So here’s a situation that almost every marketer and event organizer has faced a couple of times in his life. There’s a marketer, who is approached by A, B and C event management companies that pitch their respective ideas. The marketer likes the idea pitched by C, but gives the contract to A. When the event is carried out, C finds out that the idea used was theirs but the contract was instead given to the cheaper alternative – A. Is it fair? Who is to blame? Can C do anything except feel bad about it? In an attempt to provide the solution, EE gets industry experts to answer.
“The practice is highly unethical and I, being a marketer, definitely make it a point not to do it,” says Sudeep Narayan, Marketing and PR Director, Volvo. “You will not find even one example in all my working life where I have been a part of such practice. But that’s about me; however, there are marketers who have been criticized for taking someone else’s idea and giving it to the cheaper alternative. But are marketers really to blame? This responsibility rests on event organizers that approach companies with their sales pitch. The problem is when there is any event company that approaches the client, there is no signed document that states this is the idea that was presented, so no one can prove that the idea was originated from xyz company. They should be very clear. They should have a signed doc with the client, not to use this idea without their knowledge. If they use the idea then they need to give a consultancy fee for the idea,” advises Sudeep.
“Very point blank openly, the event companies just please clients. Now most of them don’t have their own fabrication in it. Let’s take the example of an international standard car display. I could be charged 4 lac or even 8 lac. It’s very simple. You look at the example of how a farmer sells a potato. He may be selling it for 5 directly from his farm, but you buy it for 20kg a kilo. Who is an experiential company? Someone who sees through the idea. They generate, execute and run the show. However, most event companies are self proclaimed. Most of them don’t have fabrication. They are just consultants – Not event companies. That cartel in India is very weak,” divulges Sudeep. “If you give honest cost with a brilliant idea, the client will not go anywhere. The assumption is that the client doesn’t know anything. There could be no real cost for the idea, agreed. But if the cost is for fabrication – ask them for the balance sheet,” says Sudeep.
That was a marketer point of view. But what does an event organizer have to say when he sees his idea being brought to life by a competitor? “The key to this kind of situation is the client-agency relationship. With most of our clients we have such a strong relationship that such incidents do not happen. Nevertheless, with certain new business pitches, we have had a few experiences with clients where our ideas and concepts have been used by clients with other agencies. Legally, there is very little one can do. Often the companies that do this are very large brands who may have unscrupulous marketing decision makers,” divulges Atul Nath, MD, Candid Marketing.
To take a neutral stand, EE got Harish Bijoor, Brand Expert, to give his thoughts on the same. “I’m very against the system of pitches. The first way to sort it out is to say that there are no free lunches and no free speculative pitches. I do believe that event marketing organizations must all gather around the common banner and refuse to make pitches. There are central bodies that look after this. These bodies must set norms and say that you must not make speculative pitches. If you are invited to make a pitch you must charge a fee for the pitch. The fee could be waived if the event organizer is chosen for the job. If not, then a portion of the expenditure is anyway covered by the fee. It is a wrong practice to do free pitches,” says Harish.
But why would a client be willing to pay for every pitch that he may not find worth it? “When a client does a short list, he does a closed short list of the best of the lot. He should be willing to put his money where his mouth is. It shows that the marketer is respecting the vendor. Practices must change completely. And as far as ideas are concerned, they are not necessarily genuine. Nobody can prove it. I have actually been in such a situation earlier where the same idea was pitched by two different event management agencies. The order goes to one, and the other obviously blames the marketer for stealing. You can’t always blame the marketer. There is a fair bit of jealousy also in the system,” divulges Harish.
