A brand in public life

As Nandan Nilekani takes up his assignment with the Government, our columnist recounts the many positive qualities that this Infosys leader brings to his new role..

Nandan Nilekani: A personal brand that could ensure success for the new project.

One of the most profound statements that I have heard in recent times is by Nandan Nilekani, when I went to interview him for my first book One land, one billion minds.
He said, “You become a brand not when you talk about yourself, but when others talk about you.”

Today the whole of India and one suspects other parts of the world too will be talking about Nandan as he takes charge of the prestigious project on giving every Indian a unique number.

When we were young the joke used to be, “Yes you may know Richard Nixon, but does he know you?”
I can say with a fair degree of confidence that not only do I know Nandan but he too knows me! (If I may add along with a thousand others I am sure). For, not only is Bangalore a “one horse town” where everybody knows everyone else, but also because Nandan by nature is an extremely friendly person.
One of our common friends describes him as a “role model in networking”. I know that the word networking does sound a bit suspicious, but not in the case of Nandan.
He has referred me to several of his friends very, very graciously as “an expert on brands in India”. Now how can anyone be critical of a person who links you with friends and prospects in this manner?

Disagree without being disagreeable

Today many corporate leaders in India are brands in their own right. Media loves them or hates them even, on occasion. They do not hold back on the Government or the bureaucracy. They criticise the poor infrastructure or the Government’s policies, sometimes unfairly.

Fairly or unfairly they certainly raise the hackles of a few people. I am sure successful people are entitled to their opinion and media too would much rather publish the views of celebrities than those of ordinary people like you and me.
Nandan has a point of view, he feels strongly about the country and the need for its development and yet his views have never been really controversial or headline grabbing, a philosophy that others who might have ambitions in public life would do well to remember and even try to emulate.

When I was young, I used to be more hot blooded than I presently am but I always remember my uncle’s words, “You can disagree, but don’t be disagreeable!”

Only when you give will you get

The poet Kannadasan who represented all my literary knowledge at one stage of life, wrote “there are crores of people who are worse off than you, take heart from that”.
But people like Nandan have quietly turned that around by not merely feeling glad that they are better off, but by actually giving back to society by way of contributing time, money and tremendous guidance to a number of causes that are close to their hearts.

I know of enough organisations that are doing noble work which have benefited from his largesse and, as always with the founders of Infosys, all of whom have large hearts, they have donated generously as individuals while the company has got the mileage.

Courtesy demands acknowledgement

I have worked with several busy executives who seem to be caught up in their own tangles of time management.
They never answer their mobile phones, are almost always in meetings and never acknowledge mails.
Of course, being the polite individual that I am, I do not let it pass and keep telling them that it is easier to get through to Dr Manmohan Singh.
They grin sheepishly but continue in their self-centred, inconsiderate ways.
Nandan is a wonderful exception and serves as an example, responding promptly to mails and calls.

I wonder if there is something that we who claim to be busy all the time can learn from the likes of Nandan.

No personal agenda

A few from corporate India have made it to public office.
They are visible in the media and often talk about serving the country and how India needs more talented people from the corporate world.
I agree wholeheartedly with this principle. India has a paucity of talent, particularly young talent, where it matters, in public life.
Yet I wonder if some of these self-styled leaders have anything other than the interest of the industries they serve or the companies they still own.
Half the time they are lobbying on behalf of their own industry category.

Nandan’s prompt resignation from the board of Infosys, a company that he helped found, led and guided for several years is indication that he has a larger agenda, the development of India.Challenge, opportunity or both While it is a tremendous honour, there is no denying that this job will be no bed of roses. India is steeped in red tape. The red tape in other countries may only be a pale pink in comparison. It will require patience, man management and the ability to get people on to one’s side. Many in Government could have personal agendas that conflict with the general good. Nandan has the qualities to succeed in this environment and demonstrate that running a project in government can be as successful as running it in the private sector. I am sure that the personal brand that is Nandan will ensure that brand India succeeds in this ambitious project.

(The writer is CEO of brand-comm and the author of Googly — Branding on Indian turf.)

IPL to ICC in just 20 seconds!

Companies should go over advertising and marketing strategies given the situations the various T20 tournaments throw up, be it broadcast timing or duration of the match..

The IPL has been done and dusted. The Deccan Chargers have just won the extravagantly designed trophy that is another testimony to the IPL’s opulence. Even before the celebrations ended and the hangover subsided cricket teams are fighting anoth er T20 tournament, this time for the World Cup! (Unfortunately for India, it is out of contention, having crashed out in the Super Eights stage.)

Today cricket matches and tournaments are a process, not an event, as they follow each other like waves from the ocean. No one but the players and the spectators seem tired, as the marketers seem to be busy working out promotional schemes by the dozen and ad agencies seem to be producing hundreds of television commercials which seem quite similar to each other. All too often one ends up watching the same boring commercial 17 times on the same day!
If some media reports are to be believed the T20 World Cup is a sell-out for ESPN Star and prices are at least 20 per cent higher than the pricing of the IPL. Of course, there are different sets of sponsors for both these programmes. As we are not involved as advertisers or sponsors, but merely as consumers of advertising who are gifted with 20-20 hindsight, even if some of us are constrained to wear spectacles in real life, we are free to air our views on advertising, cricket, life after IPL, brands … in fact, anything that the editor of this august newspaper permits!

What’s the time, yaar?

I am a diehard cricket fan and watch most games ball by ball and then religiously watch the highlights and the Extra Innings and the Fourth Umpire and the Stumped and every other boring cricket-related programme that comes on air. Yet we are a dying breed and even the most ardent of us are having trouble staying awake at 1 a.m. to watch the epic struggle between India and Ireland. We are getting into trouble with our bosses in the recessionary times that we live in, as our bosses, sadly, seem to have lost their interest in cricket and in the bargain, their sense of humour as well. But seriously, the timing of the matches is an issue and while advertisers are putting up a brave face, I am not sure how good the viewership is likely to be for matches which start at 10 p.m. Thankfully, the saas-bahu serials and the Anandams of the world will continue jerking tears from avid viewers as there will be no clash of interest.

Contrast this with the IPL which had brilliant timings from the Indian viewer’s point of view. Oh, what a time we had! We could have a few drinks in readiness, get sozzled during the match and end up cheering the opposing team and would read the next day’s papers to see who the real winner was! One must hand it to Lalit Modi for his time management. I am sure next time he would make the teams play at 6 a.m. in some remote part of the world, just to ensure that Indians like you and me get to watch our favourite players in the comfort of our living rooms, with our glasses in hand.

Timing was the problem which the World Cup faced in 2007 as the matches were played at crazy times (for us at least) in front of empty stadiums and a smattering of unhappy Indians who could not manage to cancel their flights or sell their tickets!
We all know that the viewership in India is directly proportionate to the team’s performance. How many of us watched the engrossing one-run victory of South Africa over New Zealand? Not too many in India, I suspect. Large numbers of Indians will only watch India games if they are held late at night. So my first prediction is that for most of the tournament the TRPs will not deliver the numbers or the economics that media planners want.

Well, in any case, T20 is a lottery as any Australian supporter will tell you, even as the Australian team goes into hiding at Leicester after an ignominious exit. One just hopes that it does not turn out to be a lottery for the advertisers who have spent crores on it!

