What are some examples of great marketing?
ID Idly-Dosa Batter.In Southern India, there’s a dish called Dosa. They’re well described as a thin salty pancakes. They taste amazing with the right sides and if you’re anything like me, you can’t have enough of them.They come with one problem. The batter takes hours to be made.So one day, this man named P C Mustafa came along and decided to sell ready made Dosa batter.He managed to do it well for a few months, but it never took off purely because people didn’t trust that a storebought item would be as hygienic or safe as something you produce inhouse. Pretty valid claim. So Mustafa was at a loss of ideas. It’s easy to gain money or fame, but you can’t gain trust with such ease. Trust is simply not very easy to gain.So Mustafa came up with the best idea ever.He said to the world “I trust you regardless of whether or not you trust me.”He bought refrigerators, fitted them with boxes to collect money in, added signs and called them ID Trust Shops.The idea was that you’d take a pack of batter from the fridge and pay when you have the money. There’s no shopkeeper or watchman to make sure you play nice. There was nothing stopping you from taking a pack without paying. Hell, there was nothing stopping you from walking away with the box of money.The business worked on trust.So the question was if it worked or not.It was a grand slam home run. People loved the idea, ID took the place in Indian households as a brand you can trust and believe in. I remember my mother approving of the company despite how concerned she normally is about what her family eats.ID produces 35,000 kg or 77161 pounds of batter every day.The chairman of ID met Bill Gates not too long ago and he still manages to be a very down to earth guy. I played soccer with him about 6 months ago.ID is a company that went from selling batter on the sides of streets to being synonymous with Dosa batter, all with one marketing strategy.