Most migrants – such as me – in the city would starve without the active services of a cook. My cook has been with me for the past 5 years and is to me what Jeeves is to Bertie Wooster. An original inhabitant of Odisha, he claims (rather vehemently) to be an expert in culinary delights (his words) from many other states. To be sure, he wears multiple hats other than his chef’s cap. The purveyor of earthy wisdom, the disseminator of lofty morals, a gossip-monger par excellence, the pride of his village and incidentally someone who’s not too bad with the kadhai and rolling-pin either.

1. Branding tactics, kitchen
antics
Most migrants – such as me – in the city would starve without the active
services of a cook.
My cook has been with me for the past 5 years and is to me what Jeeves is
to Bertie Wooster. An original inhabitant of Odisha, he claims (rather
vehemently) to be an expert in culinary delights (his words) from many
other states.
To be sure, he wears multiple hats other than his chef’s cap. The purveyor of
earthy wisdom, the disseminator of lofty morals, a gossip-monger par
excellence, the pride of his village and incidentally someone who’s not too
bad with the kadhai and rolling-pin either.
Other than all this he is, to me, a canny marketer who implicitly understands
how branding works. Every day he makes his decisions based on STP
(segmentation, targeting and positioning), without knowing any of these
terms.

2. Perhaps, some explanation is due.
Our man knew early on that in his line of work, time is money. And that he
wouldn’t want to work for clients who petulantly harangue him and sap him
of all his positive energy. Also, for an itinerant service provider, he could ill-
afford spending his hours servicing someone who’s endlessly demanding on
his time, even at the cost of good money.
If he were to succeed, he told himself, such clients need to be avoided.
“Such clients” whom he euphemistically calls housewives were first defied,
and when that didn’t turn out well, denied.
He was zeroing in on his core TG. Ruthlessly turning away customers whose
demands he could no longer summon the resources to fulfil.
He never tires of telling me the number of instances when the woman-of-
the-house, unwilling or unable to keep her autocratic tendencies in check,
lorded over him imperiously in the kitchen. Upon which our man, indignant
that his integrity was brought to question, abandoned the idea of servicing
this TG altogether. Instead focussing on a TG with a less keen eye.
He soon discovered that his core TG were people like me. Bachelors who
sleep till late in the morning and arrive home late in the evening with scant
interest about the workings of the kitchen. Who take forever to refill the salt
jar or who wouldn’t accuse him of stealing the 5 gms of turmeric powder or
lemons. People who won’t complain about the quality of food as long as it
was being regularly cooked. All he needs to do is show up.
We are the low hanging fruit and ripe for the picking. The blue ocean that
gets bluer and bluer.
Consistency over quality is my cook’s motto and there seems to a large
catchment area for that. That is his unabashed brand positioning statement.
So my cook’s juggernaut – the man from Odisha – rolls on gathering fans,
devotees and new business along the way.