 "Leveraging the God market")
FOR GOD'S SAKE: AN ADMAN ON THE BUSINESS OF RELIGION
AUTHOR: Ambi Parameswaran
PUBLISHER: Portfolio Penguin
Price: Rs 499
Zee TV created television history in India when it started offering Hindi entertainment 24/7. Riding the wave with programmes that tapped into Bollywood hit songs and films and engaging soap operas, Zee created a new genre of entertainment, prompting Star Plus to switch completely from English to Hindi. Years later Star Plus clawed its way back to the top of the charts with its blockbuster programme Kaun Banega Crorepati, and the man behind the idea of roping in the Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan as anchor was a soft-spoken young man from Kerala called Sameer Nair.
Zee faced a spirited challenge from Sony soon after. With some astute strategies and some course correction, Zee TV managed to rise in the television ratings game, overcoming the strong competition posed by Sony and Star Plus. In the course of ten years, Zee went on to pioneer several other genres of television entertainment in India to become India's No. 1 television network.
The Indian television market sees upheavals every five or seven years and, as can be expected, NDTV, a very successful news channel, decided to enter the choppy Hindi general entertainment waters with the launch of NDTV Imagine in January 2008. To head NDTV Imagine they roped in the same Sameer Nair.
This was the setting when the young CEO of Zee TV, Punit Goenka, called for a meeting with the agency. The question facing us was this: Would Sameer Nair pull it off again? The discussions veered around Sameer's big gambit to attract viewers of general entertainment channels. He was bringing back the Ramayana on television! This time round it was to be aired like any soap opera, four days a week, and not just on Sunday mornings.
Opinions around the table were divided. Some of us felt this was an interesting ploy to bring viewers to an unknown, new channel. Others were of the view that Ramayan had worked in a particular era and the current generation would not be keen on it. Some felt that religious mythologies would always work in India, given the high levels of religiosity; the increasing levels of wealth and education had not led to any reduction in crowds at temples. And there were those who said the new-generation Indians would need a different version of the Ramayana, not what was dished out by Ramanand Sagar in the 1980s.
The strategic thinkers felt that it would not be wise to jump on to the religiosity bandwagon and announce the telecast of Mahabharat to take on Ramayan. NDTV Imagine was launched with some interesting programming and Ramayan was expected to be their sure-fire hit. As it transpired, Ramayan did not evoke anywhere near the skind of response the original had.
Did this mean that Indian television viewers were now fed up with religion on television? Was Sameer Nair totally wrong?
Well, the answer turns out to be a lot more complicated than that. When Star Plus launched their reincarnated second channel, Life OK (the earlier experiment with their second general entertainment channel, Star One, had flopped), it too played the religious card. But with a different god: Shiva. And what a success it has been!
Thinking back, it is possible that NDTV Imagine was on to an interesting idea but they did not execute it right. Or, as they say in show business, Life OK just lucked on to something that viewers were looking for.
Amish Tripathi, author of the blockbuster Shiva trilogy, should get a lot of the credit for bringing a modern Shiva into the collective consciousness of the English-reading public. And now that the novels are available in numerous Indian languages, he has reinvented Shiva for the modern Indian. Devon ke Dev... Mahadev has capitalized on the momentum he had generated and taken Shiva to the masses. It was not as if Shiva was new to television viewers. Om Namah Shivay was originally aired on Doordarshan in 1997 and ran across many languages for many months. So while reincarnating Shiva, Life OK seems to have done something right.
The success of programmes like Devon ke Dev...Mahadev is making religion sound cool to today's young Indians. Some people call it Shiva chic. The growth of the Shiva cult has had its effect on music, T-shirts and even tattoos. As Mohit Raina, the actor who plays Mahadev, says, 'People don't tell me I look divine, they tell me I look sexy. Mahadev doesn't have devotees, he has fans.' He connects across age groups. Everyone wants to own him in his or her own way.
In Being Indian Pavan Varma speaks of the rich legacy of mythologies and gods that Hinduism offers storytellers. The Vedas recognize thirty-three gods and the Puranas offer a staggering 330 million. The Hindu, he says, has no dearth of divinities to keep him busy; so long as they can fulfil his desires, the average Hindu is not interested in understanding the epistemological nature of reality.
