Bollywood holds lessons for marketers

FANTASY, SPOOFS & NOW DYSLEXIA- INDIAN AUDIENCE HAS CERTAINLY MATURED

Amidst the prevalent notion of Hindi cinema being primarily for an audience too happy to celebrate stereotypes, the last year has certainly seen the canvas broadening and the scope widening. From animation and fantasies to a tongue –in-cheek satire on modern India. From an offbeat film on female bonding to the good old rip offs of Hollywood action thrillers- multiple genres are jostling for space on the Indian marquees.
The diversity of genres today span from stereotypes of escapist or popcorn entertainment to a more documentary like subject of dyslexia. Yes, we are referring to the likes of ‘Hey Baby’ & ‘Partner’ on one side and Aamir Khan’s directorial debut ‘Taare Zameen Par’ which tackles the extremely important yet neglected issue of children facing difficulties getting mainstream education.
Is there a lesson for marketers here? Is there a new insight into the consumption pattern of Indian audience?
The Hindi film industry has always been a barometer of various societal trends. There is a lot to be decoded from the box office records of movies. Hits and misses have a story to tell as they expose the prevalent emotions and predict new trends.
Bollywood has not been entirely without some of these experimental genres in the past. There was the wake-up call to youngsters in ‘Rang De Basanti’ or an extremely sensitive portrayal of a blind girl played in ‘Black’. But they were experiments at best, few and far in between. So there were the usual stereotypes and a few experiments in between for the discerning audience that also happened to do well at the box office.
But the difference today is that there is no set trend or pattern to follow. From the wonderfully spiced up spoofs in ‘OSO’ to the important metaphor of female expression in ‘Chak De’ to a simplistic rich boy, poor girl love story in ‘Jab We Met’ the Indian audience has an appetite for all of it.

What is re-assuring and comforting is the wide spread acceptance of it all that takes it out of the ‘niche’ and into the popular mainstream. The audience is in a more receptive frame of mind, appreciating and relishing myriad genres.

So it’s also the best time for Indian marketers to put on their thinking caps and induce some fresh and innovative thinking in their strategies.

The Indian audience is living in an era of ‘entertainment economy’. They are seeking out entertainment in every experience- shopping, eating out, official trips or even family bonding. And with two hundred plus TV channels beaming out various forms of content live into their drawing room every waking minute, they have certainly matured in their consumption pattern of entertainment. They are today able to clearly differentiate fact from fiction and appreciate various genres for their original worth. While in the same week they are able to enjoy ‘Welcome’ as ‘leave your brains as home’ entertainer, they are also happy to soak in a intense socially relevant subject of dyslexia that finds connect with the masses and critics alike.

Now that the audience is in a mellow, welcoming mood, this is the time to bring in new talent with fresh ideas. Marketers need to not only enhance the existing levels of creativity within advertising but also to do this through deploying promotional techniques that broke with the established conventions of above- the-line advertising. They also need to break free of established genres of TV advertising that positioned the 30 sec TV spot as the pre-eminent form of advertising.

With no set trend to follow marketers have to experiment and innovate to attract and entice the elusive audience. The definition of communication should change to include multi platform campaigns, in sourced infotainment, user generated content, customer friendly CRM programs and other activities rarely associated with traditional advertising. Marketing experimentation should accelerate along with the need for new metrics as communications cost barriers continue to plunge. There is a need for new capabilities among media, agencies & marketers.

For the film industry that strangely prefers to wallow in familiarity & stereotype the blockbuster success of these diverse genres should offer enough motivation to marketers to expand their arsenal & attempt wild ideas & creative innovations not just in their communication but also in business strategy.