The Unique Marketing Strategy of a Maid!

A lady of a household had been in quite a lot of distress, because since a long time she had had to manage two houses in two different places. She was not in a position to stay more than a month in one place and on the top of it she had to attend to various professional activities in places other than the places where she had her houses. Therefore, Namrata’s eternal problem was to find a maid whenever she happened to be in one particular place, and that was well-nigh impossible because maids always prefer jobs with a regular monthly salary and they shy away from gigs without commitment. Besides, her husband made it very clear that he couldn’t afford to have two maids on monthly salaries doing nothing in their absence. At times she was lucky to find someone willing to work on a daily wage as long as she was needed; but after they left the place those maids were no longer available when they came back. One of her houses was in the big city that she always preferred to stay in, and the other was in a small town, hundreds of miles away, where she had to come sometime due to her husband’s engagements.

So, when she came back to her house in the big city after a long break the problem of finding a daily-wage maid was becoming very acute. One day, while doing her marketing in the supermarket area of the campus she spotted a girl moving around here and there. The girl was short with a round plump smiling face and looked very homely in a modest dress of salwar kurta, and more importantly, she was only around 25 years of age—an age Namrata always preferred for her maids, instead of the condescending middle-aged ones. Namrata, acting on impulses and some intuition, called her close and asked her if she worked as a maid. Indeed, she worked as a maid and was willing to find new jobs. Namrata found her very polite and soft spoken. She explained the situation to her and asked if she was willing to work on a daily wage on whatever days she wanted her to come to her house. The young girl agreed and it was done.

As the young maid began working in her well-kept, neat and clean and compact household Namrata was very impressed with her honesty, and she was full of praise for her. She told her husband that finally God has handed her a solution. The girl was not at all greedy like all others and she never objected to the wage given by Namrata. She punctually came at the time fixed and more than that she used to check if Namrata wanted any change by coming early morning every day, just to confirm.

Namrata was the happiest soul on earth till the first day of the next month arrived.

On that day the young maid came around noontime and informed Namrata that she would not be able to do the work as she had landed several new monthly jobs and there was just no free time available for her. The sudden turn of events piqued Namrata to a great measure. Several points came to her mind: that her immediate neighbor engaged the maid even though they always lived there; that she’d already given her quite a few things of the house that she thought would be useful for the young girl who lived with her elder sister in a shanty nearby; and that the maid had been talking much smarter in the last couple of days. Surmising the points, she now found her ungrateful and cunning. There was a long debate between the two with no solution coming up. Finally, Namrata saw her off asking her to come in the afternoon.

The young maid never came back. Namrata then began pouring her ire to her husband. The husband took in the picture perfectly and told her the following:

The young girl was actually looking for jobs, maybe desperately—on monthly basis only for sustenance. For that she’d started moving around in the campus to get noticed by someone (of course, the husband concedes, she may have had at least one job in the campus or in the nearby buildings). She wore a very modest humble look just to impress possible homemakers. She was very particular about not being greedy about money as she expected those attributes of hers circulate around the campus through mouth-to-mouth publicity. She came every morning to Namrata’s house to check (her husband found her talking on her mobile in the passage, moving around) which was a clear move to enhance her visibility like marketers do with their products—ranging from commodities to movies and to even books. Her marketing strategy worked fine as she succeeded in getting quite a few monthly engagements.

“You see, Namrata! What she’s done is not at all wrong or illegal except for the fact that it’s thrown your problem squarely back at you and for that the girl could be held responsible in some measure.” Said her husband in an effort to console her. “You can understand how tough our times are and how difficult it is to find jobs. Even for these jobs in the unorganized sector there is brutal competition. And the veterans in the job vehemently resist new entrants like for example in the case of the maids you’ve recently heard that the old maids do not allow new people get jobs here. Very personally speaking I must applaud the girl for her determination and vision to get jobs. She is sharp and can be called one of the new-age go-getters. We’ll never know what compulsions have brought her here in this city leaving her family behind and why she could not carry on with her studies if at all she was admitted into schools. But mind you, it’s not sure that she’ll stick to the jobs she achieved for long; because she’ll definitely look for better opportunities.”

Namrata sat in silence for a long time. Then she asked, “But then how on earth are we going to solve our problems?”

“Let’s hope we settle down in one place soon instead of moving around all over the country!”

“And we compromise with our work and the opportunities?”

“That’s the problem! It applies to all the people in similar or worse positions.”

Getting Fretting Seething Fed Up!

