Unintentional Marketing by a Lady at McDonald's – A great learning

Just after reading the topic you might have got the overall gist of the story. A marketing blog with innovative idea by some top notch lady in the company.

But that’s not the real story.

Friday 29^th march 2013

Jyot , Bhushan and Me were on a secret marketing mission.

After completing our major agenda for the evening, we crashed into McDonald’s restaurant. Before we would have agreed upon our menus, a lady came from behind.

“Coupon redeem this that blah blah aavdi che baabdi che ek be tronn taare paase coupon che tare coupon nikadi blah blah” , said the lady (this is what I got)

(Actually by all these she meant -> Take this coupon and do your normal purchase. You will get one 'veg Pizza McPuff', which you please give back to me.)

Barobar chhe, Jyot said

I was glad that she would get a ‘veg Pizza McPuff’ for free because of us.

Moreover, the simple Indian and homely looking lady in Salwar-Suit dared to ask us. It was a great move. She seems to be little bold.

We ordered the below stuffs:
1) Mc Veggie Meal * 2 
2) Mc Chicken Meal *1

Gave the lady’s coupon at the counter and waited for the order.

Scheme of the Coupon:
As clearly visible in the picture, you will get the coupon stamped in the first purchase. Then you will get it stamped on the second with 'Veg Pizza McPuff and so on.

“From where people use to get such kind of interesting coupons?”, i said

“Don’t know yaar”, said Bhushan and Jyot in chorus

Our dinner arrived and there was a coupon on the top of it.

“Oh, they are giving it to everyone who’s having a purchase above Rs.200.”, Bhushan said

“We could have availed the offer if we would have ordered in bits and pieces.”, Jyot mumbled

“Okay guys, next time…. Lets enjoy the dinner as if now. And Before that lets find a place to sit 
where we would get the maximum ‘Nayansukh’”. ,said i

“There it is, we can have both outside and inside overview”, Jyot said

Bhushan happily handed over the ‘veg Pizza McPuff’ to the lady and we moved towards the ‘Nayansukh’ table.

“Oh my goodness. Can you see that?” , i said

“Where sipppp where sippp where sipp ??” , Bhushan taking sip of coke

“Oooo Myyyy myyyyy. It’s biggieeee” , said one of us

All our mouth-watering faces were peeping outside the window of McDonald. Our dinner menu, which we selected after so much of analysis wasn’t that much tempting. A different hunger arose…………………………

Soon a guy came and took away our prospective asset (which we were happy to just visualize without blinking our eyes).

“All our stuffs are getting cold”, i said

“Hmmmm…. These can be bought again. But not thoseeeee.. yummmmm !!”, one of us.

“Hey look the lady is still there, convincing someone”, Bhushan said

“She might redeem one or two food-items today”, i said

“Shezzz having three coupons”, Jyot said

“Ohhhhhh.. WTF”, in chorus

“She is convincing every new customer. This offer is not meant for Gujarat”, Jyot said

“Is she planning to redeem all the 15 food items?”

“I think she’ll giving party to her neighbours today”

“Whatever, she is a good marketer”. i said

“Marketer. Where the hell this came from?”

“She is ruining McDonald’s Smile card scheme”

“Okay, Just answer this question of mine. As both of you might be aware that these days we are getting coupons every now and then on enormous good and services. Say it retail, automobile, parlors  banking sector and even I remember one of my colleague telling story about discount coupon at brothel with some monthly scheme. So, do you mind looking into all the random coupons by your own?”, i said

“Well sometimes”

“No… But”

“See, your answer is not a straight ‘Yes’. That’s means you need someone to explain the stuffs. That means one or two extra employee is required for the same?”, i said

“correct”

“yuppp”

“Still you won’t listen to him/her. You might say, ‘next time’ Or some excuse. As we do not have time in this busy era for ourselves and family (forget about others). Moreover, my past job’s personal experience says, Life of an MBA students (who is having a huge dream and expectations from himself) is more hectic than of a person at job.”, i said

“What you want to convey through the example. Plzz elaborate !!”

