Generation GAP and Cinema

I had a course on Consumer Behavior (CB) this term and in the end-term examination of that course there was one question “Write and explain 5 values of Indian youth and what implications do they have on product consumption?” I remember in the course there were several chapters on how the consumer attitudes are changing with time and all sorts of terminologies have come up over time, ‘Baby Boomers’, Generation Y and Generation X etc. Though these terms are used for US population in general but the notion of changing customer attitude towards cannot be denied in Indian scenario and its implications are quite visible.

I was listening to Hindi songs after the CB exam and I generally keep my winamp on random mode with the entire hind songs collection put in the list. The songs that was played was ‘papa kahate hai’ from QSQT. The next song that the winamp played was ‘Koi kahe Kahata Rahe’ from DCH. ‘papa kahate hai’ start with “……Doston…. Shukriya…..party…..humare liye college ka yeh aakhri din hai aur mein jaanta hoon ki aane wali zindagi ke liye sabne kuch na kuch soch rakha hai……’ and then the songs starts with ‘papa kahate hai’ which says that ‘koi engineer ka kaam karega, koi business mein apna naam karega’. Now recollect the starting of ‘koi kahe kahata rahe’ from DCH, it starts with “….. who the hell cares where the hell we land up……”. Recollect that just before these lines the hero starts by saying that college passouts will go for higher studies and some will join their family business, some with start their own ventures and the response that the hero gets the crowd is a BIG BOOOOOOOO, he suddenly change the track and says “….who cares where the hell we land up…. Lets party……..”

Now let me talk about the commonalities in the context of these two songs, both the songs have a background of college graduates in their final graduation party and partying ways from their friends. Apart from diametrically apart attitudes of these two generations there is another thing common to these two songs which rather struck me a little late, and I want you to think of it till I finish my main story. So the main story is how cinema is sometimes a true reflection of a society or as the CB book put it cinema forms a part of cultural gatekeepers who screen the fashion and decide which trend gets a representation in the wider communication to public. The attitude towards life is definitely changed over the period of time. From ‘papa kahate hai’ to ‘koi kahe kahata rahe’ Indian youth has become more adventurous and risk taking, do not want to really lose their freedom so early by committing to job and increased responsibility. You can find out several contrasting themes from early 90s to early 2000s in Indian cinema and figure out yourself how the contemporary Indian youth is very different from its previous counterpart. These differences results in changed preferences towards many products, need for new products and services which the marketers constantly look for. Now that was a part of my answer that I wrote in the end-term examinations and I surely do not want to pen it down here.

Well, before I end the post, I hope you figured out the other similarity between the two songs I mentioned in the beginning of this post. Yes, both songs feature Aamir Khan!

The abused Advertisement

Consumers are bombarded with a lot of advertisement involving every possible media - The billboards, radio, TV, newspapers, mobiles, movie screens and web. We don’t care whether the ad was for detergent or chocolate. I remember seeing a new ad by Act II popcorn, some quick-cook popcorn product available in the market these days. The ad was without any background music, without any famous personality, forget famous it was without any human, It was only 4 messages one after another. What was the message then, well the message was ‘why do companies make ads’ ‘it is to help you take a break from watching tv’ ‘and go and make a Act II popcorn in two minutes’ ‘come back and enjoy the tv with Act II popcorn’.

Let me ask you 1 question, are we the consumers of advertisement. Do we consume advertisement, yes please refer the book for the definition of consumption.

Imagine a world devoid of any advertisements, also assume that people are completely aware of the brands available in the market so that I do not need to give the trivial answer that advertisements are to teach the consumers and make them aware of the brand or product. How will you feel, nothing to distract you. Moreover you are not required to pay a premium on products as whatever companies are spending on Ads is in-turn collected by consumers by marking up the price.

