Author name: Shubranshu Singh

In the world of marketing bureaucracy, there is a large premium attached to ‘disruption’ and ‘innovation’. These magic words can win promotions. At both the plan and execution stages, innovation work self-selects the elites of marketing management. It makes reputations for marketers. In the public esteem, the canals carrying credit run deeper when a marketer has ‘innovation experience’ written in bold on the resume. But let us consider the brand for a moment, declutched from the stranglehold of these brand marketers. There is no life plan for a brand that insists on innovation. In fact, in a brand’s history, only a few major innovations make a difference of the kind that moves the business performance, share and equity to a higher orbit. Often, innovations are urgent but unimportant activities made to seem necessary because activity often substitutes achievement. Nothing delights a corporate bureaucrat like endless meetings. Meetings where everyone’s opinion leads to a fission reaction of more meetings. Nothing is decided but everything is discussed. The only thing that truly matters to a brand’s health is the source of value it brings to the consumers. Managing the core essence is important as this is what defines the brand and its business. The core essence of Nike is greatness through sports and endeavour. The shoes are secondary. The essence of Starbucks is a great experience while drinking coffee. Brands flourish because of loyal consumers, new willing acceptors and the adoption of it into their lifestyle habits. Brands get defined by rituals, stories and semiotics that signify their essence. To put it plainly to the brand manager – Don’t chase the new and loud, but do more of what made your product successful in the first place.  1. Don’t innovate beyond the cultural authority of your brand. But do as much as you can within the boundaries you have defined. Own the turf. Make sure innovations don’t distract but strengthen. 2. Creativity alone is no reason to do branding. Rather the brand should spur creativity. 3. Innovation is not about newness alone, it is also about business definition. You may find organic growth to be the mantra but new product myopia can make you lose the larger picture. 4. Quantity rarely, if ever, translates to quality. To grow brand equity and customer satisfaction by chasing more things is a surefire route to failure. 5. Focus on brand attitude, pricing, experience and authority. These things are far more important than the new kids you put on the block each planning year. There is also problem in the fact that even in a large market like India, there are very few sovereign brands. By this I mean brand management teams empowered to decide what to do. The vast majority are tinkerers, word smiths, translators and multinational bureaucrats. I call it ‘brand management by synonyms’. The typical MNC brand bureaucrat handles words and adjectives. For example, an MNC with a portfolio of hair shampoos has decided upon ‘glossy, shiny, bouncy’ as their three brands. The same shampoo brands then churn the same attributes and adjectives across the region as brand benefits. This is not brand management. This is at best in-house servicing. Therefore, decide if you are a business or a franchise? Are you a sovereign source of brand action or just a design factotum? The typical signs of tinkerers and frenzied action addicts: 1. They don’t track or look at comparisons from the recent past. They always make more forward looking statements. 2. They don’t focus on tracking return per unit of input. Therefore larger investments become justified as successes. 3. They don’t innovate to a business end. They do it to earn merit. Therefore, the innovations are all over, not necessarily catering to the most valuable consumers as they ought to. Poor segmentation is a clear sign of innovation-frenzy. 4. They are on an activity treadmill. Since their esteem is built on having done many things, they must feed the boiler to keep up the steam. 5. Objectivity escapes the sharpest brains. In fact, vanity afflicts the smarter more readily. When it reaches the top, doom is a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’. 6. French author La Rochefoucauld observed that ‘self-love is cleverer that the cleverest man in the world’. Therefore smart performers will end up justifying all their actions. Do not reward innovation activity alone. Reward the results of the entire brand business and health of its attributes. French aviator, partisan and story teller Antoine de Saint –Exupery had said, “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” I think it holds for marketers as well. If you want to build a brand, don’t tinker with materials, designs and innovations but yearn to master the brand essence.  

