Monthly Archives: November 2010

Lessons from Reality TV

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Some reality TV shows have been asked to be broadcast after 11 pm by the ministry of information and broadcasting, based on public outcry on vulgarity and abusive language in the shows.

In times when the television has replaced the erstwhile joint family’s grandfather as the grand storyteller of life and its lessons, of values and popular culture, it may be moot to take a look at what people derive from the facts and fiction that television brings to their living rooms. After all, every evening, families across India do gather around their TV sets.

There are lessons – good and bad – that people could be deriving from a host of reality shows such as Bigg Boss 4, MasterChef India and, say, Kaun Banega Crorepati 4, all ongoing shows. These are randomly named and in no way mean that the other reality shows have nothing to teach us.

There are four potentially harmful lessons to be learnt. First, that it pays to be bad. The louder you are, the crasser you are, the greater your fan following. Politeness and compassion are out. Second, that it pays to be self-centered. It is fine to speak the language of ‘I, me, and myself’ if you are anchoring a show – there’s no need for consideration for others or respect for their skills.

Third, that you should never try to separate fact from fiction. It’s all right to add drama to some mundane, perfectly normal everyday situations. When you add such drama, you become a media star. Every channel follows you, wants your opinion on everything and it may even land you your own TV show.

Fourth, that relationships are a matter of convenience. What’s good today may not be good tomorrow. You must constantly evaluate your relationships to see what works for the moment. It’s perfectly fine to switch sides if it works for you.

Fortunately, in midst of a host of reality shows that teach dangerous lessons, there is a show that teaches lessons of humility, politeness, respect and compassion. The fact that the lessons of humility and politeness come from India’s biggest movie icon, only add to overall weight of the lessons.  The fact that his shows are pulling more eyeballs than any other show tells that people do hold old world values in high regard and don’t get swayed by attention-grabbing gimmicks.

All this has implications not only on the emerging popular culture but also on brands. All brands are a function of two contexts: the content of brands and the environment in which they live. Brands control their content, and leverage the environment. If a brand lives in the right environment, it creates the right feeling about itself. If it lives in the wrong environment, it weakens and can eventually destroy its own equity.

There are many brands that are riding on the TV reality shows. They are present either as sponsors, or as advertisers in the commercial breaks, or in programme placements. If a brand appears in an environment where the values propounded by the show are contrary to what the brand stands for, should it evaluate its presence? Brands go to great lengths to test their creative content, measure their advertising impact, and track their efficacy. Maybe it is time they also added the effect of environment on themselves.

So, will brands ever do that? Rise above the ordinary and take a wider responsibility? Or will we, as consumers, have to trigger the change?

 

Published in Hindustan Times 22.10.2010

The Impalling Vuvuzela Effect on Indian Media

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I happened to watch the opening ceremony of the 19th commonwealth games in the orange capital of India. I also happened to watch with a bunch of people who were what any one will call us average Indians. Ordinary people who work hard, who are successful in what they do, and who live in the smaller towns of India. It was amazing to watch the ceremony with them. The feeling of pride at what India had dished out at that evening was really infectious. Most of us watched the ceremony with our jaws open and were taken in by the opulence and pizzazz of the ceremony.

This led them to ask the most obvious question, is this event being held in India or this is some other country? Where are the stadiums that were about to collapse? Is this aerostat which was creating all the controversy? But this balloon looks fantastic. So what was the entire cacophony all about?

These are the people who we in our world say chasing the rating points. Coming from the heartland of India they make up the numbers and the channel content is geared to them. The more I spoke with them, the more it looked like that the news channels are suffering from the Vuvuzella effect.

Vuvuzella became popular at the FIFA world cup in South Africa. The make an awful lot of racket and people love to blow it. The louder it is the better is the instrument. However the instrument only produces one kind of sound and when they are blown collectively it sounds like a zillions bees have come swarming into the stadium. They make a lot of noise but they make a noise that can’t be differentiated

Vuvuzella allows people to whip up frenzy. It forces people to blow harder so that they make noise that is louder than the other. This sounds strangely similar to what we are seeing happen in the world of news media

The media generally is blowing harder and harder to make more and more noise. News is being turned into entertainment. Comedy shows and daily soaps get more prominence than what can be called is news. The headlines in newspapers look like titles of upcoming serials. More cricket being played on news channels than on field. The viewer or the reader is left asking where the news?

The Vuvuzella mindset is destroying the credibility and authenticity of media as a whole. There is a strange disconnection from reality that media has started to display. Media above all has a very big responsibility. They are the watchdogs of the society. They are supposed to be thorough, sensitive and diligent. Sadly the media has started to speak within itself and not to its audience. You can see it happen with almost every event that happens in the country is reported in a shrill and insensitive manner. Somehow the, media has started to lose its edge, and it’s losing it with what it calls its prime audience.

Enough has been said about media getting closer to its constituents and reflecting their views. It seems that media has decided to become more populist than an expert. While there are a few good men in there, and they are well respected, but the rank and file is simply blowing the Vuvuzella and not making music.

It’s time that the media introspected and decided to banish their Vuvuzellas. The audience is waiting for a symphony. I suspect that the media itself may be surprised by the audience reaction.

Now the big question: will they?

