Tag Archives: Advertising

Women, advertising and societal stereotypes

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Stereotypes are societal shorthand. Stereotypes are simple ways of communicating complex ideas in a simplistic ways. Stereotypes are manifested through many forms in media and are used to represent both men and women. What defines stereotypes is the amazing consistency they display. They may reflect changing societal norms, sometimes they do, yet they don’t move away from hard codes of imagery that exists in society.

The fact is that advertising industry has not created any of the stereotypes, but they certainly have strengthened and propagated many of these stereotypes in order to sell many brands and categories. Advertising does not necessarily depict how women actually behave but how we think women behave.

Today despite changing gender roles, increase in literacy levels, greater number of women joining work force, increased financial independence, greater ownership of cars and bikes certain gender stereotypes have not changed.

These are four stereotypes that the advertising industry refuses to let go off.

1.Curse of dark skin: This is one stereotype the world of advertising has just refused to give up on. Possibly the origination of this stereotype could be the rule of English in India where the fair skinned women were thought to be the epitome of beauty. The entire fairness category is stuck in this time wrap. The women protagonists can be good singers, working women, Cricket commentators, budding entrepreneurs but they cannot succeed in life if they are not fair. Wish the advertising and research industry stepped out to see how dark skin need not be a curse.

2.The ultimate smell test: As a housewife earlier she lived by the kitchen test, today she lives by the smell test. She wasn’t a good wife or daughter-in-law if her kitchen wasn’t sparkling clean; today she is a failure if her toilet is not smell free. Bad odor has become the final frontier of womanhood, mom hood and everything else. Seriously!

3.The melt by diamond wife: As clueless husband you are allowed to make as many mistakes as you can make, only until you can break the bank to buy a 3 carat princess cut sparkling rock for your wife. If only this mistake and make up situation was as simple world will be free of domestic strife and divorces. A sparking rock does not lead to domestic bliss; this is one stereotype that is not going away soon.

4.The fairy Godmother: she knows it all has all the answers. She knows where the missing socks are, she knows which cooking oil will produce tastiest food, what exercise regime you need to follow, how using a home made medicine will make acnes vanish! Yet the fairy godmother knows nothing about finances, insurance, holidays, credit cards, driving, computers and mobiles. So either she knows it all or she knows nothing! It’s time the industry made up its mind

The reality is that women have changed. Working women don’t always wear pants to work. Their husbands don’t sleep hungry in the night.  Their kids do very well in school. If such concepts are ever tested in focus group, women will react with disdain. Some of these portrayals have started to diminish, but most are going strong.

Stereotypes are shorthand, they simplify complex ideas, it’s time the advertising and marketing industry become change makers and sow seeds of new stereotypes. Its time the advertising professionals themselves changed

 

Original Article was published in Marketing Booster Magazine of March 2013

IPL 5: Its coming of age

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The IPL started under a cloud of uncertainty. Indian team had a disastrous tour to first England and then to Australia. It won nothing in England, and won almost nothing in Australia, save for one freak game in Hobart against Sri Lanka. Just when everyone thought that the Indian subcontinent is where Indian cricket will bounce back to previous glory, the fans were in for more disappointment. India won against Pakistan and SL, but lost to Bangladesh and couldn’t defend its title of Asia Cup!

It seemed that Indian cup of woes was overflowing.
Meanwhile Indian sport was mounting a strong challenge to Cricket. Hockey was played to a packed stadium, boxing was drawing crowds in the World Boxing Series. And a host of sporting events were attracting eyeballs.

It seemed that the dice was loaded against IPL
The opening ceremony did nothing to perk up the interest, and the first week of cricketing action left television audience cold. Ratings dipped, inventory piled up, and generally it looked like IPL 5 will fare worse than IPL 4. Add to it the controversies of fixing and rape, the league should have folded and gone belly up. Admittedly it’s easy to criticize IPL. The auction process, the international players, the cheerleaders, the focus on entertainment, the money power, the franchise system, the actors and businessmen are more than enough cannon fodder.  I have no intention of either criticizing or adulating the league.

Let’s evaluate the league purely as a media property. Has it worked or not?
If TV audience is the only measurement, then may be it hasn’t been very successful. But looking at IPL merely as a TV spectacle will be foolhardy. There are three indicators that will tell that IPL is headed in a slightly different direction.

First the online viewership has seen a phenomenal jump. The official IPL site has seen page views explode. Indiatimes, the official internet partner saw a 56% jump in viewership in first two weeks of the league. Since then, it would have only gone up. Clearly the action shift from the analogue world to the digital world has been stark. Additionally the online following of all the teams combined has doubled since the time the league started. That is impressive performance.