Behavioural research is trawling through the human psyche and coming up with huge insights. We are now in the era where behavioural science and economics have merged and produced Nobel laureates. We live in a world where even the universe is being mapped and its dimensions being determined. Yet, we know very little about the human brain. If we close our two fists and bring them together, knuckles facing knuckles, it is roughly the shape and size of our brain. Yet it is everything we are…and more. Our subconscious mind holds the answers to our actions as consumers. It is that mind which makes us impressionable, emotional and irrational. We buy things we don’t need, often at non-referenced prices and for unidentified reasons. We go along with recommendations of those who know only a little more than us but are blind to expert input. We spend more if the staff at a store smiles at us. When in a good mood, we are more susceptible to persuasion. We get frenzied when there is a sale irrespective of value on offer. We even get lulled and linger longer if the music in the store is soothing. All irrational but true. It is our mind that makes us so. That mind which we do not know. The subconscious, subliminal mind. [siteorigin_widget class=”SiteOrigin_Widget_Image_Widget”][/siteorigin_widget] When did we first begin to see this? In the 1930s when Freudian psychoanalysis was made advertising regimen by a Viennese psychologist named Ernest Dichter who spun his insight into a million-dollar business that lasted till the late 1960s. His genius was that he didn’t resist consumer irrationality but like an archeologist he dug into it in order to reveal the roadmaps to smart selling. His ‘The Strategy of Desire’ was a seminal work where he held that marketplace decisions are driven by emotions and subconscious whims and fear. These are often projected on to the product itself. The impulses of the mind are an ‘iceberg’, with two-thirds hidden from cognition even to the decision-maker. As driven consumers, we can rationalize and explain away anything that we really desire. If shopping is an emotional minefield or treasure hunt, then strategic ‘cue controlled’ marketing could be a gold mine for companies. Between the late 1930s and 1960s, Dichter became famous working with American establishment heavyweight businesses such as Procter & Gamble, Exxon, Chrysler, General Mills and DuPont. His insight changed the way hundreds of products were sold, from cars to cake mix. He pioneered research techniques such as the focus group, understood the power of word-of-mouth persuasion and codified his theories as marketing protocol. By the late 1950s, his consulting business reached an annual turnover of $1m, a staggering amount for individual advisory at that time. Dichter’s ‘motivational research’ was considered radical and devious as well. He was even accused of threatening America’s national well-being. But he persisted in the inversion of protocol. Asking shoppers why they bought particular products was like “asking people why they thought they were neurotic,” Dichter summed up once. In fact, he believed, most people have no idea why they buy things. He claimed that they made sense of decisions retrospectively. So to understand what truly motivated people, a deep, psychoanalytical approach was merited. To get in to consumer shoes meant to listen long and hard. Dichter and later Paul Lazarsfeld created qualitative research based on digging into the psychological roots of consumer decision. That our possessions are extensions of our own personalities and we look at a brand as a mirror which reflects our own image’s profound message never heard before. The marketer was obliged to detail the personality of a product, and only then understand how to market it. He worked with Chrysler on Plymouth cars where he decoded convertibles to represent temptation whereas a sedan was solidity and stability. That people smoke as a legitimate excuse to interrupt the day for a moment of pleasure was another one of his deductions. He renamed prunes as ‘california wonderfruit’ featuring fresh, supple plums on the packaging to tackle their imagery as symbolic of old age. Baking was in a sense like giving birth was another one of his startling conclusions but one which led to ensuring that no recipe mix was ever marketed as marginalizing the role of the woman. He got criticized for it by critics of consumerism like Vance Packard and by several authorities on feminism and its evolution including by Betty Friedan. Lastly, Dichter gave acceleration to the craze for celebrity in America, and thus to the world. Consumers trade money for respectability and status. Brand possession gives admittance to brand community. The sense of prestige and security dulls the post purchase dissonance. The ability to express oneself through shopping was a matter of great importance with limitless opportunities to grow and express individuality. Marketing changed forever. Dichter died 1991, a forgotten and lonely man. Somewhere in the 1970s, for reasons not clear, the commercial system turned against deep mind study. Perhaps this was due to some informal consensus to camouflage the goings on. Equally, there could be genuine reasons to believe that newer quantitative technique and computing power would do better. But for the decades that followed, Psychographic Qual was blanked from the pages of the official marketing procedures. Yet, remarkably, after more than five decades, these uber evolved quant studies are giving up. It is being conceded that empiricism will not reveal secrets of the mind. It is a difficult terrain to map. What is counted may not be what really counts!! Listen to the subconscious. The answers lie there.

