Political Marketing: Part - 1

A wise man rightly said “Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department”.

Whether you’re a doctor, scientist, marketing student or in any other profession, I would recommend you read “The 22 immutable laws of marketing” by Al Ries and Jack Trout. It’s a quick, short read. As always there will be some rare exceptions to the rule but these 22 laws laid down by the two advertising gurus have generally stood the test of time. These laws apply not merely to business but also to individual endeavours if one wants to adapt them. You can run through a summary here. The reason for bringing up this old book to is to educate some of our media morons, like Bhupendra Chaube and Rajdeep Sardesai, who think marketing is some kind of evil practice. The reasons for their heartburn and escalated stupidity are these images of a mega road-show by Narendra Modi on April 24 on the way to filing his nomination papers at Varanasi.

Well, such massive crowds for Modi can upset and annoy any political opponent of Modi. Naturally, Chaubeji and Congress pimp Rajdeep were deeply upset. Chaubeji started blabbering the crowds were sourced from other towns which the Congress picked up and started screaming. It doesn’t occur to them that it’s even worse if some of those in the crowds were from other towns. It only means people are travelling to see Modi while even the locals are unwilling to turn up in big numbers for RahulG or SoniaG. It also means that if the BJP can source people from outside then they can very well source people from the town itself. Such nonsense is passed off for news debate by CNN-IBN.  

After Chaubeji’s heartburn-theory of outsiders in the crowds, Rajdeep came up with a dumb question only he can come up with. He asked “Is it necessary for Modi to do this (road-show)?” The other even more stupid question was “Should Modi be doing such a road-show on voting-day?” Is it necessary for Rajdeep to peddle filth on his channel? Is that what keeps his “Choola” burning? Obviously, these standards apply only to Modi because it seems to be fine for Rajdeep when RahulG or someone else does it. His hatred for Modi makes him lose all balance and even forget events of the recent past. As my tweet points out to corrupt Rajdeep, even RahulG held a road-show for his nomination on April 12, a voting-day. Rajdeep kept abusing Modi throughout the morning of April 24 while the road-show was on. He also went on to say he would love to have Modi as his marketing head for CNN-IBN. At least that’s an admission that his channel has miserably failed under him. His panellist (some Manini) lamented Modi’s case was one of great image and persona building. Well, it doesn’t occur to them that if that is possible for Modi then it is possible for RahulG too. After all, there are reports of RahulG having spent 500 crores with a foreign agency called Dentsu for his lipstick.

What’s bugging these hate-mongers? It’s the awful truth that there is nothing more they have to throw at Modi. They are exhausted. So they hold pathetic debates on his jackets, the colour of his Kurta and who he is waving at and so on. When an organised mafia like our media, along with Congress and its clones, keep hurling abuses at a man, the public starts to wonder about their motives. At some point they conclude if so many lies are peddled about a man, there must actually be something good about him. That’s the problem Rajdeep and Congress face. Now they claim it is all “marketing” as if marketing is some evil. I guarantee, most media morons cannot define marketing in a single sentence if they were asked to.

Marketing is a good thing; especially if your product is a good one. Smita Prakash who interviewed Modi asked him this question and he answered with a fact on products. Modi said water flows in Gujarat, people get power supply in Gujarat and these aren’t “fake” products that can be sold by mere marketing. That people see it, experience it and reap the benefits of these products. Modi wears simple Indian clothes but he wears them well. We should applaud this and expect all politicians be dressed well. And what are elections about if not marketing? The fools in the media would have you believe it’s not. Elections are about marketing your past performance, your services, your ideas, your promises and, most of all, yourself. This is what every party and candidate does or is supposed to do. Modi does it well, so the media mafia screams about marketing as if it is some evil. During the late 1990s a TV commercial show called Asian Sky Shop had huge sales advertising electric “Roti-makers”. They sold crores worth of the product but in a few weeks customers started returning the product to them and their franchisees because it didn’t make Rotis the way Indians traditionally want it. Do you see much of these Roti-maker ads or sales now? You cannot sell a non-performing or bad product by mere marketing over a longer period. Modi has been at his job over 12 years, people know what they are buying.  

In marketing, people may not observe the phenomenon but they know what a “fad” is and what a “trend” is. Men have worn their hair long, short, crew-cuts and now even fully-shaven heads but these are fads that keep coming and going. But hair-styling or hair-care is a permanent “trend”. Fashion changes! Men wore pants as drain-pipe slim, bell-bottoms and many other styles but the trouser itself has not disappeared. Unless trousers disappear and men adopt skirts as their normal and formal wear, trousers will remain a long-term “trend”. This election season, people have finally realised that the Congress “Roti-maker” does not make the Rotis they want. As simple as that! Worse, they are realising they paid an “exorbitant” price (massive loot and corruption) for the Congress Roti-maker and don’t trust their product anymore. They want to try a different product; a product that has proof of performance. Therefore, a majority are willing to buy Modi’s product. Modi’s political competitors abuse the product like Rajdeep and Chaubeji do along with their Congress partners. But people choose the product they want. They don’t see Modi as a fad. They see it as a trend and therefore the Modi-wave. Marketing cannot create sustained waves with a bogus product. One CII speech and one interview of RahulG was enough to expose him as a fleshy mass of ignorance.

The media packaged Arvind Kejriwal as a messiah sent by Jesus Christ or Allah to save the world. Rajdeep even claims credit for inspiring AK. What happened? When people bought that product they found it didn’t perform. In fact the product turned to be doing the opposite of everything it claimed it would do. They called it “Kejri-turn”. They want a refund. Who will give them a refund for their vote? Nobody! Will they invest their vote again in that failed product? They won’t, unless AK offers a “New Improved Surf Excel” type Kejriwal. Ask yourself a question. Modi has travelled since his early years, sold tea and lived as a nomad. Do you think Modi can make Rotis for himself and his room-mates if he had to? You know the answer. In the same breath, ask yourself the same question about others. Do you think RahulG or Mrs Vadra can make Rotis for themselves or for anyone else? I believe your heart will tell you the answer. So who is into marketing a fake product? What is it that the Gandhis are trying to market that the media and many cronies want you to buy?

Political marketing is as important as it is in any other domain. For most of 67 years poor Indians have been buying a fake product from the Congress in the hopes of a better life. Unless a majority of them try out a new product, they won’t know the difference. In the next part we will see the fake products the Gandhis and Congress have been selling all these years.