Do advertising types ever watch their own ads?

My crib is that bank managers never stand in the queue to collect cash on Saturday mornings, principals do not have to meet other principals for the admission of their children, cops never have to pay fines and agency creative guys for nationalised banks never experience their service!

But having said that, I really wish that the large advertisers and agencies would watch their commercials aired several times during a day’s play. In fact, I cordially invite them to my living room to watch the next match. They would writhe if they were to hear the comments and groans from my friends and family as the same commercials come on ad nauseam.
One such commercial that I have seen too often is that of Dhoni for Orient Fans. Mind you, I have several favourites (!), but as I have too few friends in advertising discretion shall be my operating philosophy. Incidentally Dhoni’s batting too seems as laboured as some of his commercials and he seems to be doing quite a few.

It is perhaps here that one should admire brands such as Vodafone, which, being one of the sponsors of the IPL, had the good sense to do 29, or was it 30, different versions for value-added services as they had bought substantial time during the tournament and did not want their viewers to be bored. Reliance Communication, which is the sponsor for the current T20 tournament, too has multiple executions with the handsome Hrithik Roshan (there, I have made my niece happy).

But I too have a Reliance mobile connection and have no clue as to what the commercials are saying, other than the fact that Hrithik is a nice guy who remembers his old friends including the light boy even if he is a bit old! But imagine if Reliance had had only one commercial!
This leads me to something that I feel strongly about. If the T20 calls for a different strategy and execution then how is it that the advertising agency is serving its own boring fare whether it is a K serial or a T20 game? If crores are being spent on the promotion, should at least millions not be spent on the creative product? Imagine running 30- and 40- second commercials in a match that lasts all of 40 overs! Come on guys, get creative! Shorter, edgier, more versions, not more of the same!

IPL, T20 or what is the way ahead?

The purists might refuse to accept the “hit and giggle’ as the way to go for the game, but there is no denying the fact that advertisers and marketers should have no doubts that the future of commercial cricket is here. Money is obviously not unlimited and brands continually have to make choices as to where they will park their funds. So where would I put my money if my brand were to be associated with cricket in some way, as quite a few brands have been? Make no mistake; the World Cup is a big event. But so far it has been a low-key affair if not a damp squib. Even the opening ceremony was dumped, courtesy the glorious English weather!

The crowds, I suspect, are still waiting by the sidelines for the Ashes to begin and the grounds are half full if not fully empty. After all, every Englishman and his brother-in-law know that the Ashes are going to change hands this summer, never mind what the form book says.
While national support can muster up the numbers, neutral games have very poor viewership in India, even if they are interesting. Many of the teams that have made it to the Super Eights are quite sad, to put it mildly, and even making allowance for the fact that T20 can cause upsets. A few of the games will make for poor viewing.

Contrast this with IPL with several close games and spectators forming alliances and rooting for teams even if they have foreigners in them.
The charm of T20 is close games, with each over likely to turn the game around on its head. I wonder how many close games the current World Cup will have? I just wonder.
I do know that this is a global event as 216 countries could be sharing the broadcast lead but then India is where most of the money is being spent. And a phenomenal number of eye balls are expected.

I think companies need to think through their future strategies as IPL is here to stay and gives much more flexibility for marketers and sponsors, as the ICC seems to be looking the other way whenever Lalit Modi does or says anything.
So what’s your pick? IPL or ICC? Or should we do an sms poll on Extra Innings?

P.S. Just to lend credence to my crib about ads in the T20, Maruti has this corporate ad which I am sure is a hastily done edit of earlier commercials. So there is a sequence where a boy has a placard saying “want to go home for Diwali”, never mind the fact that the ad is being shown in June.
Oh, well, Happy Diwali!

(Ramanujam Sridhar, is CEO, brand-comm, and the author of Googly-Branding on Indian Turf.)

Winners, losers and also-rans

Branding and marketing, rather than sport and team spirit, triumphed in this IPL..

It’s been a week since the spectacular IPL final and the not so spectacular closing ceremony. You don’t need to be very smart to know that Deccan Chargers won a taut final after facing the ignominy of being the winners of the wooden spoon last year.

The runner-up was Royal Challengers, a team that was perhaps rightly branded last year as a test team and had finished seventh. They were not much different this year as the highly valued Kevin Pietersen, who was supposed to give momentum to the side as captain and key batsman, nearly derailed the challenge till Anil Kumble, the former test captain, stepped in to show the way with a little help from Ross Taylor to end up a close second.

After 59 matches, several thousand seconds of commercial time, hours of buffoonery behind the mike and countless bumps and grinds by Jacques Kallis’ sister and her clan, let’s examine who are the real winners and losers after this event. Are there any learnings at all from this exercise?

Losing matches but winning the brand war

A recent report by an independent brand valuation firm suggests that the Kolkata Knight Riders are the most valuable of the eight teams that are currently part of the IPL. While critics of brand valuation may carp at the subjective nature of the process and while cricket fans may deride the team’s performance, there is no denying the fact that the team owner has got his marketing act right, even if he could not organise the team’s performance.

They were the first to unveil their uniform, create a winning anthem if not a rocking team, get sponsorship of leading brands such as Sprite with visible advertising and extensive sale of merchandise. I am no fan of John Buchanan or Shah Rukh Khan but even I ended up buying the black and gold T-shirt on a JetLite flight to Delhi. (Bored air travellers have been known to do strange things.)

The other teams have a lot to learn from the Knight Riders in marketing and branding while the Knight Riders team can learn lots of things from other teams such as the Chargers and the Royals on the value of team spirit and the importance of a single captain. John Buchanan demonstrated the value of the statement that a “coach is something that the players use to travel to the stadium from the hotel.” Clearly the emotional SRK would be well advised to change both coach and captain next year, but who are we to comment on his team, after all it’s his money!

Price losses and value gains

Clearly the losers in the IPL were those who failed to attend the session on “cost benefit” analysis in management school. Some of the most expensive players were easily the duds of the tournament. The English players Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff must have been flattered by the prices they commanded by owners who went by reputation, but they merely flattered to deceive.

Other Englishmen such as Collingwood and Owais Shah travelled halfway through the world to warm the dugout benches on really cold South African nights. The costliest exchange has been that of the vastly overrated Robin Uthappa for India’s premier fast bowler Zaheer Khan, which, incidentally, was announced with major fanfare and someone would have thought that we were watching history in the making.

Of course, Uthappa created his own unique record by spending more time with Mandira Bedi, giving more media interviews than he did at the middle batting. His dropped catches also provided enormous entertainment to his opponents. In retrospect the relatively underpaid Australians such as Hayden, Gilchrist and Warne demonstrated the value of experience particularly in the context of the tournament’s sudden and unexpected move to South Africa. Maybe the talent scouts would be better off by getting the likes of Justin Langer, who is still making a huge number of runs in England, to play here in future series of the IPL. Value buys are the winners while the high-profile buys will be consigned to history.

