Elections 2009: Insights from a marketers lens

Truckloads of information, apt room for application of theories of Philip Kotler .. Ecstasy for a Marketeer :)


Elections in India mean big spends on brands – the parties, the candidates and huge mass of information spread across different mediums – TV Commercials, Internet, Radio, Outdoor advertising, News Shows, Debates and the old fashioned rallies and manifestos. Loads to analyse and debate for any inquisitive marketer, and possibly the biggest marketing extravaganza in the country. Yes, bigger than the IPL too if you account for the black money doing the rounds. Further, there won’t be any brand, any product that touches nearly as many Indian consumers as the Elections, and thus, to me, elections are the true biopic view of the country we live in.

I will start with the basics now. The generic marketing strategies we all know involve Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (STP). There have been some standard measures on the basis of which various political parties have segmented the population, and then gone on to target the segments which match their ideology, or where their ideology and past performance can be portrayed to be in sync with the needs of the consumer group. The last part is where they communicate their agendas and benefits, and devise a positioning that they want to achieve in the consumer’s mindspace.

Lets start with Segmentation –there have been many parameters exploited in the past - Poor, Rich; Rural, Urban; Upper Castes, Lower Castes; Hindus, non Hindus; Young, Old and many others. If we look at India, we have some clear facts – over 65% (conservatively) of the entire target market(India’s population) lives in Rural areas, and India is a very young country, which has something MBAs call Demographic Dividend. The pyramid in terms of income levels shows that majority of the Indians still lie at the bottom, and hence, the poor are the bigger lot.

The religions in India show that Hindus are the majority, but are historically not known to vote as a block, which makes sense for pseudo secular politics, which at times, appease the minorities to buy their votes. The only time when it would make sense to target the Hindu population, is if there is a heightened polarisation in the area on the basis of religion. BJP wining in Kandhamal in Orrisa, Pilibhit (Varun Gandhi) in UP, and Narendra Modi wining Gujarat after the riots, clearly shows that who the benefactor (if not conspirator) of the rising tensions amongst religions is.

Now lets look at some of the traditional target segments chosen by various political parties. Mayawati’s BSP always focussed on the oppressed lower castes, and was voted to power in UP as it even made a claim to votes outside its bastion. In the recent past, there hasn’t been a great amount of news on oppression of the backward castes, and as it is, BSP was never seen doing anything significant for their target segment, apart from erecting statues of the leader herself. Congress on the other hand, came up with the OBC reservation, and even though not even a single political party opposed this, the laurels would certainly have gone to them for seeing that it is implemented, in spite of common logic, facts, figures or Supreme Court’s objections.

Leftists- They stood for one thing – Almost leading to the premature demise of the Manmohan Singh government, on the nuclear deal issue. This deal, was supported by majority of the parliament, as shown in the no-confidence motion results, and hence, by inference, by majority of the people. There historic rise of 2004, was done and dusted by their historic demise now, primarily due to their image of the Spoilers, or the group that destabilizes the country’s political environment. We may or may not ever agree on who the better leader or political party is, but after the rule of I. K. Gujral and H.D. Dewe Gowda, its pretty clear that there is no sizeable population in India that wants governments to fall and falter every 2nd year. This meant the Leftists tried putting up a farcical 3rd front, but the ties among the allies were as close as Manmohan Singh was to L.K. Advani. The result is for all to see. Kerala went to congress, and West Bengal (partially due to the Singur fiasco) went to the nationally relevant alliance of Trinamool Congress and INC.

Bihar is a case study in itself – A state ruled by power, identity politics, and Lalu’s Brand Persona. The brand lived and strived for a long period of time, but with that time, the mismatch between the value delivered and the value communicated became evident. And the alternative, Nitish Kumar, has shown that even Bihar can be governed, and governed well. No wonder then, that the people, even in Bihar, realize the huge difference in two product offerings, and are not swayed by the brand ambassadors alone.

Now, we are down to the Big 2- Congress and BJP. Let us try and analyse the characteristics of their chosen target segments. I leave the conclusion to be drawn by the smart readers themselves :)


(P.S: Click the pic above for a zoomed view)

Some would say my points are in hindsight, but I always knew it. Didn't write it as I am not campaigning for anyone but a stable India. As usual, comments, more than welcome :)