Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance’s strategic disaster of Repositioning:

The latest victim of Repositioning seems to be Bajaj Allianz life Insurance. They have changed their tagline from “Jaise Jarurat waise insurance” to “Jiyo Befikar”. The original tagline mentioned about ‘customised offering’ by Bajaj Allianz. The new positioning mentions about the trust factor which has an emotional appeal.

Trust factor is the most important criteria in Insurance products. The problem though with this new positioning is that the other companies have already made this appeal in their positioning. ICICI Prudential’s tagline ‘Jeetey Raho’; SBI Life’s tagline ‘With Us, you’re sure’; Birla Sun Life’s tagline ‘muskurate raho’ and HDFC Standard Life’s tagline ‘Sar Utha Ke Jiyo’, all mention about the trust factor with an Emotional appeal.

This is where Bajaj Allianz has made a mistake. It was the only company which focused on the product with a practical appeal. It differentiated itself explicitly from the other companies. By doing this new positioning with an emotional appeal, it has lost out on the differentiation.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs- Self-Actualisation stage seems no more relevant:

The most widely spoken HR theory, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory, has lost some of its relevance to a certain extent. At least that’s the way it seems from the furore that has been caused in the corporate world with regards to executive compensation which the government will decide. This is in context of the financial institutions which have taken help from the federalUS government after the financial crisis hit everyone

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs talks about the needs’ hierarchy starting from the basic needs to safety needs to belonging and love needs i.e. acceptance in society. Majority of the population in the world falls in any of these 3 categories of needs. The next need is of self-esteem and then there is the topmost need of Self-Actualisation. A person who has reached the self-Actualisation stage does not think of money as the motivating criteria. This looks good in academics but not in real life.

Financial institutions in the US are in need of competent people who can get these troubled institutions out of the problems. The HR department of these firms and the government is finding it difficult to hire people since these people want higher salaries and bonuses without government intervention. They also are averse to these jobs since the pay compensation will be scrutinized but the media thread-bare and the government will also not give them a free hand in working the enterprises out of its hole. The media will discuss these issues in the living room of the common man who works for the real economy on the floor of the factory. The financial managers are already under fire for the crisis and if the common man finds out that they are still being paid high salaries, it will result in problems for the government who is bailing out these institutions with the tax payers’ money.

The point now is why are the people who have crossed 45-50 years of age and amassed huge amount of wealth wanting salaries, knowing well that it is the fault of people like them who are responsible for the crisis. To be a bit on the blunt side, the greed of these people. These people are in the self Actualisation stage yet they want money. Why do they not take it as a challenge to turn around the banks a la Lee Iocacca who turned around Chrysler? If they are successful in this, automatically they will get there bonuses and there premium will increase for there next job. Moreover the common man will get his confidence restored in the financial system and the people who run it.

Apart from this; the two most recent examples which defy the self Actualisation stage are of the Satyam Chairman Ramalinga Raju and former NASDAQ Non- Executive Chairman Bernard Madoff. Both these people were billionaires and respected in society.

Ramalinga Raju had a successful company and was almost a deity in his home town ofHyderabad due to the vast amount of opportunities he created for the locals. The Rs. 7000 crores scam was completely uncalled for. He had everything going for him.

Bernard Madoff was a rich a fund manager of an asset management company and respected in society. There was no need for him to run a Ponzi scheme to the tune of almost $50 billion.

Thus the needs theory has lost its relevance due to a certain type of people, for whom; money is the end all, be all. Maslow of course need not be blamed for his theory; it’s just that nowadays people behave totally irrationally.

DISH TV Advertisement - totally unimaginative:

There are ads which are not good, there are ads which are bad and the there are ads which cannot be described, simply because they are so irrelevant. There aren’t any adjectives to describe those types of ads. The latest Dish TV (ZEE Entertainment Enterprises’ DTH arm) ad starring Shah Rukh Khan falls in the last category mentioned above.

Please can anyone tell me, what on the face of this earth means “Wish Karo, Dish Karo”? The ad does mention about 200+ channels and satellite giving signals. There is nothing which will be of direct benefit to the consumer. It does not talk of differentiation, or positioning, or doesn’t compare itself with competition. It does not focus on cost or any other special attribute of Dish TV although 200+ channels is a feature, but it isn’t compelling enough a feature to warrant that the customer buys a Dish TV only. The customer is perfectly susceptible to the sales pitch made by the salesman. Here in lies the problem.

Dish TV was the first DTH TV in India and for a long time, it did not have any competitors. Yet it failed to show the advantages that DTH offered. It did not take the first-mover advantage. It went on its own pace. It did not do aggressive promotion and wanted more players come in to create awareness.

The latest commercial is a totally unimaginative. It uses a child in the ad. Children aren’t the target market and neither are they influencers in the purchase of DTH. They do not know the difference between cable TV and DTH TV.

Overkill of Reality Shows on MTV:

MTV India was known for the Crazy antics of the two Cyrus’, Broacha and Sahukar, the rap of Nikhil Chinappa, bubblyness of Shehnaz treasurywala and a host of other Video Jockeys (VJs) who anchored the different music shows. Currently MTV is synonymous with the bald twins, Raghu Ram and Rajiv Ram, who rule the roost as far as content of programming is considered on MTV.

‘Roadies’ was the first reality show on MTV. It was an instant success. Raghu was the face of Roadies whereas Rajiv was always behind the scenes, far from the prying eyes of the media. They both made 5 successful roadies seasons. During Roadies 6, Rajiv surprised everyone by his appearance i.e. the virtue of being Raghu’s look alike. Roadies’ season 6 was a success. By the time, Raghu had become so famous that audiences watched the selection round of contestants more than the actual Roadies show. His attitude, brashness, and aggressive demeanor are loved by the viewers especially when he rips apart the contestants. It isn’t about the sadistic pleasure for the viewers, it’s that way he slowly makes them confess things and then cross questions.

They made another show, MTV Splitsvilla whose 2 seasons were as successful as Roadies. Currently both the twins are producing a new show, MTV Connected which deals with the chemistry of twins. They seem to have a winner on their hands with this show. It is more since they have Raghu and Rajiv along with Nikhil as judge. The problem though seems to be of viewer fatigue. Raghu is all over the place on MTV. The reality shows have Raghu written all over it. ‘Expect the unexpected’ symbolizes the thinking process of Raghu. Therefore too much of similar stuff cannot be a good thing from future content point if view for MTV.

‘Unique Content’ is necessary on television in India at this point in time to be successful. Monotony should not set in. we can see what happened with the ‘saas-bahu’ series. They had to be pulled off air. Rather late according to me but atleast it’s off air, for good.

After this show, Raghu should take a long hiatus from MTV. This is the only way viewer fatigue can be avoided. Even if Raghu works backstage on a show, his imprint will be felt by viewers. It wouldn’t be a surprise since he is the one responsible for creating a ‘Cult’ of Roadies in India. Wearing that Roadies badge is considered an ultimate achievement in adventure.

