It’s a marketing bar. 3 rules are to be followed at all times.
Rule1: Only marketing guys allowed.
Rule2: No suits. Due to this rule there’s a by-rule which states “HIYMY has to be criticized at all times”
Rule3: You are not supposed to disclose the identity of your company.
The place is full at this time of the year. It’s not because of any football or cricket season, next week is the quarterly sales review week at every company and none of them are meeting their respective targets. They all are discussing the same thing- “How different life would have been had they opted for finance?”
A man is sitting at the right end of the bar, drinking his usual, and is wearing his favourite angry bird tshirt and three fourths. Another guy from across the bar approaches him.
New Guy: Hi there.
Old Guy: (Looks up from his drink): Hi
New Guy: Nice tshirt. I love angry birds too.
Old Guy: Oh really!!! This is my favourite tshirt. (ponders for a second then takes a sip) Can I be honest with
you?
New Guy: Have you had that many drinks to be honest with me?
Old Guy: Oh you are the witty one!! (another pause, another sip) I don’t even like angry birds. It’s the only
tshirt I own.
New Guy: Ahan!! The bliss of marketing life. I need your honest opinion about one more thing.
Old Guy: Shoot.
New Guy: What do you think of the new Benetton “Unhate” campaign?
Old Guy: The one which has all rival political leaders kissing each other? (New Guy nods). It’s pretty good,
it’s shocking in the true sense. The kind of shocking which catches everyone’s attention. After all that is what a campaign is supposed to do.
New Guy: Is that really your ‘honestest’ opinion?
Old Guy: (laughs) I require more drinks to give my honestest opinion.
New Guy: The next one is on me.
Old Guy: Alright then. According to me, it’s not shocking, it crosses that line and reaches insanity. They had a campaign where a black woman is breast feeding a white kid, now that’s shocking. Over here, you have US and china leaders kissing, Israel and Palestine leaders kissing- you are just messing with emotions of all the citizens of these countries. Hatred exists between these nations because majority of the population actually hate each other, they don’t want to kiss each other.
New Guy: But sales have increased?
Old Guy: You seem to be new in this business. You see Mr “Sales have increased”, if you mark up the price by 10% and then provide a discount of 10%, effectively you are providing a Rs1 discount on a Rs100 product, even then sales increase. Moreover marketing is not about increasing sales, the main idea is to leave a legacy behind.
New Guy: (smiles) You an MBA? Right?
Old Guy: (surprised) Yes. Why?
New Guy: Enough said.
The new guy walks over to the other end of the bar and starts laughing with his friends.
Friends: What did he say this time?
New Guy: He thinks through marketing he’s trying to leave a legacy behind. (They all start laughing again)