What does MS Subbulakshmi have to do with trendspotting?: Published articles/Business Line 3

Review of a Business Creativity Workshop based on Voices Within, a coffee tabel book on the maestros of Carnatic music (Voices Within, Carnatic Music - Passing on an inheritance, Bombay Jayashri and TM Krishna with Mythili Chandrasekar, Matrka, Rs 1900)

What does MS Subbulakshmi have to do with trendspotting?

Article in Business Line, June27, 07

What does MS Subbulakshmi have to do with Carnatic music? Or GN Balasubramaniam with panneer pizza? Or Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer with Narayanamurthy? What possibly could carnatic music maestros who started blazing trails in the first half of the 20th century have to do with modern day business practices? Or better still, how could they help us with stimulus to brainstorm in our office cubicles to solve market problems that we are faced with every day?

Surprisingly, quite a bit. And that’s what business innovation coach R Sridhar of IdeasRS discovered when he first picked up Voices Within, the coffee table book on carnatic music maestros that was released a few months ago. Reading it at one stretch, he realised within hours that here was a treasure house of entrepreneurial behaviour, way beyond music. A couple of weeks ago, that discovery took the shape of the Voices Within Business Creativity Workshop at the Grand Hyatt in Mumbai, which was attended by over 150 senior business professionals across industries.

“The essence of what the maestros practiced is a combination of certain attitudes and principles,” says Sridhar. “They never articulated them clearly or explicitly. They were implicit in whatever they did – in their beliefs, attitude and action.”

Like Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar who sensed the time was right to bring concerts out from the temples and durbars to the sabhas that still exist today – realsing the mood was shifting from reverence to entertainment he changed the concert format, taking it from very few pieces sung over six hours to many short pieces over three hours, packed with variety to satisfy the shorter attention spans.

Sighting many such principles, articulating them imaginatively in music lingo, and compiling them into a Business Creativity Workbook, Sridhar pointed out that there was enough inspiration in Voices Within to apply to any business problem that one chose to think about.
In a unique lecture-demonstration, TM Krishna and Bombay Jayashri, the musician-authors behind Voices Within brought alive the principles with great depth of sincerity and passion.
Setting the stage first is sadhana - contemplation and willingness to change the self. Intense Sadhana is a penance that seeks to change the self. It is the yearning for a different state beyond mediocrity. What are you willing to change about yourself to achieve your objective is the first question one needs to ask, when faced with a challenge.
The principles span sa-re-ga-ma-pa-dha-ni.

Sruthi – connectedness with the psychology of the audience and an understanding of value as in MS Subbulakshmi’s spirituality. Which business today can hope to survive without a basic level of connection with its target audience? Based on its own attribute and ability, every business needs to find a specific life need that it can fulfill.

Ritu - defining and defying seasons/trends and an intuitive ability to sense change as in the talkies that the musicians acted/sang in. Talking about the talkies, perhaps there is no better example of this than Bollywood itself, which seems to have found the ability to catch social trends just as it begins to happen and reflect it, even better than marketers. Think the return of patriotism in Rang De, think changing marriage rules in KANK, think living-in in Salaam Namaste, and so many more. In business, think of all those who got into the right industry at the right time… be it manufacturing polyester, building residential complexes or something as simple as providing lunch boxes.

Guru - a desire to be a complete master and raise the bar to a totally unexpected and dramatic level as in TR Mahalingam who redesigned the flute itself or TN Rajarathnam Pillai who redesigned the nadaswaram. No better example here, than the film of the same name, Guru, which illustrated the story of Dhirubhai Ambani.

Misram - combining apparently irreconcilable opposites as many of them did with their music, specially GN Balasubraminam. Examples abound of products, services and ideas in this space today… from mobile phones that are also video cameras to spirituality that can be combined with exercising; from Cindrella pavadais to sarees with pockets!

Prasna - asking audacious, uncomfortable questions, some of these musicians made unimaginable demands of themselves, their voices, and their instruments – a unique example being Palghat Mani Iyer who could make a mridangam sing. Surely every great business success started with an audacious question: Why can’t we put a computer in every home?

Druva - standing apart from the crowd and achieving iconic status like Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer who went beyond just singing to innumerable other activities surrounding music to increase his circle of relevance and influence. Many of our business leaders today are going beyond just growing their businesses to playing evangelists for their industry, and aiming to contribute to social transformation.

And Nava-Akanksha – wishful thinking, day dreaming, sheer positivism and relentless determination that drove each and every one of the seven maestros. Something Indians in different fields are doing today… from why can’t I create India’s largest corporation to why can’t I create the world’s largest corporation?

What is amazing is that these maestros, all those years ago, had intuitively applied such strong and enduring business principles.

Responding to the fact that many of the participants felt the music was divine, but felt there was not enough time to think through the business problems and really come up with solutions within the space and time of the workshop, Sridhar says “We will be re-desigining the workshop to include more business examples, and lengthening the duration so as to enable more problem solving.”

A by product of the workshop was that many went away surprised that Carnatic music was after all not as inaccessible as they thought it might be and charmed by the two musicians who opened their eyes to a whole new world of thinking!

Adding to the delight was the fact that every one got a copy of the book, as well as a matching Business Creativity Workbook. The take away flute, and the south Indian lunch rounded it off with flair.

Voices Within was an unusual venture to start with, in that it had musicians collaborating with an advertising professional. With Sridhar, a business innovation consultant now turning it into a workshop, Voices Within takes on a life way beyond where it started.

For a sample chapter from Voices Within, try http://www.hindu.com/mag/2007/01/14/stories/2007011400040100.htm

For a review of the book Voices Within,

http://www.hindu.com/mag/2007/01/14/stories/2007011400070200.htm

For related new items,

http://www.exchange4media.com/e4m/news/newfullstory.asp?section_id=8&news_id=24860&tag=19587&search=y

http://www.exchange4media.com/e4m/news/newfullstory.asp?news_id=25842&section_id=8&pict=9&tag=20569

What's you brand's chakra reading?: Published articles/exchange4media 2

Article in exchange4media, July 07

What's Your Brand's Chakra Reading?

HOW INDIA CAN GIVE THE WORLD THE MOST HOLISTIC WAY TO REALIZE A BRAND'S FULL POTENTIAL: DRAWING INSPIRATION FROM A 2,000-YEAR-OLD SYSTEM.

Move over, need states, archetype researches, equity studies. Move over Jung, Haylen, Kapferer! Here comes Patanjali.

It has been around for 2,000 years. It's in Chinese medicine. In Tibetan Buddhism. In the Jewish Kabbalah. Even in Sufism. And it's used in modern-day pranic healing. But it's first mentioned in the Upanishads, laid out by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras.

The chakra theory. It is psychology that is based on physiology and encompasses spirituality. The seven basic energy centers in our bodies, the chakras—the base of the spine, the abdomen, the solar plexus, the heart, up to the throat, the third eye, the crown—correlate not only to levels of consciousness but also to archetypes and personality dimensions that shape everything from our fundamental values and beliefs to fears, desires, motivations, habits and day-to-day behavior. From the physical and the emotional, through the social and the creative, right up to the universal.

Seven overriding themes: survival; pleasure; power; love; creativity; transcendence; surrender.

Seven orientations to the self: self-preservation; self-gratification; self-definition; self-acceptance; self-expression; self-reflection; self-knowledge.

Seven rights that preoccupy us: the right to be here; the right to feel and want; the right to act; the right to love and be loved; the right to speak and be heard; the right to see; the right to know.

The simple theory is that even though every person experiences all of these energy centers to some degree, certain chakras will tend to be more dominant for some than for others. So a more artistic person may have the fourth chakra emphasized, an intellectual or innovator and visionary may have the fifth chakra emphasized, a power-seeker may have the third chakra dominant, and so on.

Since the chakras are about understanding yourself, your strengths, your problems, finding balances and solutions, and realizing your potential, and since we have always looked at brands as people, why not use the chakra system to look at brands? After all, with every brand struggling in different ways, and old rules getting rewritten every other day, marketers are, more than ever before, looking for new tools to approach brands.

Besides, India has always followed Western ways of thinking on brands. At a time when the Indian way is finding its voice in all spheres, it's time the advertising, market research and brand management fraternity dug into Indian philosophy and psychology, and tapped into uniquely Indian approaches to holistic brand health.

So, what is your brand's dominating chakra?

Is it a Muladhara brand? Does it enhance the will to live, offer energy, fearlessness, stability, freedom from drudgery, bring abundance and physical strength, and support the urge to survive? Or is it a Swaddisthana, catering to anxiety about attractiveness, need for escape, adding positivism, magnetism, joy of living, and partnering in the pursuit of pleasure? A Manipura? Does it reflect courage, self-esteem, persistence, leadership, goodwill and right actions, or is it compensating for a lack of self-confidence and empowerment? Perhaps it's an Anahata brand, bringing harmony, calmness, generosity, grace, cooperation, unconditional love. Or is your brand all about higher creativity, the embodiment of Vishuddha, the search for truth, clear thinking, accuracy and perceptiveness and artistic expression? Or, if it's higher up in the great Indian spiral, it could be Ajna, in the territory of active intelligence, wisdom, willpower, the ability to direct. Or is it Sahasara, enlightenment, wholeness, positive transformation, inner peace, enthusiasm and fulfillment?

But beyond that, can we build our brands’ essences by defining its every chakra, its total chakra profile? What does your brand's heart say? Its throat, its third eye? What is your brand’s idea of pleasure and sexuality? What is its view of spirituality? Given the rumblings today that brands need not stand for just one thing, but perhaps can be multi faceted… given that the Indian way has always advised balance, the chakra system can actually allow brand teams to delve deeper and define the brand much more holistically, going on to help design brand conversations at different levels. Since charkas are about “aura” and “energy” and so are brands, is there something to learn there?


