Street Marketing

During my initial Bangalore days, one afternoon, I was walking on a busy street. I was in my formals; went for an interview that had gone really bad. All of a sudden a decent looking man approached me. He had a pleasant smile on his face. He was holding a brochure kind of thing. The picture of a bearded man in the brochure looked familiar to me. The man talked to me for a while. He was trying to convince me on something. It seemed he was a marketing guy of the very well known "Art of Living"

'What Art are you talking about, sir? At present I’m just struggling for a living. I am jobless and trying hard to get one,' I said to him.

'Oh! You are not working', the man responded and started to ignore me. 

'Is Art of Living, only for working people?' I asked.

With a charming smile the man disappeared into the crowd.

Some years later

I, my wife Anjali and my friend Sinha were walking on a busy Kormangala street, pretty close to Sinha’s house. Suddenly a smart looking guy blocked our way and handed over a brochure to Sinha, without saying anything and disappeared. Sinha had a look at the brochure and put it in his pocket. I was quite disappointed that the guy didn’t find a potential customer in me. Might be I looked more like a jobless fellow. I was confused that the guy even ignored Anjali. Ladies are by default potential customers and on top of that Anjali was quite well-dressed, well-groomed.

'What is it about, Sinha? I asked.

Sinha replied, ‘Nothing dude. Someone or the other would always give me something like this’

‘Wow! You look very wealthy. See how the guy neglected both me and Anjali,’ I commented and now, Anjali also started pulling Sinha’s leg. 

‘That is very true, Sinha, you look very wealthy,’ said Anjali and Sinha sighed. 

‘What is this about? Are there any offers? Show me the brochure,’ I asked.

‘Nothing dude, it’s not related to you guys,’ Sinha hesitated to show the brochure.

I and Anjali tried to have some fun, ‘It’s okay Sinha. We may not be as wealthy as you, but even we can afford to buy a few small things’

It continued for a few more minutes and then Sinha passed on the brochure to us. It seemed a new fitness center recently opened in that area. The brochure had many contents, including in bold letters ‘Lose 10 kg weight in just 2 months’

Well, the incident happened a few years ago. Now, both I and Anjali turned into potential customers for the fitness centers.