Ficci Frames 2008 began yesterday in Mumbai. This year's theme was sustaining development.

As, usual it was great for the networking. I caught with quite a few people that I had lost touch with. Met some new ones. Bonded with old colleagues. Drank lots of coffee. attended loads of talks where i felt like a school back bencher … some gems from yesterday…

• non working housewife - ahem housewives work. They don't get paid for it.. but, they work
• Yash Khanna — addressing Yash Chopra
•  the market capitalisation of all Indian media companies is 15 million USD … ahem, can i turn monopoly

The panel on the Resurgence of Regional Media was good. At the end of the day, the take away was that Hindi is just another regional language — in the context of audiences and media. That product, social and religious marketeers had begun to understand the power and value of regional audiences and did not disdainfully write them off as 'vernacs'. It was one of the few panels where the panelists had bothered to prepare for the audience that they were addressing.

This year FICCI Frames seems to have gone eco friendly. Instead of printing out 180 odd pages of the media report, they gave a short exec summary that was printed and the rest of it on cd… and unlike previous years the report was not plastic wrapped. 

all in all felt like being back at an alumni meet….. :) 

Technorati Tags: Ficci Frames 2008, Mumbai

There are things that you can live down, and there are things that you can’t. Our esteemed censor board chairperson, Sharmila Tagore’s comment on the XXX Flavoured Condoms ad:

"The campaign is not in good taste"

gives a whole new twist to the phrase "double meaning"

In another world, another time, this could be a name for a cola variant in MAD magazine. Unfortunately, in our world it is a term that is used to describe colas with large doses of pesticide. Naturally the reaction to it is mixed. The Cola companies are defending their position and rubbishing the CSE report, the opposition is calling for a ban, the health minister says no action needs to be taken, and the general public is confused at all the charges, counter charges, defences and scientific techno bable that is flying around. One very simple solution is to have cola companies print the statutory warning that cigarette packs carry! And maybe, other restrictions on cigarette advertising could also be applied. Flippancy aside, it is sad to see multi national giants, who are supposed to know better, come to India and flout basic rules of health, safety and doing business. There is no point buying airtime by the kilo, and newsprint by the ton to advertise your wares - if you are going to end up slowly poisoning your target group. Corporate Social Irresponsibility any one ?

Technorati Tags: Cola

I saw an ad yesterday which really struck me dumb. It was for SBI Debit Cards. It paid a backhanded tribute to a number of hindi films. The ad looked like something out of "Do Bigha Zamin". An emaniciated BPL (Below Poverty Line) man doing a variety of heavy tasks. The film is shot in dark hues of earth - that look granulated - increasing the impression of dreariness and hopelessness. The camera follows the man as he goes about his tasks, focusing primarily on his sorry state of life. There are his phate purane chappals. There is him as he tries to drink water from a dry tap - a tribute to Jagte Raho maybe. There is him pulling a laden hand cart. There is him working as a beast of burden carrying up heavy looking sacks up a construction site - a tribute to Nirupa Roy maybe in a Deewar. And finally the camera settles on him eating - devouring some chapattis. And the tagline comes on SBI Debit card - for a cashless society. When the Ad began i honestly thought that it was for the EGS or a PSA on behalf of some NGO or the other. I was zapped when it turned out to be a banking service. I was even more appalled when it was from India’s largest Bank. I was talking about this at work this afternoon - the lack of sensitivity on the part of those who conceptualised and commissioned this when some pointed out that the man was supposed to be a former pick pocket. I missed that bit in the ad. Possibly because - a) it was not prominent, b) the visuals were so stark that i missed everything but the logo at the end. Someone somewhere has a fairly warped sense of humour that they have tried to inject in this ad. In anycase, using such stark poverty to sell a product seems stupid. I am not sure that the average viewer is going to see anything humourous in the ad. I, for one, am not going to be picking up my phone in a hurry to figure out about the service.

Technorati Tags: India, SBI, Advertising

“men are supposed to be brown and rugged, not fair and pansy” said my politically incorrect mom after viewing the Fair and Handsome ad on TV tonight.

Society and Culture has always fascinated me. Why do certain people behave in a particular manner? Why do Tamilians do somethings and Punjabis do something else. And this is more from a macro sociological/anthropological/ethnographic perspective than a micro (psychological) viewpoint.

