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.

A Summer Project is NOT Agent Recruitment Project

I'm shocked at the way number of B-Schools in India are forcing their Marketing Management students to appear for campus interviews - for Final Placements as well as for Summer Training.
For Summer Training, private Insurance sector companies are awarding projects which involve appointment of agents for selling insurance products. The students are being paid a commission for the number of agents they manage to recruit. They are being threatened that if they do not appoint a bare minimum number of agents, they may not get their "certificate of satisfactory completion" from the company at all. Once these students pass out the following year, companies marketing branded products may not touch them with a barge pole. What these students do in the name of Summer Project for a period of 6 to 8 weeks is not a project at all.
Final year MBA Marketing students (with a background in Engineering) have been offered final placements (during campus interviews in February) in insurance companies with the job profile remaining the same as that of Summer Training. The insurance companies issue "Letters of Offer" to practically every individual who appear for the interview. What is worse is that, thereafter, the students are not even allowed to appear for other campus interviews by the college authorities between February and June.
These final year students were not even informed about their job content, i.e. on what they were expected to do on joining the company. On completion of their MBA in June - July they have also realized that the remuneration promised to them has a very very very high component of variable pay (in the form of incentives). No wonders there's a large number of demotivated fresh and young MBAs in the marketplace.
Will someone counsel these youngsters properly, please? I'm keen to hear from youngsters incidents which are very similar to these.

Market your brand to and through children and youth

Hello Friends!
If you are working in an Indian or MNC corporate entity in a decision making position in Brand Management, Product Management, Market Research, Market Segmentation, Product Positioning, Marketing Support functions, Advertising Agency of repute or if you are the Head/ Deputy Head/ Divisional Head of Marketing in your company, let's exchange ideas.
Even if your spouse or somebody really close to you is into the same please ask him or her to revert to me.
If the brand(s) / product category you (or your contact) manage or is responsible for, targets directly or indirectly :
-- "Children from Premium Households/ Schools studying in Class 3 - 12 anywhere in India"
-- "Youths in General/ Professional UG and PG Colleges anywhere in India",
please revert to me as soon as possible.
I am sure that I will be able to help you'll a lot.
Even if you are in a different functional area viz. Finance, HRD, Logistics, etc and if you feel that your company will do better by tagetting the above mentioned target audience, please refer me to someone important in the functional area of Marketing in your organisation.
My offer also applies to individual entrepreneurs also.
Those in the functional area of Marketing will know and those in other functional areas should know that children and youth are increasingly becoming opinion leaders in brand selection / purchase / usage.
Directly or indirectly, they are a Rs.40,000 Crores segment in India ..... Yes, That's True !!!