Viewers should yearn and crave for Roadies. No one understands this psychology than Aamir Khan who does just one film a year. TRPs will shoot through the roof once new Roadies show will be announced after a long gap.

Care should be taken by MTV producers to rest the hen which lays the golden eggs. An overkill of Raghu would do more harm than good in the long run.

Scooty Streak- “the Riding Experience”

The Priyanka Chopra advertisement for Scooty pep mentioned a bit about the driving experience of bikes for girls when she said in the tagline “why should boys have all the fun”. The new ad for Scooty Streak takes the concept further in a much pronounced way about the pleasures of riding a bike. It tries to make girls ride a bike for themselves rather than riding pillion. The positioning thus seems to be the “riding experience” for the target market of young and unmarried girls. This is proven from the last line of the ad when she says and I quote “chalane mein aaye itna maaza toh peeche kyu baithe” (unquote).

The ad tries to change the behaviour of girls where they like to sit pillion to there friends. It is a way of empowering the girl and makes them feel equal to boys (not to say that girls are not equal but here they are stating it explicitly and challenging them to ride their own bike).

However a small glitch in the concept of the ad is that it seems to have bee inspired by the BMW campaign of “the ultimate driving machine” where BMW positions it as an engineering marvel and a car which should be driven by the owner and not chauffeur driven. Though the difference in the Scooty campaign is that the have not tried to show the engineering side of the bike, rightly so.

The ad serves its purpose and only time will tell how successful the bike becomes. But the execution and content seems just about perfect.

Sustaining Employee Morale During Recession:

When you treat your employees well, they will treat their customers better (this not only improves the employee satisfaction and morale but also the customer satisfaction)

The simplest way to improve morale would be to tell them that they need not worry about their jobs and that it is secure. But for this, you need to make a list of employees who you surely want in your organisation irrespective of recession.

How this can be done??

1. Personalized e-mail form the CEO asking the employees to feel secure about their future in the organisation.

2. Telling them that the company does not believe in cost cutting by slashing employee salaries. And Empowering them by asking them for suggestions to do cost cutting at which other avenues.

3. Communicate as much information about the organization as you can to all of your employees, regardless of their position. Throw any notion of “need to know basis” out the window and give them all the info you can about every aspect of what’s going on. This would include discussing the financial position of the company, present and the future

4. Talk to them one-on-one about their role in the organisation. Tell them that they are an important cog in the wheel of success of the organisation. Make them feel that they are Indispensable to the organization E.g. When an employee completes a project, handles a difficult customer, or comes up with a solution to a problem, tell them, “I just don’t know what we’d do without you! We are so fortunate that you work here!”

5. Chart out a career path for them in the organisation. This will make them company loyal and feel secure as well

6. Appreciation: nothing can give a boost to employee morale more than appreciation from his senior and that too in the presence of his peers. E.g. During staff meetings, lead rounds of applause for individual and group successes that have taken place since the last meeting. Here, a non-cash compliment gives more boosts than mere handing over cash reward. And since non-cash benefits cannot be quantified, so there is no question of employees comparing and feeling there ahs been a bias

7. Give a hard-working employee a new responsibility or ask them to head up a project or task force, or to evaluate a new idea and provide feedback. This would make them feel that they are required in the organisation

8. An informal workplace where the hierarchy is immaterial. A conscious effort can be made by the HR department to make everyone feel equally important by removing hierarchy.

9. There can be no better time to invest in employees. Cross-functional skills can be given by training since the job gets redundant and not the employee. The experience of the employee can be used at other place which gives flexibility in the present and so also in the future.

10. By doing this, the focus can be more on work in a profit centre by shifting them from a cost centre

11. Providing positive leadership: leading from the front and setting an example. E.g. Vikram pandit, Citibank CEO taking just $1 as salary and no bonus so that there need not be cut in employees pay

12. Financial planning: finance employees will have intractions with the employees and do their financial planning regarding savings, expenses and investments

13. Acting as fund managers: Treasury dept. can act as fund managers for the investments of the employees which can be pooled together. This though will be Optional

14. Increasing the notice period from one month to three months. This may seem negative but what we are telling the employees that even if they are laid-of, they have a cushion of salary till they find another job

15. Also having a talk to employees who might be sacked that the HR dept. will search jobs for them with other sister concerns or vendors wherever possible. This will tell the existing employees that they are being cared for and looked after.

Conclusion: the way an organistion treates its employees in tough times , says a lot about who stays with the company in good times

Happy Dent makes you happy!!!!

An advertiser has to walk a tight rope when it comes to showing exaggeration in the advertisement since it can backfire and the customers won’t accept the product.

There is an exception to this though and it is the happy dent whitening gum advertisement. Exaggeration has never been so cheerful, adorable and charming.

The exaggeration started from the buffalo ad with Dr. Bhatavdekar where he compares the teeth of two buffaloes, one with yellow teeth and other with pearly whites due to the happy dent gum.

The next ad was of the photo shop where a person flashes his teeth which are so bright that they do the work of flash for the cameras. The exaggeration is quite creative and funny too.

Then it was the setting of the maharaja palace where everything was illuminated, not by lamps, but by the pearly white teeth of his servants (the human right would have taken objection for such a depiction but even they say the lighter side of it) right from the street lights to the garden to the entrance gate to the dinner table of the maharaja.

The latest ad features elephants with glowing tusks which light up the forests against a back drop of a rural setting where villagers do not have electricity.

These types of ads not only act as clutter breaker but people actually are on the look out for a new and creative ad. The problem though with this scenario is that the creativeness of the ad overshadows the product and people just remember the ad and not the product on display and thus the ad fails to deliver what is expected of it i.e. sales of the product.

But the bottomline is that the ad has caught the fancy of the people and it should result in sales of happy dent. What can we expect in the next ad, a crow with pearly white beak? That would be quite a contrast, isn’t it?

RCom GSM ad featuring Hrithik Roshan:

The latest Reliance Communications (RCom) Ad for its GSM enabled cell phones featuring Bollywood superstar Hrithik Roshan fails to create any impact. I am not sure if it would result into Sales for RCom. 

We will analyse the ad based on certain parameters: 

Creative content: Not at all

USP: not mentioned

Positioning: not mentioned

Target market: there doesn’t seem any target market at all.

Differentiation: nothing

Recall factor: No 

The ad content of “relive, remember, recall and respect” is an emotional style of execution but it isn’t anything more than that. The ad doesn’t break the clutter at all. There is nothing worth remembering in the ad except for may be Hrithik. 

If you compare it to the Vodafone Zoozoo ads (the comparison is inevitable), then the ad pales in comparison. The Zoozoos charmed the audience and have bought into limelight the Value-added-services of Vodafone and clearly positioned them as VAS providers. 