Second, the matches have been played to packed houses. 146 matches have already been played, and there are just two left to play. An estimated 44 Lakh people have watched the match live. That’s a staggering number, and it will go up to 45 Lakh at the end of the league.  No live event has ever created this kind of reach in India. The viewer enthusiasm has been unmatched with matches being sold out weeks in advance. Live events in India are usually chaotic, not IPL this year, it’s been impeccably organized

Thirdly, the quality of the product has improved, and that is the most important indicator. The improvement in quality of cricket did lead to increase in TV viewership too. It may not have produced new stars this year, but it did produce moments that captivated the country and the world. The traffic on social media sites is a testimony to that.

IPL seems to have filled a long existing gap in the Indian entertainment scenario, which was the lack of a good sustainable, scalable live entertainment property. While cricket has always attracted crowd in India, specially the ODI variety, the matches themselves have been very few in numbers. The live audience was so miniscule that it didn’t matter in overall count.

What it means is that IPL this year probably has transformed from a TV only property to India’s premier live entertainment event. Yes the viewers want to see scintillating cricket, but they also want to
experience the big arena feel. The energy, the feel and the joy of enjoying a live event made the viewer’s go again and again to ‘see’ the match.

IPL 6 will be a true marketing challenge. The audience appetite for IPL action will mean brands can have a two pronged strategy to engage with IPL. There is the conventional TV/internet as a property to leverage; and there is also the live audience as an opportunity to engage.

If there are 5 Million viewers who are watching the league, these five million are people who have sought out the league, they watch, they tweet, they have a conversation on Facebook, their multiplier effect is actually immeasurable. The 5million may actually impact another 50, driving either the TV audience or online viewership. For once the audience becomes the medium. Imagine the opportunity the brands can have to engage the in stadia audience through gigs and acts in the break, without stemming the flow of the game. And the impact of such acts will be far greater than any amount of passive TVC that brands can buy on TV. For once the gigs will not be dependent on the TV audience, but will be fuelled by the camera totting all sharing audience.

This is not to say that IPL doesn’t need to fix a few issues. It does, and I am sure the board’s working towards fixing them. Cricketing reasons drove the audience acceptance this year, and if the quality of cricket remains this good, fans will flock to watch it

Most brands have heavy consumers and light consumers. Media choices do not allow smarter targeting but both consume similar communication. IPL too has heavy and light consumers, and that means brands can target the two with different strategies

IPL is transforming the entertainment landscape; it could do the same with communication landscape too.

 

original got published here

http://pitchonnet.com/blog/2012/06/05/ipl-5-its-coming-of-age/

Ten to go independent

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One of the biggest misconceptions that people have is that if you work for yourself, you will get richer quicker. If money is all that drives you, then going independent can be a bad idea. Here are ten reasons for which you should go independent

  1. Build something:

Everyone must build something that is your own. This is a true reflection of your ability, skill enterprise and ideas. There is no better way to self-actualization then to say, I built this. Bragging rights don’t come easy in life

  1. Nurture your baby

Every new idea needs careful nurturance. The idea is yours, so one else knows the idea better than you. This is like being a father, only you know what your child wants.

  1. Dream big

Ambition knows no limits in your own set up. This is truly where your dream and your vision alone control the destiny of your enterprise. There are no approvals to be sought, no forms to fill, just you and your enterprise.

  1. Improve quality

The buck truly stops at you. There are no approvals to be sought; there are no conflicting egos to be settled. You can deliver truly great work to your client, sharper and quicker. It’s amazing how layers of bureaucracy can dull the edge of even the sharpest sword.

  1. Connect better:

Your connections with your clients are stronger than usual. They are your clients because they like you; you are their partner because you like them. There can be no better way than this.

  1. Challenge yourself:

Doing a job tends to make days monotonous. You follow a routine and if follow it well you would be fairly successful. But when you run an enterprise yourself, every new day brings a new challenge to face. If you never want to do same thing twice, go independent.

  1. Follow your passion:

You remember those days in school when you woke up early to go to cricket coaching classes or something like that? You did it because you loved it; it even made school more fun. You wanted to get up early, even on the coldest morning. That’s something true of an independent venture. You do what you love, and you love what you do

  1. Greater risk to reward ratio:

This is simple, the risk is yours, and the rewards are yours too. This does not mean that going independent is a get rich quickly scheme. It may be years before you see major financial benefits coming your way.

