THE BOILING FROG SYNDROME..!!

Human Beings and frogs are the two creatures in nature who have tremendous power to adjust…

Put a frog in a vessel of water and start heating the water…

As the temperature of the water rises, the frog is able to adjust its body temperature accordingly…

The frog keeps on adjusting with increase in temperature…

Just when the water is about to reach boiling point, the frog is not able to adjust anymore…

At that point the frog decides to jump out…

The frog tries to jump but is unable to do so, because it lost all its strength in adjusting with the water temperature…

Very soon the frog dies. What killed the frog?

Many of us would say the boiling water…

But the truth is what killed the frog was its own inability to decide when it had to jump out…

We all need to adjust with people and situations, but we need to be sure when we need to adjust and when we need to face…

There are times when we need to face the situation and take the appropriate action…

If we allow people to exploit us physically, emotionally or financially, they will continue to do so…

We have to decide when to jump…

Let us jump while we still have the strength…

Customers Naturally Choose the Better Experience

Larry Galler

At the end of a cafeteria line there were two cashiers waiting to take payment for my purchases. I must have hit the line at the right moment because there were no customers in line for either cashier. Both cashiers were sitting on stools behind their cash registers. One was hunched over so that I could not see her face. I read her body language as communicating a “don’t bother me” attitude and a general dislike for the task she was being employed to do. The other was sitting up straight, her face showed a bright, perky smile.

I chose to pay the smiling cashier instead of the one with the “attitude.” When I got my change, she thanked me, smiled again, and made me smile in return. I certainly wasn’t the only one.

While I sat and ate my meal I observed the activity at the two check-out lanes. While I sat there, the smiling cashier handled three times more customers than the grump. The only time the grump had a customer was when there were two or more customers waiting to pay the smiling cashier.

It seems obvious that customers naturally gravitate to vendors that seem truly happy with their work, are courteous, and make people happy to do business with them. Just as obvious were the vibrations of negativity emanating from the grump, and who wants to have their business transaction soured by someone who would rather be doing anything else instead of the work they are being paid for performing?

This admiringly unscientific survey demonstrates the power of excellent customer service. The customers I observed didn’t stand there and debate which cashier to pay, they just glanced at the two cashiers and instantly chose the one who would give them the better customer service experience. Wouldn’t you?

Take a fast “smile” survey at your shop. Judge how your customers are smiled at on the phone and in person. If all it takes is a perky smile to make customers enjoy their purchase more, give the grump another job to do. It will make your customers and the whole company smile more!

_*On Deciding & Managing

Ron Ashkenas
*_

Is the role of the manager to make decisions, or to make sure that decisions get made? The answer, of course, is both. The reality is that decision-making often is an orchestrated process by which the manager engages other people in reaching a conclusion.

Doing this effectively not only improves the quality of the decision but also ensures that everyone is more committed to its implementation… Several years ago, a new senior leader was brought in to lead a large financial services business that was in need of a turnaround. Making this happen required a series of weekly decisions and trade-offs about deals, marketing alternatives, internal investments and human capital that affected most of the senior management team.

While it would have been easier and faster to simply weigh the pros and cons of each issue and then give directions, the senior leader realised that her managers understood the implications better than she did, and that if they didn’t fully support the decisions, the execution might be compromised.

The problem: the managers approached the problems differently and had trouble reaching consensus — so they kept pushing the decisions back to her. So, the senior leader started holding her weekly team meetings on Friday afternoons.

The first few meetings stretched into the night, but eventually, the team learnt how to make decisions together— and how to get home for the weekend.

(From “Don’t Make Decisions, Orchestrate Them” by Ron Ashkenas)

How to stop worrying and start living

1. Do not imitate others.

2. Apply these four good working habits: a. Clear your desk of all papers except those relating to the immediate problem at hand. b. Do things in order of their importance. c. When you face a problem, solve it then and there if you have the facts necessary to make a decision. d. Learn to organize, deputize, and supervise.

3. Learn to relax at your work.

4. Put enthusiasm in to your work.

5. Count your blessings – not your troubles.

6. Remember that unjust criticism is often a disguised compliment.

7. Do the very best you can.

@B@R_0_0_D wrote:@

Good efforts Barood bhai.