Religious consumers are quite adept at playing the consumption game in the name of religion, Ambi Parameswaran tells Ankita Rai
Is leveraging God and religion in media and advertising industry a very Indian phenomenon? Does it happen in the West also?
Religion is a powerful force in every country. Even in a developed country like the US there is a strong revival of the Christian church. But in global advertising the religious symbolism is not very visible. American consumer researchers have not studied the interaction of religion and consumer behaviour as much as they should have. In fact due to privacy concerns even the American Census does not ask the religious question. International brands therefore do not use overt religious symbols. There are exceptions of course. In the 2013 Superbowl there was a very moving Ford commercial had the line "And God Created the Farmer"
In India we have always had a greater overt display of religions and religious festivals. While global marketers do use occasions like Christmas to sell more to consumers, in India we use numerous festivals such as Diwali and Ramadan to sell things from clothes to cars. In fact marketers are exploring new festivals to connect with consumers.
Can you share some early examples when marketers used religion to market their products and services?
The oldest example of brands piggy backing on religion in India could be the multi-coloured, God calendars of the early twentieth century. Soaps and beverages started using God-themed calendars as a way of occupying mind space and wall space in Indian homes and shops. In fact, some of those very same calendars have become collector's items today commanding premium prices.
How is a religious consumer different from the non-religious one? Do you think this trend of leveraging consumerism by combining it with high religiosity will continue in the future?
My PhD was on the topic of religiosity and consumer behaviour. In my research I did not find any big difference between a Hindu, a Muslim and a Christian consumer when it comes to comparing how they evaluate durable brands. However, I found that a more religious consumer was a bit different from a less religious consumer. Interestingly the more religious consumer is also more demanding and probably quite adept at playing the consumption game in the name of religion. For instance, religious tourism consists of well over 50 per cent of all leisure travel undertaken by Indians. No flat buyer will buy a flat today unless it is Vaastu compliant.
I think religion and consumerism will grow together in the coming decades.
AUTHOR: Ambi Parameswaran
PUBLISHER: Portfolio Penguin
Price: Rs 499
Zee TV created television history in India when it started offering Hindi entertainment 24/7. Riding the wave with programmes that tapped into Bollywood hit songs and films and engaging soap operas, Zee created a new genre of entertainment, prompting Star Plus to switch completely from English to Hindi. Years later Star Plus clawed its way back to the top of the charts with its blockbuster programme Kaun Banega Crorepati, and the man behind the idea of roping in the Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan as anchor was a soft-spoken young man from Kerala called Sameer Nair.
Zee faced a spirited challenge from Sony soon after. With some astute strategies and some course correction, Zee TV managed to rise in the television ratings game, overcoming the strong competition posed by Sony and Star Plus. In the course of ten years, Zee went on to pioneer several other genres of television entertainment in India to become India's No. 1 television network.
The Indian television market sees upheavals every five or seven years and, as can be expected, NDTV, a very successful news channel, decided to enter the choppy Hindi general entertainment waters with the launch of NDTV Imagine in January 2008. To head NDTV Imagine they roped in the same Sameer Nair.
This was the setting when the young CEO of Zee TV, Punit Goenka, called for a meeting with the agency. The question facing us was this: Would Sameer Nair pull it off again? The discussions veered around Sameer's big gambit to attract viewers of general entertainment channels. He was bringing back the Ramayana on television! This time round it was to be aired like any soap opera, four days a week, and not just on Sunday mornings.
Opinions around the table were divided. Some of us felt this was an interesting ploy to bring viewers to an unknown, new channel. Others were of the view that Ramayan had worked in a particular era and the current generation would not be keen on it. Some felt that religious mythologies would always work in India, given the high levels of religiosity; the increasing levels of wealth and education had not led to any reduction in crowds at temples. And there were those who said the new-generation Indians would need a different version of the Ramayana, not what was dished out by Ramanand Sagar in the 1980s.
The strategic thinkers felt that it would not be wise to jump on to the religiosity bandwagon and announce the telecast of Mahabharat to take on Ramayan. NDTV Imagine was launched with some interesting programming and Ramayan was expected to be their sure-fire hit. As it transpired, Ramayan did not evoke anywhere near the skind of response the original had.
