Marketing - A sly tool in Inidian Politics

Marketing has been an effective tool for many organizations to promote their goods, services, ideas etc. for centuries now. In my previous post I tried to shed some light on how the world is utilising the digital platform for marketing and reaching the target audience effectively.
Marketing these days has become a mandate for a unique section of the society, viz. our politicians. With an eye on Indian General Election 2014, many political parties and renowned politicians have upped the ante to promote themselves as the next Superman or Spiderman, projecting themselves as the only saviours of this doomed nation.

The recent triumph of Shri. Arvind Kejrival and Aam Admi Party in Delhi assembly polls is a perfect example of 'striking the rod when hot', here the rod was the bruised and ill governed state of Delhi and the hammer was their marketing technique which helped them promote their ideas and thoughts amongst the masses using various marketing tools. Largely the credit of their victory goes to the marketing stint that they pulled for about a year to lure the voters of Delhi, as they hardly had any political experience to showcase. Although it’s been over a month now that Shri Kejriwal has come to power but the fulfilment of the promises that he made in his manifesto seem to be a far fetched dream for Delhi-ites for obvious reasons moreover his anarchist approach and disrespect towards the democracy has been out rightly condemned by citizens of Delhi itself.  

On the other hand we have a strong contender (most of my readers probably consider him as our next Prime Minister), Shri. Narendra Modi. One of the credible News Daily quoted that Shri. Modi has roped a global PR firm APCO in order to promote him and his work not only in India but all across the globe. Not to forget that the state of Gujrat administered by Shri Modi for over 11 years, ranks 11th  in Human Development Index in India, which is below 5-6 states governed by their arch rivals INC.

Not too far is the Indian National Congress,one of the oldest political parties of India which boasts to have governed our nation for the maximum period of time. The INC has recently hired a PR agency for a price of whooping INR 500 Crores to create a buzz for Shri Rahul Gandhi (Head of Election Campaign) on social media. Considering the amount being invested, it appears that we are all set to face yet another scam on the lines of Coalgate and 2G spectrum, how else do you think a political party can afford to pay such a huge sum as advertising expenses.

In my personal opinion there is nothing wrong in promoting oneself or one's political party or its ideology amongst the masses. In fact as a marketer it cheers me up to see a new set of customer base being built in the form of our politicians who have resorted to non conventional ways of marketing and are exploring different platforms and tools, willing to spend huge amounts of money. Although this provides a marketer with an opportunity to earn more, what concerns me as a citizen of India is whether we are going to judge or choose our next generation leaders based on their promotion.I still believe that as citizens of this nation we need to make our choices based on the developmental and constructive work done by our leaders and not merely based on the lip service they offer. Choosing a correct leader to govern the nation is equally important as choosing a job for ourselves, because it has a direct impact on our lives.

References:

• (ref: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/rahul-gandhi-pr-firm-lok-sabha-elections/1/334891.html

• (ref. http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/rahulgandhitakingthelead/new-pr-ninjas-hired-to-bolster-rahul-gandhi-s-image/article1-1170098.aspx )