Tag: Bhaskar Das

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…

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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.

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 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.

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…

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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 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.

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.

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.

A serious question but what was, we guess, a fun thing on two news channels (or perhaps more of them). Here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the June 23 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. Last week, two Hindi news channels innovated with their reporting on the cyclone. One walking on the streets of an affected area and another in a helicopter, all from a studio of course. What’s your view: do these experiments dilute the credibility of news journalism, or all’s well for entertaining television?

A. First a disclaimer: I am not a news channel owner so all my perspectives would suffer from the infirmities of a layman.

Good journalists are expected to be cognitively more empowered than hoi polloi like us. And as an entrepreneur they know what keeps the cashbox ringing.  You must be wondering about the divine responsibility of maintaining objectivity and gravitas of a news media organisation including news channels. But what do you expect when there is a plethora of purveyors of parity content or news. The number of channels in the news space is 400 so one has to stand out to gain attention, TRPs and accordingly advertising revenue – the holy grail of the economics of news channels.

To my first point is what the channel owners are doing and they should know what they are doing.

But is the audience/ viewer also unintelligent? If I paraphrase a cliche that every audience deserves the channel it gets, and sensationalism, dramatisation, overhyping improves the dopamine flow in the brain for the audience in general. Exciting content is in a sense the opiate of the masses (with apologies to Mr Karl Marx).

I am not a great consumer of news as I don’t spend much time on nice-to-know content. And of course being apolitical, I spend more time on academic content. In view of this, whether a news medium has gravitas and credibility or not, it doesn’t matter. As a discerning member of the group of audience, I have ways of crosschecking news that matters. People debate about polarised content, people debate about hyper-sensationalism… I wonder why. Because one has the choice not to consume content of a specific news brand. In a hyper-personalised environment, reading about universal gravitas and need for leader guarding the reader/ viewer is an anachronistic concept. So your concern doesn’t t concern me.

One more question given Artificial Intelligence (AI). Here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the June 22 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

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Q. Ogilvy is asking brands to disclose the use of AI-led influencer content to the public, so as to avoid deception. Is this the way to go?

A. There are two elements in your question. One is AI-led Chat GPT. And the second is the credibility of the influencers. Both of them have their pitfalls and are currently prone to misuse because all types of so-called innovators have jumped onto the bandwagon. Ogilvy is right because while a brand’s image takes a lot of time to build, it can be destroyed very fast in case consumers find the content suspicious. It’s better to be safe than sorry. The role of influencer may not be bad per se and can be creatively used, combined with intelligence and after checking veracity.

We’ve asked questions on the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the job scene in media, but we thought we should ask this given the new report that has been published. Here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the June 21 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. According to Forrester Research, AI will lead to 7.5% of US advertising jobs (around 33k) being lost by 2030. All in clerical, secretarial and admin. And some sales. Do you think this could happen in India too?

A. Every now and then we have so-called experts predicting post-technological progress about job losses or job replacements. Generalically, AI/ChatGPT 4 are the new buzzwords which are being perceived as causing many job losses. I don’t strictly subscribe to it because while technologies as mentioned above can mimic cognitive intelligence of the human brain, they can’t replace human creativity, ingenuity or future problem solving. I do agree that the technologies as discussed in this question are going to replace a lot of repetitive and monotonous jobs which result in increasing work efficiency and productivity. But is it not true for so many tech improvements that have been taking place over the years? I also agree that some monotonous jobs will get replaced but more jobs will be created. Now that requires that human beings have to upskill or learn new skills to remain relevant. Until and unless human beings stay in denial or find ostrichism as a comfortable position, I don’t see any immediate threat. Instead of considering generative AI as an adversary, it is good to co-pilot and collaborate with technology and combine it with human  intelligence and resilience to deliver better outcome to future tasks.

An unfair question to ask, but, as we have said in the past, we don’t profess to be fair while asking questions. Just joking. Here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the June 19 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…

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Q. It’s not yet the end of H1 of 2023, but without looking at performance numbers, who according to you has been the star media performer this year?

A. Since there is no audited third-party data on business performance ranking so far as media companies are concerned, a perception-based ranking would be fraught with lack of reliability. Having said that, if one goes by the ‘noise factor’, I can imagine companies like Alphabet, Meta and Jio would continue to be the leading winners as business taking into account both the demand and supply side of the business (SVOD and AVOD).

Since many organisations have switched to a Work From Home/Anywhere or hybrid regime, we thought it would be good to ask this question, especially in the light of a view that WFH has led to a loss in prosperity of some tech organisations. Here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the June 16 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. With Covid being history, do you think it’s time to junk WFH and bring back work to the office

A. Work From Home (WFH) or Work From Anywhere (WFA) is a debatable topic and companies are divided about their approach to the issue. The tech companies are very vocal and unambiguous about their approach though the position shifts from time to time. In some cases, India Inc could lose a segment of workforce as WFH suits them. Again it’s a general impression, though corroborated factually in many cases. IMHO, the decision to work from home or work in office should be decided on the type of job which may be external-facing or internal-facing.

Let’s face it: we may not have seen the last of the Covid or other pandemics in the world. There have been some positive effects in terms of cost-optimisation as well as employee satisfaction but it may not be prudent to impose a draconian verdict that WFH or WFA is harmful for an organisation. At the core of it, I feel that organisations may not be knowing how to evaluate performance and contribution of a remote worker or for that matter, how to create an objective evaluation system that is hybrid. Hence, I feel I can’t give any deterministic answer either in favour or against WFH if organisations don’t approach the subject with a new frame of reference.