Category: DAS KA DUM

With all due respects to the team at Leo Burnett, this is something that has surely crossed several minds given the sudden (and if we may add, controversial) exits of its former CEOs. The fact that the agency has done well regardless speaks volumes for its work and the teams working there. So we asked Dr Bhaskar Das this question and here’s his response in the June 26 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q. Leo Burnett India seems to be doing very well on the awards and accounts front. It won 11 metals at Cannes Lions this year. And this is despite much uncertainties after there were sudden exits of two of its captains in the last decade. Your view on how the agency is doing?

A. Let me draw an example of cricket. After the 1983 World Cup win, the captaincy has changed a number of times. Many international titles have been won by M S Dhoni and others. They have of course lost as well.

The moral of the story is captains may come and captains may go but it’s the team – the core DNA of the organisation – that wins the day. This is true for Leo Burnett or any organisation. One can’t imagine that all organisations post any leadership change would make King Louis XV’s verdict as reality. That is: Après moi, le deluge (After me, the deluge/flood). Hence, I am not surprised that Leo Burnett continues the core capability of the Publicis Group in general and the agency in particular. I am sure it will continue to perform with flying colours.

It’s an answer that must be read by all marketers and planners. Here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the June 27 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q. As per a recent survey by Kantar, a majority of marketers believe digital channels are a more effective tool for building brands. Digital got 86.7% votes, while offline got 80.1%. Your view?

A. As the popular adage goes, if you want to prove something, do research. It is so heuristic-based that any conclusive theorisation is hazardous. In today’s world of multi-channel, multi-window consumer habits and omnichannel communication trends by marketers, any unidimensional thought about brand-building can be a sure recipe for failure. If one’s branding decisions hinge on the said research, the safety moat for brands invincibility would get compromised.

In today’s marketing context, it is difficult to know from where adversarial onslaught can come. While intra-category onslaught can be anticipated because of linearity of sectoral challenges, it is the inter-category invasions (more black swan type) that can come in unanticipated format due to intersections of technology-led disruptions.

Steve Jobs once famously said that the art of innovation lies in decoding what even the customer didn’t know what they want. The digital revolution has created a condition that companies can be in constant touch with their present and potential stakeholders in a collaborative manner for future innovations. Imagine a situation that in a platform-agnostic world, any discordant note about brands is heard whether through paid and owned media (controllable format) and earned media from the consumer side. In view of this, any skewed approach about the core essence of a brand must be uniform and homogenous across media and not used in a silo manner.

We read about this somewhere and thought we should ask our Wizard with Words to share his wisdom. And it speaks a lot for someone who has over five decades of experience, that he doesn’t live in the past. Here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the June 28 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q. Some global brands are said to be looking to the future by taking inspiration from their archives by reviving old slogans, jingles or logos. Anything from India that you would like to see re-emerge?

A. ‘Thanda matlab Coca-Cola’ or ‘There is nothing official about it’ are memorable taglines of two different brands that created a rage at their relevant time. If they are revived today, will they be equality successful is the million dollar question. I am not a representative sample of various consumer cohorts that have been evolving as tribals of shared interests and perspectives.

Let’s get back to the core logic of why even the thought of reviving old slogans has come up. I think nostalgia is comforting to a set of consumer class who feel unnerved by the breakneck speed of changes that we are experiencing in every facet of life and can’t always decode its meaning. Nostalgia engenders a cocooned feeling that the future is a continuation of the past. But a major flaw in the axiom is whether the nostalgia will work for the new cohort of consumers.

I wonder if there has been a famine of creative ideation for a brand. In a sense brand is like a human being which also evolves over time. The core appeal need not get diluted but the rendition can get contemporised. That’s easier said than done, because the value systems across Generation X, Y, millennials and Z, are no longer homogenous. And creating a universal brand appeal that cuts across generations of attitudinal cohorts may be a challenging task. If one goes through the history book of revival of nostalgia through memorable communication taglines, I don’t remember anyone. In fact, the list of failures come more to my mind than successes. You may have to correct me.

A slightly serious question for a Friday. But it’s sure to give you enough food for thought for the weekend. Here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the June 30 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q. Google’s VP of marketing has said qualitative research in the current era is more important than it ever was. What’s your view?

A. Your question does not deserve a uni-dimensional answer. It is not a question of qualitative (quali) being more important than quantitative (quanti) or vice versa. It all depends on the research objectives. For instance, one could be testing hypothesis wherein statistically significant conclusions are more important and numbers are very critical. Also, when you want to study society and cultural patterns for ethnography of heterogenous consumer cohorts or where a new area of findings have to be explored, qualitative research comes very handy. In fact in today’s context, an overstress on data tends to skew findings with the assumption that the consumer is just an algo (algorithm) which is a not a reality. Many startups have already understood it (edtech specially) or some so-called unicorns. Hence, the objective of the research, resources available, questions that an organisation is skeeing an answer etc are critical variables before deciding with finality which approach is better. Ideally, a hybrid or a combination of quali and quanti may be useful depending again on what is an organisation is seeking to unravel.

