Saturday Apr 20, 2024
Saturday Apr 20, 2024
Tuesday, 20 May 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Indian elections
From this perspective, I found the Indian elections in the last three months one of the most amazing marketing campaigns that the world has seen. The beauty of the election campaign was that even after six to eight months of aggressive marketing, there were five different exit polls that announced the probable consumer outcome (in this case voter behaviour), but none of them were able to accurately predict consumer behaviour towards how many seats that the BJP or Congress would win.
This indicates the complexity of situation and how even the most up-to-date research techniques find it hard to predict consumer behaviour. For instance the extensively discussed exit polls predicted 286 seats for BJP and 123 seats for Congress but the reality was 339 and 59 respectively, which was more than a 15% variance that does not augur well in the world of business.
Brand marketing
If I go back to my brand marketing days in the South Asian region, consumer research can predict consumer behaviour on the propensity of purchase to around 3-5% which sometimes gets questioned if the sample size is reasonably representative to the market size. However, I guess when it comes to a brand of toothpaste, tea or soap, a consumer’s mind is somewhat fixed to the brand that one purchases given that it is for personal consumption or use. Also, one can change one’s mind and switch to a competitor brand as the purchase cycles are short.
In contrast, when it comes to elections, the purchase cycles are around five to seven years and the attributes evaluated are more complex in nature. Hence, predicting consumer behaviour can be tougher. Be that as it may, let me share my key pick up from the Indian elections that concluded last Friday.
Modi lesson 1: TV still works
Even though digital media is very popular and has been a buzz world in every interview that a political candidate shared, the insight is that TV still was a great influencer to move consumer behaviour. In certain rural areas of India, there were situations where a typical home did not have furniture in the sitting area but a TV was there. In fact there were two TVs – one for the parents and one for the children.
Modi and his team indentified this early in the campaign and focused their main message on the TV medium so that there is a strong emotional connection in the living room of a home.
Parallel to Sri Lanka: Even though there is hype on social media, the fact remains that companies/brands still spend almost 80% of their marketing spend on traditional media channels like TV, radio and press. In fact TV takes the larger chunk. This just reflects the consumer behaviour patterns in a given home and the type of lifestyle that exists today in the modern world.
Modi lesson 2: Credible product
In 2002 the riots and the alleged linked to this incident dented Modi’s brand image. He distanced himself from the media and until he was given a clean sheet from the Supreme Court in 2012, Modi focused on rebuilding his brand.
In 2009, when the economic downturn was in play, Modi focused on developing Gujrat to be the economic powerhouse of India at a GDP growth rate of 10%. The partnership with the private sector in driving the economy was commendable. The best case in point is Tata setting up the nano tech company in Gujrat.
Parallel to Sri Lanka: Do not be in a hurry to launch products into the market. Do the research not only on the product but also shelf test, drop test to check packaging and more importantly the distribution trial so that product quality in different weather conditions can be tested. It is only when the confidence level is right on the product that the launch must happen. Do not allow competitor actions to force one to launch early to the market and then have to face the embarrassment of doing product modifications and take back stocks from trade post launch. Minor changes can be done on the run but not major changes.
Modi lesson 3: Right brand values
With the focus on developing Gujrat to be a model state in India, what Modi achieved in the last five years was strong brand equity in the minds of people. The brand values that began to be associated with the Modi brand was decisiveness, progressive, aggressive but strong governance, modern due to being tech savvy, humorous with good communication.
The brand values that surrounded brand Modi were exactly what India wanted; the logic being the architecture was slap-bang with the challenges that the environment threw to Modi – fight corruption at every level, women’s safety, protection from terrorism, international diplomacy and the ability to tell the real picture to the people. I guess the 339 seats won and 63% of India voting for brand Modi is a testimony to the fact that brand Modi had the right values that the people wanted.
"Marketing a political candidate for high office today calls for testing the best marketing strategies available at a given moment. The Modi campaign sure took the shine off Congress. Many pick-ups for Sri Lankan marketers"
Parallel to Sri Lanka: When it comes to marketing a brand the task is somewhat easier given that the values we want the brand to be wrapped around can be orchestrated. To be effective, use qualitative research and map the values of the competitor brand with which the consumer will want to be associated. Thereafter develop the communication so that over time a sharp identity can be carved out in the target consumer’s mind. The key point to note is consistency of communication. Ad hoc work must not be done.
Modi lesson 4: Divergent team
When Modi decided to contest the 2014 elections he first put together a team of professionals. There were 200 in number. This included graduates from the best universities from India – IIT and IIM. Some resigned from top jobs at JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank, Mckinsey, Boston Consultancy Group, etc. A former UN Mission Chief for Africa, a member of the Citizen for Accountable Governance (CAG), a statistical whiz kid, a digital marketing strategy expert called Hiren Joshi from the RRS, a top campaign planner for TV, radio and press from London.