Oops, You cannot give karma again right now

Trust – A mark of a Leader

Ray Stata, the chairman of Analog Devices, Inc., a manufacturer of high performance integrated circuits, learned the importance of taking a personal interest from his friend Red Auerbach, the long –time president of the Boston Celtics.

Five ways to deliver in boss’ absence

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/slideshows/…

Banks use social media to woo youth

Channel no longer seen an option but a business imperative

Business Line

If you are thinking of taking a loan or a term deposit, it may be useful to see what your pals on the social media have to say.
New-age/Gen-Y customers are more inclined to trust the advice of friends and acquaintances on financial products and services for decision-making. And, they are embracing social networking, social bookmarking and social shopping more than ever as a medium to gather this information, share experiences and make decisions, according to study by the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), an arm of Reserve Bank of India.
The study, containing guidelines and framework for use of social media by banks, has asked public sector banks to tap business from potential customers through social media. An estimated 20 million youth enrolled for higher education last year, and if this trend continues in next five years, banks will have 100 million social-media savvy potential customers.
According to B. Sambamurthy, Director, IDRBT, young customers offer a huge value proposition. “It’s cool to be on social media. It is no longer an option but a business imperative,” he feels.
This, however, does not mean that brick-and-mortar branches will disappear. The two channels can reinforce each other. Adoption of social media for business is a win-win situation for banks as well as customers. Customers can instantly access and obtain opinion about a bank’s product, loan rates, and the quality of service which would help them to take a call. And both positive and negative feedback would be available at one go.
For banks, there could be diverse gains. “It helps in differentiating banks and making them more relevant to customers,” the IDRBT framework states.
Compared to other channels, new business leads, via consumer referrals/influences, can be obtained at lesser cost. Access to vast personal data of customers is also a big business opportunity.

Private banks lead
Currently, private banks are leading in the social media. According to the ‘Financial Brand’ survey of July, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank are among the top 10 with social media presence. The services on offer include product details, stop payment option, request for cheque books, exclusive offers, and balance enquiry.
The scope of offerings is fast expanding.
Public sector banks are now speeding in this direction. According to RBI Deputy Governor, Anand Sinha, social media is becoming a key component of strategy of banks to increase over all business.

Stop thinking and start acting

R Srinivasan, The Business Line

*Whether it is creating infrastructure or reaching out to the poor, India remains flat-footed and ponderous as ever. Time, then, to learn a thing or two from Africa.

As a nation, we tend to over-think things. This is not surprising since we Indians tend to first ask “why” when we are asked to do something. This burning need to know, is in fact our defining national characteristic.

This is not altogether a bad thing. It drove us to map the heavens, invent modern mathematics, devise the world’s first system of medicine and even become the world’s tech support provider.

But sometimes, all this questioning and imagining “what if” scenarios can get in the way of actually doing things. We spend so much time questioning the rationale and logic for every action, and devote so much energy to splitting hair over any number of possible outcomes for any step, that very little get up and go is left over to actually achieve something.

Infrastructure Plans

That is why, for instance, our infrastructure plans remain just that – plans on paper. That is also why, for instance, that the government’s grand plan to “throw open” the doors to billions of dollars of foreign investment in everything from nuclear power plants to supermarkets and groceries have come a cropper. By the time we finish dotting the ‘I’s and crossing the ‘T’s to our satisfaction – or the satisfaction of the myriad interest groups involved in any such step, at any rate – we find that nobody is really interested in walking through those doors.

Sometimes, our nitpicking attention to a zillion details also leads us to miss the significant detail. So we start off with a grand plans to build Special Economic Zones on the lines of China’s mega manufacturing hubs, then get drawn into a hundred and one debates about qualifications and tax treatment and so on, and merrily missed the one significant detail — that of who will acquire the land needed for these SEZs.

By the time we find a solution for this — by dumping the onus back on to SEZ developers — the whole idea of SEZs has lost its sex appeal. At last look, the government had pared down an SEZ from the original mega city to 50 hectares – and is still not finding any takers.