Enter the Curator

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It is believed that in the age of social media expertise is a rare commodity. Expertise comes from having a considered opinion that the world buys into. Today everyone has an opinion, and everyone can express them with ease. The consumer is becoming an expert and the experts are facing survival blues.
Is this really true? Consider this, a movie critic watches a movie and posts his review on his blog. The viewers who visit the blog add their comments on the review. The expert in this case does not have to wait long to figure out how his viewers are reacting to his reviews? The next time he writes the review, the existing feedback helps him to be sharper and more connected in his review
Now is this consumer generated content or expert generated media? The expert generated media obviously is far more interesting phenomenon than consumer generated media.
In case of the movie critic for example, the critic is not someone who has seen a few movies. More likely he or she lives movies, knows the process of making movies, and possibly has an insight on making movies more engaging. The dynamic feedback that the audience provides allows the expert to tell a more engaging tale.
Yes this is the world of collaborative co creation. Yet the collaborative co creation is not diminishing the value or role of expertise, it’s actually enhancing it. This is where the expert generated media has a role to play. This process is a curative process
Curation is a process that comes from the world of art museums, but is increasingly becoming important in the world of brands. Views, opinions, feedbacks etc are all chosen, sorted and organized by people who are experts equipped with necessary knowledge and experience. By leveraging the experience and knowledge the curaters can help brands connect better with its consumers.
Planners need to actively act as curaters to stay relevant in these changing times. The traditional ways of gathering consumer insights are outdated, and they rarely work. The planners can act as enhancers of consumer experiences by acting like a curator
Curation of opinions allows the experts to add more depth to the context. It allows the experts to step into their shoes, know their opinions, become more connected and be closer to the subject. It actually lets the expert even mold the opinion. That is truly what an expert would want to do. This is what a planner always has to do.
Experts curate and cull out best, clearest and the most thought provocating arguments. An average consumer will rarely want to read every opinion that is written about the subject. This is what a planner does constantly, sort and collect. Than cull out what matters and make it work for the brand.
Curation of opinion can shift the balance back to brands. In this collaborative world creating content is easy, but gathering and presenting is the real challenge. Consumers may value another consumers’ opinion more than advertising, but by no means is an average consumers’ opinion the final word. Therein lays the real opportunity. Planners are experts; they now need to be curative experts
Published in Brand Wagon, 9th November, 2010

Marketing to BOP should improve living standards

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4Bn people in the world earn less than $2 a day, and they form what Dr C K Prahalad classifies as Bottom of Pyramid. His premise is very simple. If you break the economic and physical bottlenecks of distribution you can reach a huge previously neglected market. Millions of small sales can add up to big profits. This means that corporate should focus on ways to lower the cost of providing goods and services so that you can offer them at lower price and still maintain margins
The bottom of pyramid thus is made up of mass market made even more mass comprising of under served consumers.
In India, according to NCAER, there are 70Mn households in Urban India, and 160 Mn households in Rural India comprise of what we call as BOP market. By itself it is a very large market, and increasingly corporate are trying to focus on these consumers
It would be wrong to assume that companies think of approaching this market by reducing the goods to their bare minimum and delivering them at a massive scale. The sachet story, or the recharge cards of mobile phones or the micro finance story is not a story of bare bone product with low cost. Large corporations are approaching this market to improve their bottomline, but are also making sure that the lives of consumers improve.
Take for example, Nestle which now has a renewed focus on BOP market. Yes they have introduced smaller packs of their blockbuster Maggi Noodles and Ketchups. This is helping them in increasing the penetration of their products. What is interesting is that they have innovated and created a product specifically for the BOP audience which is a taste enhancer that has added iron and vitamins. This allows them to not only improve the taste of everyday dishes, but also enhance the quality of food by the added nutrition
Or take the example of Project Shakti of Unilevers. While the Shakti Amma’s help in promoting range of Lever products, they also work towards improving the general well being of the village they work in. for instance the Scojo foundation of US works with Shakti Amma’s in providing reading glasses to the poor at very affordable costs. Scojo foundation has trained Shakti Ammas to test the eyes and provide reading glasses to artisans for them to do their work better and improve their life. Shakti Ammas help in educating the village about the benefits of consuming iodised salt over non iodised salt. Medically its proven that children who grow up consuming non iodised salt have 13 point lower IQ than children who consume iodised salt.
Take the entire Nokia Life Tools programme that they have launched in India. By providing its farmer subscribers with latest crop rates in the mandi, or teaching them English they are ensuring that customers improve their standard of living.
Microinsurance is one big success story in India, and like Microcredit that was an Asian invention, Microcredit is an Asian invention that comes directly from understanding the needs of BOP consumers in India. For instance IFFCO Tokio leverages its association with IFFCO and sells micro crop insurance, at a premium of Re1 that is bundled with the cost of fertilizers. Today IFFCO Tokio serves more than 8Mn farmers across the country
Godrej Agrovet, HSCL Haryali Bazaar, ITC and even the world famous Amul are all examples of companies targeting the BOP consumers and not selling them skinned product at cheaper prices.
So what is driving the growth of BOP markets?
One, the connectivity is a big driver of BOP markets. And connectivity is both by Road and by Phone. The enhanced connectivity by road is improving their employability quotient. This is allowing them to earn more and therefore have a slightly higher disposable income, especially in non harvest seasons
Two the inventiveness of this set of consumers, that has been fuelled by the BOP markets. Possibly half the cell phones sold in India are sold to the poor. For them a phone is much more than a mere tools for communication, it’s a tool for improving their economic status
Three the BOP consumers are fairly ambitious in their own attitude. They are focused on improving their lives, use education as a tool to improve life, and dream big for their children. They will not compromise for the good of their children
To top it the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is strengthening the rural economy and allowing even the poorest of poor to become a consumer of branded goods at some stage.

Published in Pitch Anniversary Special Issue, October 2010