Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Lessons from the Narendra Modi Campaign

As the dust settles on a historic election with an unambiguous result after almost three decades, its time to look at the campaign that did it all, and what we can learn with regards to marketing and management.

Was it just a matter of being in the right place at the right time?

Or was it changing the rules of the game, to reposition people's voting decision as a choice between one PM candidate and the other? Almost akin to the Presidential election in the United States.

Modi was given the same prominence by the BJP as Sachin Tendulkar was by the Indian cricket team in one of its more troubling phases.

Remember this ad?

They got the right team in place with a mix of heavy weights and enthusiastic rookies, with "Abki Baar, Modi Sarkar" being coined by Piyush Pandey for the same campaign that witnessed Lawyers, Engineers etc quitting their jobs in Bangalore or Singapore and pitching in.

There are many learnings from the campaign for marketers, and you can read my full piece in The Hindu Business Line, here.