Meanwhile, other, less ‘thoughtful’ nations have been simply going ahead and doing something to solve their problems — and have managed to come up with some amazing, cheap and easy to use solutions — without any of the attendant grief that doing something similar would have entailed in this country.

Africa’s Strides

Last week, two really interesting developments, both in distant Africa, starkly brought home the difference between what actually looking for solutions can do, as against imagining all the possible problems that could prevent a solution from being delivered, and trying to solve all of them in advance.

Last week, Kenya’s equivalent of the Registrar of Companies in India, the Kenya State Law Office, signed a $ 161,000 (Kenyan Shilling 14 million or less than Rs 1 crore) deal with telecom services provider Safaricom to deliver a mobile solution to anybody who wanted to start a business and needed the mandatory government registration.

Earlier, the registration, which costs about Rs 70, required applicants to personally visit the Law Office in the country’s capital in order to file the application and pay the fee. This, in Kenya, whose physical infrastructure is still rudimentary, meant an agonising journey, and the spending of what often was a daunting sum of money for a poor entrepreneur.

Since, under Kenyan law, every business had to be registered, this itself became an entry barrier, much like the red tape which entangles any entrepreneurial activity in India.

Also, most people ended up using the simpler option of not registering their business – which not only led to lost revenues for the government, but entailed the additional risk of sudden and punitive action by the authorities.

Mobile Phone Rage

Now, the deal will provide Kenyans the opportunity to start registering businesses, conduct name searches and pay the attendant fees over their handsets, thus saving them overhead registration cost and time, while speeding up the legalisation of businesses process, Business Daily reported.

Around the same time, Nigeria’s Guaranty Trust Bank (GT Bank), which also happens to be the single largest Nigerian brand on Facebook with more than 1.3 million fans, offered customers the option to start a bank account online through Facebook – without ever having to visit a branch!

All that people have to do while on Facebook is fill the account opening form, upload their passport photograph and signature mandate and immediately get their account number.

This, according to the bank, was part of its social banking offering pioneered by GT Bank, that allows people open GT Bank Accounts, make account balance enquiries, perform money transfers and purchase airtime, all on Facebook!

These are just some of the examples of the way simple, realistic and cost effective solutions are revolutionising Africa.

“The mobile phone,” says Jeffrey Sachs, “is the single most transformational tool for development in Africa.” The mobile pay and go solution is transforming not just the way business is done, but the way people lead their lives in what are still some of the poorest countries on earth.

According to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Kenyans using M-Pesa, a mobile phone-based money payments service, undertook more transactions in three years than the total number of worldwide remittance transfers recorded by the global money transfer agency Western Union! Mobile phones are used to pay for everything from groceries and cab rides to farm supplies and even pay wages.

Africa now has more mobile phone subscribers than the US, and Kenya is the world leader in mobile money transactions. Analysts even say that Africa will become the world’s first “post-PC” region, with countries like Botswana and Gabon already having a mobile penetration of more than 100 per cent.

According to The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), an estimated 1.7 billion people had mobile phones in the developing world in 2012 — but no bank accounts.

India is no different. With more than 650 million mobile connections, penetration among adult populations — even in rural areas — is high. But while the government continues its breast-beating about financial inclusion, and thinks through complicated solutions to deliver access to financial services and direct transfer of benefits to the poor — including the creation of a gigantic ‘Big Brother’ Unique ID Authority, and several new banks — smaller, vastly poorer and less developed nations have already gone ahead and found a solution which works.

It’s time to stop thinking and start doing.

7 Habits of Highly Productive People

Productivity is a key, which unlocks the door of success. A productive workday is an achievement for a responsible employee, whose goal is to create desired results for his company. If you want to be productive daily, follow these simple rules…

http://www.indiatimes.com/lifestyle/work-and-li…

5 Steps for Overcoming Procrastination

Michael Locklear

Millions of people struggle with completing goals and overcoming challenges due to the habit of procrastination. In fact, it’s one of the most common personal issues that people seek help for. There are several reasons why people procrastinate or avoid tasks. They can range from simple, basic laziness to fear of failure, lack of confidence in your ability, or simply a strong dislike for the task at hand.

