The Hindu Business Line : The young and the restless

What is the one big trend you see in the branding of educational institutions? And what are the mantras one must never forget in the branding of education?

- P. Vasuki, Chennai

Vasuki, the one big trend I see is the verticalisation of what’s on offer. Take management education, for instance. There are programmes that focus on medical management, engineering management, construction management, petroleum management, technology management and a whole lot of such stuff. If I am to put down my mantras while branding the education segment, they would be the following seven sutras

Integrity branding: Say only what is true

Lack of hype: Don’t build your education brand as if it is groceries!

Do not advertise: When you do, it means you are touting. Don’t tout

Follow bottom-up branding and not top-down: Let your work speak for itself

Invest heavily in the pedagogics ... never mind the returns.

Patience: It takes all of 6-9 years to build education brands in India

Focus on two ends. The first must be the recruiter end which will absorb your students. The second is the student population.

There is a young and empowered segment of the population in ‘New India’ that is young, different and buying all the time. How would you typify them?

- J. S. Singh, New Delhi

Singh saab, typifying anyone and anything is a mistake we must never do in marketing.

However, the segment you are talking about is really the cusp-generation between the 30-plus-generation and the teenage generation of today. I call it the cusp age group.

This group is essentially one that has not seen hardship at all. It is a group that was born into a reasonably comfortable era. This group is all about having seen a self-sustaining economy at large all around it. This group did not have to wait for home phones to be connected after six years and fathers’ scooters being bought after a wait of eight years in the queue.

I also call this generation the ‘commode generation’: The young generation in its Twenties and below in most urban areas is one that has never used the squatting type of Indian toilet at all. This generation starts its morning sitting on the commode ... without the strain and pressure that one has to take while sitting on the haunches.

This generation’s world view is, therefore, one which is shaped by little or no discomfort at all! This generation of 21-30 is a very hungry-for-achievement generation. Whether it be in urban areas or rural, there is a hunger to get going fast. Everything is also expected in a jiffy.

Therefore, in my book, I call this generation the ‘scratch-card’ generation as well. A generation of young people who want everything fast ... even at the scratch of a card. Increments need to happen every quarter, and incentives must be on the spot. They do not know the joy of delayed gratification at all!

Some realms that distinguish them, then:

Politics: This generation is politically insensitive. The key issues that haunted India, which actually engineered a high degree of political awareness in the past, have literally vanished here. This generation is not a generation that loves to vote, even!

Spending pattern: Very hedonistic in spends. Still value-seeking. This generation will buy their crystals from a Swarovski store ... and then drive into a Big Bazaar to do the family’s grocery shopping. It will splurge in some arenas and will not in some.

Consumption: Highly consumeristic. Eat more brands, drink more brands and wear more brands. Labels mean a lot to this generation. It has convinced itself that the brand means high quality, even. Never mind the price!

Films: Realism is in. The relationship spectrum is non-limiting in behaviour patterns of this young generation. This generation operates on a reasonably quick swing on what I call the ‘love-hate pendulum’ for brands and relationships equally. They will like a brand for a short while and then move to hating the same brand even. Much quicker in this movement than the generation before them. More mercurial.

There is very little patience.

This young generation, by the time it reaches the age of 30, has an experience profile that is exciting in a multitasking life. It has been through thousands of e-mails, thousands of SMS, many hundred hours of gaming and Internet experience on the whole. It wants to move fast. Things it likes, it refreshes. Things it does not, it deletes!

This is how much I will typify. No more. And no less.

The new Tata Tea commercial is different. It is a take on social issues. Why?

- Rachna Sood, Mumbai

Rachna, tea is a fundamental and old category of beverage in India. The category of tea is quite like detergent, soap and sundry other old categories that have seen advertising inputs for decades.

In any category that has gone through the wringer of advertising for as long as these categories have, boredom sets in. Tea is a mother category today which has tried advertising executions related to USPs that are functional, emotional and even surreal. Now, when everything is exhausted, it is time to try something new.

The ‘new’ I am talking about is socially relevant macro advertising that has little or sometimes even nothing to do with the product at hand. In the case of Tata Tea, this macro stance is the heightened awareness of the Indian and his necessary involvement in how the land is governed.

The insight to understand is the fact that a people in society are largely concerned about themselves initially. As society grows in terms of economic upheavals of the positive kind, people get involved in issues that are of a larger consequence, such as socially conscious issues.

Surf tried this a couple of years ago with the ‘Do bucket paani bachana hai’ campaign and later did something similar with Lifebuoy soap as well.

The advertising hopes to stir up a discussion ... and the discussion is hoped to get a recall of the brand. Such advertising is good for recall, but not too good in terms of anything much else.

Brands such as Tata Tea are essentially looking at maintaining their market shares with such advertising, and not necessarily increasing shares.

(Harish Bijoor is a business strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consutls Inc.)

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