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Time and again, we don't seem to take the time and pain to gain a true understanding of what is it that people want. Sometimes, it's as simple as an entertaining 30 seconds in the middle or at the end of the day (think of Ramesh & Suresh in the 5 Star advertisements)
With the current storm in a teacup that the ad world is in the middle of, I wasn't feeling very inspired this time to pen something around the human-ness of brands. So I decided to look outside the realm of reality, and into the world of fantasy, instead. Introspection is what I found there, too.
I'm currently a huge fan of George RR Martin's Game of Thrones series of books. For a number of reasons, not the least of which is the nakedness and ruthlessness with which he exposes human beings for the frail creatures we are. Prone to and defined by all kinds of predictable behaviours and beliefs. A hunger for raw power, an easy willingness to use deceit without second thought, the inevitability of consequences that are not guaranteed to be good just because one is principled and honourable, a web of interconnectedness that is never apparent at first glance, the ugliness of beauty and the beauty of ugly, unmasked emotions, an aspiration to simply better the human condition, and through it all, an underlying telos (to use a big, Aristotelian word) of the pursuit of happiness, subjectively defined by each individual.
"Sorcery," Martin says,"is a sword without a hilt. There is no safe way to grasp it." "Marketing" might well replace "sorcery" and it would still make sense. Especially in a world where people, even just in their narrow avatars as consumers as we marketers see them, are way more savvy and sceptical about the means and ends that marketing deploys. Where people, if they make the time and inclination to pay attention to marketing in the first place, see through brands that are hollow in their intentions.
And yet, time and again, we don't seem to take the time and the pain to gain a true understanding of what it is that people want, and what it is that brands can deliver to them. Sometimes, it's as simple as an entertaining 30 seconds in the middle or at the end of a madding day (think 7Up Kathakali, think Ramesh & Suresh in the 5 Star ads). Sometimes, it's an affirmation of a belief system (think Parle G, think of all the classic Nike ads). Sometimes, it's the resolution of conflict (say between the traditional and the progressive). And even when we do gain the understanding, the means and ends we deploy seem to be at worst ingenuously selfish and at best ingeniously selfish.
Insular as we are as a community of marketers, we have no qualms in creating to feed our own egos, fanned by our own insecurities, impelled by our own blinkered versions of reality, seeking out our own incestuous reward systems, covering our own backsides. Even though we're daily provided with enough and more proof of what happens when we create with integrity, honesty, courage and a desire to genuinely co-create positive change in small and big ways.
Perhaps I'm being too harsh (who am I after all to question something that's been the way it is long before I came into the picture and will sustain itself long after I - a mere blip in time - am gone?). Perhaps I'm being too judgmental. Perhaps I'm being too optimistic. But I do believe we can and we will play an instrumental role in helping the human spirit triumph in pursuing the telos of happiness successfully. Even with the hilt-less sword of marketing as the tool of choice.
