Classical Political Marketing by Mayawati in UP

By raking up the issue of reorganization of UP Mayawati has created a flutter in the otherwise lukewarm political scene in the state. Wait for her next move with your bated breath. I suspect this is not her final move to set poll agenda for elections in the state.

Only an astute political marketing expert could think of such an effective tactic to control the public mind during elections. If Mayawati has thought up this move on her own she deserves total adulation & congratulation from a humble student of political marketing.  And I am holding her breath for her next move.  Moreover no party would be able to stop her victory march in Lucknow.

Political parties in India do not generally hire professional marketing experts in preference over in house pundits. Globally the situation is entirely different, as no political parties would risk not hiring an expert to run the war room during campaigning. Marketing thrives on new ideas and the war room managers must continually plan, create & launch new communications to influence voters during electioneering.

Mayawati has chosen to ignore Rahul’s agenda and went on to create her own one. This is very smart marketing move. One more such step would be enough to cement her grip on power in UP. Rahul and other opponents of Mayawati must get back to the drawing board and design new marketing programs to give a favorable direction to their campaign.

On the other hand elections in Punjab look like a damp squib already. Same old leaders, with often repeated speeches based on jaded agenda are communication redundant stuff that has no meaning for the citizen voters. Incumbent party is hell bent on proving their ‘SEWA’ whereas challenger is buys releasing tasteless adverts in print media.  Citizens are bored due to absence of ‘newness’ in the campaign. Election advertising in Punjab feels like another episode of Ekta Kapoor’s sari-serial.  Such a situation is good omen for the incumbent party as people do not come out to vote them out in large numbers. Congress in Punjab needs to learn from Mayawati or hire the same political marketing expert if they want to return to power in state. 

Election Advertising in Punjab: Same wine in same bottle!

Political parties have revved up their election juggernaut once again in preparation for the early 2012 assembly elections in Punjab, India. Print media has always been the mainstay of election publicity and has once again seemed to occupy the centre- stage once more. Parties new election managers have searched for previously used tactics with a hope to get new success. You cannot succeed a second time with the last time’s howsoever successful strategy.  Advertising is a reflection of socio-psychological profile of the citizens.

Once again we are forced to turn pages containing challenger’s party’s rally adverts showing huge gatherings as a sign of strength. Most often readers do not have to stray much to notice a blaring headlines about failure of the same rally. The incumbent party is busy painting the pages with their achievements. But an average marketer would be enough to convince us that old wines in old bottle do not work in marketing. Then why these parties do not pay any heed?

Marketing is about turning a new leaf in otherwise dull scenario. Marketing is about ‘new’. Even Mercedes is forced to reinvent itself every now and then to stay relevant. How could a political party hope to persuade citizens to vote for it if it has old leaders, old promises and old style of electioneering? Congress party in Punjab is smug with confidence of coming into power riding on the current ‘unpopular’ image of SAD/BJP combine. You have pundits pontificating about the reality of change in every election citing historical trend analysis of Punjabi voter. Have the congress forgotten that Haryana has got a Congress government back into power not long ago?

SAD election team is confident of their expertise in voter turnout & management. There is a general feeling that a close knit team of SAD would be able to defeat a disparate team of opposition in election management. Nothing is far from truth. Punjab, likewise global society, has undergone tremendous change. New youthful voters have different expectations from the political parties that have more to do with economic issues as against emotive considerations of the older voters.

Social media would play a critical role in elections in Punjab. And the party which has better online campaign would be able to garner urban support in large numbers. Newspapers do not have same impact as the battle would shift to strategic use of FM radio etc. Therefore a new approach is required that suits new media rather than depending on traditional media and tactics.  Elections in Punjab are going to be a rather boring affair for the masses  as the situation stands today unless the political parties consult political marketing experts to help them be the first past the poll.

Steve Jobs

Whenever I was in trouble in last couple of years, I would listen to Steve rather than pray to God.

I did not know much about the person till I happen to watch the video of his address at Stanford graduation ceremony on Ted.  That particular video left me dumb founded about his ability to articulate his philosophy in a manner that perhaps only a Nobel laureate in literature could do. ‘How to live before you die’ is a seminal statement that proves Jobs’ powerful intellect and persona.

I have shared that video with many students & teachers at various business schools with the sole aim of propagating the views of Jobs about life, loss and living. There are many business leaders who have earned billions by investing in commercial activity but none comes close to the value creation demonstrated by Steve.

Steve’s charismatic strength lies in his ability to differentiate a great value from ordinary. He was a true innovator & pioneer ever to walk on this earth. His understanding of human mind was greater than the research produced by large organizations struggling to fathom the working of human mind. He understood what people desire and he gave it to us.

Steve Jobs is a great marketing guru and we need to understand him better. 

We look before & after

India is home to 15 percent of humanity living on a proportionately smaller piece of land area. An average Indian has only ….of land as compared with the world average of $. The only other country having the population size of India but in possession of 3 times of land is China. Therefore comparing India with China is purely natural & logical.

India takes pride in its democratic set up although this set up has failed to deliver basic sustenance to vast sections of society. People like Anna hazare find many faults with it despite their lack of education & serious analysis. China seems to be ahead of India in almost every sphere including economic, social & political. India despite its economic growth has been unable to showcase any other achievements.