Did this mean that Indian television viewers were now fed up with religion on television? Was Sameer Nair totally wrong?
Well, the answer turns out to be a lot more complicated than that. When Star Plus launched their reincarnated second channel, Life OK (the earlier experiment with their second general entertainment channel, Star One, had flopped), it too played the religious card. But with a different god: Shiva. And what a success it has been!
Thinking back, it is possible that NDTV Imagine was on to an interesting idea but they did not execute it right. Or, as they say in show business, Life OK just lucked on to something that viewers were looking for.
Amish Tripathi, author of the blockbuster Shiva trilogy, should get a lot of the credit for bringing a modern Shiva into the collective consciousness of the English-reading public. And now that the novels are available in numerous Indian languages, he has reinvented Shiva for the modern Indian. Devon ke Dev... Mahadev has capitalized on the momentum he had generated and taken Shiva to the masses. It was not as if Shiva was new to television viewers. Om Namah Shivay was originally aired on Doordarshan in 1997 and ran across many languages for many months. So while reincarnating Shiva, Life OK seems to have done something right.
The success of programmes like Devon ke Dev...Mahadev is making religion sound cool to today's young Indians. Some people call it Shiva chic. The growth of the Shiva cult has had its effect on music, T-shirts and even tattoos. As Mohit Raina, the actor who plays Mahadev, says, 'People don't tell me I look divine, they tell me I look sexy. Mahadev doesn't have devotees, he has fans.' He connects across age groups. Everyone wants to own him in his or her own way.
In Being Indian Pavan Varma speaks of the rich legacy of mythologies and gods that Hinduism offers storytellers. The Vedas recognize thirty-three gods and the Puranas offer a staggering 330 million. The Hindu, he says, has no dearth of divinities to keep him busy; so long as they can fulfil his desires, the average Hindu is not interested in understanding the epistemological nature of reality.
Excerpted with permission from Penguin Books India from 'For God's Sake' by Ambi Parameswaran (Portfolio |Penguin). ISBN:9780670087242
Religious consumers are quite adept at playing the consumption game in the name of religion, Ambi Parameswaran tells Ankita Rai
Is leveraging God and religion in media and advertising industry a very Indian phenomenon? Does it happen in the West also?
Religion is a powerful force in every country. Even in a developed country like the US there is a strong revival of the Christian church. But in global advertising the religious symbolism is not very visible. American consumer researchers have not studied the interaction of religion and consumer behaviour as much as they should have. In fact due to privacy concerns even the American Census does not ask the religious question. International brands therefore do not use overt religious symbols. There are exceptions of course. In the 2013 Superbowl there was a very moving Ford commercial had the line "And God Created the Farmer"
In India we have always had a greater overt display of religions and religious festivals. While global marketers do use occasions like Christmas to sell more to consumers, in India we use numerous festivals such as Diwali and Ramadan to sell things from clothes to cars. In fact marketers are exploring new festivals to connect with consumers.
Can you share some early examples when marketers used religion to market their products and services?
The oldest example of brands piggy backing on religion in India could be the multi-coloured, God calendars of the early twentieth century. Soaps and beverages started using God-themed calendars as a way of occupying mind space and wall space in Indian homes and shops. In fact, some of those very same calendars have become collector's items today commanding premium prices.
How is a religious consumer different from the non-religious one? Do you think this trend of leveraging consumerism by combining it with high religiosity will continue in the future?
My PhD was on the topic of religiosity and consumer behaviour. In my research I did not find any big difference between a Hindu, a Muslim and a Christian consumer when it comes to comparing how they evaluate durable brands. However, I found that a more religious consumer was a bit different from a less religious consumer. Interestingly the more religious consumer is also more demanding and probably quite adept at playing the consumption game in the name of religion. For instance, religious tourism consists of well over 50 per cent of all leisure travel undertaken by Indians. No flat buyer will buy a flat today unless it is Vaastu compliant.
I think religion and consumerism will grow together in the coming decades.
Ambi Parameswaran
advisor, Draftfcb + Ulka
advisor, Draftfcb + Ulka