Marketing Mix

I vividly remember my journeys on the Indian trains between Lucknow and Kanpur as a child. What is most prominent in the memory is the old 'moongfali' seller whom, I am sure, everyone in the train noticed and bought moongfalis from. His sweet jingle attracted all the passengers and in fact became his USP which made everyone buy a small packet from him almost daily. In his melodious voice he sang something which went like this - "Namak ke daam moongfalli inaam". And very true to his claim we all relished the small paper packet of  masala salt that he gave with the moongfali packet.

Today when I sit back and recollect his selling efforts I feel like saluting his understanding of his buyers. His buyers were the typical middle class travelers like me who were on those trains traveling to and fro their work places in the cities that lay between Lucknow and Kanpur. So one can easily reason that this travel had become a hated necessity for most of them. They were thus looking for something which would engross them and at least lessen the burden of daily travel. At the same time they would certainly not want to buy anything which would pinch their pockets. What could be better than a small packet of moongfali with a pinch of tasty salt which would tickle their taste buds and make the journey seem less burdensome.

Plus the joy of not 'paying' for the moongfali but for the salt was unique in itself which attracted the young and the old alike. In short he was a very good example of application of the traditional 4Ps model of Marketing mix and a master advertiser with zero budgets who was himself not at all aware of anything like the modern day science and art called marketing. I am sure we can find many more examples of such marketing heroes in our country which have remained unrecognized and unreported.