Nothing will disturb you when you are watching your favourite program on TV but what if you want to take a comfort break, you do not want to miss a part of the program on TV? What if you want to see whether other channels are airing more interesting program at this time? What if you pay Rs 40 for your daily newspaper instead of Rs 4 and Rs 2,000 to your cable operator instead of Rs 300. Shocked! well you shouldn’t be.

Advertisements do more than just subsidising the newspapers and TV costs, in general cost associated with entertainment and communications media. Let me try to put down some (not so thought) utility of advertisements.

• They make you feel important, you know there are companies wooing you everytime, and you easily tell your friends “these marketers do not know how to advertisement, they make such a terrible ads, they do not have any brains”.
• Not only they make you feel important, they provide you a constant source of ‘abuse object’ that you can abuse whenever you want to or whenever you do not have anything to discuss with your friends.
• While you are travelling the billboards alongside the road gives you a hint that a city is nearby, the size and shine will also tell how developed the city will be. Just imagine you are in a complete new city, unknown people and then you see a lot of billboards of known brands (Titan, Nokia, Coke, Adidas etc.), suddenly you feel connected (did you read my previous post on 'shades of journey').
• They decorate your roads, make it interesting, they are a proof that when you are in a city centre, it is indeed a city centre.
• They provide parents with options to show their small child different objects that are used in the advertisements like dog (hutch), leopard (Mountain Dew), jungle (Cadbury perk), stars (Airtel Ad); the child is ofcourse not able to see these things frequently in concrete jungle (yes our housing societies).
• Sometimes they provide you with new ideas, funny moments where you do not have to scratch your head to understand every bit of it. They are some of the simple things you watch on tv.
• Billboards also decorate the big walls of Malls, Cinema Halls and they appeal to your eyes. The actresses/models in those big posters beautify the surroundings.

In all these sorts of exposures, I am not consuming the product but consuming the Ad. And I am paying for this consumption, by purchasing those marked-up products of the companies that use these ads. Tell me, do you consume advertisements?

Popularity of your blog

How do you increase the popularity of your blog? Well I am not probably the right person to ask to, but I am the right person to ask you.

It’s been almost a year and a half since I started blogging and barring a couple of unknown visitors (of course who have commented) all were my friends. Well, your blog can act as one of the means to add to your popularity among the acquaintances but also gives you a chance to remain connected with your dear friends. So how do you increase the traffic to your blog. Certainly I am not able to do a good job, not yet.

But before I try to find the solution(s) to the problem I need to first define the problem itself. No, don’t get me wrong, it’s not a consultant’s approach; it’s the only approach I can think of. I seriously need to find what kind of people I want to visit my blog. Whether I want the marketers, philosophers, technical, freelancers, leisure readers or just my friends to come and read my blogs.

Well, one can write a professional blog, let’s say a opinion blog, travel diary, feedback blog on mobile technologies or a critic on films and blah blah blah. Even if I try to write it will be of no use as I have a little idea about these things. So far my blog entries are limited to random thoughts that I have pertaining to certain events that appear in our social or economic life. So the readers’ profile (please let me take the privilege of trying to profile the typical readers who come to my blog, I know the numbers are not in support of this analysis) is very generic with my friends who are pursuing their post graduate studies in technical field to management, some of the my other friends and few (highly valuable) people who have reached to my blog by “Google Search”, isn’t it amazing.

But still there are no clear indications as to what type of people are interested in my posts (yes if someone unknown comments on my blog posts I do go and check out his blogs). Could this be one of the ways to increase the traffic on my blog site, I should also go and comment on peoples’ posts and this would prompt them to come and see my blog. But this would not ensure the return visits………. he he the marketer in me has started speaking….. sounds like return purchase.

So how do you actually improve the popularity of you blog. Say use those terms in your posts that are frequently searched on internet and keep posting using the generally prevalent terms. So if you were to ask me what these terms would be as of today, I will say that IPL, Twenty20, UPA, Obama, LTTE, the terms that you encounter on your daily newspaper. So should one keep writing about the current affairs on a regular basis. Still, this will not solve the problem, this will attract the leisure reader, which unlike in the months of May and June you will not find (find the reason for May and June and you will be surprised).

