Mandate 2024: Impassioned voices, loud noises, marketing lessons therein

By Gokul Krishnamoorthy

From vote-bank politics to hate-bank politics, we’ve seen everything during the parliamentary elections of 2024 – in excessive measure and manner. But there are some silver linings and learnings. There were unmissable shifts that offer plenty of the latter for marketing minds.

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The victory of Geniben Thakor has been in the news for two reasons. After a decade, an Indian National Congress candidate had been elected to the Lok Sabha from Gujarat. Secondly, she had reportedly crowdfunded her campaign. While she was a sitting two-time MLA and certainly not a nobody or novice, it is still encouraging to note that a group of people who believe in a candidate can back them with funding today. A shared belief can travel in today’s connected world better than ever before. Her win needs to be read in context.

Down South, another party, the ruling BJP, opened its account in Kerala. The winner was high profile film star Suresh Gopi. Another screen star Kangana Ranaut won in Himachal’s Mandi. According to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), 93 pc (504/543) candidates who won in the Lok Sabha polls of 2024 were crorepatis. The count has moved up from 58 pc (2009) to 82 pc (2014) to 88 pc (2019). The average declared assets of winning BJP candidates was over Rs.50 cr while that of Congress was over Rs.22 cr.

Perhaps it is time for ADR to start reporting those with over Rs.10 cr in assets and not Rs.1 cr. That apart, Thakor was one of only 39 winning candidates across parties who was not even a crorepati. That makes the story of her crowdfunded campaign even sweeter.

Hindutva in Maslow’s Hierarchy

More than one political analyst has pointed to the vote bank that supports the BJP for its hardline Hindutva having attained saturation. Some are spotlighting other pain points that have made voters look beyond Hindu pride/security and into issues that really matter to them – unemployment is a real issue; price rise is real. Income inequality hurts the most when one is struggling to make ends meet.

The Vande Bharat trains are a matter of pride to every Indian but may badly hurt those who realise that they can’t afford them. Huge statues built spending exchequer money suddenly don’t evoke a sense of pride but divide, when one realises how small one is in the larger scheme of things.

From a marketing lens, if the brand promise is to deliver X when X is higher up the hierarchy of needs, the more basic needs need to be met for the promise to have relevance. The promise of a future Vikshit Bharat may have made some ponder over who that promised Bharat is for.

Modi Fatigue? Shah Factor?

How long can a leader continue to inspire the people? PM Narendra Modi has been able to for a long time now and he continues to, going by the results. Like Hindutva, is that appeal something that has reached saturation, and is more of Modi disallowing new consumers (read voters) from coming into the fold?

The answers to that are not easy, but there is such a thing called overexposure. And how! The campaign managers who scripted his ‘divine’ reality towards the end of the campaign did not realise that not everyone who shares a Rajinikant meme buys a ticket to watch his movies.

Brand Modi needs to be reinvented, even if only in the way it is presented to audiences. The case of Amit Shah is quite different. He had the aura of the Chanakya who was making magic happen, but that seems to have considerably waned with him being everywhere. His son helming the BCCI has not helped the party that has been critical of dynastic politics one bit.

If one looks at social media posts by BJP workers from the Hindi heartland, it is evident that the Modi-Shah dominance has not just irked a segment of voters, but also the cadre. Even if it were a one-off following an electoral slide in one state, it is worth introspecting who the brand managers and brand ambassadors should be, and how they should be presented.

Undone by Impunity?

Brand BJP and Modi draw their strengths from being seen as strong and dominant. In a study for another political outfit a few years earlier, we realised that it is a key aspect of the brands that their followers simply love and take pride in. One look at social media even today and this will be obvious. We went beyond the digital space to ensure that the findings weren’t superficial. Once again, beyond the core audience, who were cheering everything the party and its leader said and did, how did people relate to the brand/s?

In taking strong positions, or by not taking a position in some cases, these power brands may have alienated certain segments forever. Whether it was farmers on the streets or students on campus or women wrestlers, the issues were relatable to voters across the country. The aggressive posturing through action/inaction over time eventually created the image of a dictator. This certainly must have enthused the core followers, but arguably did more damage than good among the rest.

Political messaging is a nuanced game and there are challenges. A financial services brand that promised quick loans recently used the exaggerated-humour route – it showed how some people had become senior citizens by the time their loan came through. But their struggling to engage in physical activity on holiday did not go down well with a set of people who felt that this was a case of ageism. Point being, you can’t keep everyone happy, but you can try not to get people riled and ranting.

People’s Voices & Media

A terrible fallout of the last 10 years is the way the news media has morphed. This is more true in the case of TV news channels. This was the first national election where we had two large news networks owned by two of the country’s richest business leaders, who are alleged to be close to the ruling party. That does not by itself render their news as biased. To be fair, there are seasoned journalists working in both. But there is definitely a perception issue because the news of ownership changes have trickled down to the common man.

Print and online media have also taken their slants to the extremes. Some under pressure, some willingly. There is a school of thought that believes that today, we consume news media based on what we want to see or read – in other words, according to our political leanings.

The silver lining here is that the ones that are truly neutral and the ones that have had the courage to speak truth to power, have stood out. And, there are more of them today than there were five years ago.

Dhruv Rathee’s videos may not have become as popular as they have but for a few factors. One is that he was speaking about issues that mattered to people in a language they understood. And they were not being provided this information critical to their decision making by the news media. His sincerity was not suspect despite aspersions being cast on his allegiance. In fact, the way he was attacked was a catalyst to his growth. Social media trolls have an exaggerated sense of worth – their true impact works in inverse proportion among real people on real issues. Because people today can see through social media posts bulldozing their way to create media noise. Trends do not translate into trust.

Talking of trust, voters just needed a few prods to trust that the ruling party was indeed intending to change the Constitution. A brand that could rush in with changes and crush any form of dissent, was not to be trusted to put peoples’ interests over its own agenda.

What Next?

Mandate 24 offered proof that consumers can indeed tell the difference between what matters to them and what doesn’t, irrespective of how loud the brand’s trumpet is. Needs do follow a hierarchy.

Brands have received a reiteration that buying eyeballs and impressions is no substitute for having an authentic voice that resonates – and letting the consumer take ownership of that voice. Talking down to consumers (voters) and not having your ears to the ground and lending them yours, is not a good idea.

News channels’ and media’s high towers, and their proximity and subservience to power, have distanced them so much from the ground reality that their reach is rendered redundant beyond their core audience. They need to figure out who they exist for.

So what will brand BJP do now? If one goes by history, they will do more of the same – counter criticism and dissent with aggression, be the loudest voice there is, keep the PR and social media machinery chugging along with a defiance that is possibly considered offensive by many.