Netagiri & Marketing

One fine morning, I was walking to my college and during that walk, I asked few of my classmates what comes to their mind first when I say ‘Marketing’ and I got the responses like Brand, 4 P’s, Digital marketing & Philip Kotler. Other morning, I was walking on the street and I asked my neighbors what comes to their mind first when I say ‘Marketing’, I got the responses like Advertisement, Door-to-Door selling and free-sample. Same evening, I saw a few boys playing cricket and I asked them what comes to their mind first when I say ‘Marketing’, I got the responses like bat, ball & t-shirt. I was not really able to understand the context in which the boys responded. After asking in detail, I got to know that those cricket bats, balls & t-shirts were gifted to them by one local politician as the next elections were near. After that incident, I was forced to think that till now why I had not thought about this that marketing is in same way applicable to politics as it is applicable to corporate & start-ups, which are generating products & services.

After thinking for a while, I observed that many marketing concepts are already applied in the politics. Some of the marketing concepts such as Marketing tools – ATL, BTL, & TTL, then there are 4 P’s, STP (Segmentation, Targeting & Positioning) analysis, Social marketing, Digital marketing, GTM (Go-To-Market) Strategy & recently we are seeing B2P marketing model as well. After all, a political party is not less than any corporate entity. Political parties have their Vision, Mission & policies too. They have their brand, their values, their targeted customers (voters) & future growth plans. For political parties to survive the competition & to achieve growth or expansion nowadays, marketing is a must.

Marketing tools like ATL, BTL & TTL have been used in politics since quite a long ago. ATL includes advertisements in newspapers, radio, TV channels and the processions before the elections. I have not observed before; when elections are nearer, then suddenly advertisements related to government schemes and government achievements in the development activities are largely visible in the TV channels, radio & in newspapers. BTL includes contextual text ads, vertical banners and telemarketing, which has started recently. We start getting text messages and recorded calls just before the election from one of the political parties reciting their agenda points & urging to vote for them. TTL includes horizontal banners, social media and events. There are many active members in political parties who use their social media account for the promotional activities, spreading party messages rampantly. They organize social & spiritual events in the streets and gift & donate things.

Basic concept of marketing the 4 P’s is prevalent in politics. To build the political strategy they need to ask 4 questions as: (1) Whom to target (People)? (2) Where to target (Place)? (3) What to show (Product)? and (4) How & when to target (Promotion)? Yes, ‘price’ is replaced here with ‘people’ as most important factor.

Digital marketing is getting its pace now in the politics. From Social media marketing to content marketing, everything is being used by political party to promote their agendas and playing hard to influence the population. Facebook is very commonly known for social media marketing. Besides that, Twitter & WhatsApp are used more intensely nowadays. Also, these media platforms are used to manipulate the mindset of the voters. For example, recently the news was there that Facebook had sold the personal data of its user to the company called Cambridge Analytica Ltd., a British political consulting firm. Cambridge Analytica, which combined data mining, data brokerage, and data analysis with strategic communication during the electoral processes. During the U.S. Presidential election – 2016, majority believed that Hillary Clinton had major chances of being the President of U.S. and when the results came out, everybody was just shocked. Later, it was suspected that Cambridge Analytica had used the personal data of the U.S. population to manipulate the mindset. Data analytics must have been very useful in doing this assignment, where every individual was targeted differently according the demographic, geographic, psychographic and behavioral factors. After identifying the individuals and their need, they are constantly bombarded by the content which changes the mindset of the individuals. This is referred as B2P marketing in marketing terms. Digital media is now being very strong medium of marketing and who can play with it efficiently can win the world.

While talking about politics & marketing, I have observed General Election of 2014 in India and that is very decent example of the Political marketing by BJP. That political campaign was 360 degree campaign. First impact was the clear positioning of agenda, people were easily getting the message that BJP party is aiming at good governance, development and job prospects, which were the actual need of the people. Whole campaign was designed keeping Mr. Narendra Modi in the center as the he had an image of strong leader & Gujarat Model to show for as an achievement of his governance. BJP was very active on social media; from Facebook, twitter, google+, blog, pintrest, flickr to tumblr and that kept people engaged. BJP has very beautifully used the slogan to create an impact. They have very interesting events names & slogans such as ‘Chai pe charcha’, ‘Bahut hua kisan pe atyachar, ab ki bar Modi sarkar’, ‘Achchhe din aane wale he’, ‘Jaanta maaf nahi karegi’ etc. They have used 3D-hologram technology for public address to reach the mass population. Use of 3D-hologram technology was very new in political promotions. So, they got success in attracting the people and got the first movers advantage. They constantly bombarded people with Modi’s image on the printed mobile cover, mugs, pens etc. and developed a ‘Narendra Modi’ brand. They have used negative marketing also. In that, they have identified the misconducts of the previous government and highlighted them.

Another story of the Mr. Arvind Kejriwal, a former Indian bureaucrat, social activist turned politician, is fits well while discussing politics & marketing. He was very active since 1999. He was highlighted from the ‘Lokpal Bill Movement’ in 2011. Then, he finally thought to enter in the politics. He came with the very heart-touching phrase ‘Aam Aadmi’, which means ‘Common man’. Mr. Kejriwal with other activists launched a political party with the name ‘Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’. He portrayed himself as the ‘Aam Aadmi’ and dressed-up like a typical common man to show people that he is one of them only. AAP Party has set the agenda which was accurately targeting the need of the common man. This promotional strategy of Aam Aadmi Party hit the bull’s eye in Delhi assembly election – 2015 with a great majority. They may have followed the Go-to-Market strategy in a very fine way.

For a marketer who has good amount of interest in politics, there are job profiles available in the market, Such as Political analyst, Political marketer, Political campaigners, Political communicator and etc. Those days are gone when only drummers, procession and posters were used before the election for the promotion. Today, all the latest techniques & tricks are used for the promotion. Political advertising, celebrity endorsements, involvement of professionals, consultants and campaign managers, online campaigning, mobile phone canvassing, segmentation, micro targeting etc are some of the methods extensively used in political marketing.

One of the major functions of a Marketer is to maintain the customer relationship by fulfilling all the commitments and look after the pain points of customer & try to alleviate those. By being very optimistic, I hope that same thing we could expect from our ‘Political Netas’ in future.