The loss of a professional reputation

They do say that a reputation is slowly built over years and can be lost in a jiffy. Well, most of the commentators lost their reputation in this three-week period as they outdid themselves in trying to pander to Lalit Modi and the sponsors in a manner that was almost pitiable. The likes of Mark Nicholas, Danny Morrison, Robin Jackman, Rameez Raja and a host of others should not be allowed anywhere near a stadium where a serious cricket match is being played here after.
I urge these illustrious gentlemen and a host of others who were part of the circus to watch their own performances again in replay and perhaps they will understand the agony that some of us went through as we watched them over after over.

Broadcasting has been the loser and I am not referring only to the quality of telecasting, which left a lot to be desired despite the helicopters crisscrossing, and the host of cameras which were focusing only on the celebrities.

Winning captains, losing captains

If last year Shane Warne was the captain of the tournament, this year it was another leggie, our own Anil Kumble, who, surprisingly was an afterthought. There was a host of other captains who not only stepped up first for the presentation ceremony but were also last in terms of innovation and ability to handle pressure.

I will not run the risk of talking about Sachin Tendulkar’s captaincy as I do not want to be lynched alive, but a few prospective Indian captains were on display in addition to the incumbent M. S. Dhoni who was his normal, unflappable self for most of the tournament except when his bowlers let him down.

Yuvraj had a permanent scowl on his face, Sehwag was smiling despite committing the cardinal sin of not giving Glenn McGrath a single game despite his team having a huge lead. Of course, Kevin Pietersen and Yuvraj had one thing in common – they had no clue as to the team composition as they went out to toss! Gilchrist turned around his team and kept smiling equally when his team snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and when Rohit Sharma did the impossible in the final over.

BCCI wins the earnings battle but loses the ethics war

BCCI and Lalit Modi have been behind this amazing marketing success story that has got the world sitting up and taking notice but it has not covered itself with glory on one important aspect and that is in resolving the conflict of interest issue.

Whilst all sorts of rumours float around about the ownership of various teams, let me stay with something that I saw on television that bothered me enormously.

Mandira, poor thing in her sad new look, was asking Kris Srikkanth who his favourite was before an important game and the Chairman of the selection committee broke forth into the Chennai Super Kings jingle. Is his sponsorship with the team more critical to him than the prestigious job as Chairman of the selection committee?

India wins, Lalit Modi loses

The second edition of IPL has been a major achievement for India and its organising capabilities. It speaks of skill, logistics, execution, all brought to bear in a short time in a foreign country when the chips were down. The world sat up and took notice.

And yet Lalit Modi’s basking in the glory and cornering the camera and the limelight demonstrates the trouble with BCCI and its in-your-face approach. India is the most powerful cricketing nation in the world and it has shown more than eyeballs this time around.

It has shown tremendous marketing acumen and organising ability. But Lalit Modi needs to remember the simple branding principle: “You become a brand when others talk about you.”
People will certainly talk about the IPL and not Lalit Modi in the years to come, one hopes.

Bye bye Johannesburg, hello London

Now the caravan moves to England where teams will play as nations. Zaheer will clash with J. P. Duminy and David Hussey with Ishant Sharma.Former team mates will rediscover the hatchet and forget the recent friendships in South Africa.People such as Andrew Symonds will continue to sledge with renewed vigour and people like me who are suffering from withdrawal symptoms after the IPL will go back to predicting winners and losers.We will also remember that the biggest winner is the game of T20 cricket with its furious ups and frenetic downs.

(Ramanujam Sridhar is CEO, brand-comm, and the author of Googly - Branding on Indian Turf.)

Zooming into minds and hearts

The ‘Zoozooperstars’ are the current rage.
Ramanujam Sridhar

Love ’em or not, the Zoozoos have made an impression. And that also counts for successful advertising..

Without a doubt the Vodafone campaign is the most visible campaign of the several that are currently on air and reminds me of the statement that works wonderfully in advertising and in life: “Either love me or hate me but for God’s sake don’t ignore me.”
But should the brand have made such a drastic departure from the past? Isn’t the tone of voice too different? What will happen to the pug?

There was a time when cola advertising ruled the roost in India and if one may add, in the rest of the world too, in terms of creativity. In India, the ads for Pepsi were benchmarks for creativity as they might well have been for North America. Then Coca-Cola, which was a laggard in the creativity sweepstakes, got into the act and the original “Thanda matlab Coca-Cola” ads featuring Aamir Khan quickly catapulted the brand into visibility and enabled it to catch up with Pepsi that was far ahead then.

Today, however, the category that is setting the benchmark for that elusive quality called creativity and spends that ensure that the campaign is seen is most undoubtedly that of mobile services.

I am what may be euphemistically referred to as a “compulsive user” of the mobile phone. Of course, if you ask my wife she might use the words “obsessive user”. (I must quickly add, though, that the secret to staying married for as long as I have is to generally ignore the profound statements that one’s spouse makes.)

But both of us must agree and confess that I am nowhere in the league of my children when it comes to mobile phone usage or dependence. But let me stay with “yours sincerely” as one never knows enough about one’s own children.

I was originally a JTM user from Bangalore, one of the earliest service providers in case the name does not ring a bell and a company that was subsequently taken over by Bharti. I also have a Blackberry from Reliance whose usage I am still trying to figure out. For a short while I was wooed by Hutch, as the company was then called, and subscribed to their service in a moment of weakness. I gave up the service in a short while, as the physical fitness demands imposed by the brand on me were unacceptable to a self-respecting individual.

Maybe I need to explain this, which sounds pretty complex but in actual fact is pretty simple. Whenever I was in Bombay as it was called then and in our office in Lower Parel (or upper Worli), I had to run out of the office when the phone rang if I wanted to hear the caller. I opted out of the service as I strongly believe that fitness should never be forced on an individual, however well meaning the service provider!

I could write a book about how mobile phone companies’ advertising is much better than the coverage they provide. For example, when the user is in Kandahar or some such distant place in the commercial the phone seems to work wonderfully while it barely ever works in Koramangala in Bangalore in real life.

Maybe we should shift our offices to the more remote parts of India! The service works brilliantly in a moving train in another commercial where a father and son play chess while it invariably never seems to work with the same clarity when the father is in Anna Salai (Mount Road) and the son is in Mylapore. I do realise that children are happier this way but that is another story! Calls drop at a rate which puts to shame the rate at which Mathew Hayden slams fours in the IPL. Instead of talking about things which are beyond our control, such as service, network, call drops and wrong billing, let me talk about the ads that appear for mobile services over the network and particularly those that appear during the IPL and during the strategy breaks.

Branding a campaign

Vodafone is one of the sponsors of the second edition of IPL, like Citi and DLF. But I must compliment it for not trying to be in the league of Citi and DLF when it comes to branding their offering. I love the audacity of the bank for its frequent “Citi moments of success” which the poor, hapless commentators keep chanting. Given the way people have looked at banks and their recklessness in recent times with some of them almost being on the verge of extinction, I admire Citi’s foolhardiness in its frequent reminders to customers about success.
As for DLF, the less one speaks about it the better. I am sure as an unhappy customer of some realtor or the other, my reaction when I get shortchanged by anybody is to think “I have been DLFed” so they too have created a place under the sun for themselves. I do wish the company all success, as in these troubled times it certainly needs all our good wishes if not our patronage.

