The Election Called Cricket!

There is a reason why it is called ‘Test’ cricket. Because it tests you. Not once but twice. Because to succeed here you need to be good. Good twice over. And good over five days, at least mostly. It tests you because you cannot get away easily with chinks in your armour, either technical or mental. Test cricket finds you out. It also negates an inspired spell or a lucky drop. It exposes your skills to the rough and tumble that the opposition flings at you. There is as they say no hiding place in a test match.

The flipside is also true. Tests also give you an opportunity to come back post a tepid spell or a series of unlucky play and miss. It provides you with a chance to comeback post a listless session and create, seize and optimize an opportunity. To overcome temporary setbacks and bounce back strongly. There is as they say no hiding place in a test match.

You can’t get away with rules of limited bouncers as in a LoI. You can’t get away with field restrictions as in a LoI. You can’t breathe easy coz the nemesis of a bowler has finished his quota in a LoI. You can’t win without taking wickets; economy can’t be par for the course like in a LoI. Test call for technique and temperament and the same is needed to be showcased consistently over a long long period with no handicap awarded to you by the rules as in a LoI. There is as they say no hiding place in a test match.

What applies to test matches applies to elections in India. If one were to draw a parallel, as in Cricket so in Election, there exists three predominant formats. T20, ODI and Tests. Local bodies, Assembly and Parliament. Even you and indeed I, if we are reasonably popular in our locality can win an election in the friendly neighbourhood ward. More than Parties and ideologies, the accessibility of the local representative often decides which way we vote in local body elections. Of course this is one reason many parties co-opt people who are popular at the mohalla level. Once the geography spreads to an assembly segment the game changes. Your mohalla level popularity is simply too miniscule to influence a larger spread of landmass and masses. Enter organized Political parties and career politicians. Imagine the scale! An assembly segment might consist of a territory spread over anything between 50-100 wards or maybe more. (Panchayats in rural constituencies). The time, effort and economies of scale are loaded against an individual. The niche marketer stops to matter and the mass marketer takes over. The one with a better distribution spread and a suitable marketing budget edges you out. If you though this is the end, nyet! There is this much larger scale of a Parliamentary Constituency. If an assembly were to comprise of 50+ wards, a parliamentary constituency comprises of 6-7 assembly segments! As the scale increases, the skills required to win also are doubly tested. Not only is it a question of one’s own popularity and the ability to manage the constituency, the uncontrollable factors like the ideology of the party you represent, the popularity of the leadership, its performance and the strength, weakness of the opposition etc., have a bearing beyond the individual. Reason why very few Independents make it to assemblies. Reason why very few regional parties make it to the parliament in numbers enough to form the Union Govt on their own. There is as they say no hiding place in a Test match.

 

Adrenalin!

This finally brings us to the essential point behind the above sermon. The recent enthusiasm in the BJP about winning a few constituencies in the Kerala Assembly Elections. For those who came in late, Kerala is possibly the last among large Indian states which has never elected a BJP candidate to the Assembly or for that matter to the Parliament. In states where BJP has been traditionally weak like Tamilnadu or West Bengal, BJP found some traction piggybacking on alliance partners with mainline regional parties, a luxury denied to them in Kerala. The reason for the enthusiasm among the BJP cadres this time around is due to the fact that they have, in company of some ragtag caste based parties performed creditably in the local body elections. Not a Pan Kerala phenomenon but certain pockets where they have surprised many a voter, political opponents, pollsters and indeed themselves with their performance! This has injected booster shots of   adrenaline in the nervous system of the BJP party machinery in the state. However adrenaline can only get you that far and no further. This is not a T20 match! Lotus will not bloom in Kerala this time around too. It will never bloom in Kerala, not until you build a team with players with technique and temperament which can showcase the same consistently, over five days, at least mostly!  There is as they say no hiding place in a Test match.

But Kerala won't dance saala!

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PS: How many more electoral losses does O.Rajagopal require to enter the Guinness Book of Records?

Guinness Calling?

