Catch them early & ride to success

After the romantic 'adas' of Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan in 1975 seemed to have broken rules of definition of the Hindi hero with his 'angry young man "" anti-hero' Vijay.

However, as he himself humbly confessed at the Jaipur Adasia last year, he was just the lucky man to be in the right place at the right time.

India was coming out of the idealism of Independence. The ill effects of Nehruvian socialism were beginning to show. The youth was disenchanted with the large-scale unemployment and corruption of the system. And was helpless to fight the system.

Bachchan represented the symbol of anger and hope. And people empathised with his characters and vicariously lived their dreams of fighting and getting the better of the system trying to drown them.

Again in 2000, when the big B decided to reduce himself to the TV tube and invade people in their drawing rooms through 'Kaun Banega Crorepati' (KBC), it seemed he was making a mistake. Only flop stars go to the TV and this was the beginning of his end.

Instead, he just grew in stature, got a new lease of life on the bigger screen. Consumerism was gaining ground and Indian greed was looking for legitimacy. Amitabh Bachchan, in his now patriarchal role, through the opening pravachan gave sanctity to Hira from Hardoi to desire for and get money. His presence gave greater respectability to the show. And gave him a second coming "" a resurrection.

Is advertising and marketing about breaking rules or just about identifying new rules that are coming up and riding them early? That's the question to answer.

In 1988, Titan planned to change the face of the watch market in India with their all quartz range "" it seemed a pipe dream. Mechanical watches comprised 90 per cent of the market and watches were just time pieces "" nothing more.

The targets set for the five years seemed startlingly mad. However, Titan saw something many didn't see "" Indians were getting more sartorial conscious and watches would naturally need to get more elegant to complement that look. Today, quartz is a norm and Titan an undisputed market leader.

In 1993, Allen Solly was launched as 'Friday dressing' office wear. Large back yokes, all cottons, bright colours "" were all anti thesis to what was the norm of office wear "" defined by brands like Louis Philippe and Arrow.

Allen Solly saw changing office cultures and with it the changing office look. Allen Solly was positioned as a brand that bends rules without breaking them. Today, the Allen Solly look defines office wear (brands like Colorplus riding the wave that Allen Solly started) and ironically is no longer about bending rules "" it's the rule!

In 1999, Maxtouch (the original of Hutch and Orange) wanted to start a mobile revolution. While the opportunity seemed great (phones need not be limited by number of households, but defined by number of individuals), the pricing made it seem impossible to achieve targets. Hutchinson Max thought otherwise.

It saw changing consumer lifestyles and growing willingness to pay more for the convenience of being in touch whenever, wherever. All that had to be done was to make the pricing more affordable (from the heady Rs 16 per minute in the mid-90s). Today, it is one of the fastest growing sectors "" and even snack foods are looking at SMS, a service, off shoot of this category, as a competitor.

Each in their own way defined a new paradigm and created it. Did they break rules that existed and made successes? One would be tempted to exult them to that status "" but it would be reducing their marketing foresight acumen to just maverickism that clicked.

Breaking rules helps to get salience but that does not necessarily mean connecting long-term with the consumer. Tea bags were novelty when they were first launched "" they broke convention. However, in a market where boiling is the norm of tea making and there is no reason to change, it has not been able to actually revolutionise the market.

Gels existed in the oral care market right through the 80s. It was a rule-breaking format but didn't make much headway. However, in the 90s, a more social and look conscious generation emerged. And gels began to get a larger share of the market. It just had to wait its time!

Bill Bernbach once said, "It took millions of years for man's instincts to develop. It will take millions more for them to even vary. It is fashionable to talk about changing man. A communicator must be concerned with the unchanging man, with his obsessive drive to survive, to be admired, to succeed, to love, to care of his own".

This is perhaps true. However, as basic human needs, wants and desires remain the same "" their manifestations change and this is what is of interest and of value to both marketers and advertising agencies.

Identifying the new manifestations and offering them is the key to success. The need to look good has been eternal "" the role of watches and 'Friday dressing'"" are new manifestations of it. The need to stay connected is ancient, however the need to stay so wherever man is, is a new phenomenon magnified by the mobile revolution.

Hindi films have instinctively recognised the same and have successfully remained relevant by keeping up with the times. They have often operated on universal themes and yet refreshed them by giving more and more contemporary interpretations of the same.

Romance (Shringar ras) has always been an emotion integral to many films but its representation has changed. From the window romance of K L Saigal to the seductive 'ched chad' of Shammi Kapoor in the 60s to the fairly passionate/almost aggressive love of Aamir Khan "" the expression has kept pace with changing consumer expectations in an ever evolving society.

Similarly, good versus bad has remained an eternal theme. The form of evil has changed from the zamindar of the 50s to the drug peddler of the 70s to ISI agents of 2000!

'Advertising is a trailing indicator of popular culture'. Path breaking campaigns are at a deeper level an instinctive recognition of new emerging social codes and mores.

Benetton seemed path breaking when its campaign showed no clothes but just raised a cause. All it did was to ride a social trend that people were getting less class-conscious and the thought that 'we are ultimately all human beings' was very appealing.

But as times changed and the category got more style conscious, a brand resting on purely social causes began to become irrelevant. Not surprisingly, it has reverted to showing the glamour of fashion wear!

The Onida devil seemed to be breaking all the rules of advertising of the day. What it did was that it recognised the growing value of TV as a status symbol in the 80s and just dramatised it. Not surprisingly it struck a chord.

The Cadbury girl dancing on the cricket field actually represented the unshackling of individualism in the Indian society and the emerging freedom of women.

Ariel with its famous husband washing clothes seemed to break rules or change them. It actually recognised the emergence of washing machines and the trend of men willing to help out in household chores early, and latched on to it. Did it make men more conscious of household duties? It would be presumptuous to think that one campaign did that.

In sum, the mantra for the future, whether marketing or advertising, is to catch an emerging social trend and ride it. It is not about knowing the consumer as she is today. It is about spotting those things that maybe emerging in a small group today but have the potential to become big tomorrow. And being the first one to exploit it.

So it is not just about breaking the rules but smelling the new rules and appear to create them by riding them. The future will perhaps belong to not researchers but to astrologers!

That's something worth thinking about.

madhukar.sabnavis@ogilvy.com

(The writer is Country Manager - Discovery, Ogilvy and Mather India. Opinions expressed are his own and not of the organisation he works for)