Vodafone’s ads may be more in-your-face in their execution but are at least different from the abovementioned two. The current campaign for Vodafone that has been branded as the Zoozoo campaign, without a doubt is the most visible campaign of the several that are currently on air and reminds me of the statement that works wonderfully in advertising and in life: “Either love me or hate me but for God’s sake don’t ignore me.” One can ignore the campaign at one’s own peril. There are multiple executions, close to 30, I am told, for what the mobile services industry calls “value-added services” whether it is stock alerts, beauty tip alerts, prayers or cricket scores, to name just a few.

Commercials make news

As someone who has a reasonable understanding and appreciation of the public relations process, one must say that the commercials have made news, which, given the declining importance of advertising, is itself a significant achievement.

There have been features on the making of the commercials, of how they have been shot in South Africa and how they are real-life models and not animated characters and how the models are women and children.

It has been a breakthrough in the social media networking realm and has captured the imagination of the young viewer with consumers using the character as screensavers, wallpapers and sound clips of Zoozoo ads. To put it mildly, it has captured the imagination of the young viewer and one must remember that a mobile service is essentially a young person’s category. Kids certainly spend more time on their mobile phones than with their parents and most definitely more than the time they spend with their books. It is an integral part of their lives and most certainly a high-involvement category.

I personally found the campaign different and interesting, if a bit overrated. But then I am in my fifties and perhaps not the target audience for the ‘Zoozooperstars’, as the models are described.

So I spoke to a cross-section of people who were young enough to be my children – my students, young employees and a host of youngsters across the country to get their feedback, lest I be classified as a biased, old fogey who does not understand today’s youth or what makes them tick. I also had a quiet sort of liking for the pug dog and had found the campaign warm and endearing which was what I believed was the projected personality of the brand and must confess that I still keep wondering what will happen to the poor dog.

I am loving it

The first 23-year-old I asked about the campaign gave me an indication of what youngsters think. “Oh, I love it!” she said, and her eyes lit up much as mine would have when I used to think of ice-cream 30 years ago. Today’s kids might need bigger things to turn them on, maybe John Abraham, but definitely the ads are a turn-on. Perhaps, between you and me, because this was not what I wanted to hear, I spoke to a few older people as well and here the response was a bit less ecstatic and maybe a bit muted as well. “What are they trying to say?” “Seems a bit immature,” said one 50-year-old in a sonorous voice that would have made the cheekiest youngster bite his lip. Some people, who I am sure are not animal activists, seem to be missing the pug.

It’s the money

Value-added services clearly seem to be the exciting revenue option and every service provider is after the consumer to use these services. This campaign, with its multiple executions creating awareness for the range of services, addresses that specific need eminently as most users seem to be unaware of the possibilities that the service provides. The earlier image, however cute, could be seen as passive, award-winning perhaps, but certainly not as effective as the current cheeky executions.

It certainly seems to drive home the point better than Airtel’s ads with Madhavan and Vidya Balan, whom most of the current crop of youngsters see as ‘middle-aged”. Yet, questions remain.

Should the brand have made such a drastic departure from the past? Isn’t the tone of voice too different? What will happen to the pug? Do you really need so many different executions or are the client and producer having a ball at the client’s expense? If the key revenue is going to come from cricket alerts and stock market tips is it better to stay with just a few key ones?

Singing in the rain

I am sure any campaign that promotes debate and provokes strong reactions has a lot going for it, living as we do in a world where advertising campaigns create as much impact as ships that pass us by in the night. Zoozoo certainly is different.

It reminds me of a Tamil proverb that I had heard often enough: “Either stand in the sun or stand in the rain, never stand in the shade.” The creators of the campaign remind one of summer rain that makes people rush out, revel in it and sing! It is perhaps more campaigns such as these that will get currently cynical young people to get into advertising.
May the tribe of creative rain-makers increase!

(The Ramanujam Sridhar CEO, brand-comm, and the author of One Land, One Billion Minds.)

The setting and its selling

With the IPL matches shifting to South Africa, marketers are finding ways to retain viewer interest and stay relevant.
Brands have floated promotions giving customers a chance to view matches in South Africa

The IPL is alive and kicking, but in South Africa. As I write, Rajasthan Royals, the winners of the first edition of IPL, have just won a tight game at Centurion. There are conflicting reports on the TRPs, one version says it is dropping while another says it is strong. Speaking for myself, I have watched the matches however much they have been interrupted by rain, and however many times Lalit Modi has been shown and however one sided some of them have been. (But I am an advertiser’s dream viewer and perhaps a dying breed!) Staying with Lalit Modi, I must mention however that if I had been responsible for his personal profiling I would have asked for a substantial bonus as the television crews seem to be infatuated with him! The grounds seem to be filled with people who seem to be having a good time if the amber coloured liquid in their hands is any indication. Consumers however are chafing at the bit just like Glen McGrath, who still has to get a game for the Delhi Daredevils. What is the consumer’s problem? She knows that the strategy break is a con, just to get in more commercials. She has to stay awake longer as the matches end later, defeating the very nature of T20 cricket. And batsmen are hard pressed to retain their momentum during an unnecessarily long break and usually end up holing out in the eleventh over. So quite a few people are being challenged by the matches being held in South Africa, whether it is Set max, which is wondering how to handle the extra talk time thanks to the frequent and persistent rain, or the Royal Challengers, who are wondering where their next win will come from or the Kolkatta Knight Riders, who must be dreading what new scandal will hit the media. But none of these, to my mind at least, is equal to the challenge that marketers and sponsors in India have faced with the shifting of the matches from the known to the unknown (for us at least] rainbow nation suddenly.

The theory of constraints

Marketing and management is all about optimization of resources that invariably are never enough for what we want to do. Another scenario is the presence of constraints that prevent organizations and brands from moving forward and the smarter companies handle these by taking them in their stride and working around them. I have nothing but the highest praise for the companies which had bet on the IPL second edition happening in the Chinnaswamy stadium at Bengaluru (good God!) and the Brabourne stadium at Mumbai (not much better), who found to their chagrin that the venues were the Wanderers and St. George’s Park in Centurion and several others that one had merely heard of or seen on TV. One of the most annoying aspects of the IPL commentary for me personally this season has been the way commentators have gone overboard on Lalit Modi and his team, who organized the transfer of venue in a mere three weeks. Commendable, but spare a thought for the marketers who had planned a whole range of promotional activities and ground activations in India, who were told that the matches would not be in Indian cities. Yet they have got their act together and have tried to make the most of the changed scenario within the same short time window and by and large are up and running, something that neither the Royal Challengers nor the Kolkata Knight Riders have been able to do, at least at the time of writing. So let’s take a look at some of the promotions that have been built around IPL and see what brands and companies have been doing here in India.

