Malcom Gladwell's book: David & Goliath Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants

Hey there! Welcome back. This is a long read, load yourself with a cup of coffee and maybe samosas.

Today I decided on sharing some learnings from this book. This is an old book, released in 2013 but its just the right book for entrepreneurs. The book begins with the story of David and Goliath. Who are they? 

(AI generated image above)

David is a young shepherd boy from a humble background who is courageous and confident. 

Goliath, on the other hand, is a giant of a man. He is not only very tall but is also physically strong and also wears a full body armor. He is not only menacing and intimidating but also carries a javelin and a spearshaft. 

Long story short, David decides to take on Goliath when none on his side is willing to and defeats him with only five stones and a slingshot. 

The story has been wonderfully narrated by the author himself. Watch it  here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziGD7vQOwl8

The author uses this story as an analogy to highlight the common beliefs and assumptions we normally make about strengths, weaknesses, advantages and disadvantages. (The story, by the way, is very commonly used by Marketing Professors in class too about how certain small companies have successfully taken on large companies)

What were the assumptions that David's side were making about Goliath?

a. Goliath is very powerful because of his physical strength

b. They all jump to conclusions about what they think Goliath is capable of. They think they know everything about him based on how he looks

In reality, Goliath is

a. Slow - his height, weight, armor everything adds to his slowness

b. His reactions are abnormal. Like, for example, he calls David to "come to me" instead of aggressively going after David as soon as he sees him without any protective gear. 

c. He thinks it's an insult to fight David

d. He doesn't seem to have any situational awareness of what is going on around him. David had actually changed the rules of the game and Goliath was unable to see (both literally and figuratively)

The author points out that an important lesson is "the powerful and the strong are not always what they seem".

The book then describes stories from various real-life situations to further illustrate how underdogs overcome obstacles and how perceived disadvantages can lead to unexpected success.

Some interesting lessons:

1. Using unconventional methods are actually the reason why underdogs win. Malcom gives examples of a basketball team winning by playing full-court in every game, which usually is not done to end up in national championship. He also talks about how Lawrence of Arabia who led the revolt against the Turkish army defeats them by using unconventional means as he had far lesser resources when compared to the formidable Turkish army.

The question he asks is "When we see a giant, why do we automatically assume that the battle is his for the winning?"

2. What we assume to be as advantageous can actually be disadvantageous and vice versa. Here he gives an example of how a man who was put through difficulty by his father actually ensured that he values money and becomes successful in life. So much so that this man now has a big house in a rich neighbourhood and all the facilities that he only dreamed of as a child. But what was troubling the man now was how to bring up his children with similar lessons when the economic conditions are way more different than his childhood. One sentence that struck me was "People are ruined by challenged economic lives. But they're ruined by wealth as well because they lose their ambition and they lose their pride and they lose their sense of self-worth." There is an interesting graph he puts out at this stage to make a point. Have a look.

3. Little fish in big pond or big fish in small pond? Malcom shares two stories. First one is of the art group called The Impressionists from the 19th century who were the pioneers of the modern art movement. They were mocked, rejected and ridiculed for their style and were not accepted by the traditionalists. They had to take a call on whether they would pursue the traditional galleries or do something on their own. Finally they decided to exhibit their paintings independently rather than at the most prestigious gallery called Salon and go on to become most recognised and today most galleries display their work. "We strive for the best and attach great importance to getting into the finest institutions we can. But rarely do we stop and consider - as the Impressionists did - whether the most presitgious institutions is always in our best interest."

The second story is of a high-achieving student by name Caroline Sacks who chooses to enrol in Brown University, which is an Ivy League university to pursue her interest in science over a lesser known one. While she was doing brilliantly through high school and was at the top of her class, her decision to join an Ivy League university where everyone in her class was brilliant, makes her feel inadequate and she struggles both with her confidence and her grades and she finally drops out. Malcom calls her experience as "relative deprivation" - which means that "we form our impressions not globally, by placing ourselves in the broades possible context, but locally - by comparing ourselves to people in the same boat as ourselves. Our sense of how deprived we are is relative". "We underestimate how much freedom there can be in what looks like a disadvantage. It's the Little Pond that maximizes your chances to do whatever you want."

He concludes that being a Big Fish in a Small Pond is not a bad idea afterall. 

