Why dil maange more
By Aradhika Sekhon

A SITUATION has come about whereby the answer to the question whether lifestyles determine advertising or vice-versa has become increasingly obscure. Are the prototypes one sees in the urban middle class society a product of socio-cultural influences, or are they merely clones of stereotypes promoted by the media? If the latter, then how has this come about? What is the technique used? What are the propelling motives to sell and what impels the consumer to buy not only the product, but the entire marketing package? Also, what could be the possible sociological, cultural and psychological effects of such a product-linked-lifestyle-hard-sell?

Looking at it from the producers viewpoint, in a market economy the central problem is the possible overproduction of a good or goods. This is because production is for a changing, often fluctuating, group of relatively unknown and uncontrollable consumers. The producer doesn’t know which people, if any, will want to or be able to buy what he has produced. His problem is not simply the mobilisation of resources but the calculation of the possible consequences of his own decision.

In a market economy, the usefulness of the product has to be calculated carefully in advance. But one has to wait and see whether the production of certain things is wanted and, thereby, rewarding to the producer. Since these consequences are uncertain and since it is but the result that counts for the producer, he has to apply to those agencies whose job it is to monitor and create trends and create the desire to possess those products that the manufacturer wants to sell.

This is matched with a socio-economic milieu of an increasingly utilitarian middle class society whose number is growing by the day. This middle class culture, which initially held that workers rewards ought to be proportional to their contribution and usefulness, eventually and logically yielded to one in which the prime consideration is sheer marketability, the pecuniary worth of goods and services quite apart from their imputed utility. In short, the focus comes to be placed on whether they will sell and for how much and the concern centres on improving the effectiveness of marketing rather than what is being marketed.

The basic effort, therefore, is to create a USP which will in turn create a want, a need and, thereupon, a desire to possess the product. The ad-blitz or image marketing seeks to create situations whereby social acceptability becomes dependent on the use of particular products and thus causes an enhancement in or reiteration of status!

Selling propaganda

Here comes into existence what may be termed as "selling propaganda". It means any and/or all sets of symbols which influence opinion, belief or action on consumption related to the community. The symbols may be written, printed, spoken, pictorial or musical. These symbols may also induce a cultural cohesion and determine common norms and values. These symbols thus set into motion a flow of experiences which endures over an extended period of time. A typical example is the emergence of the new age man or the new age woman or the hip, cool parent which has been doing the rounds of upper middle class urban India for the past few years. These successful "complete men" wear top-of-the-line suits, drive swanky cars, attend power meetings, go holidaying to exotic locales and still have time to spend with their children, preferably an only child. They are caring about their wives and devoted to their parents. The new age woman is either a beautifully turned out, traffic-stopping doll, or an articulate, powerful business woman, who on her "Wednesdays off" takes dancing classes for the neighbourhood kids.

This kind of personification of a lifestyle depends on a correct psychological appraisal of the state of mind of the audience. The selling propaganda will not produce the expected response unless it corresponds with the psychological wants of the audience. It is necessary, therefore, for the movers and shakers of the ad-world to have a continuing flow of information concerning prevalent attitudes, an index of lifestyles and sentiments in the population. For e.g., the 50th year of Independence let loose a barrage of advertisements cashing on the patriotic sentiment. So, the advertisement-makers exploited the surge of nationalistic feeling for all it was worth and such sundry commodities as tyres, butter, ice-cream, TVs , automobiles and even toffees were sold as if they were a declaration of patriotism. Very recently, the gold and silver coins manufactured to commemorate the tercentenary of the Khalsa were being marketed with the logo "Re-affirm your faith".

Mobilising anxiety

The advertising strategy many a time leans heavily on finding a common motivation, a common desire or some widespread fear or anxiety. It thus markets not only the product but also sells hope. The technique used is to identify the desire or anxiety and thus build a bridge of verbal or pictorial symbols over which the customer can pass from fact to compensatory dreams and buy the illusion that the product hawks. The typical example is the marketing of the so-called "fairness creams" which play on the Indian obsession with fair skin. So there is a picture of the dusky girl, unnoticed, self-deprecatory until she uses the fairness cream, and almost overnight becomes attractive to men.

In toothpaste, for example, we buy not only a tooth-cleanser but a release from the fear of being sexually repulsive. In whisky, we are not buying alcohol but good fellowship, joie de vivre and brilliant conversation and so on. In every case, the motivation analyst finds some deep-seated fear or wish, whose energy can be used to move the consumer to part with his money and turn the wheels of production. A series of symbols is carefully laid out so as to obscure the real issue and bypass rationality!

Target group

Identifying target groups and launching an aggressive lifestyle image at them is especially effective if a group of products promotes a similar image because then the picture projected becomes all the more believable and, therefore, desirable. If teenagers, for example, use a particular nailpolish, drink a particular cold drink, wear a particular brand of clothes, sport a particular shoe and eat a particular chocolate, they are said to be hep, cool and great company. Similarly,the young executive uses a group of products which gives him that irresistible edge over the rest. The housewife, by buying a group of products, becomes a good mother, a good daughter-in-law and a great wife, securing her family’s good health and husband’s promotions.

More selling gimmicks

Apart from the personification of lifestyle, an irresistible selling gimmick is gifts and give-aways. None one can resist a a smart buy, a something-for-nothing, a get-more than-you-paid-for buying proposition or Alladin’s old-for-new gimmick. Also, attracrive is the offer of unbelievable prizes on the purchase of a product — a world tour, money, gold lockets hidden in a cake of soap or a dinner date with super-stars. Linking products with an issue also finds takers like buying a brand of sanitary towels will help blind children attain a better future and public interest messages sponsored by some company. Products being endorsed by film stars, cricket stars and pop stars is a fairly common gimmick.

Effect of hard sell

All this effort at hard-sell has a whirlpool effect. In rough psychological terms, these images represent a symbolic reinforcement of what is the ideal ‘state to be’ and provide pressures for conformity with the cultural dictates that this kind of marketing has engendered. So, contemporary urban Indian culture has come to be characterised by a heavy emphasis on wealth as a basic symbol of success and acceptance but without a corresponding emphasis upon how to march towards this goal. Such success images cause strain, tension, contradiction and discrepancy between the component elements of social and cultural structure. It may be lead to perversion in the social system in its existing form.

In any case, they exert pressure for change. When social mechanism for controlling them is operated effectively, it limits the change of the social structure, but where there is a blizzard of socially alien concepts (after the advent of multinational companies) on a traditional society like ours, the effect is bound to be somewhat chaotic -- socially, culturally and psychologically. Since Indians in different social strata have assimilated the same marketing- induced goals and values, strains do arise from these seeming contradictions between cultural goals and socially restricted access to these goals. Thus, the psychological impact between the discrepancies in the culturally induced aspirations and socially feasible attainments must be considered.

On the other hand, image marketing also gives an impetus to upward mobility as it emphasises on the motivation to mobility. It ignites the ambitious streak in a person which is anti-traditional, pro-achievement and pro-individual !