Marketing campaigns and product advertisements with specially youth in the mind- the underlying changes

I recently happen to see the new Godrej Cinthol commercial with Hritik Roshan swishing and splashing in the uber cool way. Another ad of Vimal having an old corporate honcho handling over the reins of his company to younger blood, clad in Vimal fine suit is what points the trend of the advertisement is taking in India. May it be Virgin Mobile or the Maruti SX4, all seem all geared up to pamper the youth (read 20-30 somethings) with their offerings. Sprite and Thumps up have already gone that way, following the lead of Mountain dew in the youth centric campaigns.
Gone are the days of a family centric ad for a particular product (not in Toto but you get the hang of changing things). What we are witnessing is the slow but steady shift from the collectivistic thinking patterns of the late 90’s to a more individualistic decision making pattern of the contemporary India. With most of product categories gearing their advertising campaigns centering on the younger crowd, we are in the middle of a definite paradigm shift. We need to remember what Nike and Pepsi did with their campaigns featuring exclusively youth. Be it Whirlpool ad featuring a younger couple (onscreen- Kajol and Ajay) or an HSBC ad focusing on a young leader in the making. And we need not forget the well though campaign of Aditya Birla Group, enticing youth to work for the true Indian Multinational. As more and more youth go to work in the Tier 1 and 2 cities from their hometown/ other cities, it becomes a growing phenomenon of new settlers driving consumption. (More on this later). And with a renewed confidence in sync with a buoyant economy, the youth of the nation is finding flavor with the life style advertisement campaigns which focus experiential marketing as an in built tool.
For example, the HUL- Sunsilk “Life cant wait” campaign focusing on the independent and self conscious young women of today hit the base with its core appeal and emphasis on the self coming first before anything else- a clear indicator of the changing ideologies of today’s Indian Youth. FMCG sector as such seems to be preparing for capturing heart and mind of the youth, and I think many more life style campaigns are in the making from various FMCG majors like P&G, Marico, Henkel, Dabur, ITC etc. The scooter king of the yester years- Bajaj seems to hit the bull’s eye again with its fantastic commercial of the new Pulsar. For saying mildly, it left me awestruck. It hits on the core appeal of youthful exuberance coupled with I-am-the-king of the road mindset. Long way from Hamara Bajaj Campaign!
The Indian advertisement scene is set to witness more unprecedented campaigns, according to me. Consumer Durables majors will be shifting their focus from traditional joint families to a typical young couple. With Murjanis bringing more and more Luxury brands in clothing to India, watch out for more youth centric ads in the media. And automobile sector may just be opening to the change in the buying power of the youth, a long way from a typical family decision to buy a family car.
I may sound way futuristic in my views here, but we can’t just ignore the zeitgeist. We are in the middle of a rapidly changing time. And I strongly feel that marketing is just undergoing a massive transformation.
And results are all too apparent to u, pointing to something more fundamental- priority to Individualism.

IPL- A Marketers dream come true

A self professed expert perspective on the T20, changing marketing tactics and ICL!