People commonly put off doing things because they don’t know what to expect or what the outcome may be. They might fail, other people might laugh at them, they might look foolish, there may be a lot of stress, or any number of non-specific anxieties. We all struggle with the fear of the unknown on a daily basis. It’s the way we think and our perception of things that paralyse us and keep us in a pattern of avoidance. If you believe that something is unpleasant or distasteful, or that you’ll fail if you try to do it, or if you believe that you will somehow lose something, you will probably make sure you never get around to it. In most cases, this only creates high levels of stress, or brings unpleasant circumstances. When you get in touch with how much pain you feel when you procrastinate, you can begin the first step to overcoming it.

Many people procrastinate because of a lack of motivation. To fight this kind of procrastination, you can set rewards for doing these undesirable things. If exercise is difficult, try giving yourself a reward every time you go to the gym. You deserve it for having persevered. Next time, you may be just that much more motivated.

For many people, procrastination consumes major amounts of time in their daily lives. Because of this habit, they don’t get things done. This results in more stress, and more frustration. In the end, procrastination makes things far more difficult than they would be if you simply completed the task. Stopping procrastination means you can avoid all the pain of the failure procrastination causes.

Other reasons why people procrastinate:
A lack of faith in your own abilities
Fear of trying anything new because of past failures
Low self esteem
The goal is not associated with a reward

Procrastination is one of the most time-consuming activities one can engage in. It causes a great deal of stress and frustration. Here are five steps you can take to make overcoming procrastination simple.

Step 1: Find your direction.

Every time you procrastinate, write down the task you are avoiding and your justification for avoiding it. Keeping a record will help you understand how your attitudes are related to your procrastination. Then you can identify strategies to redirect yourself when you feel the desire to procrastinate. Always focus on the task you wish to perform and your reward when you succeed. Focusing on your reward is the most powerful way to overcome procrastination.

“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.”
-Yogi Berra

Step 2: Get focused

You can easily become overwhelmed if you try to do everything at once. Instead break your goals down into simpler tasks. Start putting them into action, one at a time. Start as soon as possible. Take time every day to work on your goals.

If you find it really hard to get started on a task, try working on it for ten minutes. This will usually help you get some momentum, and help you feel like continuing. Start with a simple task first, and be sure to visualize yourself completing the task. This will help you to focus on the goal, and the reward you will receive upon completion.

“Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus all of our resources on mastering a single
area of our lives.” -Tony Robbins

Step 3: Be aware of your thoughts.

The more you procrastinate, the more monumental the task becomes in your mind. Allowing limiting beliefs to control your actions becomes a parasite on your chances for success. You must confront your beliefs about yourself and the task, and face your fears.

Instead of daydreaming about your failure, and all the things that could go wrong, and how hard it’s going to be, fantasize about how good you will feel having gotten the task out the way, how confident you’ll feel when you complete it successfully, and how confident you will be about your ability to do the next thing. Keep your focus positive, and this will build a new attitude that will overcome all your limited beliefs, and defeat procrastination.

Learn how to separate your anxious thoughts from your realistic thoughts. Imagine the worst-case scenario. Then, make a plan to get back on your feet if the worst should happen. Chances are you would recover relatively quickly, and resume your normal life.

“Our attitude toward life determines life’s attitude towards us.”
-John N. Mitchell

Step 4: Build your tolerance to negative emotions.

Fear and stress are normal. They come from being uncertain, or feeling threatened in some way. Most of the time they’re just feelings, and there is no real danger. Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the ability to continue in spite of it. Courage is required to overcome procrastination.

When you persist in pursuing your goals, you build up your tolerance for stress and anxiety. In time you will feel more confident, more capable, and far less stress and overwhelm. When you don’t fear the feelings of anxiety, you will procrastinate less.

Meditation is a powerful way to build your resistance to negative emotions. Major universities all over the world have found that it reduces stress and anxiety, elevates your mood, and improves your ability to focus.

Step 5: Take command of yourself.

Success always means going outside of your comfort zone. No matter how unpleasant the results of procrastination, the habit remains part of your comfort zone. One very important first step is to stop complaining about what you have to do. Nothing worthwhile is ever easy, and complaining only drains away your will to succeed.