What is your brand's chakra reading according to your core users or your lapsed users? Is it what you want it to be? What about your target group? What are their driving life themes? Which chakra are they in? Are they balanced or deficient or excessive? How can you correct your brand's chakras—which dimension should you strengthen or lighten—to answer your target group's needs best and play a better role in their lives? Are there life themes that your brand is not satisfying and therefore new product and portfolio opportunities?

Unlike conventional tools, which are largely diagnostic, the chakra system is analytical and prescriptive, and can enable brands to chart out actionable paths. It's a system that could potentially offer a far more cohesive, integrated solution, so that marketers will not have to look at different and disparate pieces of research—leaving us with a lot of information, sometimes in silos, which we often cannot fuse and use.

A single system of analysis that can be applied to target types, need states, brand essence, holistic brand profiling, even societal trends. A system of analysis we could use to map India as a whole. Are power definitions and pleasure points and love expressions changing? Going further, how does the pursuit of pleasure in India compare with the pursuit of pleasure in China? If you are in eight countries, how does the chakra reading of your target group and brand vary from market to market? How do brands in different categories operate in a particular chakra? How do people in different chakra states connect with brands?

So fundamental. So Indian. So universal. So all-encompassing.

Like only an Indian idea can be.


For related news items on application of Brand Chakras,
http://www.exchange4media.com/e4m/news/newfullstory_band.asp?news_id=26599&tag=21495

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JTS8yMDA3LzA2LzMwI0FyMDIyMDA=&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom

The Un-boxing of India: Published articles/TOI 2

Article in the Times of India, Mar 7, 07

The Un-boxing of India

Branding, news and entertainment merge
as we open many Windows in our daily lives and live with multiple ids

There was a question in KBC the other day on the name of the cow that features in a Cadburys ad – and a majority of the audience got it right. As a man in a focus group said a few days later, “yeh kya hai, general knowledge hai ya Cadburys ke liye ad hai - sab jagah ghusa dethe hain”. A lively discussion followed on whether advertising and brand messages were becoming intrusive, or a more integral part of our lives and therefore unavoidable. While Amitabh Bachchan as a father releases an ad for Guru, an engagement is announced on the day of the premier… “personal life ko publicity bana dethe hain” they said, with all due respect to the great man.

A news channel went hoarse selling Parzania – was that a genuine interest in Gujarat, good advertising and a “media partner” deal for Parzania or the heroine’s PR consultant at work? One role, and she is recast as a reinvented activist. Did KANK really raise issues in public consciousness, or was it just “good PR”? As Shah Rukh Khan himself pointed out in a recent interview on television, the celebrities get the publicity, the TV channel gets its viewership, news and entertainment blend in and out, you don’t know when one ends and the other begins. Content becomes advertising, advertising becomes content.

Just look at a few more examples of all kinds of “un-boxing” all around us.

* Beyond celebrities, we’ve now seen media becomes judge and jury, citizens become media.

* Look at the world of products and services. Health is now not just health and hospitals, but health and spirituality, health and tourism, health and psychology, health and music, health and beauty, health and dance, health and sports. Health, fitness, spirituality and tourism get into each other’s boxes. Spiritual plus music is another box, music and mobiles is a whole new box. There’s tourism and adventure, tourism and HR (corporate outbound tours), tourism and spirituality, tourism and sports, besides plain good old tourism – holiday and sight seeing. Television and telecom create a new box together on the sms front, turning audience participation into nationwide news.

* Take brand benefits and Corporate Social Responsibility. ITC’s Sunfeast ad and the Ashirwad atta ad implies that a responsible company makes it, and you’ll be helping somebody if you bought the product, rather than urging you to buy the product because it is differentiated and delivers on a benefit. Different from the Surf Save Water and the Lifebuoy street cleaning ad which had strong Corporate Social Responsibility overtones, but were still rooted in a product attribute.

* Take the world of art and music. Artists combine painting with photography, cartoons, sculpture, industrial junk and kitsch. Art is corporatised, art is investment. Music, dance and drama merge to deliver new entertainment forms. Musicians are going beyond the concert platform into research, education, talent hunt, and even writing. A recent music book launch included a film on music, a reading of excerpts by theater professionals and auctioning of the first copy for a cause.


* Companies are now having to train employees not just in their area of operation, but language and culture - Wipro’s Shimpo programme teaches cultural codes, social conduct, business etiquette, and night life in Japan. HR, PR, and CSR are un-boxing themselves to build the corporate brand, as much as takeovers, CEO hobbies, Page 3 and the corporate wife.

All this is both cause and effect of many key aspects of brand building today –particularly segmentation, payoffs and media choice.

Take as just one example, the blurring of segments in cars. It is no more just hatches, sedans, SUVs and so on… but hatches, hot hatches, premium hatches, city SUVs, look-like SUVs and real SUVs.

With pricing, and value propositions going criss-cross across segments - and the consequent overlapping of payoffs – economy brands promising class, classy brands promising economy, who’ll-buy-what-when-and-why will soon be anybody’s guess.

Media plans therefore stretch from advertisements to placement of questions in quizzes, and everything in between.

Perhaps all this unboxing is nowhere more evident than in our personal lives - reflective of the multiple roles, and the increasing juggling that we are all trying to cope with - the many Windows of our individual lives as it were. Multiple ids are driving the personalities of both brands and people today.

The more global the Indian, the more national the Indian?: Published articles/TOI 1

Article in the Times of India, Feb 24 07

The more global the Indian,
the more national the Indian?

Have you noticed the ad on TV where the Indian boatman leaves the West Indian couple high and dry, mid waters, demonstrating that it is “tough being a West Indian in India”? And another one on similar lines where an Indian tiger – if tigers have nationalities – makes it difficult for traveling Sri Lankans? A far cry from the Indian hospitality theory of Athithi Devo Bhavah - both the ads have run into some trouble with the authorities. But given that advertising always mirrors socio-cultural change, these ads clearly reflect new-found Indian aggression.

In contrast, the unassuming, unlikely Indian who is the CEO of a Fortune 500 company in Wall Street but does not have a Parker pen - much to Amitabh Bachchan’s affectionate distress - is warm and funny, telling us that we can still laugh at ourselves. As also the ad where Yuvraj Singh has taught West Indians all there is to teach about Indian food and song and dance.


To be fair, it is not so much the ads, but the newspaper headlines that set the tone: Indra Nooyi does not just become CEO of Pepsi, she “unfurls the Indian tricolour in Pepsi headquarters”. NIIT does not just grow to 160 centers in China, it “teaches China a lesson”. It is not just that Shilpa Shetty wins, “chicken curry rules”. Tatas don’t just acquire Corus, they “land the killer punch”. They don’t just outbid CSN, “bhangra knocks samba off the floor”. B Muthuraman and team are not just the top management team, they are “knights of the roundtable”. And it’s not just in the headlines, it creeps into every other paragraph too. So the Tata Steel balance sheet does not just have space for loans – they “have a lever from which they can move the earth.” Clear proof that the more western our lifestyle gets and the more global we become, the greater the arousal of cultural nationalism too.

Gone is the quiet charm of the Pond’s girl who learnt to speak English but chose to speak in Hindi even as she won the international beauty contest. It was all about how India could absorb the new without displacing the old. We seem to have traveled quite some distance from the whole world chanting the gayatri, as in the Videocon ad, or the whole world saying namaste, as in the British Airways commercial. A long way indeed from cartoons on Santa being outsourced and articles titled “White House Bangalored”.

It was one thing to feel mildly pleased that the world was picking up bits of Indian values and images, but quite something else to aggressively say that India can teach the world a lesson or two. Is there something happening here that is changing our character fundamentally? Is it really happening, or is it just the flavour of the day, of the English speaking corporate world and elite media?

A Research International Observer study classifies countries on global/national - individualist/collectivist axes and identifies four types. 1) The Cultural Individualist - such as France, Australia and the USA, who combine a great deal of national/ cultural pride with strong individualistic values. 2) The Global Individualist - Scandinavian nations, the Netherlands and Belgium, with a relatively low interest or pride in their own culture, and correspondingly an openness to the world. 3) The Global Sensitives - Argentina, Zimbabwe and Chile open to the world in a collectivist way, where making connections through global brands is often more important than pride in their own culture. 4) The Cultural Sensitives - collectivist markets such as Mexico or India – where consumers expect global brands to understand and respect their culture, and when possible, adapt to local situations in both product and communication.

At the risk of sounding like an amateur sociologist, are we going from Cultural Sensitive to Cultural Individualist? Or are we moving bang to the center point of the map, combining global desires with strong cultural nationalism, collective spirit that also celebrates individualism? Combining like only India can, “Like this, Like that’ as the KitKat ad said.

The Rajnigandha ad where the hero wants to buy the East India Company because “they ruled us for 200 years, now it is our turn” seemed an over-statement for a paan masala. But today a newspaper headline could well declare “Chaba ke dekho: Ratan and Shilpa make the English chew their hat”.

The Future of Strategic Planning: Published articles/USP Age 1

Article in USP Age

The Future of Strategic Planning:
Separate with a bang or die with a whimper


What has happened to the advertising industry as a whole and to servicing as a function will happen to planning too: its role will get steadily reduced as new fangled experts chip away more and more at its pie.

The rose bushes in planning’s vineyard: Heeding the danger signals

They say vine growers plant rose bushes every few yards or so, because potential pest infestations show up early in the rose bushes – and the vineyard can be saved.

The rose bushes in planning’s vineyards are already showing signs of danger.

