The marketer today uses many avatars of these. Some work, and some don’t.

The Discount Dhamaka is the marketer’s first line of defence. Offer the discount that will lure in the consumer to buy. Discounts that offer the appeal of cut prices as a lure and bait.

Here, an error is being made. The marketer is boosting his temporary sales volume, but denting his brand image. Discounts have never built brands, and never will. There is enough evidence in consumer space that discounts are like a canker on a brand. More overt the discount, bigger the canker.

Brand managers, however, are transient passengers on brands. They are out there for those six years. ‘Short-termism’ in brand thinking spurs on the discount culture, at the cost of the brand at hand.

Discounts can operate at the level of trade, to load the shelf and at the level of the consumer to enhance offtake. Marketers could use either or both of it. Both harm equally.

If discounts are to be passed on, there is a better way of doing it. Offer more of product: This is the classic way of reaching out to the consumer. Buy a 500 gm packet of Taj Mahal Tea and take home 600 gm! You get more than you bargained for.

Brands don’t get devalued when they adopt the more stock on stock way to discounts. Try it.

There is a downside to this as well. On more occasions than not, these kind of add-ons get hardly noticed by the consumer. Offtake levels perk up a wee bit, but home consumption continues to remain what it was. You will return to buy the next pack many days later than before, as people in your home continue to drink the same amount of tea they used to before. Nobody is drinking more of your tea just because their favourite brand gave them more this month.

Apple Inc is all set to enter the Indian market with its I-Phone, which will be offered by two players, Vodafone and Airtel. What’s the impact of such a move?

- Shashi K., Thiruvananthapuram

Shashi, for the consumer this means a wide plank to choose from. Airtel and Vodafone are the lead players in this space. They occupy a large chunk of the current user base. Upgrade from the existing hand-set to the I-Phone and its allure is going to be that much easier. It is users of niche telecom service providers such as Spice and everyone else who is small and regional who will suffer. Number-portability is not yet a reality. Till such time, users of such TSPs’ services will see their provider to be a hurdle to an upgrade of handset.