Our population fuelled by zealous exhortations by RSS to majority community has grown to a monstrous level. It has resulted in major structural problems including lower visible impact of economic growth on majority of citizens.  Lack of opportunities in domestic area propels the locals to migrate to greener pastures within India and outside. It creates significant challenges for them and the people living in the areas they migrate to. Unless we check the population on the lines of China there would be no respite for us from diverting resources meant for building India as a super power in 21^st century to feeding the ever growing numbers in Hindi speaking states in India.

People like Anna Hazare think that corruption in India can be handled with enactment of a law against it. Hazare’s belief is like looking for love in an arranged marriage which is also founded on the idea that when people start spending time together they would be forced to like each other, or they must like each other.

Corruption certainly retards economic progress of a nation & it most certainly destroys a level playing field for each citizen. Democracy is predicated on a principle of equality therefore equality before law remains the cornerstone of a robust democracy. How could we be an equal country when LK Advani gets to sit in parliament despite his advocacy for upholding of his ‘Aastha’ that led to demolition of Babari Mosque? No ‘Aastha’ could be given importance over law of the land. An unequal society would always be corrupt despite laws against, because it is founded on discriminatory ideologies.

India is a strange place where cacophony for resurrection of ‘old values’ reverberates more loudly than the desire for a new more meaningful modern future. India is great place for smart swamis who escaped the rigour of education and hard labour by joining some religious organization where they spent time talking to similar people and discussing some old books. They never underwent the hard grind of earning a livelihood and taking responsibility for contributing to economic development of India. But India seems to prefer smart swamis over hard working honest guys.

Hero Moto Corp new identity for the market leader

Hero Honda does not exist anymore; the leader has been laid to rest. In its place there is Hero Moto Corp! Well the inevitable has happened and surely the Hero group must have been working on the transition for longtime. Let’s watch out how the future plays out. But I have few initial responses to their marketing particularly the advertising campaign about the transition.

Like most domestic companies that swear by fortune at the middle of the pyramid the Hero group have seem to target through the new  campaign. Obviously most domestic companies prefer to take the ‘safe’ approach with hope that one day they would be able to consolidate despite fiercest of the competition. I would not recommend such a strategic move to anyone. A new company must inspire new hope and appeal to the segment with potential of early trail. The company seems to be targeting the largest collection of followers among buyers rather than finite opinion leaders.

Hum hai hero… feels like inspired from Tata Steel campaigns. Well they are justified in registering the omnipresence of steel in all walks of life. But the theme adopted by HMC does not suit them, India is a motorbike  country but our per capita is no indicator that all who want a motorbike wishes to feel like a hero. The youth would go for zippier global branding & the domestic players would have to contend with need based buyers those use motorbike for work & transport. Such economy conscious buyers would be contended with other appeals. It seems to me that the Anna circus has had some impact on Hero Moto Corp’s selection of a campaign theme to announce new identity.

Hero Moto Corp campaign in my opinion is weak & would not help the HMC establish itself as a mid market player in two wheeler segment.

Marketing in times of Robust Demand

Indian economy has been experiencing robust demand across board for fmcg goods, particularly fmcg food category. Consequently most companies have begun to ignore their marketing function for the sake of focusing more on procurement & production. Almost double digit inflation in food segment growing demand has confused the producers. You have a situation now that some major established companies may have to face the prospect of substitution by new competition.  It is important for a professional company to invest more in marketing during periods of robust growth to consolidate their position to ward off potential threats.

Outages due to supply constraints are best period for new players to enter market for immediate product trails. You must have noticed that during the cycles of sufficient demand most producers tend to focus away from marketing to focus more on production etc. Such situation leads to a state when not only wasteful leakages of resources in production go unnoticed but more seriously the marketing gets completely ignored. I have noticed such situation facing many food companies in North India. Most companies are in danger of getting seriously hit by new entrants. Therefore such companies must wake up and invest in marketing immediately to have top of mind recall. 

Political Advertising by incumbent parties in UP & Punjab

Majority of political players in office believe that it is their legitimate right to use public money to showcase their achievements thru expensive media campaigns. Moreover they firmly believe in the effectiveness of such advertisements to generate a positive outcome of such campaigns. Being a marketing professional I would not like to argue about the moral & ethical implications of such actions but I have strong objections to the logic of effectiveness of such campaigns.

Most political players would not leave an opportunity to get their names mentioned in media. It flows from the mindset that any publicity is good publicity, and more so, that positive publicity is always good. I have studied many cases of government advertising, NDA’s feel good campaign too, and have reached same conclusion every time that advertisements containing the achievements of government during pre election period work against the interest of the incumbent party.

Election campaigning in Punjab & UP has already broken in the media. One could not miss extended TVCs of UP government singing praises of the Maya government whereas Punjab media is bombarded with achievement of SAD led government. Both the campaigns have already reached frequency levels that begin to build a negative reaction amongst the citizen voters. If both parties continued with their current approach to scheduling it is certain to damage their chances of victory.

Over publicity of incumbent party could deliver a bigger blow to its victory chances than a sustained campaign by the challenger. Incumbent political players in both UP & Punjab would do well to drastically cut their campaign frequency and also adjust the scheduling strategy to get a positive outcome