Well, we have been witnessing it all here and now. The IPL had started and what a start it has been! An extravaganza of Entertainment and Superstars (both Bollywood and Cricket), combined with a slew of promotional blitzkrieg will certainly go down the case studies’ curriculum of the MBA students, if all this frenzied and high pitched “Great Indian Masala Cricket” format succeeds. It remains to be seen whether this league system, originally lifted from European system of Soccer clubs, fares well in coming 2-3 years. Initial marketing tactics apart, the biggest test will come when the initial hype will die after the current season. After all, the majority of European clubs have a major number of players from the same region and fans come out to support them like anything. With Indian mindset, according to me, it’s all well when it comes to international cricketing rivalry. At least, it can be said with confidence of the local football and soccer clubs who have been out of sight and mind of the general public. But we will have to wait and see how this league format goes through the acid test of customer acceptance and retention in the coming years. My all very best wishes to the format and its success. Lets witness the coming of age of the Indian consumer (no, not audience…as it is a product offering and not really a first class cricket).
Anyways, coming back to the topic of marketing which I love to rant on for hours. The tremendous initial response to the matches and record ticket collections are all indicators of the success of the Marketing efforts undertaken by the professionals of the industry. A lot of billboards and Highway hoardings that one can witness across all the metros is the proof of the seriousness on the part of Marketers of IPL to capture the central piece of the audience mindshare. The official corporate franchisees may have different purposes for owning the teams, but the ultimate winner seems to be the T20 format of cricket getting a new level of acceptance by the audience (as it seems from the initial packed stadiums).
Branding, a very important part of Marketing nowadays for any industry (barring the commodities of course!) in the face of intense competition, IPL campaigns have been successful at this to a greater extent. With a plethora of brand building tools to capture the piece of consumer’s attention and brand recall, ranging from Music Videos to host of merchandising tactic and co branded product launches.
This campaign had shown the full utilization of the integrated marketing campaign for probably the first time for any category of product launch, in any industry. The choice of the Media has been remarkable and the timing of the campaign’s airing could not have been better on most of the Media.
I think that we will witness a whole new experiential marketing and lifestyle branding campaigns from the franchisees of the 8 teams.
The only loser, I feel, is the ICL. It has sure been dealt a harsh hand by both the ICC and BCCI. Formed with a relatively noble purpose of employing the retired and ageing cricketers as well as giving a new platform for the younger players, it has been rendered a poorer cousin of IPL. The trailblazer of the league cricket format deserves a far better treatment than this. BCCI should legalize the ICL and Govt. has to stop the interference and political patronage and favoritism that were so well a notorious activity in the License Raj era. Let it be a free market and may the best marketer with the best product win!

Bodybuilding and contemporary youth

To be precise, it happened circa 2001-02, when me, like most of my adolescent brothers, decided to build big muscles and develop a good physique. There were a lot of ‘powders’ and supplements available in the market at that time. One of my very close friends almost persuaded me to try some magic pills and powder to build muscle quickly. Needless to say that I had almost given in to them, if would not have been for my coach at that time in the gym.
That was my 10+2 standard. After that, I went to Engg College and finally am an MBA. Recently I have started going to the same gym that I used to go earlier. I saw a change in the ‘demographic profile’ of the gymmers there. Majority now comprises of young boys of 13-16 yrs of age. Needless to day that I feel a bit older than what I really am! Neways, today itself, I met a 14 something Salman Khan Wannabe, pumping his way to glory on the bench press. After doing away with that, he came to me and asked about the type of supplement I use. Quite taken aback at his question, I suggested him against the so called ‘powders’ and capsules. He gave me an astonished look like I had created some kind of blasphemy! He told triumphantly that his coach had recommended to him certain ‘creatine’- a form of protein supplement capsules and Mega Mass Muscle building powder. I went over to the coach (he is some new fellow) and asked him about that. He told me quite matter of factly about the rising trend among the teenagers, esp. boys, to build muscles rapidly, without putting in too many efforts. So the era of fast results-less hard work (smart work?) has caught up here too.
Only recently had I seen a lot of TV programs dedicated to the same issue which I today witnessed in the gym. Youngsters have started copying the new sleeker looking Shahrukh, Saif and host of other idiot box churned ramp-model lookalike stars. There seems to be a regular hammering from all kinds of media on the impressionable minds of young boys to build cool bods to attract opposite sex and look cool! Nothing wrong with it, but as with most of the western adopted and locally adapted fads, we Indians tend to blunder here too. I you want to really see this, just visit a nearby Gym and see the 13-19 years old boys hogging the coach over latest supplements and Whey protein diets available in the market. These diet supplements were meant for serious/professionals some years ago. But incorporating in our regular diets is neither advisable nor healthy. Since these trivial pursuits are taking most of the time and mind space of the young blood, I wonder whether they get enough time for sports or other so called ‘old time activities’.
Also, a lot of advertisements have been focusing on the lean-mean kind of macho looks for the males. But someone has to stand up for the fertile minds of young generation getting really spoiled by these provocative commercials. And to add to that, there will be (if not already underway) a tremendous psychological pressure on the plump/baby fat bestowed youngsters, who will start feeling outclassed. It all had already happened in the western country. Teenage anxieties and growing blues just got more complicated. But I am not here for criticizing the establishment or the system. What I want to convey to my younger generation is the importance of overall physical development and mental sharpening in their prime age. As we all know (if not, just Google- whey proteins+creatine+side effects) the long term side effects of these short cut formulas to have a muscular body, there need to be a sense of awareness amongst us so that we can guide our younger brothers/sisters/cousins etc. Also, as with some of the cases I had been personally privy to, youngsters tend to take Steroids once they find even the Dietary Supplements a tad slower!
Only way out seems to me is the awareness of the harmful and long term debilitating side effects of this ‘stuff’. It includes uncommon physical developments, brittle bones, kidney problems and a plethora of other ailments in the later life. Also, once you have stopped working out regularly, the body tends to shrink and muscles slump.
A better way is to play, cycle and run along with some gym activities. In the prime growing age for boys, from 13- 19, there should not be more emphasis on gymming, as muscles and bones are naturally growing and weight-resistance exercise tend to produce counter results more often than not.
Neways, when that same boy comes to me, he sure is in store for a long lecture!

