Fifty-Fifty: Marketing To Bharat Needs Different Strokes, Deeper Understanding

When I went to college nearly four decades ago, none of us had heard of Valentine’s Day. It was not that those of my generation were not romantic, or love-lorn, but a day dedicated to love was just not part of the annual calendar. Valentine’s started to make an appearance in the mid to late 80s. In the past 30-odd years, it is celebrated as a big day by romantics and love-wannabes but its appeal is still limited to metros, and at most Class 1 towns. Beyond the Top 20-30 cities, the appeal and impact of Valentine’s Day is reasonably minimal.

Akshaya Tritiya, as a special day to celebrate, entered our active lexicon in fact only a decade later than Valentine’s. My earliest recall of seeing any ads for gold or jewelry on Akshaya Tritya goes back to the late 90s, perhaps even a bit later. I am not sure if it was a marketing initiative triggered by the World Gold Council or just a combination of some astute astrologers and innovative jewelers coming together.  The rush to buy gold did not actually have any real religious significance.

Akshaya Tritya was always considered to be one of the most important days (tithi) of Hindu astrology. It is believed that on this day, the sun and the moon become equally bright. The celestial specialty of Akshaya Tritiya makes it a particularly good day for performing yajanam (performance of auspicious activities like yagnas and havans). Any yajanam performed on this day is said to have 1,000 times the normal effect. Any spiritual activity (including meditation, chanting, charity and different forms of worship) performed on this day stays with the good karmas of the person forever. Somehow purchase of gold was dovetailed into this 1,000 times narrative. And gold sales on Akshaya Tritiya started to break upper circuits every year, with queues outside jeweler shops. But most importantly, Akshaya Tritiya has found its way into nearly all geographies across India with jewelers even in small and moffusil towns aggressively promoting the sanctity of gold buying on that day, and consumers willingly biting the bait. 

Akshaya Tritiya as a ‘promoted’ festival, I am sure is many times the size of Valentine’s in volume of business transacted every year. And that is not only because Akshaya Tritiya is linked to gold purchase. Akshay Tritiya is anchored in the religious and cultural fibre of the country. It has taken some prompting, and a bit of promoting, but it is now an intrinsic part of the psyche of the Indian family. It has sanctity, it has fervor and it has started to develop deep roots.

Similarly, over the years, I have seen the Ganesh festival grow. From the number of murtis sold for home rituals (estimated in 2012 to be growing 16% Y-o-Y) to the number of pandals to the size of the pandals to the number of active sponsors. The celebrations have also become more organized, and most brands – big and small – today devote significant budgets to Ganesh celebrations. The interesting thing is that the Ganesh festival was largely a Maharashtra-Mumbai event. But I now see equally large outlays in many other parts of India, including smaller towns. It is still not in the league of Akshaya Tritiya on an All-India basis, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the support of brands and marketers drives Ganesh to become a huge marketing aperture nationally in the next decade.

Why do local domestic festivals look like they have more potential to blossom and grow than pushing Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, or any other similar day where Zomato and Swiggy run promotions and e-commerce companies put out an array of products they would like to sell? Because, while concepts of special days to display affection resonate with some affluent urban millennials, the mass of India remains largely unmoved. And don’t mistake it with religion. These foreign concepts remain largely alien to the larger fabric of society. But why, you are bound to ask. Simply because these concepts have no social or cultural moorings. 

Just for a few moments think about this. Matri Navmi (ashvin mah ke krishn paksh ki navami tithi) may actually get much more love for mothers and traction for brands pan India if well thought through, and communicated with the desired love, respect and gratitude. Few marketers realize that there is actually a Kaumudi Mahotsav (kartik mas ki purnima) which can be grown as a commercial ballad of love of much bigger proportions than Valentine’s because it would have local and mythological moorings. Equally, Guru Purnima (Teacher’s Day) or Dhanvantri Jayanti (Doctor’s Day) or Vishwakarma Jayanti (Technology Day) or Sampann Saptami (Children’s Day) or Kanya Bhoj (Daughter’s Day) or Aanvla Navmi (also called Tulsi Vivah) which is like Environment Day are all apertures with immense potential, given the right positioning, the right messaging, and coordinated efforts by marketers – and they already exist in our traditional calendar. After all Rakshabandhan and Bhai Dooj are big festivals, and can be promoted to become even bigger. Vishwakarma Jayanti today is little more than a holiday for all carpenters and blue collared workers, with a puja of their working tools – clever marketing can reposition it as our technology targeted Black Friday sale day, more so since it comes right after Diwali, our equivalent of Christmas in the Western world. 

I am not for a moment promoting any regressive thinking or pushing any Hindutva agenda. Far from it. I just feel that not enough marketers actually push the envelope on understanding their actual target audience. Much of which is really intuitive. They don’t really immerse themselves into the actual life, culture, beliefs and rituals of their consumers. Especially in Bharat, that doesn’t live in Mumbai or Delhi where most large companies are HQ-ed. Where Netflix still has miniscule penetration. And samosas still outsell pizzas 100:1. 

You would be surprised to know that our traditional calendar actually has a day even for scribes and journalists – Narad Jayanti – dedicated to Sage Narada who was the universal divine messenger and primary source of information among the Gods. So the nuggets of opportunity are really for innovative brand thinkers to find, fund and fan! Bharat is just waiting. For stuff that is more relatable, more ‘me’.  

Dr. Sandeep Goyal is Managing Director of Rediffusion.