Creation and Criticism

R.K. Narayan is equally popular among scholars and common readers. He is known for his insightful portrayal of human life and society. His works encompass a multitude of multidimensional themes—providing a rich tapestry of cultural, social and psychological insight. His narratives are replete with diverse themes that offer a multifaceted understanding of the human experience. This article attempts to establish a link between the conventional character and narrative of Narayan with the modern academics of marketing, through the analysis of one of his short stories, “The Martyr’s Corner”.

Keywords: Marketing, Marketing Mix, Planning, Identity, Struggle, Social Life

Introduction

R.K. Narayan is a renowned story writer. His story “The Martyr’s Corner” showcases a marketing mix in its own way. Therefore, a brief introduction to marketing and marketing mix is given first to understand the concept of the present research work, followed by a brief summary of “The Martyr’s Corner” with its thematic analysis. An attempt is also made to highlight the events or parts of the story showcasing the concept of a marketing mix in the context of life and society of the present world.

Marketing

Marketing is defined as “Marketing is a set of activities related to creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for others. In business, the function of marketing is to bring value to customers, whom the business seeks to identify, satisfy, and retain" (Lumen Learning).” Thus, it is not a single step but a whole philosophy that starts from the identification of the customer’s needs and creating a product accordingly and ends with an exchange with the customer and retaining him for other or future offers.

Marketing Mix

Marketing mix is one of the key components of marketing. Wikipedia defines it as: The marketing mix is the set of controllable elements or variables that a company uses to influence and meet the needs of its target customers in the most effective and efficient way possible. These variables are often grouped into four key components, often referred to as the "Four Ps of Marketing" (Wikipedia: Marketing Mix). In simple words the four P's are:

Product: This is what a company offers to customers, whether it's a physical item or something intangible. It includes how it looks, its features, quality, packaging, brand, and any extra services or guarantees that come with it.
Price: Price is simply how much money customers are willing to pay for the product or service. Choosing the right price is important because it affects how much profit a company makes and influences what customers think about it.
Place (Distribution): Place is about how the product or service gets to the customers. It involves deciding where it will be sold, whether in stores, online, or through other means like delivery services.
Promotion: Promotion is all the stuff a company does to tell people about its product or service. This includes things like advertisements, special deals, social media posts, and any other methods used to make people aware of and interested in what's being offered.

The marketing mix can be defined as the "set of marketing tools that the firm uses to pursue its marketing objectives in the target market" (Wikipedia: Marketing Mix)

This gives us a fair idea about marketing and marketing mix. Before delving into how these concepts are already present in the narrative of “The Martyr’s Corner”, the summary is now presented to understand the story.

Summary of the Story

“The Martyr’s Corner” is a short story about a man named Rama, who sells food at a stall in a busy area. Rama's business is thriving, and he earns a decent income by working hard every day. His stall is strategically located, attracting a diverse crowd, including cinema-goers and people from the nearby pavement.

Rama's customers appreciate the affordable prices and the freedom to inspect the food closely before buying, even though Rama's stall might not meet hygiene standards. Rama cleverly manages to keep authorities away by occasionally giving them packets of his snacks. He and his wife lead a happy life in this small town in post-independent India.

However, everything changes when a political riot breaks out unexpectedly. The fight escalates, and the police intervene, resulting in casualties. The next day, Rama is forced to move his stall to a different location because some young men claim the original spot for a memorial for their leader who died during the riot.

As Rama sets up his stall in the new location, his usual customers are not around, and his earnings decline. Eventually, he decides to give up the food business and takes a job as a waiter in a restaurant. While he reminisces about the time when he owned a stall, Rama finds some satisfaction in his new job.

Understanding the two together:

The First P ‘Product’ in the Story:

The product should be such that it fulfils the requirement of the prospective customer. Either it is already in demand or it must convey to the prospect that its consumption will gratify him. Rama has a great sense of business acumen. He knows who his customers are. His offerings aim to target them precisely.

Understanding about his clientele is necessary. To generalize his clientele, Narayan narrates, “All the coppers that men and women of this part of the universe earned through their miscellaneous jobs ultimately came to him at the end of the day" (The Martyr’s Corner, 113). Coppers here symbolize lower earning or daily wages earner part of the society. So, his customers or prospective customers are all those who either toil hard for the entire day and look for the cheap refreshment or are so poor that they don’t have arrangements to prepare meals at home. Some of the customers mentioned in the story are: jutka-drivers, wrestler, boot-polish boys, blind-beggar, grass-selling women, sly fellow with a limp etc. All these not only belong to the lower strata of society but they also don’t have any fixed income. These are the daily wagers—labour hard for the whole day to earn in the streets and seek as refreshment the food or meals available on the street.