Bollywood and mediocrity

Well, as with economic growth where we overlooked manufacturing for services and agriculture, and are paying a relatively higher price, things seem to be going the same way for our very own Bollywood. Marketing tactics, Complex financial instruments to insure the movies, new age corporatization and vertical integration of the movie making process and state of the art production techniques are all the good things to have happened to the film making lately.
But Bollywood seem to have overlooked one very critical thing in going a la Henry Ford way of churning pot boilers every financial quarter. And that is QUALITY! Yes, with the frenzied mass production of the movies and seemingly mindless comedies and multi starrer non sense dramas, I wonder where exactly is the industry headed to. Take recent example of Race, an overhyped thriller with songs and trailers set to capture the mind space of the consumer (I dare say not audience, as we have been turned into mass consumer per se). On seeing the actual product (rather a commodity I dare say!) I was disappointed to the core, to say the least. I was expecting a decent slick action flick from a progressive looking Bollywood, but witnessed a dud performance and storyline very shamelessly trying to sell its audience a host of dance numbers and scintillating music videos. Well, if the real purpose of such type of movies is to present a CHITRAHAAR, enveloped in some kind of movie scenes, that’s another thing.
I want to ask the producers and the directors of this kind of mindless in your face kind of cheap comedy, mind numbing music videos and very very pathetic acting, that do they really take us audience for granted or what. Or don’t these film makers trust the intelligence of the common Indian audience and think that the majority is still living below the common minimum level of aesthetic and artistic taste and cant appreciate some really good piece of story and acting?
I agree with most of the defenders of the Indian cinema who point their fingers at the mind numbing low quality movies being churned by the Hollywood itself. But they more than make it up with some exceedingly well directed scripted and acted movies.
After all, movies have been the face of the society since the turn of the twentieth century. Raj Kapoor and Akiro Kurosawas of the age are still remembered and cherished for the quality they had produced. Not to talk of the art movies, Alfred Hitchcock, Oliver Stone, Francis Ford Coppolla, Robert Zemeckis, Clint Eastwood, Roman Polanski, Martin Scorcese and Steven Spielberg are among the many commercially successful directors who have been able to capture the breath of audience by the sheer merit of fine art of film making. And don’t tell me that Indian film makers are not capable of such masterpieces as their western counterparts have produced. Satyajit ray and Shyam Benegal have been among the luminaries of the Indian film making.
As one of my Marketing professors very famously used to say, “Indian movies are going the same way that Indian higher education is headed for, in coming decade. With falling levels of the higher education, people will sooner or later start looking for better alternatives as their per capita income grows (I guess that has already started to happen, which many of us very jingoistically claim to be brain drain). And as foreign institutions of higher education sense the potential here (they already have!), they will set up their shops here. It will soon happen. Indian Movies will follow suit with our higher education, with dubbed Hollywood High quality Drama, romance and comedy flicks finding way to the Indian audience’s mind space. (Action already had!)”
Hmm…I think I can extend my Professor’s argument a bit further. As with some of our Institutes of higher learning doing a good work (Count IITs, some NITs, IIMs and other good B schools), all is not lost with our Bollywood too, thanks to a handful of thoughtful filmmakers like Ashutosh Gowarikar, Shekhar Kapoor, Nagesh Kuknoor, Mira Nair among others, along with a couple of highly talented and visionary actor, who really make the audience sit up and think.