  1. No retirement planning

Retirement plans can be put on ice. Your enterprise needs you to do the best for it as long as you can. Every day you will gain experience that will make coming days more promising. There is no point of even thinking of hanging your boots

  1. Give back to society:

This is where as an independent entrepreneur you can make a small contribution. Work with the society, work with your Alma matter, and give back in time and effort. This one singular reason can make going independent worthwhile.

Marketing to kids in 21st century

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There is an advertising stereotype that exists for kids in advertising.

The kids are supposed to be cute, wear a spectacle to add to cute value, they sit and watch TV, and run to parents demanding whatever latest they saw on TV. To appeal to the kids the commercial used to be fast paced, had bright colours and had the right drool value and the kids will respond. This may have been correct years ago, but is it true today?

Today’s kids are very different from kids of just a generation ago. For one they have access to a variety of media, which they access from a variety of sources. This means that the content available to them is more eclectic, more varied. To top it there is far more commercialization around them, with even schools not being immune to it.

Two they consume far more advertising then the kids of past. The greater consumption of advertising messages is making kids more evaluative and aware. They are clever, imaginative and inventive; they know what the brand is up to and what it wants them to do.  This generation of kids is wary of advertising, and that is a true challenge for marketers.

New generation of kids needs new rules of engagements

Here are three pointers that can help us target the young consumers and come out winners

#1. Pester power is transforming

We are living in an age where ‘kids have grown up fast’ syndrome is real. They have more autonomy and greater say in brand decisions. It’s not that kids do not want to show their attitude, or come across as ‘cool’, they do, but they do it with thought and precision. They are clear with what they want and pestering is normally left to products that are low value and are impulse driven. This generation of kids gets bored with ‘brands’ fast and moves on to the next target. So if nagging is all the brand banked on, then it would lose the battle very quickly.

#2. Parents are reliving their childhood

The new trend in market is about parents reliving their childhood through their children. This is creating a new kind of ‘pester importance’ where the parents want their kid’s critical opinion before they indulge the child. New hobbies, new toys, newer thrills are all driven by parents wanting to explore things they didn’t do as a child, but never at the cost kids disapproval. This importance of kid’s opinion is something that brands have started to discover. Automobile and fashion brands are creating specific engagement strategies towards this end

#3. Kids are the new pressure groups

Questioning every set convention is inherent in any child’s psyche. They will always question rules and this questioning can open up completely new avenues for brand marketers. The issue here is to be truthful, honest and completely above board. Because the kids are ‘tribal’ by behavior, they tend to adopt the rules of tribes very quickly. The sheer multiplication effect of this behavior is enormous. The anti-cracker and anti-plastics campaign took off because the kids adopted them out of their own volition, and forced the elders to change. Imagine what they can do if you involve them in a variety of larger causes.

Going forward

Increased message clutter is a reality of our times, and Internet is only adding to the clutter. The only way then for the brands to engage their customers will be through open and honest communication. less trickery and an interactive brand environment may be the only way forward.

Published in Impact, Feb 2012 issue. http://pitchonnet.com/blog/2012/02/20/marketing-to-kids-in-the-21st-century/

Road Ahead For Media Planners

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The Original Article

Future is always complex. Predicting future is fraught with danger. Chances of getting future wrong are bright. However future is always built on contexts that are current. Future is always shaped by the challenges faced in present.

There is a lot happening in our world at this time. Technology is progressing at a pace that is hard to keep track of. Just for example in last three years the mobile penetration has doubled, homes with digital TV subscription have gone up exponentially; the FM stations have moved from metros to class one and class two towns. The changes are not just tech driven.  The demographic changes are re-crafting the entire society. The rapid urbanization is throwing up challenges not faced before. There are no indicators suggesting that the speed of change will slow down or the transformation is eased off.

Here are three challenges that we are likely to face in coming years. First is the challenge of nomadic audiences.  Second the challenge of contexts. Last is the challenge of measurement.

Challenge of Nomadic Audiences

Media planning and buying is dependent on a set of audience being available to receive the message. The process of enumeration assumes that the audience is stationary, and once counted is always available. In today’s technology empowered scenario, the audience is not stationary. Rapid adoption of net enabled personal devices like tablets is making media portable. This has serious implications. It means that mass media will get empowered by personal media. It means that that notion of fixed audience will have to shelved. It means that media buyers will have to find a way of synthesizing the broadcast media with new age portable media. Nomadic audiences and personal portable media are forces that have will permanently change the media landscape

Challenge of contexts

Let’s take this rise of portable personal media and the possible stagnation of traditional mass media forward. Till now the media planning was built on increasing salience, so that it impacted interest in brand so that it lead to positive action on retail point. This is straight forward and linear in approach. This has delivered great results for brands. Today, the entire context of brand consumption is changing. Salience matters and salience impacts the interest in a brand, but from here on two new forces comes into play. The personal portable media is the transformational force. It makes Search and Share more important than mere Action of the traditional AIDA theory. Today everything is searchable, and people share everything. We know that this peer to peer network has an amazing power to influence brand choices. This change in context is already a reality and will only grow in future.