4. The Theory of Desirable Difficulty - In this part of the book, Malcom explores how underdogs come to excel. He takes the case of dyslexia here and notes how many innnovators are actually dyslexic. His examples include Richard Branson, Charles Schwab, Craig McCaw, etc. He looks at two possible interpretations of this achievement:

a. These people are so smart and so creative that nothing could stop them

b.  They succeeded, in part, because of their disorder - meaning, they learned something in their struggle that proved to be of enormous advantage

Here Malcom highlights the case of one David Boies who struggled to read as a child and after graduating from high school worked on a construction site. But he goes on to become one of the most famous trial lawyers in the world by simply using his superior listening and memory skills. He learns by listening and asking questions and simplifies issues to their basics while his opponents got bogged down by excessive detail. 

Two new phrases that I learnt here -

• "Capitalization learning - we get good at something by building on the strengths that we are naturally given" 
• "Compensation learning" -strategies used to overcome knowledge limitations or weaknesses in a specific area, often by developing new skills or applying existing ones in a different way. 

Malcom also explores the traits of innovators and says innovators are: 

Open, Conscientious and Disagreeable. (Disagreeable meaning they are willing to take social risks - do things that others might disapprove of)

There's an example of the IKEA founder Ingvar Kampard who sold unassembled furniture at prices much lower than competition and when other manufacturers decide to boycott IKEA, Kampard decides to outsource it to Poland which was at that time in a mess. 

One paragraph that stands out in this chapter "The one trait in a lot of dyslexic people I know is taht by the time we got out of college, our ability to deal with failure was very highly developed. And so we look at most situations and see much more of the upside than the downside. Because we are so accustomed to the downside. It doesn't faze us."

Desirable Difficulty suggests that not all difficulty is negative and that obstacles give one the courage to take chances that one would never otherwise have taken.

5. A virtue can be made out of a necessity. Malcom takes the example of children who have lost a parent during their early years of life go on to lead successful lives as innovators, artists and entrepreneurs becoming eminent in their field. He also brings in the study of historian Lucille Iremonger on American presidents that showed twelve out of the first forty-four US presidents lost theri fathers while they were young.  

6. The conquering of fear produces exhiliration. "Courage is not something you already have that makes you brave when the tough times start. Courage is what you earn when you've been through the tough times and you discover they aren't so tough after all". Druing World War, the Germans continuously bombed London and thought that the trauma would destroy the courage of the British people but in fact, the opposite happened. With many misses, Britishers became more courageous than they had ever been before.  

7. The Limits of Power - It has to be seen as legitimate, or else its use has the opposite of its intended effect. Too much power can be counterproductive. People resist unjust or oppressive authority. "More is not always better; there comes a point, in fact, when the extra resources that the powerful think of as their greatest advantage only serves to make things worse". 

Malcom gives the example of harsh policing in Northern Ireland that lead to worsening the rebellion that was going on. The British made the mistake of believing that their resources, weapons, soldiers and experience were far superior to the insurgent elements that they were trying to contain. Respectful engagement could have calmed tensions.

 "When people of authority want the rest of us to behave, it matters - first and foremost-how they behave" 

8. Legitimacy is essential to Authority

The Principle of Legitimacy has three parts to it:

- First, people who are expected to obey authority must feel that their voices are heard

- Second, the law has to be predictable

- Third, the authority has to be fair and can't treat one group differently from the other.

If the above are missing, even the most powerful cannot maintain their control.

9. There's always a choice. Malcom gives examples of parents who have lost their children but choose to do something to help others in similar situations rather than just wallow in grief. The grief actually turns them into activists and they are able to give a more deeper sense of meaning to what is happening. They find their purpose in this madness.  

The book thus is full of instances where ordinary people and groups use out-of-the thinking and off-beat/unusual ways to defeat powerful people. 

The key takeaway is that to be an underdog does not mean it is a disadvantage, it can be an opportunity to turn the weakness into a unique strength. This is applicable to any aspect of life be it business, war, education or life in general. Those who seem to be at a disadvantage can actually reverse their situation by innovating, altering and taking advantage of unexpected strengths. 

I'm a small start-up/enterprise. I don't need a Marketing Manager!

You are the founder/owner of your small business/ start-up. You have come up with the idea for your product, you have spent time, money, effort in thinking of a name, how you want to sell, where you want to sell, how much you want to sell it for, whom you will sell it to, etc. etc. You are in control of the product, the sales efforts, follow-ups, suppliers and whatever else that is required to keep the business going. You are a one-man/one-woman show spending your time 24/7, being hands-on in everything. What possibly would a marketing person do in such a set-up? And also you may be concerned how much you will have to pay out to engage them.

