The Bharat Nirman Saga and the Idiots Marketing.

Someone wisely said "If you can't blind them with brilliance, then bedazzle them with bullshit..." I don’t know the name of the person who quoted this but I am confident that if this man or women was alive today then he/she would be for sure working with the Government of India.  From past few weeks, there are a series of Ad- Campaigns on “Bharat Nirman” being aired on almost every channel. These campaigns launched by United Progressive Alliance (The ruling political party of India) looks to me something near similar to the “India Shining” campaign launched by National Democratic Alliance (NDA) during their Government dated back 9 years ago. The “Bharat Nirman” campaign just like the Oldie friend –“India Shining” campaign 2004 is aimed at one single objective – the near coming election season. But the name, the time, the ruling party and the growth has changed. The big difference from 2004 is that the Congress cannot help making you believe that everything in this country was brought to you by the Nehrus and Gandhis (I Love Mahatma Gandhi), the rest of India are just passengers who ride their train. The Golden Quadrilateral Highway which connects Kolkatta, Chennai and Bengaluru had posters of AB Vajpayee placed everywhere during NDA’s rule but now they are replaced by Sonia Gandhi’s as if she or her political party has sanctioned the project. I respect Mrs.Gandhi for several reasons but sometimes I just wonder; does she really deserve that kind of attention just because her suffix is Gandhi. I think No. But yes, for sure she is a Woman who inspires me a lot for several reasons. I will discuss that later someday in one of my post. But for today I just want to concentrate upon the “BHARAT NIRMAN” Ads.  I don’t find them relevant today. And If I look at all these Ad Campaigns with the research oriented mind fixed into the top floor of my Body, then it will push me to the level of frustration. Let us talk about it now,

FREE FREE FREE - a 4 letter Word . . . .

Free – a very lucrative word which can hypnotize Richest of the Rich and of course Poorest of the Poor. It is impossible for a person to resist this so called syndrome of Free Gifts, Free Products, Free Services and so on. Now a days FREE is one of the most dependable tool and the widely used idea by the Marketers and Businesses.

Last month, I did a lot of shopping for self and family, and was attracted by the Flat 50% Sale provided by Future Group's CENTRAL Mall. Also in the run were branded outlets like Nike, Adidas, Wrangler, Lee and the list goes long. The Sale attracted me at the point of buying and I ended up shelling out lots of money on buying stuff which I felt gave me a better deal. Once I returned back home and shifted my Brain's gear from Customers to a Marketers, I realized that I have bought so much of stuff which I didn’t require and I perhaps don’t use. I also realized that I had gone to the Mall to buy few T-Shirts for me and ended up buying a pair of shoes, jeans and many such items which I had not intended to. This scratched the inner marketer in me and I was just thinking whether I have gained from the deal or I just got blown away with the wind like many others. Is there anything called “Free” in this Business oriented world??

My post today will deal with few sensible and non sensible views of mine on this so called Marketing Magic Stick used by Marketers all over called as “FREE” .

Marketing Hypnosis......

Yesterday was a great Monday for me, I was refreshed and had a great weekend with my friends at Chennai and returned back to the developing rural land at the place where I work. I was feeling very energetic and the very first thing I wanted to do was to sit in my desk, log on to my virtual world and write something on my blog. But like always I was short of topics. But as the time passed one lady in my office made me think over something very important. She was actually looking forward to buy a Television the coming festival season and was trying to get some reviews and information about different brands. While she was conversing with her colleague about the same, I poked in between (which is my regular habit) and started giving my non-sensible advice.  I asked her which segment of the Television is she buying for which I got a reply saying LED. I advised her not to by LED, instead go for LCD. She said that LED will give a great level of comfort to eyes and wont effect your eye lot. This made me think over it again and again with the following questions :

Barketing is not the right Marketing

Here I am once again with a typical title for my posting – “Barketing is not the right Marketing”. What do I mean by this? What is Barketing? How this term is related to Marketing? And many such questions are the goals for this post to answer today.

Barketing according to me: is a relationship between a dog’s barking and the subject of Marketing.

Today’s marketing strategies have become more of a Barketing one’s which are annoying, irritating and one sided message. The customers are bombarded with so many not so interesting messages about the product and the service of a brand through advertisements (indoor and outdoor). Like a dog which continuously goes on barking for seeking attention of its prospects (the guardians), many companies are following the same process in which they are continuously talking all those goodie goodie things about their products and services to the customers by means of advertisements and promotional activities.

For example: the recently launched advertisements of Vodafone wherein a dog is used to portray the non-stop connectivity, is lame and not to interesting. The school children’s love being shown is not being accepted by the Indian culture which is irritating in nature. Even then this advertisement is continuously being BARKETED to the customers. Vodafone is not the only one; all most all others are continuously throwing the same old stories in their advertisements. People have got bored with Cadbury’s kuch meetha hojaye, because a chocolate can never replace sweets in Indian Tradition (of course it did changed the gifting custom on the festival of Rakhi) but it still cannot be accepted for festivals like Deepavali and Holi.

Therefore there has to be a proper balance between the advertisements and culture and the frequency of such advertisements. That’s where I say “Barketing is not the right Marketing”. Therefore as a marketer should think – “Are we marketing or we just barketing?”.

If the Competition is Barketing you opt for a meow approach. When all the other dogs in the pound are barking, trying to bark louder will only get you noticed for the wrong things. When everyone else is barking you need to do something other than bark. Perhaps you should "meow".

Notice the differences between the TV ads that you don't skip and the ones that bore or annoy you. Make note of those differences and apply those techniques to your own marketing. Do the same thing as you are flipping through a magazine or perusing your mail.

Remember that Marketing is practical, it cannot be learnt from books.

Regards,

Rohit Tiwari