CONNECTED–PART 2

 

“Why this Kolaveri Di?” No four words in the history of known lexicon, are simultaneously meaningless but nonetheless highlight the powerful role social media plays in our daily lives. By the time “Gangnam Style” gained immense popularity throughout the globe, viral marketing was now a science where each company aimed to increase their brand’s awareness and recall. The world surely has changed. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. are no longer looked upon as the weapons of mass distraction but are strategic tools for company, society and the government alike. Let’s discuss the significance of social media marketing in each of these three walks of life for building a sustainable value creation.

Organizations have realised the potential of social media to access and identify the influencers and opinion leaders so as to promote its offerings. Influencer marketing has arrived as one of the fastest-growing social media marketing practices, as brand managers look to connect with their customers in meaningful ways through the collective voice of active bloggers that are passionate and vocal about the brands they love. Some industries like entertainment, services, etc. thrive on such influencers who promote or give favourable reviews to their offerings, thereby defining the essence of social media – the word of mouth marketing.

Internally, the employees are able to stay connected with seniors in the organization who act as a mentor even while they are not in offices. Recruitments via sites like LinkedIn, internal company referrals over social media have gained popularity among many employers and employees alike while providing an opportunity to connect with acquaintances and business partners. Video resume has been another important precedent in recent times where senior professionals post their CVs on the companies they would want to work.

In synergy with a new form of sophisticated capitalism, the social media platforms itself have been able to benefit and profit out of the marketing tactics adopted by the companies. The concept of shared value is thus created where the consumers are able to connect with their desired brands, the companies get benefits of brand activation initiatives and the social media platforms are able to reap benefits through these transactions via the means of advertisements (Facebook) and subscription based revenue models (LinkedIn).

Social media marketing has also helped in bringing a new transformation on how Crowd funding works. Firms like Ketto partnered MTV to raise awareness among the youth in helping to raise funds for girl child via the hitherto discussed platforms.

On another note, the arrests of two girls who passed disrespectful remarks over Bal Thackeray’s death and Section 66A of IT act pointed out the highly intolerant and still archaic views of the government which puts India in juxtapose with freedom of speech. With the recent troubling news of U.S’s National Security Agency (NSA), spying over Indian online platforms, the need of the hour is to augment the infrastructure to protect the interests of all stakeholders and ensure the sustainability of value created by the power of social media.

White is the new grey - An Abstract

What does white signify? Is it the archaic insignia, representing tranquility, truth and knowledge? Or has it become a rhetoric device in modern times, to hide under the veil of delusion?

We have got accustomed to live in a dogmatic society where the government tries to control our cognitive and independent thinking by rationalizing horrors and atrocities. The justification of killing innocent civilians, in the name of fight against terrorism, is just one of the inundations of incidents that have changed the idea of what’s right. The continued drone attacks in Pakistan, the conflict between Palestine and Israel, the massacre of innocent women and children in Sri Lanka for the supposed need for harmony and peace, has become nothing but, collateral damage. A society, which gives noble peace prize to the same nations (Eurozone) who have been bombarding the highly turbulent parts of the world (NATO), and who also, instigated a catastrophic financial crisis by acting fiscally irresponsible, vindicates the idea of white becoming the new grey.

The democratic foundation of our very own nation, which was billed as a "tryst with destiny", was a result of insurmountable toll on human life. The untold story of how Hyderabad, in the name of a united and independent Indian nation, was overpowered by the Indian Armed forces back in 1948, as reported in the highly confidential Sundarlal report, is an example of lines between what’s right and what’s wrong getting blurred. The communal pogroms in 1984 and 2002 were a consequence of the seeds of disparity sown during the initial years of country’s inception.

The transformation from white to grey is not only an act from the government, but how we as ordinary citizens too, are redefining the idea of justice and peace. What Kasab did in 26/11 tragedy, by all means, was a barbaric act against humanity and a threat to nation’s sovereignty. However, the air of cynicism that surrounded Kasab’s trial, along with the pressure from every strata of society to hang him, showed the transformation of society that once was governed under Ram Rajya to the one that thrived on insatiable need for vengeance. A loss of life of an individual, who was perhaps made the way because of the society he lived in, was celebrated as a form of catharsis that further pushed the developing democracy towards its nadir.