Focus your mind on all of the benefits you will receive from being successful in whatever you need to do. Keep your mind focused on how wonderful you’re going to feel and all of the wonderful things that are going to happen to you when you are successful.

“Self-command is the main discipline.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Overcoming procrastination is not as hard as you might think. Once you take these five steps for overcoming procrastination, your fears and anxieties will melt away, and you will experience the many benefits of being in control of your life.

Understanding Questions
%%%%%
Tom Hopkins

Champion sales professionals know that the best mode of operation is to ask questions and to listen to the answers. Although nearly all children ask questions, somewhere along the road of life, we stop asking – or, we ask fewer questions. Some of us even get to the point in life where we feel stupid asking questions. I’m a firm believer that the only stupid question there can possibly be is the one that’s never asked.

There are many different types of questions that professional salespeople must know and use. In order to use them most effectively, they must know what function each question has and just when to use each of them in the selling sequence. In the beginning of every potential client contact, it is imperative that you ask questions and listen to the answers. The main reasons are simple:

1. Asking questions causes the other person to give you answers that contain information you need to know in order to decide if this person has a need for your services.
2. The person asking the questions maintains control of the conversation.
3. Asking questions saves you a lot of time – time that could be wasted with non-decision-makers and people who simply have no need for what you’re selling.

Let’s talk about different types of questions. Discovery questions are ones that help you find out more about your potential future client and his or her needs with regard to your product or service. Discovery questions tend to be pretty automatic with seasoned salespeople. Wanting to find out all the information possible about your prospective customers is only natural. You need to keep in mind a few rules when asking these types of questions, though.

When formatting your discovery questions, remember that you’re trying to gather information. So, ask questions that demand explanations and further discussion. Answers like ‘yes’ or ‘no’ are not what you’re after. Here’s what you need to discover:

v v What product and/or service does the client own now?
v v What would the client change about the product and/or service they currently own?
v v When will the client be looking to own the new product and/or service?

Always remember that the discovery period may take a while. After all, you don’t want to jump into a presentation before gathering all the information possible. The more you know, the better you will be able to direct your client to the best possible solution for their needs.

So, relax and enjoy this discovery period. It’s sort of like the early days of dating in a relationship. There are just so many interesting things to learn about the other party. Leading questions are questions that help you steer the conversation to the specific information that helps you determine if your product is right for any potential future client.

It’s very often tempting to tell people about the great products or services you offer way before you know what they’re looking for. The salespeople who give in to this temptation are often seen by prospective clients as having diarrhoea of the mouth – an affliction which causes prospective clients to run away as quickly as possible.

To recover from such a malady, train yourself to ask leading questions so the prospective client tells you why they’ve come to you in the first place.

Crowding the conversation with to much of information will often drive prospective clients away. Leading questions draw them toward you as having knowledge they need in order to make a wise decision. You do this by making statements regarding your product or service, then tying them down with questions that require the other person to either agree or give you another direction to follow.

The key to success with these and any other questioning strategies is to listen to the answers. I mean really listen, not just hear them. Listening requires the use of not only your two ears, but your eyes and your sense of body language. In other words, you listen between the words for what the other person is really saying.

Good communicators spend approximately 40 percent of their time listening. Only 35 percent is spent talking. The rest of the time is spent reading and writing. Now, with all the value we salespeople put on our speaking abilities, our verbal skills, it’s probably a surprise to you that the percentage for listening is higher than that for speaking. Please let this be the last time you are surprised by those numbers. As soon as you finish reading this article, start to develop your listening skills.

Your goal is to become an empathetic listener. That is a person who pays total attention to the subject at hand. He or she is totally focused on the present moment. They notice when another party to the conversation moves their hands, their eyes. They notice a change in stance. They recognize signals of hesitancy as well as those of agreement. They notice and work to eliminate distractions in their selling environment.

To help keep the other party focused on the situation at hand, use their name periodically in the conversation. Maintain eye contact with them – not staring them down, but meeting their eyes occasionally when making a point. If you see them drifting or hear them going off on a tangent that is not relevant to the situation, ask questions that bring their focus back to the task at hand.

To further develop your listening skills, practice taking notes during every conversation you have for a week, even when you are with loved ones. If you explain to them that you’re working to better develop your listening skills – to understand their needs as well as those of your clients – they’ll feel honoured that you value their conversation. Improving your communication skills will improve your relationships all around.

