Pradeep Narsimha has created a lucrative niche with his Mumbai-based sales promotion consultancy.

By Nanda Majumdar

It is a long day's journey into another harried night. But Pradeep Narsimha maintains a cheerful banter with his supplier's team of workers--many of whom had been roped in at the last minute--at a remote Mumbai warehouse. Only, he glances a trifle too often at his luminous watch. Half-an-hour to go: the transportation company's vans were to arrive at 3 a.m.

All through the night, Narsimha had been busy striking conciliatory conversations with clients--bottlers and distributors--whose penchant for lean inventories had, suddenly, metamorphosed into excessive demand. Peering into a box where the workers had packed in a dozen cricket bats, the ad-man-turned-promotions-specialist shakes his head. "Let's cushion it some more," he suggests. Speed and firmness, laced with appreciation, are Narsimha's executional weapons.

For the 37-year-old President of Promotions & Premiums India (PPI)--a 1997-floated consultancy to strategise and facilitate promotional props--business is rarely the usual. In fact, with a clientele that includes Coca-Cola India, the Rs 361-crore Jagatjit Industries, and the Rs 357-crore Cadbury India, the crumbling of meticulous plans at the last instant is more the norm.

Consider this assignment from Coca-Cola India. PPI was to organise the premiums--the give-aways doled out with a sales promo--for a major Coke campaign. Narsimha and the Coke brand management had estimated a demand of 20,000 tote-bags, and a congruent number of cricket bats, balls, and hip-pouches for the nationwide event. So, PPI had worked out a 45-day manufacturing schedule for its 3 suppliers--2 in Jullundar and 1 in Mumbai. But 5 days into the promo, and the demand for tote-bags had vaulted to 80,000.

But then, Narsimha is hardly faint-hearted. Even if the genesis of PPI lies in one single moment of utter despondence. In 1995, Narsimha, then Director (New Business), at Zen Communications, was spearheading its pitch for 3 high-profile accounts: Tata British Petroleum, Fiat Uno, and Westar watches. And exuberating over the impact of his presentations--the unofficial verdict clearly had Zen above the other contenders. But, then, Zen was dropped--by all the 3 companies. Reason: it didn't have a tie-up with a global agency and, thus, lacked a network.

A disturbed Narsimha was quick to spot 2 trends. One, a global partner was critical for landing transnational accounts. Two, the emphasis on below-the-line activities meant that, for an agency, graduating to an integrated marketing set-up was imperative. But Narsimha's year-long efforts to communicate his concerns to Zen did not fructify. Clearly, he now had 2 options: work within the agency's scope; or enter a nascent area under the umbrella of integrated marketing. His choice, eventually, fell on sales promotions.

Says Narsimha of his diagnosis: "Major corporations prefer to have lean marketing teams and, for them, outsourcing some of the laborious, but critical, activities makes sense. That's the opportunity I identified." Manish Shukla, 33, the Director of the Mumbai-based Service Point Merchandising and a former Coca-Cola India executive, agrees: "With the thrust on below-the-line activities escalating, it is difficult for the brand management to cope with the myriad tasks and details of merchandising, sales promos, direct marketing, or event management. This is spewing a set of specialist entrepreneurs."

In September, 1996, Narsimha quit Zen, with a meagre Rs 42,000 as his bank balance. Then, as a first step, he flew down to Hong Kong to attend an annual global meet on promotions. The 5-day conference proved to be a great learning experience. Posits Narsimha: "Across the world, promotions are aimed at constantly reminding the consumer subconsciously about the brand so that when he enters a retail outlet, he reaches for the brand--without prompting." All the same, Narsimha realised that, in India, the key objective of promos was short-term: to induce a spurt in sales. Then, having agonised over a business development plan for the next 2 months, Narsimha finally established PPI in January, 1997--with an investment of Rs 8,000.

