A republic is based on equality
of citizens rather than domination of majority over minority or vice a versa.
Modi campaign strategy of direct
attack, commonly used in American electioneering, doesn’t suit a developing
country with a diverse & fractured society. It may win over many semi-educated
urban middle class voters, but it would surely aggravate the fissures in
society. Besides it lacks the potential to benefit the rural voters.
Marketing strategists in India often
sing the paeans of how an upstart Nirma took on mighty MNC brand Surf and took
away a large market from right under its feet. To drive the point succinctly
& with more emphasis, the citation is followed by another case that of
Kwality -Walls vs the rest of India. The
audience & students feel motivated to know the outcome, though a little
bewildered. The victory of home grown brands over the European empires on
Indian soil or anywhere else is a rarity. Both the cases depict defeat of the
behemoth HUL, which continues to be market leader in fmcg sector in India.
Political marketing borrows
concepts, tools and strategies from commercial marketing and apply them to
field of politics. Cornerstone of
political strategy is the campaign theme & communication strategy. The
incumbent & challengers need to craft the political strategy in a manner
that it could attain strategic balance between discrediting the opponents &
creating positive image and goodwill for its programs and leadership. It looks
easy on paper but its complex to design and implement with success.
Campaign theme must be designed
keeping in focus the political agenda and profile of the citizen voters. In a large diverse country like India, one
theme doesn’t fit all, so a political player would do well to segment carefully
and then make a suitable promise to convince the citizen voters to come out and
vote. A great strategy would also require assessment of position of a player in
the total market. A rank outsider can gain by adopting frontal attack strategy
aimed at the market leader or the incumbent political party. But close
competitors must avoid a direct confrontation because usually the lower
positioned guy would lose more naturally. So what can number two do to become
the leader? Go the Avis way, work hard & promise less.
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