Consultants have been mushrooming for quite some time now. Trend spotters are arriving by every train. Journalists and magazines are doing a great job of tracking and reporting trends in social psychology much faster than agencies ever can. There’s enough and more available on the net – marketing websites and blogs are throwing up ideas and models faster than you can say google. Understanding media behaviour, shopper behaviour and the like has traditionally not been an area of expertise of agency planners. It doesn’t help that market research agencies are not adapting fast either.

With brand messaging converging with news, content and entertainment, the relay race where planning partners the client from conception and then passes on the baton to creative for delivery is no more relevant. Worse, the agency planner is no more the sole and best source of consumer behaviour and insights, or positioning strategies. Leave alone having their own insight mining divisions, marketing companies are beginning to blog on the net directly with consumers – hunting not just for insights but product ideas and even business plans. The increasing pressure on creative to push forward on its own steam further decreases planning’s role.

Strategic planning could learn from the Indian woman.

Always used to being some one else’s daughter, wife and mother the Indian woman suddenly started asking the question: “What about me?” Not satisfied with just “role” she started searching for “soul’. And when she stepped out and started earning on her own and became her own person as it were, she not only gained more respect but also became an economic force to reckon with.

It’s time strategic planners in advertising agencies started asking the very same question: “What about me?” Planners should go beyond being servicing’s backroom boy, or the client’s sounding board, or creative’s partner or the agency’s pitch leader. Their portfolio should go beyond creative briefs and strategy and pitch presentations. They should have a body of work that belongs to them - a portfolio of their own, which has a reason to be, independently.

Why? For the simple reason that first as individual professionals it will raise their level of perceived expertise and self worth, and second, as an agency offering, it will help raise the quality and scope of contribution, thus commanding a higher price.


Re-skill, re-structure, recruit differently

Besides fresh methods to play the traditional roles, (the Indian woman does housekeep and cook more imaginatively today!) planners need to pick areas of interest and expand their skill sets to include trend analysis, strategic content creation, media behaviour analyses, business ideation/consulting, work-shopping and brainstorming, net scrounging, 360 degree research and channel planning.

New age planners should be able to hit the ground running with frameworks and models for new age categories like retail, medical, education, entertainment, commodities, travel, technology/internet, as well as be able to play a consulting role in areas like internal/employee branding, and even CEO branding.

The planner of the future must shift gears today – if he or she hasn’t already - to go from being thinker to creator, from insights to ideas, from creative brief as predominant output to content creation and tool building.

Advertising agencies should restructure and break the traditional format of having dedicated planners per client, to creating a hub of planners with varied new age skills for all clients to access.

The straight, tough, soul searching question to ask is: will clients continue to pay for someone just to oversee the research agency, hold the brand manager’s hand on positioning and write the creative brief?

The opportunity: from a department to an AOR

If the AOR for creative and media can be different, a separate AOR for (integrated) strategic planning is but a short step away. When you pay for something separately, the buyer demands more and the seller is forced to deliver greater value. For all the debate on whether or not it was a good idea to pull media out of the advertising agency, there is no denying that the client has got greater value.

The opportunity for strategic planning is to pull itself out, expand its definition, collect varied expertise, and actually be the gateway between the marketer and all other agencies – advertising, media, activation, PR, DM, digital and whatever else that springs up.

To string a few clichés together… as it stands, strategic planning is going nowhere, fast. In the long term, we are all dead. Only the paranoid survive.

Gentlemen, the brief is showing!: Published articles/agencyfaqs 4

Article in agencyfaqs, feb20, 07

GENTLEMEN, THE BRIEF IS SHOWING!

As far as ad agency Planners are concerned, there are five kinds of ads.

1) Those that are clearly for the awards. You had nothing to do with it. Worse, when you first heard it, you probably said that it goes against the core brand proposition. You are now biting your tongue and wishing you had cheered it along, or found a strategy to fit. At least the creative whiz kid won’t be thinking of you as a wet blanket and tagging you as “Planner type”!

2) The second, and according to me, the best, are those that are so captivating in thought that your heart does a little blip, and so watch-able in execution that you want to see them again and again. You really don’t think about the strategy behind it. You are too busy wondering whose idea it was, how on earth they thought of it, and wishing you had done it. Somewhere you’ll see the name of the creative team that worked on it, but you’ll always be left wondering who the Planner was, till his or her CV reaches you one day. And even then you’ll ask him, “Did the idea really come FROM the brief, and AFTER the brief?” And then you’ll get to know the inside stories that are always so nice to get to know, “Actually what happened was…!” A few months later, there are conflicting reports and you may hear that “actually” it didn’t make that big a difference in the market. But a year later you hear it’s actually got an Effie!

3) At the other end of the spectrum are those that you can never fathom what on earth they are up to. And you don’t try because by then you have switched channels. The Brand Manager wrote the brand window, the technical person rewrote it, and the film star and her daughter are mouthing it. Or the client wanted Amitabh Bachchan or Shah Rukh Khan. Anyway, the creative guy heard his aunt-in-law discuss it with the cook, and they are the target audience, not you and I. And the Planner reports that awareness and salience have increased. It really is OK. Every ad can’t win a Cannes or an Effie. You have to be in business before you can be creative!

4) The fourth type are the ads with the SO…THAT.

The original Vivid Metaphor or Vivid Demo ads that we were taught when I entered advertising two decades ago! And which still work.

Sambar that smells SO GOOD THAT your husband will think your south Indian friend sent it. Hair styling SO QUICK THAT she will reach the restaurant before him. FM radio music SO GOOD THAT you’ll be singing even from inside a manhole. Mobile service SO CHEAP THAT you don’t have to give missed calls. Chimneys that take away the smell SO WELL THAT you can’t smell even fried fish.

Now fill in the blanks… Cream that makes you look SO YOUNG THAT… Chips SO AUTHENTIC IN TASTE THAT… Milk biscuits with SO MUCH STRENGTH THAT… Tea with SO MUCH TWIST IN THE TASTE THAT…

The Planner (hopefully!) was the one who identified the proposition. The client was willing to make one clear claim. Creative found a good demo. It sailed through research. It’s working. Everyone is happy… and screaming HOW’S THAT?!

5) But this is the one that’s most fun for Planners. Because, ah ha, you know what they are trying to do! These are the ones that you talk about the next morning at work… “Did you see the new so and so? They are trying to do x,y, zee!” “ What ya… Creative just put the brief in the ad!”

Thousands of men are using fairness creams, but fairness creams are seen to be a woman’s product - our fairness cream is specially formulated for men, you don’t have to use a girl’s cream. Men’s hair is different from women’s hair - let’s create a new segment in the hair dye market. This car has multiple benefits, so it is for the multiple roles of a man. That car is for small car upgraders, and children - a huge emotional driver - love the arrival of a big car. That bike on the other hand, is targeted at a younger age group - it’s for bachelors. Women seem to know cleansing/ toning/ moisturizing, but they don’t necessarily know about scrubbing - we have to make them see it as part of that routine. Mothers stop using baby soaps on their babies after they are two - they must be told to use it till their babies are three or more; we need to extend usage.

The strategy shows, or the insight shows, or the target group definition shows… in other words gentlemen, the brief shows. Brand Manager and Planner have cracked it together!

But don’t knock it, because even Superman lets it show!

Internal branding: Published articles/Business Line 2

Article in Business Line, Sept 7, 06

Internal Branding:
Should the CEO be asking for a marriage of Marketing and HR?


Traditional belief about branding - and the biggest myth in the world of business - continues to be that branding is for external purposes, for communicating to consumers and that it is the exclusive preserve of the marketing function.

Then came the belief that advertising, PR, database and direct marketing, interactive media must all create a consistent impression and thus was born Integrated Branding, 360 Degree Branding, Total Branding and what have you. Not to mention PR agencies, direct marketing agencies and interactive agencies. But you may notice, that there aren’t as yet, organizations that specialize in what is called Internal Branding.

Which brings us to the other apparently unrelated and widespread belief - and actually even practice - that the organisation’s vision rests with the management committee and organization values and culture resides with HR.

Research conducted by Opinion Research Corporation International (http://www.orc.co.uk/)*1 among senior corporate communicators from major organizations showed that often the organization brand’s mission, vision and values stay with senior managers but do not permeate the rest of the organization. ORC’s findings are also backed up by other studies.

The question that arises here is: if the marketing department is making promises to customers then who is responsible for making sure that the promise is delivered? The answer – all the people in the company.

Hugh Davidson in Managing the Organization Brand *2 points out that unlike a product brand, the responsibility for which may be with the marketing department, the responsibility for an organization brand is shared – finance handles shareholders and investors, external affairs handles media, operations handles distributors and suppliers, sales handles distributors, HR handles employees.
There is no arguing that customer promise and outside messaging – typical brand strategy and marketing efforts, needs to integrate totally with organization vision and goals – typical organization strategy and HR efforts. The question is: Whose responsibility is it?
“I reckon about 20 percent of a brand is its physical attributes, like a logo, color, letterheads. The rest is all about behavior” says Ian Buckingham, head of Interbrand Inside. "Marketing is the custodian of the physical brand, but who are the custodians of behavior? If it is just HR, you've perhaps got a problem… The best sponsor for an internal culture is the CEO… Employees bring a brand to life; they are its ultimate custodians." * 3

Internal branding needs to be seen as a leadership practice that aligns all actions and messages with the organization’s vision and the c ore values that it lives by.

In principle, leaders recognize the need to articulate the organizational purpose in a way in which everyone can relate to, but how this should be done is still begging for best practice. Although organizational size, structures and cultures could make this process difficult, the fundamental barrier is more to do with the process itself.

WHAT THEN IS THE EMERGING BEST PRACTICE PROCESS?

