Joy and
JaniMeraNaam – does anyone remember them.
In mid 1970s - chiclets, a type
of candys hit the market. Two of those
brands were ‘Joy’ and ‘Janimeranaam’- costing 5 paise each. The sales roared not because they were so
good to eat, more because of the scheme – everytime, one opened the cover,
there was a no. printed – one has to collect them in serial [of three eg., 3,4
&5] and some nos. individually were given pre-set prizes of notebooks, pens
and the like.
Most of
us were attracted to some form of gambling – in the neighbourhood small shop
[nairkadai !], numbers concealed in a random manner, would
be hung on a cardboard scheme. You pay 5
or 10 paise, pull out one and depending on the number, you might get prizes
ranging from a Rupee to Ten rupees and some items like spoon – hung in an
eye-catching manner on the cardboard itself.
There were rankling doubts on whether anyone ever won that at all –
those cardboards would change frequently showing that so many have tried their
luck on it.
There was a time
when you would find so many shops and agents selling lottery tickets,
especially in important bus stops. There
were so many lottery schemes run by various State
Govts, especially from North Eastern States.
While these lotteries offered Crore and more – there also existed
‘single no. lotteries’ – where people would scratch to see the number
printed – some were so addicted that they would stand before the shop, keep
scratching till they lose their month’s salary.
In 2003, the then Ms Jayalalithaa Govt banned sale of all lotteries,
including online, within the territory of the state. It was a measure of great
relief for many !
Away from
lotteries, there are many sales promotion techniques. People are offered gold and silver coins for
purchase of Cars, houses and electronic items.
Sales promotions devised by manufacturers and suppliers of consumer
goods involve the customer participating in a prize draw or competition –
hyping on the opportunity to win big prizes and boosting their sales,
outsmarting their competitors. They have
the potential of raising the sales for a limited period. Companies promoting resorts and the like,
often make cold calling stating that the person had dropped visiting card in a
mall earlier and thus has won a prize.
There would be a long sales pitch on their product and the prize could
be some simple thing !! There are also
promotional activities at the time of festivities which can promise heaven –
buy soap, get diamond for free; win a trip to exotic location and the like !!
Cold drink
manufacturers have often engaged in sales promotions. Today’s TOI reports
that a local court in Chandigarh issued
notice to Coca Cola, 15 years after it was accused of not keeping its word on
arranging a date with film star HrithikRoshan for a young woman from Panchkula.
The woman had won a contest organised by the cola maker in 2000 reportedly
offering a romantic dinner as first
prize with HritikRoshan. When the date did not materialise, the woman, went to court seeking Rs.2.5 crore
in damages.
Civil
judge (senior division) K K Jain of Chandigarh district court issued the notice
while allowing a 12-year-old application by ShikhaMonga on the maintainability
of her suit. With these orders, she need not pay Rs.2.43 lakh as court fee for
the suit.It is stated that it was duly proved on record that applicant is not
possessed of sufficient means to pay the court fee and she is indigent and as a
squeal thereto. The application is allowed to pursue with this suit being from
a pauper indigent person, observed the court. Coca Cola was asked to file a
reply by August 18.
According
to Shikha, 34, Coca Cola Limited had floated a promotional programme in 2000.
Under the scheme, prizes were announced at the back of the crown of the
bottles. She rushed to the marketing office in Chandigarh's Industrial Area
where the manager offered her Rs.5 lakh for the crown saying that the prize was
one in a billion. She, however, was not interested in the money and wanted to
meet the film star as early as possible.Strange
are the ways of people ~and many a times, Companies do not keep up their
promises !
Last month, more
than one million people in China’s capital participated in a lottery of a
different kind.The residents of Beijing were hoping for the golden ticket that
would give them not riches or rewards, but a prize that was far more ordinary:
the number plate of car !!just ordinary plates, not any special government
plates that can allow their owners to skirt traffic laws. While the license
plate lottery has made a serious dent in the number of new car sales in
Beijing, with its 21-million population, and Shanghai, with its 23 million
residents, the high prices tend to depress the sales of local brands, which
tend to be less expensive than foreign brands. So the price of license plates
is more likely to keep first-time car buyers away, while those who are
upgrading from the old Mercedes-Benz S-class to the 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-class
aren't really affected by the prices of the plates.
Their odds were
challenging — more than one million people participated in the lottery, with
just 20,000 registration certificates up for grabs. China may have surpassed the U.S. when it
comes to new car sales, but buying a car is only half the battle in some
Chinese cities. While there is a large variety of different models available
from dozens of manufacturers, including 11 different models from Buick alone,
the amount of road space is not keeping up with the pace of car sales. So the lottery of number plates and in some
Chinese cities the price of license plates can exceed the price of a new
car.Prospective license plate buyers first have to make a down payment to
participate, and in exchange they receive a disc which they can use to register
to bid on the year's allotment of license plates online. The city itself
governs how many license plates are put up for sale each year, and then sets
prices based on the bids received from prospective buyers. Within 10 minutes of
the licence plate website opening at the start of the year, 6,000 people had
applied for new plate numbers, the Beijing Daily newspaper reported.By 5pm,
more than 53,000 applications had been submitted online, the official Xinhua
News Agency said. The applicants were competing for the first batch of 20,000
plates !
The lottery system
has been welcomed by urban planners and environmentalists in China as a
necessary and long-overdue measure — one which, they hope, will boost public
transportation and inspire other cities, in China and in rapidly urbanising
countries like India, to follow this city’s example.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
18th Aug
2015.
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