Along came Jagatjit Industries, PPI's first customer, then struggling to revive consumer interest in its brown beverage brand Maltova. Narsimha's diagnosis was simple: Maltova had an excellent advertising run, but suffered from inadequate retail presence. Statistics indicated that while it was the leading brand in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, rival Boost, produced by the Rs 590-crore SmithKline Beecham Consumer Healthcare, was snapping at its heels in both states. Boost had linked itself firmly with sports--using cricketers Sachin Tendulkar and Kapil Dev as endorsers. But since Jagatjit Industries could not spawn promotions around a celebrity, PPI recommended otherwise.

The company started examining premiums that fit into the day-to-day needs of a child. Explains Narsimha: "When the child accompanies his mother to an outlet, he influences buying behaviour." The first Maltova promo, a digital watch with every 500-gm pack, was a runaway success, boosting its marketshare by 1 per cent. The second focused on packaging--selling Maltova in plastic jars--to gain entry into mom's kitchen. Says George Taraken, 46, Senior Product Manager, Jagatjit Industries, concurs: "While we do have our network of suppliers, assigning the responsibility to someone who will take care of the sourcing, ensure reliable supplies, quality, and timely delivery at a feasible price does help."

Typically, PPI received advance from one customer, which it invested in sourcing the premiums, thereby keeping a wafer-thin working-capital cycle. PPI's positioning? The safest bet. Not that this made the going easy. At one point, Narsimha tried to hedge his bets by joining the ad agency TBWA Anthem only to realise, in less than 2 months, that he had outgrown the agency system. Back again, PPI made a go at Coca-Cola India, but was unable to land an account. But a Coca-Cola India employee advised Narsimha to scout for opportunities at the parent's subsidiaries in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Dubai.

What followed was a series of presentations leading to one-off assignments. The key? Innovation. For instance, in Dubai's heat, PPI evolved an unusual premium: a cooler bag containing 6 Coke cans. In the Maldives, a tourism-driven economy, PPI developed 500 expanded polystyrene floats of 2-feet radii in the shape of a Coke crown. For weeks, the sea was splattered with these floats--exported from India--with kids doing a jig on them.

By January, 1998, PPI bagged assignments from Coca-Cola India. First, the Thunderblast campaign for Thums Up, and then the Cricket Carnival for Coke. Soon after, an activity with Cadbury's Bournvita followed. By now, PPI had grown into a 4-member team, and Narsimha's wife, Alimelu, joined him full-time. Today, PPI has 20 suppliers, 2 of whom make tote-bags and hip-pouches while 3 make sports goods, with the rest supplying plastic items and so on. But, warns Narsimha: "It's best not to take on more than you can chew."

Now, having notched up a turnover of Rs 1.40 crore, PPI is looking for new growth avenues. For one, it is trying to add greater value to its service package for existing customers. Alongside, it is mulling entry into talent management which, essentially, means tying up with celebrities, and designing, negotiating, and managing their promotional activities. Further, PPI is elbowing its way into small-scale event-management, mainly of the corporate ilk, like seminars and workshops.

But identifying new niches is just a start. The real test for PPI would be its ability to quickly nurture new competencies, and build on its consumer confidence. Here, the role of its suppliers is crucial. As Pradeep Rathod, 34, the Director of Cello Group--one of PPI's major suppliers--puts it: "The huge orders for premiums of, say, 5 lakh pieces at a go, make business sense because of the huge volumes involved, and the consequent quick recovery of costs."

But while suppliers may be in good supply, there are other weightier concerns. For, even as the integrated marketing industry in India is growing at an estimated 150 per cent a year with the consultant's margins being in the region of 15 per cent, the levels of innovation demanded and the emphasis on quality are also increasing. Further, there is competition looming from the ad agencies who would, naturally, want to expand their service capabilities. While there is room for specialist hotshops, PPI now has to think bigger. Perhaps its shift from Narsimha's Andheri residence to a 650-sq. ft Powai office is a step in that direction.

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