“I mean, Look at the job that lady is doing. I am sure, she is not recruited by McDonald and it’s not their marketing strategy”, i said

“Marketing strategy… It’s a loss to the company. This scheme seems to be a kind of loyalty programme. But that lady is redeeming all the offers in a single day.”, Jyot said

“Look at it differently Jyot. Like the very famous saying at our MBA ‘Read between the lines’, I would suggest you to ‘See beyond the Visibility’. She is making others able to convince by letting them know the offer. And people are more receptive to any other customer than the employer. As they are also customers, which implies ‘A customer would relate himself/herself more to another customer’, i said

“Ohhh.. Yuppp.. : )”

“That lady is inspiring”

“That’s what I told in the beginning. The lady behind McDonald’s Smile Card scheme”, i said
 

Left to right: Lady, Bhushan , Saurabh

We finished off our food and came out of the shop. The lady was still inside convincing, explaining and gaining. 
Convincing -> Other customers
Explaining -> The Scheme 
Gaining -> Food items and self-satisfaction

I wanted to have a photograph clicked with her. At the end somehow we managed to get one while she came out once. But that was without her notice.
 
It was a great day, understanding Human Psychology and relating it to Marketing which came unintentionally. I hope even McDonald would not have thought of this kind of marketing. I would like to name this as “Customer as an Employer” Marketing. Hope this would be a new trend in the near future. Company can get benefits without actually employing and paying salary. Sometimes this could be more effective than Advertising too.

Some of you might think this as “Word of Mouth”. But in my words (I repeat) ‘It’s looking beyond Visibility’. I would prefer calling it as “Customer as an Employer” Marketing, as its more of explaining by giving live example (and not just by simply conveying). And all of us would agree to this that, a visual learning is more effective than audio (just listening).

Eye-opening industrial visit to TPL

February 2, 2013

5:00am
Alarm buzz !!
Ahhh, 5:00 only, will wake up after 2 minutes.
Alarm off…

7:00am
Alarm buzz !!
Ooo my goodness 2 minutes became 2 hours. These stuffs never use to happened during class lectures. J J
Woke-up, face wash and started finishing off the 3 hours pre-planned WAC assignment target in 1 hour. But was able to do only a part of it.

Got ready for the most awaited Industrial visit to T*****t Pharmaceuticals Limited(TPL). An opportunity, a very first of its kind arranged by Institute of Management, Nirma University in accordance with Students Advisory Committee. Although, an odd time, as next week exams are going to grill us. Still, I thought to “better live and extract of the most out of present and work for future”. Rather than “repenting in present and thinking negative of future”.

After having tasty “Uttapam with tea” at our canteen as breakfast, we rushed towards the buses arranged by the college.

There were four Industrial visits today, and ours was at TPL. It was led by our respected and youngest (don’t know the age, but atleast by heart J J ) faculty Parag Rizwani Sir.

Once the bus plighted towards the destination, Rizwani Sir started the journey with a good note after Saraswati Vandana.

“Hey guys, lets make this journey a memorable one with full of knowledge.”

We played antarakshiri with full of passion. The 45 minutes journey sounded like a picnic. Everyone sang, laughed and enjoyed like anything.

Finally we entered the TCL campus. It was an amazing feeling, lush green 268,800sqft campus, light smell of medicines and very peaceful environment. We met Rita mam and she enlightened us with the insights about the company’s history, its development and achievements. Felt like a proud Indian, after knowing this kind of advanced development (as reading so much negative about India in the newspaper, sometimes make you feel pathetic about the country).

Although, being an IT engineer the presentation sounded like jargons in the beginning. But the very next moment, all the terms were lucidly explained by mam. Few of the insights can be mentioned as follows:

 §  The company which was started by the year 1959 as Pharma Operations by Mr.U.N.Mehta in a Bunglow at Watwa.