We don’t normally touch politics in this series of Q&As, but yesterday’s developments in Mumbai were just too hot to not handle. Here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the July 3 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q. It may appear to be a stretch, but are there any branding and marketing lessons or takeaways from yesterday’s developments in Maharashtra politics?

A. There are a lot of lessons possible if one is open to learning from them. It is a global malaise that marketing is perceived to be relevant only for marketers or business people. Politics is not supposed to be a business or the last refuge of a…., as Samuel Johnson famously said.

See, politics – Maharashtra or for that matter anywhere – operates in a bi-direcectional manner. Sometimes politics gets influenced by the sentiment of voters sand sometime voters get influence by political sentiments.

In case of Maharashtra politics, it seems that opportunity is the dominant logic to ignite the passion for serving voters. Hence one cannot pass any value judgment in terms of political ethics, but come to think of it, marketing and branding are also about leveraging opportunities that suits a marketer. And there are episodes galore where such opportunities used. You may get a lot of examples from ASCI.

It’s always interesting to read the responses of our Wizard with Words to questions like these, where he loves to philosophise like few others in our ecosystem do. Without any further ado, here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the July 4 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q. It was Guru Purnima yesterday… a word on your gurus in marketing, communication and strategy? Who are they? And what have you imbibed from them?

A. I have always suffered from an existential dilemma about the right definition of a guru. My personal definition is what, if I remember right, Swami Vivekananda once said that the guru is someone who burns his own candle to light the life of his followers and disciples. The very fact of transfer of wisdom and guidance without an agenda is a dynamic situation as wisdom is always in a transient state, especially in today’s context of acquiring new knowledge depending on the volatility of one’s operating environment.

During my journey as a micro-case, I have come across many gurus who have not only cognitively nourished me and continue to do so even now.

The only constant guru who traverses all timezones is Arjun’s charioteer whose wisdom has been quintessentially relevant across timezones for me. This should be relevant for all present and potential leaders, even without title.

We thought we could provoke him into a juicy answer but that’s something that one can never ever get out of our Wizard with Words. Be that as it may, here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the July 5 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q. The new Kaun Banega Crorepatiad is perhaps an ideal launch vehicle for the 2024 elections. Or are we imagining much too much (link: https://twitter.com/SonyTV/status/1674094053779177474?s=20) ?

A. I have been liking Kaun Banega Crorepatipromos always because they are not only distinctive but have also a certain sense of universality in terms of human emotions and aspirations. This year’s promotion’s key message of ‘badal rahi hai India… India is changing) can be applied to any political party’s election pitch. But who/what changes: is it the political process or the voter? I think it is the combination of 18-year-plus (first-time voters) with other older voters who are creating a mix of human aspirations at an economic, social and cultural level across regions and geographies. While they are not uniform but directionally, no one can doubt the palpable and tectonic shift.

From this point of view, it can be a great election pitch but it can be as generic as it could be and if all political parties claim so, the distinctiveness of appeal will be lost. So, I feel that if the core universality of the message is internalised, the repurpose communication for generation confidence with multitude of aspiration cohorts can be leveraged.

Amongst the large community of active A&M practitioners in India, our Wizard with Words would count among a handful who could give a response to a question like this with some authority. Without further ado, here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the July 6 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q. It’s wise to think of terms like Gen Z, Millennial, Gen X and Baby Boomer as general reference points instead of scientific facts, notes Pew Research Center. People born near the boundaries of these generational groupings can feel particularly uncomfortable being lumped in with those much older or younger than them, and for good reason. Your views?

A.Since Pew Research has come to the conclusion as mentioned in your question, I don’t have the audacity to question without getting the finer details. At the generic level however, I may comment that the understnding of this segmentation based on generations are only for deeper understanding by thinslicing the context of each consumer set/ cohort. And the cohorts are not necessarily watertight compartments. The latest generation like Gen Z also influence the previous generations, the way millennials influenced Gen X and Gen Y. I strongly believe that consumer behaviour doesn’t change. What changes is the context. For instance, children born post 2000 will be very different from Baby Boomers and Generation X because their context has significantly changed due to a technological progress and their ease with the level of comfort with tech-led behaviour both at the core level and the adjacent lifestyle level.

And this generational shift can be observed although at different degrees across regions and economic strata. In view of the above, I feel it’s more a marketer’s tool for hyper-personalising their messages towards relevant generational cohorts.

Incidentally the changing behaviour of Gen Z does not have demographic limit. I have seen even people who are Baby Boomers in the financial sector and investment banking to be as prolific and comfortable with the pace of digital and lifestyle adoption. Hence aspirations and the ease of usage and economic affordability can cut across the generational divide. A simple soul like me though would not be able to challenge a research agency’s conclusion as mine is more based on empirical observations and listening.

It was meant to provoke a reply that would rest on marketing philosophy, which we got. Without further ado, here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the July 11 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q. It was World Chocolate Day last Friday and one often wonders why some of the best advertising has been done for products the over-consumption of which is  potentially unhealthy. Your view?

