TIC - A'Haven of

Fun & Frolic

A Prelude to Marketing Case> 1

Purpose of the Case

T h eidea isto assimilate the relevant concepts at work and analyse along the following lines:
• To discuss what led to the fast growth and evolution of TIC from a mere tea shanty to an eating joint
providing a
variety of foods
• To focus on the importance of building your product range/services around customer needs, his growing
expectations
in a subtle and unobtrusive manner
• To debate how the principles of marketing are in operation at TIC, in a most elementary way

Thakur was very happy, ecstatic in fact, choked with
emotions, he flashed the bank draft of Rs. 5,000 he
was holding in his right hand and told all young
students sitting on concrete slabs strewn all around
TIC and enjoying their CNN' (twin pleasures of
caffeine and nicotine), "Do you know Pant? That
lamboo got confirmed posting in Pune in
TELCO ... Arrey yam; the same tall, lanky fellow who
strummed the guitar ... Arrey yaar, the one always
trying to impress that Lucknow BT girl from
CBSH ... Arrey yaar, all those Angrezi gaaney wala,
what you call them ... yes, yes ... arrey yaar ... Dhillon
songs." Thakur had cultivated this habit of saying
'arreyyaar' before every sentence he spoke and well,
students had by now deciphered the Morse
code ... Thakur wanted to convey ... 'Dylan' not
'Dhillon' songs. Most Engineering students knew
which Biotechnology ma' am of College of Basic
Sciences and Humanities was being referred to.
It was a routine affair at TIC; the young students
knew what exactly Thakur meant. .. their Mechanical.
Engineer super-senior Manish Pant, the one who
loved to strum Bob Dylan songs had probably
cleared his khaata (balance money to be paid) with
Thakur. Thakur knew they would always pay
even when they left campus ... often substantially
more than they owed him. Their existed an
unwritten rule between Thakur and his beneficiaries,
of course within tacitly agreed boundaries:
for final year students, if your campus interviews
were on, you could practically have endless
udhaar; for others you were supposed to pay upfront
the moment you got your draft or your parents
transferred money in your ATM at start of the month.
And well, well, well 1! Pant Sir had formally proposed
to Alpana ma' am of Biotechnology department and
she had smiled. Of all the people in the world, these
youngsters knew Thakur was the one to be told first,
he was the ultimate confidant for aU souls residing d' etre; eve'[\}one knows TIC \i~e the\) know thei
in the campus. own home. In fact, tor all the 2-lakh inhabitants 0
Nobody knew where Thakur came from, Pantnagar, the intersection of road leading fro m
nobody really cared ... all they knew was that he Machine shop and hostel road connecting Taqon
meant a lot. He was a friend, philosopher and guide hostel (lst year hostel) to Badi market is TIC ... a
to almost every student there. The junta Uunta was a prominent landmark - a permanent fixture 01
term used by all students for every other student who
studied in the hallowed portals of the G.8. Pant Pantnagar, more often than not used by the residents
University of Agriculture and Techriology, Pantnagar) to give directions to visitors.
knew how he would console first year students who This university was no exception and all
suffered from various demons in 1st semester: ragging students were exposed to quintessential 'hostel
to top it all, pressure of studies, cut-throat competition food' ... especially harsh for a teenager who would
to excel and worst was the sultry weather and those join the University after being dog-pampered by
power cuts. mother at homes for years ... the staple diet of watery
Lots of students had faced this question during'
dal and rotis that would decapitate a pig if thrown
ragging: What does TIC stand for? It was pet question
at the correct angle and the cafeteria version 0 1
asked with we-know-it-all arrogance and certitude
veggies ... that glob of sticky stuff that went by the
by seniors while they sipped tea and circulated fags
generic term 'Subzi' . It was a different matter
amongst themselves. Not knowing thatTIC stood for
though that every day a daily menu was put up on
'Thakur Inter Continental' would be further extending
the door of the mess that gave The Glob a difterent
your ordeal of getting on your haunches to become
and pretty creative name to compensate for the lack
a murga. Students, especially the freshers, often
of taste. One day the subzi appeared as Alu-Gobhi
wondered why such a modest establishment with
next day it would appear as Gobhi-Alu. On those
thatched roof, open air kitchen, eggs and maggi
days when the amount of red chillies was too much
