RECENTLY, MY family happened to buy a product range, introduced to our doorstep through direct marketing sales executives. Impeccably dressed executives, with their glib and oily tongue were able to convince my family and the latter, more out of compassion and a little humaneness than out of any fascination for the product range, decided to take a few nonstick cookware. Moreover, a set of three cookwares for some six hundred rupees sounded attractive to our mom. The deal was sealed and the executives receded from the scene.
The problems, these cookwares brought into our kitchen are still pestering us and our search for their manufacturer and distributor continues. How can we stay away from these hoodwinking marketing executives and their gift of the gab? Are they entitled to press our doorbells and interfere into our personal space? Who the hell are those who set these men in motion and reap enormous profits? Do we not have a system in place to monitor the marketing networks operating in our rural and semi urban areas? Unsuspecting housewives are hoodwinked in broad daylight and these well dressed ‘executors’, go scot-free. We need to do something to control this intimidating market practice. What can we do?
Never ever invite an executive in, unless he has an appointment with you.
Do not get carried away by the price tag of the products introduced. Remember, cheap price will get you cheap things. In other words, peanuts will get you monkeys.
Do not t buy something that you do not need, even if the neck-tailed executives convince you of its use and convenience in a later stage.
If ever you buy something, ask for an invoice, their complete address and contact numbers.
Look for guarantee, warrantee and disclaimers in the product range. Read the fine prints carefully.
Discourage unsolicited calls and reprimand anyone, who does it again and again.
If any executive is found to be doing something that you do not like in your premises, for example, if a sale person is pestering you with offers, forcing you to buy things you do not want, digging at your person on monetary and status grounds to make a purchase, then tell him or her in clear terms that it is your place and not a market place.
· Check if the direct marketer is authentic, and products shown are of some standard. We can use our common sense here.
· When they say, this door purchase will give you a discount: Ask about the details and why is it so.
· When you hear the word ‘discount’ from a marketing atmosphere, be sure you are not going to get any discount at all. Discounts are stupid.
· Always remember that the purchase decision is yours. The customer holds the key, not the executive.
· When you find some unhealthy trade practice being followed by these door-to-door sellers, report it to the local self-government office or to the nearest police station.
· All said, but never show any kind of disrespect or disregard to a genuine person, who approaches you with a product or service range endorsed by an authority.
· Selling door-to-door is a trade practice, which does not offer you any choice. You are forced to buy things from a very limited range and variety. Forced buy is not ethical.
· Above all, do keep in mind that chains of sales windows that offer all types of products and services surround you. Take time off and go out and indulge in your shopping sprees, once in while. It may cost you a little more than what it really does, but it is much better than getting cheated by an executive at your very doorstep.
· Sales boys and girls who introduce themselves as one, at a place and other at a different place are clean cases of cheating or impersonation and you have every right to take these people to task.
· It is quite common these days to find youngsters in the guise of students from colleges, go around selling this and that to get the feel of marketing. Unfortunately, these kids are mere tools in the hands of a huge nexus that exists between multinational consumer giants and their local promoters.
· These distributors print exorbitant MRPs on the price tag, and these executives are given enough leeway to sell it, the way they like.
· You know that MRP stands for Maximum Retail Price. But you are entitled to get things for Minimum Retail Price. Start bargaining from 50 per cent of the tag price, if you are very much interested in buying.
· Door-to-door salesmen are usually self-employed people, and their ultimate aim is to make a living. But, many of them are indulging in unhealthy sales practices, making the whole system corrupt.
· And finally, beware of these phrases: Introductory offer, festival discount, clearance bonanza, launch price, buy one get one free, exchange the old for a brand new one, certain per cent off, buy before a particular date, season, month or whatever.
Whenever you happen to listen to these phrases, say from a door-to-door salesman or from a wayside vender or from an exclusive sales window, these are meant to hoodwink you. Nobody offers you anything free. There is nothing called a free meal. It is more so in today’s marketplace.
Housewives and all those women living in modern isolated, self-satisfied homes may take note that there is a huge industry called ‘direct marketing’ flourishing around them, and this industry is exploiting the ignorance and poor intelligence of unsuspecting people like you, and if allowed, this menace will sit on your shoulders and start calling shots.
Therefore, I request everyone not to get cheated by these salespeople. If you want to make a door-to-door buy, do it after seriously considering the factors like - check the authenticity of the person, the brand of the product, price tag, billing method, guarantee, warrantee, etc. It is a good idea not to invest a lot of money on things about which you have never heard of. And if you are going to do that, by simply believing in the words of a person who has just pressed your door bell and gave you an ‘impression’, go ahead and do it, otherwise you are going to regret it later on.
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