Upping brand value? Learn it from hawkers

Research into brand value improvement and better marketing strategies for products runs into millions. Forget boardroom debates. We've got to take lessons from hawkers out there on the street.

Wanna bet? Try it. But picture this before you decide.

Smart Sale One:
A bunch of flowers costs about Rs 5 outside a temple, or at your neighbourhood market. A coconut you bargain for anywhere between Rs 5 and Rs 8. As for a pair of incense sticks, you cannot dream of paying more than one tenth of a rupee. Six mini-pieces of the cheapest of sweets would come at Rs 10 for 50 grams, if you calculate the cost by weight. In the compound of famous temples, YOU, the devotee must shell out more to show your devotion to God. Call that fleecing opportunity. But marketing brainwaves too.

Siddhivinayak compound stalls price a steel-plate pooja thali at Rs 30 for four flowers (yeah, count them), and Rs 40 for a few more. His coconut is the tiniest you could find in a wholesaler's godown. The vendor expects you to pay only when you return. And when you return, you give him back his steel plate. Would a devotee risk inviting God's wrath by forgetting to return it?

Congratulations, you've just paid Rs 40 for a few flowers, some state sweets and a coconut.

Smart Sale Two:
Have you as a die-hard urbanite fallen for berries that sell at berry carts anytime? I mean the jamuns, gooseberries, and the likes?

Now a normal cart guy would sell you these at a decent Rs 5 for maybe less than 100 grams wouldn't he? Yeah, it would mean his packet is a rough cone made of old newsprint. On the up-hill towards Elephanta Caves after you've gotten off the jetty, you'll find a countable few berries cleverly thrown into tiny plastic sachets slightly bigger than a shampoo sachet. Or one fifth of a raw mango sliced thin - into five pieces. Sprinkle in some salt and chilli powder, and that fancy looking shampoo-sized sachet sells for Rs 5!

Of course, transporting costs of these precious things from mainland Mumbai would be passed on to you too! Even so, calculate the profit margin. Its just five times the cost of ...err...`manufacture'.

Still, you can take heart because such fleecing is anyday less hitting than when you pay ridiculous tens and hundreds at cinema multiplexes - all for some spiced corn and a sandwich. Or Rs 20 for packaged water that should cost you Rs 12.

Remember, you don't protest when they frisk you like you are some potential terrorist. And as if food packets are explodable bombs, they don't let you carry them in! At least, these hawkers sweat it out in the sun.