When will the marketers understand???

Its been really bugging me now! I have been mulling over the imbecility I had to witness this morning, and every time I think about it... I feel like pulling my hair apart!

Here's the deal. My wife and myself have been wanting to join the gym and get back in 'shape'. Well to confess, my wife has been more committed to the cause than I have been.

This morning, we decided to check out the new gym which Jyotsana had discovered, searching through heaps of advertisements that come along with the main newspaper.

Let me paint a backdrop for you all before we start detailing:
a) As I had said, my wife has been more 'committed' than I have been with regards to starting this 'gymming thing' (so she was in a true sense an 'active consumer'. My exact choice of words when she mentioned about gym were - 'oh well, okay'!)
b) She is the one who searched through the newspaper and pull-outs to discover this new gym, while I was having fun playing the vicious cycle of office-home-office insulated around a 'couldnt-care-less' attitude
c) She has the buying power (enough and more of it!). She is not 'just the window shopper'
d) She is more 'loyal' in her behaviour towards brands than I have ever been in my entire life(I have got enough and more examples to showcase that)

With this backdrop, here is an account of what happened when we went to the gym this morning:
a) When we get to the gym and meet the instructor, he ignores her completely (as if she didnt exist!) and starts his gibberish aimed at educating (rather impressing) me (and I unfortuntately was anyways tuned off. I was totally disinterested and insulated around (remember... 'couldnt-care-less') attitude.)
b) The first part of the process was aimed at understanding our body types, our medical history and thus chalking out an exercise regime for 'both' of us. Here is ratio of time spent by the instructor on the first process for my wife and me. MY WIFE - 3 minutes!...hold on, the real sinker comes now..................... ME - 20 minutes! ('freakin'stein!....although she was clearly more interesting in knowing the procedure and had more 'questions' than I did)
c) After a while we were through with our first session for the day, throughout the session, while she was making an attempt to learn on her own, I got the attention of the floating coaches who would be more than willing to help me out in my workout. As always, she was relatively 'ignored' Just when we were placing ourselves in the car, I initiated the conversation asking her how she felt about the experience. The question was thrown back at me (as always:)!!) and my response was - 'disgusting'. Do you know what she said for the same question? 'I guess it was okay' (Marketers, do u read something here - "more margin for error". With everything going wrong for her, right from step 1, she was still willing to give those guys another chance!)

Bottomline: the real consumer was ignored, while the 'stereotype' ruled!

And I felt like shouting out loud and saying - 'WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR MARKETERS TO REALISE THAT WOMEN IS A HUGE UNTAPPED MARKET " (and much to my chagrin let me accept, far smarter than the male counterparts, when it comes to decision making on purchase / brands and sticking to the brands). And I will tell you why I have generalised this one experience to the entire 'women consumer community'. Let me present my case with facts:
a) Between 1970 to 1998 Men's median income has increased by 0.6%. The same for women has grown by ............(hold your breath)......63%
b) A research done in a lawnmower company produced some astonishing results. Women accounted for 80% of high-margin riding lawnmower sales (so its not just nappy sales you see!)
c) Girls have been consistently outshining the guys aross examinations (be it our home turf: CBSE, or be it at a global level: GCSE). No wonder the instructor was explaining everything to me!
d) Women either influence or 'decide' 83% of all consumer purchases made by a household! (I would surely love to share this with the gym folks!)
e) I have heard this as a joke - while a man will straight head to what he wants to buy in a store, a women will end up gyrating, spiraling and zig-zagging her way through the store to buy what she came for, and in addition spends couple of extra grands! (well, as a marketer, who do you think has more 'real' spendable income, and therefore who should we target?) .

I dont know when will we, marketers, realise that women dont 'buy' brands. They join them. The experience today has really reinforced what I strongly believe in.
We are really taking an awful long time to understand the simple fact - 'Girls are the new boys'....

How do you spell HELL - Agarwal Packers and Movers

There are always these times when you wonder - "WTF was I thinking?" Let me tell you something, I have been asking this to myself every single day...ever since I have moved to Pune, or rather allow me to rephrase - ever since I hired Agarwal Packers to move our stuff from Delhi to Pune.

As if the prospects of traveling via road, the new job profile, experiencing life in a new city; werent exciting enough, I decided to spice up my life a little bit more... Much against the advice of my wife, I decided to finalise Agarwal Packers and Movers (DRS Group), as the professional services firm to help us relocate from Delhi to Pune.

In research we often ask consumers to 'surmise' in one word how their experience was. Well I can surmise it in one word - 'Horrible'. ...Want more - 'Disgusting / Excruciating / Terrible / Nightmarish...blah blah blah'.

This painful journey started with my interaction with this guy called 'Rajesh Gupta' who is based out of Delhi office of Agarwal Packers. A sales executive by profession, in his 'quintessential and pure' haryanvi he explained to me that I need to send him a list of all the stuff that we will be transporting and he will send a quote via email. True to his words (first and the last time!) the quote came in by the evening, on the day I spoke to him. Things went down the hill from thereon. Let me elucidate you point wise what happened:

a) Rajesh Gupta promised - All covered container. Rajesh Gupta delivered - An open truck!
b) Rajesh Gupta promised - Delivery of goods in 4 working days. Rajesh Gupta delivered - In 6 working days!
c) Rajesh Gupta promised - Foolproof delivery using corrugated material and poster tapes. Rajesh Gupta delivered - Cardboard and plastic boxes!
d) Rajesh Gupta promised - Delivery of all goods in one piece. Rajesh Gupta delivered - a broken TV!
...and this one takes the cake guys...
e) Rajesh Gupta promised - He will be the point of contact till the goods get delivered and he assured me of his best services in case there was any issue with regards to shipment delay or any other unforeseen contingency. Rajesh Gupta delivered - A white lie! As would happen with anyone who is concerned about the shipment delay and breakage, I called him up on his cell phone to explain the loss that I had to bear and to talk about way forward. That bugger had the audacity of asking her wife to lie about him and tell me that he has gone out of station! I asked my wife to call on his number again and pose as a prospective buyer, sure enough that bugger was on the phone again! And imagine the lame excuse he delivered on being caught - "he missed his train and thus came back home"! Ha ha ha.....what a joker!

The irony doesnt end here. Guess what... this organization is supposedly an ISO certified organization!

As I pen this blog down, the TV is still crippled, I have been following up with the Samsung folks and the DRS group folks, but ofcourse there has been no resolution. Even if there is a resolution and the crippled TV is put back in shape, all I know is that the entire experience has left a deep scar...and it will most definitely remain ingrained for a long time.

MORAL OF THE STORY / WORD OF CAUTION (not necessarily in that order) : a) Please DO NOT take services of Aggarwal Packers and Movers!
b) Listen to your wife's advice :)!