packets hanging from the rafters in makeshift
for an average student to handle, the menu would
hangers, a bluish white display stand where Wills
term it as Shahi Gobhi. On Saturdays, the mess
and Gold Rake King-size cigarettes would temptingly
served 'non-veg' dinner; unless the guys put an alarm
be placed, a running tap in the comer where an
omnipresent chhotu would be washing utensils, in
of starting time of mess i.e., 8.30 pm and then acted
full public view, over a concrete slab strategically
like a cross between Carl Lewis and Ben Johnson
placed below the tap was called TIC. Well, the
sprinting towards the mess, they would have to deal
answer lay in knowing the fact that in 1981, Thakur
with long queues and only 'chicken flavoured curry'.
had accompanied a Professor of Computer
Engineering for 15 days to AIT, Bangkok; it was
summer vacations time and an unmarried Prof.
Singh had asked him to come along, probably to
cook Indian food for him there. Well, when Thakur
returned, he once began to cook fish and possibly
declared its Thai curry, and from that very moment
onwards, students rechristened Thakur dhaba as
TIC.
Today everybody, actually everybody, be if
faculty, staff, housewives, schoolgoing kids,
shopkeepers, students for whom TIC is the raison
 Pantnagar University was opened in1960s
under collaboration with few leading US universities
and students had heard how the great Prime
minister Nehru and lots of phirang scientists had'
initially joined the University as Vice-Chancellor and
Professors. Thakur knew each and every detail and
regaled students with the anecdotes liberally
enlivened with his imagination; he was the unofficial
'Encyclopedia Britannica' of Pantnagar University,
a University geographically spread across 12
kilometres or more.
He told them how every senior position in this
country, in any large employment sector of India
had
a Pantnagarian on top... One could barely argue
with him. Otherwise he would parrot out names, he
appeared to remember them all ... their designations,
even their hostel room numbers when they studied
here.
It seemed Pantnagar was some kind of kaala-
paani, as only two kinds of people constituted the
population here which was very systematically
organised as township: either you were a student or
you were working to improve the intellectual lot
either
as a Professor or lab assistant or else you
worked in support departments like electricity,
gardening, water section. Pantnagar University was
self-contained with its own cinema hall,
international-quality stadium, swimming pools and
gymnasiums. The library was a tourist attraction not
only because of its 4-storied magnificent building
and great collection of journals, periodicals and
books but also because invariably every student
would take his parents or relatives there on a sight
seeing trip and then in return expect a compliment
like 'Did you see what a great place our son studies
in!'. The University was lush green ... vegetation and
gardens all around. Wasn't it a historical fact that
the University was the harbinger of green revolution
in this country? Didn't it bring pride to all of us
when
we could face the world and see straight in their
eyes? Thakur knew all these stories; he even knew
how Shastriji, our late Prime Minister felt crassly
humiliated when he went to USA asking for
foodgrains when there was an acute drought in India
and how we (as he passionately thumped his chest)
toiled day and night to fulfill his promise of "Jai
Jawan, Jai kisan".
Pantnagar University had 6 professional colleges
viz.,Technology, Biotechnology and Basic Sciences,
Veterinary, fisheries, Agriculture and Forestry. About
4,000 students would be studying here at any point
. of time and living in over 12 hostels (design of girl's
hostels was inspired by Roman fortress, seniors
always told juniors!). However the place was
absolutely isolated in terms of its geography and
distance from anything that could be called a city -
it was a world cocooned in itself - every inhabitant
had resigned himself or herself to the monotony of
life there and over a period of time cultivated his or
her own world of fun, pleasure, hopes, insecurities,
love , hate, pride and win all around the campus;
this was a place where everybody knew everyone,
didn't you bump across the same faces wherever
you went - to the college or library or Badi Market
( a shopping centre of some 50-odd shops was called
so). Incidentally, Badi Market also had a few coffee
houses and ice-cream parlours which facilitated
breeding of nascent friendships and burgeoning
romances in Pantnagar.
How Thakur landed in Pantnagar is an
apocryphal story but most students believed
it for whatever it was worth. However Thakur
