PROGRAMME PROMOTION
The epic marketing challenge for UID………KAREN LEIGH
The epic marketing challenge for UID………KAREN LEIGH
Kiran Khalap, the founder and managing director of Mumbai-based brand consulting firm Chlorophyll, rock climbs, speaks Sanskrit and is a prize-winning writer of short stories.
He’s also one of a small team with a big task–convincing more than one billion Indians from all walks of life to register for the unique identity pro- gramme, or Aadhaar.
He’s also one of a small team with a big task–convincing more than one billion Indians from all walks of life to register for the unique identity pro- gramme, or Aadhaar.
On 15 July, the Unique Identi- fication Authority of India (UID- AI) will launch its first large- scale national test, set to run through February, when the programme itself officially be- gins.
The organization’s branding and awareness team is headed by UIDAI official Shankar Maru- wada and advised by a team of five of India’s top communica- tions and marketing profession- als, who are not on the organi- zation’s payroll but meet fre- quently, discussing plans via email and teleconference and reporting to UIDAI chief Nan- dan Nilekani and director gen- eral R.S. Sharma.
UIDAI, based in New Delhi and chaired by Infosys Tech- nologies Ltd co-founder Nileka- ni, aims to assign 12-digit uni- versal identity numbers to more than 600 million citizens over the next four years.
The marketing team is one of the more high-profile examples of UIDAI’s ability to tap both the public and private sectors as it attempts to launch one of the largest government schemes in decades.
Joining Khalap in advisory roles are D.K. Bose, a trustee at the Centre for Advocacy and Re- search, who is regarded as one of India’s most experienced so- cial marketers; Praveen Tripa- thy, the president of Pidilite In- dustries Ltd, widely recognized as one of the smartest marketing companies in the country (it makes the Fevicol brand of ad- hesive); Santosh Desai, the chair of Futurebrands; and Sumeet Vohra, marketing head of Proc- ter and Gamble India.
Combined, they have more than 150 years of marketing ex- perience.
All were headhunted by Maruwada, who looked to bring the country’s most experienced minds in communications, mar- keting and advertising to tackle what is arguably the UIDAI’s most important chal- lenge–marketing the idea of a universal government identity to citizens from every caste, re- gion and religion.
UID is not a one-size-fits-all product, said Maruwada, who himself is no slouch when it comes to marketing. He was the founder of Marketics, a market analytics firm before he joined UIDAI in July 2009.
Marketing quite often is seen as an effort towards profiteering, an effort towards extorting peo- ple’s motivation, Bose added.
This, meanwhile, is concept marketing, value marketing, in- tangible marketing. When you promote education, you don’t say `I’m marketing education’.
You’re marketing certain values and concepts.
This, meanwhile, is concept marketing, value marketing, in- tangible marketing. When you promote education, you don’t say `I’m marketing education’.
You’re marketing certain values and concepts.
The team has its task cut out.
The rich hesitate to register, be- cause armed with passports and driver’s licences, they don’t re- quire the UID to register for sim- ple things such as bank ac- counts and cellphone connec- tions.
The rich hesitate to register, be- cause armed with passports and driver’s licences, they don’t re- quire the UID to register for sim- ple things such as bank ac- counts and cellphone connec- tions.
Our efforts must give them a sense of ownership, said Bose, who has 48 years of experience in communications strategy.
That comes not because I’m, as the advertiser, saying it’s impor- tant, but because they start be- lieving that it’s important to have UID in their lives. So the marketing and communication gears itself towards each indi- vidual mind saying `it is mine’.
That comes not because I’m, as the advertiser, saying it’s impor- tant, but because they start be- lieving that it’s important to have UID in their lives. So the marketing and communication gears itself towards each indi- vidual mind saying `it is mine’.
This concept of identity is a very, very abstract concept, and to give meaning to this concept, to understand the manifesta- tions of identity in the life of an unskilled worker in a rural area or in a city, is a great consumer research challenge, Tripathi said.
What does the UID really mean to him and what are the emotional obstacles to getting him to register? If we can figure this out, we’ll have a much bet- ter chance, he added.
Meanwhile, citizens whose identities rest in community, re- ligion and family are afraid that being identified solely by a digi- tal number will strip them of their traditional sense of self.
Their challenge is to under- stand what the sense of identity in Indian rural areas is, and to develop their marketing se- quences that way, said Y.K.
Alagh, an economist and chair- man of the Institute of Rural Management Anand, speaking of the challenge facing Aad- haar’s marketing team. Instead of expecting India’s social struc- ture to change…Indian society will not be changed because someone came up with a nu- merical scheme. So it’s not that you won’t be able to sell to them–the question is, do you have an understanding of (indi- vidual community traditions) or not.
Alagh, an economist and chair- man of the Institute of Rural Management Anand, speaking of the challenge facing Aad- haar’s marketing team. Instead of expecting India’s social struc- ture to change…Indian society will not be changed because someone came up with a nu- merical scheme. So it’s not that you won’t be able to sell to them–the question is, do you have an understanding of (indi- vidual community traditions) or not.
Straight advertising is ruled by the concept of brand switch–convincing consumers to change the brand they’re cur- rently using–whereas UID’s marketing pitch must focus on behavioural change.
We’re dealing with much stronger attitude issues when it comes to convincing them to give their biometrics or personal info, Bose said. Molding their minds towards that calls for a different kind of communica- tion.
As part of its attack plan, the team is launching a UID learn- ing programme, a test run of its branding strategy the launch of which will coincide with that of the national trial. Headed by Tripathi, this will start in 10 vil- lages in Madhya Pradesh.
We’ll learn how people re- spond to the (UID) proposition, what is it they find attractive or meaningless about it, and use that to revamp the plan, he said.
Tripathi has known Maruwa- t da since their days together at advertising agency Leo Burnett.
The tasks he will face moni- i toring daily response from UID testers in the field will be differ- ent from the obstacles encoun- tered in the advertising busi- ness.
During small-scale May en- rolment drills in rural Karnata- ka, ground zero for UID test runs, for instance, citizens wait- ing in line for registration re- mained unaware to what a unique ID would mean for them.
But the team seems to have done its thinking on this. f In June, it released an aware- ness paper that sketched out the components of its communica- tion strategy, including plans to identify stakeholders and a i brand equity pyramid dia- gramming how the emotional benefits of an Aadhaar ID were important to convey during the marketing push. i We need to share our think- ing with people, Maruwada said. That’s why the report clearly states that the pyramid, which lays out the building blocks of Aadhaar, needs to be ested on the ground. It’s a road map towards the destination, a standard tool in all brand-build- ng exercises.
He said that the project had one major trait in common with private sector advertising–the need to understand the con- sumer.
It also has one more claim to being a mainstream marketing project, having brought top New Delhi-based advertising firm Percept on board this month to design the television and print ads which will accompany Aad- haar’s launch.
In whatever form, the team eels urgency. Right now, our communication has to be about creating `want’ for this identity number, Khalap said.
Re-Imagining India is a joint nitiative of Mint and Hindustan Times to track and understand policy reforms that will, if they are successful, change the very way in which India goes about ts efforts to create an inclusive and progressive country.
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