By Shivaji Dasgupta

India is indeed many unique nations rolled into one. And while cinema and sports occasionally act as robust unifiers, the world of advertising is a proven bridge for connectivity, through the attractive realm of products and services. We may be different in every other way but when it comes to material acquisitions, the entire country responds alike to the same stimuli.

There was a time, not too long ago, when marketers designed unique value propositions for the rich and the poor. Consumer electronics brands like LG, Phillips and Nokia deliberately under-engineered for the light-wallet segment.

Names like ‘Asha’, ‘Vardaan’ and ‘Karishma’ (all mobile phones targeted at the rural buyer) were fairly common, though distinct from the global, English-language branding of premium products.

While initially successful, these brands eventually flopped, as rural customers sent a clear message to advertisers that they are not to be discriminated vis-à-vis their urban counterparts.

So, in an otherwise unequal world, brands were great levellers, fleeting agents of overdue equality. Even the urban SEC A1 (socio-economic classification) user made it clear that be it cars, liquor or mobiles, south Delhi would accept no lesser than a London or a Shanghai.

While reality insisted that a gap exists between our current lifestyle and the one we desired, brands gave us the ammunition to bridge it swiftly.

As a consequence, our approach towards advertising changed as well, with the need for segmented narratives shrinking rapidly. Gone were the days when creative teams on the same brand were briefed separately for high-end and low-end TGs (target groups), or when global honchos wanted their premium labels to be ‘dumbed down’ for presumed local sensibilities.

What helped enormously was the acceptance of Hindi as a ‘premium’ language, a result of pioneering advertising which conveyed urbane sensitivities in the vernacular, helping connect our emotions to our self-image.

Credit is certainly due to Pepsi and Cadbury’s Dairy Milk, and automobile and liquor biggies, who motivated every other brand to create this compelling Indian communication identity (mostly on television, as everybody could respond emotionally to Hindi without understanding it fully).

This, clearly, was a function of the influence of Bollywood, an inspiring benchmark for cultural unification established successfully over time.

In fact, the trend towards Integrated Advertising, fast becoming a unifier for the many versions of India, will only be accelerated by the digital revolution.

Here, a combination of regional languages and English work wonderfully to ensure virality or topicality, with English often being the common code for expressing native feelings – exactly like we use WhatsApp or the many ‘messengers’.

Also, and most notably, digital campaigns have never succumbed to the ‘Multiple India’ trap, their only filter being TG adoption patterns for Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Amongst every other good thing, the online revolution promises to integrate India even further, by offering a smart, creative and effective platform to reach every citizen, overcoming traditional prejudices of language and age.

The Indian customer demonstrates a peculiar competitive streak when it comes to association with brands. She wishes to reach out to them on her own terms and hates anyone being condescending or dishonest. An offshoot, perhaps, of our traditional value system as well as the scars of pre-liberalisation discrimination, when the world was barred to us. Thus, BMW or Samsung must come across as global icons talking to a similarly cosmopolitan user who may not yet buy (chiefly for monetary reasons) but is likely to do so if a relationship is formed.

In terms of every other parameter, be it infrastructure, economy or worldview, Bharat and India will be separate entities for many decades to come.

They are, however, happily together in the addictive world of consumer advertising, an underestimated but valuable thread in the cause of national unification. Popular culture has always been our secret adhesive so do consider this to be an ownable and lovable extension.

(The author is Founder, INEXGRO Brand Advisory)

