No, this is not any Alfred Hitchcock Movie! But the series of unforgettable events that comprised 1st of August, 2009 were nothing short of a roller-coaster ride in the realms of the unknown, excitement, thrill and most importantly – loads of learning. For Mandi – 2009 turned out to be, as was promised to me by my seniors and teachers alike, a once-in-a-lifetime experience!



The above picture says it all – “Learning on the street, Nobody can beat"...
With the BSE building looming on the left-side, the stage was indeed set for the ultimate marketing extravaganza.
And as me, the student of Management batch of 2011, NITIE ventured into the streets of Mumbai with my group, the learning curve started almost instantly.

Part – 1: ‘The famous five’ targeted VT as their first destination. The first deal was made near a bus stop. Tangrams started selling as hot-cakes there, but soon we realized that this was the only thing. Due to the low-income group present there, the high-valued products did not attract many takers. However, persistence was the keyword here and we finally managed to sell a few Jodos and Rangometry to a juice-sipping uncle to an aunty about to board the bus.

Part – 2: The second destination was an open bookshop near Fountain Chowk, MG Road. However, the journey to this destination was also not ordinary. We were able to sell toys while on foot, by making Rangometry patterns on the street-side steel rods with water! The bookshop selling turned out to be our most successful venture. We made some new toys such as cube, helicopter, crown etc. to attract customers & bingo! Uncle, Aunty, Boy, Girl, Kids, Elder people – one and everyone were a part of our customer list. Teachers were one of the main customers in the bookstore, and easily bought the concept of the educational toys. Some doctors were interested in them for their patients. However, the icing on the cake was a middle-aged man, who was pretty impressed by our product as well as the concept. The fact that he did not had the money to pay at that moment and so he rushed to the nearest ATM to get money for the products was an incredible achievement for us.

Part – 3: 90% of the products sold. Time for relaxation and chilling out. And we decided to leave VT and meet our friends at Gateway of India. And this was the biggest mistake we did! For, Gateway was already flooded with fellow NITIEians and the market was at its complete saturation. Our marketing abilities faced the sternest here now. And we did it again! YES, after lots of hardships, which included roaming like zombies all around the Gateway (after a whole day out with just a quick breakfast and nothing else). The final result: 100% success!!!

THE END: “All is well that ends well”!

And after traveling in local trains and autos in a trance on our return journey, we finally reached our very own sweet NITIE as a fulfilled soul, with a good day work, which will be remembered forever.

So this masterpiece had all the ingredients of a Hitchcock thriller!

Dial M for Mandi (2010) – Bring It On!! :-)