seems fiercely protective about it and never
discussed the same. It is said Thakur's father,
a poor peasant in some village of Bihar, came
with some relative in search of a job as farm
labourer in Pantnagar in early 1960s. His two kids
apparently died of some unknown, disease in
Pantnagar and he found his mental state and income
too unsporting, when he pleaded before the Vice-
Chancellor to give him a permanent job in 1967.
The VC, who was a very humane and emotional
gentleman, instead offered him a small plot of land
at a nominal rent near Engineering college hostels;
probably he too was fed up of students' complaints
'about food, but one is not too sure if he thought of
the dhaba beyond tea and some occasional snacks
at that time.
 Mahatam Singh, better known as Thakur today,
was a mere young 7 years old kid then. The rest
they say is history, at least for the students.
Thakur took de fado charge of the dhaba pretty
young; his father did not maintain good health and
left for his native place in Bihar leaving the whole
business in the hands of an 18 years old boy. Well,
he did go back off and on for few days but he went
for a relatively longer stretch of 15 days in 1985 and
got married. His wife turned out to be even more
enterprising ... the couple would stay up late till well
past 10 pm everyday, 7 days a week, making tea
and serving fags for nightbirds of hostels. By 6 am,
the couple were up again making tea, coffee and
tilk (an indigenous preparation of tea made in milk
was called tilk in junta's jargon). Didi (as Thakur's
wife was lovingly called by students) encouraged him
to keep adding new stuff to their menu. One day
they made some samosas, the students loved and
lapped them all ... they demanded more of it. But
Thakur was a very strict quality control guy, he was
fanatic about cleanliness and crispiness of stuff that
he served. Once when it was Ramnavami, they
decided to try and make some jalebis ... The hot
samosas and jalebis were like ambrosia to the
gourmet starved students and were devoured in no
time at all. The eternally hungry and ever-
appreciative students kept encouraging Didi to try
something new.
Since students had limited influence over the
mess food, they concentrated on getting Thakur to
extend the menu beyond samosas and jalebis which
by now along with sambhar uada, idli and dosa were
being perfected by Didi. Students, when they came
back from vacations vouched that one got better
South Indian food at TIC than at leading restaurants
in Delhi and, obviously, at highly affordable prices.
Somewhere in late 1980s, someone had picked up
quick noodles on a trip to Delhi. Thakur was not
sure whether they would be able to dish it out-they
tried it a couple of times but Thakur was not.in favour
of serving itto students till he could make it as good
as you get in Delhi. Didi was very persuasive and
took a few cooking lessons from some Mrs. Mehta,
a newly married Professor's wife who apparently
had studied from some leading convent school in
Dehradun and had also done her F&B training in
. Taj during her Hotel Management. Students relished
it this time and Thakur was lifted in arms amid loud
cheers, due accolades were also given to Didi for
her culinary expertise ... and why not, she had
become a surrogate mother to all the students in
this God-forsaken isolated place, where all one had
to do was slog ... and slog more to relax.
No matter what. TIC made, it was a huge
improvement over the mess food but more important
than that TIC was a place for students to hang out
at, just to get away from the maddening medley of
pontificating professors, hourlies, quizzes, lab tests
and taxing syllabi, it was a place to relax and listen
to Thakur play the mouth organ. TIC was witness
to innumerable heated discussions, arguments and
confessions ... Bill Gates to Brian Lara to Brazilian
soccer to Reservations to English August to Tom
Hanks to Bryan Adams to American-Iran
imbroglio-they were all animatedly debated,
shredded to pieces and put together again into
packages of optimum solution- if only the people
concerned would heed these young turks
Thakur very soon realised that if he has to get
more business, he cannot go on with TIC being an
all-boys joint all his life. He had noticed that boys
would spend more when the~e was a girl along; the
entrepreneur in him started thinking of innovative
ideas. He realised that the ultimate mark of customer
confidence would be demonstrated when 'couples
start making TIC their preferred stopover rather than
those ice cream parlours at Badi Market. Some guys
suggested Thakur why he did not constructively
utilize a shallow but around 3 feet wide canal and
