Lazy Marketing's Favourite Ground

For long I'd found it irritating, both as a consumer and as a marketing professional, that some brands carry Hindi headlines in their ads in Tamil Nadu markets. Even in the new age media which allows sharper targeting we see the same malaise continuing. This morning when I was browsing my favourite Tamil magazine online out popped two banners that made no sense to me.

I can't but call this Lazy Marketing.

Managers sit in the cramped up cabins of Mumbai and plan for the "Indian" market. Their MBAs and rushed market visits have not taught them the ground realities in regional markets. Or, those lessons have been rendered unimportant in the quarterly chase for numbers.

India is truly a sub-continental market. There are a hundred things that unite us as a nation and as a market, but there are an equal number of things that differentiate the states. In many ways the states are unique markets on their own. In terms of cultural idioms, social structures, market dynamics - which may be too higher order for an average manager - and languages. Bengal is far different from the neighbouring Bihar, leave alone a Maharashtra or Andhra. So is Tamil Nadu. We don't even understand what our neighbours say, unless we find a common language - which in some states is English.

The good news is that some marketers recognize this challenge and approach the markets with localization at some level. But every now and then a manager comes, an agency comes that creates a campaign in Hindi - or, the now fashionable Hinglish - and lets it rip across the nation. With no regional adaptations. Not even a simple English translation that would've made it a bit more inclusive. So we have Hindi ads in Tamil newspapers, Coimbatore billboards and Chennai radio channels.

If that isn't lazy then what is?

Millions of media moneys back these campaigns, but it's pretty much money down the drain. Not only do such campaigns draw a blank among the majority in these markets (among the 10 Tamil colleagues who saw the above UTI and Hero ads only 2 could comprehend the lines), they also end up irritating a part of the audience. It's insensitive and almost rude, like breaking into a strange language when in company of foreign guests. So, it creates bad blood for the brand.

Oh, sure there ARE people in Tamil Nadu who may understand Hindi. Like there are people in England who understand Mandarin. Such brazenly lazy mainstream-ization will alienate the audience and push them towards other options. Many Tamils may see such alienation in other spheres like politics, media, arts and sports too, but that's a whole different issue.

So, here's a plea to my fellow marketers in Mumbai and Delhi and Bangalore and Kolkatta: just take a little effort to adapt campaigns or at least run them in English. You'll cut the unmeasured waste in your marketing investments.