Tag: Bhaskar Das

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Q: Just a random question. No context to anything, definitely  not one of the IPL teams. If a newly appointed CEO performs badly do you continue with him/her, or replace and bring back the old, popular leader?

A: I understand a coincidental drift in your question. As they say in the movies, the character in the movie is purely fictional. Evaluation of performance in corporate sector is done over a period of time (usually three to five years), subject to any other exceptional circumstances. Secondly, there is no set pattern (precedence-wise) of corporate response to sub-optimal performance of a leader (read CEO). A leader like Bob Iger or Howard Schulz or Sam Altman have been called back , but they are exceptions to the practice and in most cases, this is not generally done. So, it’s not a one-trick pony situation. More often than not, a new leader is selected, either from inside or outside, for the job and the displaced leader is not necessarily called back.

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Q: Goafest in Mumbai is like having Cannes Lions in Mumbai. Yes, the sun, sea and the beaches are there, but the x factor? Your sentiments as the fest gets to Mumbai?

A: Someone mentioned that we were living in a container culture. We focus more on the container and not on the content. Your question reminds me of the same in the context of Goafest being held in Mumbai.

There was a situational imperative for taking such a call by the two leading Industry Bodies — The Advertising Club and the Advertising Agencies Association of India  –who have been organising the festival for many years. So, there is not an iota of doubt about the quality of the programme being compromised. The venue is different. It is better than not maintaining the continuity of the event due to date-specific macro-environment reasons.

I am excited as I shall continue to experience the high octane cognitive environment, combined with a complementary fun-filled engagement, besides networking with industry friends.

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Q: All these years, one wondered whether there were enough emotions for the IPL teams like you have in the global football leagues. We now see it happening, albeit in a negative way, given the reception that the Mumbai skipper is receiving. What say?

A: I presume you are referring to the passion of EPL. If it is so, there is no comparison with the passion of IPL.

IMHO, the passion of spectators of IPL is dominantly towards a game or an individual (specially iconic captains or players). I am referring to a three-hour spectacle with all the ups and downs as it happens in a film. When I talk about individuals, I can think of only three individuals who dominate the excitement of the audience viz MSD, RS and VK. Now, none of them are captains of a franchise but they evoke emotional response whenever they walk into any of the matches. The current behaviour of the fans for Rohit Sharma js because he is no longer captain of MI.  Fans are not generally logical. Their response to a specific situation is generally emotional. The kind of response MSD gets when he walks for batting, all over the country, is beyond imagination. He doesn’t have a scoring track record like RS or VK. I doubt MSD’s successor would earn a similar response in the near future. Again, the same is true for RS, of course the recent episode at MI has earned him the passion for a fall guy. The spectators are now fighting for an alleged injustice to him. His brand pull appears to have gone up due to this event.

Now, both MSD and RS have won five IPL trophies for their respective teams. On the other hand, Vk’s team never won an IPL trophy yet his personal charisma is more than the team , as I perceive.

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Q: From May 23, Bark Air, a flight service for dogs and their owners, is set to launch in the United States. Do you think it should launch in India as well?

A: Launching a flight for dogs/ pets/ furry friends is certainly a great/ pawsitive initiative but I can imagine that it can’t be availed of by the hoi polloi. I am sure that the entry barrier (read hefty fare) for availing of such a privilege would be pretty high.

The concerned airlines can’t be a regular fleet operator,  as economies of scale would not permit the cost of operating such services. Besides, the decision to fly pets has to be followed by other concurrent facilities. A regular and large fleet operator usually can’t afford to offer such facilities, especially in the Indian context. While I shall personally welcome such a step in India, my business instincts can’t reconcile many questions that crop up in my mind. Business can’t be run by emotions but it needs cold shower of logic and economic prudence.

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Q: According to a survey, around 46.5% marketers feel that marketing is seen by businesses as a cost first and foremost. Only 32% think marketing is seen as an investment and is completely understood by the company. Unfortunate? What would you say is the scene in India?

A: The answer is obvious ie it’s an investment. It’s too elementary to aver that:

Marketing builds long term value,

Marketing reinforces Brand Equity,

Marketing differentiates one brand from the other (one business from another),

Marketing drives revenue growth,

Marketing builds customer loyalty.

Etc Etc.

Practitioners on the ground would know these from both academic and practical  point of view. But whenever the operating environment changes, for both macro and micro reasons. Then monthly and quarterly results dominate organisational thinking- perhaps justifiably. Don’t forget that dictum: Turnover is Vanity, Profit is Sanity. And Cash is Reality

Hence answer to your question is: yes marketing is certainly an investment, but it has to be moderated in sync with operating environment of an organisation.

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Q: It took a social media activist Food Pharmer to get a popular ‘health drink’ to reduce its sugar content. There are many others brands and genres who are also in the eye of a possible storm. With an ad revenue-dependant legacy media not asking the right questions, do you think it’s left to independents to make life safer for you and me?

A: Unfortunate! In spite of all homilies about customer-centricity and superordinate mission and vision statement, an individual takes initiative to most the myth.  You are correct in your observation about the collective dereliction of responsibilities to pinpoint such factual inexactitides.

In a social media-dominated post-truth world, consumers are, more often than not, passive recipients of agendised content. Since shallow is the new depth, no one has time to deep-dive to explore what is truth. All of us are victims of word peddlers and content gimmicks. We have no time to pause and examine.

Hence, some individuals take the trouble to expose such purveyors of camouflaged truth, ignoring what is good for consumers.

The reality is what the Bard said:

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,

But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

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Q: Your view on the advertising of the various political parties that you have seen so far?

