POLITICS THROUGH MANAGEMENT GLASSES

Banners, pamphlets, rallies and speakers on chowk and on the edge of  the street. These were the traditional tools of promoting political parties during election in India. People used to get irritated from the loud speakers (with tone on its maximum level without any base) on which a person with a revolutionary but irritating voice, narrated the manifesto of his respective party. On the street, there used to be long lines of small pamphlets hanging on a rope and huge crowd summoned up in those rallies when the climate was at its worst condition. The most exciting part used to be the helicopter which used to arrive at the rallies. Children used to rush to their roofs to see the helicopter and then by seeing the helicopter, parents used to say “Here comes XYZ”. Just to get a glimpse of their favorite leaders, people used to jostle, to make their way to the front row.

But things are changing now. With the advancement in technology and change in preferences of people, every field is changing and political parties are also not an exception. What I said about gathering, it’s still the same and if you don’t believe, take a look at the Hunkar rally by BJP. 

But there has come a drastic change in the tools of promotion being used by the political parties in India and these changes came this year only. From television, outdoor to radio and print, every tool of promotion has been well utilized by political parties. Political parties have realized the power of youth and social media. They have realized that there exists a virtual world also which very much easy to target and influence. They have realized that giving ads on Facebook, tweeting about current situation is a much effective way of communicating message to a mass audience than any other alternative. They have used STP (Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning), they have SMM (Social Media Marketing), they have done everything necessary from management point of view to make their campaign successful.

Playing an android game and getting notification “VOTE FOR BJP”, logging on to twitter and getting tweets from leaders of political parties like Narendra Modi who is very much active on twitter, scrolling down to your Facebook notification and seeing a pic from recent rally of Rahul Gandhi and comic portrayal of Arvind  Kejriwal , these things are very much common these days. People are even making trolls of these campaigns and thinking they are smart but my dear trolling friend, one way or another you are promoting the parties for free.

  

You must have seen those ads in world cup T20. The ads by BJP were very much related and innovative while the ads by Congress were very generic and not much effective. Both of the parties invested huge amount of money to get their spot in the advertisement slot in world cup T20. They also tried to get it IPL but the proposal was rejected by the IPL committee.

Many sources are saying that the total advertisement expenditure of BJP is more than 5,000 crore. People are also blaming them for outsourcing foreign advertisement groups at a very high rate. I ask just a simple question to them, what’s the problem in it? If taste and preferences of the mass is changing then political parties should also get adjusted to it. Like “MODI” or “NAMO” has become a brand with the tagline “ABKI BAAR, MODI SARKAAR”. According to me, these days, this tagline is having more recalling power than any other top brand’s tagline like “DESH KA NAMAK” or “TASTE THE THUNDER”. Political parties are becoming brand with a very unique tagline like that of AAP “AAP KI SARKAAR” which has a dual meaning and fits like a glove to the saying “ek teer se do nisaane”. I still get confused whether they are saying it’s “AAP(the political party)” ki sarkaar, or just aap(the citizen) ki sarkaar.

All these political parties have also done STP of their market well. Like Congress has done the segmentation on the basis of caste like dalit and have targeted mainly the lower caste. They have positioned themselves like a party who believes in equality and centralized power with their tagline “Har haath shakti, Har haath tarakki”. BJP has done a very generic segmentation- HINDUSTANI and have targeted the same. They have positioned themselves as a party who will bring revolution in the country and will try to do what Modi did in Gujrat. AAP has segmented the market on the income basis or we can say on the basis of social class of people like Business tycoons and common people or middle class family. They have targeted the aam aadmi or we can say the middle class and below the middle class families. They have positioned themselves as someone from the crowd and very common people.

I am not here to judge the marketing strategy of any party and I am also not showing my views and support for any party. No matter what’s the result of this 2014 election will be but one thing is for sure that the elections and campaigns will not be the same again.