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Marketing Management/Essentials of Marketing

Notes Profile Representative
Neeru epitomises simplicity. Her life is untangled. It runs on a set timetable with almost
clockwork precision. She works as a primary school teacher in a rural government school
about 50 kilometers from her district town residence. She is married to a social worker in
an NGO whose income is erratic. Her three children, two teenaged sons and a 10-year old
daughter are getting school education.
The day begins with the lady getting up before anybody else and finishing the household
chores as fast as she can. There is no room for delay, as the State government ‘Express’ bus,
on which she travels to her school will be at the bus stop across the road precisely at 8.00
A.M. If she misses that, the next ordinary bus comes at 11.15 A.M, quite useless as it will
reach her school only at 1.00 P.M. The school closes at 2.00 P.M. There are private Jeeps
running sporadically, but the fare is high and Neeru does not believe in wasting hard
earned money. Besides, she travels on her husband’s ‘free pass’. Neeru prides herself on
her monthly savings of ` 1000 for the last many years. The money will go toward the
wedding of her daughter.
Profile Representative

For Vandana, saving money is ‘inborn’ discipline. When she was young and unmarried, she
remembers her mother who was extremely tight-fisted and ran the household on under
` 800 per month. It was the necessity of those times as her father retired at a princely salary
of ` 1800 per month. All through her childhood, she saw deprivation and hardship. She
would not join the annual class picnic in her school days as it meant ‘avoidable expenditure’.
Now she is married and a mother of two school going children. The husband works in a
bank as a clerk. He has taken all the loans that he could from the bank and invested the
money in real estate. As a result of monthly deductions toward repayment of loans, his
take home salary is now very little. But Vandana can manage. The school dresses are sewn
by her at home, the stationery required comes from a wholesale market, and the books are
second-hand from ‘friends’, cultivated for the purpose. On birthdays, Vandana prepares a
sweet dish at home and they splurge on a film. There is a cow and calf at home, being kept
as a source of revenue and milk. She sells half the milk to a neighbour and the family
consumes the rest. Life in general is hard and frugal. There is a colour TV at home, but they
disconnected the cable connection ever since the rates went up. Now they watch
Doordarshan only.
Profile Representative
Daughter of a Freedom Fighter, Aditi has always fought her values and principles. People
still remember when she walked out of the exam half in a huff as a mark of protest against
mass cheating ’sanctioned’ by the centre superintendent in a tough paper. While everybody
else passed with high marks, Aditi failed.
Even though she repeated the paper, Aditi never learned to swim along the flow. She
always swam against the current. She joined the Communist Party in her college and gave
rousing speeches against the teachers and authorities. This resulted in her getting very
poor marks and left her jobless.
Later, Aditi joined an NGO and now works on social issues. She says she is a creature of the
mind, not materialism. Her favourite dress is a long flowing Kurta, and slacks. She wears
loosened hair and chappals. She reads voraciously. Financially, she is independent and
lives with her parents. Her disdain for the institution of marriage and contempt for the
modern Indian male keep her single and unattached. She will continue to be so as she
prefers to this status, but may adopt a baby later in life.
Contd...

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