Establish that Internal Branding is for Better Performance

Leaders need to convince the whole organization that vision and values is not a framed poster in their rooms but needs to be converted into an actionable agenda for every individual in the organization and that this can make a tangible and measurable difference to the organisation’s performance.

The obvious premise is of course that by aligning and integrating organization vision, brand strategy, delivery processes and peoples’ actions, a company is many times more likely to create rewarding relationships with its customers.

The goal of Internal Branding is to orchestrate and integrate everything the organization does, to ultimately create lasting customer relationships with a positive topline and bottome line impact.

First Articulate and then Operationalise the brand

A well-knit organization brand is one in which every part contains the whole, where every action is based on the brand. To do this, the organization needs to clearly define its center of gravity, communicate that center and act upon it.

The best companies that have successfully done this are very clear that the brand needs to be "operationalized" into clear objectives and roles. While externally vision and values are converted into products and services that build customer commitment, internally vision is translated into strategies and values into measurable practices.

Both are embedded in working systems – recruitment, appraisal, rewards, succession – and provide the substance to support brand promises, becoming a guide to drive everyday behavior, encouraging employees to live the brand. If necessary, the company needs to announce and implement any additional training or incentives that will be necessary to encourage, support and reward the required behavior.

"We've always been clued up about getting the right people on board," says Virgin's Salway. "The external brand tends to attract the right people anyway. We ask a lot of questions that aren’t traditional, to get a feel for what the person is like. We select on attitude and personality and a feel for whether someone's a bit different from the crowd, can cope with pressure and has a good sense of humor. That's what makes our brand come alive."*3

"You have to make sure that processes reinforce what you’re trying to do with the brand internally," says Buckingham. "Brand values need to be represented in the performance criteria, and people need to be rewarded according to the brand."*3
Selling Internally: Inclusive, Consultative, Imaginative
"If you impose a brand culture it will fail. If you expect to change behavior without asking if it’s a good idea you will fail," states Allan Steinmetz, CEO of Inward Strategic Consulting. *3
Steinmetz argues that communicating the brand values to staff requires the same methods as external marketing. "You need to segment your internal population just as you would your external audience and communicate appropriately. Communication needs to be relevant, and in today's climate, experiential as well. That could be rallies, workshops, online training, even picnics."*3
Robert Swinton, Head of Marketing, Securities Institute Australia, says of his company "We made sure that what we say about our brand resonated with employees. What we came up with had to be livable, feasible and acceptable. We conducted workshops with focus groups of employees to work through what our brand values mean, and define how this would translate into the work of different types of jobs."*3

Too many organizations go through the process of wall-postering their values without making them relevant to people. For brands to be a way of life for employees, employees must discover the meaning of their brand for themselves by actively participating in its definition and seeking its implementation.

"It's not good enough to run spin campaigns for staff,” points out Ian Buckingham. “The top team has to foot the bill. They need role model behaviors. You can't ask thousands of staff to behave in a way that people at the top won't model."*3

Beside actively engaging the employees in discovering the brand, practitioners are clearly calling for the picking of Brand Champions to spread the word from within.


Specially imperative for people based industries

While this is becoming increasing imperative for all organizations, it is even more critical when people front the brand and need to display brand values in every interaction: like the service industry – retail, finance, insurance, hospitality, telecom… even education, tourism and hospitals; technology companies with long sales cycles and having people deputed and stationed at customer sites; industrial product and commodities manufacturing companies where brand consciousness may be low but will increasingly be the differentiator; and organizations that need to interact continuously with government bodies, export councils, importers and the like.
When marketing is trying to turn external customers into brand evangelists, shouldn’t SOMEONE be trying to turn employees into active advocates? Should HR be applying the principles of branding more actively? Should marketing widen its sphere of influence to create engagement internally too?
Or should this programme be brought to you by the CEO?


*1 www.orc.co.uk
*2 Journal of Marketing Society
*3 ref: Promoting Brand Allegiance Within, Edwin Colyer, brandchannel.com

What's your company's signature tune?: Published articles/Business Line 1

Article in Businee Line, July 27, 06

What’s your company’s signature tune?

One “vision” commercial on television or a “corporate campaign” in Business World does not a “corporate brand” make – any more.

The making of a Corporate Brand today encompasses the Vision Brand, the Product Brand, the Service Brand, the CEO Brand, the Employee or Internal Brand, the Stock Market Brand, the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Brand, the Sponsorship Brand and even the Internet (Website) Brand. (And to push the point home, even the signature tune brand!)

While many Indian companies have indeed created new paths and tried new ideas, the totality still begs best practice, and surely calls for the CEO to take on the mantle of Marketing Manager, Corporate Brand. The key lies in finding that ONE WORD that’s at the heart of what your company stands for.


The now omnipresent Infosys, if you think back, actually first captured our imagination with its Employee Brand and the Stock Market Brand by making potential crorepatis of its many twenty somethings. The CEO Brand came later, and it helped to have a wife who took on the building of the CSR Brand. The corporate “image” of Infosys has really been built without having to resort to corporate “campaigns”. The company keeps its advertising to the appointment pages, celebrating its Employee Brand.

ITC, on the other hand has leveraged every building block. Working for you, Working for India says the Vision Brand. Enduring value – For the shareholder, For the nation… One of India’s Most Valuable Corporations says the Stock Market Brand. E-chaupal became the Service Brand. With ideas like Mera Gaon Mera Desh they spruced up the Employee Brand. Citizen First encapsulates the CSR Brand. Concepts like Triple Bottom Line build the CEO brand (if at all it needs building!). And of course, the lifestyle stores and the atta and the oil and the candies do the rest.

By having Vijay Mallya sign a statement saying “I created a product for you that is better than what I would have created for myself” Kingfisher First leverages the CEO Brand. By showcasing the endearing young man who approves his own business plan, Marico enters the arena with the Employee Brand. By getting its logo created by a challenged child, Mindtree launched itself uniquely through its CSR Brand. Lines get further blurred when Surf says Save Water and a HLL van with that message passes you on the road. And even Aamir Khan has a lesson or two to teach on playing the activist brand.


How the rules started changing

The now famous and clichéd Intel Inside becoming one of the world’s most valuable brands, and Dupont Lycra getting ranked alongside fashion brands put paid to the theory that components and ingredients (now fashionably called B2B) can’t build the Company Brand. (It is no more foolish to dream that Marlboro cigarettes will one day have India Tobacco Inside on the packet. Or no surprises if Kurkure says Porbandar Salt Inside or Pepsi says Nellikuppam Sugar Inside. As the joke goes, we hope to look at the White House one day and say India Inside!)

The other notion that was put to rest was the one that people have entirely different characteristics on and off the job. Most organizations now agree that before a person is a technician/specialist/banker/purchase officer/CTO/CXO/shareholder/employee, he or she is a human being first. And that he forms his opinions as much when he is sitting in his living room and watching his children sing along with advertising jingles, as when he is scrutinising a tender entry.


The point is, large industrial organizations are shedding their fear, shyness or contempt, as the case may be, for branding and brand building activities. Senior management in such organizations are beginning to admit that not all customer buying decisions are “rational’ as they thought it was, all these years. While they are fighting shy of using the word “emotional”, there is certainly all round acceptance and a deep desire for that magical, elusive, all encompassing word: IMAGE.

And then books like Brand Champions of Tomorrow get repeatedly quoted for saying “Today, branding has become the most important strategic differentiating activity in a company's arsenal. In the future, a brand that can forge a durable psychological bond between itself and all of its stakeholders/ constituencies, its customers, employees, suppliers and shareholders will represent the only real and sustainable source of competitive advantage.” It is enough to set any CEO thinking, if not pick up the phone and ask for five advertising agencies to pitch!

With the advent of brand value translating to shareholder value, the articulation and building of corporate brands has now become imperative. And the CFO is a tad less reluctant to approve the bills.

It is enough to get Accenture playing golf and Videocon chanting the gayatri – and for SBI to feel the need to tell us they are bigger than the other bank which we thought had become the biggest.

When does this need really grab companies?

Organisations planning quantum leaps in turnover. Organisations that have aged and need reinvention or have been overtaken by newer entrants who have taken mindshare higher than their market share. Organisations going through an emotional low and needing re-energizing. Challenger organisations that need to be seen as better than the big, for being small. Organisations coming together in mergers and acquisitions and needing a new anthem. Organisations breaking away and creating new entities. Groups of companies that together form another entity and want the advantage of belonging to a larger business house. Multi product companies wanting to leverage the many parts to make a greater whole. Business to business brands and technology companies that have long sales cycles. Brands with CXOs as target audiences. Or companies seeking capital. North India brands wanting to make inroads into South India. South India brands wanting to make inroads into the North.

In fact, increasingly, it looks like no one can escape this. Sooner or later, every company needs to take a good, hard, close look at its Corporate Brand.

And what task then do we set for the Corporate Brand campaign?

In one word: plenty!

It must help sell more products. It must help command a better price. It must get salespersons entry into prospects’ doors. It must lower the average cost of the sales call. It must get the company entry into government corridors and negotiate industry pricing policies. It must get better JVs. It must ease the way for buy-outs. It must attract better employees. It must bring in the cream from management schools. It must boost employee morale. It must bring in better dealers and franchisees. It must make suppliers supply at a lower cost. It must rake in the moolah in the stock market. And of course, it must help the company get better press. Not to mention, it must help the company stand its ground, when some activist finds some unnecessary angle to your product.

It helps if batch mates, ex-colleagues and competitors comment on it in airports. It helps with the in laws and the wife’s friends at the PTA. It helps if your company’s ad comes when you are watching the World Cup Final with your teenage nephew. The litmus test is: if the cab driver knows your office building! But most of all, it must help get the CEO invited to The Big Fight!

Strangely enough, corporate branding does end up doing all this. And more!

