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Seen the latest ad from India’s leading insurance provider LIC. Haven’t? Well, it talks about the needlessness of adding two K’s to your name to change your professional fortune. Okay, caught the latest Tata Safari Dicor commercial? This one pointedly rubbishes office politics in these troubled times and asks consumers to ‘Reclaim your life’. India’s largest private bank ICICI is doing a lot of ‘rely on us in bad times’ ads; Honda City’s sedan cruises along rough terrain with an ‘enjoy your challenges’ tag line...

If you are still not getting the point – guess its back to the schoolroom for you. Fact is every marketer worth his salt (or should we say 4Ps?) is sending out ‘loaded’ missives to his consumers these days. He’s trying to build a common agenda with consumers and make a moot point about the emotional connect in these unhappy times so that the consumer should buy his brand. Agrees Anisha Motwani, Executive VP-Marketing, Max New York Life Insurance (MNYL): “Times are cautious. Therefore, the message should have a ‘re-assuring’ communication strategy. The tone and content of advertising should be re-assuring that your money is safe with us.” To communicate its credibility, MNYL recently began spreading the message that their international partner, New York Life is the only American financial organisation that has been untouched by the US economic turmoil.

And that perhaps is the reason for all the optimism floating around in the air. Yeah! You guessed it right – because people want to hear good things (especially the overtly optimistic, never say die, Indian people!!).

Big 92.7 FM, the biggest private FM player as per the number of channels and reach – is similarly attempting to cash in on consumer apathy to negative messages. Their ‘Don’t Worry; Be Happy’ theme is receiving rave response. Says Nirupam Sonu, VP – Programming, BIG 92.7 FM, “Honestly there is a lot of negativity in the air. So, we need someone to tell them to be happy and take them a little away from their troubles.” Besides the daily doses of laughter, the station has a programming line up that hosts visionaries and CEOs who give tips on how to stay motivated at the workplace, how to secure jobs, manage expenses, et al, during these tough times. “It is not just about recession and gives no gyan as to when the bad times will end. Instead it is just our initiative to help our listeners,” says Sonu.

Besides the message itself, medium choices and exorbitant ad rates are other niggling worries for marketers. The trick it seems is to review your media budget allocations to maximise value. Little surprise that a host of marketers are lining up media houses to review their options. Chirantan Chandran, Partner-Client Leadership, Mindshare adds that “clients are of course looking for better rates but moreover, the major deciding factor for them is ROI and the accountability of investments. They have become more careful about each step they are taking, they are seeing what they are receiving in lieu of what they are doing in fact what they are investing.” Titus, ex-Senior Creative Director, O&M suggests innovative media vehicles for generating better bang for their bucks. “Communication is changing. We are all awakening to the fact that television can’t solve all the problems,” he says.

TV sure can’t solve problems. Just like chanting, praying and generally invoking the God of good times to banish those depressing thoughts, TV can at best play along the tunes of hope. But the fact is that there is a lot of hope for marketers and companies that can think out-of-the-box. Out-of-the-box need not be out of the world; but it does mean you actually end up feeling good in these so called bad times.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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