In the contemporary culture, the recent Indian movie, “Oh My God!” touched upon an important issue that has deeply enrooted itself in India. Religion has indeed become a business. Here the color white, representing spirituality, which India had been known for, has been dwindling due to unscrupulous deeds of the so called guardians of religion. In the book “The White Tiger”, the author pointed out another transformation which the traditional Indian bourgeoisie had been going through in the age of globalization. The emphasis on materialism over the societal good, gives further credence of white’s venture in the grey territory.

Pepsi’s IPL Sponsorship : No More DLF Maximums

With a bid of Rs 396.8 crores, PepsiCo pipped Telecom giant Airtel, to win the title sponsorship of the Indian Premier League for the next five seasons. DLF after a successful five year stint decided not to participate in the bid as they had completed their objective of increasing the brand’s awareness among masses. The upcoming season of IPL would be telecasted in over 192 countries, thereby presenting a great opportunity for advertisers and marketers to grab consumer eyeballs and participate in the cricket cum advertising extravaganza. Pepsi would be hoping to leverage this opportunity to the maximum and increase their presence in the global market, while further strengthening their foothold in India. Right from Youngistaan to the last year’s Change the Game and the current Tameez se kyun dekhe campaign, Pepsi has positioned itself brilliantly in the young Indian’s psyche as a youth drink. They would be looking forward to cash in on the campaign and increase the market share of its other brands as well.

The Indian Market 

While PepsiCo’s flagship brand has done well in the market, and is the largest selling soft drink in India, its other brands – Mirinda, 7-up and Mountain Dew still trail in market share as compared to rival Coca Cola India Pvt Ltd. offerings of Thums Up, Sprite, Coca-Cola, Fanta and Limca. The pie charts give a break up of both on and off trade sales in soft drinks Indian market.

The high popularity of Coca Cola India’s drinks were vindicated in a recent survey on Most Trusted Brands by ET, where Thums Up, Sprite, Coca-Cola, Limca and Fanta were better rated in Top 50 brands as compared to PepsiCo’s Mirinda and 7-up. IPL does give PepsiCo a plethora of opportunities to expand not only in aerated drinks, but also increase its share in non-aerated drinks market. Pepsi’s Tropicana and NourishCo, a ready to drink tea (RTD) in collaboration with Tata, would love to lead in their respective segments over the rival’s Minute Maid, Dabur’s Real juice and Coca Cola’s NesTea respectively.

Stage Set for Ambush Marketing

The year was 1996 when the shoe was on the other foot. To rival Coca-Cola’s sponsorship of the world cup cricket series, Pepsi kicked off Nothing official about it campaign when they decided to play spoilsports in Coca-Cola’s effort to claw back in the Indian market after an absence of nearly 16 years. The campaign was the first of its kind in India where both the big guns competed to score over the other in the first major sporting event post liberalization. Stage is set for another round of cola wars as Coca-Cola is in talks with nine IPL teams to give them exclusive pouring rights which include rights to serve its beverages in the team’s home stadiums. Although Sundar Raman, the IPL-CEO, has reiterated strict ambush marketing clauses in their contract with Pepsi, it would be an interesting new chapter in both IPL’s and Pepsi’s journey to connect with their loyalists.

Media Controls Our Capacity for Independent Thoughts?

The flurry of scams bestowed upon the reigning Indian Government highlights not only the mess India is in, but also the power media enjoys in a democratic setup. The galvanization of masses under Anna Hazare, the helping role social media played to help Arab Revolution and the awareness of society regarding socio-economic setup in the country and around the world, counters to the argument of media controlling one’s independent thoughts. Rather, it’s the augmentation of one’s thoughts and public opinions, which the media has helped to build in the last few years.

India has come a long way from the times of Independence and emergency. While during the former, the British controlled how public opinions were formed, the latter emphasized a darker phase, where several leading Indian Newspapers, including Indian Express, faced the wrath of the India’s benevolent dictator, Mrs. Gandhi. Any word, against the government meant persecution. Soon after emergency was lifted, a revitalized Press Council of India was formed whose sole aim was to maintain and improve the standards of news papers and news agencies in the country. Indian media has grown leaps and bounds after the brief period of turmoil, and has become the biggest news market in the world, with over 100 million copies sold worldwide, and having more than 80 news channels. Leading Indian news papers like - The Hindu, The Times of India, etc. have become a platform where countrymen can voice their opinions, and contribute towards a holistic, independent thought making process that encourages healthy debates on various issues having political and economic ramifications. Magazines like Tehelka, and The Caravan, offer the readers an alternate take of events through the medium of investigative journalism. Such plethora of easily accessible information has given the citizens the impetus to be more responsible and participate actively in all community and government decisions.