The RCom ads don’t have any of these things. Moreover all the other telecom players such as Airtel, Aircel, Tata Indicom, and BSNL advertised during the IPL. RCom, knowing its history was conspicuous by its absence. 

The strategy that they seem to have adopted is to be the sole advertiser during the World T20. The problem though is that they cannot stop the advertisement by these telecom players on other TV networks. 

The other problem is that the IPL is an Indian competition. For any match, some part of India would be watching the match as against the World T20 where India has just 7 matches maximum and that too only if India reaches the final. The IPL has 59 matches. The comparison is just not on. 

The ad should focus on the 3G aspect which it just mentions at the end. Why not make an ad specifically showing its 3G compatibility and readiness. More so since it is the first 3G enabled GSM-ready network. It straight away gains a first mover advantage over Vodafone, Airtel and other GSM providers. 

The objective of the ad should be to focus on the 3G aspect. The differentiation has should be clearly presented. The only silver lining could be their Brand Ambassador Hrithik Roshan. His fan base and versatility as an actor adds a personality to the Reliance brand. 

Expectations from Dr. Manmohan Singh’s Government:

Reform: (v) make changes in (something) so as to improve it

All economic and political pundits on NEWS channels are so optimistic about the new government at the centre. According to them, the government is free from the communist burden, and hence they are going to take some hard decisions regarding reforms in some of the key sectors. I hope the government doesn’t flatter to decieve now that it has got a strong mandate for governance. There is this game of prophecy being played with all these experts on television egged on by NEWS Presenters. They seem to be playing “If I was the PM”, “If I was the Finance minister”. The same questions are asked to the same experts on different news channels.

I think I need to join in this game and have some points written regarding the same.

The most pressing matter at hand for the govt. is to revive the economy and get India on the growth path. This is easier said than done primarily because India’s performance is linked to the global conditions as India isn’t decoupled from the developed west.

Priority sectors need to be earmarked by the govt. as the first step. The list would consist of Insurance bill, pension reforms, Infrastructure (roads, railways, aviation, shipping and power), reforms in Banking, education and telecommunication.

As soon as the election results came out, the following Monday, the Equity markets jumped by 20% and the market had to be shut for the day. the euphoria was due to the election results of a stable govt. for next five years. But this upward movement can be stopped if some sudden changes are seen in the western developed world. The rating for UK has been downgraded due to there critical fiscal position. A similar case can be though of for the US. If this happens, we do not know how the financial world will react and how will our markets react. However in all this euphoria, the fundamentals have not changed. So it is better to be banking on the fundamentals rather than the ‘sentimental premium’ and the feel good factor.

Let us start with the requirements in the Infrastructure sector. India seems to be primitive, a sort of an exaggeration, compared to China in infrastructure when we compare our cities with Shanghai, Beijing among others. Although China's villages are in very bad state compared to our but there growth is fueled by industry. India’s growth, on the other hand is fueled by agriculture and industry alike. Imagine if India becomes equivalent to china in industry, the Chinese cannot compete with us in agriculture, and then India would truly be an Asian tiger prepared to take on the world. We also have the added advantage of English which the Chinese don’t have. Skilled labour in the form of engineers who can do innovation which the Chinese cannot boast of. China can only imitate others, it cannot innovate.

Roadways need to be tarred in the interiors for efficient movement of goods and services. Shipping and logistics have been such as weak area for India. In spite of having such a long coastline and boasting of being the largest peninsula, we have Dubai, UAE as the International port in the region. A port development authority needs to be setup to expedite the matter. If we make the western coast of India i.e. Mumbai and Gujarat, as the international port, India can stop the potential attack on this area from Pakistan due to political and economic compulsions from the world.

The job opportunities would be so large for the Indian economy. This isn’t possible immediately but a roadmap for it to happen in the coming 5 years is needed especially since the govt. is free from any political or coalition pressures.

Same issues are for the aviation sector. The previous aviation minister, Praful Patel was chiefly instrumental in starting the process of improving the India airports and the infrastructure with improvements in the Mumbai and Delhi airports. The MIHAN cargo hub at Nagpur should be built on a war footing for its impact to be felt on the India economy soon. Development of regional airports should be high on the agenda too. New airport at Navi Mumbai to supplement the international Mumbai airport is an immediate necessity. If this is fructified India can have its own F1 track near Mumbai. This would give a boost to the Indian economy year on year.

Just 5% of the Indian population travels by aeroplane according to the pioneer of low-cost carriers in India Capt. Gopinath. This is due to the dearth of infrastructure i.e. airports in all cities. If this 5% could increase by another 5% in the next 5 years, more jobs will be created and efficiency and effectiveness of Indian business will increase.

The golden quadrilateral project of connecting the 4 metros and some other important cities by roads started by the NDA govt. hasn’t been completed in the 5 years of the UPA govt. Is anything needed to be said in this case…

The railways have seen a surprise turnaround by the charismatic Lalu Prasad Yadav. It has become a case study in some of the premier B-schools in India and abroad. We have reached here, but sustaining it is necessary. Railways are the veins of the Indian economy and if they are kept in good shape, India will continue with its growth story.

To do all these infrastructural work, it requires massive funding and the burgeoning fiscal deficit due to the stimulus packages announced last fiscal isn’t making things easy for the finance ministry. S&P has already downgraded India’s sovereign rating. Thus a plan has to be chalked out to keep a balance between growth and increasing fiscal deterioration.

Banking sector: The financial markets expect Banking sector reforms which includes foreign banks increasing there stake in Indian banks. The reason for this wish is that this will increase the capital inflows. The govt. won’t have to spend on it will be financed by private capital thus reducing the fiscal burden. The rationale in this case seems a bit incorrect because India can anyways build up capital from the country with the huge savings. Moreover the capital in developed countries has to flow to the developing countries if they want handsome returns.

The present downturn has resulted in mass exodus of money which primarily has been FIIs from the stack market. Some FDI which was to be invested has been postponed just till the downturn nears its end which will happen within the next two quarters especially since some big ticket reforms are on the anvil with the govt. free from the left’s shackles.

The India PSU banks and even the private Indian banks have done well in spite the downturn because of the strict restrictions regarding the conditions for lending by the RBI. There isn’t a hurry to allow foreign banks here. Rather this is an opportunity to strengthen the balance sheets and asset base of the Indian banks. All major banks in the US and Some in Europe have taken govt. help in sustaining themselves. So why should we open up when there isn’t an immediate need to do so.

If the six associate banks of the state bank merge to form a single entity, it will have a customer base to rival foreign banks. It would be a mammoth entity to take on any foreign bank if and when they come. Imagine if the reverse merger of HDFC bank and HDFC takes place into HDFC bank. The only reason it isn’t happening as of now is because the asset base of more than Rs. 50000 crore (conservatively speaking) of HDFC will be subjected to CRR and SLR which would amount to almost Rs. 5000 crore kept with the RBI for no interest and hence no returns on it.