Glossary:

Mohalla : Locality/Neighbourhood

Delhi Deconstructed

BJP

From time immemorial the detergent powder market in India meant Surf, Surf and virtually nobody else. This giant of a brand from Unilever then called Hindusthan Lever was a virtual monopoly in the branded detergent  powder segment to the extent it became generic. Old timers among us would remember that even me-toos and wanna-bes could not break away from the Surf mould let alone compete. Even the colour of the detergent was generic, a pale blue 'Surf" colour. A cushy HLL laughing all the way to the bank in a bubble of its own. All this till the late '80s. And then the inevitable happened. A small town entrepreneur named Karsan Bhai Patel launched his homegrown concoction of a detergent powder with an atrocious packaging named after his daughter. And yellow in colour! Nirma! Backed by a promise of 'doodh si safedi' and a catchy jingle and priced at 1/4th of the Surf, Nirma gobbled Surf's marketshare and went on to become a leader in many a market and big enough to threaten Surf's leadership position. Old timers among us would remember the irony when consumers asked for ' Nirmawala Surf dena!' Replace Surf with BJP and Nirma with AAP and you would possibly understand the voters verdict in the just concluded elections for the Delhi Assembly. Overconfidence almost bordering on arrogance against a fleet footed start up which refused to play by the existing market rules torpedoed the well entrenched leader. BJP's last minutes tactics of bringing in new faces, lewd and negative campaign almost mirrored HLL's tactics of reducing prices, launching a mega negative campaign (Whiteness or burnt hands) etc and which like BJP's campaign failed to find traction with the consumers. Well done Nirma, well done AAP!

Arrogant Market leaders, Beware!

Will Wheel apply the brakes?

It is rumored that there exists a secret book in the Unilever Headquarters in Rotterdam, Netherlands which is an encyclopedia of every marketing skirmish it has faced in every market in the world. The company dug deep into the same and is supposed to have pulled out a strategy to compete versus Nirma. A strategy already applied in markets similar to India facing a similar David vs Goliath war. HLL launched a new brand Wheel in the Nirma segment and priced it just a tad higher than the upstart to kill Nirma's biggest USP, price. Promoted as a 'better detergent at affordable price' to take Nirma head on, Wheel gradually turned the tables on the newbie. While Wheel indulged in the market warfare on the price platform and flanked Surf, the latter was given a complete makeover with new packaging and a 'superior' positioning to regain its primacy by creating the premium segment which was targeted at the upwardly mobile middle class which the then recently liberalized Indian economy threw up. And there in lies the lessons for BJP to bounce back post the pasting it has received in Delhi. Go back to its core promise, the secret book, which made the Indian electorates give it massive majority in the last general election. (Link here Dear Sri Narendra Modi!)

Will Surf 'Excel' again?

AAP

One of the greatest marketing fiascos ever indulged in by any company happened in '85 when Coca Cola, hold your breath, changed the recipe of its flagship aerated drink. So uproarious was the reaction and rejection from the consumers that it is said that this led to Pepsi taking leadership position in the North American market for the very first time in the history of the Cola Wars. To cut the story short, Coke quickly went back to its original recipe and post one of the costliest marketing campaigns ever went back to where it always was, leadership. Nothing works with consumers better than a responsive brand. A sincere apology to the electorates for the mistake of the '49 day government' fiasco has indeed worked wonders for brand AAP. Now AAP has the tougher task at hand. Apologising for the mistake was akin to bringing back the original Coke recipe. Delivering the 'always Coca Cola' promise is the task now. It doesn't take the consumer time to switch brands preferences again.

Recipe is back. Will it 'refresh' again?

Congress

I had written on the challenges the Congress faces earlier. To cut the story short Suffices if I just replug the same again here!


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PS: Over to Bihar now. Will BJP stick to its 'Secret Book' or can the arithmetic of JDU+RJD+INC do a  Nirma? Watch this space!

Glossary :
doodh si safedi : Whiteness like milk
Nirmawala Surf dena : Give me Surf named Nirma