I always used to have words with the sales teams (when I headed channels) on this concept of a “Hindi Speaking Market” or the concept of “South India” or indeed the “North East”. I am not really sure whether you can lump all Punjab, Haryana, UP, MP, Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttaranchal, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Delhi, Mumbai, Chandigarh, etal together as one homogenous Hindi Speaking Market. My funda was geographical clusters do not necessarily mean socio cultural clusters. Yes, in the extremely broad view we all eat, sleep, drink, procreate etal. but so do dogs and cats. Yes, also in the extremely close up view, I am very different from the next person in my community. But, i guess technology has not reached a stage where we can accurately target the individual with all her inbuilt peculiarities. So a via media is found. In today’s usage it is Socio Economic Classification (SEC’s). But i honestly believe that the time has come to take it beyond SEC’s and look the impact of ethnicity, language, culture and society on our decision making process.

We know that there is a world of behavioural differnce between people from UP and people from Punjab. We attribute it to socio-cultural differences. Yet, we expect them to view and purchase the same things. And our communication to them - inciting them to do so - is identical. I think, that at a certain level, importing too many management, marketing & research fundaes from the west - which is relatively homogenous - has led to a certain kind of laziness in India. We (those who have something to sell) think in English, and translate that English thought into various Indian languages. I am not really sure that such an approach works anymore. The market has expanded beyond those who exclusively think in English and has gone on to encompass people who think in the vernacular.
But, it is not just about the language - though that does play an important role. Putting out a hoarding that says This ya That may appeal to someone who thinks in English because we are a talking about a fairly binary language which has its roots in a fairly binary culture where good and bad or God and Devil are very clearly defined. If you think in Hindi the translation may make sense but not the essence. Because we are talking about a fairly ambigious culture. The concepts of yes and no may exist, but it is very rarely used. Instead the concept is that of shayaad (maybe). We are talking about a language where yesterday and tomorrow are the same word. And it is not just a peculiarity of the language. It is probably also the mind set.

At the same time it is also about cultural symbolism. “pan indian” culture is a figment of the marketeers imagination. A hope that their life will be made easier in communicating to the diversity that is the Indian Market place. Just because someone in the Chennai or Mumbai adopts Sangeet as part of their marriage ritual, doesn’t mean that it is the norm. It is most likely the exception.

Yes we are all brothers and sisters under the skin. All united by this thingee called “Indianess”. But under the skin does not really determine either purchase or viewing. Other things do. Do i buy more insurance because I want to save tax or I am a Tamil? Does she buy more fair and lovely because she is young or is it because she is Rajasthani? (just examples)Maybe one day the industry will grow up and target specific custom for products and services in a specific manner. Until it does this trend of fairly inefficient communication is going to continue.

Putting together this weeks’ blog mela was an incredibly rewarding experience. I had a wonderful journey through Indian blogdom. There are almost 50 posts featured here. My thanks to all those who nominated. Without Bloglines this task would have been chaotic:)

I have had a trying last two days. My ISP has been taking turns with my electricity provider to delay the Blogmela. For that my apologies.

The Mela Opens.

Let’s start this week’s mela with a warm and funny letter from chankya at vichaar.org to the people of Pakistan. A sampler

Partition is no problem for us either – we’re like so over that breakup. Moreover, we’re sort of used to having Pakistan as our neighbor too (whom would we play cricket against if it weren’t for you ?). Besides, it would sort of suck to have Afghanistan next door. BTW, we heard Musharraf broke up with Osama ?

Vulturo wonders why there isn’t any response from Pakistani blogdom, and wonders if there is such an entity. There is. Check out KO one of the more popular bloggers from Pakistan, and this - an excellent blog on Mukhtaran Bibi Case - from june last year to now.
And Mukhtaran Bibi is a case that Indian blogdom has been following. Sepia Mutiny has this to say.
Read the rest of this entry »

The HT hoarding legend reads - LET THERE BY LIGHT, in the process cutting off the light of the residents of Heera Panna.
With HT in front of the building and Pyramid next to it, Heera Panna may be in a posh area of town, but it sounds like a nightmare to live in:)
I am also very curious about the hoarding. That is one of the premium hoarding sites in the city. And half the message is blocked out - from the Mahalaxmi Race Course end - by the hoarding in front. I sometimes wonder how client’s agree to pay what they do!

26th May:
Check out Charu & Rashmi Bansal commenting on the HT hoarding!

Today, I read about the new motorcycle to be launched by Bajaj.
It is called the Avenger. It replaces the Eliminator in the market.
When it comes to advertising men’s products there seems to be an overdose of words that refer to size (videocon - bada hai to behter hai), or methods of revenge or warfare - eliminator, killer, terminator, avenge - or words that confuse - the SR252!
While advertising for women’s products appeal to either the seductress or the mother, many male products hark back to a lawless frontier age for their positioning.
I guess that it is difficult to let go of n millenia of programming!