What are the skills one would need for a career in direct marketing?
You would need to understand your consumer. It’s all about lifetime value for the consumer, that’s what the strength of direct marketing is. Once you have a customer, your relationship has to be a life-long one. For instance say a customer buys a wine from you. Your have to nurture the relationship to a degree that anytime he thinks of wine, be it at a party or dinner, he should only be thinking of your company. Did you have a mentor while starting out? I had two mentors. One was my dad who is a marketing genius and the other is now my partner in another business, who is a direct marketing guru in the US. How did Finewinesnmore happen? Officially a year ago and unofficially two years ago. It basically came out of the fact that I love drinking wines, I’m not a connoisseur but I definitely know my wines, and I thought the time was right for India. Unfortunately there wasn’t much in terms of an education for people to buy wines or pick good wines, a lot of stereotypes existed and still do
