Desh Ka Brand

Pehle Desh ka namak...phir desh ki taakat (Parle G)...ab desh ka frooti !

I could tolerate Tata Namak saying it...Namak still had some historical symbolism associated with it - with Gandhi marching to Dandi, the humble salt was thrown into limelight. Then Parle G's hindustaan ki taakat was a bit of a stretch. At least the execution is not annoying. The Frooti ad really pressed all the wrong buttons!

The brand is a) fairly young to make that claim b) not even a staple, wholesome, rustic kind of product. Its a indulgent category and c) haven't we heard enough of desh ka yeh, desh ka woh

They could have at least saved the day with a better, more emotionally gripping execution...but no...they had to screw that up as well !

Hasn't enough been said and written already about our country brimming with diversity and contradictions? Very few things truly hold a pan Indian identity ! Given that, I wonder why brands try to become pan Indian and whether that really works for people?

What next...Desh ka Pepsi ?

Work-Life balance on the blog

Though it's a little late in the day to mention this...but what the heck !

I used to write about work related stuff on this blog earlier - but the few readers that i had here threatened to run away and in the interest of keeping the work-life balance (It's a different story that work has completely taken over life, blog and all else these days) on the blog - I decided to branch off into another one. Thus was born 'The Qualitative Research Blog'

So if you have come to this blog looking for stuff on market research, please go here

Thanks for dropping by.
Reshma

Lucknow 2 years hence...

Last week...work took me to Lucknow again after a gap of almost 2 years. As the flight descended on tarmac of the Amausi airport, I was reminded of my last visit. Not much has changed in 2 years...at least on the face of it. The small airport with its courteous staff still bears a deserted look for most part of the day.

Outside, the streets...dusty with the arid summer air. The retail revolution has spread its tentacles far and wide – we see visible signs of the arrival of hyper markets, in the conspicuous orange hoardings for Spencer’s that dot the arterial road which connects the twin cities of Lucknow and Kanpur.

This time around, talking to mothers about the aspirations they have for their kids, took me by surprise. They talked about the dreams they have for their daughters…about the daughter being considered an equal…not having to wait for her brother to finish eating before she was served…about the independence and freedom they have to move out and around in society…not just the opportunity to have a career but also the privilege to make the choice about what it should be. And as parents they no longer thought of putting their life savings only to fuel their son’s future as an heir to the family. Investment in a daughter’s education was as important – educating the girls in this generation is ensuring the upliftment of the next generation – this coming from women who belonged to the lower strata of society – was such a heartening thought.

I spent the rest of my day there with a smile - beaming across my face.

Perhaps in the years that have gone by another quiet revolution had started to take root in Lucknow.