The pension bill if passed will allow the pension money to be invested in the capital markets. This should be done in a conservative manner. Initially through debt instruments such as corporate bonds followed by the equity markets and the currency markets.

Power sector: the govt. wants the economy to grow by 8-10%. How is it possible if you have power cuts in the industrial belts? Some of the companies have to shut shop for a three day weekend owing to shortage in power.

How do you expect that Indian agriculture will lead the growth story if there isn’t electricity to pump water from the irrigation facilities i.e. if they exist in the first place .

Power projects take 3-5 years to generate electricity. It is the most urgent need to look at power generation.

Telecom: India is second only to china when it comes to mobile penetration. In India, about 400 million people are connected through mobile phones. This leaves a growth potential of about 60 plus crores if they have the paying capabilities. This sector too has infrastructural problems. There is lack of telecom towers compared to the total customers. This leads to lot of pressure on the exiting infrastructure and hence connectivity and clarity of voice problems ensue. This problem is more pronounced in the congested metros where there is high population density.

The 3G spectrum allocation auctions have been going on for more than two years and yet they haven’t been finalized. This has resulted in a heavy loss of money for govt. treasury. The auction process needs to be expedited immediately.

Broadband services also lack due to infrastructural problems. Internet connectivity improves the quality of business decisions and the efficiency. This is amply clear from the ITC’s e-choupal initiative for the farmers. The farmers get the best possible deal for there harvest and can even hedge there positions with respect to the market. This shows the wonders IT can do for an emerging economy to sustain itself and grow exponentially.

Education sector: reforms in the education sector means throwing open the doors for foreign universities to set shop in India. This will not only change the education system in India but also make behavioral changes in the perception and outlook towards research which forms the bedrock of a developed economy.

Post-graduation courses need to be liberalized towards the open markets and need not be subsidized. There is enough funding from banks to finance the tuition fees of the needy and deserving candidates.

Mobile Telephony: It’s Impact on IPL !!!

You must have seen Indian cricket team captain MS Dhoni walking down a caricature aeroplane in an advertisement during IPL 2.0, for a telecom service provider from south India who has just now entered the most congested market, Mumbai,. He talks about how he is in contact with his friends through Facebook at the click of a button on his cell phone when on an overseas tour, how he shares pictures with them in a similar same way.

Imagine you are sitting at the Bull ring (Wanderers stadium, Johannesburg) and discussing about the IPL through social networking sites such as Facebook, Orkut with your friends in the UK, keeping your friends in India who are in there offices, updated about every run scored through micro-blogging on Twitter; and at the same time chatting through gtalk or yahoo messenger with friends in the US who don’t have access to SET MAX. Isn’t it similar to being with your friends in four different continents in real-time? Wouldn’t it be so much fun to be the source of information to your friends at the click of a button on your cell phone? You think I am kidding, right?

I am not. This is the advantage of mobile telephony made possible by the 3 G technology. Mobile telephony is a type of value added service provided by telecom service providers for people to be in constant touch with your friends and peers. Just activate the internet through your GPRS and be online 24*7. You will never miss any information happening around the world if your friends too have there internet accessible and you can have a ball of a time through these facilities. The world isn’t just getting flatter and a smaller but its going digital too. All of it made possible by the mobile technology. 

This is from the perspective of the individual whose world revolves around the ubiquitous cell phone which includes just about everybody now. 

Let us look at what it has done to commerce from the industry point of view. 

Gone are the days when employees in office would call home to ask about the cricket score or get in the corner cabin with a radio and hear the commentary. Now you have the cell phone which has substituted the encyclopedia and gives you update to-the-minute from any part of the world on any topic under the sun. How can cricket not be a part of this in a cricket crazy country? 

Marketers have been quick to understand the impact of the third screen (the first two being TV and PC) and the role played by Screenagers (they are the youngsters who are constantly in front of any of the three screens at any given point of time). What better place to experiment than the carnival of cricket IPL which has been described by some media pundits as ‘Cricketainment’. 

The infamous fake IPL Blogger gained lot of publicity. People visited the Blog through there cell phones. The ‘Miss Bollywood’ contest required viewers to send SMS and vote for their favourite contestant to win. It was a huge success. SMSes were pouring in from India.

Each innings asked a question about the performance of a batsman or bowler or team. The voting had to be done through the IPL website. This was a strategic move since this resulted in viewers visiting the website and also accessing the website through their cell phones. To stimulate the use of cell phones, this was done. They could have just asked to sms their votes but this wasn’t done. 

The ‘predict & win’ contest too was a good marketing tool but unfortunately due to government concern that it encouraged betting, the plan was shelved. It can be started in a different way next year and I am sure that the marketing team led by the maverick marketing genius, Mr. Lalit Modi would find a way out of it. 

The cell phone can be used even as a DTH or IPTV in future as WiMax implementation takes place soon in India. This has to be preceded by infrastructure for broadband and the allocation of 3G spectrum to the service providers. Reliance Communications in planning to show the T20 World cup matches on the cell phone. I am sure it is going to be a huge success 

Widgets could have been used in the cell phone to update the cricket enthusiasts of the IPL scores at a nominal cost. The sporting merchandise which brings in handsome returns to the franchisees should have been easily available on the internet for people to view in the form of screensavers or wallpapers so as to stimulate demand. For some special exclusive items, the option should have been to buy it online from a cell phone only. This would mean that only the affluent people who use the high-end phone would be able to buy it. Thus you could have charged them extra and projected it as a premium brand. 

However there a certain small constraints to mobile telephony: 

1. High cost of 3G enabled cell phones 

2. High cost of accessing the internet on the cell phone 

3. Slow speed of internet access 

High cost of cell phones cannot be down very soon but with 3G being implemented, more and more people will use it and this will result in more volumes of phone being sold. Thus prices of phones will come down. Second constraint too in a similar way will reduce prices as more and more people use mobile telephony. The third constraint is an infrastructural constraint which will be solved as Indian telecom sector grows. If these issues are overcome in the next year, then there will be increase usage of mobile telephony. 

I think IPL and Entertainment on the Big screen and Television is going to drive mobile telephony in the coming months. Mobile telephony is in a nascent stage in India and hence the growth potential is infinite.

Waiting for IPL 3.0, bigger and better!!!

“Green shoots”- Natural or Artificial:

Ben Bernanke, the US Federal Reserve Chairman has said that he can see some “green shoots” in the economy i.e. some positive signs of the economy reviving and coming out of the negative growth it has witnessed since last 12 months. 

The US equity markets have rallied for the past week. The equity markets of some emerging markets such as India too have seen a rally. The month of May saw India’s benchmark index, Sensex, go northwards by almost 3000 points 

But it is largely driven by sentiment about the stability of the new government and expectations of strong and quick economic reforms. More so due to no ‘left’ pressure this time and les number of allies supporting the government.

