Marketing "Tricks" in Politics

Spreading its tentacles like the ultimate under water predator, Marketing justifies its comparison to an Octopus which is agile enough to squeeze into the narrowest of places similar to the presence of marketing in rural and remote corners of this vivaciously wide nation called INDIA, establishing its dominance in almost all facets of business, it now has set its eye on the hottest topic of recent days – POLITICS.

Has marketing been able to create a foot hold for itself in politics? The answer is plain and simple and it’s a Crispy YES, well….. I already see readers laughing off this very gutsy statement of mine, these quite familiar reactions that I generally receive when I start off with this topic anywhere. Now let me try adding some sense into this statement and bring to light my defense may be you’ll agree to it or you might just rubbish the entire idea, but stick on till the end before you pass your comments.

Before we start of, let me request all you learned guys to turn off your prejudice and listen me out with an open mind. How would you sell something to a consumer of the lower strata of the society, the answers simple - a TV Commercial or probably a jingle or say a celebrity endorsement – cashing in on the fan following of the celebrity or even some road shows boasting off about your USP…. Let’s now look at what is happening in the arena of politics, not the mud slashing that happens against parties, lets focus on the election campaigns.

Day 1 : You open your newspaper on a lazy Sunday morning hoping to find something interesting but all you see is a large 8x10 ‘tasveer’ of Salman zooming around the city clueless for a candidate from Mumbai ensuring a large gathering or as we call it audience or eyeballs .. Isn’t this what we marketing enthusiasts call celebrity endorsement and on a macro level publicity?

Moving on to Day 2 : You are in your car driving back to home, stuck in the daily traffic, you try to settle down for some funky bollywood number over the radio, you turn it on and you hear a radio artist miming the iconic BIG B advising u to choose one political party over the other , it’s even followed by a peppy number from one of your favorite movie remixed, revamped, renovated singing praises for a particular political party – and all we learned ones we call them Radio Jingles.

Day 3 : Laying around you find yourself texting someone dearest, you have popped a question and your waiting for reply, the prolonged waiting is broken when you mobile phone shimmers for having an SMS, you hurry and open the same , you find your local assembly candidate candidly pleading for your valuable vote. For all you techies isn’t this E-Marketing

The list just goes on to how marketing has now become an integral part of politics, be it the freebies that you are entitled while attending a local political gathering or be it the visual merchandising that parties widely use, like the poster or the street danglers, the enormous life size cut outs of politicians, I guess I have been able to sensitize all you guys on to how politicians are just marketers who can sell their ideologies and dreams to the TG i.e., all of us. Well it wouldn’t be a surprise if I even see a political parties signing on Event Management companies to professionalize their election campaigns… it seems like some sectors is gonna see a spike in their revenues.

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