APANA DHANDA – MANDI.

All of you might be surprised about the title line “APANA DHANDA – MANDI”. It was same to me when i join my MBA college NITIE, MUMBAI, INDIA few months back. Let me first explain you the meaning of the above line; APAN DHANDA means My Business and Mandi is a market where we all do our business, especially at the roadside, streets etc. This is an initiative taken by one of our professor Dr. T. Prasad. It was the morning of the 1 August 2009 when we all 350 students have to assemble for the flag off ceremony. The event inauguration was witnessed by the likes of  Dev Bhattacharya(group executive president, strategy and business development, Aditya Birla Group), R. Suresh (Managing Director of Stanton Chase International, a NITIE alum), Bollywood actress Preeti Jhangiani, our Director and other esteemed dignitaries.

The idea of the MANDI is to get the real hands-on experience of the marketing or selling a product directly to customers on roadside street, which any books fail to do so. The variety of customers you get on these streets is unmatchable to any other place. There were people who were curious to know about the product but not to buy it, some people who were not curious about it but we sold it to them, people who were curious and purchased the product (toys) from us. So we see the different variety of people. The difference is not only in there curiosity or desire, whether to buy it or not, but the purchasing power of the people and his perception that do the product (Toys) worth of any use? Let me tell or introduced you the product which we had to sell. It was an educational toy, JODO (made up of straws and connectors where you can make 2D or 3D shapes out of it), Tangrams (consist of 216 puzzle) and Rangometry. The total worth of toys was 2145 INR. These toys were made by an NGO “NAVNIRMITI” and the money earned from this would be used for the education of poor children.

 

We were divided in a group of two and we selected the Andheri (W) to sell our toys. First, both of us were a bit app rehensive about how to indentify and approach a probable customer? I quickly built a small house from the JODO, so as to get the attention of the people and to explain them in much better  way. Within 15 minutes we sold our first JODO. This gave me the confidence and momentum. So we started talking with customers, asking for their attention, explaining them about the toys and the benefits to their children and to them also. We started somewhere around 2:00 p.m. and by 6:00 p.m. we sold out all our toys. While doing this exercise i realise that there are 3 types of people, first one who were always in hurry and hence do not have time to listen, second one who are standing, not because they do not have anything to do or go anywhere, but because they are tensed and third one (larger chunk of the people who bought our toys) who were coming out from a good and fully air-conditioned pastry shop. This was the location and customer segment which me and my friend realised and cashed on it. Actually when people were coming out from the shop, all of them were very happy and relaxed as they ate a very good pastry in air-conditioned shop. People who were coming to this shop belong to upper middle and middle class. So purchasing power really played a roll in buying these toys, as some people were convinced about the effectiveness of the toys but couldn’t buy it because of the price. We do moved to other nearby areas and sold some toys, but that was the spot were our 70% of toys got sold. we requested each and every customer for their time and then we used to explain about the toys and its various prospects. Some times we really walked with the customers while explaining to them.

I am sure this is a lifetime experience for me.  Below is one of my creation. Can anyone identify what it is?