One other option that seems a little feasible is linking your blog to other bloggers in and around you. Develop a blog network where the bloggers are following your blog and you in turn are doing the same. Google has recently made available such functionality in blogspot where you know who are the people following your blog. Once that list is builds up, you know the people who are interested in your writing and then you can write on interesting topics to suit the audience.

If you really want that only your friends should come and visit your blog the task becomes easy, just write on your personal experiences that you friends can easily associate with.

Shades of Journey

I find every journey (leisure trips not included) that I take bothersome, particularly to new destinations. The unease of leaving the current state of life, change in daily routine, disappearance of familiar faces, appearance of unknown faces, insertion of new surroundings put you a state of transition from a steady state (pardon me for the use of technical words).

So the anxiety of transition state makes me uncomfortable. Somehow I feel that I find a steady state inside this transition state. So the ever changing surroundings, faces, are all put together steady. It’s like inertia, if you are in state of transition you want to be in the same state. We attach ourselves to the objects in your personal space.

So if I have got a seat in a train, or bus, I want to sit in my seat. If I find someone occupying my seat I will ask him to vacate the seat for me. If the bus stops at a mid-way, you get down and have some snacks but when you come back you are again happy and relax once you are seated in your seat. You find the same window, same front seat (actually the back of the front seat) and the same side seat and the same faces. You find the same view of the bus from your seat and thus familiar surroundings. You will feel uncomfortable if after every stoppage your seat gets changed.

Let’s come to the hotel where you have done your booking. Day before today, you are not at all concerned about the room that are going to stay, but once you are in that room, the surroundings, ceilings, window, furniture, curtains find a place in your ‘comfort space’ (just coined this term, not sure if this exists). After having done a sizeable field visits to rural markets when I come back to my hotel room, I get some respite. You will not find that kind of relief anywhere else in that new city but your hotel room. Once again it’s the same surroundings, ceiling, window, curtains, furniture etc.

At once I thought that it is not the ‘comfort space’ but the privacy that you find in your hotel room. But thinking deeper you realise that it is not the privacy at all. Let take a train seat for example, you have other people in the compartment but you are confined in your seat and you do not complain, you are happy that the seat meant for you is all yours. Let say that you do not occupy the whole seat and someone comes and sit on the remaining part of the seat, suddenly you say ‘hey that’s my seat’; why? There is no privacy but the steady state in the transition state that I talked about is broken. Forget someone coming and seating, just imagine that someone put his/her bag there, still you do not feel the same. You want it to be removed immediately. This is the reason I call it a ‘comfort space’ which is little different from privacy.

And once again when you start your return journey, you again deal with the same experience. The changing definition of ‘comfort space’ and external space again keeps you guessing about the next station or the next steady state of your journey. And as I write this blog waiting for my return flight to Mumbai from lucknow, I am in my ‘comfort space’ of waiting lounge. Well this blog is going too long, and I do not like reading long blogs, so let me just stop here.

Innovative Premier League

I was surprised when I first noticed that Google is making money by selling English words. In Google Adwords one can buy a set of words/phrase and then whenever anyone searched for the term the buyer’s link will appear in the sponsored category.

IPL has gone the same path this summer in order to generate more revenues. I agree they are incurring more costs as they have shifted to South Africa but then the traditional means of getting the sponsorship has been given a new face.

One had never heard before a DLF maxima or Citi Moment of Success and you will never hear it’s a SIX or a WICKET. So in the already innovated version of the game has become more innovative.

This coupled with strategic break where you get ample time to advertise in between the match apart from the break between the overs. The thinktank behind all this has done a commendable job.

Another challenge while moving to South Africa was how do you get the local crowd to see the matches and I mean 59 matches. They have linked the IPL with a social cause by donating 100,000 Rand to a local school. At the same time you have Miss Bollywood South Africa contest going on.The TRP have improved a bit but still a long way to meet the expectations. I wonder if there are other things on store to excite the viewer.