Mumbai is a 'Maya Nagri', a land of dreams and dream merchants. As many come here for fame as do for moolah. Most barely subsist, but the dream never dies. Nowhere else in India has creative expression been as successfully commercialised and made part of Indian culture as it has in Mumbai. The last day of April marked the 148th birth anniversary of Dhundiraj Govind Phalke popularly called Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of Indian Cinema, who made the film ‘Raja Harishchandra’ in 1913 marking the birth of Bollywood. A silent film, it was an instant commercial success. Dadasaheb’s genius is evident from the fact that he was not merely the producer but also the director, writer, cameraman, editor, make-up artist and art director. Raja Harischandra was also screened in London in 1914.  Dadasaheb Phalke supervised and managed the production of more than 20 films between 1913 and 1918. Bombay was booming in those decades, with mill expansion, new prosperity and civic expansion. Leisure was in short supply and Bollywood was the ready answer. It marked the commencement of the decline of theater and local stage arts, both genres co-opted into the films in terms of spirit and spunk. The first ever talkie ‘Alam Ara’ was made by Ardeshir Irani in 1931. From that day, popular music and cinema were, in India, one and the same thing. Phiroz Shah, who worked for Alam Ara, was the first music director. The first song, sung by WM Khan, which was recorded for Alam Ara in 1931 was ‘De de khuda ke naam par’. Even in the regional sections, the film industry took root early. The first Bengali feature film was ‘Nal Damyanti’ in 1917. The year 1919 saw the screening of the first silent South Indian feature film named ‘Keechaka Vadham’. The first ever talkie film in Bengali was ‘Jamai Shashthi’, which was screened in 1931 whilst ‘Kalidasa’ was the first Tamil talkie which was released in 1931, both notably in the same year as Alam Ara. ‘Ayodhecha Raja’ was the first Marathi film which was directed by V Shantaram in 1932. As India became more urbanized, educated, and affluent, the film themes also changed course. History and mythology retreated to yield space for more burning socially relevant themes. The Indian movie is a three-hour reconstruction of the world where utopia seems within reach. Where the weak and poor get to righteous victory. Where police inspectors are honest and justice is done. Where fate brings separated families together and an avuncular God is reachable through fervent lachrymose prayer. It holds India’s poor masses enthralled and they remain believers in the eventual triumph of good over evil. The Box Office is India’s most transparent ballot box. Success and failure in that Darwinian world depends on ability to adapt and enthrall. Songs are an integral part of Indian movies. Presence of songs has given Indian films a distinctive look as compared to international films. The Indian film industry has produced many talented lyricists, music directors and artists. Their fame and celebrity value rivalled, at times exceeded, that of the cine stars and always outlasted it. Although Raj Kapoor, Nargis, Dileep Kumar were all known in large parts of the world in the 1950s, it was in the era after Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan’s super stardom that the NRI diaspora seriously became a commercial anchor for films. The 1990s saw a whole new batch of actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Sridevi, Aamir Khan, Juhi Chawla, Chiranjeevi etc who were hot international money makers. Indian cinema was now seriously dependent on the contribution of the overseas market. Whatever real soft power projection India has, is provided by Indian cinema. The granting of formal ‘Industry’ status ensured serious corporate interest and formal financing into films. More than two dozen production houses are now listed entities on national bourses. Our multiplexes sitting amidst sprawling malls are the centers of town activity. Cinema, as an industry, was always magical and meritocratic. The one place where a nobody, by dint of hard work and self-expressed talent, could become a national figure. It was about evident success before critical acclaim. The 70 mm celluloid holds India together. It has no rival in terms of stature in national life, except perhaps cricket, which also does not appeal to all parts and all demographics as indeed, cinema does. The most significant foundational contribution of Bollywood and regional cinema is to define ‘Indian-ness’. If you want to understand what the prescriptions for familial relationships, social conduct and taboo are at any time, you should see Indian movies of that era. Cinema has