two huge peepal trees that were just there at the
backyard of TIC. This area was virtually littered with
leaves and other dead plantation. In summers of
1989, Thakur got the place cleaned up, grew green
soft grass, cultivated a hedge along the boundaries
and put lots of plastic chairs. The canal was also
cleaned up and in tum gave TIC a chilled, cool, fun
look. A bevy of girls also started joining the
refreshing and relaxed environment of TIC, Thakur
cashed in on the popularity by extending the range
of cuisine - from just samosas , jalebis , idli, dosa,
sambar-vada to chowmein, burgers, finger fries,
momos , chikkan ( Chicken as spelt on TIC's
handwritten menu cards) and mutton tikkas to
vegetable and chicken fried rice - to keep evolving
with changing food preferences. Slowly the students
started going there for lots of activities - and they all
knew what it meant. Going to TIC was not all about
food; it was an experience to share, the enjoyment
of thrill, fun, freedom and camaraderie, few minutes
of breathing space from never-ending grind of
routine, academic life.
Soon, Thakur opened a PCO also in TIC as he
noticed students shouting to each other to rush up
as they would exhort each other to go to Badi
Market, which was 4 kilometres away, just to make
a phone call. Thakur also noticed that in every paper
in every semester, students wrote 3 hourlies
(sessional
exam of 1 hour) and 1 lab practical before they wrote
their final exams. During these days, most students
would bum the midnight oil. Sensing an opportunity
Thakur opened TIC till 2, am serving tea, coffee,
Haldirams and Lays kurklue and peanuts, maggi
and of course 'nicotine sticks'.
The astute observer in Thakur also noticed
that during chilly winter nights, students wanted
to remain in their cosy rooms, moreover some
students found it stylish to get aluminium foil
wrapped food in their rooms, a starting of 'home
delivery' within university campus. Getting food
'room-delivered' when pariahs would go to the well
to drink, was a conspicous symbolism to flaunt your
'first-among-equal' status, Thakur had a couple of
times sent wrapped alu-paranthas to hostel whenever
someone was not well. Thakur would personally go
and meet the student who was not well, offer him a
lift to the University hospital in his old Yamaha
motorcycle .. .it never looked he was doing this with
a business motive; he seemed a very caring, sensitive
soul who felt from his heart and that it was his pre-
ordained duty to help these youngsters who lived
away from their families- a self appointed foster
father. But even foster fathers have expenses, hence
Thakur started charging one rupee extra over and
above the bill for room services and it became a
major hit with some students, the ghotu ( your
typical 'nerds' in junta's parlance) the types who
thought leaving their book for even a second, will
diminish their 'fundas'.
Very soon, Thakur started keeping basic
medicines like Paracetamol, Combiflam and ORS
solutions at TIC. Soon the range of products at TIC
widened to include chocolates, Reynolds pens and
rough notebooks. It also ensured increase in business
per student because any student who came to buy a
notebook would more often than not end up drinking
tea and feasting on a bread pakora at least. In
summers of 2000, Thakur installed 2 major
equipments at TIC which most students found
revolutionary: one was a freezer to store Amul ice-
creams and those 5~rupee bottle cold drinks of Coke
and Pepsi and second was an OTG (Oven-Toaster-
Griller) to start serving hot patties too ...
These were the days of alumni meet in 2005 in
Pantnagar, we all friends, around 20 of us from Delhi
decided we will be there in September. We all
attended a formal function, -listened to lots of
speeches about the progress the institution has
made ... increasing number of selections in IES, IIMs,
PSU's, Infosys, TISCO, L& T, Civil services and blah
blah blah ... But no prizes for guessing where our
heart lay. As soon as decency permitted we all rushed
to TIC, we danced, partied all night long. It was a
journey down memory lane with gratitude and
affection for our self-appointed guardians during our.
college days, a token of which was a sari for Didi
and a pair of jeans and T-shirt for Thaku~ from all of
us. And, yes, Mahatam Singh a.k.a Thakur' too
swayed with the peppy numbers, buoyed by our
invigorating presence and some spirit (pun
unintended) .
Question
1.What do you think: was Thakur 'marketing' or
'selling'? Defend your answer.
Theoretical concepts to be prepared:

1. Marketing

2. Needs and wants

3. Target market

4. Value proposition

5. Selling

6. 4 Ps / 7 Ps / 9 Ps

7. Marketing environment

8. CRM

9. Marketing management

10. Outsourcing