 §  Later on in 1989, it was shifted to Indrad with manufacturing tie-up with Nordisk(a Denmark company), for Insulin formation.

 §  Raw material manufacturing started in 1992.

 §  In 2001, modernization and upgradation of formulation unit took place.

 §  Currenly, TPL had 4-5 plants in India. For example – At Sikkim for domestic supply, at Himachal for Rest of World(ROW) supply and moreover the plant which we visited was having supply to US and Brazil.

 §  Currently, it has presence in over 70 countries, Mr.Samir Mehta is the current Vice-Chairman of the company.

 §  Regarding the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), for handing fatal chemicals like cyanide.

 §  Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) team worked very efficiently taking care medical check-up of all levels of employees.

TPL, the one which we visited is having 1870 employees. It is having a capacity of producing 5000 million tablets, 500 Gelatin Capsules and 30 Insulin Vials.

I was astonished and listening to the above unbelievable data.

Now the time was to have a live and practical visit to the operations of the company. There were few small Godrej cabs. There were enormous safety and precaution measures throughout the campus. We wore doctor-like clothes (it reminded me of the last time I wore a similar kind of stuff during my school days in chemistry lab. This one was more sophisticated. Finally washing our hands with sanitizer entered into the real operation zone where were allowed to view numerous operation without glass windows. Huge Machineries, Well doctor-like dressed workers and Hygienic environment.

It was like a dream come true for me. I remember, the last time i had industrial visit some 5 years back during my engineering days. It was “Nuclear fuel complex” at Hyderabad.

Accompanied by the AGM Mr.Bharat Mehta, we were walking outside the ‘O’ zone (an open protected area where products are exposed to environment) in a corridor having both sides glass-fenced. At our left side, packaging works were going on, in closed area. At the right side, huge equipments were performing their non-stop duty.

Those were the machines which make, capsules and tablets. The answer to the following questions were getting explored in front of my eyes:
How all the tablets are of same size?
Who use to fill the powder in the capsules and close the cap?

How come the weights of all the capsules (of a particular kind) are equal?
Why there isn’t any strip of tablet, which I encountered in my small life of 24 years having 9 tablets instead of 10 (an example).
How come, packaging be done automatically?

How come a machine produce 3 lakhs tablet an hour (even when one will get tired, just counting 3000 in an hour)?

 I remember a famous dialogue as in most of the moviess. “Aaj meri aankhein khul gayi”

There were so many happenings, in that one hour tour, that which one to state and which to leave?
Finally, we came out of the operations department with lots and lots of practical knowledge and a real feel of Industrial visit.

I was so mesmerized by the overall process, that once I saw the canteen, then only I realized that I was hungry. The canteen reminded me of the canteen at my past job at TCS, Chennai.

Finally we ended our journey with a good note.

Had lots of fun during the return journey via bus and reached our very own campus.

At the end, i would like to thank everyone for the same, specially Rizwani sir (acting as a great company for us) and the officials at TPL.

Uttarayan - A colourful Kite festival @ Vibrant Gujarat

 
Online search for a new Lappy, checking out Bank forms, double-dinner, lots of committee work, little time for studies. Saturday and Sunday were utilized/spoiled undergoing all the above mentioned activities.

Here comes Monday. Today i will definitely devote most of my time studying. Got up early, took bath, gone for break-fast and successfully started with Operational Management's Boeing case.

Ooo wooo, this case is “kool” -  1^st page over, 2^nd down, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th,6^th ....

This created further eagerness to visualize a real look and feel of the same. Had seen Boeing 777 and 787 in practical life. But a thought started coming time and again that 'how Boeing 707, 717 etc would have been?'

Solution - Lets go to google baba.

tannn-taaraaaaa... Laptop opened.

Search in progress. 
Oooo, it looks antique... recapitulated that i had seen few of them in olden English movies. Wowwww…

By the way, why not do multitasking. Lets open Facebook in a new tab.

