This is where you are going to post your individual projects for Marketing Management I. I hope you paid attention in class because this is where your observational skills are going to be evaluated. So feel free to comment on this post with what you learn. Your time starts now!
Oh and one more thing. Don't leave posts anonymously unless if you do not want to be graded. Please remember to add your name and FT number.
Oh and one more thing. Don't leave posts anonymously unless if you do not want to be graded. Please remember to add your name and FT number.
I got a chance to observe and interact with a lady, who sells flowers near the bus stand during evenings. She starts her work around 4 pm and ends at approx 9 (or) 9:30 pm. The sales are high during mugurtham, festival days and week ends. In the mornings, she travels to the wholesale flower market to get her inventories. She purchases 600 gms of flowers in each variant(max 6 variants). Most preferred flowers were jasmine and rose.
ReplyDeleteThis week I interacted with a chemist working at a chemist shop 'Arafat Medical Store'. Speaking to him, I got to know some of the selling points that his shop scores over others in the same area. Arafat Medical Store is having four other medical stores in its vicinity, but it's at the top among them in terms of market share. There could be so many different reasons for it being a leader but few of them that we got aware of are:
ReplyDelete1) This medical store is one of the oldest in that area( ~20 years ), and over this time period the owner has built a strong customer relationship.
2) The shop is biggest in area as compared to other four shops
3) It's the only medical shop among other four that has an AC, which gives a competitive edge as people could wait comfortably for their turn to buy.
4) The shop keeps a fairly good stock of FMCG products, in addition to a wide stock of medicines. The medicines account for 70% of the stock and FMCG account for rest 30%.
The shop doesn't charge any premium on their medicines( in lieu of service like AC), but they also don't give any discount on medicines. They are able to benefit from the people who come to visit the nearby hospital.
This week it's time for a pani puri shop. I had a chance to interact with the pani puri shop owner. He starts his shop at 5 pm in the evening. He gets 4 packets of puri everyday. Each packet costs 70Rs. Hence a total cost of puri is around 280Rs. He spends another 200 bugs in retail stores. Hence his total cost is around 500 Rs.
ReplyDeleteHe sells approx 50 plates everyday. Each plate costs Rs.12. Hence a profit of 100 Rs everyday. He expects maximum sales during Wednesday. The reason being all the advances for weekly wages are paid during Wednesday. He expects sales of 700 Rs on Wednesdays. He closes his shop around 9PM in the night.
Stone Sculptures in Mahabalipuram
ReplyDeleteby Amit Kumar Aggarwal(FT13104)
Introduction :
Welcome to one of the most enduring archaeological spot in South India. A place of much stone carved sculptures and ancient temples. The stone sculpture carvings are the depictions from the Hindu epics. You can see huge rocks got entirely sculptured like the one just below and even a temple carved into a huge single rock. The skills of carving idols in granite are unique in Tamil Nadu as the carving tradition is still true to translating the sacred scriptures. Granite stone sculptures were mainly used for carving the idols for temples. However, in recent times they are fashioned as decorative items for the tourist market as well. Most of the craftsmen owning a pattarai, workshop, in Mamallapuram have settled here after completing their training from the Government College of Traditional Architecture and Sculpture in Mamallapuram, a town that has over 500 carvers. They have a flourishing trade in sculpture due to a large influx of tourists that has led to the availability of skilled craftsmen in this region.
History :
Great stone temples and carvings date from the Chola period: examples of these are the Brihadeshwara temple at Thanjavur with its numerous carvings, the temple at Gangaikondacholapuram, the Airavathesvara temple at Darasuram and the Kampahareshvara temple at Thribhuvanam. Other examples include the Chidambaram temple with its 108 karanas of the Natya Shaastra/the canon of dance. the Ekambareshwara and Varadaraaja temples of Kanchipuram, the Meenakshi temple at Madurai, with its numerous sculptures, magnificent proportions, thousand-pillared mandapas, pillars of stone, towering gopurams/towers, larger than life sized reliefs and the long corridor of the Rameshwaram temple.
My Experience :
The day I entered Great Lakes College, I was mesmerized to see the sculpture which is there in the entrance of the college amphitheatre arena. I wanted to explore more about the same. So, the first blog from my side is on the same thing. I visited a place on the outskirts of the town Mahabalipuram to know more about these sculptures, who have made Mahabalipuram a wonder place in India. I met a person named S. Muthuraj, who is an architect and makes these sculptures. He told me that these sculptures are generally made, on demand, for the temples and other religious institutions. These sculptures costs feet wise with every feet costing around Rs4500 to the customer and price varies according to the amount of work done by the architect.
Mr. Muthuraj also exports some of these sculptures to Thailand. The time taken by him to prepare any of these sculptures is generally about 1.5 to 2 months and this time depends largely on the size of the sculpture and the amount of the work which is to be done. Granite is used to make these sculptures. The stone is purchased from Kanchipuram at low costs and then it is worked upon to make a beautiful monument out of it, which can be kept in the temples. This basically requires a lot of hard work and determination to build these beautiful sculptures.
Please comment on the post. I’ll be back with another post next week.
Arup Roy Chowdhury- FT13115
ReplyDeleteAyurvedic Cough Syrup
This is about last week.I had managed to catch the flu going in the campus and was severly under the weather.Unfortunately the cough syrup was not available with the medic and had to be procured from outside.So,i asked for a lift from my friend Harnek who thankfully took me to Mahabalipuram, so that I could buy the medicines.
We reached Mahabalipuram and found Kartik Medicals,a pharmacy on the Main road.I got the required antibiotics and asked for Dabur Honitus cough syrup for my sore throat.As,I had used it earlier,so I was sure it would relieve my sore throat, but to my dismay the pharmacist said that he did not stock the product,and suggested another brand Wincof Plus.
Having no other option I took the medicine and thankfully the syrup worked.Two days back I went back to the shop as I was curious why Kartik medicals did not keep "Honitus".The shopkeeper told me that he stocked all major medicines form all pharmaceutical companies.This response confused me further as Dabur is well known company and the "Honitus" is quite a popular cough syrup brand.So,i pestered him further and asked him why he did not have this Cough syrup.
The pharmacist told me that the Dabur distributor was at some place ese and he did not distribute to his shop or the four medical shops in Mahabalipuram.This to me is serious flaw in the companies distribution strategy.Inspite of having a good product,Dabur at least in our part of the country is not able to manage the supply chain effectively.