This is when it becomes really important to define the Vision Brand.

This is a little different from putting the company’s mission/vision statement into the corporate campaign.

Tom Terez jokingly writes about how difficult it is, in the first place, to write meaningful and differentiated visions and missions. “A recent study, conducted by the American Association of People Who Don't Mind and In Fact Advocate Long-Windedness in Their Communications, showed that the typical mission statement includes two semicolons, two dashes, and at least two business buzzwords -- while the vision statement contains only one dash but makes up for it with at least one run-on sentence. To be at all credible, a company's mission and vision statements combined must include at least five of the following terms and phrases: high performance - world class – diversity – empowerment - employees are our most important asset- exceeds- delights- right the first time -everyone's job- puts people first -puts the customer first -puts employee bonuses first. These statements are guaranteed to strike a deep chord in employees, customers, and printers of plastic-laminated cards. Imagine the employee who needs a quick dose of direction or inspiration. All they'll need to do is reach into their wallet or purse and -- oh gee, I must have thrown it out.”!!

When going in search of the Vision Brand, companies need to go beyond the Who We Are and What We Make, search deeply for a truth, and answer the question “what are we actually in the business of?” And find that single most important value, that one idea, that ONE WORD that captures their spirit.

Let’s take a look at a few of the Vision Brands that have managed to zero in on that one word. HP: invent. Microsoft: Potential. HCL: Guts. Honda: Dreams. Philips: Simplicity. LG: Inventive. These companies have looked beneath the “touching many people in many ways” theme, the “improving your life” theme, the “we have been around for 50 years” theme. And have gone beyond the serving India, spreading India, changing with India, traveling with India, understanding India, reflecting India, energizing India, building India themes – which is very tempting to do, specially when you have been quiet for a while and need to arrive like a leader.

What then would be a Best Practice sequence?

1) Find that One Word. Be clear about the support. Resolve doubts on the gap between vision and reality, if any.
2) Find Brand Champions to spread the word internally. Do not just announce and “distribute” the Vision Brand internally, but involve employees in understanding and owning the business implications. Establish that it is inspiring and actionable at the same time.
3) Incorporate and translate the Vision into measurable practices and behaviour, and performance metrics for every individual, group or department.
4) Be aware that you have to separately build the CEO, the CSR, the Product, the Employee, the Stock Market Brands. Find ways of running the same thread.
5) Find ways of measuring ROI, in ways that go beyond run-of-the-mill qualitative and quantitative market research methodologies, and aim to integrate financial measurement.

It used to be said that 50% of advertising works, only we don’t know which 50%. With corporate branding, one could say it works 200%, only we don’t quite know how!


Branding is certainly not the be all and end all of a successful business. But if well thought through, it could sit at the core of a company’s philosophy.

If the CEO has a signature tune in his head and the world can hear it, even the cab driver will take you there!

The birth of the global Indian: Published articles/exchange4media 1

Article in exchange4media, May29,06

The birth of the Global Indian
From whining about the globalisation of India to celebrating the Indianisation of the Globe: tracing and defending the role of media and advertising

From chasing Coca-Cola away from the country to the Videocon advertisement, which shows people all over the world chanting the Gayatri mantra, it’s been a long and colourful journey.

Remember the days when everyone whined and complained about the globalisation of India? We should not be allowing serials like The Bold and The Beautiful -- this is deplorable erosion of cultural values, we declared. After all, there was no promiscuity in India at all -- we had to learn it from Ridge Forrester! Let’s blame multinationals for suppressing Indian entrepreneurship. Let’s blame Kerry Packer for corrupting cricket. Let’s blame Baywatch for changing dress codes. Let’s blame Barbie dolls for corrupting our little girls. After all, till then, our little girls never dreamed of wearing beautiful dresses.

And let’s not forget advertising! Let’s blame advertising too. Advertising is showing Western images. Advertising creates unnecessary desire. Advertising makes us buy products we don’t need. Hey, we don’t need soaps and shampoos -- we have shikakai. We don’t need toothpastes -- we have neem stems and charcoal powder. We don’t need foreign cars. We have Ambassadors!

Some of us did try to argue. We went hoarse telling the critics that globalisation is an economic phenomenon. That economics creates change. Media only spreads it. Advertising only reflects it. We went hoarse defending ourselves at seminars on “Globalisation and its impact on cultural values”.

We quoted global economists. “Global business helps put meritocracy in place of hierarchy, democracy in place of dictatorship, modernization in place of feudalism, openness in place of secrecy, freedom and opportunity in place of restriction and repression,” they declared. Thank God for global economists.

We cited market research. Thank God for market research. We told them that 80 per cent of consumers around the world generally welcome global brands, believing they will represent greater competition, better products and lower prices.

Well, you don’t need to say too much of all that any more.

Remember the days when that bright cousin was sent to the USA by TCS, and the Ph.D brother-in-law from Princeton who visited you once in two years? Remember how you worried about your wet bathrooms before their visit? And waited for those huge suitcases to be opened up? Wondering whether they had remembered your Parker pen refills? Remember the annual quota of Camay soaps? And Impulse body sprays? And those awful synthetic sarees? And the trip to Grand Sweets the day before their return? Well, you don’t have too much of that either, any more.

From the Non Resident Indian to the Now Required Indian

Because, somewhere along the way, our beauties became world queens. Before we knew it, Amitabh Bachchan was in the wax museum. And Deepak Chopra had repackaged the Bhagawad Gita. Before we knew it, the editor of Newsweek was an Indian born. And not just men. What about Indra Nooyi? Wasn’t she a woman? That too from Chennai? Guess what got on to Time magazine cover? Indian yoga. Guess what – Madonna has henna on her hands! Guess what – Dilbert has an IITian called Asok! Guess what – there are 110 Gopalakrishnans in AT&T! Guess how many Indians were on the team that developed Windows? Guess what -- Narayanamurthy spoke at Harvard. Have you read it? I’ll forward it to you. Do you have a Hotmail ID? Hey, guess who created Hotmail? An Indian. Guess what – an Indian is directing a movie on Queen Elizabeth! And who is this Night Shyamalan, yaar? He’s an Indian. Guess who’s swarming all over New Jersey in the Y2K? Good, hard working Indian boys! And before we knew it, good hard working Indian girls too. Guess whom I saw in Frankfurt airport? Dhanbad periamma’s neighbour’s daughter. She works in Wipro. She was going to Chicago. For the third time! And guess what -- somewhere along the way, we stopped calling it Brain Drain.

Even then the grumblers persisted. And even then, we did our bit.

Look, we said, Harry Potter has to be translated into Hindi to be successful. Barbie has now come in a saree – she looks like Aiswarya Rai in Devdas. Look, we said, finally, even multinational brands must succumb to Indian taste. See, there’s panneer pizza! And aloo tikki burgers! And the Josh Machine! And the Chevrolet husband brought home the car on Karva Chauth day!

Look, we said, we are not the only ones. Many countries feel this way. “The world is shrinking not because we all have the same ideology or politics or religion, but because we all understand what Coca-Cola means,” we quoted. Psychologists had asked people in dozens of nations, rich and poor, how satisfied they were with their lives. There was a clear connection between a nation's per capita gross domestic product and the average happiness of its citizens. In terms of psychological pay-off, the benefits of globalisation were going overwhelmingly to the world's lower classes, nations with a per capita annual income under $10,000. Thank God for worldwide happiness surveys. As the world gets smaller, do its inhabitants become more similar? Or do cultural differences across countries remain constant despite diverse influences from across the globe? According to a worldwide survey of consumers in 30 markets, the answers are: yes and yes!

Look, we said, don’t worry. India will absorb the new without replacing the old. She’ll be fine.

Well, you don’t have to say all that any more.

Somewhere along the way, the tide turned

“America is no longer a premium brand, and the world's love affair with the US, while not exactly over, is no longer blind and unquestioning,” said magazine articles. “During the last decade, there has been a pronounced shift in Western tastes and fashions towards 'Asianisation' – a yearning for the values of older, wiser, more contemplative civilizations.” Thank God for magazine articles.

Somewhere along the way, Rajiv Gandhi and Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram and Abdul Kalaam and Dhirubhai Ambani and Vijay Mallya and AR Rahman and Arundhati Roy changed the way we Indians looked at ourselves. (And so many others, God bless them all – and God, please specially bless Lakshmi Mittal. And God, also bless the man in the Rajanigandha ad, who buys a foreign company. And all those guys in suiting ads who come back to Indian soil, giving up all those white girls.)

Even then they grumbled. Oh, we are becoming the back office of the world. They are taking advantage of our cheap labour costs. But guess what, no one was listening.

Because, the time, as the walrus said, had come.

From masalas to massages to movies: we are “going global”

Look what we read today. Bollywood we hear is going global! And this is not just about one Aiswarya or one Shekar Kapoor. This is about Paramount Pictures co-producing Indian films for local and global markets. The IIMs are going global. (Or they will, if the Ministry of Education allows them.) Indian animation is going global. Indian housewives are going global – on the Net -- correcting English essays written by Chinese and Japanese children. Our organic farming is going global. Always a large number in the USA, our students are today the largest in the segment, and now spreading all over – UK, Australia, New Zealand…Look what we read in the culture pages. Bharat Natyam dancer incorporates Chinese martial arts and Tibetan chanting. English play with Carnatic music. Shakespeare re-enacted in seven Indian languages – all at once, in the same play on the same stage. An American writer (Nathan Scott, born in India, spoke Hindi before English, calls himself a “third culture kid”) using Indian kalamkari art to illustrate an Indonesian tale in English. Reads it out to children in a bookshop in Chennai.