The green shoots in the economy are good indicators but they are due to the effects of them massive fiscal and monetary stimulus that governments all over the world have injected into the economies. Thus it seems that the green shoots are Artificial rather than natural. Yes, it is an indicator of recovery but once it gains momentum, the stimuli need to be looked at and the government and central banks should exit from it. The recovery needs to sustain itself on the basis of fundamentals. 

A slow growth is much better than an artificial growth by stimulus packages. Too mush should not be read into the data of consumer confidence index in the US and numbers of industrial outputs. The effect of the meltdown is still felt on the Main Street. The Wall Street seems to be recovering. However the people responsible o move markets are few compared to those on Main Street. And as George Soros once said “Collective irrationality moves the market and the market in turn reinforces that perception” 

So we should not get carried away by the green shoots. Be prepared to take some strong and unpopular steps which would be beneficial to both, the Main and Wall Street. Short term exuberance will do more harm than good 

Origin of paper money

During the early day of human civilization, Barter was the system of trade. There was a basic flaw in this system. E.g. I have 100 kg of rice which I can exchange for a one room house. But if the counter party, who has a one room house, wants wheat, then there is a problem. Either I have to search for a person in need of 100 kg rice in exchange for a house or find some method in which exchange takes place. This resulted in the introduction of common mode of payment in the form of common currency. People could exchange this common currency for goods/ services. The next question was what will be the common currency. The currency should be a commodity, equally divisible, equally valuable to everyone and its value shouldn’t change depending on who owns it. 

Over a period of time, gold was the commodity which suited everyone and it became the common currency all over the world. 

As civilization developed, banks were created where people deposited there gold. The banks gave this gold as loans and earned profit and returned it in the form of interest to depositors. This was a very efficient system of monetary usage. But as economies evolved, they faced a problem of boom-and-bust business cycles primarily in the US which was a capitalist system of society. 

Let’s look at how things happened in the early part of the 20^th century. As banks gave loans, business developed, more so due to the industrial revolution. At a particular period of time, the supply of goods/ services exceeded the demand. The entrepreneurs defaulted on their loans i.e. they could not return the gold resulting in losses for the banks indirectly affecting the depositors. Due to this people spent less resulting in a reduction in the GDP. As the scenario changed slowly, demand picked up and demand exceeded supply. The industries started working well again and the economy flourished. 

The central bankers were thinking of a solution to avoid the boom-and-bust business cycles. The solution was to have perennial flow of money into the system so that businesses would have inflow of money for business and consumers to would have it at a cheap rate so that they can spend more. But this was not possible in case of gold since it cannot be manufactured artificially. Paper money was the answer to this problem. Paper money could be printed to keep the flow of money into the economy at cheap rates. Thus they introduced paper money equivalent to an ounce of gold which could be printed. 

This excess liquidity and flow of money into the system resulted in inflation and the money found its way into the stock market, assets like housing and agricultural commodities. Speculation made the asset prices go northwards creating a bubble and we had the Great Depression of the 1930s. The socialists and the communists blamed capitalism for this depression and problems the world over. Ironically, the reason paper money was created was to stop the recessionary cycles but this resulted in capitalism system taking a beating. 

To overcome this problem, the gold standard was overthrown and we had the common reserve currency in the form of the US Dollar at bretton woods in 1940s. This was done under the stewardship of the two great economists of the time, John Maynard Keynes and White Dexter. 

A similar thing has come to haunt us since last year, 2008, after the housing bubble in the US crashed and along with it, big banks such as Lehman brothers which went bankrupt and some others which had to be saved by government intervention. Ben Bernanke, the present Federal Reserve Chairman, was on the board of the federal reserve when free market defender Alan Greenspan as the Federal Reserve Chairman, reduced the interest rates at an all time low for the same reason as before 1930s, to try and stop the recessionary cycles by free flow of money into the economy. 

However the present crisis isn’t due to availability of easy money only. The Complex Derivatives which were described as “financial weapons of mass destruction” by legendary investor Warren Buffet also played a major role in the crisis. They were directly responsible for the Systemic failure due to the exposure of major investment banks and other financial institutions such as hedge funds, pension funds among others to these toxic derivatives. 

The concept of securitization i.e. Originate-to-Distribute (OTD) means transfer of risk from those who cannot afford to those who can afford. The concept is valid and it is a very good financial innovation but its implementation has not been truthful. Loopholes in the laws and regulations or rather the lack of regulation have been exploited and they were bound to fail. 

Both these attributes responsible for the crisis i.e. easy money and derivatives can easily be reigned in if there is political will and prudent policymakers like Dr. YV Reddy, the Governor of RBI who at the cost of being called a conservative and old fashioned, did not allow Indian banks to trade in these type of exotic financial instruments. 

Thus there is talk now of going back on the gold standard or the Special drawing rights (SDRs) by the International Monetary fund (IMF) as the World’s Reserve Currency. The US will obviously object to this and try to use its political and monetary clout over the smaller and emerging nations and thwart it from happening.

This however seems the right time to have a change in the world system of currency. 

3P Elasticity:

3P Elasticity:

 All marketing mangers have trends and plans about the price elasticity of a product. But do they think of product or place or promotion elasticity. I am sure they thing but it isn’t much of a consideration for there plans since price is the factor which produces the maximum elasticity. 

We will have a look at these three types of elasticity and can it be measured. 

PRODUCT ELASTICITY: 

Changes in physical type i.e. Style, Colour, Shape, and Form: these cosmetic changes are influencers for buying FMCG products, cars and white goods and other consumer goods 

Changes in features: this is a major influencer in cars and white goods because features differentiate the products of different brands 

Technology changes it is of influence for technology products. Changes are successful if the early adopters are satisfied with the changes 

These changes can be due to Innovation, Adaptation or Imitation by the manufacturer/ Service provider 

How can this elasticity measured by the company? Elasticity by a line-extension or brand extension can be measured. But if the product is an innovation, then it is not possible since the product will not have a precedent or history of sales to measure against 

PLACE ELASTICITY 

This is of prime importance for customers for whom convenience is the differentiator between competitors.

E.g. fast foods such as Pizzas, Burgers and restaurants who provide free home delivery residential areas near the restaurant’s vicinity

Should exclusive distribution be increased to selective distribution and selective distribution extended to intensive distribution? The factors needed to be considered apart from the cost, which I am assuming here, are going to be considerable.

Factors like the type of product, product life cycle; objective i.e. is it to have market share or profits maximization 

PROMOTION ELASTICITY

Should go all out and do promotions in all types of media? Or should it be selective media? Should it be continuous scheduling or flighting or pulsating? 

This depends on the objective to be achieved. Is it informing the customer or persuading or reminding?