Awareness campaigns gone wrong?

The first phase was very successful with round 60% turnout in many of the cities but comes the second phase and it’s all the same again. A meagre 45% turnout in Mumbai. Mumbai people are considered to be among the most concerned ones as it has business class at one end and emerging middle class on the other end. Still we failed.

The people who conceptualized the campaigns, who participated the campaigns and who endorsed the campaigns are popular Mumbai people but nothing worked. You discuss it with people and they say that it should not have been on the long weekend. It happens in 5 years and we value a long weekend like we get a long weekend once in 5 years. What is it that prevented the intellects to come out for voting. Are we elite enough not to vote for ourselves and intelligent enough to blame the elected representatives for non competence. I think we have lost the conscience of our duties towards our society, we are becoming more individualistic. The people who will surely benefit by our insensitivity towards these important rights are the ones who play around with the sentiments of masses by repeating trivial issues like Ayodhya, telangana, marathwara etc. No surprise why the vote bank of Lalu still remains the poor and why it is in his personal interest that they remain poor. Why the situation in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh hasn’t changed for the past 20 years. Why the issues 20 years back are still the issues today and they will be the same 20 years hence.

A recent news article said that the maximum increase in net worth of MLAs are observed for BSP MLAs, but this info do not ring bell in the ears of their vote bank, we pity them to have continuously vote for the same guy year after year on the same issue eradicating the poverty.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Lucknow/BSP-tops-list-in-fielding-candidates-with-criminal-background/articleshow/4315363.cms

Why do we always find happiness in pointing out what others are doing wrong and think that our duty as a learned class has ended by pointing out others’ mistakes. Why do we never change ourselves and just STOP. Why not just change ourselves and be happy about it.
Or am I completely wrong. People may have not voted because they wanted to protest the lack of proper governance for the past 5 years. I have read few stories in Mumbai mirror about a couple of people who wanted to cast a protest vote but they were not allowed to do so.

Would having an AC waiting room for the voters instead of long queue in the sun have helped in pulling the “learned class” out of their comfort zones?

While I was writing this one of my friend showed me this link -
http://election.rediff.com/report/2009/may/05/loksabhapoll-joke-ten-reasons-why-south-mumbai-did-not-vote.htm

Elections 09 – Politics ka baap

The elections are always the same from political parties’ point of view but it is different this time from the voters’ point of view. Political parties always look for third front or fourth front before the elections which never sees the sunlight. Some leaders are claiming that INC is a 125 year old party ignoring the fact that their own party is still reciting the same OLD Ayodhya aka Ram Temple ode. Others have promised in their manifesto that they will abolish English use in and schools and ban the computers and stock market. I wonder whether the respective leader of concerned political party is even able to understand any of those.

However, we have not seen the kind of awareness campaigns on TV ever before. At one side you have Amir Khan or Lead India or Jaagore.com, which are trying to educate the voters to vote judiciously; on the other side you have BJP’s campaign that lacks the charm. Mumbai is seeing independent candidates coming from leading corporate; villagers in Bihar have beaten one of the MLAs for no development in the constituency. The signs are good for the beginning but the end is as uncertain as it has always been.

The Supreme Court has restricted Sanjay Dutt and Pappu Yadav to contest the elections, Tytler and Sajjan’s ticket are cancelled, and things seem to be moving in the right direction. Though these are just a few instances but they are giving some hope to the true citizen of India. But as long as the ruling party is decided by minor (read regional) parties having 20-25 seats and acting ‘king maker’ some of the hard decisions will never be taken. This will ensure that the Indian economy will continue to crawl at the same slow speed. People hoping to see some great reform that can push the country as the next super power will have to come out and vote and make it count!

A clear majority for any party is not visible in the horizons and a really impossible event that I am hoping for (of course not in this election) is Congress and BJP coming together and forming a government together.