It has become, particularly after the pandemic-driven desperation, extremely unsavory, unhealthy and irritating to avail of or buy any service or product from any service provider or business unit, ranging from an innocuous cup of tea to medical services, because once you do so which you cannot possibly avoid the marketing hawks of the concerned agencies will keep on bombarding you with text messages, WA posts, emails and also voice interactive or even live voice calls with no deadline for a most desired end, perhaps it's set to continue till the end of you or of the world! They holler and hammer you to rate them, recommend them, fill up feedback forms, take surveys and what not, and of course to continue buying from them. This is aside from the hawks of the bank/insurance/financial agencies who stop at nothing to lure you in, offering cards and personal loans even to hapless senior citizens, and the infuriatingly incessant reminders to pay up regular dues from about a month before the due dates, even though you've been extremely sincere in paying up on time everytime! Add to it the storm of the fraudsters who egg you on endlessly to click their dangerously spurious links. 

Particularly irksome are the brazen advertizing from the health service providers and medicine providers. Their messages on your personal accounts do not at all seek to hide their open invitation to you to fall sick asap, preferably seriously enough, and that it's evident that it's them only who would be deliriously happy if you oblige them! Well, on my part I immediately block their accounts or numbers, but the clever foxes change their accounts or numbers instantly and never even indulge themselves in commercial breaks! 

I've written about such issues quite a few times earlier too. What else to do? This perhaps gives me some vicariously avenging delight. If this is going to be the order of the digital age I'd have nothing of that! But how? I see no option of any kind. 

Can you think of any? 

All the Unknown Authors’ Money!

We’ve been very much used to lament ‘all the taxpayers’ money’ whenever we come across some embezzlement of public funds or plain acts of bribery and corruption. In this piece we’ve decided to confront a new but emerging phenomenon as should be clear from the title given. That day during a writer-authors’ conference one author made a disturbing observation on or perhaps lamented that ‘nowadays the number of authors has exceeded the number of readers’! That observation instantly found a sympathetic supporter in none other than this writer; because I’d dwelt on this post-modern phenomenon quite often and I’d even extended this realization to ‘there are more singers than listeners nowadays’ and of that kind. However, I don’t intend to analyze the nitty-gritty of such phenomena here apart from just saying that such brazenly emerging facts of life have been owed entirely to the social media and all digital formats that convinced a huge chunk of the users that they could indeed write and can be veritable authors, and due to which there’s been a tremendous boost in the recent decade in the self-publishing sector, indie sector, training agencies about how to write a book, formation of more and more award-giving organizations and in the advertising/marketing-of-books sector.

*I think this above mention is more than enough to indicate the kind of money the authors, unknown obviously, have been made to shell out in their dream of becoming successful authors. First, if they are not fully convinced by their skills embedded in social media posts they spend money on learning how to write a book in both fiction and non-fiction genres or how to write a novel or how to write a children’s book or whatever.

*Second, they spend a sizeable amount on their hard-earned money or in the case of the fortunate ones surplus money on publishing their books through the self-publishing or independently or hybrid publishing companies. Now, even though books should be considered as the genuine assets of any publishing company by promoting which they only stand to gain the maximum, such publishers put the onus on the authors on every possible opportunity of squeezing more and more money out of the hapless authors: like asking the authors to buy authors’ copes after dishing out the miserly complimentary copies or none at all; promote their books through marketing at their expense; asking for more money on the authors’ intention to change the cover page design or the blurbs or anything; asking for additional funds for reviews and press publicity; asking for astronomical amounts just to include their books in the international book fairs; and so on.

*Third, the authors, unknown mind you, are always vulnerable because after publishing their books they’d naturally want those to be read by as many as possible and to get some feedback, and therefore they easily fall into the ‘squeezing traps’ mentioned above. The publishers concerned understand this craving and so they keep on organizing interactive author events for which, again, they ask the authors to shell out more money just to attend and much more if they want to interact or launch their books or give self-promotion speeches cum display or participate in panel discussions.

*Fourth, the unknown authors never give up hope even after being handed out no-sales reports for months/years, and they naturally crave for some official recognition at least. Therefore, they give in to the lure of the award-giving companies some of whom sell the awards directly while others disguise it as taking the money for nomination/registration/participation fees, with some of them, again, are cruelly brazen enough to charge the authors even for nominating their books without a guarantee to win the awards. In the good old days authors, both known and unknown, used to get nominated for awards and get good prize money on winning the awards; but now one has to nominate oneself and that too after parting with a good sum of money.

*And not the least, although a few lucky writers, unknown of course, do get published by the traditional publishing houses who don’t charge money for the favor, these traditional publishing houses know very well that these guys are unknown entities or rather nonentities and so they do nothing to promote such books imposing the burden of the same plus innumerable ‘paid self-promotion drives’ on the already heavily-taxed authors.

