10 Marketing Lessons You Should Learn From Narendra Modi(NaMo)

India has more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 and more than 65% below the age of 35. It is expected that, in 2020, the average age of an Indian will be 29 years, which signifies that a majority of Indian population is youth. This is what BJP identified and instead of overlooking this bigger part of the population they tried connecting to them wherever they were. So, NaMo, was not only successful in putting across his message to the older generation but also the younger generation.

Although, social media is not just popular among the youth but it is a fact that majority of social media users are youth. This is what NaMo, identified with and planned to leverage all those social media platform where he could easily connect with the majority of Indians as he was anyway able to connect with the rest of population through rallies and other social gatherings arranged by his party BJP.

It is high time and that you cannot overlook the role of digital in any marketing communication. The sooner your brand gets on to a digital media, the better it is. NaMo is leveraging various digital media platforms since long. In fact, his online mention is said to have increased by 126 per cent since January 2013. With around 2,263,674 followers on micro-blogging site Twitter and over 3,598,400 likes on his Facebook page, Modi is the first Indian politician to have such a great presence on social media. Last year, he also launched apps for iPad and iPhone that lead to his blogs, speeches, books and images. His website is said to be one of the most organized political web properties. It gives us a lesson that we must choose our media wisely. Social media, one of the most effective platforms for communication with the masses, is relatively the cheapest communication vehicle and that leveraging it will not only help you reach your audience but you will have the true value for your money.

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If we really want to grow our business we cannot overlook the technology and have to match the pace with it as it can really help us reach our audiences effectively. And, if you don’t doesn’t mean your competitors don’t as well. NaMo identified with this need of the hour and embraced technology to augment his reach. So, if a 63 year old politician can do this, you and I certainly must.

We have talked about and it will remain important that interaction with your consumer really works. Gone are those days when you customer would entertain your interruptive marketing messages. They now care more about the relationship and trust that you have build with them that can be easily accomplished by interacting with them. Make them to talk, listen to them and let them feel that their views actually matters when it comes to anything and everything. This is what NaMo did by launching various campaigns on social media sites meant to make people talk such as the ‘Chai pe Charcha’ campaign that made people to give their views on how to rebuild India. This effort covered even that part of the society that was unable to be a part of political rallies and even TV interviews.

You must have heard ‘slow and steady’ wins the race. I know it’s not easy and that you would always want to build your brand as fast as possible, which is not bad although. But if you focus on giving value to your audiences by educating them , helping them on issues they are going through, it will help you build trust and a better relationship with your consumers and eventually will help you build your brand that would never last if you continue to do so. Don’t just try to deliberately push your message to your audiences thinking it would build your brand very soon. It may take time but subtle branding would last long.

There are various channels for communication such as TV, radio, social media, email marketing and so on which are all beneficial in their own ways but you cannot achieve your marketing goals just by leveraging any one channel or leveraging them individually. You need to integrate various communication channels to get the most out of your efforts. Just like the way, NaMo’s ‘Chai pe Charcha’ campaign integrated various channel to get maximum impact. It took the advantage of on ground kiosks to gather people in the offline world, connected them to party leaders and people from other towns with the help of digital media, which was further promoted through TV, radio and print media to further increase the reach and visibility.

Various businesses do this, they associate their brand with things people already care about. For instance, Dairy Milk tried to associate with the phrase’ kuchh mitha ho jaaye’ Coca cola with the word ‘thanda’ and so on. This is how companies have tried associating them with something people are already familiar with. NaMo’s ‘chai pe charcha’ campaign illustrates the same as to how to relate brand with things that people can relate to.

Talk about something that people will love to talk about just like the way NaMo do in his campaigns. It could be anything a discussion on how your product or services can be made better or how your product and service can make your consumer’s life better and so on. Take their views, respond to them and let them know how you are going to enact upon their views.

Instead waiting for the masses to come and know more about the party and workers, NaMo, proactively tried reaching them. Although Q&A is not a politician’s cup of tea but still NaMo went ahead and started conversation with the audience asking their views on various matters in order to engage them and augment the party’s reach. Not everybody reads newspaper or watch speeches on YouTube, so it is actually a good idea to initiate an interesting conversation on platform they are if you really want to reach you audiences.