Rakhi - A marketer's perspective
(Genre: Just Like That)
Someone great once said marketing is the anti-thesis of religion. Religion asks you to leave all material pleasures to achieve the ultimate truth and moksha, whereas marketeers say that fulfil all your material needs, otherwise you will die with unfulfilled wishes and you will never be at peace.
Lets have a marketer's perspective of rakhi through the following transcript of a chat.(Festival and not that Sawant babe)...
(Disclaimer: I love the concept of rakhi in general. Its a great institution in itself, but that doesnot mean we should not question it.)
M: hi
I: howdy
I: happy rakhi
M: same to yu i guess
M: is happy rakhi a good wish btw 2 guys ??
I: i thght rakhi was symbol of love and friendship ...
M: btw brothers and sisters
I: well i say it because it keeps me in touch my culture
M: well it doesnt hurt anyway
M: so y not
M: happy rakhi
I: thank you
M: so wht else?
I: celebrating rakhi today
M: almosr yesterday now
I: ditributed some sweets in office.. spread some indian culture in amrika
M: good
I: its morning here ... dude
M: doesnt matter...wht time it is there
M: rakhi is 12 to 12 IST
M: u have 2 hours to wrap up
I: haha... festivals are not bound by such times... specially the ones that are cultural and not religious like rakhi
M: then y wait for rakhi day to happen
M: u can have it anytime of the yr
I: i think we should look at this from a global perspective ... and so rakhi shld be celebrated for 36 hrs... that will cover everyone
M: i am sure it was a marketing gimmick by a thread making compnay few hundred yrs ago
M: on the same lines as friendship day
I: doesnt matter.. it makes ppl happy and brings them closer...
M: yeha
M: i actully sometimes have these arguments with dad
M: Like yesterday he said ki we people eat a lot of junk food
M: and he was eating chhole bhature
M: i told him that junk has always been eatan
M: type has changd
I: very true
M: and this rakhi argument also happend bcos friendship day couple of days back
M: i told him in a hundred yrs friendship day will be a festival as rakhi is today
I: maybe... it has to adopted/developed/spread
M: wil happen automatically
M: all you need is greed to sell more friendship bands, cards etc.
I: yup.. but some become more famous than others
M: Lets us see in a hundred years
I: well if rakhi is too close to friendship day then it will be tough for friendship day to pick up... it might happen that rakhi and friendship converge and celebrated together...
M: but then the market will reduce
I: maybe... sometimes ppl can get overwhelmed if festivals are too close to each other...
M: we will be selling less bands
M: festivals drive economics
I: for example.. bhaiya dooj is not getting the same treatment as rakhi.. which i think is because it is overshadowed by diwali the day before
I: true but they have to be ideally spaced apart to flurish
M: then we will either move rakhi or we will move friendship day
I: it is like to get the best results you have to have the items on a a grocessary store in the correct order and space
M: ok then we shall move friendship day to june..there are no festivals then
I: good idea...
posted by Manish @ 10:06 PM
5 Comments:
Interesting perspective Manish. Looks like you are getting too many calls on your mobile from people ("marketers?") hawking all sort of merchandise!
Nice one dude :-)
Well, to me it seems that everything in life revolves around marketing... marketing... and more marketing.
In every activity of life, be it personal or professional, someone somewhere is doing some sort of marketing openly or subtly. Sab MAYA hai.
So here I say, LIFE IS MARKETING :-)
I agree partly....it is more about money and things you can use it for, rather than marketing.
Marketing is only a means and not the end.
there are instances where culture starts out from pure unconditional love and not just from marketing...
refer -> jhankar beats conversation between deep and rishi :) "basanti veeru ke liye naachi thee"
Culture might start with pure unconditional love...There might be that first brother and the first sister who started rakhi. But tht doesnot mean it spread through pure unconditional love. there might be a catalyst. And that might be marketing.
And marketing is not an alternative to pure unconditional love, it helps you to show it in a materialistic way. One might purely unconditionally love his wife, but gifting her jewellery is no sacrilege.
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