Thus the elasticity impact is to be measured based on the scheduling and the types of media used. Different companies selling the same product will use different combinations of this. Elasticity impact can now be measured 

Sales promotion elasticity can easily be measured. 

Public Relations exercises are an unquantifiable promotion and there impact is not directly measurable. Thus its elasticity impact too cannot be measured. But PR is a continuous exercise since it is for the company as a whole and not for a specific product/ Service. So elasticity in this case need not be considered

Methods to determine the budgetary allocations for advertising:

Methods to determine the budgetary allocations for advertising: 

1. A percentage of sales 

2. Fixed amount 

3. Comparison to competitors 

4. Depending on Objectives 

1. A percentage of sales       

Pros: 

Problems of over advertising or under advertising will be avoided year-on-year 

Ad spend will be consistent

 Cons:

If the profits decrease, you decrease the ad spend and vice-versa

The problem here is that you are not clear about the cause and effect. Is the advertising driving sales or is it the sales driving advertising?

The sales reduction is due to other factors. Reducing ad spend is barking up the wrong tree. It does no good. It just reduces expenses in the short term. 

If you decrease advertising spend for lack of sales, by not advertising, you are hampering even an outside chance of sales picking up 

A downturn or recession is the time when you need maximum advertisement to stimulate sales and to differentiate yourself from the other competitors. This method pours cold water on this logic 

Historically brand managers have realized that a downturn in the economy is the best time for advertising since competitors reduce ad spend and your ads will get more ad visibility with less clutter. 

Consistent ad spend though good, is a problem because if you are not considering the external factors in consideration in your marketing strategy, it becomes difficult to survive. The Strategy has to take the competitors into consideration. 

What if the competitor has deep pockets and he takes up all the media space? The prospect will be exposed to only your competitors’ products. This will exacerbate the situation for your product 

2. Fixed amount every year

Cons: 

Strategy cannot be done without taking into consideration the competitors 

This is the most preposterous of methods to arrive at the budgetary allocation for advertisements 

3. Comparison to competitors:

Pros: 

Keeps the competition at bay and in sync with the external conditions 

Less Ad spend cannot be given as the cause for lower sales by the marketing manager since it is in equal amount to the competitors 

An Equal attempt and opportunity to inform or persuade or remind the prospect about the product. Advertising doesn’t give the competitor an advantage 

Cons: 

It doesn’t look at your strengths i.e. financial muscle 

Decisions are dependent on the competition and not by your own understanding of the market or customers 

Cost structure not considered. Are the margins equal for all competitors? 

4. Depending on Objectives

Pros: 

This is the best method of arriving at the budget for ads spend since it takes into account what are the objectives of the organisation. Without objectives, there can be no strategy 

The objective depends on the PLC. Whether it is to inform or persuade or remind or reinforce the prospect about the product? The budget value changes for each objective 

It also considers the external factors of competitor ad spend 

Cons: 

It is subjective since there is no benchmark 

Suggestions: 

Ad spend should depend on the competition i.e. whom do you think as competition.

Is it product form or product category? 

During times of recession or downturn, you compete with the generic competitors and budget competition as well. At that time, the budgetary spend has to change

Indian Consumer Behaviour: Rational or Irrational?

Let us start by defining rational behavior. Any decision taken logically and with prudence is rational. In emotional parlance, you think with your mind. Its exact anti-thesis is irrational behaviour where you think with your heart. It defies logic and is completely guided by ‘feelings’. Thus what is it that marketers should focus on, rational or irrational? 

How are the marketers supposed to know who is rational and who isn’t? And as we will see further, it is also about when i.e. the rationality and irrationality differs when buying a certain types of products. Theoretically we know that B2B customers are rational whereas B2C customers are irrational (this is generally accepted and true to a certain extent). We will focus on the irrational aspect as it is difficult to predict and manage for the marketers.

Rational customers behave irrationally when it comes to brands. This is truer when the brand in consideration is of a product which the customer can show off to others or flaunt it. The product is more to show the other person the style of living or make a fashion statement.

E.g. A shirt, trouser, shoes, watch, glares, the type of coffee they drink, the type of restaurant they go to, the type of beverage they consume etc. 

If the brand name isn’t going to be visible, then the customer doesn’t consider too much of a difference due to brand name, it becomes a commodity where he buys it from the nearest shop at the lowest price. Only the filthy rich people go for branded stuff in this case. E.g. Adidas Boxers, Victoria Secret lingerie etc. 

For a housewife, the brand of the microwave or the refrigerator or washing machine would matter so that she could flaunt it to her neighbour. But to the man of the house it doesn’t matter. For him, the laptop brand would matter, whether the TV is usual CTV or a Plasma TV hanging on the wall of the Drawing room. 

Consumerism and a fetish for materialistic things have seeped in our psyche due to the availability of international brands and high disposable income. However it is changing a bit due to the present downturn which has made life more difficult for the marketer, as people have become price sensitive. So now the competition would not be just direct competition between similar products but between the budgets of the person. E.g. a family vacation costing Rs. 40000 or a plasma TV worth the same amount.

This is called as Budget competition and more has a more pronounced impact during a downturn when a person spends cautiously and is thrifty. 

Conspicuous consumption is the term which sums this all up.

There are 3 types of customers:

1. Responsive customers: These customers respond to your Sales promotion or Advertising.  But Push strategy works better in this case. The customer is looking for Value-for-money. There is no brand loyalty, no liking or preference. The want is influenced by the cost or the quantity in case of soaps, shampoo, toothpaste etc. obtaining these customers doesn’t cost much to the company. But they cannot be kept loyal to your brand. And keeping them would cost dearly and it isn’t worth the cost-return trade-off 

2. Anticipative customers: they are similar to responsive customers but the only difference is that they postpone their purchase and to wait for any offers from any company. They too are not brand loyal and look for value-for-money. E.g. they always wait for annual Diwali Sales or End-of-Season sales etc. 

3. Loyal customers: As the name suggests, they are loyal to the brand. They go looking out for the bran in the store. Sales pitches by salesmen do not have any impact on them. Advertising plays a key role here. The Pull strategy works in this case. For a competitor, it is very difficult to change the customers’ preference and change loyalty.

Bajaj-Renault-Nissan low cost car:

Bajaj-Renault-Nissan low cost car to be launched in India in Early 2010

Issues Analysis: 

1. Rajiv Bajaj, MD, Bajaj Auto wants that the car should not have a Renault or Nissan name though it is a joint venture between the three companies. According to him, when Bajaj had launched it motor bikes with Kawasaki-Bajaj Brand name, they were not successful to the liking of the company. But when Bajaj went alone with Bajaj Pulsar, it was a stupendous success. 

