Omusing!: Lessons from a marketing journey

In January 2014, the Royal Government of Bhutan commissioned the largest cement plant in Bhutan, a 4,130 MT per day integrated greenfield project at Nganglam, Eastern Bhutan, about 150 kilometers from Guwahati, Assam, India.

In March 2014, I was one of three senior employees deputed by Druk Holding and Investments as Strategic Marketing Advisors to set up DCCL’s marketing and sales functions. A year after the challenging assignment, my reflections attempt to share some basic marketing lessons I learnt on the way from Thimphu to Nganglam to take up the assignment.

We left Thimphu right after Losar. The horse had kicked us out of our cocoon in Thimphu to the heat of Nganglam. The fact that Losar had just exited was starkly reminded by the driver who came to pick us on the morning of March 4, 2014 – we could see and smell Ara[1] all over him. Nevertheless, we had a smooth five hours to Phuentsholing.

The drive from Phuentsholing to Nganglam is about six hours. After crisscrossing through the unkempt human and hutment jungle of Mangalbari, you hit Hashimara. Depending on your luck and timing, you wait at the Hashimara railway crossing for a British era train to pass by. After the railway crossing you are not yet ready to speed, for there is a mini-hill of a speed breaker to negotiate. Half a kilometer later, you reach a big and blessed road junction. It is blessed because there is a Hindu temple at the crossroad. Remember to take left for Nganglam, Gelephu and Samdrup Jongkhar. If you take right, you are heading for Gomtu, Samtse or Siliguri. Marketing is about reaching and serving the right market and cutting down on the lead distance.

After a wild drive through the freshly topped road through Alipurduar jungle, you reach Barobisa. Phuentsholing to Barobisa is about an hour. If your destination is Kalikhola, now renamed as Lhamoijingkha, you need to leave the highway and take a left turn at Barobisa. At Barobisa you hit the so-called Asian Highway. From Barobisa to the Assam-Bengal border of Srirampur, the road is befitting of its moniker – Asian Highway. Thereafter, the highway disappears and reappears in patches and all that you are reminded about is the fact that you are in South Asia. Although work started about a decade ago, several bridges on the highway are yet to be completed rendering the road rough and dusty in patches. Marketing is about exciting customers by under promising and over delivering. The Asian Highway announces itself rather loudly, but soon disappears into puddles and dust beds.

About two and half hour from Barobisa, you reach Himalaya Hotel, the popular eatery for Bhutanese travellers. Himalaya would provide quite a good case study on how to market and conduct business. The signboard is in Dzongkha and the proprietor knows the importance of targeting the drivers who ferry passengers across the dusty plains of India from various parts of Bhutan, including Phuentsholing, Gelephu and Samdrup Jongkhar. Essentially, the hotel knows who the opinion leaders and influencers are. Himalaya caters almost exclusively to the hundreds of Bhutanese who travel across the plains of Assam to various destinations. Talk of branding and positioning!

Taxi and bus drivers who ferry passengers to the restaurant are provided with free food of their choice. One can indeed hear hungry Bhutanese drivers demanding ‘chicken lao, machhli lao, aur phaksha bhi lao[2]…’ after all they don’t have to pay. They are also given annual and seasonal gifts. For example, in January 2014, all drivers were given a packet of 25kg superior quality rice and a tin of cooking oil each as New Year gifts. The hotelier knows that the restaurant business is a game of volume. You cook today and eat today! Talk of rewarding your channel partners!

The bus drivers and passengers receive VIP treatment at Himalaya. There are lathi wielding sentinels making way for buses to park and escorting drivers and passengers to the restaurant. Himalaya has two restaurants – an air-conditioned and plush looking one on the right and a dhaba[3] style bigger one on the left. Menu and food are the same in both the restaurants, but you pay slightly higher at the a-c joint, where you can also answer to nature calls in better comfort. Talk of product differentiation and market segmentation!