Ring in an idea

Idea Cellular launched the Special IPL-666 recharge where the consumer will get talk time of Rs. 666 and can earn up to 6 minutes of free talk time with every six that the Mumbai Indians score. May Jayasuria hit more sixes and may the residents of Mumbai talk more! Another visible scheme “Talk to Mumbai Indians” gives callers an opportunity to talk to Sachin, Zaheer and Harbhajan. There is a cute commercial where the phone rings and Harbhajan picks it up perhaps hoping that Symonds or Sreesanth would be on the line, but unfortunately it is a young female voice that wishes to speak to Zaheer Khan! I guess no one has told the feisty sardar that he should not pick up someone else’s mobile! For all you know it might have been someone from the Government of India asking him why he did not come to pick up his Padmasree in person! Idea has another scheme by which those who use roaming nationally or internationally have the opportunity to win a tour to South Africa. Aircel the sponsor of the Chennai Super Kings team has launched “Kaun dega man of the match award” contest for its mobile subscriber who can guess which is Dhoni’s favourite love song. The winner gets the rare opportunity to go to South Africa and hand over the man of the match award thereby getting instant recognition across continents and with millions of viewers across the world. Of course both Aircel and Chennai Superkings must be hoping that the highly paid MS Dhoni, around whom so many promotions have been built, scores a few more runs and even picks up a man of the match award as the current Indian T20 team is by and large sitting back and waiting for the foreigners to deliver whilst they poor, conscientious souls are doing it match after match - whether it is Hayden, Gilchrist, De Villiers, Sangakkara or Dilshan. Of course the veteran Indians (imagine calling the baby faced Sachin that) who are not part of the T20 team are showing our much touted youngsters a thing or two about commitment and passion. Back to the marketers, Virgin Mobile not to be outdone launches “Indian Hatke League” which gives Indian youth and not only Virgin Mobile users the opportunity to play this online mobile game where the user has the option to play for any of the eight teams participating in the second edition of IPL.

McDowell’s No.1 whose brand idea and theme has been built around friendship continues the theme with its T20 Fan Friendzy league (FFL) for the ongoing T20 season. Fans have the opportunity to form their own dream teams and virtually play ahead of every game and the group of friends scoring the highest points at the end of the season will be sent to England to watch the ICC T20 finals.

McDowell No.1 has an interesting concept “Loyal fans, die-hard friends” built around the theme that fans can support different teams and yet celebrate together while watching the games. Indigo Nation, the brand that designs trendy and fashionable formal wear for the young, edgy and maverick man is the official formal wear partner of the Royal Challengers Bangalore team. Let’s hope that the fashionable team will carry the edge on to the field. For every purchase of Rs. 1000 from indigo Nation, the customer gets a chance to win a trip to South Africa to watch the IPL semi-final and final. For every purchase of Rs. 1500, the customer gets a red satin tie, as is worn by the RCB team.

Continue to engage, continue to sell

In India, cricket sells, whether brands sell or not! While the big ticket brands like Pepsi have the capability and resources to put their money where their mouth is and spend crores of rupees behind concepts like “first ball ka captain” other brands may not have the same luxury and yet would like to capitalize on the mania that the game inspires in this diverse country. While it is relatively easier to do it in the stadia and around them when the matches are being held in India, the current scenario posts an entirely different challenge as the excitement has to happen in pubs, lounges and in sports bars. Thankfully the timing of the matches are just right for the Indian viewer (or should one add, the guzzler) as the day matches in South Africa are during the “happy hours” in India which enables one to forget how badly the team that one is supporting is playing! But back to the customer connect. While brands and marketers have been quick to cash in on the challenge they would be well advised to revisit the basics before they embark on an ambitious programme of promotions.

What is the essence of the brand?
What is the selling proposition?
How strong is the association with a particular interest like cricket?
Is it a “One off” idea or can it be long term?
Does it add to the brand’s equity or is it diluting it?
The trouble is that, at times, marketers get emotional about their brands and sometimes about cricket. An emotional attachment may or not be right for the brand. So think carefully and objectively and come up with your own strategy and here is hoping that it does not end up like John Buchanan’s multiple captains theory!

Ramanujam Sridhar is CEO of brand-comm and the author of “One land, one billion minds”.

The setting and its selling

Brands have floated promotions giving customers a chance to view matches in South Africa

A new, improved Satyam?

Ramanujam Sridhar
The brand must make an effort to show it has changed for the better..

When I was young (Oh God, there I go again!) a movie running for 100 days was a significant achievement. (Today however, I see posters heralding a triumphant ten-day-run of movies.) Aradhana, the Hindi movie with immortal music byS. D. Burman ran for 100 weeks in Tamil-speaking Madras, when I was just finishing school. But sadly, this is not about movies or music or even about my schooling, but about another significant achievement that has happened in the last 100 days. I refer to the takeover of Satyam by Tech Mahindra, which will fork out a small sum of Rs 2,889 crore to gain a controlling 51 per cent equity in the company whose troubles started 100 days ago, in the media at least, on January 7 with Ramalinga Raju’s confessions.

How quickly things have moved since that fateful day! No one must be more relieved than the 53,000 beleaguered employees of the company. These 100 days have also seen a tremendous achievement by the newly constituted board of Satyam to get its act together and get the interest of the corporate world in a brand which had come under a phenomenal cloud. It is also a significant achievement for India and Indian business when globally, larger, higher profile brands have bitten the dust and others are still out begging bowl in hand. But let’s return home and to our own concerns.

What does this takeover and change mean for brand Satyam? Will it regain its former glory? What must the company do? Let me hazard a few guesses as it is always easier to make predictions in turbulent times like these, as one can always take refuge under the unpredictability of the times that we live in, should the predictions turn out to be horribly off the mark!

Takeover - who wins, who loses?

Of the four who were serious bidders, maybe Cognizant was best suited from a technology and business fit perspective, but that was not to be. L&T too did the rumour rounds, having already had a presence on the board and showing its interest in no uncertain terms to all who cared to listen, media included. Now that the deal is done, it is pertinent to observe that perhaps the deal might benefit Tech Mahindra more than it might benefit Satyam, as it immediately catapults the combined entity into the elite stable of Indian software.

However, one must quickly add that though the Mahindras are not dominant players in the technology space (they are in the telecom space in technology) they are most certainly a respected name in the Indian industry, with a track record of success in business and the acknowledged ability to launch successful brands across categories. The troubled Satyam brand will certainly benefit from the solidity that the mere name implies and the consistency in management that the earlier leadership sorely lacked. Having said that, it might perhaps be better to concentrate on the road ahead and the challenges that lie in store than focus on the immediate past. For it seems apparent to even the casual observer that the road ahead is going to be reminiscent of the challenges and frustrations that the Indian industry faced in the times of the Licence Raj, full of unexpected road blocks and with hardly a dull moment!

The name of the game

Individuals do not have control over their names, by and large as parents and astrologers (in India, at least) determine how one is called. As my favourite author would say: “Imagine going through life with a name like this!” Brands, fortunately, have some leeway. They can even change names midway through their lives should the need present itself. And if ever there ever was a need for Satyam to change its name, it most certainly needs to do so in the present.

During my youth I made some feeble and ill-directed attempts to leave the country. Thankfully, I was unsuccessful. As part of those ill-fated attempts I wrote the GRE. (If you do not ask me my score, I promise you I won’t lie to you!) But back to that exam, which had a section on antonyms, where the student had to find the word that meant exactly the opposite to the word in question from the choices available. The word Satyam reminds me exactly of this, because the company has certainly stood for everything except truth which is really what Satyam means. So, is it a “no brainer” to change the name?

