Serendipity and Learning

 In a recent train travel, the coffee vendor was saying "If you dont like the taste of the coffee, dont pay, pay only if you like it". And in the return journey, I heard the same thing. Turned out, it wasnt the same vendor,  it was something that the agency running the catering for the train had figured.  Food in Indian trains has never been great. Indeed, bereft of all nostalgia, food has been pathetic. Sure, there are exceptions in some trains, at some railway stations, but it has mostly been low quality. Now if you need to people to try it, there has to be a hook - hence this one.  Cut to the sandwich seller. The vendor (all catering staff) came with the sandwich and repeated the same spiel. And he actually waited till someone tasted one sandwich, said the taste was good before accepting payment. He did that for the dhokla as well.  And he did not stop at that. The bag had a few rose petals on it as well. Mind you this was an evening train. And he said, well,...

Or milkshakes in a bottle to be precise. A few years (maybe months) ago, somebody launched milkshakes in a bottle. And you could take the bottle home as a keepsake. This was a classic bottle - shaped like the old milk bottles and instantly was the talk of the town (in some circles atleast). I dont know who did this, but whoever did it had competition very quickly. Soon, everybody came to serve milkshakes in their own version of classic/keepsake glass bottles and within no time the novelty was lost. Couple of points: Glass bottles are good - better than plastic and if glass usage goes up - recycling of glass - which is currently a problem - goes up - and all that I agree. Keepsakes are good - atleast used to be good when I grew up - when every container worth keeping was kept and used in various hand-me-down avatars. Milkshakes are milkshakes - the only real differentiator is the quality of the ingredients and the skill of the person who makes the recipe. Here I assume that mi...

A few days back, a so called colour consultant visited us. From a reputed painting company, this service allows customers to work with a consultant and choose colours for their walls. They take pictures of your walls and show it will look with the new colours. All in all, a neat marketing experience. However, the consultants job is not an easy one. He cannot upsell - as in, his objective cannot be to maximise selling paint. He cannot in any way 'underestimate' the colour sensibility of his customer - however low their sensibilities are. But he also has to respect his own sensibilities as an 'artist'. Turned out that this particular guy was an artist. He gave us a few options - some which we liked, some which we did not and some which resonated with our thoughts completely. Now, the third option - the ones which resonated with us - is the sweet spot for the consultant and the company. The trick is to know what are those - but that is dificult to get - because it is ...