 

While there’s no escape from the squeezing entrapment for which I cannot give any cure simply for the fact that every author has the right to aspire for attention or fame or recognition everything is not as bleak as seemingly suggested here. There are now several international digital self-publishing platforms like the Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) where an unknown writer/author can publish their books absolutely free of charge and in the case of KDP they get both e-book and paperbacks published with a free e-book enrollment in KindleUnlimited. Of course, the authors, as usual, crave for their books to be read and generate regular sales, and for that that they go on spending on advertising and marketing. The good thing is that on such marketing exercises one need not go for huge budgets and on account of the low-cost ads they can very well earn well through sales or being read on KNEP through nominal spending.

 

One must remember that even otherwise, meaning without having to go to make oneself an author by oneself only, every author or every book cannot expect to make it big; the tag of bestsellers is more of a magic than a thumping reality even for the celebrity authors. To not give up and keep on writing against all odds must have two basic considerations: that you are a writer by profession or passion or both, possibly making a living out of it, and it’s not just a hobby or pastime or ego; and that whether you are rich or not you must maintain a strict tab on your spends and expected earnings, preventing yourself from going over the top to finally succumb miserably to the luring offers from the publishers/trainers/marketers/reviewers/award-givers and so on. To end more positively, there's now no shame in self-publishing or indie publishing or anything of that kind; a good book can be a success irrespective of the platforms used. 

[Disclaimer: All the celebrity authors and all the authors that have made it big irrespective of the platforms chosen are respectfully excluded from this rather weird preview. And above all, this is not at all about complaining, it’s only about a fact of life in post-modern digital age.]

The System!

The calls never stop. They’re ruthlessly regular as always even if you’re going through a huge personal crisis or that you’ve been rendered ineligible for most of the offers in circulation due to various reasons. And I don’t blame the ‘casuals’ desperately trying to augment their measly income with the commissions cum incentives that they hope to earn by getting the customer’s consent for a personal loan or a deposit/investment scheme or a pre-approved credit card. In fact, I always have sympathy and understanding for them; that I get angry most of the times is a part and parcel of the hazardous virtual games being played in abundance nowadays. This time, for a change, it was a male voice that addressed me in all possible politeness. But he sounded weary and lazy, perhaps frustrated by the endless calls from his end since morning without any tangible progress.

“Sir, I’m calling from the xyz finance company. If you can spare a moment, please!”

For a change, again, I decided not to be angry this time, enjoying the fact that as the caller was a male, I could very well blurt out my anger the moment it’s required. So, I answered politely too.

“Okay, yeah?”

“Sir, our company is offering you a pre-approved super credit card without any charges or fees of any kind! If you allow me…”

“Do you know my age?”

“Um…uh…I don’t know sir!”

“How did you pick me out then for your most special offer?”

“Well sir! You name has been running in the system…so…”

“The system? Yeah, that’s the crux of the problem. Anyway, have you meanwhile changed your marketing strategy by deciding to start issuing the credit cards to senior citizens too?”

“Um…no! I’m very sorry sir!” and he hung up, for a change, once again. Normally I do that reprehensible job in what I always think righteous anger, at times right in the middle of the conversation.

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The System! Yes! The ever-growing mechanism of modern marketing that never spares any nook and corner in any possible territory of the targets from its ravenous attention. As I mentioned several times earlier the System has been drawing its sustenance from the ‘generous’ service providers who possess our database and make those available to all the marketing hawks. But why don’t they provide the crucial factors too, like say age? Well, perhaps, they’ve grown a little apprehensive thanks to the increasing public cries for privacy and data protection. Or maybe they don’t care, taking into consideration the possibility of catching even the old and near-dead fishes in the expansive nets of their ‘other’ customers.

 

However, it’d indeed be a good practice for the generous database holders to at times clean and weed out the old fish, thus eliminating the senior citizens, mercifully. This would also help the hapless endlessly ‘calling-casuals’ focus on the real targets and not waste their companies’ precious time trying to catch the ageing, useless and the ineligible preys. In such heartlessly competitive times, the predators must prepare themselves fighting-fit too as their prospective preys have also been becoming alert, conscious and smart in the meantime. Not to speak of the destructively creative and marauding online fraudsters who too have been drawing largely on the benefits of the doubts emerging from the generous goings-on!

Logorrhea Or Quietude of the Hams As It Suits Them?

We’d been growing up with the dictum that ‘everything is fair in love and war’; however, in view of our increasingly awesome experience with the phenomenon of digital marketing we urgently need to revise the dictum to ‘everything is fair in love, war and marketing’, for our own solace. I’m not at all exaggerating this. In spite of being very particular about paying all your dues on time all your life and enjoying a healthy credit score as a result your service providers shall not cease to hound you all the time for payment. They’d start at least a week before the approaching payment-due date and their irksome and utterly useless verbosity will flood all your resources of a digital existence. This ‘logorrhea’ of the post-modern times has become a disease like the good old ‘diarrhea’! The disorder cannot be corrected even if you resort to a digital bank transfer system with specific instructions for the payment on the due date. At most of the times the all-encompassing reminders would keep on coming even after making a successful payment. Besides, there’d be the age-defined telemarketing calls even if you’ve been consistently telling (you cannot afford to be too curt or insulting as the callers are mostly ladies) them all the time that ‘I don’t want a personal loan’ or ‘I don’t want a credit card’ or ‘I don’t want an insurance job or a policy’! You finally feel that it’s absolutely sinful to be a good customer enjoying a good credit score. But alas! You just cannot become a defaulter even if you want it desperately enough to have a peaceful and noise-free daily existence.