Challenge of measurement

The concept of fixed audience is ingrained in the existing media measurement systems. With the nomadic audience and the rise of personal portable medium will require a new type of measurement system to be created. Media agencies have tended to merge TV with online TV, press with Digital media and events with outdoors. Tomorrow they will have to find a system of one composite measurement that merges the traditional with new. The search and share impact on brands health will have a far greater bearing than mere rise or drop in reach and salience

Future is complex, and it is often not possible to predict it with certainty, but the present has a way of showing the impending challenges. We need to be prepared

Published in 4Ps of Business and Marketing, November 4th, 2011 Issue

Erosion of trust and new emerging paradigm

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Trust is a very important parameter in every brand’s arsenal.

Trust is a basic human emotion. Trust is the foundation of sociability, and in any culture it’s the level of trust that defines the level of bonding. The brands operate in similar ways; they build on propositions that the consumers trust. The consumers treat trust as buying shorthand and often shorten their evaluation. Trust allows a brand to become the preferred brand as the consumers believe they will experience the same emotional benefits that the brands’ promise.

However the crisis in economy fundamentally alters this trust equation. For instance today more governments are likely to default on loans then large corporate. Traditionally the governments were the safest to lend a loan to, now that seems to be under a cloud. Today trust in government, institutions and people is being eroded. I am not putting politicians here, as they were never trusted. The erosion of trust then leads to an erosion of optimism and the feeling of brighter future.

Take for instance Nokia, which is India’s most ‘trusted’ brand for last 4 years in the Brand Equity Survey. This is a remarkable feat in itself, as the brands that lag Nokia are really a generation old brands, where as Nokia is new age. This stamp of trust should result in a disproportionately larger consumer bonding and therefore a larger market share. But what is happening with Nokia’s market share is not hidden from anyone, but significantly it is losing to brands that are less trusted than Nokia!

Brands build on trust by building on social acceptability, sense of achievement or as a symbol of success. In an upwardly mobile world that is what the consumer is constantly seeking. Recognition, my impact on the world, my influence on the world around me, are symbols of optimism and success.

Erosion of trust alters human behavior. People reduce their social circle, they become more inward looking, they seek greater assurance, they move from being future oriented to present state. The context of living changes significantly, trust replaces anxiety; approval from others replaces approval from me, and need for status replaces need for acceptance.

This impacts the behavior of the consumers and possibly alters their behavior. It’s not that the need for trust disappears, it stays and is very important, but possibly the need for relevance becomes dominant. In the new paradigm the performance and the price paid takes a dominant position and the need for getting the right value for what they pay becomes more important. For example Honda is the most trusted car brand, but that does not mean ever car that Honda places in market will not be critically evaluated with the filter of relevance, value and price.

This means brands in post crisis world will have to work harder. They will need to get a newer understanding of behavior. The propositions will have to move beyond status, standard, success and power to being right, consistent, honest and transparent.

We haven’t done this in a long while, the time is now.

