Consuming India, or the great Indian middle class, is a completely different animal today. They are no longer privileged few with access to television, newspapers, glossies, etc. That day and age are a thing of the past. The advertising past of India existed because it squarely had to do with lot that were inspired and guided by English and the West. The buying segment of India knew English, and to aspirational India, that was extremely palatable. Advertising, therefore, was very swish. I suppose our inherent brown skin inferiority had a large role to play in this.
Besides, we never really had Indian role model advertising for anyone to refer to, or to imitate. What we had were western examples and books to pore over and assimilate and enhance our own advertising quotient. This is no longer the case today.
A lot of us now no longer think of language as the tool to create advertising. We think ideas. We think emotion. We think consumer insights. We think culture. and we think of more ways than one to slip inside the mind of the consumer, not to mention the changing Indian consumer who currently wants to participate and engage with favourite brands.
Today, the average consumer, with spending power doesn’t stay in metros or developed India alone. They live across the country and they are thriving, prosperous people. They live with a new confidence that’s risen, and a thinking that has told them that not knowing English is no longer a disadvantage.
Taking the cue, marketers have also switched to regional languages and advertising has embraced the local culture. Consumers have begun trailing advertising which is truer to their souls, and closer to their hearts. There is, therefore. a rise of Indian idiom, jokes, folklore and Indian art that have seeped into our work. Not only is that working, it is on overdrive. with technology and media playing their part to spread and add exposure.