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5 Marketing Lessons Marketers Should Learn from Narendra Modi’s Gigantic Victory in Election 2014
With a gigantic victory of Narendra Modi in 2014 general elections, it became clear that like in the US and other European countries, now trend of strategic marketing has started in Indian politics which was rare in history. Narendra Modi became 15th Prime Minister of India with a clear majority and without any hurdle within the party. No doubt Narendra Modi’s Tsunami swept all the opponents, whether National or Regional.
Here are the five Marketing lessons marketers should learn from Narendra Modi which made the chief minister of Gujarat, a national phenomenon.
1. Identify Pain Points of Customers
Identifying pain points of customers help you understand what exactly your customers and prospects truly want. Referring to these pain points in your marketing communication with customers and prospects helps them better relate to your offerings. Narendra modi had identified 3 key pain points of voters’ viz. Economic growth, price rise and corruption, made its agenda for election and referred it in his all advertising, speeches, interview and one to one promotion. He gave the people of India a hope, which eventually converted into votes. The country desperately yearned for change and Modi adroitly positioned himself as the commander-in-chief of that sentiment. It has almost built rapport among voters which lead to a higher trust factor on Narendra Modi.
2. Implement Segmentation Strategy
“Customers are not difficult, they are just different. If you understand this, you can win and retain many customers” This is what the crush of Segmentation strategy, Modi has successfully implemented for election campaign. He segmented the voters of all classes in Young, Moms and Dads, understood their pain points and targeted each segment with its own way of communication. He targeted young population of India who were concerned with economic growth and are the major users of social media by going digital, used various social media platforms and posted selfies, which was never done by a Prime Ministerial candidate before. He spoke in public to target Moms and Dads and position himself as a problem solver more specifically for price rise and corruption in India. Certainly he was able to touch the cord of the common man.
3. Keep Your Competitors Busy
“If you can't beat a competitor, make them such a busy that he cannot focus on you" This was the one of the important aspects of Modi’s election strategy. He was attacking Congress through his speeches and interviews by commenting on Growth, Corruption and Price rise issues. Rahul Gandhi and the entire UPA team then spent lots of time in defending such attacks of Modi rather than making and communicating their clear agenda with voters. Narendra Modi on the other hand riding on the Gujarat model of development, Inflation and Corruption was successful in communicating his message to all segments of the society.
4. Reach the Customers Where Your Competitors can’t Reach
Reaching to all customer segments always remained a challenge for marketers and succeeding to do so results in a gaining highest market share.One of the main reasons of the gigantic victory of Narendra Modi to be specific is voters turnaround which was due to the ground work done by the workers of the party along with ‘Karsevaks’ of RSS. They were able to reach the remotest villages where the Congress and other party were not able to reach effectively in person or through the media. The biggest example was seen in Varanasi where VHP workers along with BJP and RSS went door to door appealing people to vote for Modi. This created an amazing workforce, which UPA and other regional parties had no answer.
5. Apply Right-Time Marketing Approach
“In marketing, good beginning is half done but beginning at the right time is almost done” Narendra Modi’s election strategy is the best example of how Right Time Marketing approach works and can result in achieving a leadership position in the market. Modi started with strengthening his position in BJP for PM candidature right after becoming CM in December 2012. The campaign of projecting Modi as the rightful Prime Ministerial candidate started long before Congress even thought of starting for elections. Subsequently, he started election 2014 campaign from Revadi in Sept 2013 and ended up at Baliya in April 2014 delivering his message to more than 25 crore people across India. By the time UPA came up with a strategy for general elections, it was a bit too late for them because the ground was already set up for Modi. This eventually created ‘The Modi Wave’ which not only cleared Modi’s path in the party, but also made him victorious in general elections in India.
Winners don’t always have the best product, the big brand, or the most loyal customers. Many times the winner does the best job in understanding and meaningfully addressing customers’ expectations. That is what Narendra Modi did. Victory of Narendra modi is mainly due to shifting voters to BJP from Congress as Congress failed to address such expectations of voters which created anti-incumbency sentiment.
Apart from above, the most important marketing lessons can be learned from Narendra Modi’s victory is ‘Marketing works only if your product is worth for it’. Narendra Modi certainly showed the caliber as the right candidate for being the Prime Minister of India, and the people of India entrusted him with votes.
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