood at Rs. 40,000/- and the highest sales figure achieved was Rs. 9017/-.
Anurag Jain and M. Samba Siva Patnaik share their experience, aWe were able to get a stall in Phoenix mall. After that, we just invited a critical mass. Like a chain reaction, swarms of prospective customers started hovering around the stall. With total sales of Rs. 7000+, we can assert that our sales effort was a success. The collateral learning was invaluable though.a
Prasad Deo says, aWe ventured into the chawls of Dadar and then to Shivaji Park. We were sold out in five hours of overwhelming response from middle class families buying learning and not any product for their beloved children. We were able to sell products worth Rs. 9500.a
Swapnil says, aWe covered Churchgate, Fashion Streetand CST. The customers were mainly from the middle class. Puzzles like tangram and the pyramid sold like hot cakesa.
Kunal Dasgupta says, aThe memorable part of Mandi was selling the products to the Indian cricket team, when we caught them off guard practicing. Kiran More was our first customer and the second customer was Farhaan Dastoor, NDTVas sports reporter. We were filmed selling the products to the Indian team by him.a
Finally, there was a review of the entire dayas experience. Here, the students went into retrospection, finding out the mistakes they committed and analyzing the market segments they dealt with, the efficacy of their presales planning etc. The ideas were then shared with other groups consummating the objective of Mandi, to equip the students with non volatile and everlasting time selling skills.
The promise of the students of PGDIE, NITIE is that each year Mumbai will witness a bigger and a better Mandi. So, hope you will welcome the learning salesman next year also.