Page 1 of Strictly Solo
Chapter 1
Mumbai - Office
Naina’s heart pounded as she stared at the blank screen of her laptop in disbelief. She was utterly screwed. In just an hour, she was supposed to give the most crucial presentation of her career to an important new client. But now, her laptop had inexplicably crashed. No blinking cursor, no reassuring hum from the hard drive…just a blank, unresponsive screen. This was catastrophic.
“No, no, no! This cannot be happening!” she muttered, frantically pressing keys, desperate to revive the unresponsive machine. But her efforts were in vain.
The cabin door burst open and her boss, Deborah, a stylish English woman in her late forties, strode in.
“Naina, I hope you’re prepared for the presentation. The clients will arrive any minute. Oh, and am I looking good? I mean, is my gloss too shiny?”
Naina looked up at Deborah whom she fondly called Deby, with worried eyes.
“Deby, I’ve lost the presentation file. My laptop crashed, and I don’t have a backup copy either.”
Deborah’s expression morphed from concern to utter disbelief. “You can’t be serious. This is no time for pranks!”
“I’m not playing a prank, Deby. I’m dead serious. Look!” Naina turned the laptop to show the blackness that filled the screen.
Deborah exhaled sharply. “Okay, call the IT guy and get this fixed immediately.”
“It’s a hardware failure. There’s no way IT can resolve this within an hour. I should have taken a backup,” Naina lamented, admonishing herself for her carelessness.
“This is ridiculous, Naina!” Deborah’s voice rose with frustration. “You knew how crucial these clients are. How could you be so reckless as to not save a backup? I expected better from you.”
Naina stood up, palms flat on the table, her eyes pleading. “Deby, please—”
But Deborah was in no mood to entertain excuses. “No, Naina. I don’t want to hear it. I need that presentation from you, and you’ll figure out how to make it happen.” With that, she stormed out, leaving Naina to gather her wits.
Although shaken, Naina was nothing if not a fighter. She wouldn’t let a mere laptop crash derail her career. Taking a deep breath, she collected her thoughts and decided on a course of action. If she couldn’t use visual aids, she would dazzle the clients with her words and ideas alone.
When the clients arrived, Deborah ushered them into the conference room. Naina followed, her heart still thrumming, but she kept her head high and a confident smile on her face. This was exactly the attitude that had so impressed Deborah when she had hired Naina straight out of university. The young marketing consultant could sell anything—not a single client had failed to be swayed by her innovative ideas. It was this competitive spirit and unwavering self-belief that had earned Naina the‘Best Employee’award for the past few years. Deborah silently hoped Naina would work her magic once again to secure this crucial deal.
After the introductions, Deborah informed the clients that Naina would present their strategies for promoting the clients’new cosmetic line. To everyone’s surprise, Naina strode to the center of the table and switched off the projector.
“Please excuse me, gentlemen, but there’s no need for visual aids here. We’re not discussing robotics, are we?” she quipped with a disarming smile.
The clients seemed taken aback by her brash move but allowed her to continue.
“The traditional way to market cosmetics would be television advertisements. But who has time for TV these days?” Naina tapped her fingers on the table. “The next step could be offering free product samples at malls and beauty events. Not a bad idea, but how many of us actually attend those?”
Deborah frowned, wondering where Naina was going with her contrarian views. But the clients leaned forward, intrigued.
“We visit malls frequently, sure,” Naina continued, “but studies show that nearly 80% of women are there just to window shop. They’ll happily take free samples and use them, but in the end, they’ll go back to their trusted brands that they’ve been using for years. We need to find a way to break that connection and shift their loyalty to our products.”
The clients nodded, seeing her point. One of them spoke up, “That’s what we’re here to find out from you, Miss Naina. What should our strategy be?”
A smile played on Naina’s lips. “A brand ambassador. We could get a famous model or actress with millions of social media followers to endorse our products. When she raves about our cosmetics on her platforms, her fans and followers will be inspired to try them out based on her recommendations.”
Deborah couldn’t hide her grin, realizing where this was headed. It was a modern, inclusive idea that spoke to today’s marketing realities.
“But that’s a huge additional cost for hiring a celebrity ambassador that we hadn’t accounted for,” one of the clients protested.
“Exactly. Celebrity endorsements can be expensive. That’s why the best alternative and approach we want to offer you is to work with social media influencers who have a huge following. They aren’t as costly as A-list celebrities, but their reach is almost equally good, if not the same.”
Her eyes lit up as an idea struck her. “In fact, why limit it to just one influencer? We could hire multiple influencers from all age demographics - a young college girl, a married working woman, and women in their 40s and 50s. And let’s make sure to showcase all skin types too. We can call this the‘Beauty Beyond Boundaries’campaign – BBB Campaign!”
The clients huddled together, whispering among themselves. Finally, one of them spoke up, “She’s on to something. She has a point.”
