By Harshal Kachhy:
Every breakthrough made by man is bound to be proved both a boon and a bane to mankind. Right from nuclear weaponry to laptops and cell-phones to world-wide-web, the benefits offered are abundant, but then so are the detriments induced in the society. In this industrial age, the gargantuan race between industries and various other organizations and financial institutions compel the prolegomena of unscrupulous and mercenary stratagems to the competition that was supposed to benefit the consumers and succor them to make appropriate decisions.
Due to the introduction of new schemes and offers almost every day by every other company to inveigled customers, marketing strategies and tactics become quintessential in heightening the performance of the companies. Ergo, prodigious sums of money are invested in marketing and publicity encompassing extensive amounts of attention and planning to come up with sui generis policies and strategies to give a conspicuous touch to the products. The desperation of the companies touches such a level, that they deploy anything and everything to capture the attention of the consumers.
From investing extravagant money to give advertisements and print hand bills and bill boards to disturbing the customers with annoying calls and text messages, the companies make sure to leave no stone unturned in publicizing the products. Needless to say, this is proving to be quite a menace for those at the receiving ends. Customers are flooded with calls and messages to notify about credit card deals, phone plans, real estate schemes and other offers that, more often than not, have no importance or use to them. While a few genuine notifications are always welcome to keep the customer updated, calling them for trivial issues just for the sake of marketing clearly point out the melancholic idiosyncrasies and unethical motives of the companies.
Also the fact that the fast-paced, busy lives of people have no space to tolerate such crappy activities of companies makes the issue all the more arduous. I am sure more than 99% of the customers bang their head, trash their phones and curse the companies when they hear the voice “Good day sir, I would like to offer you a scheme wherein…”. The consumers can bear the embarrassment of watching bikini-clad girls in perfume-commercials, and film-stars posing in lingerie with their family on the television, but certainly, not these outrageously provoking notifications about alluring schemes by some stupid company.
In order to get rid of these gadflies, I think, in the well-being of the consumers, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India needs to continuously monitor the marketing and publicity activities of the companies and takes necessary action against those complained about by the customers. The gravity of the issue should clearly be discerned and empathized; after all, it’s a matter of ethics, motives and modus operandi of the strategic-marketing industry of the country and the well-being of consumers.