This is a clear case of attributing the wrong cause to the effect. Pulsar wasn’t a success due to Bajaj brand name. It was a success because people liked the styling of it and bought it. They realized that the performance of the bike is also very good. This resulted in positive word-of-mouth publicity for the bike and it became a super success. He point is that Kawasaki- Bajaj the previous brand name wasn’t responsible for the failure of those bikes, rather it was the performance. So the cause is wrong. 

2. The other problem here is that it seems a comparison of apples to oranges i.e. bikes to cars. 

Bajaj manufactures scoters. It was an organic transition to bikes since the Indian Demographics were changing towards young people who wanted bikes. 

Moreover a four wheeler is a product which Bajaj is not known for and it has never manufactured. So it needs Renault –Nissan brand name to make a mark. 

3. Rajiv Bajaj wants to focus on the Safety attribute of the car.

This could be a perfect positioning since Tata Nano has already positioned itself as the lowest priced car. The safety aspect can be showed in the Ad through safety tests and there presence of Air-bags which no small car in India has at the moment. 

4. Mass customization can be tried for this car. The Indian customers have never experienced it and thus can be a novel idea. This will allow them to increase the price of the car by giving additional features such as upholstery, car accessories etc. By announcing free of cost services, it can act as sales promotion, which is an important factor considering the price conscious customers who are the target market for the car.

Private labels:

Private labels:

 Pros: 

1. Low cost of production since no formal setup of a company 

2. Minimal distribution costs 

3. Product development possible in a better way since purchasing pattern easy to measure 

4. Price elasticity with regards to price conscious customers easy to measure 

5. Most effective for price conscious customers 

6. If the product is a Commodity, then it favours the private label 

7. No advertising expenses 

8. If Sales pitch is an influencer in purchase of a product, then private labels will succeed this is especially true of White goods and apparels although not incase of FMCG products 

9. Customization: customization is possible for a retail store more than it is for a branded product manufacturer. E.g. if in the North of India, housewives prefer thick oil in their food in the form of ground nut oil or Sunflower oil and South of India prefers thin oil in the from of coconut, then the retailer can keep more of that oil which is preferred in a particular area. The Branded product manufacturer too can do it but on a lesser scale since he would have to put both type of products. 

Cons: 

1. The perplexing question is what will make people try out the product which hasn’t been advertised and hence customers do not know about it 

2. Brand conscious customers will not be interested in the product. This is especially true of White goods. With FMCG products or Apparel it may be possible, but very difficult with White goods 

3. Difficult to convert users of competitors’ products to your products since there is no Pull effect 

E.g. If a house-wife likes Aashirwad Atta from ITC, she will not even like to buy Pillsbury or any other brand, let alone a private label, unless the price differential is too high. The private label retailer cannot persuade her to buy the product which a competitor like Pillsbury will be able to do, through advertising

4. Even more Difficult is to convert non-users to users.

E.g. A middle aged man using Shaving cream will not convert to Shaving foam unless he is made aware of the product features and benefits through advertising which obviously a private label will not be able to do 

5. The reach of the product is limited to the number of stores of the retail store.

E.g. Vijay Sales product has reach only in the places where Vijay Sales store is located. Unlike the branded products which normally have Intensive Distribution through its own Dealers and multi-car Showrooms. So the point here is that Private labels cannot be thought of as direct competitors although they would take away a share of market. But the manufacturer cannot do much except for Brand Building and using the Pull Strategy. 

6. After-Sales Service may be a problem if the product has been sold in far-off areas. The cost of personnel visiting there would be more for a retail shop than it would be for a manufacturer 

7. R&D department may not be there. So innovation in product should not be expected. 

8. Attracting talented individuals in the marketing department would be difficult since it will not be a company. 

9. Retaining them would be even more difficult 

10. There is no Brand loyalty, no brand recall and highly susceptible to competitors products 

11. Word-of-mouth publicity doesn’t happen since the customer does not tell his neighbour or his friend that he purchased a private label product from a particular retail store 

12. Early Adopters should have been the primary market for private labels since they look out for different types of products to try out. But it is exactly anti to them since private labels do not have anything new to offer to them and it is sold on price differential 

Mute Advertisement!!

Silent Advertisement!! Can it break the clutter?      

An IPL T20 Cricket match lasts 210 minutes and in between these 210 minutes, the viewer is exposed to approximately 1080 seconds i.e. 18 minutes of advertisements. If you consider the average ad time to be 20 seconds, then you will be exposed to 54 advertisements only.

In spite of so less number of ads, can you tell me the various ads you viewed?

I bet that apart from the Vodafone Ads, you will not remember too many of the other ads.

What is the reason for it?? Had it been a clutter of Ads then it would have been understandable but out of just 54 ads??

 The reason is, the Ads cannot attract the attention of the viewer and even if they do, they cannot hold it till the end of the ad. Copywriters are continuously striving to unravel the secret as to what is it that attracts the viewers’ attention. The ads do not have a Recall value nor is the ad useful in either Informing or Convincing or Reminding or Reinforcing the prospect about the product/ service. What can be done so that the prospect sits up and takes notice?

In a TV ad, both, the Visual and Aural stimuli are stimulated and people have got immune to these stimuli to a certain extent. How about an Ad on TV which stimulates just the Visual aspect? i.e. no sound when the Ad is being telecast.

 Imagine the prospect watching TV and suddenly the Sound goes off but the TV is On. Will he not suddenly look for the remote to check for the volume? When he finds that it is perfectly alright, will he not be interested in what is being played? In this way, the ad has been able to break the clutter and differentiate it among different ads and most importantly, it has become successful in catching the attention of the viewer.

 After this stage, it is upto the ‘creative copy’ of the ad which can take it further and hold the prospect captive till the end of the ad.

 An option could be to make the character in the ad speak through sign language or through his expressions which will make the customer try to understand what is being shown. Sheer Inquisitiveness will get the better of him and make him look at the ad.

 To avoid monotony once the ad has been understood, and to continuously engage the viewer, multiple ads can be used at certain frequent intervals.

With the type of ads currently aired, this experiment would be a risk worth taking.

Management and Marketing in politics

Things which can be learned about Management and Marketing from politics. 

Quest for the formation of 15^th Lok Sabha at the centre in India

 The political parties are the Players (Competition) in the Indian Economy. It is a type of two way fight between the two National parties, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Indian National Congress (INC) [Dominant Players]. These two, along with the other regional parties (Niche Players e.g. Shiv Sena, AIADMK, BJD among others) are the Products in the market and the Services they provide differentiate them from others. 

The hundred crore plus Indian population is the target market for all the political parties who intend to ascend the throne at the centre i.e. have their government at the centre.

The target market cannot be more heterogeneous and fragmented and clustered than it is in this case.

