Where's the limit...

Marketing always fascinates; to the extent that it makes you wonder if you really are buying something because you needed it or because you were marketed to. Take my example...I get into a retail store having a set list in my hand ably supported by the limited cash in my wallet (thanks to my dad and my bank!). Then I see this wonderful red color wrapped choclate which has been doing rounds in the tv ads for a week now. Next frame...it's in my basket.

Okay...you may try looking at this from the angle of impulse and non-impulse purchases but seriously saying, I never would have bought it had I not seen that ad. I still don't buy that 4-PM crunchy snack (Sorry Sir, I don't remember the name) because I didn't think it was well sold. The very fact that the general store near my hostel puts a discount on this snack and not on the red-color one tells me that the latter has been marketed.

But, can you sell anything and everything to any one and everyone? May be not. As famously protrayed in an advertisement in the past, you can't make women shave every day. Come on, if a bright marketer can do that, imagine the amount of opportunities for shaving companies. Pealitte can come up with a razor that is dual purpose (the reverse side for the gals). You may argue that there are razors being sold even now but they are for different 'location'. I wish to see the day when a bright marketer can make women shave their (non-existent)beard every day.

People say that marketing is the art of selling a comb to a DevaGowda. Yeah, you can go ahead and sell it to a Kirmani as well but there always is a limit to what marketing can do. It can't make you wear a watch on each of your wrists. Or can it?

The mad world of ads

Tav...washing powder Nirma....washing powder Nirma

Probably the most enduring image of my childhood. The little girl in a frock twirling to the tune of the name which was penned to be a household name for the next decade or so. I was so fascinated that everytime there was a commercial break I waited with bated breath for the little girl. And everytime, the tune started there was a smirk on my lips.

It's not the product that sells, it's the marketing that does. Ignorant, as I was at that time, I thought this was played by the television studio to give a break to the performing actors. After all, it takes time to come all the way from Switzerland (where they just went for a duet) to the shanties of Hyderabad (My initial pick was Mumbai but I was afraid of the legal tangles I would get into if I portray the Mumbai slums)

So, what's there in an ad? Almost everything in close to nothing! You get 20 sec to claim your pie of the fortune. Bet to better that! I remember my dad asking me to explain the importance of a HSBC ad where the kid gets a sprawling caterpillar and puts in a bowl much to the dismay of his mom. Only later did I realise the jargons of the ad world...target customer, message, top-of-the-mind.

Ads are the best thing to happen to the world of television. In addition to saving us from the tears of the saases and bahus, it also brings the diversity of the world within minutes. How else can you explain a frentic 5 minute ad break with ads that range from Fair-and-handsome to Pepsi to Whisper to Nike. It's very rare to find two successive ads of the same segment (err..I don't remember viewing a Nike right after Adidas or a Dil maanging more right after Tasting the thunder)

I long thought that I need to grow my hair and beard and buy a test-cricket hat to be an ad-man. Little did I realise that you need a brain for that hat that thinks sharp! The colors that we see on the screen are the result of some creativity behind for some unmistakabaly longer period. And yeah, last but not the least, thanks to all those models who made the ads what they are...entertaining and informative (Yes boss, the very reason why gals in long skirts come to explain the features of your refrigerator before inducing you to buy)....

Teacher shows an underwear advertisement where a guy runs in his undies when his girl's father turns up.

Teacher: What do you infer from the ad?

Guy: You need to be smart and keep your bike parked in an adjacent lane

Girl: You need to hide the gun before you embark on the exotic mission

Teacher(muttering to himself): And I thought that the father should have come an hour before!!!

What's in a name?

I used to hate my 10th class Hindi teacher. Not just because she never answered my queries (What is the meaning of Kacche Dhaage, Parinda, Purani Haweli - all movie names) but also because she never remembered my name. The very first class started with her re-hinduening (I fear the Dal members and so no Christening word in my blog) me as Ganesh. 

Me: Ganesh!!!! but that's not me

Teacher: Oh! But you look very much like Ganesh, your senior.

I tried to forget it as a one-off day. But, little did I know that it's just a pre-cursor to my plight. Ganesh made it to the rolls everyday and Sridhar was always absent. I wonder if the principal ever peeped into the class; he would definitely have put up a missing notice on the school board. I protested vehmently at every taken opportunity - every time.

(Roll call) Teacher: Ganesh

Me: Absent

Teacher looks up and says seriously I wouldn't tolerate any mischief

I looked down and muttered Neither would I! Wait till I pass out...

Days rolled by and I started hating Shake-sphere (the guy who wrote What's in a name! Did he not write his own name after the quote?) and my teacher too. One lucky day she got her memory back (probably returning from a long pilgrimage) and I got my name back. Though I do not remember, my friends say that they never saw an impromptu dance (and prayed that they never had to!) before.

Days rolled by and it became a memory until it got dusted after a session on branding. Why do people go for a name? Isn't it actually the product that sells? More often than not, people get associated to more than the offering on board. You give them a soap and they get addicted not just to the smile but also to the lady who showers in the ad; they get attuned to your company name so much so that a day would come when naam hi kaafi hain. 

What's in a name? There is so much...can you think of Colgate deciding overnight that it wants to be Hinduened (remember, no Christening word in my blog, never!) Tollgate just for a change. Or Lakme renamed Lakus? Well, at least not in the near future because I don't see my Hindi teacher joining these companies...

Teacher: Ganesh

Me: He's absent, teacher Anamika

Teacher: But, am not Anamika!

Me: Neither am I Ganesh!!