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

Future of IPL

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When I did my last article about IPL, it looked like everyone wanted to be a part of the IPL gravy train. Then the controversy broke over the Kochi bid and a string of bad news about the administration that ran the event, and even more damaging reports of financial improprietary. To top it, there are even rumors that the matches were fixed and nothing seemed right about IPL. Expectedly media went to town debating the future of IPL. If media owned IPL, it would have been shut down, and the entire cricketing fraternity made to disown the game.
The real inkling of what the future of IPL may hold was answered on the evening when the final was being played. The stadium was packed to the gills, the noise was deafening, the players had the intensity and cricket being played was top class.
So in midst of the entire circus that seemed to say that IPL is over, and there may not be IPL4, the average cricket viewers have given a very clear indicator that IPL is here to stay.
Are there lessons for us to draw from the mess? What is it that is keeping the event alive? What is it that will keep the brand IPL going from strength to strength? This mess of IPL may give us clear answers in managing a brand in crisis
Continue to build credibility: the real reason why IPL is able to draw the crowd into stadiums is the belief that cricket on display is fair and is played with the right passion. It is clear in this moment of crisis that the game is not owned by the administrators or team owners or even the board, the game is owned by the players. It is the credibility of superstars of cricket that is keeping the game alive. So when the game’s biggest icon says, the game will recover the whole cricket loving public agrees
Be authentic: Any brand to create a long term following needs to be honest and open about self. The consumers constantly search for experiences that are real and authentic. The real reason why the brand IPL took off was because it promised an authentic experience. There is no doubt that the current spate of bad news will affect the following of the game in the long run. It definitely will survive this crisis, but recovery from another round of bad news may not be swift and painless
Create high standards around the brand: while credibility and authenticity are the tactics to build a successful brand strategy, there is no going away from offering extremely high standard quality and service. The more the consumers feel that the brand takes itself seriously, the more they would trust and follow a brand. High standard of service and quality is the best way to generate a buzz. It’s not the fan pages on Facebook, or the blog on website that creates the buzz, the brand generates it by offering high quality
Involve the followers: IPL is a unique brand where the users interact with the brand for just 45 days in a year. For the rest of the year, it is a dormant brand. This is a very challenging situation for the brand, especially when it is bogged down by scandals of all kinds. This becomes critical for the brand to constantly ‘hear’ from its followers and make a virtue of it. There is no better way to fight bad news than to generate good news of your own.
Well may be the league will have to put its plan to get 300 brands in its fold for a hold. May be just for a while.
Published at http://www.mediaworldbuzz.com

Integrated Communications: the new reality

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Change may the only constant, but change is most hated by everyone.

Look at every new idea, and the people refused to accept the innovation.

Video didn’t kill radio, calculator didn’t make a whole generation dumb, computers didn’t make us lazy, remotes didn’t turn viewers into constantly surfing junkies

They actually did exactly the opposite. Video made radio smarter. Calculators opened up new possibilities. Computers made a whole generation smarter. Remotes forced the TV programmes to become more entertaining and less preachy

What’s my point?

We may as well see this happening with this entire theory of integrated marketing and communication.

The whole practice of Integrated Marketing is based on the belief that consumers are fragmented, and no single medium can reach them with optimum efficiency. Hence we need to surround them with as many mediums and make them see our brand in the right light. In the morning when they wake up, they must see us on newspapers, thought he day they must see us from billboards and radio. In the evening we must blast them with constant ads on TV. These days’ consumers also watch TV in morning, and hear news on TV throughout the day, so our message must be there too. Rise of mobile and internet means new mediums to should be added to the mix. So not just conventional mediums, but also new mediums. Surround the consumer with as much noise as we can, make sure that that the brand is always around them.

And we do it very simply by taking the TV idea and taking it across every medium. So one visual, one colour or one music note and the brand can communicate with its audience consistently, constantly. We can also measure not only the intensity of our message, but also the effectiveness of our message.

There is a big issue with this approach though. This approach believes that consumers are individual islands and the brands can control the interaction. Almost like what Simon and Garfunkel said in their super hit song “words of prophet are written on the subway wall, and people bowed to their Neon God”

The consumers are no longer fragmented; they have started to become collective, become one and are finding their voice. And not through the old world of unions and forums, but through the new age world of online forums, blogs, communities, Facebooks and Mouthshuts.

And the consumers are shunning authority. We no longer live in a world where people instinctively trust authority. As much social research shows, we’d rather trust our own instincts and the information we learn from our friends. For the brands, it’s better to be talked about by consumers than to try to out-shout the crowd.

These are fundamental changes that will make every theory of Integrated marketing stand on its head

The new world than is not about dominating, but is about engagement. It can sound chaotic and scary, but it needn’t be either

So what is it that the brands need to do to engage consumers?

Make the consumers look good: its not about giving the shine to brand, but to the consumer. The Coke Mentos videos on youtube made the consumers into heros for the brand

Give the consumers a platform: learn from them, see how they interact with the brand and make them central to your brand. This is radically different from the existing thought of being idea central. The idea has to take a back seat.

Let them have fun with the brand: let them customize it, use it the way they want to use it, and allow them to tell the world that they have found their own way of using it.

Speak to them in their language: for a very long time, brands have spoken to consumers in their own vocabulary. In the decontrolled world brands will need to speak with consumers in consumers’ own language

What it means is that the old rules of Integrated Marketing have to undergo a change. The centrality of TV is no longer enough. The consumer is finding a voice, and their own voice, and the brands will have to put them in centre. It is no longer about surrounding the consumer, it is about engaging the consumer

May be there are no rules in the new reality

Published in 4Ps of Marketing, January 15, 2010 issue