always had cultural authority to reflect and thus establish the norm. It grippingly showcased our social codes, deftly wrapped in stories. Films like Mother India, Deewar, Mughal-E-Azam, Sholay, Lagaan, Devdas, Guide, Mera Naam Joker and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, 3 idiots etc were watershed marks in this socio-cultural accumulation. Each can merit a PhD in terms of context and impact. A few lines captured as a musing utterance in the film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobaara define the Indian cinematic credo and philosophy well….. Jab jab dard ka baadal chaya, jab gham ka saaya lehraya, jab aasoon palkon tak aya, jab yeh tanha dil ghabraya … humne dil ko yeh samjhaya, dil aakhir tu kyun rota hai , duniya mein yunhi hota hai , yeh joh gehre sannate hai, waqt ne sabko hi baante hain … thoda gham hai sabka qissa, thodi dhoop hai sabka hissa … aankh teri bekaar hi namm hai, har pal ek naya mausam hai. And the show must go on…

The word ‘trend’ itself originates from an Old Viking word ‘trendan’ which means a warm sea current that runs in a particular direction. The Viking warriors out on a raid would see one and put their rowing boats on it to minimize effort and ‘ride the trend’ of warm rushing water. Therefore, from a business standpoint, recognizing a trend presupposes an intent that comes to fruition faster, stronger and better thanks to the trend. Trends emerge from social evolution, technological disruptions, demographic churn, etc. They also have a life cycle. They are reflective of maturing social norm, business imperatives and cultural mood. But that they represent the force and inevitability of an idea whose time has come, is not to be doubted. [siteorigin_widget class=”SiteOrigin_Widget_Image_Widget”][/siteorigin_widget] Here are some of the acknowledged trends that will drive and influence the period of the next couple of years in Indian marketing: Youngest First Gen Z is the largest pool of valuable customers. Nearly 400 million Indians were born after the year 2000. That is simply a staggering number that will upturn all presuppositions. The ‘young as majority’ trend will continue till 2040 as the peak birth rate has been achieved only in the recent past. We are, at once, dealing with a population of mammoth size that has no link with the past. A new definition of almost everything to do with signifiers, cultural icons, language and tone shall have to be attempted. It is about the experience, stupid You Only Live Once is the prime social sentiment with both Millennials and Gen Z. Fly at full throttle. Career genuflection or the hunger for possessions come much later in the priority list. Brand offerings therefore need to have ‘Joie De Vivre’ as their essence. A distant, superintended interaction devoid of intimacy will not make customers out of samplers. The brand needs a purpose and mission Mere success is not enough. A better tomorrow must trump meaningless consumption. The threats to us as a species on this planet now have a sense of finality and unavoidable urgency. Brands and businesses are often seen more in the vanguard of action than governments of sovereign nations. Consumers will reward activism with preference. Hyperlocal must coexist with Global Rapid growth in urbanization and urban centres means an organic ecosystem that demands and provides a viable market for ‘my city, my world, my plan.’ At the same time, emotional separation with consumers anywhere in the world is shrinking. Global consumers, in terms of mind set, who are residents of hyperlocal viable economic units – that’s the mosaic. Pop strata is not a necessary or sufficient filter for mapping consumer typologies. Influencers matter, but not as hired mercenaries. A relationship of true conviction and advocacy must exist Last week a tweet from Kylie Jenner about Snapchat made the stock tumble throughout trading hours and close 6 per cent down which meant US $1.3 billion of value eroded in a single day. Influencers have responsibilities. They can create serious value, cause awareness, sampling and even get an opt-in for their followers onto a brand program. Vanity metrics will vapourize if still about the interruptive It has to be about stable, scalable and share gain enablers. Performance on social is great for priming up internal ‘I deserve a promotion’ videos but business value seems elusive or unidentifiable. There is little direct and sole attribution. Take all claims to the contrary cum grano salis the value that is emerging clearly is fostering a sense of community, increasing interactions, building dialogue and getting real time feedback. This is worth its weight in gold. Why would interruptive plain vanilla