Actually, this marketing technique is not new in India. But only small items like detergents, washing soaps, tooth pastes, tooth brushes and packed foods were sold in this fashion. Was Maharaja Appliances' technique successful? The company increased its direct sales to the customers from Rs 50 lakh in 1990-91 to Rs 10 crore in 1994-95. The company's turnover increased in this period from Rs 18 crore to Rs 52 crore.

During this period, the company also increased its market share from 14 per cent to 18 per cent. Market share for juicers increased from 25 per cent to 35 per cent. The increase in the washing-machines segment was from 4 per cent to 9 percent. The company holds a monopoly in the dishwasher segment. Within a short time, the company captured a market share of 35 per cent in the hand-blender market.

Ten years back, no consumer would have even entertained a salesman canvassing for white goods at his doorstep, as then purchase of white goods by a family was few and far between. Their purchase was considered a luxury thanks to the socialist policies.

The license-raj regime imposed tough conditions on producers. Their production quotas were fixed by the government and they could not produce even a single unit more than what was permitted. Production, distribution and consumption were controlled by the government. There was little room for freedom on the part of the producers. Consumers were denied a choice to choose the goods.

In those days, a middle-class person dad to stand in the queue from morning to evening and pay Rs 500 to the dealer for booking his Bajaj scooter. Then he had to wait for eight to ten years patiently to receive his callletter. Today if the Bajaj Auto dealer asks the client to wait for a few days to take delivery of the vehicle, the order is as good as gone. Nobody has the patience to wait for even a few days to receive a scooter or motorcycle.

Today Bajaj has competitors like LML, TVS Suzuki, Hero Honda and Escorts. The production quotas are not fixed by the government and producers of vehicles are left free to decide on the production volume, which ultimately depends on market demand.

In Indira Gandhi's regime, cement production was restricted so that an artificial scarcity was created to benefit vested interests to earn black money. At that time, a middle-class person had to book in advance with the government for acquiring say 400 bags of cement for building his home. If he merely booked his order and waited, years would roll by, and he would never get his quota of cement.

So he had to run helter-skelter to the government office and grease various palms. Then he would get a call letter for allotment. He had to goto the godown indicated in the call letter and take delivery of his quota.

While bringing the cement bags in a lorry, the hapless customer would not be aware that nearly 25 per cent of the cement was stolen from the gunny bags and sand was mixed. These things are now bygones. If you want cement, just telephone the company or the dealer in the morning and cement will be delivered within two hours. No bookings, no hassles, no adulteration in the product. In fact, cement companies are competing with each other to woo the customers.

Earlier, there were no televisions, washing machines, dishwashers, walkie talkies, etc. But in a short span of time, the picture has dramatically changed. Today a middle-class family has ceiling fans in all the rooms, there is at least one two-wheeler, and cars are also within the reach of an increasing number of people.

Most houses have colour televisions and refrigerators. Washing machines are also sold increasingly by companies including multinationals. Earlier, there wasonly a single earning member in most families. Today both the partners venture out to work to enjoy increasing number of facilities.

Therefore, here is no time to go out for shopping and select the required items. It is because of this reason that Maharaja Appliances tasted success immediately on introduction of its home-marketing scheme. Future marketing strategies of companies will have to increasingly take this fact into consideration while framing their strategies to increase their sales and profits.