Care for results

What method did the colonel use in influencing the President? Fortunately, we know, for House himself revealed it to Arthur D. Howden Smith, and Smith quoted House in an article in The Saturday Evening Post.

“After I got to know the President”, House said, ‘I learned the best way to convert him to an idea was to plant it in his mind casually, but so as to interest him in it – so as to get him thinking about it on his own account. The first time this worked it was an accident. I had been visiting him at the White House and urged a policy on him which he appeared to disapprove. But several days later, at the dinner table, I was amazed to hear him trot out my suggestion as his own.’

Did House interrupt him and say, “That’s not your idea. That’s mine?” Oh, no. Not House. He was too adroit for that. He didn’t care about credit. He wanted results. So he let Wilson continue to feel that the idea was his. House did even more than that. He gave Wilson public credit for these ideas.

Let’s remember that everyone we come in contact with is just as human as Woodrow Wilson. So let’s use Colonel House’s technique.

From “How to enjoy your life and your job” by Dale Carnegie

How to find your Strengths
##
Dave Ramsey

Just because you’re good at something doesn’t make it a strength

According to Marcus Buckingham, author of Go Put Your Strengths To Work, “Most people think your strengths are what you’re good at, and your weaknesses are what you’re bad at.” He explains that this isn’t a good way to measure your strengths and skills.

There may be a lot of things that you’re good at, but hate doing. Just because you’re good at something doesn’t make it a strength. You also must have a passion for what you’re doing—that’s what qualifies it as a strength.

“A better definition of a strength,” said Buckingham, “is an activity that makes you feel strong. And a weakness is an activity that makes you feel weak. Even if you’re good at it, if it drains you, that’s a weakness.”

He recommends writing down activities that drain you or energize you during a regular week. This will prohibit others from confirming or denying your strengths and weaknesses. Instead, you’re determining what they are without letting other people’s opinions influence you.

Once you have determined your strengths, you need to refine and sharpen your skills. “You grow the most, learn the most, develop the most in the areas where you already have some natural advantage,” said Buckingham.

According to Buckingham, there are four clear signs of a strength:

1. Success—This is effectiveness in the activity you are doing.
2. Instincts—Find those things that you instinctively look forward to, and capitalize on them.
3. Growth—You’re growing when you can concentrate on an activity, and time just flies by.
4. Needs—Some activities might make you tired, but they fulfil you.

Now that you know your strengths, it’s time to put them into action. From your list that you kept throughout the week, write down three strength statements. Buckingham said the statements should be “specific enough to conjure up passion within you, but general enough for you to apply every week.” He says you can’t build a career around your best unless you know your strengths. “It’s one of the skills of life.”

Selling Tomatoes
A jobless man applied for the position of “office boy/girl” at Microsoft.

The HR manager interviewed him then watched him cleaning the floor as a test.

“You are employed” he said. “Give me your e-mail address and I’ll send you the application to fill in, as well as date when you may start”.

The man replied “But I don’t have a computer, neither an email.”

“I’m sorry”, said the HR manager, “If you don’t have an email, that means you do not exist. And who doesn’t exist, cannot have the job.”

The man left with no hope at all. He didn’t know what to do, with only $10 in his pocket.

He then decided to go to the supermarket and buy a 10Kg tomato crate.
He then sold the tomatoes in a door to door round.
In less than two hours, he succeeded to double his capital.
He repeated the operation three times, and returned home with $60.

The man realized that he can survive by this way, and started to go every day earlier, and return late.
Thus, his money doubled or tripled everyday.

Shortly, he bought a cart, then a truck, and then he had his own fleet of delivery vehicles.
5 years later, the man is one of the biggest food retailers.
He started to plan his family’s future, and decided to have a life insurance.
He called an insurance broker, and chose a protection plan.
When the conversation was concluded, the broker asked him his email.

The man replied, "I don’t have an email ".

The broker answered curiously:
“You don’t have an email, and yet have succeeded to build an empire.
Can you imagine what you could have been if you had an email?!!”

