The League of Shadows

It’s been quite some time since I've posted anything here. It’s because I had trouble getting in the right mood to write. I am now working for a small company that is into marketing and branding. My job presently is to write content for things ranging from flyers and newsletters to websites and brochures.  The company however has some peculiarities and an air of mystery that can only be captured aptly by one nickname.

The League of Shadows.

The company  seems to be a loosely knit group of freelancers held together by its resourceful owner. It is actually a full-time company but the approach of its owner to work has given the company a unique character. For the sake of this blog, let’s call him Emperor Akihito. A cheerful, cherubic gentleman playing with some unconventional ideas.

The company works in B2B marketing and branding.  It has a rich and diverse clientele ranging from steel rebar makers, industrial dryer manufacturers to business intelligence consultancy firms. The Emperor’s approach to work plays a key role in how we go about interacting with the clients.  No matter whether it is a flyer, a brochure or a website, the Emperor insists that everyone in the team gains some knowledge of the company and the industry that we are working for. Hence, when the client calls Akihito, the whole team comprising Emperor Akihito, the graphic designer, marketing guy, and content writer (yours truly) pops up at the office of the client.  We then ask three key questions to the client firms:

1.       Why do you do what you do? –Why choose this particular business or product over others?
2.       How do you do it? –give us an idea of their production process.
3.       What do you do different from your competitors?

These three questions give us a brief idea of the company’s culture and we then design a website that reflects the nature of the company it represents. This is a great exercise because that way everyone in the team gets to speak to the client. The client knows who is doing what so he can directly call the graphic artist if he thinks design sucks rather than blaming the Emperor.

Anyway, once the meeting is over, everyone including the Emperor either disperses to work from the comfort of his or her own home or we just go sit in some cool café to discuss among ourselves the work ahead and then go home to work! We just suddenly appear wherever the opportunity is, and then disappear the next moment. That is why I call the little firm, The League of Shadows.

The League is an experiment in pull marketing. It relies on word-of-mouth marketing to gain clients. The website is minimalist, to-the-point affair. It is designed to incite curiosity and not to push for a sale. The site explains our “why”  “how” and “what” and the “why” again but does not tell you “who” we are.  Call that number on the site and will all meet face to face.

That said; I have come to like Emperor Akihito’s casual, almost do-what-you-want approach to work.  When I start my own company, (I know the “why” but I am still seeking the answer to “what” and “how”) I am certainly going to implement it. Right now, I have only one question:

How did Emperor Akihito get where he is now?

You guys must be wondering who this Akihito is.

He’s an old friend of mine. I will tell you who he is. The research for a new character, my dear readers, is on. :) 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Letter to dad

Dear dad, Yes, you work hard to give me the relative prosperity we have today compared to your times, yes, my life seems more comfortable in material terms, but I also face issues. Please, try to understand. Yes, you are right when you say, that today’s generation cares more about practical life than emotions and relations.   Yes you are right when you say today’s generation is confused. We are confused because we witness the differences that exist between the values you taught us and the ways the world operates. We are confused because we live in times markets and sociopolitical situations are fast changing. We value our culture with the same zeal and passion that you do but we do not hesitate to make pragmatic decisions and welcome that change if it benefits us.  Yes, I am always on phone or the Internet, Yes, I know its not always good. but dad, its the need of the hour.   The Internet has opened the doors to infinite knowledge. It h...
Read more

The battle over 300

Today I sit before my p.c. hammering my brain for ideas. My blog has led me into the jaws of wolves that disguise themselves under the sweet name of ‘fans’. Their demand for more writings on the blog is about to turn me into a seasoned writer! However, when I opened this blog, I had no idea that it would be such a great success. The credit of my success goes to a person hereafter referred to as ‘One Certain Official ( OCO ) to whom I also dedicate this article revealing the secret of my success. As the title suggests, it was the famous battle fought over the post ‘300’ that carved out my literary empire. The warring parties - ‘one certain official’ from ‘one certain department’ of Goa University, pitted against ‘the protector of innocent, defender of the weak, man of ladies, patron of studies, the one and the only, the great, Jay Joshi . OCO took great trouble to shape my career as a writer and to demonstrate that freedom of expression can be challenged and crushed in a departmen...
Read more

B2.1 The unfair game

I started learning German out of curiosity but it is becoming a hectic exercise as I advance throughthe levels. Teaching style of the Germans does not match my learning style. Six hours a day, six days a week, one just takes in new words, grammar and culture. While class work focuses more on group work, I tend to be more of a pause-think-observe-learn person. I am simply overloaded by the content and my classmates rush ahead with work while I am still busy thinking about how can one get more creative with the given assignments. One only finds time on weekends to focus and 'digest' the language, working in peace and solitude. However, the very teaching and assessment mechanism of the Germans works in my favor. They believe that language is learned best in a group as it gives you lots of opportunity to talk. It gives me lots of opportunity to observe. Secondly, while classes focus on group work, exams are held in a different class than usual. Oral exams are hel...
Read more