BY SUSHIL BAHAL
MD, Prana PR Pvt. Ltd & Director, Raka Advertising & Marketing Pvt. Ltd
Mother Teresa once said, “It’s not how much we give, but how much love we put into giving…” Perhaps, Mark Zuckerberg and everyone else who made it big in this Internet era, truly followed this tenet while building their business models. Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Hotmail, Yahoo and every other successful venture on the Internet have this one thing in common. They created platforms and facilitated communities to network, while demanding nothing in return from them. What built enterprise values, bigger than GDPs of some countries, is the buying power of these communities and a deep-rooted sense of gratitude for all that these companies have done for them. From the initial period two decades ago to the hyper-active social media platforms of today, it has been an Internet of giving.
Our society has re-entered the era of giving - selfless giving without any strings attached. The karma philosophy and scriptures written thousands of years ago propagated the same thing. It does not matter whether I am an employee, entrepreneur, housewife, student or the prime minister of a country. I can only succeed if I give more than what I am scheduled to receive.
As marketers, our brand propositions need to be centred on how much we can give, more than anything else. The more we give, the more we will gain.
One of my clients has ‘adopted’ over 400 street dogs and offers them food every day and medical aid whenever required. His bungalow in a posh South Delhi locality is full of street dogs all the time. When I asked him the reason for doing all this, his reply was, “I get their blessings. Who knows, I may be successful because of these blessings.” Giving could also mean bringing people together. We celebrated the silver jubilee of our graduation class recently and could gather more than 60 of our batchmates together from four continents only because of the power of Internet. It was an emotional moment for all of us. We thanked the e-mail engines and we thanked Google. With each of us reasonably successful in our professions, I am sure that there will be a payback of this gratitude unconsciously.
I am a member of a business networking group where each giving is celebrated. Imagine 90 business leaders gathering once every week and only thinking of how each one can contribute to others’ success. I have given access to my clients to dozens of members. These members market anything from insurance products, holiday destinations, school uniforms, marble and granite, second homes, etc., to opportunity of contributing as charity. Though I did not get anything material in return, I did get a lot of business from the references that they gave of their clients. I am happy because I have been instrumental in creating opportunities that they would not have been able to exploit without me. I am also happy because I have leveraged opportunities that would not have come my way without these members. What goes around, comes around. Round and round.
Feedback: sushil@pranapr.com
