Brand Congress vs Brand BJP - The Great Indian Elections

Drawing a parallel between the recent state assembly elections and the world of branding, Abhijit Avasthi, co-founder, Sideways Consulting says, “In one state the incumbent's governance was akin to a disappointing product experience and hence the alternate got picked off the shelf. In a couple of states, the product experience (read: governance) had been good by and large, but the consumer just wanted to try out something new - maybe just out of boredom. And yes, the incumbent had not been able to address a few damaging customer complaints effectively. And in today's era of connectedness, this disgruntlement got amplified.” (Avasthi had worked with Ogilvy’s Piyush Pandey on the BJP’s ‘Abki baar Modi Sarkar’ 2014 campaign.)

Brand BJP had everything going for it in 2014. A majority, a powerful leader and an overall sense of euphoria. Brand Congress on the other hand was possibly going through its worst phase, weighed down by multiple issues, including leadership challenges that led to even ardent supporters turning away from the legacy brand. The recent election results were, in comparison, a full turnaround.

The Poll Wars

Just the way the legendary Cola Wars were fought till a few years back, the political arena has all the trappings of a mega brand war. Huge marketing spends, made-for-memes jibes at the competition and a muscular media-plan. According to Tarun Singh Chauhan, founding partner, TSC Consulting, “While BJP outspent in these elections going by the volume of the communication but the RTB (reason to buy) was missing. In 2014, there was a promise. But, what now? They should have refreshed the whole game keeping in mind the new age consumer.” Chauhan has been involved in refreshing the brand image of political leaders, who he declined to name.

Often when the pressure is to use every medium and use every opportunity to advertise and propagate the brand message, creative tends to suffer. Marketing consultant Harish Bijoor believes, “Cracking the creative message and code for 2019 is Brand BJP’s biggest challenge.” The brand is in danger of becoming a victim of the high standard it set for itself in 2014. “In marketing terms, the ruling party is more challenged on this count than the challenger brand,” feels Bijoor.

Need Idea, Sirji?

All successful brands are built on the back of a strong and cohesive story, an overarching idea that unites all efforts. Says Anisha Motwani, managing partner, Storm the Norm Ventures, “Brand BJP, under the leadership of one of the world’s best marketers, understood this better than anyone else. The party started with a big bang purpose statement to unify the nation, ‘sabka saath, sabka vikas’.” Congress, on the other hand, acted like a typical challenger brand, cutting through this dominant narrative of the prominent party and playing it to its advantage. Adds Motwani, “It challenged the idea of ‘collective and inclusive’ by highlighting the exclusion of two of the biggest and most strategic segments of the Indian demography - the farmers and the youth.” This is one of the factors that affected the eventual outcome. Chauhan points out, “BJP will have to recalibrate the narrative, both at the national level as well regional level.”

And Millennial-friendly Media Plan

The battlegrounds of these brands wars are also untraditional. Ashwin Varkey, director - Fatmen Ideas, says “Today, new media is actually the most interesting side to political campaigns. It's constant, every day and has no rules.” Newly minted voters make it impossible for political parties to ignore emerging mediums of communication. Thus political brands have to carefully develop, manage and monitor social media strategies as new media is playing a critical role in shaping the discourse on issues and managing perceptions, according to Siddharth Shekhar Singh, associate professor – marketing, Indian School of Business (ISB). If a party and its personalities don’t brand themselves consciously then others will brand them the way they choose to.

There’s a caveat here though. New media is about personalities, which is distinct from how traditional political movements function, especially cadre-based movements that operate around ideologies. Says Dr Joyojeet Pal, associate professor at the School of Information, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, “Narendra Modi has grown as a brand slowly and with a sustained effort from a range of players. A powerful shift, it can also lead to a brand-catastrophe with the wrong set of ideas catching steam.” Pal cites the example of the "Pappu" campaign against the Congress’ Rahul Gandhi. It was made to stand atop carefully edited messages taken out of context that showed him in a certain light. The bottom line is that posts, tweets and mass-forwards on everyone’s favourite messaging app can fire-up and backfire.

Madhukar Sabnavis, vice chairman and director - client relations, Ogilvy & Mather, admits to having a slightly deviant view on political brand battles. In his view, most parties don’t have any clear positioning in consumers’ minds that make them prefer one over the other. It’s just the flavour of the day and the winner is the one who has got the arithmetic right on a particular day. Says Sabnavis, “After all, the US President Donald Trump in 2016 got fewer votes than Hillary Clinton. So, to say that Trump had the majority support is not true. Trump just got the electoral arithmetic right.”