Studying abroad for undergraduate/graduate courses- My personal views

It is not uncommon to see a lot of young people gearing themselves up for GRE/TOEFL/GMAT etc. What I, from my personal experience, have seen is that there are two kinds of student categories in India (speaking very broadly). One is the serious bunch of students genuinely seeking a quality education abroad, in some of the best universities/colleges of the world. My best wishes to them. It is the second type- the typical middle/upper class students who just want to go abroad! Whatever socio/cultural/economic/psychological reasons they might have, I want to share my thoughts with some of them here (Blogging per se allows one to speak his mind out, isn’t it!!)
With a lot of foreign students flocking our universities to study here and experience the phenomena called India, I feel really bad for the students who want to go to third and lower rung colleges/ universities and blow a cool 15-20 lakhs of appreciating Indian rupee on their education. I mean, money spent on Ivy league/Oxford- Cambridge is understood, as they are and will remain the Mecca of Quality education for times to come. But as in India, many countries are replete with a lot of forgettable universities and colleges. I had around 19 of my classmates from school studying at those kinds of universities at various point of times. With all due respects to their decisions, what I feel is that there needs to be a rigorous cost benefit analysis by parents and most importantly, students themselves. Is that university degree acknowledged in India? What value addition will that university provide which an equivalent Indian degree cant? Is the money spent worth it?
Now there I have treaded into an uncharted territory, where I am sure to attract a lot of brickbats. To logically solve the issue at hand, let me enlist the reasons for why a particular student may want to study abroad in those kinds of universities:
To permanently settle there. ( A phenomena till lately seen only in youth of Punjab, HP and Haryana, now a nationwide trend)
To escape (for a lack of a softer word) the current circumstances at home and enjoy the period of stay there.
To attain a particular bargaining power in the Great Indian Marriage Bazaar (Believe you me, one of my very close friend told this as his real reason to study in a non descript Canadian University)
S/he might not have done well in the studies till school level and is unfit to clear tougher competitive exams. And since their parents can spend, why not go abroad and study?
To find a foreign job for some years.
Now, the real reason may be different from the above ones or a combo of some of them. Apart from 1 and 5, which seem to be more of a choice made after many deliberations, 2, 3, and 4 seem to me the most absurd of all. Spending hard earned money on those courses which an Indian education will get you for a fraction is what should be emphasized. And for those vouching for the better quality of education in those institutes, think again. More often than not, the quality of education is really bad there. And by that I am not taking into consideration the ‘Hardware’ or the infrastructure of the institution. I am talking of the quality of time spent in real learning and knowledge development. And if not getting any better than here, what is the use of even going there?
In these better times, it is better to stay over here and start a decent, well defined career. Entrepreneurship is no bad option, which can be explored for the money that you would spend on a useless foreign exposure. A decent undergraduate degree combined with a fair amount of work experience, and you are among the sought after job hunters in the market. With a lot of MNC’s establishing their captive units here, they are need of the local talent, not a foreign educated/job exp one.
My views and reasoning may have a lot of weak points in them. But I hope that it may actually help rethink at least a few of my younger counterparts.
More on the details of evaluating the foreign education and comparative analysis later on.