Identity, Role, Altercasting: Voting and Selling

What if you want people to behave in a particular way? A teacher would want students to study, a shirt seller would want people to buy shirts and a political party would want people to vote for it. 

So, what should you do?

Use the subtle technique of persuasion called altercasting. Activate an identity or cast people into an identity which has a clearly defined role. People of that identity are expected to behave in a certain manner. Teachers are expected to teach and parents are expected to take care of their families.

Have you encountered a situation when your teacher told you, ‘You are a good student , you must do assignments on time’ or a colleague telling you, ‘Now that you have become a Vice President, get a car that fits your status’.

In these examples, an identity has been activated like that of a ‘good student’ and ‘person of position’. The actor (teacher and colleague) also called ‘Ego’ casts the ‘other’ into an identity (student and person with position) to elicit an intended response or task (do assignment and buy a car). These identities come with defined social roles or expectations. The result of this altercasting is that this process creates expectations to not violate the role or conform for two reasons:

First  is the need for validation. The role is validated  when behaviour conforms with the expectations.

Second, the violation activates the process of cognitive dissonance. Altercastng serves as a reminder of a role and expectations. The inconsistency between behavior and beliefs results in friction.

• 

People enter in the political market with multiple identities including gender, age, state, religion, caste. Which identity should a party bring to the fore or make salient that is consistent with the task (eliciting favorable response) or intended response.

BJP’s long-standing campaign seeks to make nationalist identity salient. This nationalist identity clearly casts people into a role that sets expectations to favour a party that is seen as legitimate custodian of the nation (by default the other parties are positioned as non-nationalistic) through a carefully crafted narrative. Once this identity is brought to the fore, the other identities are rendered less meaningful during the elections.

Conforming imperative imposed by this process aims to seek a common denominator across differences.

But the nationalistic narrative has power only when an enemy is perceived, real or imaginary. Will this evocation of nationalist identity work this time?

Value Branding, Perpetual Discounting, Customerer Intelligence, Koutons and Peter England

A couple of years back some brands descended on the Indian apparel marketing space with a very interesting value model. These included LaFanso, Cantabil, TNG, Lee Solly, TQS, and Koutons. The brands announced ‘drop a bomb discounts’ previously unseen and unheard to lure value conscious middle class buyers. Take a look at the following:

50%+50% off

505=40% off

80%+20% off

90% off

 

But now most of these brands are reeling under crises. The results of Cantabil Retail India has not been good. It reported a standalone sales turnover of Rs 37.83 crore and a net loss of Rs 4.24 crore for the quarter ended Dec ’12. The case is no different for the other discount brand Koutons. The company is debt ridden and has been incurring losses. It has been closing down its showrooms discontinued it’s another brand ‘Charlie’.  Once a common sight on the market space, these brands seem to be slowly vanishing form the scene. A variety of factors have contributed to their fate including excise duty, raw material costs and inflation. But it is interesting to explore these brands from marketing perspective. Is deep discount model which rests on a perpetual promotional offer by which a high maximum retail price (often greater than top brands like Van Heusen and Park Avenue) is discounted by a big percentage to give an impression of irresistible bargain tenable in the long run?

 

Peter England arrived on the market and went on to write an impressive success story.  Unlike Van Heusen and Louis Philippe which were premium offerings, this was a value for money offering by Madura Garments. It went on to carve out a niche in ready to wear menswear market by intelligently packaging its value for money proposition as ‘honest brand’. By calling itself as an ‘honest shirt’ it indirectly struck a chord with value sensitive Indian buyer without bringing price into an explicit consideration. The affordability was brilliantly packaged as honesty. The idea was to deflect consumer consciousness from a discourse involving price, cheap, economy and bargain. It was ‘economy’ decently packaged.  The brand developed ‘down to earth’ ‘unpretentious’ personality which connoted ‘value proportionate to price’. Later the communication took the brand to a notch higher by a symbolic campaign ‘More is less’ in order to appeal the younger audience (psychographic matching).

 

Sales promotion schemes by definition are short run activities and generally involve tactical maneuvering of customer behavior. These are aimed to influence demand (spikes) by offering short term consumer incentives. But the crucial issue is can sales a promotion activity (explicit discounting in which high prices are reduced) be made part of brand identity? What effect does a sales promotion based discount strategy has on customers?

 

The attribution theory explains how people interpret events. People try to figure out why things happen in a particular way or why people behave in a certain manner. People try to make sense by determining cause behind a phenomenon. A short term deep discount can be interpreted as sudden stock liquidation or a celebration offer or competitive maneuver. But a long term use is likely to make people suspicious about genuineness of the offer.

 

How long a discount offer is likely to be perceived as golden opportunity? The adaptation theory explains that people have a tendency to get used to or adapt to a situation. As a result a situation/ stimulus ceases to be stimulating which causes people to seek novelty elsewhere. An offer like 50%=50% is likely to be perceived as an exciting offer for some time in the beginning and act like a magnet but its long term usage is likely to rob uniqueness out of it.

