What An Idea Sirjee!!

“Marketing is about identifying and meeting human and social needs”.

~Philip Kotler.

The plush Idea cellular office at Windsor Building in Mumbai had a very strange look a year back. The Managing Director of Idea Cellular Sanjeev Aga had a very unusual name -9822005556, while the name plate of CFO read 9920712345 and the CMO Mr.Pradeep Srivastava was now 9920785281.Wow!! What an impact a commercial can make on our collective psyche.

Today the marketplace is radically different as a result of new behaviors, new opportunities, and new challenges. The digital revolution has created an information age which promises to lead to more accurate levels of production, more targeted communication and more relevant pricing. At the same time technological advances in transportation, shipping, and communication have made companies to be globalised which in turn benefits the consumers throughout the globe.

At the same time, the companies and ad film makers have now realised that their commercial which has to be aired for some 60 seconds should not only be about selling that product but should also have a SQ i.e. Social Quotient. The product should tell to the consumers how that product could be useful to the society in which they are living.

Not always are ads meant to sell something. If Greenply ,through its ad ,is trying to project the ‘justice delayed is justice denied’ paradigm through its new commercial in which the durability of the plywood is tested ,then Tata salt comes up with a bizzare tagline “kyooki maine desh ka namak khaya hai” which emphasizes the commitment towards the nation.

Commercials have also acted as eye openers. What could be a better example of this aspect than the ‘Jaago Re’ commercial by Tata tea. The tea giant has shown that the tea is not only used as an awakener in the morning but it can also shake us from our slumber and make us think about the nation by not sitting inside the cosy confines of our homes on the polling day but come out and raise our voices against the present state of affairs.

Make no mistake. All this is not social work. It goes into the building of the brand. Brand building is not a one day affair. It takes time and effort along with a good deal of planning. But once a brand starts getting into the good books of the consumers, there is no turning back. Peter Drucker sums it all, “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself. Ideally, marketing should result in a customer who is ready to buy.” What an idea Sirjee!!