The Brand called India!!

Slumdog Millionaire : A very recent movie that caught the attention of the film audience in India and International. Says the story of a love struck youngster who participates in a reality show because of the probability that his lover might be watching it. And the movie element- he wins the show!

The White Tiger: A very recent novel written by an Indian author about a person born in the rural India making it to be an entrepreneur.

Two recent items in news-one is a novel and another is a movie based on an Indian novel. What is common between both? There are two common factors:

First: Both have been critically acclaimed and won prestigious awards. While the author of The White Tiger , Aravind Adiga won the Man Booker Prize, The Slumdog Millionaire won has won five Critics' Choice Awards, four Golden Globes (including Best Drama Film), and seven BAFTA Awards (including Best Film). The film has also been nominated for ten Academy Awards

Second: The crux or the background of both the works remain the same- an India which is known and familiar to the world. An India which is poverty struck with large population living in slums and underdeveloped rural areas getting exploited by the powerful. Beggary, Communalism and Poverty being the backdrop of all images that is being created about the country.

Why does it sell big? Why does such portrayal of India become so successful, acknowledged and acclaimed in the West??!! Let’s face it, the world like India that way. The image of the emerging super power or the Corporate India does not sell!! It’s like an overnight transition of the brand image. The brand called India sells when it is associated with slums, beggary and poverty rather than with corporate tycoons or the nuclear weapons.

I am not getting in to the controversial topic if India is really so, the accurate depiction of reality or stark contrast. This is been discussed and is quite a repetitive one. But I would like to pose more impartial questions purely from a marketing perspective- Why is that this brand image of India as a third world country still sell so big when our nation builders are making huge efforts to re brand India as the glamorous, young superpower/ Corporate India??!! Is it a marketing failure? A case of unsuccessful re positioning or is it just that the cost and effort incurred in re positioning the brand will take much more time to produce results than envisaged by this brand builders??

Questions are open!! Suggestions, Opinions and Hot debates are welcome!!!

On Wines-especially Sula & Product Plugging-specifically in Almost Single!!

Prologue :

This prologue is written after the below post was published. When I was writing this post, my impression was the favorable mention of Sula in the book ‘Almost Single’ by Advaita Kala was a carefully planned product placement. But later on, I realized (from the comment posted by the big man himself) that it was not an instance of product placement, but a product plug. Advaita Kala must really be in love Sula. So, friends, I stand corrected though I don’t want to make changes to the original post I had written. I am changing the original title from On Wines-especially Sula& Product Placement-specifically in Almost Single to On Wines-especially Sula & Product Plugging-specifically in Almost Single!!

Now you may read on the real stuff.…

My first memories of wine being mentioned was in the holy masses-Jesus took wine, blessed it and gave it to his disciples; and asked them to repeat it whenever they gather to remember him. And so- we did! In all holy masses the ceremony was repeated with ardent faith. But in our churches, they just spoke the words-the priest would never distribute real wine to the people. All that they would do, that too, a few times a year on important dates is to dip the Holy Communion in wine. And that was on very very rare occasions. Even before accepting my first holy communion, I got a taste of wine on one of the Monty Thursdays when dad brought wine for the occasion. That was just a port wine.
Then there was the different type of wines that my neighbor used to make at home-pineapple, beetroot, amla and many other different flavors. On visiting them, I used to get occasional chances of tasting those, but I was still not a wine lover. My love for wine started only when my dad made wine at my home for the first time. We saved a couple of bottles for a few years and then I realized that the concept of ‘old wine’ indeed is a noble one. That is when the stuff becomes really real! Thus homemade wines- ginger, amla and especially grapes remained my favorites for a long time. Otherwise, except for a wine tasting evening- I was not exposed much to the world of wines.
I used to read about the exquisite world of French Wine in Mills and Boons, Sydney Sheldon and the like. And used to wonder how it was like. But it seemed so smooth and sophisticated in the books than in reality. It was then, that I came to read Almost Single by Advaita Kala. Suggested by my friends who read and loved the book, it was a great contemporary novel by an Indian author. Awesome book!! And I got exposed to the world of Sula through it. Though it was read by many of my friends before me, somehow, they all missed the compliments the main character of the book had paid for the Indian wine brand-Sula. As luck would have it, that was the top of the mind recollection for me after reading the book. And I decided to try this one. A little prompting from my side- my friends were also eager to try this new stuff. Promptly, Sula arrived at my house. The young brand from Nasik won my heart that night. Henceforth, as far as I am concerned, the wine nights are definitely going to be Sula nights.
Though that is all about the wines and Sula, being a Marketing majored MBA(though working on a lousy job which has got nothing to do with marketing and hence forgetting all the marketing fundas at a fast phase), I cannot help but comment on the Product Placement/Product Integration done in the book Almost Single. The mentioning of Sula brand as the character’s favorite in the book, is nothing but a clear instance of Product Placement. I was familiar with product placements in movies and television and thought of it in books as a very rare and newly evolving form of marketing. But on research I realized, product placement in books can be dated back to the 19th century. When popular author Jules Verne wrote the classic Around the World in 80 Days, many transport and shipping companies were lobbying to get mentioned in the book. Later, many books have followed suit particularly by placing goods targeted at teenage girls.
In any case, this was the first time; I came across such an effective product placement as far as I was concerned. I tried and loved Sula!!

PS: This post is a classic example of product plugging (instances of product placement without an economic transaction). Here, I have placed both Almost Single and Sula. All the marketers out there! Pay me! I am willing to place your products in my upcoming posts!!!