Well, sometimes research throws up answers that we already know, something that we realise much later, after spending considerable amounts of money. Doing research on the efficacy and relevance of the Satyam brand name in this case, might in my opinion, throw up the same result. While certain companies have built and refined their brand names from the past, such as Sasken, which was earlier known as SAS, I feel that the company ought to now make a clear break from the past. So that is one strategic brand decision out of the way. What next?

The essence of the brand

Ideally brands have an essence that defines their very being. Their raison d’etre. Too often these are tributes to the dexterity in word play of the brand consultant or advertising agency and not anchored in reality. Satyam or the new brand, as the case may be, will not have this luxury the second time around. Its mission and vision statements must be anchored in reality and not mere feel-good statements that adorn the walls of corporate boardrooms and that no one reads barring the office attendant who has the unfortunate job of dusting it occasionally!
Staying on the subject of brands, a successful brand is relevant to its publics and different from its competitors. There is no doubt that Satyam will continue to be relevant to most of its customers and to several thousand of its existing employees. (I must confess my cowardice in not addressing the relevance of the brand to investors at this point in time.) It must, in its new avatar, too be different. Not so much from its competition, but from the way it was, or has been perceived to be recently. In fact, this is the greatest challenge, particularly for existing employees. How do they keep demonstrating that they are “new & improved” in every aspect of their customer service and delivery? This is something that is easier to talk about than deliver, but the very success of the new venture, as I choose to call it, will hinge on this important difference.

Communication is in

Troubled times call for extensive and continuous internal communication. In this case, it is not only the environment but the company too that is under stress. Never has there been a greater time to communicate. The company should resist the temptation to talk to an ever eager media and focus internally on its most important target, its own people. An audience that has lived on the edge, fed by rumours and threatened by fears, some of them justified and who are now seeing a change of ownership. The company has to focus on retaining talent as that will be crucial in ensuring stability for its customers who have stood by it by during turbulent times. Communication of stability and a reassurance to existing employees will have to be punctuated with a clear articulation of a new set of values and a new direction that will be the basis of the company’s functioning.

I am sure the Mahindras are shrewd businessmen and know what they are getting into. They might do well to remember what Hector Liang, Chairman of United Biscuits, said: “Buildings age and become dilapidated. Machines wear out. Cars rust. People die. But what lives on are the brands.”

May the new brand that is being formed out of this acquisition live on!

(Ramanujam Sridhar is CEO, brand-comm, and the author of One Land, One Billion Minds)

It’s about the team, silly!

Although the atmosphere in IPL Season 2 may not be as electrifying in South Africa as it was in the pulsating grounds of India.. Star studded, yes. But can IPL-2 repeat the magic of the first edition?

I watched every match of the first edition of the Indian Premier League in the comfort of my living room, usually slouched on my favourite chair, though I did lose my place on occasion to my son who is taller and more muscular and a cricket fan as we ll. The only match I saw live was the final at the new D.Y. Patil stadium at Vashi in New Mumbai, where two teams from other parts of India were playing – the Rajasthan Royals and the Chennai Super Kings, in front of an audience that consisted essentially of Mumbaikars, though there were small contingents from Rajasthan and Chennai who were making their presence felt with the volume of their voices.

Now let me go off on a tangent. Have you seen the Vodafone commercial? The one with the girl who is in the same lift as a celebrity and wants to tell the whole world about her fantastic experience, of course at the nominal cost of 60 ps per message. Yes, I did feel a bit like her as I was sitting just a couple of rows behind Aamir Khan and Sachin Tendulkar and all the flash bulbs were on them. But I didn’t mind the lack of media attention as my own attention was on the tight game and the attendant excitement, the fireworks, the performing artists and the delirious fans who kept chanting “Watson! Watson!”, as they have done for Sachin in the same city and all over the world for years. Yes, the first edition of the IPL was an unqualified success for a variety of reasons. It broke all the myths about Indians supporting Indians only as Chennai cheered for Hussey and Hayden and Kolkata for McCullum. It featured some outstanding cricket, delivered enormous eyeballs to television audiences, got tremendous coverage in every possible medium and made Lalit Modi the most celebrated marketing personality of the year. So what’s in store in April as the IPL gets ready for its next edition? The major difference is that it will not be in the heat and dust of Rajasthan and Chennai or in front of audiences of over 50,000 and close to one lakh people in sweltering heat but in the more salubrious climes of Cape Town and Bloemfontein and in venues as exotic as the Bullring in the Wanderers.

Change of venue, loss of face

The last few weeks have been tense for Lalit Modi, the BCCI, and the franchisees that were getting tenser by the moment with each change of date and with increasing hostility from the politicians, who were concerned with their own future despite some of them being diehard cricket fans. After all a livelihood is more important than entertainment and our politicians know which side of their bread is buttered. Every political party tried to get mileage from this (non) event and the failure to hold the matches in India was branded a failure of the Indian political system and definitely an indictment of the current government, though in all fairness it would have been a Herculean task to juggle the security arrangements of the general elections of this vast, diverse country and the tight security for the 59 matches of IPL planned in different venues at the same time.

Not as electrifying

Having said that, it is interesting to note that South Africa will have its own general elections during the IPL! While South African crowds have taken to the nano version of the game as the recent matches with Australia demonstrated, one must still wait and watch the impact of only a handful of South Africans participating across eight teams. South Africans might not exhibit the same enthusiasm for cheerleaders that some Indian audiences lapped up the last time around. My suspicion is that the crowds and the atmosphere this time around will be nowhere near as electrifying as it was in the throbbing, pulsating grounds of India, as spectators jostled cheek by jowl in every conceivable seat in every venue.

Already some of the cricketers such as Shane Warne have expressed their reservations about the venue and the fact that it will be nowhere near as exciting as it has been so far. The bottom line is that it is only about television audiences and 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. are wonderful times for Indian television audiences.

This leads me to the larger question as to what franchisees will get from IPL this time and what they might possibly lose because it is happening in a distant land and not within our own country, where we clearly know what to expect in terms of crowd presence and participation.

It is common knowledge that none of the franchisees had any serious association with cricket until they forked out enormous sums of money as guarantee money and paid (disproportionately) large sums of money to some cricketers. Of course, the franchisees haven’t learnt their lesson if the current bids for Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff are any indication. Last time around it was the less fancied and cheaper players who delivered phenomenal value. But, of course, we are being wise after the event while they clearly have to put their money where their mouth is. While it is their money and they are answerable only to their investors, I do feel that this event in South Africa, while it might deliver large, captive TV audiences in India, still has one big disadvantage for the franchisees and that is the complete absence of connect with the consumer.

Based on my own perceptions I can only say that there are short-term and long-term objectives that this entire venture promised. One was, of course, commercial viability, and some of the franchisees have claimed that they have broken even in the first year itself. But I did assume there was a larger objective and that was to build a local connect.

Build following for the teams in their respective centres by having people turn up in large numbers, waving flags, sporting the team’s colours and being passionate about them. Of course, it is unrealistic to assume that the fan of the Chennai Super Kings would feel as devastated if his team were to lose as the Manchester United fan in the same situation. The reason for this is simple. Team loyalties that are not driven by regional, national or parochial considerations will take time and effort to build. Last time was only about excitement, not much else. Stars were still the key excitement. It was still about Sachin and Yuvaraj and Dhoni, not so much about the teams and that is the challenge if the franchisees are to build loyalty and passion for their teams much like the English football teams then they need to simultaneously focus on the long run of this aspect, even as they worry about the profitability in the present.