The overall media planning was by the marketing communication company Madison with advertising veteran Piyush Pandi also on the team. Burson Marsteller and Dentsu India, a Japanese publicity company, was also part of the team powering the Modi team. I guess this is what it takes to manage a brand and its campaign when wanting to get the plum job in the largest democracy in the world.
Parallel to Sri Lanka: It’s important to have a cross functional team and if need multicultural based on the brand marketing task at hand. I remember once in my career of marketing we had a 12 member team that was across the world and being part of a global launch of a national campaign. It was in fact a virtual team. The key thing is that based on a task to be achieved marrying of a skill set must be done.
Modi lesson 5: Bold objective
Modi was very clear on the objective. He wanted 272+ seats. The bottom up exercise had been done from the grass root village to a town and then to a state how the numbers stacked up. I guess a clean sweep of zero to 10 seats in Delhi is a classic case in point of the planning that had gone in by the team. Modi had travelled 300,000 km, attended 5,187 events and 477 rallies in 25 states, coming in contact with 230 million people on the votes of 800 million.
Parallel to Sri Lanka: It goes without saying but the implication to marketers is that based on a gains and loss analysis study, clear ground-based targets must be set on a regional architecture. The overall volume growths of a brand must be broken down to the region and then to households and usage rates. With this kind of planning comes clear communication objectives on SOV, awareness level and TOM awareness levels, which in turn can be moved to trial and repeat purchase scores. I remember my boss making me churn out these numbers when I was handling the Dettol brand. It’s traumatic but that’s what it takes. The brand twice won the best Marketing Achievement Award.
Modi lesson 6: Phased-out campaign
Something very interesting was the phased-out campaign that Modi executed. The initial phase was targeted at making the senior party members to get Modi to be the face of the BJP campaign. The second phase was getting every Indian to associate brand Modi with their lives. The third and final phase was the rallies attended and driving the campaign at grass root level for behavioural change at the ground end.
Parallel to Sri Lanka: Even for the launch of a product, we do this. At the initial stage is stocking and correcting the distribution especially if it’s a national launch and distribution complexities exist. Then comes the communication break out and making consumers experience the brand. Thereafter it’s tracking the retention rate. I guess if clear KPIs are not there in each of these phases, it will be tough to achieve success in the market place.
Modi lesson 7: Take the high ground
Modi and his team decided that taking the high ground was important if brand Modi was to touch every Indian. So what they did was to feature Narendra Modi in global media like Economic Times, Time, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, etc., so that every Indian was swelled with pride. He allowed competitors like Rahul Gandhi to play the national media which was dogged by corruption scandals. Modi’s high ground strategy was very successful as Indians get motivated for inspirational communication that gives leadership to the world. In fact Gujrat has many communication campaigns on the theme first in Asia, biggest in India and largest in the world themes.
Parallel to Sri Lanka: It’s important to understand the power of CSR. It must not be done just to add to the brand equity. It must be done to drive the category and take leadership in the industry. For example Dialog driving connectivity of every Sri Lankan is a case in point, as is Lifebuoy taking the high ground on germ protection to the whole family.
Modi lesson 8: Innovate with technology
Another milestone of the Modi ideology was that he wanted to give India a first in digital communication. The first hologram 3D technology being used by a political candidate was by Modi. So whilst he addressed a particular state on stage, simultaneously he used hologram technology to talk to remote areas of the state that made the brand live. Some say that after the address Indians wanted to go behind the hologram screen to check if Modi was actually behind the screen.
Parallel to Sri Lanka: This might be a challenge but with Pinterest, Instagram, Tweeting, YouTube and many other ground-based marketing communication techniques one can experience a brand in novel ways. I guess it will be worth pursuing new options so that on technology one can take first place in market leadership.
Modi lesson 9: Why digital media?
Modi and his team drove digital media very strongly to reach the young voter. A classic was when he took a selfie when he met his mum after the victory and hosted it on the net. To date he has 2,263,673 followers on Twitter and 3,598,400 likes on FB which just explains the detailed planning and execution that has been done.
Parallel to Sri Lanka: Even though traditional media is effective and digital media is very time-consuming from a brand perspective, we have no option but to get into the war of communication digitally. I recommend that we use digital communication more as a feedback loop than just for consumer awareness.
Modi lesson 10: Force competitors to panic
Finally, Modi being a sharp strategist identified that his competitors were very weak on communication. Sonia Gandhi hardly addresses the media. Manmohan Singh is very media shy whilst Rahul was considered young. Given this landscape Modi rode on his charismatic behaviour and made strong impacts on all forms of communication. The challenges that Congress had to react to like scams, governance issues, etc., added to the congress campaign having to move to panic campaigns.
Parallel to Sri Lanka: The challenge in brands is to stick to the strategy even when competitors carry out guerrilla attacks. Especially today at the retail end there is war for consumer attention. The brand that wins is a brand that does not go for panic behaviour.
(The author is an award winning marketer and business personality who sits on many boards as Director in the private and public sector whilst also being attached to the global public sector. He is an alumnus of Harvard University. The thoughts expressed are his own and not the views of any organisation he serves in Sri Lanka or internationally.)
