ITV

Tag: Prahlad Kakar

  • Can politicians have a brand value?

    Can politicians have a brand value?

    MUMBAI: The Bhartiya Janta Party seems to be riding high on its prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, especially in the digital world it seems. After offerings like two smartphones – SmartNaMo Saffron One and SmartNaMo Saffron Two, mobile games like Modi Run and Narendra Modi: Game, now there’s a NaMo online store launched by Take India Beyond Merchandising that would sell everything from t-shirts to stationery.

    According to a media report, all the items sold on the site are inspired by Modi’s lifestyle and values. The products are differentiated in categories as NaMo Mantra, NaMo Lekh and NaMo Tech.

    While the idea seems really interesting on the face of it, if we look back we can hardly think of a politician making a brand. Even after thinking hard the only Indian politicians/political leaders who come to mind to have inspired the masses in terms of products are people like Mahatma Gandhi whose Gandhi topi is still worn by the masses at the time of protests; Indira Gandhi’s style of wearing saris has not only been adapted by bahu Sonia Gandhi but many women who stand to fight for a right; Jawahar Lal Nehru takes the credit for making more than one thing popular including the red rose, the Nehru jacket and topi. Internationally, US president John Fitzgerald Kennedy was a big brand followed by people across the globe.

    And since the number of such politicians could be counted on finger tips, we really wonder if politicians can become brand endorsers? “They surely can,” remarks veteran ad man Prahlad Kakar, who thinks that Modi is a big brand in today’s time.

    Kakar says that if a politician maintains a stature and charisma big enough to draw the masses, he can become a brand and have a shelf life too. “The chai wallah remark by Modi has pulled the masses and if the online store keeps the focus of the promotion around that, they will benefit hugely,” he quips. According to Kakar, a campaign like “Chai Wallah Upaay Wallah Hai”can really work wonders for brand NaMo.

    And it is not just Kakar, even brand consultant Harish Bijoor thinks that in today’s time politicians have become more like a symbol. “The way the actors sell as a symbol, now politicians will sell as well. Right now Narender Modi is very popular among the masses and that is the reason behind so many people making profits out of brand NaMo. However, it may be short-lived. The brand value will survive only till the time the politicians are popular and in sight,” he remarks.

    Interestingly, they won’t be surprised to see other politicians becoming a brand. The possibility of products made around the styles and values of Arvind Kejriwal, Rahul Gandhi (if he survives in the upcoming political battle), Vasundhara Raje among few others, getting popular is high.

  • Ads piggyback kids

    Ads piggyback kids

    MUMBAI: The latest advertisement to hit television screens is testimony to the fact that advertisers can’t seem to get enough of children when it comes to publicising brands. And this includes brands which don’t target kids; not even remotely.

    The ad in question is for IDBI Bank and rolls with a little girl sitting beside her friend, saying she loves to eat ganna (sugarcane) but can’t until she gets a new set of teeth which is why her pal is busy peeling it for her. The commercial ends with a voiceover: ‘Bank aisa, dost jaisa’. Two other ads are part of the campaign conceptualised by Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) and have children speaking of their friends in different scenarios.

    O&M NCD Abhijit Avasthi exults: “When we started work on the new campaign of IDBI Bank, we were very clear that we are changing the campaign and not the values that the bank stands for. The idea we came up with does exactly this. In an innocent and charming way, we are telling people ‘What if a bank would do what a friend would do’. When you say something like this, you really don’t need to say much more.”

    Indeed, the ad has charmed its way into people’s hearts, especially on social media. But that doesn’t stop one from wondering what kids can possibly have in common with a bank!

    Again, this isn’t the first instance where children have been used to sell products and services which they have nothing to do with; be it detergents, power inverters, cars, insurance policies or e-commerce websites. So what is it about kids that advertisers find so attractive? Ad veteran Alyque Padamsee reasons that people notice kids more than they do adults. “It is heart warming to see kids on screen. And who does not love them?” says he.

    Padamsee gives the example of Vodafone’s earlier campaign. “Vodafone used a little boy and her dog for its ‘everywhere you go, our network follows’ campaign, and it worked for them. Everyone remembers the commercial and it beautifully conveys the message the telecom company wants to tell people.”

    “Anything in life can be told through the eyes of a child. It’s not difficult,” says BBDO’s chairman and chief creative officer Josy Paul who elaborates on the point by giving the example of the agency David (founded in 2000 by BBDO) and adds, “When you joined the agency you got a resignation letter, not an appointment letter. You had to resign from adulthood to join David. The whole philosophy was to think like a child.”

    The other factor is that kids today play an important role in family decisions, say buying a car. Remember the ad with the Sardar kid whose car doesn’t run out of petrol ever – that’s how Maruti Suzuki tried to convince people about the car’s performance.

    Ernst & Young consultant (media) Mihir Date goes to the extent of calling present-day children decision makers. “What they watch on television is what they want. For example, my nephew only watches Cartoon Network but wants everything shown on the channel, be it a kiddie product or not,” he says.

    Peer pressure too plays an important part where kids want what their friends have; points out Date, adding, “And marketers have been smart enough to understand the GenY. It is working in their favour to use kids in advertisements wherein both kids and parents get targeted.”

    There are enough and more examples where brands and their creative agencies have used situations or scenarios where kids fit in beautifully, and the overall image is always happy and colourful. Say Nerolac paints, now being promoted by Shah Rukh Khan, which earlier had the jingle ‘Jab Ghar Ki Raunak Badhani Ho’ with happy scenes of children prancing around while the walls of their homes are being painted in bright colours.

    However, there’s a flip side as well to using kids in commercials.

    Says ad film director Prahlad Kakar, “If the brand value or what they stand for is not woven well into the story, then the message will be lost.”

    Padamsee agrees: “Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan are all over the place. They endorse so many brands; do we remember which commercial stands for which brand? Hardly… Similarly, one might notice and love the kids in an advertisement but that doesn’t mean that people will remember the brand. Many a times, the ad gets noticed but the brand isn’t.”

    While this is an open debate, it’s true that putting children in the ad is a sure way of getting viewers to like it, most of the times at least…