 

Discount brands tread on a difficult territory. Perpetual discounting can position a brand as cheap and create undesirable connotation. It is psychologically gratifying to be able to grab a bargain but socially it is undesirable to be associated with a bargain brand. People love to buy an aspirational brand (brand imagery) at a discount (made affordable) but shy away from a brand cheap brand (personality). There is fine distinction between a cheap brand and inexpensive brand. The concept of social signification applies equally to economy customers. It is here brand needs to deflect bargain oriented discourse from their image.

 

Peter England built its market by smart use of symbols in communication. By developing an ‘honest, down to earth and unpretentious’ personality it developed image of an affordable brand. A price oriented strategy promotes price sensitive culture and preempts a brand from seen from any other angle. Deep discounting model that relies upon ‘drop a bomb’ discounts to attract customer on equally ‘blow your tops’ maximum retail price is likely sow seeds of its own destruction by making customer clinically analytical about what actually is in the bargain.

Pepsi, “Oh Yes Abhi”, Slogans , Resonance and Layers of Meaning

Two important routes to brand creation are visual and verbal. The visual (illustration, pictures, logo) and verbal (message, headline, slogan) elements are combined to create brand image. These elements engage prospects through two of the five senses, the sight and sound. Brand slogans assume heightened importance in present day time-short and over-assaulted consumer. Perceptual filtering and defense mechanisms are pressed into action to escape from incessant barrage of messages that hit consumer’s mind. Slogans for being short and mnemonic are effective tools because of being less stressful on cognitive system. Slogans can convey brand’s essence (what brand stands for) in an instance and simultaneously contribute to brand strength by building recall and visualization.  For instance a sign off/ slogan like ‘High performance delivered’ (Accenture), ‘Melts in your mouth not in your hands (M&Ms) and ‘”When it Absolutely, Positively has to be there overnight’ (FedEx), ‘We try harder’ (Avis), ‘Think different’ (Apple), ‘Solutions for a small planet’ (IBM) convey brand promise succinctly and position it in relation to competition by highlighting relative strength.  

In the quest to bond with its market, Pepsi has launched its new campaign ‘Right here right now’/ ‘Oh Yes Abhi’.  It is interesting to see how brands change gears in their negotiation of psychological space in their search for relevance and resonance. Brand is much more than product, in this case the drink.  And the drink  is likely to deliver the same kind of experience. But then why the campaign has been launched that seeks to alter brand’s meaning semiotic ally? This brings us to the question whether people buy brands only for the utility sake or their delivery extends beyond functional boundaries.  A campaign that aims to alter brand symbolism without any  change of its product is certainly an effort given to align brand’s meaning with evolving consumer psycho-social reality.

Pepsi’s communication campaigns provide an interesting case study on changing youth psychology and life style. The brand is quick to size up the psychological space and read its undercurrents. It seizes opportunity in hidden concerns, dilemmas, and aspirations of its young target group. Prima facie Pepsi’s slogans appear simple statements with a very definite literal meaning. The denotative meaning actually is superficial to all these communications. The brand actually engages with its consumers at connotative level.  Accordingly communication says one thing at express level manner but quite another at the unspoken form. One of characteristics of good brand is that it forges bonds which transcend the logic, reason and rationality. Consider the following slogans which Pepsi has employed over the time:

‘Nothing official about it’ (1996)

‘Yeh dil maange more!’ (2006)

“Pepsi ye pyaas heh badi” (2000)

“My Pepsi My Way”(2009)

“Change the game” (2011)

 “Oh Yes Abhi” (2013)

 

In an interview with ET (28/1/13) Justice Verma  said, ‘If the government takes time, they should make way for persons who are quicker. If, at 80, I am so impatient, govt should understand the impatience of youth’.  Philosophically life is a different phenomenon from what it used to be. The meaning of time, relationships, institutions, consumption and artifacts has changed. There has been a fundamental shift in life values, aspirations and goals: life is short, time runs fast, conflicting priorities, a lot to be achieved, now is when you exist, pleasure is fine, me is first, old is no wisdom.  The certainty (emanating from linearity of progression in everything) coupled with philosophy of abnegation (sense control) made contentment an easily realizable goal. When tomorrow is uncertain, the focus shifts to now, young seek instant gratification ‘ Cause time can’t wait then I sure can’t wait, I ain’t got no patience no I just can’t wait… ‘No time for procrastination’ (Now generation song). The dictionary meaning of ‘impatient’ is lack of patience; intolerance of or irritability with anything that impedes or delays/ restless desire for change and excitement. Impatience is fuelled by a desire to ‘do more’ (‘yeh dil mange more’/ ‘ye pyaas heh badi’) which proportionately reduces the time available. This is the reason why the new currency of trade has become time (do you measure distance by time or kilometer?)

The idea appropriated by new Pepsi campaign taps into inner psychological reality of impatient generation (psychology of instant gratification- no urge deferment).  The slogan ‘Oh Yes Abhi, does not urge you to drink Pepsi ‘right now’ as it may seem to suggest but seeks to give the brand a new consumer resonating identity.

 Prof Mitra, my esteemed colleague at FMS says that Pepsi’s slogans have a third layer of meaning which operate within the realm of sexuality. Read these slogans. They do seem to be laden with  sexual connotations.