This is the most common issue faced by many new enterprises that may have no bandwidth to take on new people. But before we look at whether a marketing person is required or not, let's look at the role of a marketing person. Here's a visual representation of the role of a marketing person:

Just like you dear entrepreneur, a marketing person is expected to juggle many roles, roles that are aimed at adding value to the business. Let's quickly look at what each aspect is all about.

1. Manage brand - sustain and grow: Brand management is a subject on its own, will write about it extensively. Simply put, it means increasing the value of the brand amongst various stakeholders. You would want your brand to be recognised widely and respected for what it offers to customers. Think of your favorite brand and why it is on top of your list. In today's world, where there are so many optoins for consumers, think of why they should buy your brand. A marketing person's role is to find that unique proposition and make the brand stand out so that a customer chooses your brand again and again despite having so much choice.

2. Developing and executing promotional activities - A marketing person handles activities that promote the brand - company brand or product brand. It could be consumer offers or trade promotions or on-ground activities all aimed at making the brand more visible for improving sales.

3. Aid distribution - the marketing manager works with the sales team to ensure that products are placed on the right shelves for consumers to pick up easily. Think of kirana shops, large retail stores, exclusive stores, etc. Where do you want to make the product available?  Who is the customer and where does she live and shop? 

4. Target the right customer - the whole world is not your customer. You won't have the time/effort/money to chase everyone. Imagine if you are a baby products manufacturer, would you go after young, unmarried man with your messages? The role of the marketing manager is to find that right customer and send the marketing messages to her. This leads to less wastage of precious resources. 

5. Generate leads - the marketing manager creates awareness for the products/services, evaluates media channels to be present on, create content, advertise, have marketing campaigns, engage on social media,etc. with the end goal of ensuring there is a list of potential buyers or a pipeline whom the sales people can follow up on. 

6. Aid new product development - this is a key responsibility. Think of coming up with new product ideas, working with R&D, developing the right packaging, giving it a name, logo, launch campaign, planning how to go into market, etc. The marketing manager is hands-on on these responsibilities.

7. Research - another big responsibility as it means that one should know what is happening in the business environment - be it competitors, consumers, industry, trends, etc. One has to pore over data and be able to filter out what's important for the business. 

8. Boost sales and income streams - all activities have to finally result in increasing revenues for the company. This is a key metric to analyse whether the activities undertaken have lead to an increase in sales. 

What kind of skills or competencies should a marketing manager have?

1. Communication skills

2. Analytical skills

3. Long term planning

4. Project management

5. Ability to lead and work with teams

6. Creativity

7. Problem Solving

8. Well versed with digital/social media

When should you, as a start-up, hire a marketing manager?

a. If you have a working product

b. When you have decided that your organisation should grow beyond just your efforts

c. When you are planning to expand into different cities or across different channels

d. When you want to focus more on sales and raising funds 

If you are not ready for a full-time hire, you can consider hiring free-lancers or agencies. 

Need to remember that despite all your efforts to drive your enterprise, if you remain unknown or just limited to family/friends, nobody is understanding the value that you are bringing through your products/services, if you don't know where your next sale is going to come from, it is not possible to grow. 

Need help? Reach out to me at hustellebyanupama@gmail.com

 

Being production oriented

Back to a bit of theory. When we think of marketing, we need to remember that it is a field that has taken its time to evolve. See the image below:

Let's understand what the above image says. At first, when mass manufacturing was becoming popular, the focus of the organisation was on making products widely available at inexpensive prices. They assumed that this is what consumers wanted. There is a famous quote of Henry Ford in this regard that is often quoted in textbooks

Think of how China has dominated the manufacturing scene. It's all about assembly line manufacturing at the lowest possible price. The problem with this kind of a concept is that the consumer's need is not of importance to the manufacturer which means that customers can become dislillusioned by what is available. There's no room for innovation here. I'm reminded of the Premier Padmini car which was so popular in the 70s. It featured in movies, was popular as a taxi in Mumbai (known as 'kaali peeli') as was a very distinct looking boxy car. Yet, it never kept with the times and is now vanished. Same problem - manufacturer focused and not customer focused. 

Here's an old ad for the car:

Another example that comes to mind is HMT Watches. Watches manufactured in India at a time, 1962 to be precise, with the intention of making India self-sufficient in watches. Again production focused. Of course, lots of other issues led to its downfall, but this was one of the leading causes.

