MARKETING: WHATS WRONG WITH THE FEEL GOOD FACTOR

this happened yesterday....after days and days of pondering i finally coaxed myself....i went for a haircut. i went to this saloon opposite to somaiya. "kaise ho bhaiyya, aate hi nahi baal katvaane", said the guy who had cut my hair always at the shop. interestingly, as far as i remember...since i arrived at somaiya i had always gone to him for a haircut and yet somehow he always told me the same thing when he saw me....strange!!. anyways i offered him the head telling him indirectly.." dood its all urs....do whatever u want....but just to see it....that the gals are able to bare me when i am around them..". He smirked and went sik-sik-sak-sik-sak-sak. The best part about good saloons is that there is some good music that plays..and then came apna himesh bhaiyya singing away his nose for some promos of his new movie called karz. He definitely owes something to the whole indian public for singing so awful and extending his monotony of songs all thru....the funniest part of the promo tho was " be a part of the most successful album of the year by the most talented musician of india- Himesh Reshammiya- but cassestes and Cds on bony rmg audio"...what followed was an interesting comment by the guy cutting my hair(i donn like the word barber.....i think it degrades the profession)...he said " kya karte rehte hain yeh log..kuch bhi chicken masala dalke bol dete hain...aur dimaag ka bheja fry kar dete hain...asia kaise ho sakta hai ki is chachundar ka gaana itna hit ho jaaye jabki mujik niklake 20 din bhi nahi
hua".....this set me thinking....how far can a company go to sell its product.

competition really is so fierce today that marketers go any length to woo the customer. is marketing all about gimmicks and lies? can we use the word honest and marketing in the same sentence? if u ask my opinion i would really take a middle stand (thank god for inventing a word neutral...its the safest and easiest word to use). i believe that a marketer is selling happiness to the customer and not the products really. hes just trying to magnify the attributes in front of the eyes of the consumer by telling him/her that dood u will never feel sad with this product. whats wrong in that. donn we pray to god to feel better in bad times despite the fact that we are not sure abt his existence.similarly a marketing campaign is just like that...it creates a feel good factor....but at least it makes u feel good unlike so many things in life...

Laughter Shows: Tickling the funny bone or rubbing it in too hard????

Lets admit it...Indians by far are the most shy people on this planet....there is notning wrong in it...but the problem is that we euphemistically term the same condition as being humble and down to earth and sadly are proud of it. We rarely speak up for ourselves, we rarely take our decisions ourselves and we rarely are completely confident of what we are doing. I am sorry if i sound harsh....and oh!!....you must be wondering what all this serious stuff has to to with laughter
shows...well the same applies to our sense of humour. We never let ourselves loose, laugh our guts out....we dont laugh at ourselves fo that matter....

When the Laughter shows came in...the revolutionary great indian laughter challenge...it was like a sigh of relief from the ksob ksob...kboohooo serials (u know which ones i am talking about...kat kleast know) .....dads stressed from office work would laff their guts off....children for a while wonder if they had entered the right door when entering home. moms after heavy cooking sessions...smile instead of frown and crib....and of course the mood shows in the taste of the food as well...children wonder whether the food was ordered from a 5 star. Raju shrivastav becomes the hero along with sunil pal, instead of tulsi and parvati (they are the heroes of their serials....and gender doesnt matter). Gajodhar is your moms favourite actor on screen....and not apna paaji...dharmender.
Of course...who can forget Mr. Nav-joke Sidhu...he cud laff off his bowels on a PJ.
happy Happy story....Indians are back...so is their sense of humour...now Mr. Jignesh Bhai goes to his office and shares the jokes with his colleagues everyday....and Mrs. jamuna ben is the best joke cracker at her kitty parties. Ghar pe happy...TRPs are zappy...Channels wale bhi happy. Now what happens next....

Thanks to cable TV...we have about 100 channels today and thanks to technology we have a remote control. So what do we do...Switch..Switch....Switch.....Switch....Switch....next family member.....Switch..Switch....Switch.....Switch....Switch....this goes on. This is ok...manageable. Now the day the first season ended..laughter challenge ka....Bony TV comes up with its version....so does KEE tv...and then the list goes on and on. Now this is a serious point.....News channels have become junk and nothing else...and the Junk leader is Parso Tak...followed by Kee News and Tar news. Can one imagine news channels showing clips of comedy shows in their normal air time. Hum hain Naa. Now Mr. Jignesh watches s comedy show every half an hour....hes gettin bored....the joke cracked is the same that came 2 weeks back (he remembers the episode number too). Mrs. jamuna ben is no longer the best joke cracker...women now think she is a nut cracker. The children get normal food to eat.

Too much of a dose is harmful. Today channels capitalise on success by thinking short term. Short Idea Life Cycles kill a concept. The Indian consumer is wise and does not take shit anymore.