Then there’s a peculiar phase of an unnatural quietude that seems to blight all of the service providers after they get their payments and this phase never fails to make you restive and edgy. You’d very naturally check the concerned app or account for the confirmation of your payment, of course, after the mandatory wait period. Unfortunately, you’ll not find it for days, and there’ll still be the reminders ‘Pay’ or ‘Recharge’ flashing on your screens which will, naturally again, make you disturbed, and after a series of rigorous navigational efforts from your side may finally take you to the service provider’s rather unwilling admission ‘Oh! It seems you’ve made a payment!’, if you’re lucky. The consequences of ‘making a payment’ in a way which outside of the service provider’s app or recommendations could be even more dangerous and the prolonged quietude that follows would surely make you extremely disturbed.

 

Recently, I made an arrangement with my bank to pay the bills to a particular credit card before the due date which meant I deviated from the method of repayment normally made from the credit card online account itself. The payment was successful as my bank indicated with the debit amount shown correctly. However, the credit card issuer bank never acknowledged it in any manner and kept mum as the due date was approaching ominously. I logged in to the credit card online account to check, and there was no confirmation there either; instead, the reminder ‘payment due’ standing there still. Another fearful thought caught hold of me: if somehow, the payment did not reach the card they’d inevitably charge a hefty late payment amount in my next bill! Therefore, I decided to pay the same amount a second time and paid it from the card account. That payment was immediately acknowledged. I checked the account two days after the due date. And lo! I found the earlier payment recorded in the ‘transactions’ column with the same date that my bank transferred the amount on. Such was the silence of the ham! But how’d they gain with such obnoxious quietude? Why! For that card I’d enjoyed a nice ‘no payment required’ period which I deliberately prolonged; in this case, for them! With my quietude!

Aggressive Marketing: Are You Game For A Ride?

Even if you put your cell phone number in the National Do-Not-Call Registry you can hardly escape from this aggressive tribe of telemarketers. Somebody somewhere somehow will find your number and call you up asking you for a minute to describe the offers that have to be taken immediately. You can cut the line rudely, but because most of the callers are ladies you cannot be too rude either. Banks are becoming masters of this art and they have the ability to shower you with pre-sanctioned personal loans, credit cards and the like anytime. Not that only your mobiles are vulnerable, they stalk you in every corner of your everyday existence. Sometimes you win and sometimes they make a perfect fool of you.

That day my mobile rang and on answering the same sweet-talking lady voice resonated through it.

‘Sir, I am calling from ----finance company. Can I talk to you for a minute?’

‘Well, regarding what?’

‘We have pre-sanctioned a personal loan of -----rupees for you on the basis of your home loan repayment performance. This comes with a very attractive rate of interest…’

‘What home loan?’ Honestly I never took a home loan so far.

‘Sir! It’s based on the home loan you are repaying now’.

‘I never took a home loan! How come?’

‘Sir, what is your name?’ At that very moment I cut the line!

                                                                   ***

Another day we were shopping in a supermarket. Our bill became a big one due to long-pending purchases of a variety of items. The moment I paid the bill with my card one lady appeared out of nowhere and took us aside promising a 200 bucks voucher for our big payment. She took Xerox copies of my credit card, my bill and my income tax ID card. ‘Where is my voucher?’ I asked getting suspicious. ‘Just a minute Sir, you will get it. First sign on here..here…and here.’ She had been doing it in a break-neck speed and by the time I knew that was an application form for a credit card the process was over. I asked indignantly now,’ Where is my voucher?’ ‘You will get your new credit card in two weeks sir!’ ‘But where the hell is my voucher?’ ‘It will come with the card sir! Thanks a lot!’ ‘You see, you have given me a card I don’t want. I’ll never use it, I promise!’ And, we stormed out.

The new card came indeed in two weeks, but no voucher as I had already presumed. I put the card unsigned in my unused files vowing never to use it. ‘You have made a fool of me and got your commission! But I will not allow the marketer behind you to profit from it!’

The lesson? Never give in to the temptations of low interest rates, discounts, one plus one, vouchers and all that! But we are only human beings! Next time around this could be the deal of your life! Or we may think so!