One another group of customers mentioned is the ‘cinema crowd coming out after the evening show’. Though not customers in a real sense, but few other also enjoys his offerings in lieu of services given by them to help Rama run his business uninterrupted. “He gave an occasional packet of his stuff to the traffic constable going off duty or to the health-department menial who might pass that way” (The Martyr’s Corner, 114).

Rama knows well what these customers are looking for, He has his offerings almost tailor-made for them. His offerings include:

A heap of bondas, which seemed puffed and big but melted in one’s mouth; dosais, white, round and limp, looking like layers of muslin; chappatis so thin that you could lift fifty of them on a little finger; duck’s eggs, hard-boiled, resembling a heap of ivory balls; and perpetually boiling coffee on a stove. He had a separate aluminium pot in which he kept chutney, which went gratis with almost every item. (The Martyr’s Corner, 112)

Thus, it is observed that the product on offer aligns with the customer's requirements. In general, all the stuff on offer is for everyone but Rama also knows the particular taste of most of his customers eg. Chappatis for jutka-drivers. Duck’s egg for a wrestler, Half-glass of coffee for the boot-polish boys etc.

The Second P ‘Price’ in the Story:

The price of the product should be such that the buyer willingly accepts the product in exchange. In the case of street vendors like Rama price must be so cheap that it should not affect the affirmative buying decision. As Rama’s customers are poor or daily wagers, the price of the products must be cheap. Even a slightly higher price may make the offerings unaffordable for them.

His customers are hardworking labourers who know well about the prices of the products and their raw materials. Thus, the prices cannot be more than what the customer can justify. The subsequent statement in the narrative indicates that the customers are genuinely pleased with the prices of Rama's goods. “Is there another place where you can get coffee for six pies and four chappatis for an anna?” (The Martyr’s Corner, 112). In fact, they are convinced that they can not get a better offer anywhere else. Rama himself gives the clue about the prices when he says, “If you pay an anna more he can have a dosai and a chappati” The Martyr’s Corner, 113).

But low prices do not mean that Rama compromised with the profit he deserves. There are two instances in the story, where we are told about the profit earned by Rama. “Lucky fellow! He has hardly an hour’s work a day and he pockets ten rupees—what graduates are unable to earn!” and “Five rupees invested in the morning has brought us another five…” (The Martyr’s Corner, 111).

Thus, the prices of Rama are right. They not only are right in the context of customer’s acceptability but also fair enough to earn decent profit for Rama.

The Third P ‘Place’ in the Story:

The place should be such that the product is in easy reach of customers. They don’t have to make extra efforts to procure the product at least in terms of its availability at the desired or not too far-off location. The ideal place would be where the customer doesn’t have to go instead it is already in their way. This makes the product most accessible to its customers.

Narayan in the story has narrated at several places about the place of business of Rama. It’s already discussed in the product section that the clientele of Rama are the daily wagers and other poor people. Most of them spend most of their time in the streets—so for Rama the ideal place would be the street where his target audience is already present.

The story begins with the description of the location of Rama’s business. “Just at that turning point between Market Road and the lane leading to the chemist’s shop he had his establishment” (The Martyr’s Corner, 111). He set up his shop or stall not just on the street but also in a strategic location that allows easy access from various lanes in the market. It is mentioned in the story that his place is also quite near to the cinema, “He always arrived in time to catch the cinema crowd coming out after the evening show” (112).

There are some more instances in the story that tells that Rama’s place of business is ideally located to serve his customers e.g. “His custom was drawn from the population swarming the pavement: the boot-polish boys, for instance…”(112) and “The blind beggar, who whined for alms all day in front of the big hotel, brought him part of his collection at the end of the day and demanded refreshment… and the grass-selling women” (The Martyr’s Corner, 113).

For Rama’s business, place is the most important marketing mix. Later in the story, it is evident that he can no longer use the same place, and his business eventually perishes.

The Fourth P ‘Promotion’ in the Story:

Promotion does not necessarily mean advertisements in print or electronic media or campaigning through social media. It is any activity that can communicate the value of the product with the target audience. These activities should be such that they create awareness and generate interest about the offerings.

Rama is a businessman with limited resources. He is the sole member of the business entity who performs all the activities required to run the business. With limited resources, one cannot expect him to allocate funds for advertisement through media. But his instincts as a businessman never fail to realize the importance of promotion. His Promotion is largely based on ‘Merchandising’ and ‘Public Relations’.