Here's an ad of HMT

A nice blogpost about it https://www.windingritual.com/hmt-janata-watch-india-history-tribute/

Many more examples of this. Summarizing a few key learning points:

This concept focuses on:

1. Mass production

2. Focuses on economies of scale - meaning you produce a lot in order to reduce production cost

3. Focused on the manufacturer or the producer and not the customer

4. Mostly used when demand is more than supply

Advantages:

1. Low per unit cost therefore the pricing is competitive

2. The business becomes scalable quickly (scalable means a company can grow and expand its market without spending too much

3. It can reach and serve more customers

4. The processes become more efficient

Drawbacks:

1. Customer needs are completely ignored

2. It is a standardized product or a one-size-fits all product. No innovation at all. Does not change with the times

3. Leads to what is known as "Marketing Myopia" - meaning the manufacturer is short-sighted, there's no long-term vision to sustain and therefore when there is new and better competition, the company becomes vulnerable and can die easily

This sort of a company is only able to survive when there is a demand for low-price, standardized products. Think of soaps as a category, commodities like rice, dal etc., stationery items, agarbathis, matchboxes, etc. Anybody remembers Cheetah Fight?

Any other brand comes to your mind? Do share

Will write about the other concepts slowly. Thank you for patiently reading uptil here. See you soon.

A brand that I stumbled upon

Few months ago, I wanted to get a new face wash for my now sixteen year old daughter. She's prone to outbreaks on her face and she feels very conscious about it. In fact, she's so conscious that when she steps out, she uses make-up to hide them (yes, she had to learn how to use make-up to hide them and she does a pretty good job now! Will write on that too).

Since I had worked in a personal care product company, my first choice were those products. These products did an ok-ok job initially and then we were back to square one. The dermatologist had prescribed medicines which were taken initially and when they didn't show 'immediate' results, they were dropped. What to do? 

I took her to a renowned and well-respected homeopath who gave her medicines which again didn't work after sometime. I have to mention here honestly that the medicines were all probably fine but there were some conditions given - no oily food, no spicy food, cheese, burgers, pizza, etc. Those conditions were applied only in a limited manner and therefore the results were not promising.

Anyway, it was at this stage and after a lot of trial and error on our own, that I came across the brand "Minimalist" while browsing on an e-commerce site. I first saw a facewash, then a serum. I showed it to my daughter and after she checked on the ingredients (yes, we 'googled' each ingredient), we decided to try.

The brand itseMinimalist brandlf was true to its name, minimalistic packaging, simple straightforward logo, all ingredients mentioned on the pack, plain B&W branding, no unnecessary graphics whatsoever. 

The product also has a very chemical/herb kind of smell when you open it, no fragrance. It was a completely new way of selling a personal care product for me. The serum looks like a medicated product with a dropper. 

In my own experience in new product development and marketing, I've worked on packaging graphics, shortlisting ingredients, advertising,etc. but never came across of this sort of a divergent thinking. So, while my marketing mind appreciated the honesty, I was also impressed with the product's performance. 

My daughter has seen a lot of reduction in acne after using Minimalist. It encouraged me to try out their anti-aging serum too.

Overall, a complete win-win for all of us. 

Here are 5 things I feel the brand got it right:

1. Excellent products - all developed internally with their R&D team

2. Started as a D2C brand which means it was largely online through their website and other social media. I believe they are now available in Modern Trade but honestly I haven't seen them on the shelves. But that's just a question of time as HUL will ensure it will be available easily soon.

3. Excellent branding - from logo to packaging, everything is top-notch. They stand out clearly in the cluttered personal care category with their clean look

4. Staying true to the name - honest, transparent and no fluff

Downsides:

1. They are a bit on the expensive side even though one might try and justify it as worth it. Not everyone can afford a facewash costing Rs. 300/-  for 100ml (if you buy on their website, it is Rs. 284/-)

2. I had never heard of them at all till I accidently got served an ad. They have apparently focused on using customers as brand ambassadors but sorry none in my circle are their ambassadors.

Look at how they have grown. (Graph taken from the Inc42 website)

I hope the brand continues to stay true to its name and does not go the mass marketing route and become just another brand on the highly cluttered shelves. 

What do you think? Do share your thoughts.

Disclaimer : These are just my personal views as a consumer and a marketing person and I am not paid for this. 