A. To comment on a brand category that advocates ‘kuch meetha ho jaaye’ is a task to be bitter about it. Every doctor has a unique opinion about the consumption of chocolates. Someone says it’s good for the heart, someone says it’s good for a burst in the dopamine level while others it’s bad for cholesterol and diabetes. Secondly, there is no conclusive evidence that elasticity of demand and consumption has a perfect ‘corelationship’ with the quantum of advertising. For, alcohol or cigarettes have only surrogacy as the route or discouraging warnings of product consumption, yet, their consumption is still going up. Having said that, I also believe the whole theory of advertising being hidden persuasion amongst consumers for what they don’t want is no longer valid as today’s consumers are much more discerning and question every claim of the marketer. So we need to attribute intelligence to the consumers to take their own call, and am sure they will decide judiciously. Hence advertising as an economic engine for stoking demand for products should not be denounced as a counter to consumer interests. There are many factors that influence consumers decision-making process for consumption otherwise by that logic the rate of failure of new launches and blitzkrieg communication wouldn’t have been a reality.

It was a pointless question to ask, given that the choice of Threads over Twitter is purely a personal decision. Be that as it may, we asked the question, and here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the July 13 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q. Is switching to Threads a wise thing to do?

A. It’s too early to give a judgment on the question with certainty. It’s one thing for a big tech company like Instagram (read Meta) with billions of users to introduce a new social network, leveraging its popularity and large user base. It’s another thing to ensure its instant success through fast user adoption in the faddish and fickle social media market.

The strategic intent behind the launch of Thread is not only to leverage Meta’s large user base, but also , I presume, to torpedo/ squash a leading competitor’s brand (unarticulated though but Elon Musk’s tweets reveals such a possibility). It’s a usual marketplace practice. Collateral damages are a normal phenomenon.

What does history says though is that one can’t extrapolate past to future. But, as they say, one who doesn’t learn from history is bound to repeat it. Let’s go back to 2011 when Google (now Alphabet) rolled out a social network app called Google+. It was discussed in the business circle that it was a possible move to destabilise Facebook (now Meta). Come 2018, Google+ was relegated to history though the marketer did everything to win allegiance of its large consumer base. Using scale, especially in case of tech companies, is a standard practice of leveraging built-in advantage. But is size always a competitive advantage in the loyalty fragile social media market? That’s a million or billion dollar question. Would Thread enable its users to find friends and influencers that Twitter has managed to accomplish, so far? How does a tech giant ensure to keep spams and grifters from flooding the new app.

I have no answer to that. You and I can try to be an early adopter and start threading but the real answer to your question is hidden in the wombs of the future.

A serious question for a Friday, but it was important that we asked. So here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the July 14 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q. There is a growing movement in the UK for advertisers, marketers, and PR professionals to cut ties with companies involved with fossil fuels. Do you see this happening in India as well? And if it does, will the various players pay heed?

A. I can’t argue against businesses and brands that have the responsibility to contribute to building a better world. And millennials and GenZs are pretty concerned about some such issues, as all public domain research suggest so.

But, in many ways, we as human beings aren’t as sapient as we project our behaviour in a socially acceptable manner. My intention doesn’t purport to be pessimistic. I am observing all around me (not necessarily a representative sample) dominant behaviour patterns that are not necessarily always environmentally conscious. I am conscious that one can’t expect 100% of humanity would shift to a socially and environmentally behaviour overnight. In fact a snowball effect usually happens for any shift in behaviour when the new generation becomes the harbinger of an attitudinal metamorphosis.

Coming to behaviour of Indians (both consumers and marketers), I don’t see any behavioural shift would happen in the near term. There are economic reasons of course. We have not seen such a big shift in case of the advanced economies who are allegedly responsible for a socially irresponsible behaviour for anything to do with climate change, poverty, war etc. I feel it would be a slow burn for any impactful behavioural shift , but as a beginning, I wish, such a shift towards responsible corporate behaviour starts forthwith.

What’s your view on the issue? Read the response by Dr Bhaskar Das in the July 17 edition of Das ka Dum and decide for yourself. Read on…

If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar or click here: https://www.mxmindia.com/category/columns/das-ka-dum/

Q. Former Hindustan Unilever boss Sanjiv Mehta has said his successor is going to face stiff competition from homegrown players (Reliance, Adani and numerous smaller players). Would you say that hyper-competition will only improve life for us consumers? Or will it get more complicated?

A. I agree with Mr Mehta’s observation. In fact it’s true for every FMCG category. One the one hand, there is intensification of regional players, both at price level and substitute/ alternative level. On the other, there is the entry of new players with deep pockets and staying power (read more and sustained ability to absorb loss and deeper understanding of Indian market).

Coming to your second point, there are two possible ways of looking at it which you have included in your question ie yes too many options might demand/ compel a more calibrated engagement on the part of consumers. Note: the intensity of competition would compel organisations to focus on innovation, brand-building, leveraging technology to improve services and continuously engage with their stakeholders through both analytics and ethnographic insights.