Merchandising is a display of products on offer to retail customers. Rama as a master businessman has employed this technique very well. Following excerpts from the story are self-explanatory to demonstrate this aspect of Rama— “When he set up his tray with the little lamp illuminating his display, even a confirmed dyspeptic could not pass by without throwing a look at it” (The Martyr’s Corner, 112) and “They sat around his tray. Taking what they wanted. A dozen hands hovered about it every minute, because his customers were entitled to pick up, examine and accept their stuff after proper scrutiny” (The Martyr’s Corner, 112)

His manner of arriving at his place with all his selling tools is a fascinating sight and an advertisement in itself. “At about 8:15 in the evening, he arrived with a load of stuff. He looked as if he had four arms, so many things he carried about him. His equipment was the big tray balanced on his head, with its assortment of edibles, a stool struck in the crook of his arm, a lamp in another hand, a couple of portable legs for mounting his tray” (The Martyr’s Corner, 111).

Rama seems very concerned about the respect he generates from his surroundings in general and his customers in particular. This he does through punctuality and discipline. The image he carries is Public Relations in itself. Following instances in the story reflect this aspect of Rama— “At eight you would not see him, and again at ten you would see nothing, but between eight and ten he arrived, sold his goods and departed” (The Martyr’s Corner, 111) and “In fact, he felt generous enough to say ‘Let the poor rat do his business when I am not there.’ This sentiment was amply respected” (The Martyr’s Corner, 112).

There is an instance in the story where it is observed that Rama does not leave any stone unturned to add to the image of his business. “Rama had a soft corner in his heart for the waifs. When he saw some fat customer haggling over the payment to one of these youngsters he felt like shouting, ‘Give the poor fellow a little more. Don’t grudge it. If you pay an anna more he can have a dosai and a chappati. …’” (112-13)

In the later part of the story, downfall of his business is observed. But that was because of the uncontrollable external factor. Rama was after all a normal person who may control the internal factors affecting his business but as far as the external environment is concerned, he was not powerful enough to control them. The ‘place’ as discussed earlier was the key marketing mix for his business model. Once that was disturbed, the collapse is inevitable.

Though, Rama was shown to have found the solution to ‘ֹhis’ problems when he finally started to work as a waiter in a restaurant. But that was ‘his’ overcoming of the crisis not of his business. R.K. Narayan himself says in the author’s introduction to the short-story collection where this story appeared, “In the following thirty-odd tales, almost invariably the central character faces some kind of crisis and either resolves it or lives with it” ("Author’s Introduction”, Malgudi Days, 8).

It is through Rama and his business venture, R.K. Narayan expressed his own fascination for business, market and commerce. “The Martyrֹ‘s Corner” is not the only work where we see Narayan’s excitement towards business activities. Not only many of his other short stories but novels also demonstrate his excitement eg. The Financial Expert, The Guide. The Vendor of Sweets, The Painter of Signs etc. In one of the recent editions of Malgudi Days, Jumpa Lahri wrote in the introduction: “Perhaps Malgudi’s most memorable and trafficked region is the marketplace, filled with fruit sellers and cobblers and snake charmers and knife grinders, all expertly and sometimes desperately cajoling the public for business. Narayan’s descriptions of the marketplace are always fresh, always stimulating….” (Jhumpa Lahiri, 05).

Conclusion

in R.K. Narayan’s short story, “The Martyr’s Corner”, Rama emerged as a successful business man. It is only through his sharp business acumen, discipline and perseverance he developed this successful business model. It is almost imperative to say that he had no clue about the business and management theories. But, as his business was successful, we are bound to say that he had followed the basics of business theories, though unknowingly. Perhaps, it’s the academic study of successful businesses like his, that modern theories are developed.

Works Cited:

Lahiri, Jhumpa. “Introduction." Malgudi Days, Penguin Books, 2006

Lumen Learning. "What is Marketing?". Retrieived on May 30, 2023: https://courses.lumen-learning.com/wm-introductiontobusiness/chapter/marketing-defined/

Narayan, R.K. “The Martyr’s Corner”, Malgudi Days. Chennai: Indian Thought Publications, 1996.

Narayan, R.K. “Author’s Introduction”, Malgudi Days. Chennai: Indian Thought Publications, 1996.

Wikipedia. "Marketing Mix." Retrieved on May 30, 2023: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market-ing_mix

About the Author:

Dr. Ruchi Agarwal holds the position of Assistant Professor in English at Sahu Ram Swaroop Mahila Mahavidyalaya, located in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh. She successfully completed her Ph.D. research in 2005, focusing on the works of the American dramatist, Eugene O’Neill. Dr. Agarwal's scholarly contributions extend to publications in reputable books and journals. Her academic pursuits primarily revolve around the realms of Indian English Literature and Modern British Literature.