advertising get prime mind space on digital or social? Technology will finally be yoked to the Creative cart Some things seem destined to exist for seminars and powerpoint slides on future plans. Everyone seems to know of them. No one seems to have done anything more than tinkering. Then suddenly, one or more of these explode when critical mass is reached. Then, there is no one you know who doesn’t claim to be the pioneer who started it all. On a serious note, what commitment in terms of quantum of funds is backing VR, AR, AI out of the sum? Any creative renditions of marketing outreach and amplification on scale that have relied on these? Q.E.D. Not one but many in the Marketing business No one agency relationship brings expertise across domains. While marketing operations on the client side are loath to proliferate agency relationships, the problem is of specific skills and competencies. In a way, India is still insulated given our poor ad spend as a percentage of global spends and the traditional bastions have not been breached. But the Barnum Woods are moving. The CMO – CFO – CIO troika will ask for more operating entities to work and partner with. The days of distinction between marketing consultants, production houses, creative agencies, digital shops, data and insight mavens and designers are coming to an end as marketing becomes more about continuity and experience and a web of associations than smart advertising alone. Programmatic -Personalized- But When? Unanimity in the manifesto being passed around yet no concrete tidal wave has hit our beaches yet. Why not? Advertising shorter than a yawn For all its vilification, the 30 sec regime is so institutionalized that it is staying on well past its sunset time. Yawn. You Tube’s 6 sec unit struck root. Advertisers came on board. Lethargy and inertia cannot restrain business need beyond a time. Against the full blast of stormy winds from an angry Ad world, it has struck root. Think 5-10 seconds. It is possible. Perhaps, inevitable. In summary, my list is only an affirmation as a practitioner of what seems here to stay. Some curve balls may be thrown and may be unanticipated. Such entropy can only help in stirring things positively. The method seems only to be to let the best ideas emerge, win and flourish. Some corporate careers may survive on proclamations

First, a quick recap of our telescopic view of Buzz and Virality last week: 1. Consumers are sated with plain vanilla advertising 2. Marketers are desperate to put brands in a context 3. Brands that stand out in a cluttered landscape get business advantage 4. Virality is promising because it gives a huge boost to Reach and can rapidly build awareness and equity The type of content that gets pushed a lot, and eventually may gallop its way to out-of-charts virality: • News • Humour • Opinion • Skill demonstration • Warnings / Alerts Virality is always a matter of expected next action. The propensity to share along is higher if it came to you than if you found it yourself. Which means there are important accelerators or catalysts who push and start the virality, like the early applause in a live audience that makes everyone follow. Consumer clusters that have high-sharing activity: • Those who search for the new thing – research , finding, revelation • Subject Mavens – I know – filling in information gaps – the rarer it is, the more speed it acquires • To share within interest group – larger the interest area, the more likely followers will circulate • To promote something seen as common group interest – it is for everyone’s collective good. • To be the first to break a news • Promoting causes that reward them with more social clout • To demonstrate authority or expertise Triggers for Virality: • Amusement – laugh out loud content and slapstick often is most preferred amongst young men • Celebrity spotting and red carpet spotlight is preferred by young ladies. • Surprise/contrarian discovery that is a ‘wow factor’ is shared faster • Joy – cuteness – moments we have active recognition of déjà vu for are also shared and pushed • Excitement – romance • Nostalgia for icons, moments, history, old vignettes • Mockumentaries • Challenges –dares –extreme living • Disgust – gross also gets pushed. When prioritizing – remember Word of Mouse has a multiplier over Word of Mouth. Social content popularity is a voyage of self-discovery for brands. Not every brand temperament and tonality is suited for such methods. Gimmicks and gizmos will not substitute for consumer community efforts. It’s not about buying attention. It’s not about old rules. It’s not about seriously trying to create fun. It’s not purchased. There is no rate card for the Wildcard. 