That’s it….. one hour lost simply as if just a minute passed.

Went for lunch thinking of studying more rigorously after coming back and moreover to avoid having look and feel of the subjects.

Had lunch at college mess, came back and started reading Management Information System's HSBC case.

Hardly half an hour passed

Chipkaalu saiyaan fevicol se…Knock Knock…. Chipkaalu saiyaan fevicol se…Knock Knock….

My phone rang and their was a knock on the door, simultaneously.
 Opened the door and picked the phone call.

Piyush entering, “lets go to Kite festival.”

Sakshi on the other side of phone, “lets go to Kite festival.”

“Have you met Sakshi !!”, I asked to Piyush

“hold on a second, I’ll call u back” said to Sakshi

“Hey dude, I won’t go anywhere. Already spoiled 2 days”, i told to Piyush

“Lets go buddy, we are having RBI interview, still going” Piyush replied convincingly

“Hmmmmm…”

Yo my pumpkin pumpkin suno honey bunny, tapooo tapooo.. Yo my pumpkin pumpkin suno honey bunny, tapooo tapooo..

Hello tuneeee, that’s why these days she use to pick the phone after waiting for few seconds !!

“Okay, will be joining soon”, said i

“2:30 on the front gate”

“Ya sure”, hanged off the call

We came down of hostel and started analyzing the WIP of construction area.

“JK come, we will have fun at, International Kites festival”, said i

“Who all are coming?”, asked JK

“ya, who all?” , joined Pramod

“Piyush, Sakshi, Aditi, Ashish, Pri..”, said i

“oooo-aaayyyeeee-oooo”, chorus in background

“Pritisha, me and one section B girl”,continued i

“Who?”, asked JK

“that I am not gonna reveal. You need to join us to Kite festival to have the clear picture”
all smiled

Booked two autos and reached Sabarmati Riverfront.

International Kite Festival 

Arranging Kites -> Attaching thread to it -> Able to Fly with few initial failures -> Alvida Kite due lack to thread :) :)

Buying, Bloating, Blowing -> Baasuri, Bhopu

Huge sized balloon captured on the tip of baasuri

Different festivals celebrated on the same day throughout India:

1) Uttarayan


2) Makarsakranti


3) Pongal


4) Lohri

 
As soon as we entered the food zone, there was a unanimous decision of having Kulfi. It tasted really good in that hot sunny day. 

The ice-cream in the photograph is not the real one. :) :)

Why it's called Sabarmati RIVER-FRONT ???

Left to right - Saurabh, Pritisha, Pranoti, Sakshi, Ashish

Tale of Kites

 It gave huge insights and was a boon to our knowledge bank through visual art and craft.  The designer of "Tales of Kites" does know how to grab the reader by his eyeballs.

The door behind this photograph was not real. But it looks so naturally astonishing.

All is well that ends well

The overall trip turned out to be a great memory which would be cherished for long time to come.

Vibrant photograph @ Vibrant Gujarat

Note: None of the photographs in this blog are copied. They holds author's copyright.

Whistleblower Policies in Corporate Governance

 Whistleblower is an individual who intimates the authority about illegal activities. They play a critical role in Corporate Governance.

Corporate governance is a system by which companies are directed and controlled. It involves regulatory and market mechanisms, and the roles and relationships between a company’s management, its board, its shareholders and other stakeholders, and the goals for which the corporation is governed.

Role of the whistleblower in enhancing the effectiveness of corporate governance is to report the following issues:

•  a violation of rules and regulations
•  alleged dishonest activities
•  illegal activities
•  a direct threat to public interest
•  fraud
•  safety violations
•  corruption
•  an abuse to authority
•  waste of funds
•  a substantial danger to public health
•  mismanagement

 

  

Following are the points which should be taken into consideration while preparing whistle-blowing policies:

• People especially employees, will assume that they may be victimized by losing their job or damaging their career, unless culture, practice and the law indicate that it is safe and acceptable for individuals to raise a genuine concern about corruption or illegality.

