Seeing India through the seven chakras

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survival mode, but the fact that they want their children to reach high positions of power and influence and make them famous, shows that they want to move up to the Power Chakra.

These are mothers who feel their husbands are unlikely to improve their lives any further, and pressured by fast upgrading neighbours and relatives, are pinning their hopes on their children to lift them from a life of oblivion and transform their fortunes. Children by nature are said to be in survival, as in the early years we are still learning our way around the world.

Muladhara brands can cater to these emotional needs with brand benefits and promises that enhance the will to live, offer energy, fearlessness, stability, freedom from drudgery, bring abundance and physical strength, and support the urge to survive. Brands offering physical strength and love of outdoors operate in this space.

Thums Up and Mountain Dew would be examples here, as well as health food drinks, energy foods, immunity and health protection or illness prevention brands. Insurance is mostly a survival benefit, with its promise of security and stability in case of misfortune. The diffident girl of the earlier fairness cream commercials, and some of the teary, self effacing characters in the soaps who never speak up and are forever victims of circumstance are excellent examples of Anxious Survivors or a deficient Survival Chakra.

On the other hand, the WWF characters with their extremely well developed bodies and driven by aggression are examples of excessive Survival Chakra.

Action movies too operate in this space, in a totally different way. Malamaal Weekly, Gangster, Provoked, even Chak De, for example, appeal to our survival intincts (as against Guru which clearly celebrates the journey of an individual from the Survival Chakra to the Power Chakra).

Therefore, key brand payoffs that appeal to and arise out of Muladhara people and their needs include payoffs like: fills me with a will to win, reflects my spirit of persistence, helps me to face difficult situations, makes me feel energetic and dynamic, and makes me feel safe and secure.

The interesting thing, of course, is that even the rich and famous—CEOs or cricketers, not to mention the Parvatis and Tulsis of our serials or our politicians or corporations struggling in the market or facing hostile takeovers—fight survival battles, even if it is at a totally different level and of a totally different kind