The Third Currency - The Untapped Medium

By: Archan Banerjee

The third currency, something we all know, understand, respect and need but few practice is.

I knew it, I loved it, practiced it cause I have been brought up in that way plus it helped me keeping my calm during stress, but I did not know about its applications in business till some one told me in that many terms.

Like most marketing professional half my time goes in finding low cost or nearly free media solutions that will create awareness for the brand & the product.

Most of my colleagues have already earned as many brownie points as possible on this, by creating web pages on twitter, facebook, redesign the web page etc.

Honestly I never really thought it would help my brand that much, as most brands follow this digital route.

Any way in my search for the best practices I stumbled upon two schools of thought saying the same thing- One of them used the term the third currency I liked it so here it is.

In life, currency for us is defined in three terms 1) material wealth 2) intellectual growth 3) emotional capital.

But what does the third point really mean, in short- It is how we talk/ treat people closest to us.

Some large corporation uses practice like circulating mails on good jobs, no corridor feedback, respecting others opinion, avoid unnecessary rude behavior and back ones team in times of need.

These are the kind of practice which makes a good company a great company; they use the third currency to the fullest possible hilt and lead the way for others.

Funny thing is we all know this, we have been taught this all our lives we all yearn for this and no matter how much we get paid or which brand we work for we all need more of this. And yet this great third currency is used very infrequently by most companies and in fact it's missing in many.

This free currency leads to great word of mouth being generated and does wonder for the brand positioning especially for SME and unleashes a great untapped broadcasting medium from within the system.

Plus imagine the additional impacts of these practices: positive word of mouth, higher productivity, loyalty, idea generation, sense of responsibility and much more- All this and that to free!

Like it's said in the Spartans society 'Ultimately the greatest strength that a warrior has is the man standing next to him, honor him and it will be repaid to you in many folds'.

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*Views Expressed here are personal. The writer can be reached at archanbanerjee@yahoo.com

** Archan started his career in retail sales with AFL, post which worked in the marketing/insights team at Evalueserve.com and at Millward Brown a brand research & consulting firm. Currently he is working with Oxigen Services in digital media division. Archan is graduate in Economics from DU and MBA from Amity Business, Noida majoring in marketing & sales.

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