The man thought for a while and replied:
“Yes, I’d be an office boy at Microsoft!”

Moral of the story
M1- Internet /email is not the solution to your life.
M2- If you don’t have internet / email, and work hard, you can be a millionaire.
M3 If you received this message by email, you are probably already an office boy/girl, and not any close to being a Billionaire…

Have a great day !!!

• P.S – Do not forward this email back to me, i am closing his email & going to sell tomatoes !!!*

Smells like marketing
Alokananda Chakraborty

You may wonder if aromatherapy really works, but marketers
seem pretty certain that ambient odour equals increase in sales

I am sure I am not the only one. Every time I walk past a Fabindia store I have this great urge to step inside. Maybe it is the kind of clothes or all the organic foodstuff they stock, I can’t seem to walk away. I tell myself I’ll browse and scoot, but I can hardly ever walk out empty handed. I blame it on my lack of discretion, self-control etcetera until one day I read this, well, random piece of information.

I am told companies like Fabindia or Woodland have actually invested huge sums on developing “signature fragrances” that are sprayed in and around the stores to draw consumers in. We don’t have independent verification from Fabindia but a Woodland executive tells us that the company has noticed a significant increase in footfalls since it developed what he calls the “Woodland brand fragrance” and began spraying it in the aisle area of its stores across the world, including India.

The ability of odours to stir emotions and trigger memories has had a long literary pedigree and recent years have seen growing interest in the ability of ambient odour to influence consumer behaviour – from the use of scent to make store ambience pleasant and welcoming to the more deliberate marketing ploy of using odour to manipulate behaviour by appealing to consumers at a sub-conscious level. In fact, if I go by some of the estimates I found by Googling alone, five years ago, roughly 40 per cent of the Fortune 500 companies took recourse to sensory marketing in some form as part of the exercise to engage with consumers. By 2015, experts aver, roughly 70 per cent of Fortune 500 companies would be using sensory marketing to stay in the race or get ahead.

Without doubt smell is an important factor in the sensory evaluation of products, but if you really think about it, the use of smell as a marketing tool is not exactly new. Car salesmen in markets such as Japan have been known to splash the interiors of their cars with the scent of leather, and one American bank is said to have even sprayed its cheque books with rose oil. Singapore Airlines, it has been widely documented, is driven by an aim to establish a truly sensory brand experience encompassing much more than what the passengers could see or hear. Martin Lindström writes in Brand Sense: How to Build Powerful Brands Through Touch, Taste, Smell, Sight that the sensory branding of Singapore Airlines reached its zenith in 2000 when it introduced a signature company perfume for the hot towels to be served before take-off and to be worn by its flight attendants. This patented aroma, Stefan Floridian Waters, has now become the airlines’ trademark fragrance and is used to complement the branding of Singapore Airlines.

Closer home, our detergent makers are hawking products with the aroma of jasmine, of lemon and everything that you can possibly relate with freshness. But the question is: does a great smelling interior make consumers rate the store environment as positive, stay in the store far longer and, above all, buy more?

Marketing opinion seems to be overwhelmingly in favour of those conclusions. Woodland’s vice-president in India Amol Dhillon even says that his consumers are so impressed with its trademark fragrance that they want it to be sprayed on their leather jackets and apparel as well. Given its popular demand, the company plans to launch the Woodland fragrance as a stand-alone product line in India early next year.

Indian retailers may have cottoned on to the trend only recently, but as organised retail grows, this thing about sensory marketing will only grow in momentum. Woodland is already using its signature leather fragrance at its various corporate offices as a branding exercise. Then we have Forest Essentials, an Ayurveda-based cosmetics company, that has crafted its own lemongrass fragrance to be sprayed in its stores to make consumers feel cool and comfortable inside. The company says versions of this fragrance are now being supplied to select hospitals and hotels in India.

Your friendly neighbourhood retailer till tell you he always knew a nice fragrance would do nice things to his sales figures – even before neuromarketing had become a buzzword – and that’s the reason he uses incense sticks or “dhoop” to offer a sense of calm and balance when his customer walked in. What is new is that that with scientific consumer research in the retail business, this phenomenon has been taken to a whole new level.

I always knew it was not simply about my lack of self control.