Ask any science grad, what’s a necessary evil, “friction”, promptly comes an answer. Ask the same question to a B-school grad, he will wander your imagination to the recently famous Paharganj and the Movie DevD and the chartbuster song Emotional Atyachar. I would love to chatter more about the movie some other time, so let’s focus on how Marketing Evangelists are exploiting the very feelings that make our hearts feel the warmth, make us cry, give a tingling feeling in the belly and even scare us to death.
It all began with the Jeete Raho ad of ICICI Prudential and its’ still on with Samsung bio-sleep air-conditioner “aisi hazaron raatein apni pyaari ma ko jagaya... issiliye aaj mein de rahi hun unhe poora aaram”. Or the Airtel advertisement “ pyaar mein koi cutbacks nahi hote”. At times it boggles our mind why the ad-makers simply don’t tell about the product and its uses. Well the answer lies in the number of new ads that hit the small screen on per day basis.
For better understanding, let’s pick up a standard Marketing textbook. It says Products can be divided in three levels –the core, actual and augmented. The core product will deliver what is intended by its use, eg. Life insurance policy will give insurance; an AC will condition your room air and so on & so-forth. Actual product is what all benefits the product gives that is available in the market. In this case the features that may be available in the AC like cooling control, AC type-window or split, etc. An augmented product will give some more benefits that the product is intended to deliver. Say for example an insurance policy may double up as a mutual fund or the AC may fire some bacteria fighting ions. But there is a limit to technology and innovation and so to the cost which has appeared as an important variable in this recessionary time. So what’s next?
Marketers are now shifting their focus on scientifically proven effectiveness of subconscious mind and cementing their product using emotions into well informed customer. It seems to me that the ad world is all get, set and go for emotional atyachar. Companies are doing their marketing on the expense of their customers’ emotions. They are using the classic theory that ‘our eyes react unconsciously when we are affected emotionally.’ Sounds like science fiction but it is true. It is said that our eyes are the mirror of our soul and that there is a close co-relation between our eye movements and psychological processes. As a result our decision will be based on our gut feeling rather than the facts.
So if you plan to buy the Samsung bio sleep air-conditioner thinking for your dear mother and feel elated that you did some good for her. But what about people like me whose mother feels suffocated in A.C... Are we to whine about it the rest of our lives that we could not do anything for her??? I guess that’s the way it’s going to be…
This is all I can say to my beloved advertisements:
“Tauba tera jalwa, tauba tera pyaar
Tera emotional atyachar…”