Television and News media is indeed a tool for the aam aadmi to stay connected and up to date with the current affairs. Live studio debates by esteemed guests from politics, business, and sports; engage the audience to participate actively in expressing their view point. The recently televised interview of Mamata Banerjee on CNN-IBN, where she stormed out of the studio after accusing the audience, consisting mostly of students, to be Maoists cadre, was an unadulterated example of how media has encouraged citizens to give their views even if it clashes with the egos of political leaders and influential people. Radia tapes controversy was indeed a big blotch on the entire industry that turned the sceptics into cynics, and gave then the ammunition to target the big shots of media. After the supposed blackout by major news channels and newspapers on the personalities involved in the controversy, it was again, the will of the youth, along with the power of social media, which led to the tacit admission by The Times of India, on the increasing role social media sites, like twitter and Facebook, are playing in expressing public opinions.

Satyamev Jayate, on the lines of The Oprah Winfrey Show, was ubiquitously appraised, as it had the vision to inspire the dormant middle class, and without imposing, ask them to think about the prevalent evils in society. Cinema too, is ladened with social movies (Rang De Basanti, Maachis, Salaam Bombay, etc.) that challenge the intelligence of its audience and stimulate the brains for thinking what can be done to improve the status quo. In the advertising media, campaigns like Jago Re, by Tata Tea encouraged Indians to take well informed decisions on whom to vote and, more importantly, asking them to make use of their right to vote.

It is an undeniable truth that practices like, paid news; mass advertising, etc. still persist that preys on the naïve, and is a major hurdle on the cognitive thinking of the nation, the challenge lies in not only rooting out the corrupt, but to apply the maxim – knowledge only liberates. To achieve this goal, the part media plays in a democratic nation like ours, becomes vital.

A Case For Reservation

Listening to The Bugle Podcast (a satirical show on global politics) a fortnight ago, a passing remark by the co-host Andy Zaltzman on the relationship between the most developed economies (Norway, Sweden) in the world being directly proportional to the number of women represented in the parliament, turned out to be the genesis for this article. With the chances of the hoary old bill on Women Reservation being tabled at the Lok Sabha during the budget session and the upcoming International Women’s day (March 8^th), the chauvinist in me made way for the pro-feminist.

It’s no secret that a nation whose foundations are based on an egalitarian model would be predisposed to peace and economic prosperity. Human Development Index (HDI) is a tool by which the UN studies the growth of nations. By including the parameters of standard of living, literacy and education a decisive number is obtained, which helps in ranking the countries on the condition of its citizens. A common theme if you look closely at top nations of the HDI List would be the equality of the opposites. While as you go down the list, the low HDI is indeed linked with the gender gap and is easily noticeable. India is ranked a woeful 134^th, tied with Iraq, and well below its neighbors Sri Lanka and Maldives. Here, the chauvinist I countered to this argument and said that a big nation like ours can’t be compared to smaller countries on this parameter alone. As India is a continent in itself, a rising super-power, we need to have a detailed analysis as to why we are so low on this index. So thanks again to Wikipedia (don’t know what I would do without it), here’s the list of individual states of India based on HDI. And yes, no big surprises that Kerala tops the chart with it being the only state where female to male ratio is higher than the rest of the country.

This brings us to our conundrum; do we need a reservation for women in parliament? We can certainly take inspiration from Rwanda, where women in Parliament secure 56% of the total seats and although well below in HDI, have actually recovered miraculously after the 1994 genocide (do watch Hotel Rwanda movie to learn more about it). Giving preferences to candidates solely on merit is the ultimate goal which a society must achieve. Though, this can only be done if everyone is given the same opportunity to perform and succeed. For a developing nation like ours, reservation is often a hotly debated topic. The Government has tried reservation for women before in municipalities and local elections but with utter failures. Proxy Seats, where dogmatic politicians make sure it all stays in the family, i.e., by only allocating tickets to contest elections to their female family members and as a result neglecting the fairer sex and mitigating the entire purpose of reservation.