Marketing enriches lives

Welcome back! One of the questions that a marketing teacher asks their students in the first class in a marketing course is whether marketing is art or science? Another question is whether marketing and sales are the same? Whether marketing creates needs or satisfies them? While you think about it, I want to recall something that happened in my childhood. 

It was sometime in 1982. I was too young and can't remember all the details now but I recollect how excited my dad was. A huge cricket fan, dad wanted to see the Prudential World Cup that was scheduled for 1983. Those were the days colour televisions were very new in the market. Very few households had them. There were a few brands of TVs available in the market like Dyanora, Solidaire, NELCO, Weston, Uptron, Beltek, BPL, etc. and they used to put out big ads in the newspapers. Dad was desperate to get a TV home. 1982 also happened to be the year when India hosted the Asian Games that had Appu the Elephant as its mascot. Anyways back to dad. 

He spent a lot of time and effort at the TV showrooms to shortlist one of them. I remember tagging along once and being amazed at the display. So many TVs, showing so many programs. For a child that was so magical! We finally bought a NELCO. Why? It was sold as a Tata product, there was a warantee on it and one could pay in monthly installments (EMIs). Here are a couple of ads I found for NELCO

 

Once it was home, it was a total game changer for all of us and the entire neighbourhood! We not only enjoyed the World Cup and many other programs, but we had so many neighbours and kids coming to our home to watch with us! :-)) We suddenly became very popular in our street. People started identifying us as 'the family that had colour TV.' Lol. 

Our lives changed from then on. Our world opened up. I personally now became part of a group of friends in school who would talk about some shows and I could participate/belong. I no longer was out of place. From Hum Log, Nukkad, Buniyaad, Karamchand, Malgudi Days, Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, Khandaan, Chitrahaar, Katha Sagar, Giant Robot, Ramayan, Mahabharat, Rajani, Vikam Betal, Flop Show, 8 pm news and God knows how many more shows we watched! And how many ads we saw and still recall them! That only my generation had the privilege...of having seen ads with jingles and remembering them. Lol again. 

Why is this story even important to the topic? Well, you can see how a product, a TV in this case, made a huge impact on our lives. We were not just considered "elite" for having a colour TV, we were included in groups that were till then not accessible, we became famous for a short period of time in our neighbourhood and we improved on our general knowledge watching news, games, shows etc. It ENRICHED our lives. 

The 1983 World Cup was marketed as a 'not-to-miss event'. NELCO was marketed as a TATA product- trusted (with 3 year warantee), with a "Blue Diamond Technology".

When we think of the word Marketing, people usually confuse it with the word "Sales" but that's incorrect and it's important for you to know that. Simply put, "Selling" is more like the Eureka Forbes guys going around imploring people to buy their products while Marketing is about creating desire amongst your target audience for your products/services. In selling the manufacturer/seller is chasing the customer (think of cold calling) while in marketing, the customer is actually seeking the product/brand. Huge HUGE difference. 

Why should we be bothered about this difference? Think of shopping on a street where the hawkers are calling out to you and giving you some attractive offers to buy from them. They are trying to sell to you. Is that how you would want to do business? Do you see yourself doing that to grow? Or, do you want customers to actually call you and ask you about your product/service? 

Selling is all about your need dear entrepreneur, whereas Marketing is all about the customer's needs and wants and turning them into demands. Selling is often called an art but marketing is both science and art and requires a lot of thinking. Selling therefore, is short term while marketing is long term. 

Hence, we need to equip ourselves with this knowledge and use it to our advantage to grow our business. 

We'll learn more as we go forward. Stay tuned and don't forget to come back for more! Don't forget to comment, share your thoughts and experiences. See you around soon!

PS:

Oh! Where is NELCO today and what are they doing? They no longer make TVs and are now into VSAT communication products. What happened? Will deep dive into that some other day. 

What Hustelle is all about

Hey there! Welcome to my blog!

It's been a long cherished dream of mine to write about things that a small entrepreneur, especially women who start from home need to know about marketing, branding, product management, advertising, etc. 

Many a times, small-time hustlers find it difficult to get the information about issues they face while trying to grow their brand. Everyone dreams of making it big but without support, without knowledge of what and how to market, they struggle, learning the hard way through trial and error method that not only is time consuming but is exhausting!

This blog is aimed at these small businesses. With some tips, tricks, some case studies and  some articles, the hope is that you will find answers to your nagging problems in marketing and branding and apply it to your situation to find best possible solution/s.

See you! Happy learning!