And look what we read in The Economic Times. “Indian companies go for global hued hiring.” “Percentage of other nationalities being hired by Indian companies steadily rising and expected to go up”. “We have to become a more embedded part of the countries and communities we operate in.” “International associates will help the team develop a global and multicultural mindset,” say Indian IT heads. Thank God for Indian IT Heads. And thank God for The Economic Times.

“Within the next five years, India’s economy will overtake Japan”. Wow. “In the second quarter of the 21st century, India will be among the three countries that rule the world. The world will become tripolar.” Tripolar? Wow. “Merit, hard work, democracy, secularism, and educational emphasis take India to the front.” Is that us they are talking about? Wow. “Indians work hard, and sleep even less. 46% of Indians, highest in Asia, sleep for less than 6 hours,” says India Today, so thank God for India Today too. “Indians won’t just play with the tail of the tiger. In the near future they will be the whole tiger.” Wow. “India is at the epicenter of the way the world is changing its business format.” Wow. “We are taking America. It’s the Trojan horse principle. Get inside and work.” says a professor in Columbia. Thank God for professors in Columbia!

The other day, I asked a bunch of nine-year-olds to respond to the word “money”. The first comeback was “dollars”!

This is it, I decided! I raise a toast to the birth of the Global Indian! And I do it with a glass of Coca-Cola. As the ad says, “Sar utha ke piyo”.

I say, let’s chant the Gayatri, along with the Videocon advertisement, which shows people all over the world chanting the Gayatri. I say, let’s drop population control, produce more Indians, and populate the whole world and rule the planet! Let’s Indianise the globe!

Neighbour's envy, owner's pride: Published articles/agencyfaqs 3

Article in agencyfaqs, Nov 13, 06

Neighbour's envy, owner's pride

A couple of months ago, I was talking to a group of men, asking why STATUS was such an important thing in a man’s life, and how did it matter which car stood outside their house?

Said one consumer, very succinctly: “Uski shirt meri shirt se safed kaise? Yeh to India ka mentality hai”! (How's his shirt whiter than mine... this is India's mentality)

To be fair on all of us, it is a human and worldwide “mentality”, but we Indians do manage to find our own unique ways to put this into our ads. Again and again and again. And again.

A very old landmark tamil film song, “aduthathu Ambujam”, was all about “next house Ambujam”. The wife asks the husband if he has noticed the love between the couple next door, and all the gifts that he was bringing her. How, for every fight and every “making up”, she got a new saree, and a silk one at that.

From next house Ambujam to the lady on the Moods bike to Shalini Chopra who is painting her house anew: for all our liberalisation and globalisation and individualisation, we really haven’t changed much after all.

This whole business of neighbours envy, owners pride is indeed a devilish thing, for we Indians are always watching “saamne wale khidki”. Sunil Babu’s neighbours can keep track of him for years, whereas the arrival of Santro-wale next door, can be a cause for marital distraction, and marital tit- for-tat.

Remember the boy who was dropped off in a scooter and felt bad because the other boy arrived in a Maruti 800? Well, daddy now has a “beeeg” car. “Uska gaadi meri gaadi se badi kaise” certainly drives the entire car upgradation syndrome. “Uska bachcha mere bachche se mota kaise” is the top-of-mind feeling in a paediatrician’s waiting room. “Uska beta mere bete se aage kaise” is the top-of-mind feeling at a PTA. “Uska computer mera computer se fast kaise” and “uska mobile mera mobile se advanced kaise” seems to be the topic of many an airport conversation.

Close-up might as well ask “uske daanth mere daanth se safed kaise?” And Fair and Lovely Menz Active might as well use the line “uski skin meri skin se safed kaise?”

“What will four people say?” is part of this “India ka mentality”. And we never really listened to Rajesh Khanna in Amar Prem, telling us to ignore such talk…“kuch to log kahenge, logon ka kaam hai kehna”.

The boy in the corridor who mistook you for “auntie” depending on whether or not you “dyed” your hair (before it was fashionably called colouring); the postman who refused to believe you were the master of the house because you had distemper and not emulsion on your walls; not to mention all those girls you didn’t get, because the other guy had no dandruff.

And if parents are into it, can kids be far behind? The boy who answered all the questions in class, till the other boy also got Golden Eye technology. The boy who confidently ate ice creams and chocolates till the other boy’s mother also discovered Pepsodent. The girl with rough skin, till her mother discovered Vaseline. The girl who was princess in the school play till the other mother also discovered… now which shampoo was that? The girl who had lice while the other girl didn’t, the boy who sneezed when he got wet while the other boy didn’t… our mentality doesn’t seem to have changed much, as girls and boys are still asking “Mummy Complan nahin pilayi?”

Today, even tea can make you better or worse than the other guy. And a bridegroom may miss his own wedding, because he has to run a mile to hide his black and white mobile phone.

And as if it was not enough to keep watch through the khidki, we now have telescopes - to keep tabs on, of all things, paint. Aren’t you dying to know which paint your neighbours are using? But of course, once you have a telescope, depending on your point of view, you could use it to watch more interesting things like opposite house Ambujam undressing.

If it is any consolation, “status anxiety” happens at the highest levels too. Unka Hussain hamare Hussain se mehenga kaise? Unki beti ki shaadi, meri beti ki shaadi se grand kaise? Uska private jet mera private jet se behtar kaise?

It was one thing to read about “Keeping up with the Joneses” and “When in Rome, do as the Romans do” as part of Wren and Martin phrases and idioms. It was one thing to hear a hundred movie dialogues on “khandaan ki izzat”. But to see it driving markets, creating anxieties, and becoming the punctuations by which we judge our lives, is quite another.

In this never-ending endeavour to blend in, keep pace and stay with the herd, are we losing our ability to even know what we actually are and how we truly want to live?

Or is it all ok, because jealousy, and the fear of getting left behind is what drives us to do better, aim higher, and improve the quality of our lives? Even, to stretch a point, realize our potential?

Or is it, like everything else in Indian philosophy, a matter of balance?

Argumentative Indians that we are, we could debate these questions forever.

Meanwhile, let us all just keep our shirt, our socks, our teeth, our skin and whatever else we need to stay ahead, more “safed” (white) than the next guy’s.

Is there a conflict brewing in your mind?: Published articles/agencyfaqs 2

Article in agencyfaqs, Aug 17, 06

Is there a conflict brewing in your mind?
Pass it on to the nearest new product manager!

WHILE EPICS, BOOKS, MOVIES AND SERIALS AND PRODUCT IDEAS HAVE TAPPED INTO HUMAN CONFLICTS, HAS ADVERTISING USED THIS RICH AREA ENOUGH?

Every human being is rife with conflicts. And so is all great communication. From the Mahabharat, the Ramayan, the Bhagavad Gita, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and Othello to Sholay, Devdaas and Tom and Jerry. Not to mention Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Tu Tu Main Main and Desperate Housewives.

Richly insightful serials like Full House deal with everyday family conflicts – growing up and looking after. Picket Fences picks community conflicts, Chicago Hope picks professional conflicts – ethical issues, personality clashes, professional-personal balances and more. The hit TV comedy show Home Improvement starring Tim Allen, centers around wanting to appear macho and being a family man at the same time The conflicts in this serial are many--from dealing with the softer, more sensitive male, Al (Tim’s assistant) to the division of labor with Tim’s spunky wife Jill, in running a home and raising kids. By seeing ourselves in their world, we learn to laugh at ourselves—and so resolve our own confusions like wanting to appear more macho, or dealing with smart-alec kids, or wanting the perfect marriage or bringing up imperfect children.

Conflicts imply a negative scenario and arise when we ignore needs that are essential to our well-being: our own needs, others’ needs or the group’s needs. Or from: how we define or use power, our values and our emotions.

But when managed effectively, conflicts become catalysts for growth and innovation; force new ways of thinking, and trigger the mind to generate new ideas.

HOW BRAND USE CONFLICTS

In the area of mobile telephony, Orange discovered “the more technology isolates people, the more they want to communicate in groups”. And used this to its advantage by being the first to introduce Group talk and messaging.

Time and again, fashion brands have had to resolve the conflict between individualization and social conformity. Fashion satisfies man's desire for novelty, for differentiation, for individuality, and still, at the same time, it makes for social adaptation and uniformity of action.

Luxury brands present a very interesting paradox. To quote: “it looks as if awareness feeds dreams-- but purchase makes dreams come true and therefore contributes to destroy it. This is the essence of the paradoxical nature of the marketing of luxury goods. The best-managed companies learn how to turn the paradox to their advantage. They position themselves at the intersection of two segments.”
Chupa Chups, the world’s leading lollipop, has very successfully explored the contradiction in the lollipop eating experience. “The eating experience is one which feels incredibly private – it is involving, playful and lasts a long time. At the same time the stick makes this experience one which is always displayed publicly. Introversion meets extroversion.”
There are any number of other examples where Health meets Indulgence, Nature meets Science, or Tradition meets Modernity.

INDIA: THRIVING ON CONTRADICTIONS

With its enormous economic and social disparities, and ability to absorb new influences without displacing the old, India is a cauldron of endless possibilities to dip into for new communication ideas. Something the Indian diaspora has drawn from with much success – be it films like Bend it like Beckam and East is East, or the prize-winning successes of Indian writers in English.

Examples like panneer pizza and aloo tikki burgers have been cited to death, but perhaps the best example is what RmKV a saree store in Chennai did. The ‘pavadai’ (long skirt) did not have the usual traditional floral patterns, but scenes from the universally loved fairy tale Cinderella. By resolving a conflict (how to make my child dress traditionally when her environment is shaping her style to be so Western) – a successful new product idea was born, an instant hit with both parents and little girls alike. The next year it was Snow White.


IN EVERY CONFLICT LIES AN IDEA!

I want to look good for my client meeting, but have no time to go to the parlor: handy, ready-to-use home facials kits.
I want to make up with my girlfriend, but don’t know how to break the ice: humorous greeting cards.
I want to be able to spend any time, but don't want to carry cash around: debit card, traveller cheques
I want sex, but I don’t want to have a baby: contraceptives
I want motherhood, but I don’t want to leave my job: crèches
I want to use a cream, but I don’t want to feel I’m using cosmetics: turmeric cream
I want to make money but I’m scared of the stock market: mutual funds
I want to save money, yet I want to spend: monthly income savings plans
I want to indulge my child, but I don’t want to spoil him: educational toys
I want to keep in touch, but don’t feel like talking – or wasting a phone
call: SMS messages
I want to be a family man but don’t want to step down on my macho-ness: family adventure car
I want an AC but I don’t want to indulge: power saving compressor
I want to eat chocolates but mummy doesn’t allow: milk chocolate
I want to use instant food mixes but I don’t want to feel I’m taking the lazy way out: instant cake mixes that still require you to beat eggs and shortening together, rather than “just add water”.
I want my husband to help in the kitchen but don’t really want to give up my territory: sunday cooking by dads.
I love thick rich tomato sauce but hate “hitting on the back of the bottle” to make it come out: a bottle with a large cap, designed to stand only upside down.
I want to drink Cola, but don't want calories with it: Diet Cola
I want to hear about rig veda, but hate the drony voice in which they explain it: Times Music

WHILE EPICS, BOOKS, MOVIES AND SERIALS AND PRODUCT IDEAS HAVE TAPPED INTO CONFLICTS, HAS ADVERTISING USED THIS RICH AREA ENOUGH?

So, when sitting down to write a piece of advertising, how can we use this rich world of conflicts to explore interesting possibilities?
The exploration needs to go down two axes: Relationships and Areas of conflict.
Each person’s conflict could be with: Himself/herself; His/her immediate family – spouse/parent/sibling; His/her immediate society – colleagues, friends, relatives; His/her larger society – the residential community, the social or political ethos; or the world/environment at large.
The second axis is the areas of conflict. Our conflicts could be around:
Money, Technology/Information, Time, Space, Health, Energy, Beauty, Sexuality/Love/Romance, Lifestyle/Fashion, Religion, Entertainment…

Who knows, you may land up with new unexplored advertising ideas… like pulse-calming watches, or perhaps adrenalin-arousing nail varnish; or cars that take you closer to nirvana, or walking shoes that are an answer to crowded car parks. Or maybe technologically advanced bubble-gum to improve a child's school grades…or separate bathrooms to improve a marriage!

Just look for a conflict to negotiate your way through - and feel that light bulb go on over your head and you might find a new way into your consumers heart.

They don't need no persuasion: Published articles/agencyfaqs 1

Article in agencyfaqs, July4, 06


THEY DON’T NEED NO PER-SU-ASION
Communicating to the Amity generation


The generation that truly believes it can paint the sky red is also the most marketing savvy generation ever… does any one really have a clue how to talk to them?
While we may be making them smile with a How Many You Have and a Dimag ki batti jala de, are we really inspiring, capturing their imagination and laying the foundation for future dialogues?

This is the generation that grew up on a diet of not just Pepsi and pizza, but Kaun Banega Crorepati and match fixing. They saw and heard themselves being discussed on national news, read front-page news items of their fellow students’ cell phone scandals, not to mention suicides. They saw their parents working hard, and pushing them harder. They wrote as many exams as they saw movies. They found their parents buying them what they asked for and they found themselves asking for more. They met Colin Powell and Tony Blair and fired questions at them. They supervised the death of grammar with icons, sms and chat.
They are advertising and media junkies but they haven't rejected marketing techniques – just seen through them! They grew up singing jingles with nursery rhymes. Fortunately for us they are far from shunning advertising per se. In fact, they have a very active, interdependent relationship with advertising. Ad slogans are part of their lingo and their lingo finds its way into ad slogans. They are keen ad watchers, and aspiring creators, already testing their skills and imagination in ad contests in their college culturals.
Hard to impress and harder to fool, this is the generation that will be quick to try brands and quicker to leave them.

Calculative, opinionated, in a hurry, matter of fact, restless and hardened negotiators – to them, happiness and prosperity and brands are closely linked. But beneath the “I am – I want- I will -that’s how I am - so what”, surely, there is confusion and vulnerability and a search for signposts.

What does the future look like?
In communications with this generation across the world, advertisers are acknowledging that entertainment is a pre-requisite for success; but pure entertainment to “passive” receivers will soon be passé, if it isn’t already. Brands need to work towards interactive relationships that CHALLENGE their intelligence and their imagination. Even energy, adventure and irreverence will get boring if it doesn’t INTRIGUE, INVITE COMPLICITY AND PARTICIPATION.
As they grow, there will be dislike of advertising that’s unrealistic and over claiming. Stereotypes, false sentimentality, and brands that try hard to be hip – frivolous youthfulness, will be seen as insulting their intelligence.
They will know lazy advertising when they see it, and will snort it away. Advertising which simply copies other, more original approaches will irritate. We’ll have to be first to be respected. And that means not just advertising, but products and propositions. The pressure to create unusual experiential concepts and new media spaces is going to be killing.
Overall, many studies in many markets have shown that this generation is looking for brands to engage in an HONEST dialogue with them, displaying respect and integrity.
Brands will have to get REALLY REAL, giving them permission to be imperfect. Irony, unvarnished truth, and straight, adult talk will be appreciated.
Or, brands will have to really PUSH THE INSPIRATION QUOTIENT. Acknowledge fundamental truths from their perspective; symbols and stories of self made success, hope, hunger to make it big, determination and persistence, reinvention after failure, mettle and values beyond just appearance, challenging norms and experimentation.


Two other factors will drive communication



First, developments in the current kids and youth markets show a complete blurring of age groups. As today’s kids become youth and youth become acquisitive adults, “who behaves how and buys what” will send age segmentation into a spin.

Second, the gender face off.
As girls get more confident, aggressive and inspired, brands will have to cheer them along and reward their journey. Will men partner them with admiration or will there be a return of beastliness is the question sociologists are asking. The jury is still out on that one. In fact, what marketers will face with tomorrow’s consumers is quite rightly being compared to what men will face with women. In both cases, the center of gravity has shifted.
But beyond what kind of COMMUNICATION the most marketing savvy generation will need, what will be really worth watching is WHAT KIND OF MARKETERS WILL THEY TURN OUT TO BE?

The Art of Corporate Living: Published articles/The Economic Times 3

Article in The Economic Times, Feb 27, 07

The Art of Corporate Living :
PR, HR and CSR come together for Corporate Branding


“Enter a world where profits and morals work hand in glove,” said the ad. If your remote had paused on CNBC one Saturday evening, you may have caught Venugopal Dhoot talking with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. While CEOs and business leaders flocking to Bhagavad Gita lectures, visiting temples or meeting religious leaders has always made news; this conversation on a business media channel seemed a milestone of sorts. A clear statement that corporate life is not just corporate anymore. When you join the dots between many little trends, you find that the lines between PR, HR and CSR are blurring and companies are clearly on a search for “let’s do something different”.

It’s one thing to read that Vijay Mallya contributed to the gold plating of the Sabarimala temple. But quite something else when Kerala-based Maitri Advertising talks of group pilgrimage to Sabarimala as a team building effort sans partying and says that it leads to better productivity. A step up from the outbound adventure tours that we saw a couple of years ago.

Groups of people from a company have always occasionally gone for a movie together. Then came the trend of picking movies that have themes of team building, motivation and the like. But now there’s Sasken, screening a movie every Friday for employees and their families in office premises, with popcorn. And Microsoft has a movie library of their own so that employees can take the one they want home for the weekend.

It used to be said that in India, you don’t marry a person you marry the family. Well, now it looks like you don’t hire a person, you hire the family. Many companies, specially IT, clearly see parents as a target for their recruitment campaigns. Inviting parents to visit the office, wives to participate in cookery contests and children to attend personality development courses in the summer holidays are all now par for the course.

Sponsoring art and theater? Holding yoga/breathing/salsa workshops? Inviting outside speakers at your annual conference? Sorry, all been done before! What is your percentage of cross-industry recruitment? Of challenged people? Of women in senior positions? Did Kottler drop in to workshop with your marketing team? Do you have a company blog? Do you sponsor further education? Quick, think of something for your company to do that will make news, and get your employees talking proudly about the company as well.

And as if it was not enough to compare profits, growth rates and holiday destinations, it looks like CEOs are now under pressure to scuba dive, trek to Tibet, play musical instruments, and find passions that they can then say teaches them new lessons in leadership and team spirit. All of these, in any case, now look like child’s play in the light of a chieftain who strikes the largest Indian acquisition one day and flies an F16 fighter jet the next.

The most beneficial fallout of this new unboxing of corporate life is surely the heightened sense of Corporate Social (read Karma) Responsibility. Certainly a far cry from sponsoring the occasional green traffic roundels. While many companies have done enormous work even in the past with schools, hospitals, improving lives of factory workers, farmers and the like, it is the complete corporatisation of philanthropy, and understanding the PR opportunities therein, that makes the difference. That said, one must admit that Indian business leaders really do us proud. Beyond chequebook charity, it is indeed heartening to read of Azim Premji’s genuine personal passion to address systemic issues. And that Mahindra and Mahindra has something called an Employees Social Options Plan - not just allotting a percentage of profits but actually encouraging employees to give their time, energy and emotion. Soon jobs in CSR projects will become as sought after as pure commercial ventures.

So what’s next? If corporate draws from everywhere, will vice versa happen too? Playing in Houston is a musical on the Enron fraud, which has adapted famous songs - How Do You Solve A Problem Like Jeff Skilling, Ya Got Trouble In Bayou City and Get Me To The Court On Time - to tell the story. While movies like Corporate or programmes like Business Baazigar are not big hits, surely there is room here for some inspiration and innovation?

With many companies beginning to recruit foreigners, being heterocultural and managing diversity is already showing up as a new experience. Always known for its high sense of ethics, the Murugappa Group’s whistle blower policy caught some media attention recently. Will this set off transparency as the next idea?
The other trend in the West is to have an academic guru on your board. Will Indian companies follow suit? Dipak Jain, Vijay Govindarajan, Jagdish Sheth, Tarun Khanna… who do you have? Or maybe we’ll do a one up? Drop the academic – maybe soon, we will have spiritual gurus on Indian boards. The Art of Corporate Living, as it were!

What does demography have to do with R and D?: Published articles/The Economic Times 2

Article in The Economic Times, Dec 5, 06

What does demography have to do with R and D?

A Wikipedia definition of “demography” points out that it goes way beyond the cursory male/female, SEC, age, town class definition that we as marketers tend to think it is. Demography is actually a scientific study of “population dynamics” and belongs to a larger field of “population studies” which examines the relationship between economic, social, cultural and biological processes influencing the population.

The most basic premise here is that changes in groups of populations in a society can in the long run cause major socio cultural and economic changes.

Combine this with the genetic theory that reproductive patterns of each generation shape the character of successive generations, for better or worse.

For marketers this will mean new sets of target groups, different consumer behaviours, motivations, fears, desires and - the most crucial for brands - a different set of pay offs. More importantly, this is where forward thinking companies need to be pitching their R and D and Product Planning tents.

Let’s take just two aspects about India’s changing demographics: skewed gender ratios and decrease in birth/fertility rates.

Flagged off as among the most imbalanced in the world, the ratio among children up to the age of six is now down to 927 girls per 1,000 boys. This is already, in some geographic areas and communities, leading to reverse dowries, and exchanges between brother/sister combinations. Add to this, increasing women power in general, and this could lead to some dramatic new social trends. (But with fewer women voting, it could mean quite an opposite set of implications too!)
Now combine this with the fact that some states have better gender ratios. Kerala, for example, has more women while Haryana has less. A small news item in a magazine reported, quite some time ago, a large number of mixed marriages between Keralites and a certain district in Haryana!
According to the 2001 census, population growth is higher among Muslims, Christians and Buddhists, and the gender ratio among children below the age of six in these communities is also higher. So they have more daughters, while the Sikhs, for example, have the least number of daughters.

Consider the increase in inter caste, inter religion, inter state and inter language marriages this will lead to. (Something that is, in any case, already on the rise.) Besides lower usage of mother tongues, mixed food habits, festive celebrations and other such lifestyle changes, this could lead to a different gene pool (and hopefully lesser public/community conflicts). Some researches have also shown that inter caste marriages result in marginally lower fertility than intra caste marriages.

Delayed marriages and delayed children also mean a different kind of parenting. More single children could mean different attitudes, and unavailability of family support as they grow up could lead to a different bag of problems.

Having only daughters, and delayed age of daughter’s marriage means daughters stay with parents longer, sometimes supporting them and caring for them in their old age.

The thing to remember in all this is that every such change for marketers means re looking at product and service portfolios. Patterns in finance, health, real estate, education and foods will surely change. Not to mention ripple effects on mental health, retirement planning and say, health insurance, to name but a few.

The other rather sensitive factor that has been highly debated in the West, but not so much in India, is the impact of the fact that the brighter, more educated women are the first to have fewer children – so there are fewer children among the elite and more children among the so called lesser intelligent, and this could affect national productivity and the gene pool.

Ageing population in advanced countries is hugely impacting marketing imperatives, leave alone government policies and the national economy. Some countries have been caught napping, while some started discussions over a decade ago. Japan for example, called academicians, experts in demographics, economists, sociologists, lawyers, political scientists, doctors and businessmen to come together to discuss and debate the implications and evolve solutions.

Who then is thinking of and debating the impact of the changing demography of India?

Most of the time the government is - understandably - preoccupied with the GDP, the vote banks and the borders.

Most of the time marketing is - understandably - preoccupied with the next quarter’s sales and the optimal use of media money in the next cricket championship; or in the more forward planning companies - next year’s relaunch with improved pack graphics and a new variant with an extra ingredient.

And most of the time, mainline media is - understandably - preoccupied with children caught in wells, global buyouts or Karan Johar’s latest moral pronouncement.

In the midst of all this, R and D and predictive Product Planning in organisations that wish to stay ahead, should start looking aggressively at population studies as a rich source of ideas for the future.

Product Planning must in fact lie at the center of a triangle, that has at its three corners: sociology, economics and genetics, all of which are linked to demography.
Marketers must start actively understanding the real meaning of demography. For change often drops in sooner than we think. Let’s at least have a point of view, if not a plan.

It doesn't get more creative than this! : Published articles/The Economic Times 1

Article in The Economic Times, Nov 14, 06

It doesn’t get more “creative” than this!

There was a time when to be ”creative” was to sing, dance, draw, paint or at best, make films. Only a few could do it, you had to be born talented, and the rest of the world watched and admired. Occasionally you also made money, but often your fortunes were inversely proportionate to your creativity quotient. Newscasters, techies, engineers and cooks were not creative. But if you were in advertising, you were certainly in a highly creative industry!

Not any more.

Today, everyone is creative. And everyone makes money, being creative. Today, creative is not appreciation of high art reserved for the few, but entertainment for many. Today, you start being creative at a very early age. Today, if you can link your creativity to a social cause or everyday health, even better. And if you can “go global” with your creativity… well, that’s the best.

The young henna expert who charges Rs3,500 to decorate a bride’s palms is creative. The flair bartenders who do elaborate stunts with fire and flame are creative. The participants in the Great Indian Laughter Challenge, the city rock bands, the theater groups are creative. People who devise game shows are most creative. RJs in FM radio stations are auditioned for clarity and tone of voice, musical expertise and - no surprise – “creativity”. Everyone who participated in the largest drum ensemble is, surely, creative. Bhanumathi, the first woman puppet maker who teaches puppetry is creative. Jeeva the travelling storyteller, from Singapore to San Diego, is surprisingly creative. The people who design scary experiences with disembodied hands, trap doors and screams in mega malls are unusually creative. The boys and girls who work in animation houses, that too for foreign films, are fantastically creative. Every housewife is creative – look at her curtain ideas, her kitchen cabinets, her navaratri decorations and her diwali gift packs. Just look at the “classes” column in your daily newspaper and you’ll know - eight year olds who learn Tanjore painting, 12 year olds who learn photography, and hundreds of women who learn radium painting, jewelry making, candle making… are all creative.

With this “democratisation” of creativity as it were, comes a certain “universality” which goes beyond “fusion” as we have traditionally known it.

Anita Ratnam’s Bharatnatyam incorporates Chinese martial arts and Tibetan chanting. Another dancer conceptualizes an Indo Korean dance venture for the Seoul Performing Arts Festival. The November Music Festival in Chennai this year will feature Pakistani, and German music, Syrian hymns in Aramaic, in addition to Abhangs and World Music. Brhaddhvani, a research and training center for traditional Carnatic music includes African dances at its valedictory function

An English play is staged with Carnatic music. Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is enacted in six Indian languages – all at once, on the same stage.

Post production, animation, visual effects, fine arts, software, electronics, film, fashion, performing arts, art and craft, gaming… all merge. Art, technology and innovation merge. Artists are combining painting with photography, cartoons, linoloeum prints, sculpture, industrial junk, acrylic engraving, folk and kitsch. A furniture shop announces a new range of furniture, which is a fusion of Vietnamese, Chinese and French if you please.

In the light of all this, a tabla, vocalist and sarod player performing with a French band seems almost tame. But what makes it interesting, is when a French classical band, performs to an enraptured group of slum dwellers. Playing Beethoven and Bach to coolies, washerwomen and children who, the news item tells us, hoot in delight. And what makes it inspiring, is when you hear of Werner Dornik, an Austrian artist, who has set up an art school for leprosy patients who paint for four hours a day, some of them painting with brushes fixed to their fingerless hands with rubber bands. They then share the money and use it to help others like themselves.

And then there is art for health. Dance therapy that combines yogasanas, folk dance and martial art for bulging midriffs, spondylitis, activation of liver and pancreas, mobilizing insulin and even sexual dysfunctions. And puppetry classes for introverted children. Of course, much has been made of “music therapy” – elaborate how-tos in every other newspaper and magazine tell you to have a bath, put on a headphone, light candles, lie down and listen to music, and focus on the silences between notes.

And here’s the final testimony: the “corporatisation” of creativity!
* The Creative Future School at IIM Bangalore calls for entries and 20 short listed candidates get a chance to pitch their idea to business investors in London.
* There is a global conference on Creative Economy.
* SG Vasudev and 69 others in Bangalore get together to form Anunya Drishya, which engages school children in Indian contemporary art education; and has, among other things, initiated a health care programme for musicians. They report that corporate houses, clubs and colleges are beginning to ask for art appreciation sessions.
* KK Raghava establishes Raw Umber India, an art management firm to manage his art, which is sold with instruction manuals on how to take care of them.
* Art is becoming corporate gift and brands are striking up relationships with artists and their art.
*And the ultimate: Finance Minister P Chidambaram with Anjolie Ela Menon creates a painting that will be sold to raise funds for an old age home in Gurgaon. Reserve price: Rs 20 lakhs.

Democratisation, universalisation, socialisation, corporatisation!

It doesn’t get more creative than this!

The only question is: how is the advertising industry planning to keep pace?