October 2nd is a holiday in India to honor the life of Mahatma Gandhi, he was born in 1869. 'Maha'-'Atma' or Great Soul - the man made great contributions not only in India but to mankind as a whole.

For a man who was able to galvanize an entire nation and then the world, Mahatma Gandhi was probably one of the greatest users of creating good buzz around viral marketing. Imagine the early 1900's - how this man spread his 'good word' amongst people was absolutely incredible.

One contribution very few people talk about in business is Gandhi's credo on the value of a customer.

"A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so."

The important thing to do for marketers is to build use cases around customer scenarios and work to fulfill those scenarios. Having a customer satisfaction program doesn't mean anything if you are going to reflect and react. Consumer concerns can be addressed in near real time, in fact the ideal way to do this is to practise the art of listen-react-reflect-act. And if you do act, do so 'pro'actively.