• It is important to note that internal whistle-blowing is more ideal, as alleged malpractice will not become public knowledge and therefore may not inform unwarranted public debate.

• The policy should be promoted effectively and should ensure that individuals understand that reprisal for whistle-blowing is not tolerated. Such policy would allow the ordinary worker, for example, to appreciate and embrace good governance as well as enhance the self-regulation concept.

• The whistleblowers also have a responsibility to make the disclosure in good faith. They should show some substantive basis for their concerns, especially for external disclosures; they should take steps to ensure that issues are raised internally or with the prescribed regulator before any wider public disclosure.

• Embracing the corporate governance ideology involves empowering individuals to get involved when rules are being violated. Regulators, therefore, must erect the necessary safeguards in the event of reprisals.

• There should be a moral and legal obligation, to protect those who have made responsible disclosures to the appropriate authorities. This obligation will encourage companies to foster a culture which is open to hear and address the individual’s concerns about practices that contravene the law.

• A practical balance should be struck between self-regulation and effective regulatory oversight. Internal and external whistle-blowing policy or regulation should signal that there is a safe alternative to silence.

• There is some reason to believe that people are more likely to take action with respect to unacceptable behavior, within an organization, if there are complaint systems that offer not just options dictated by the planning and control organization, but a choice of options for absolute confidentiality.

• In light of the ongoing public debate on corporate governance, it is fitting to call on the relevant authorities, especially those in the financial services, to consider adopting appropriate procedures for whistle-bowing when developing a robust corporate governance framework. 

• Give whistleblower protections to employees who are not currently covered, including Transportation Security Administration officers.

The False Claims Act, also called the "Lincoln Law" is an American federal law that imposes liability on persons and companies who defraud governmental programs. Thomas Alured Faunce(an academics) feels that whistleblowers should be entitled to a controversial presumption that they are attempting to apply ethical principles in the face of obstacle. Also, whistle-blowing would be more respected in governance systems if it had a firmer academic basis in virtue ethics.

India

In the lights of Indian context, the Government over here has been considering to adopt a whistleblower protection law for several years. India is about to join an elite club of just four democracies (USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand) which have whistleblower protection. These democracies have not had these laws in place for too long. The US had its law in place only in 1989 and the other countries have followed after that.




 
Why there is a need of Whistleblower & law to protect their identity?

This question can be answered using the below mentioned two examples:

 

• Manjunath Shanmugam, a young manager with Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and an IIM graduate, was shot dead on November 19, 2005. This incident happened just because of whistle-blowing regarding irregularities in the quality of fuel being marketed in some petrol pumps of Lakhimpur Kheri in UP.

• Satyendra Dubey was a project director at the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on November 27, 2003. He was murdered in Gaya, Bihar after whistle-blowing regarding corruption in the Golden Quadrilateral highway construction project.

Few of the steps taken by Indian Government are chronologically stated as follows:

• 2003

The Law Commission of India recommended the adoption of the Public Interest Disclosure (Protection of Informers) Act, 2002.

• 2004

The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) was designated to receive public-interest disclosures through government resolution.

• 2010 (August)

The Public Interest Disclosure and Protection of Persons Making the Disclosures Bill, 2010 was introduced into the Lok Sabha, lower house of the Parliament of India.

• 2011 (June)

The Public Interest Disclosure and Protection of Persons Making the Disclosures Bill, 2010 was approved by the cabinet. It was  renamed as The Whistleblowers' Protection Bill, 2011 by the Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice.

• 2011 (December)

The Whistleblowers' Protection Bill, 2011 was passed by the Lok Sabha on 28 December 2011. However, the Bill is currently pending in the upper house of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) for discussion and further passage.

• 2012 (March)

The Bill was introduced in Rajya Sabha on 29 March 2012 by V. Narayanasamy, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs.