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.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
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?
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!
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.
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?
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?
Super, Scroller, TV, Ticker: Published articles/DNA 5
Article in DNA, Mar8, 07
Super, Scroller, TV, Ticker!
I don’t know about all of you, but with every passing day, I certainly am getting increasingly confused while watching news. I mean, is it not enough for us to get one piece of news at a time? There’s something going on in the main screen, and then there’s something scrolling at the bottom, and sometimes there is even something in between. Now, I come from the old economy, where anything that came as text under a picture was a caption for that picture… in advertising parlance called a “super”. But not any more. The real problem is, that sometimes the super on TV news is a super and sometimes it’s a scroller.
To add to the confusion, some supers/scrollers/tickers are news - Sri Lanka opts to bat. Some are ads: Celebrate Valentine’s with D’Damas. Some are ads for news: Roast Chicken, Orange Cake on NDTV at 3.30pm. Some are news about ads: Deadlines fast approaching for Clio Awards. Some are both ad and news: Rahul Dravid chooses Skyline Constructions homes in Bangalore. Some are confusing: Sachin Tendulkar eating out in Goa - is that news, an ad for Sachn tendulkar or an ad for the hotel in Goa? And then there are some that are totally baffling: Shilpa, my funny Valentine.
Picture this. Main news: Vodafone chief lands in Delhi. Scroller below: Terrorists manipulating stock exchanges. Main news: Vinod Khanna says we will invite Shilpa Shetty to join the BJP. (First of all, you have to grapple with the fact that the BJP wants Shilpa Shetty, that it chooses Vinod Khanna to say so, and that this is making it to national prime time news) Now add to it a scroller that says: Pick the perfect shade of red for your lips. Main news: Has India picked the best men for the World Cup? (Now, that IS a matter of grave concern.) However, we are told at the same time: Nescafe – reach out to the world’s favourite cup.
Now read some more combinations and tell me what to make of them. North Korea ends nuclear programme - Madhuri Dixit steps out. Shilpa Shetty gets work permit in UK - Abortion legalized (in Portugal). Another custodial death in J and K - Roast Chicken, Orange Cake on NDTV at 3.30pm. Sonia flags off train - Trains disrupted in Mumbai.
And the advertisements… let’s not forget the advertisements, because that’s how the news channel is there in the first place. Mumbai trains disrupted. Scroller below: Cadbury winning moment. Bus attack triggers panic- Pan Parag, jab bhi jee kare. Karan and Kareena settle their differences (mind you, this is a half-an-hour programme) - Mak Lubricant makes it possible. Lalu’s in-laws caught without train tickets - Cleartrip.com, make traveling simple. More rain in North India - Garb Nirodhan Goliyaan. Shoaib Akhtar fails dope test - UPES, exciting career opportunities. Cotton County, buy 2 get 4 free - Read the offer document carefully before investing.
And if all these multiple news items and ads were not enough, we also have to answer multiple choice surveys. Students murdered - If it is Dharmendra Hema Malini, sms HT space C. Police still chasing terrorists - If it is Kajol Shah Rukh Khan, sms HT space B. 18 people killed in bomb blasts, LTTE hand suspected - If it is Ash Abhishek, sms HT space D. Two militants killed in gun battle - If it is Amitabh Rekha, sms HT space E. 6 killed, 13 hurt in series of blasts in Algeria - If it is Hrithik Kareena, sms HT space F. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, while the world kills, we have to vote for our favourite Bollywood couple. It’s Valentine’s Day.
If you want this Super-Scroller-TV-Ticker system to stop, SMS PRAYER-STOP-WINDOWS-NEWS to all the people in your phone book. Cycle Brand Agarbathis – everyone has a reason to pray.
Super, Scroller, TV, Ticker!
I don’t know about all of you, but with every passing day, I certainly am getting increasingly confused while watching news. I mean, is it not enough for us to get one piece of news at a time? There’s something going on in the main screen, and then there’s something scrolling at the bottom, and sometimes there is even something in between. Now, I come from the old economy, where anything that came as text under a picture was a caption for that picture… in advertising parlance called a “super”. But not any more. The real problem is, that sometimes the super on TV news is a super and sometimes it’s a scroller.
To add to the confusion, some supers/scrollers/tickers are news - Sri Lanka opts to bat. Some are ads: Celebrate Valentine’s with D’Damas. Some are ads for news: Roast Chicken, Orange Cake on NDTV at 3.30pm. Some are news about ads: Deadlines fast approaching for Clio Awards. Some are both ad and news: Rahul Dravid chooses Skyline Constructions homes in Bangalore. Some are confusing: Sachin Tendulkar eating out in Goa - is that news, an ad for Sachn tendulkar or an ad for the hotel in Goa? And then there are some that are totally baffling: Shilpa, my funny Valentine.
Picture this. Main news: Vodafone chief lands in Delhi. Scroller below: Terrorists manipulating stock exchanges. Main news: Vinod Khanna says we will invite Shilpa Shetty to join the BJP. (First of all, you have to grapple with the fact that the BJP wants Shilpa Shetty, that it chooses Vinod Khanna to say so, and that this is making it to national prime time news) Now add to it a scroller that says: Pick the perfect shade of red for your lips. Main news: Has India picked the best men for the World Cup? (Now, that IS a matter of grave concern.) However, we are told at the same time: Nescafe – reach out to the world’s favourite cup.
Now read some more combinations and tell me what to make of them. North Korea ends nuclear programme - Madhuri Dixit steps out. Shilpa Shetty gets work permit in UK - Abortion legalized (in Portugal). Another custodial death in J and K - Roast Chicken, Orange Cake on NDTV at 3.30pm. Sonia flags off train - Trains disrupted in Mumbai.
And the advertisements… let’s not forget the advertisements, because that’s how the news channel is there in the first place. Mumbai trains disrupted. Scroller below: Cadbury winning moment. Bus attack triggers panic- Pan Parag, jab bhi jee kare. Karan and Kareena settle their differences (mind you, this is a half-an-hour programme) - Mak Lubricant makes it possible. Lalu’s in-laws caught without train tickets - Cleartrip.com, make traveling simple. More rain in North India - Garb Nirodhan Goliyaan. Shoaib Akhtar fails dope test - UPES, exciting career opportunities. Cotton County, buy 2 get 4 free - Read the offer document carefully before investing.
And if all these multiple news items and ads were not enough, we also have to answer multiple choice surveys. Students murdered - If it is Dharmendra Hema Malini, sms HT space C. Police still chasing terrorists - If it is Kajol Shah Rukh Khan, sms HT space B. 18 people killed in bomb blasts, LTTE hand suspected - If it is Ash Abhishek, sms HT space D. Two militants killed in gun battle - If it is Amitabh Rekha, sms HT space E. 6 killed, 13 hurt in series of blasts in Algeria - If it is Hrithik Kareena, sms HT space F. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, while the world kills, we have to vote for our favourite Bollywood couple. It’s Valentine’s Day.
If you want this Super-Scroller-TV-Ticker system to stop, SMS PRAYER-STOP-WINDOWS-NEWS to all the people in your phone book. Cycle Brand Agarbathis – everyone has a reason to pray.
All in the Great Indian Family: Published articles/DNA 4
Article in DNA, Jan24, 07
All in the Great Indian Family!
The announcement of the engagement of Abhishek Bachchan and Aiswarya Rai
opens up a world of the most exciting opportunities for the Indian advertising industry and it is now up to advertisers and the Great First Family of the Indian Subconscious to shape the future of family values in the country.
First, we quickly need a new company – ABJBABABCL - that will strike package deals for all four Bachchans to appear together, or in combinations. Before the wedding invitations get printed, we need the Official Camera, the Official Paan Masala, the Official Nail Polish and the Official Dishwash Bar.
Some key questions arise. Having blown the whistle as it were and told the male species to look after the dal in the pressure cooker, will Ash continue to drive the rise and revenge of the Indian woman – get him to wash clothes and make Sunday meals, or will she become the good wife? Let’s see… she can remind him about the insurance premium, and he can buy her foot cream – this will really prove that they are made for each other. She can make him run in the park and help him to reduce all the weight he had to put on for his recent success, and we do hope she’ll look after him with the right cooking oil. Or will she keep him on a leash and expect him to sit when she says sit? Will he listen to cricket commentary over their anniversary dinner or will he rub her back pain away? Will she win him over with the right atta as rishvath, or will she lock him out of the bedroom for an air conditioner? Let’s just hope we save ourselves from them fighting over their mobile phone on their wedding night, and let’s hope their bedroom has the right switches. Hopefully, he won’t be so foolish as to ask her to throw his handkerchief down the balcony without breaking it. Nett, nett, my psepho-wedding-ology prediction is that men won’t be portrayed as such idiots, and women won’t be portrayed as such shrews. A new, loving, equal relationship between man and wife will emerge. Much advertising will start looking rosy.
In fact, this wedding will not only herald the return of the Great Indian Husband Wife Relationship but the Great Indian Saas Bahu also. Please, please, please may we have a special appearance in Kyunki…? Let us pray that no quarrel breaks out over whose masala smells better. We really don’t want to put the new groom in an unnecessary emotional dilemma …however we have to give We The People a chance to express their opinion. If you think Ash’s cooking will be better - sms ABAB, if you are on the ma-in-law’s side - sms JBAB. The best slogan will win an invitation to The Big Fight!
Of course, the elder couple will be standing in the background, while the young ones take their first housing loan. As time progresses, hopefully she won’t be so coy as to need a baby cup of coffee to tell him the “good news”. And no two guesses which car they will be in, when they drive to hospital to see the first-born. But we do look forward to an occasional chatar patar in grandma’s mouth to reveal family secrets.
A word of caution though, to the elder AB: no KANK type advise please, because according to marital therapists, Indian housewives take his advise very seriously, and we certainly don’t want Ash doing any of that.
Which is why leading advertising industry representatives will be gifting the Jodi Number One a tube of Fevicol - because there is nothing we want more than for them to be stuck together, forever.
All in the Great Indian Family!
The announcement of the engagement of Abhishek Bachchan and Aiswarya Rai
opens up a world of the most exciting opportunities for the Indian advertising industry and it is now up to advertisers and the Great First Family of the Indian Subconscious to shape the future of family values in the country.
First, we quickly need a new company – ABJBABABCL - that will strike package deals for all four Bachchans to appear together, or in combinations. Before the wedding invitations get printed, we need the Official Camera, the Official Paan Masala, the Official Nail Polish and the Official Dishwash Bar.
Some key questions arise. Having blown the whistle as it were and told the male species to look after the dal in the pressure cooker, will Ash continue to drive the rise and revenge of the Indian woman – get him to wash clothes and make Sunday meals, or will she become the good wife? Let’s see… she can remind him about the insurance premium, and he can buy her foot cream – this will really prove that they are made for each other. She can make him run in the park and help him to reduce all the weight he had to put on for his recent success, and we do hope she’ll look after him with the right cooking oil. Or will she keep him on a leash and expect him to sit when she says sit? Will he listen to cricket commentary over their anniversary dinner or will he rub her back pain away? Will she win him over with the right atta as rishvath, or will she lock him out of the bedroom for an air conditioner? Let’s just hope we save ourselves from them fighting over their mobile phone on their wedding night, and let’s hope their bedroom has the right switches. Hopefully, he won’t be so foolish as to ask her to throw his handkerchief down the balcony without breaking it. Nett, nett, my psepho-wedding-ology prediction is that men won’t be portrayed as such idiots, and women won’t be portrayed as such shrews. A new, loving, equal relationship between man and wife will emerge. Much advertising will start looking rosy.
In fact, this wedding will not only herald the return of the Great Indian Husband Wife Relationship but the Great Indian Saas Bahu also. Please, please, please may we have a special appearance in Kyunki…? Let us pray that no quarrel breaks out over whose masala smells better. We really don’t want to put the new groom in an unnecessary emotional dilemma …however we have to give We The People a chance to express their opinion. If you think Ash’s cooking will be better - sms ABAB, if you are on the ma-in-law’s side - sms JBAB. The best slogan will win an invitation to The Big Fight!
Of course, the elder couple will be standing in the background, while the young ones take their first housing loan. As time progresses, hopefully she won’t be so coy as to need a baby cup of coffee to tell him the “good news”. And no two guesses which car they will be in, when they drive to hospital to see the first-born. But we do look forward to an occasional chatar patar in grandma’s mouth to reveal family secrets.
A word of caution though, to the elder AB: no KANK type advise please, because according to marital therapists, Indian housewives take his advise very seriously, and we certainly don’t want Ash doing any of that.
Which is why leading advertising industry representatives will be gifting the Jodi Number One a tube of Fevicol - because there is nothing we want more than for them to be stuck together, forever.
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