Priyanka Rai analyses how the harnessing of bias, prejudice and fear has emerged as a smart marketing strategy for political parties in India

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About a quarter of a century ago, the ‘fear factor’ entered the holy citadels of marketing strategy in India, both for luring consumers to ‘buy’ your product and for luring voters to ‘buy’ your political party. Back in the 1980s, upwardly mobile urban Indians were discovering the perils of stress and cholesterol. The home grown FMCG company grabbed the lurking fear of ‘heart attack’ and parlayed it into a pioneering marketing cum advertising campaign to sell the cooking oil brand Saffola. The brand still relies on the ‘fear factor’ to lure consumers.

Around the time Marico was discovering the power of fear, the young whiz kids running the Congress election campaign for Rajiv Gandhi in 1984 were stumbling upon something similar – the cloud of fear and uncertainty that hung over the Indian electorate after the assassination of Indira Gandhi. The 1984 election campaign of the Congress has now become a classic case study of how to stoke fear to win. Newspapers (there was hardly any television back then) were littered with huge ads that talked somberly of India being torn asunder by terror.

The underlying message was: buy Saffola if you want to prevent a heart attack; and buy Congress if you want to prevent a disintegration of India. Arguably, both campaigns have worked wonders for their promoters. And ever since then, fear, prejudice, bias and apprehension have become the standard tools of trade for many consumer brands and most political parties.

Of course, political parties, like consumer product companies, have mastered the art of deceptive jargon that ends up packaging their core message as positive panacea. Here is what the President of the BJP, Rajnath Singh has to say about the core competencies of Brand BJP, “We promise to give good governance, clear direction and inclusive development irrespective of caste, creed, religion and region. We will de-communalise development and we will introduce no communal angle while allotting budgets or discriminate between the populace on the basis of their religious affiliation.”

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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A can of ‘Windows’

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Microsoft is now starting its own exclusive stores to revitalise its branding image. But the strategy is deeply flawed, says Karan Mehrishi of 4Ps B&M

“If it didn’t work the first time, go back to basics,” at first it might seem that software giant Microsoft has got nothing to do with this saying; a recent event has changed perspectives in a big way. For the uninformed, the Seattle-based company is all set to unleash a concept that brings it back to the basic ‘brick and mortar’ model. Soon, Microsoft will launch its very own specialty retail stores across America that will deal exclusively in Microsoft’s product portfolio. For the purpose, Microsoft has hired David Porter as the Corporate V-P for this new experiment. Porter has been proclaimed a wise choice, as he brings twenty five years worth of experience with none other than the retail giant WalMart.

These stores, known as ‘Gurus’, will sell almost all Microsoft products including the Windows series software, Xbox and compatible games. There will be a plethora of Microsoft branded products under one roof and the company plans to bring in more branded merchandise in its purlieu. Analysts see this as a strategy to increase customer touch points and have a branding platform to revitalise the sagging Microsoft brand. The dissatisfactory performance of Vista has been a cause of concern for the software giant and the new retail stores may be used to revitalise this platform. Apparently, the company now feels that consumer association can be accessed only through personalised solutions via a brand specific conduit. Microsoft has been constantly working towards making its brand more effective. The company has lately been working with hardware partners to check flaws in the Windows platform and ways to improve performance. According to Brad Brooks, Corporate V-P (Window Consumer product marketing), “We want to know how customers’ experience not only products, but the company itself… we did our own studies to evaluate not only how our products work for the average person, but how our business works for them.” These stores not only offer the consumer a full range of product portfolio but also guarantee a holistic customer involvement. “Customers have told us they want Microsoft to play a more active role in their technology experiences,” adds Brooks. Additionally, other brand extensions or non-related items can also be used to utilise the full potential of this concept. Also, there is much heartburn in the Microsoft camp over the lead taken by Apple in its brand promotion through a catchy product line-up and zingy branding exercises. According to some estimates, Apple stores are highly profitable and have in fact promoted ‘brand Apple’ better than any other exercise in Apple’s history. Even if Microsoft does not need much direct marketing in its primary business, i.e software, the brand was suffering from the ‘long in the tooth syndrome’. “We must deliver a world-class shopping experience that aligns with the brand promise and our online presence,” says Bill Veghte, Senior V-P (Windows Business Group).

27Shopping experience indeed. But with what? Zune, Windows 7 and Xbox? Or would it be with special movie screenings on the making of Bill Gates or Steve Balmer? Yes, they can provide servicing of computers running Microsoft software, but that’s not an easy proposition, thanks to the compatibility issues that Microsoft software faces with different softwares. If they sell products of a few windows PC makers, they could end up alienating the others. Considering these factors, one wonders how they justify the real estate space and the costs involved. Moreover, other partner retailers of Microsoft are hardly amused, as they would have to compete with the ‘mother ship’ now. Rather than being an act of exceptional genius, this seems to be an inexcusable strategic blunder on the part of the company as of now.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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