Castrol taught me the values of 'influencing the influencer'

I myself was with Castrol from mid 1985 - early 1992, fresh out of B-School. I had the great fortune of interacting closely with the great managers of yesteryears Dr.B.K.Barman, Mr.Dilip Kumar Guha, Mr.Ramesh Chandra Mahajan. They taught me hands-on about Castrol's (then, Indrol Lubricants and Specialities Ltd) strategy of influencing the influencer.
Irrespective of our hierarchy in the organisation, we had to visit a large number of roadside mechanics every week, spend time with them chatting about the virtues of multigrade oils, additives, et al and offcourse in their language. I loved getting under the gigantic trucks to help mechanics open the oil sump and collecting lube samples in special bottles for further testing in the labs at Paharpur, Wadala, Patalganga.
I have carefully preserved a couple of oil stained shirts as mementos along with the large number of certificates and trophies and ties. I personally love automobiles, the work in Castrol was a passion for me. I have heard and seen people joining Castrol from office automation companies and leaving in a few months since the system of 'influencing the influencer' was too much for their system.
There were no computers those days, yet the entire strategy was so systems driven. At one point of time in Orissa, I was commanding a 35%+ market share in the commercial vehicles lubricating oil segments. And that too, when the brands were priced 40% higher than the PSU oil company products. And mind it ... we were not even allowed to sell from the PSU petrol pumps.
During the past 8 years, as an Independent Marketing Consultant working closely with Youth and Children as target audiences and as the person behind the ideation and implementation of the only one of their kinds in Child and Youth Marketing activities India, viz. Inter School and College PowerPoint Presentation Contest (Powerplay and IT Kriya contests respectively), I have managed to convey the message and virtues of influencing the influencer to brands like LG Electronics - IT Divn, Nerolac Paints, Osram, TVS Motor Co., Eveready, Power FM, Rasna, General Mills and many more.