The Hindu Business Line : Big B beckons admen to keep finger on common man's pulse

"Sometimes, in the arrogance of our creativity, we don't listen to the voice of the masses. But the people we are speaking to spend their salaries on what we sell to them, so don't just look at the graphs and your market research."

Cine Star Amitabh Bachchan addressing AdAsia 2003 in Jaipur on Tuesday. -- Ramesh Sharma

Jaipur , Nov. 11

ALONGSIDE the decorated elephants and trumpet heralds, the opening day of AdAsia 2003 featured an iconic superstar, a pronunciation that India is ripe for co-creation of value by the consumer and a convincing argument for a democratic workplace.

In keeping with the theme `Break the Rules,' the chief guest at the advertising congress was Mr Amitabh Bachchan, who was described as an iconic brand. In a speech that touched on his reinvention as a brand, mistakes he had made and a decision to drift away from his "core competency", Mr Bachchan asked delegates to always stay in touch with the common man. "I have spent a major part of my professional life getting into the skin of the common man, and lived his dreams and travails — although in Technicolour and Dolby Sound," he said. "Sometimes, in the arrogance of our creativity, we don't listen to the voice of the masses. But the people we are speaking to spend their salaries on what we sell to them, so don't just look at the graphs and your market research."

Mr Jean-Claude Boulos, World President of the International Advertising Association, told delegates that while advertising is often blamed for many ills, including childhood obesity caused by fast-food advertising, it has also demonstrated that it can be done in a responsible manner for sustainable development. "Globalisation is not a dirty word, what we must aim for is compassionate globalisation," he said.

Management guru Mr C.K. Prahalad sounded a note of optimism about developing markets, pronouncing them ripe for "value co-creation", as they have less forgetting to do. While traditional boundaries are no longer valid, there are emerging opportunities in the convergence of technologies and markets, he said. But while there is greater variety in products and experiences, this is also creating greater dissonance and dissatisfaction among consumers, he cautioned.

Another fundamental change that firms cannot ignore is the growing consumer activism because of greater information access, a global view and the prevalence of networked individuals and communities. "The old assumptions that firms created value, and that value is exchanged between the consumer and the firm, that innovation is about technologies or products is no longer valid," Mr Prahalad said. "The new assumptions are that value is created at the point of exchange, that innovation is about experience, and that the consumer is an active player in seeking, creating and extracting value."

India has the right conditions for co-creation of value because of the "single-serve" revolution, particularly in FMCGs, which reduces the cost of switching brands for the consumer; the growing prevalence of direct distribution, and focused chat rooms that are making tele-medicine and direct interaction between firms and consumers possible. The wireless revolution, which will primarily be driven by the poor population in China, Brazil and India, is another factor that will drive this change, he added.

Another critical trend that will change exiting paradigms is the importance of word of mouth: Consumer-to-consumer interaction will become as important as firm-to-consumer interaction, and consumer networks and communities will be important to firms, Mr Prahalad said. "It is a new era of economies of experience and the democratisation of industry, so it will be an `economy of the people, by the people and for the people'," he said. "This could well mean the demise of firm-centric broadcasting, and the coming of Web-casting to communities of consumers."

`Maverick' Ricardo Semler cautioned against the crystalisation of firms that leads to the death of intuition, and made the case for a democratic workplace, which provides greater freedom to everyone to innovate. That thought was echoed somewhat by the HLL Chairman, Mr M.S. Banga, who said engaging the consumer of tomorrow requires a new type of bond, an `I' bond, which is individual, has an inner appeal to the self, is intimate and is inspiring.

"Agencies have not done enough to join the fight against commoditisation and firms have typically resorted to panic reactions like spending more on market research and an obsessive reliance on push," Mr Banga said. "But in brands such as Dove, Lux and Lifebuoy and with efforts such as Shakti, we have shown what is possible."

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