After a heavy lunch of skinny chicken and overcooked fish, you head to the pan shop run by a middle-aged Bodo man. He very well understands that communication is key to effective marketing. He speaks Sarchopkha making it convenient for Bhutanese customers to order doma of their choice – with or without chamanbahar, with a dollop of zarda, an extra dash of lime or a piece of coconut. After belching the chicken and the fish out of both ends, you pop a doma into your mouth. You relish it if the ingredients are in right quantity, if not, not!

Before you mount your car for the remaining part of the journey, your attention is drawn towards a row of shops that sell a myriad of children toys, cheap fake electrical and electronic gadgets and fruit. It makes you wonder about where the factories that make all these fakes are located! On their part the shopkeepers know that they are catering to bargaining and cheating that is integral to selling in South Asia.

The road onward to Nganglam after leaving Himalaya is better than the stretch you have just covered. There are fewer incomplete bridges and the Asian Highway emerges out of the puddles once again. As part of our pre-departure briefing at DHI, we had been instructed to keep an eye for hoardings and signboards of Dragon Cement and other companies. Pema and I split sides. He kept watch on the right side of the highway while I surveyed the left. At the Bijni junction, we were greeted by a huge hoarding of Dalmia Bharat Cement. Mari Kom, the Indian Olympic boxer endorses Dalmia Cement as their brand ambassador. Bijni, in case you didn’t know, is infamous for confusing Bhutanese drivers, who head straight on instead of taking a right turn to go to Gelephu and Phuentsholing. About five kilometers on, we spotted an entire building painted in red with a pronouncement in large letters: Star Cement: Solid Setting. We were beginning to get some ideas of how hoardings for Dragon Cement should look like.

Near Barpeta, we saw a picturesque hoarding with a beautiful picture of a waterfall and a river dam. As we drove past, we could barely read the product brand and the tagline: Dragon Cement: Majbuti aur Suraksha Sath Sath. It looked different from the hoardings installed by Star Cement and Dalmia Cement. We were a bit confused.

At Pathsala, you leave the highway and take a left turn to go to Nganglam. Nganglam is about 50 kms from there. The road, built by the government of India as part of their assistance to Dungsam project, is generally in good condition and you can pick up good speed. With several lively Indian bazaars along the way, the drive is pleasant and you soon reach the Indo-Bhutan border. On the way, you pass by a couple of signboards that read, ‘Elephants have the right of way. Drive slowly’. Fresh elephant dung and huge footmarks on the side of the road indicate that a pachyderm has just exercised its right of way. You get some goose bumps and drive on. As an Indian advertisement slogan says, there is victory ahead of fear. So far so good, wild elephants seem to have succeeded in fighting competition and have re-launched themselves in the area.

What stands out at the Indo-Bhutan border is the complete absence of human settlement. Unlike the borders at Samdrup Jongkhar, Gelephu, Phuentsholing and other places, it is a silent half dried stream that separates the two neighbours and not monolithic concrete gates with picture of snarling dragons. Nganglam town is about 15 kms from the border. Security concerns due to constant disturbances on the Indian side perhaps prompted the Bhutanese authorities to locate the town and other facilities further inside Bhutan.

Before long we are at the Rinchenthang border gate. I am beginning to relish the prospect of finally being separated from the smelly Santa Fe and its equally smelly driver. Pema and I decide to advise the front office at DHI to conduct better due diligence before hiring cars for official uses. Two important factors, we suggested, were the cleanliness of the car & the driver and his attitude (such as use of mobile while driving and safe driving). We knew that this particular driver didn’t market himself well!

Later that evening as we hit the sack after a dinner of masala curries, rice and chapatti, I suddenly realized that our marketing assignment would begin the next morning. Am I ready? Although I haven’t sold a loaf of bread or a khamto of doma by way of real life experience in marketing and selling, I knew the team had to hit the road running. Cement had to be marketed in India even if it meant taking coal to New Castle.