A brand called Arsenal

I was recently reading an interesting book on Arsenal, which was not so much about the football, but about the club as a brand and that led me to some of the challenges that the IPL’s franchisees are likely to face. The statement by Herbert Chapman in the book, while making interesting reading, also prepares us for the challenges ahead. He says, “A club should be like a great big family with all members of it sticking and pulling together in the same direction.” Clearly building a club is not easy or short term. The more interesting thing for me was the authors John Simmons and Matt Simmons articulation of the four brand values of Arsenal:

Courage in the face of adversity

Loyalty to each other
Positive about the future
Proud of our past

Now I am no football enthusiast and do not know how different Manchester United’s values might be. But I do know that many of the IPL franchisees were ventures with commercial priorities. They were started in a booming economy with lots of IPO generated funds. But they have started with a bang and should not end as a whimper. They must remember that their long-term success will depend on their ability to get and hold fans and their success in engaging with fans. They must also remember that the follower of the T20 format is a completely different animal, who probably prefers excitement and entertainment to class of play. Yet he could be loyal to the concept, the team and the franchisee who engages with him. Having said all that, I must concede that the matches being held in South Africa are a setback for the franchisees, because TV audiences, though valuable can never, ever replace the passionate, adoring fan in the ground.

My suggestion to the franchisees is simple. Think long-term. Articulate the vision for your brand. Remember that we have no history to fall back on. Build your brand. Focus on the fan. The revenue will follow. And please hold future tournaments in India as in the current recessionary conditions it is difficult to travel to South Africa!

(Ramanujam Sridhar is CEO, brand-comm. and the author of One Land, One Billion Minds.)

Who will win the battle of the ballot?

As politicians get down to branding, what does this mean for the average Indian voter?

Of symbols, signs and slogans: Political advertising and branding is nothing new, but what will really catch the voter’s eye?

India is a country divided by differences of language, race, caste, colour of skin, religion, sub-sects, dialects and just about anything, And yet this divided country has common interests that strangely end up creating further differences.

Indians as a race are interested in politics, cricket, films and music, not necessarily in that order, and that applies through the length and breadth of the country. And yet these interests too continue to divide. Shah Rukh vs Aamir, Tendulkar vs Dravid and now Rajasthan Royals vs Chennai Super Kings … you get the picture.

Now, in the middle of the summer, two of India’s major passions will captivate the imagination of a poverty-stricken nation starved of entertainment. Yes, Sir! The controversial second version of the IPL and the general elections will simultaneously jostle each other for eyeballs and action.

Even as we get ready for the midsummer days and ‘nights’ madness that will be upon us almost immediately, I need to confess (with considerable regret, though) that a cricket fanatic like me is not going to talk about IPL, but stay with the elections. One aspect of it that I am perhaps in a position to talk about is the political advertising that is likely to come on air, print or be plastered on every piece of available space in this vast country. I will also talk about how political parties have used branding over the years and what one might well expect in the forthcoming elections.

We smart, politicians smarter

Many of us have an exaggerated sense of our own importance and intelligence. We simultaneously have a poor opinion of politicians promptly classifying them as ‘dumbos’ who do not deserve the level of success that they seem to enjoy. After all, we have been to IIT and IIM, hold majors in marketing and can tell the world a thing or two about strategy, or so we think, even as we chafe about the quality of people who are governing us. And yet, I think we are making the mistake of slotting them, wrongly.

Let me explain. I grew up in Tamil Nadu, which is a State that understands politics. In a sense that is a misleading euphemism and a statement similar to other obvious ones like ‘Australia plays cricket’ and ‘Chennai is hot in April’. While today’s political leaders seem quite unimpressive, to us at least, they actually have a greater understanding of strategy than we realise. I am now able to see the value of what I observed as a child, several years later, so much for my intelligence and my management education!

The political leaders of my time knew the value of branding long before I knew what the term meant. Branding is about symbols, and political parties like the DMK knew this long before people like you and I did. The DMK, for instance, has the symbol of the ‘rising sun’ which it kept repeating visually and orally and kept reiterating to the politically aware State.

Similarly, branding is about colours and this is something that politicians knew then and realise the value of now, perhaps more than ever. The DMK’s strong colour sense manifested itself in the usage of red and black which extended to the designs of the dhotis and even the towels those politicians and party members wore. I also used to smile at MGR’s dress sense. He would invariably wear a black shirt and lie down on a red carpet as he sang and I would wince. But the people behind this knew something that I did not know at that time. They were not bothered too much about aesthetics or dress sense but were subtly and overtly reinstating the brands, read the party’s colours.

Yes, political parties have always realised the value of branding and continue to invest in symbols, colours and slogans. The AIADMK has its twin leaves, the BJP its lotus, and the Congress a hand and so on. Symbols become even more critical in a country that has a high level of illiteracy and we need to remember that people cast their votes on these very symbols that are there on the ballot papers.

Still on the subject of branding, I would as a child fret about why MGR’s films scripts used to be so predictable. He would not smoke or drink in films, would not chase women (women chased him), he was a friend of the poor, he would give donations to the poor both in his films and in real life, he would do every film with the same story-line. But he had an agenda. He was subtly but surely telling his voting populace that this was the real MGR. He probably was, but there is no doubting the precision of his strategy or the methodical manner in which it was executed. Tamil Nadu loved him, voted for him and still continues to vote for his party.

Political advertising in the past

Traditionally, other countries have had greater reliance on advertising and one remembers Saatchi and Saatchi’s powerful campaign for the Conservatives with the line ‘Labour isn’t working’, taking a direct swipe at the increasing unemployment under Labour rule. Even more recently, Obama, in his high-profile election campaign, ran a 30-minute infomercial on major television networks. Speak of media muscle! India too has had its share of political advertising that has been high-decibel, if a bit low on creativity, as specialised agencies have worked on them generally, who probably knew the ropes and had access to the political leadership. In a sense all that changed when Rajiv Gandhi entrusted the task of the campaign to his Doon school friends who were running Rediffusion, the advertising agency. The campaign was a standout and a clearly different one from what the average Indian voter had been exposed to. Maybe the only hint of criticism that I can offer now, several years later, is that it perhaps came with an urban bias.

The other campaign which was quite visible was BJP’s ‘India Shining’ campaign which too had its fair share of visibility and did get some acclaim when it was launched. However, everything took on a different hue once the elections were lost and the campaign was unfairly (in my opinion, at least) made the scapegoat for the party’s fiasco in the elections.

This time around, the advertising budgets for the elections are slated to be Rs 500 crore; another estimate puts it at Rs 1, 000 crore making sure the troubled advertising industry least has something to look forward to.

The power of the slogan

Advertising is often reduced to slogans or tag lines and their recall. This is perhaps most true for political advertising. Perhaps a few we can recall are Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan and Garibi Hatao. Given the vast and diverse nature of the country and the fact that many of the people who vote are below the poverty line, the value of a slogan that is memorable need hardly be emphasised. The Congress probably said “why reinvent the wheel?” and just took over the Oscar winning Jai Ho.

