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Note: Kuthalingam is the name of a person in Tamilnadu from whom I learned an important lesson, so I named this model in his honor.

I had reached out to a number of digital marketing agencies for strategic advice and budgeting on a B2C financial product. The consensus was this: SEO is the best way to go. Keywords indicating intent to save and invest cost around Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 per click. And there is no guarantee of conversion – as it depends on the attractiveness of the brand and product over other competitors.

There were also many other complementary suggestions for A / B testing promo content, landing pages, and call-to-action methods. The more you spend per day, the more data you get and you have to tweak your tests and experiments almost every day.

This fintech startup was new to the digital marketing game. There were more established players with deeper pockets. No wonder the cost of related intent-based keywords was this high.

Who is Kuthalingam?

Kuthalingam is a tea factory worker in the Annamalai range. He was responsible for running the dryer (where the green tea granules go in and out as black tea powder). I was an electronics engineer and worked for a process control and automation company. My project was closed Design and implementation of a microprocessor-controlled temperature control system for the dryer.

We had thermocouples to measure the air temperature at the dryer. digital electronics and a frequency converter that controls the fuel that goes into the dryer (it was a coal-fired dryer).

It was a textbook case of the so-called PID control (Proportional-Integral-Derivative). The software components are proven. They take the difference between the setpoint and the actual temperature; You put it through a PID algorithm; The output determines the speed of the drive that controls the fuel. and the system learns and adapts quickly to give you perfect control.

Except that it wasn’t. Every time we took control of the dryer in the automatic process, there were large temperature fluctuations – sometimes +/- 30 ° C, which seriously affected the quality of the tea. On the other hand, Kuthalingam – with his experience – provided +/- 3ºC control most of the time and +/- 5ºC sometimes. The company needed an automated system as the goal was +/- 2 ° C, but more importantly, Kuthalingam would often say goodbye and when he was away the quality of the tea was inconsistent.

I was there for three months, adjusting my software, watching the temperature graphs, and spending sleepless nights. But to my frustration (and the frustration of my supervisors and managers up there in Chennai) every attempt has been a colossal failure.

During these three months I received guidance and support from really experienced people in process control and automation within the company. The problem, however, was that none of them had any experience with coal-fired tea dryers. This tea factory was the first factory around the world to try automation (1988).

One day after three months, my manager suggested removing the control and just doing an open-loop experiment. Change the speed of the coal conveyor by a small delta and watch the reaction.

When I performed this experiment, the answer initially seemed to be zero. Regardless of whether I decreased or increased the speed of the fuel feeder – regardless of the delta change I made – the temperature just stood there unmoved. 30 seconds … 3 minutes … 15 minutes … 30 … minutes. No change. No Answer.

Then how did Kuthalingam manage to achieve +/- 3ºC control?

I made a leap of faith and wrote software to capture the temperature graph and record it over a long period of time. And to my horror, I found that even a small change in the conveying speed affected the temperature, but after – hold your breath – 70 minutes.

No wonder the PID algorithm went crazy.

We found out why Kuthalingam was better. He predicted climate changes based on cloud cover, looked at the coal supply – (large lumps versus powdered coal, dry coal, wet coal) and knew intuitively where to adjust the fuel feeder speed to get its desired temperature.

And he was in no hurry to get results. And when supervisors and managers yelled at him for taking the temperature down by -5ºC or + 5ºC from the set point, he didn’t panic and didn’t change the conveyor setting. He made some very minor adjustments, sometimes none at all, and urged his supervisors to relax. “Don’t worry … it’s under control”. For although he was illiterate and illiterate, he had a better understanding of the sluggishness of this dryer than anyone else.

Management soon realized that a software-controlled system was not the solution – better consistency in the quality, size and humidity of coal. After a few years they converted to a gas oven.

The Kuthalingam model

• What happens if your customer’s decision cycle is not a few minutes but a few months? Still want to bid on expensive keywords that show intent? Is this the most efficient, inexpensive way to build your funnel?
• Is there a way to entice people who never considered your category early on, hire them and promote them over long periods of time, build a brand, wait patiently and convert them?
• Can the inertia of your target segment be used to your own competitive advantage?
• Is there some way to play the long game and win as your competitors back office teams are burning money to hit their daily, weekly, and monthly numbers (and citing their competitors to justify their spending)?

Of course, that depends on the product. And the Decision-making journey that your target customers go through.

One thing Kuthalingam taught me is this: It is always helpful to know what the open loop response time is for anything you do before making the next change.

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)