This type of a fragmented market (consisting of poor farmers, small businessmen, students, big businessmen, young working class i.e. the Real economy, the Main street and the financial markets i.e. the Virtual economy, Dalal Street) having valid demands and sometimes capricious is difficult to convince by bringing them on a common set of ideas

The two dominant parties cannot on there own, get the majority in parliament (high market share) and they need the help or regional players. Thus they have to forge alliances. The alliance is United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in case of INC and National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in case of the BJP. This alliance though has to be formed based ideology of each party (in terms of marketing, Strength, Weakness and Core competency derived from the Services offered). There has to be no cultural mis-match and the service delivered as an alliance has to be more than what can be delivered individually i.e. Synergy has to be achieved

Considering the present election results, the question being asked is whether UPA won or the NDA lost? Is it a vote for stability?

About the UPA:

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and the Farm loan Waiver were the USP of the government in its last term. The turnaround story of the Railways by the railway minister is taught in management schools. The nuclear deal with the US was also a success.

The failures were National Security and the accusation that the government is being soft on terror. The ‘creative tension’ (quoted by former RBI Governor Dr. YV Reddy) with the RBI on some Monetary policy issues. Some issues with the Left parties (Communists) were also problematic.

Let us look at some of the considerations in this election:

1. No USP for the services offered by neither alliance, UPA or NDA:

This was an election without a single core issue. It means that both the alliances did not have an Augmented Service for the market. The catch was that any alliance which bought up an issue would have won. But unfortunately, neither alliance did this.

Thus it isn’t understood whether UPA won or the NDA lost

2. Positioning:

For the first time in around 2 decades, the INC announced the PM candidature in the form of incumbent Dr. Manmohan Singh (MMS) in its manifesto. The NDA had LK Advani (LKA) as their Prime Ministerial Candidate. The NDA tried to make it a presidential type election in the US where the elections are fought on the basis of candidates. They tried to make it a man-to-man type of an election.

This was preceded by an onslaught by the opposition where they infamously called Dr. Manmohan Singh as the ‘weakest’ Indian PM.

The error which the NDA did was, trying to project Mr. Narendra Modi (NM) as the future Prime Ministerial Candidate mid-way through the elections. This was a crisis of identity for the party and even the electorate. They did not know the clear leader. Plus both of these personalities are poles apart.

LKA symbolized Babri Masjid demolition and a Hindu fundamentalist (the word may seem a bit harsh for some people) whereas NM is a pro-business and for economic development of the region. He is chiefly instrumental in Gujarat being the place of which has got maximum FDI and even major Indian Industries. This can be proved by the swift handling of the bureaucratic hurdles in bringing Tata Nano to Gujarat after its exit from Singur, West Bengal. Although NM has been accused in the Godhra Riots of 2002, it is yet to be proved and chances are that he will be exonerated for lack of evidence by the Supreme Court. Yet his pro-business stance is more hailed than his shortcomings or failures. This is a classic example of great PR machinery at work.

So it begs the question as to whether it was a vote for stability which the UPA seems to have and the NDA doe not

3. Knowing your strengths and working with your allies:

 The UPA had a fixed set of allies in the form of regional parties. Only the Left parties had some problems with them. The NDA on the other hand was having talks with all parties who were anti-congress. It is good to exploit the competitors’ weakness but without you having some strength, it isn’t going to be enough.

 By going alone in UP and Bihar, what the INC showed was that it was prepared to take risks. It leveraged on the brand name ‘Gandhi’ through Rahul Gandhi (RG). He was projected as the ‘Heir Apparent’ which he is since INC is a family driven party

 4. Promotion:

 UPA was quick to take advantage of the Oscar winning song ‘Jai ho’ and made a video on it highlighting its success stories.

 NDA released a spoof video of it names ‘bhay ho’ highlighting the failure of UPA. This was a good way of exploiting the weakness but it suggested to the electorate that NDA was telling them to vote in their favour, not on NDA’s Strengths or its manifesto but on the failures of UPA. It indirectly sent a message that since you do not have an option, you should vote for NDA.

 The UPA had a well-oiled PR machinery at hand where it made sure that the failures were not highlighted. The tensions simmering between the PM and the Left parties was never allowed to get out of proportion.

 Advertising is to inform or persuade or remind or reinforce about the product/ service. But this Ad did none of the 4 things. It did not say anything about NDA, about the plans it has for the country or the way NDA is going to govern them.

 Thus again the question, whether UPA won or the NDA lost

 5. Youth Leader:

 The UPA had RG as the ‘Youth leader’. He galvanized the cadre in states of UP, Bihar and the cow belt. He also campaigned in other parts of the country. Other youth in the UPA were Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Navin Jindal. Kanimozi Karunanidhi etc.

The NDA on the other hand did not have any youth leader in their campaign. Arun Jaitley was probably the youngest among them all. Varun Gandhi though is a young leader but he does not have a charisma. He portrayed himself too early in the election as a Hindu fundamentalist but giving that hate speech against the minorities in Pilibhit.

 6. Confused Ideology:

 BJP, which is the prime constituent of the NDA, was a pro-hindu party. It was accused of being a communal party as by the opposition. This was partly true due to the demolition of the Babri masjid and the accusation of LKA and Murli Manohar Joshi being involved in it. The BJP has tried to change its image towards a pro-reform party and this change has helped it much more in the eyes of the educated Indian middle class who are pro-BJP.

 This though has impacted it in the cow belt and other parts of India which are Hindu dominated. For them, the Ram mandir is an issue. Amarnath Yatra land allotment problem in J&K is also an issue. Its primary vote bank was the pious people, which the BJP exploited.

 But this confused ideology resulted in it neither being its previous self noe in a new avatar. The people did not understand its working and ideas. This can be seen from the voting pattern in Maharashtra and MP.

Thus again the question arises, whether this was a vote for stability which the UPA provided and the NDA did not

 7. Changing with the times:

 NDA has a strategic cell on psephology (statistical study of elections and trends in voting) pioneered in Indian politics by the Late Mr. Pramod Mahajan. The ‘India shining’ campaign in 2004 was a disaster with the NDA losing the elections. The Campaign though wasn’t a disaster; rather the ground realties were different from those portrayed in the campaign. Thus the methodology was perfectly right.

 Same methodology was tried this time too with an IIM Graduate helping LKA in his attempt with promoting BJPs ideology on the internet thought social networking websites such as Orkut, Facebook and Twitter. They were one step ahead of the UPA which had just a strategic war room with all analysis of day-today numbers and results.

 But as it always the case if you draw an analogy with food, the contents matter rather than the garnishing i.e. the taste matters more than the colour of the food.

 So being ahead of time and your competitors is good but it has to be followed by a good product at a proper price available at the nearest place

 Conclusion:

 The irony of the situation is that no one expected such a clear verdict. All psephologists were expecting a hung assembly where there would be no major party and the two major alliances, UPA and NDA would resort to ‘horse-trading’ to get the numbers. So all this analysis is done in hindsight where we are trying to find the cause and effect of the decisions already takes. It is similar to a post –mortem.