I think there is a basic principle in advertising and that is great advertising is just not the ‘lowest common denominator’. You just cannot afford to talk down to the consumer. The greatest ideas are simple and powerful and make a profound impact on the target audience, however limited their education might be and that is the challenge that has to be addressed in this election. Throw in also the challenges of a metropolitan audience that is Net-savvy – then we have an indication of the complexity of the task that awaits the advertising agency.

What about the voter?

While we talk about all this, we just cannot afford to forget one important reality. The urban voter seems to live in a different world, particularly the educated one. He is generally apathetic to politics, politicians and his own responsibilities when it comes to choosing the right people. So, advertising is likely to be even lower in his priorities. It matters nothing to the voter that the people who are governing him and in effect leading his destiny are criminals. It is in this context that initiatives like ‘No criminals in politics’, which is just gathering momentum, are indications that the number of people who care about the future of the country and are actually putting their money where their mouth is.

As an advertising professional, I would like to see some great advertising for the next election. But as a citizen of India, I can only hope and pray that the Indian voter will have the sense to get the right people in and that will be the greatest news that India can get amidst all the doom and gloom that seems to be surrounding us just now.

(Ramanujam Sridhar is CEO, brand-comm, and the author of One Land, One Billion Minds.)

Go on, surprise me!

Empathy with the consumer should be the guiding principle of service..

HDFC, the pioneer of the housing finance industry in the country, has raised the bar over the years on both technology and service ability.

On February 1, in the middle of the night, a shock awaited me. I got a frantic call around midnight that my mother was unwell. We rushed there, only to find that she was seriously ill. Her pulse was failing and one of us had the presence of mind to call the emergency care of Wockhardt hospital on Bannerghatta road in Bangalore, close to where we stay. Even as my mother continued to struggle over the next half hour we sat around hoping against hope that she would be okay. The emergency unit arrived from the hospital in time with all the paraphernalia - ambulance, stretcher, life-support equipment, a team of five including the duty doctor. They tried to revive her, even as we kept watching and praying. Sadly, it was too late. They left saying that there was very little they could do and it was all over.

Amidst all the grief I still realised that they were providing a necessary service and had to be paid for it. I asked them how much I should pay and at first one of them said that I had to pay for the injection. Then he called the hospital and said there would be no charge for the emergency visit of the entire team. While my mother was a patient of the hospital and used its services regularly this was still something that any hospital would have been justified in charging for. Today, a month later, I am able to talk about this and with effort even write about it. But clearly there was an element of surprise in their handling of the situation. Given the reputation that some hospitals have of being more commercial than they ought to be, this sensitive handling of a tragic incident came like a breath of fresh air to someone who was in a state of shock.

Outstanding service

My friend and service expert Ramesh Venkateswaran and I run a service programme called ‘Honeymoon for Life’ in which he asks participants to recount experiences where the service provider has gone beyond the call of duty and surprised the consumers and a range of examples are recounted by the participants from small establishments like pharmacies to credit card companies to banks. It rarely ever has been a hospital but then I have my own true-to-life example. So what happened here? Marketing and service is all about empathy, that all-elusive quality that great salespeople possess. Are you able to put yourself in the customer’s shoes? Are you able to go through the pain she goes through and offer a solution or relief? Are you able to surprise her? Usually hospitals shock us with their bills and service charges, but here was a pleasant surprise. However, one must quickly clarify that this is not about money and at that time money was the last thing I was thinking about. It was the gesture that completely caught me and my family unprepared, so much so that it made an impact on me. I am certain that I am going to be the hospital’s goodwill ambassador unless and until the hospital does something that tarnishes the great impression that it has made on me.

Developing with the times

Here is another example that is perhaps not as dramatic but still surprising that pertains to the old reliable HDFC. My association with Housing Development Finance Corporation as it was called goes back three decades as one of my best friends joined the company when it was founded in 1977. Over the years I have watched it grow in stature, size and reputation as India’s premier housing finance institution. I am sharing a surprising experience with the home loan company that happened more than a month ago.

But let me start with my association as a customer a small matter of 20 years ago when I took my first housing loan for the princely sum of Rs 3 lakh. Difficult though it may be to believe today, one could actually buy a decent two-bedroom apartment in the city of Bangalore for a little over this money in the late Eighties!

Don’t worry, I will not wax eloquent about how my starting salary in the bank in 1973 was Rs 372 or how a bottle of beer cost all of Rs 5 in Bangalore. I shall stay with HDFC and my experiences as a customer over the last two decades and how the institution has evolved in my own experience as a customer. When we talk about a brand, I think it is important to consider its guiding principles when it was started, however dominant the brand may turn out to be years later as HDFC most certainly is today.

More so in the light of our experiences with the Satyams of the world! HDFC has been the pioneer of the housing finance industry in the country and has from day one been a conservative financial institution, conceptualised as it has been on the lines of the more staid State Bank of India than the more adventurous Citibank. It is perhaps worthwhile to recall that other financial institutions that have come later in the home loan space and lent recklessly (at least a few of them) are now struggling with a higher percentage of NPAs than required or necessary. It seems there is a price to “risk” that they are now discovering, to their chagrin!Cut to the present

I have had many opportunities to interact and deal with HDFC over the years and have found them to be friendly, efficient and courteous, definitely in Chennai.
Sometimes we tend to forget the principle that financial institutions have to be less and less about money and more and more about people and service. Also we tend to confuse technology with service and forget that it is just an aid and not a substitute for service. And technology when harnessed effectively can actually delight and surprise the customer as I was able to experience just recently with HDFC.

Just last month I took a housing loan from the Chennai office of the company. The procedure was quick, friendly and I was handed over a cheque for the loan amount in a matter of ten minutes. Even as I got ready to leave with the cheque and shook hands with the person handling my case my mobile phone buzzed.

I picked it up to see a text message welcoming me to HDFC and giving me the password for me to check the position of my loan account on the net. I was floored because clearly HDFC had transformed itself over the years from being a conservative, stable financial services company to an organisation that had upped its service delivery to the next level without losing out on any of its basic functioning skills and competencies. It also made me quickly revisit my own perceptions about the institution being staid.

Clearly HDFC had raised the bar over the years on both technology and service ability.
So here are a few, possibly uncomfortable questions that are easier to pose than to answer:
How good is the service level across different teams in your company?
When was the last truly outstanding example of customer service?
How frequently does it keep happening?
Does your company make this part of the company’s folklore?
How often are there reaffirmations of commitment to service from senior management?A time to take stock

All of us have customers that we have to take care of. We have the option of providing a minimum of acceptable service as most of us manage to do (often with great difficulty), but rarely ever do we raise the bar and if we do it is done by one outstanding, committed, empowered individual but rarely does it extend through the length and breadth of the company. In troubled times like these with customers on edge, outstanding service can and will be the differentiator. The truth is staring us in the face but many of us just seem to be looking the other way.

So let’s start surprising our customers, lest we experience shocks!

(Ramanujam Sridhar is a CEO, brand-comm, and the author of One Land, One Billion Minds.)