Four Eyes and Two Lenses

We read several articles written by businesses on the best practices to communicate to customers during an adverse situation or a pandemic. But we saw only a few businesses walking the talk, that they preached earlier, during the recent COVID-19 situation. It showed us the reality of many businesses and their character beyond the P/L statement to help humanity and literally act as humans for humans. In all of this comes a human, who is popularly known to play villain roles in Indian cinema, who is now making businesses take notes on how to share the pain of customers and convert the whole situation into a positive one just by compassion and communication. Mr. Sonu Sood needs no introduction to you as his actions, in real life, not only have given a new meaning to hope but also have shown that how a single person can bring the change. His response, by helping people in times of crisis, teaches us the very basics of business communication and personal branding that many busi...

My fascination for political marketing was rooted in 2014 when Mr. Narendra Modi came to power. It was the first time when I witnessed the real power of a brand. Back then I was not a student of marketing but always had an appreciation and aspiration to make a career in it. I always wondered about the kind of creativity one requires to come up with ideas of portraying the products, services, or anything a customer wants to buy. Fast forward to today, 6 years of Modi government and 6 years of me trying to decode his way of communicating with the masses. Although, in these years, I learned marketing basics in my MBA class but saw live examples in form of BJP's political campaigns. The importance of 5W1H ( Why, Who, What, Where, When, and How ) was clearly visible, the art of storytelling and gamification was aptly used, and the use of technology and social media was smartly leveraged. It was something out of a playbook to win masses. It was surreal to see the magic Mr. Modi had on ...

When I think of Congress I think of a party where there are several wanna-be leaders who boast their knowledge on the public platform and hope to become a leader someday. Although this is a good thing and can be pursued by anyone, what I see is that they don't care about or support what the other person is actually doing for the party, as they speak for themselves and always want to be known among the public for their thoughts and actions rather than of the party. Though, they do associate themselves with the party name but do not acknowledge or promote things done by other party members. They are focusing more on individual branding and achievements rather than collective branding and achievements. And, this is not just limited to bottom-level party members but can also be seen in the top-level party members of Congress. They like to play solo but within an umbrella of several solo players. And this has brought problems for Congress in the past and will continue in the futur...

The famous 8 PM speeches of our PM, Mr. Narendra Modi, have always excited us and put us on the edge of our seats. We are excited because he tells us a story (more like a fairytale) and we are nervous because we do not know what surprise he carries every time. His speeches although never contain any promises from his side but they certainly bring a sense of positivity for most of the citizens. He portrays citizens as national heroes who have contributed to nation-building and this portrayal provides them a sense of pride and loyalty for their nation. He requests, inspires, and motivates citizens through his speeches. Earlier in the past, we have seen how people religiously followed his requests, accepted his decisions, and believed in his actions. Our PM has created an aura around him that is so strong that many people start to justify even when he is wrong. Being a good orator, he reads the pulse of the public and comes up with a strong pitch that can sell or buy anything. ...

The most anticipated speech of the prime minister, we all have been waiting for, came at 10:00 AM today. After following every other instruction he gave earlier to the citizens of the country during the lockdown, many were excited to listen to what the prime of the country had to say on the ongoing pandemic and what decisions he had taken to tackle it. While others had anticipated an extension of the lockdown given the gradual rise of the COVID-19 cases in the country despite lockdown. Although a nearly half an hour speech of the PM gave few answers to the problems the business environment is facing due to the lockdown, he gave several pointers for the crisis communication every brand and marketer should look upon. Therefore, I have decoded his speech structure into 7 parts. People The prime minister started his speech by praising citizens for their efforts in following and respecting the lockdown. He also acknowledged the hardships people are facing due to it and felt so...

“Moody’s cuts India’s GDP growth outlook in 2020 to 2.5% amid coronavirus outbreak.” This news came after a few days when India went under a 21-day lockdown, which began on March 25, to contain the spread of coronavirus. Rating agencies saw this as a potential brake on the economic activity that would adversely affect the growth of the country, which is already on a downward trajectory for the past few quarters. Although the move, for a lockdown, from the government was necessary in order to safeguard public health and protect the economy from getting worse from this pandemic. The lockdown, categorically, will put several liquidity constraints on the business environment and will affect the overall growth across sectors. The impact will be seen more in the first quarter of the financial year 2021, which began on April 1. Anticipating this, Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, announced a 23$ billion package aimed at cushioning the disruption coronavirus outbreak mi...

A few days back I was challenged to assess the Mahashivratri festival and write about it in terms of its Marketing significance. On first thought, it looks like a bizarre combo and a headline, but on second thought one can actually realize that marketing is such a domain to which one can relate to everything. Marketing, itself, is a broader term that holds several concepts and thoughts at different walks of life of a human. Be it awareness, or consideration, or be it choice, marketing influences everything. So is religion. For many, religion is one such area that is untouched by what I am trying to put my words here, i.e. marketing. But if we closely look, from time immemorial, religion or spirituality has always gone through, what we know today as, the Marketing Funnel (Awareness-Interest-Evaluation-Trial-Adoption) . On another note, we can also see that marketing and religion both serve the same purpose of fulfilling the needs of a person. Though the needs can sometimes ...