The urgent need for the purpose to be vindicated is to make sure there is utmost integrity and sincerity followed in the rotational aspect of the bill. When Rajya Sabha passed the bill back in 2010, there was a clear directive to reserve the seats once in three consecutive general elections on the basis of a draw of lot. The same must be passed at Lok Sabha too, and hopefully the path to a long term goal of development is achieved on an even footing.

A Book Review - Amritsar: Mrs. Gandhi's Last Battle (1985)

With the election commission finalizing the dates for the next year’s poll in Punjab, I finally found myself motivated enough to write a review for a book I wanted to discuss about ever since reading it few weeks ago. The book in question is Amritsar: Mrs. Gandhi's Last Battle (1985), written by the renowned scribe and former Chief of Bureau, BBC, New Delhi, Mark Tully and co-authored by Satish Jacob.

As the title suggests, it not only provides an insight to the events that led to operation bluestar, and its aftermath, but also a glance to the history of Punjab after independence and the consequences of the decisions made by our egoistic leaders. In true respect, it was a case study of “The Butterfly Effect”, where in a small ripple can affect the course of history.

Most of us know what operation bluestar was about, either told by our elders who witnessed to the events first hand or vicariously, or from the news channels who sporadically and unwillingly bring it up whenever a protest pertaining to the aftermath occurs. I always wanted to read an impartial and detailed documentation on the events that had led to the final act and the pogrom later on. It was natural when I first heard about the book, especially the author who wrote it, I knew at once I have finally unearthed a book that can explain chronologically on what had conspired before 1984. I was not disappointed. It was a truly riveting read, a read which again rejuvenated my fascination for history that I had lost in the rat race which we all go through after matriculation. Mark Tully has written the book in first hand whereas Satish Jacob took on the role of seeking the truth. Both have shown the integrity which journalism should be, but rarely is, associated with. They have indeed treaded on a fine line without playing any blame game or holding a biased view.

The book was first published in 1985, and as is the case with history, it still finds relevance today. Understanding the current socio-economic conditions through the eyes of history, one is able to prognosticate better. I would sign off with a quote from Robert Penn Warren–

“History cannot give us a program for the future, but it can give us a fuller understanding of ourselves, and of our common humanity, so that we can better face the future.”

Synopsis Of Last Few Weeks

Eviction of Baba Ramdev

What happened in the wee hours of Sunday was an extreme reaction by the government. It not only highlighted the fear Congress had regarding Ramdev’s demands, but triggered a sharp reaction across the country regarding their attitude towards democracy. Attacking hapless people gathered for peaceful demonstrations with teargas is not what’s expected to be defended by senior leaders like Kapil Sibal and Digvijay Singh. Rather than explaining convincingly on this shameless attack, they were busy maligning the yog guru. It needs to be pointed out that many of his demands were what he had been preaching, and believed in, for nearly 10 years on live television. Congress have allegedly told Ramdev to concentrate only on teaching Yoga and not get involved in politics, but they have no right whatsoever to stop anyone from expressing themselves publically. The consequences of the governments’ egocentric attitude are still to be seen, but the absolute failure to address key issues like corruption and black money stashed abroad will become a major hindrance to UPA’s coming back to power in 2014 lok sabha elections.

Mamata makes history, storms Left bastion

A landslide victory often highlights the need for a change, and change is what Bengalis had demanded vociferously after 34 years of Left Front rule.

The former Railway minister now faces a huge responsibility of carrying the burden of expectations of her people. She needs to instigate a rebuilding process with a vision that will bring a social and economic reform the state of West Bengal badly needs. Industrialization, for which Ms. Banerjee has hitherto been defensive, needs to be encouraged if the state wants to overturn the slump it is in. Indeed if anyone can be the influential role model of West Bengal, it's her, the question lies in the fact if she could to do what’s right for the sake of her state.

Sex ratio, patriarchy, and ethics

With India’s literacy rate going up from last census, an optimist would have expected a similar trend in its girl child sex ratio. However, 927 females against 1,000 males in 2001 to 914 in 2011, has once again highlighted the ignominious fad for a boy child in India. The inbred belief of boys being better than girls has much to do with abortion of female fetuses. Along with the introduction of stringent laws to curb prenatal sex determination, the government needs to be vigilant to improve socio-economic conditions for women. If the need for an egalitarian society is observed now, by next census, India could well be a leader in the world order.