“It has gone viral,” these words are a source of immense joy to marketers. Stated inelegantly but accurately, something ‘going viral’ is instant proof of success. On gazing upon it with a telescope we can plainly see that Virality – Buzz – Word of Mouth, are all different expressions of the same underlying phenomenon. Since the beginning of civilization, word of mouth has been recognized as an endorsement of society, in general, extolling the virtues of a product or service. It is seen having a higher value than self-seeking advertising, which marketers feel obliged to do. Its spontaneity and effervescence are valued at a premium. There are no established and acknowledged definitions of WoM, buzz or virality.  However, broadly one may posit that: WoM is the process, Buzz is the qualitative signifier of its positive effect and Virality is the entire phenomenon taken together with an implicit sense of scale and immediacy. The curiosity for virality is fuelled further because of its invisibility. Where does it start, get accelerated, get slowed by drag and end? These are unseen and largely unknown maps. What is more – the entire consumer world comprises endless intersecting lines of exploration and overlapping subsets. Connecting these is the job of influencers, opinion leaders, evangelizing consumers and fans. Why is virality important? It is important because it is rare and precious. We live in a world of Overload, Cynicism and Hyper-Connectivity. Consumers have too many distractions and are overexposed to commercial ‘me too’ messaging. They are looking for endorsement and opinion from folks they see as experts. Word of Mouth is more realistically –Word of Relevant Mouth. We believe and care more about the experiences of ‘People Like Us.’ Secondly, consumer belief is very fragile. Too much razzmatazz accompanies everything put out formally via the campaign. A Puffery –Vanity – Insincerity filter comes inbuilt when consumers get exposed to these campaigns. Therefore, when someone who knows you well pushes something to you, naturally, your acceptance and interest levels are high. The interest has been equipped with ability because almost everyone has access to internet and content is spoofed, shared, commented upon, liked or ridiculed. Very little gets qualified for instant success but this is why virality is subjected to constant scrutiny. No rocket science here. But what more? Not every brand or category needs brand building through virality. There are plenty of iconic brands built moving with a steadier gait. It also depends on your target audience and competitive position. Virality is too erratic to be seen as an essential part of the marketing mix. It is desirable but is it dependable? This, to my mind, is the recipe mix known to produce more results: 1. Populate content in as many overlapping networks as feasible. 2. Engage influencers like the press, celebs, sports icons, politicians, etc. wherever there is a following. 3. Engage experts – from iconic to the hyperlocal. This builds relevance and texture. 4. Get brand platform social media to build clusters and communities – elusive in tangible terms but when you do, it helps push your message 5. Do geographic assessments. Local matters – folks talk online to folks who are still physically in their communities. 6. See linkages – fashion, luxury, cosmetics, travel, cuisine, for instance, will have several linkages of interest and followers. Pull all those levers if you are in related categories. 7. Emotional stimulus provokes an emotional response. Affinity is often about the right emotions. 8. Let the product and service seeding start concurrently. A lot of buzz and virality gets provoked by curiosity and novelty. 9. Cluster leaders and those who have a large following should be lavished with product attention. 10. When you hear silence in related categories and competition, that’s a white space or share gain opportunity. Go for it. Finally, a viral is a contagion. It needs to spread person to person. People must get close to spread a virus. The virus seldom passes without the host being receptive. Mutations are natural. A virus, unlike a diamond, is not forever! To reach the maximum number, in the short term, is the key. We should note that it is the best renditions, not the best ideas, that go viral. Next time in Midweek Marketing, let us apply a microscope and inspect what is doable and known empirically to trigger the virality.