A: I have seen some ads but can’t claim to have seen them all. I feel creative articulation of the communication is a subsequent action post the unique value proposition of a product (read party). Having said that, the fundamentals that guide advertising for all consumer products are applicable for political ads as well. For instance do the ads from various parties/leaders communicate the USP of their unique offerings or do they just highlight the inadequacies of the other parties? What I would like to see happening is the resolve to to mitigate the unarticulated expectations of the teeming millions and not necessarily of the top 5% of the economic strata. The communications should deliver the promise to positively change the current state of affairs during the next five years.

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Q: Many consumers still find advertising as intrusive rather than adding value. Is there a way in which they can be found to be adding value to the lives of people?

A: In an AVOD-skewed marketplace as in India, advertising intrusiveness in content space is an ipso facto reality. The audience may not like it but they usually don’t mind when media marketeers get the content subsidised.

Adding value to the lives of people through communication is easier said than done. It’s more a creative challenge where a communication needs to be integrated within the content architecture without vampiring the content integrity. But this demands more collaborative relationship between the brand owner and the media owner. A pretty tricky space! Finally, what will be good for the audience need not converge with pure play brand communication to increase the AIDA model.

Key to terms used in response:

AVOD: Advertising-based Video on Demand

AIDA: Attention, Interest, Desire (or Decision) and Action

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Q: Facebook and Google corner most of the digital adspends in India. What do you think can our homegrown giants do to capture some of those revenues?

A: To my mind it would be a wild goose chase to even aspire to get some share or % of their revenue in the near- or medium-term. But in the first place, why does one aspire for so?

Instead isn’t it a better idea to focus on one’s core and unique niche to serve one’s addressable market and monetise that. Because of the advantage of one-to-one interactive marketspace, it is possible to showcase the quality and quantity of engagement with the audience and justify the ROI of partner involvements. I am sure the cost structure of these niche players would be far less than the tech giants and the personalised and exploratory partnership would be preferred by clients.

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Q: The media economy is said to be in the doldrums. What according to you can be done it to ensure the ‘achche din’ happen?

A: Are you referring to media economics or media economy? The answer would be a tad different for either of the options. For example, media economics would differ by format and specific company approach. Whereas, media economy would encompass larger areas of probing and explanation.

Having said that let me try to give answers to both in bullet points and you may pick whatever you meant.

1. Media Economics:

1. The volatility of tech-led and altered consumption habits of audiences have been affecting media economics continuously.

2. The altered competitive disruptions, both intra and inter, demand strategy alterations on the go. Innovations at both demand and supply side of the business are the need of the hour for business viability.

3. In view of the above reality (altered and emergent), organisations have to rejig their operations across all functions to maintain their competitive advantage.

B. Media Economies:

A lot of things that I mentioned above are also relevant for this aspect of your question. For example, both demand and supply side of each format of delivery needs to be innovated in sync with the changing tastes and preferences of the consumers and possible migration of audiences to altered and improved formats. There is no one size fits all readymade solution for such eventualities.

Innovative thinking is no longer a choice for survival for organisations. Organisation-wide and altered wind and belief system have to happen for  shared destiny.

In short,  the BANI syndrome* of the M&E sector are more pronounced than most of the sectors. Hence strategic agility and flawless execution could save the day for the players to maintain their continued dominance. Continued success can never be taken for granted.

*BANI is short for brittle, anxious, non-linear, and incomprehensible

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Q: What are the one or two or three things that a mid-career marketer must do to ensure that AI, tech and the vagaries of business render her/him irrelevant?

A: Mid-career in any industry could be under pressure due to sectoral reasons, specific corporate arthritis and individual inertia towards upskilling. Any individual who wants to remain relevant in the job market must alter her/his mindset towards the unfolding world order. This is applicable for any organisation that wants to be at the cutting edge of technology and competition.

While the approaches would be different for individuals and corporations, the meta approach have to be the same. The individual has to strategise at a personal level (eg upskilling, continuous learning, align resumes to job, and highlighting sector specific skills etc). The corporations have to address the transformation at every aspect of organisational management. What would work well for both the affected parties is to plan a future backwards strategy and be ready (read nimble enough) for multiple eventualities that could threaten thriving in the future. There is no one specific approach that can be applied in both the cases as an off the shelf approach. It has to be a customised approach keeping specific challenges in mind.

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Q: A few days back, I received an image (a graph actually) titled ‘Probability of Getting Fooled’. Against April Fool’s Day, the level was very low (say at 5), and for Election Day, it was at 65-odd. Is this what the perception of politics and politicians is today?

A: I have seen too the same graph. In fact in today’s day and age everyone is a distributor through a thumb.

The message is CLEAR: the alleged growing voter apathy towards ruling class, whichever party they belong to.

But the above assertion could be vacuous  if read as a headline. Let’s dissect my own comment, as given above. As a business strategist, I need to first decide which addressable market I am referring to. There may be the following classifications of economic strata in India: Super Rich, Rich, Upper Middle Class, Lower Middle Class, Poor, Destitute. This is my classification on the basis of empirical observations. There may be other classifications by experts but broadly my classifications would tally.

Now, the first three categories are not affected much by governments, though they have pay tax as part of their  success fees. The rest of the classes have developed cynicism about change of rulers and change of their fortune. Ironically, these groups are swayed by demagogues and prevaricators of reality.

The former categories are in a minority when it comes to influencing outcomes of any votes. They are consequential for the Economy but inconsequential, perhaps for elections. The latter forms the majority but they are gullible, fatalist and aren’t exposed to calibrated usage of their voting power once in five years.

At the end, I may mention that the graph doesn’t represent emotions of India in totality in the context of elections in this case.