Are you Proud of Independence Day? I am not!

Its nation's 62nd Independence Day, but for me its 20th. It has been 20 long years, which I have breathed in this free country. Till this year I have always been proud of this day. I always felt, that the day rejuvenate the lost spirit of nationalism, though not to everyone but atleast to few of the proud Indians, and to few like me who's sentiments ardour only at such national festivals. Always thought that if properly utilized then such occasions can actually help to revolutionize the entire era of excessively busy and myopic people. Something like Rang De Basanti style.

I really don’t want to sound so negative, but the only basic question that I would ask anyone on this day is, Are you happy particularly about this day? Happy in all sense. Happy for this wonderful nation. Do you get sense of security and stability on the day?

Probably most of you would agree that yes we are happy about this day, we are free and we are more secure. Even I would have agreed to it unless this year, I would have come across a similar debate with a friend and finally a journey at the eve of this Special Day.

But isn't it that during such national festivals we fear the most of terrorist striking the peace in nation. Moreover this year amidst the recent terror attacks at Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Kolkatta, and futile ones at Surat, there was no feeling of security in the great Nation.

It just happened that I had to travel on the eve of Independence Day and my friend warned me to avoid travel for security reasons, and gradually we got into a debate with a friend about how we all are supposed to surpass the feeling of being terrorized and scared when terrorists strike, so as to make their basic motive of creating unrest in the nation a futile attempt. So I was of the opinion that whatever the situation may be, every citizen of India should come ahead on this Holy Day to celebrate the day in true Indian spirit and try to feel the way our great freedom fighters have felt. The only difference being we will be fighting against terrorism. So I tried to convince him that its just a normal day for me and that I will move around as normally as I do, or rather more proudly than other days.

Finally at the D-Day, I reached the Pune Railway Station. It was night hours and the nation was very quickly and swiftly moving towards its 62nd Independence Day. I had thought that probably the city would be undergoing decoration so as to celebrate. I was myself very proud of the feeling, but then at railway station the condition was rather gloomy and tensed. All over policemen! Checking posts, stations overly crowded as always yet no one interested to ponder over the date or time. Zombies, without smile or sign of happiness, moving and making their way around. I still had hopes that probably at 12:00 midnight the situation would change. My train got delayed and luckily I happened to be on station at midnight to experience the situation at myself. I was watching the needle of the Platform Clock and as excitedly as it was birthday of my girlfriend I had my cell in my hand with all greetings for the day typed along with the recipients. It stuck 12:00 and I sent the messages for which I did not get even 2% of reply back. It was for the first time that I was in a public place at such a great day. And according to me there would have been very few places better than Pune Railway station to feel the joy of celebrations of this day. Pune being hub of youth there are maximum chance to feel innovative spirit of the day. I was expecting a formal announcement from the authorities. Anyways instead of announcement they flashed their wishes on the display screen at platform which was pretty decent on their part. Next I was expecting was a formal greet from the persons I accost to, which obviously I deed the entire journey, but this was in vain too. Instead all I got from people was the look of fear and worry. Most of them could not hide their helplessness in avoiding the journey on this day.

Well as and when the journey progressed I felt that for people its just another day, and they are grateful that at least their station or train was not bombarded at sharp 12 by terrorists.

I am happy, I got a chance to travel on this day and observe the true Indian Nationals. I think this day in 21st Century actually doesn't bring pride or happiness to the citizens but a burden and sense of insecurity. It carries with itself a face of terror. And majority of us fail to look at the brighter side of the day and treat the day as a burden to Indian Legacy System. A day where anything can go wrong on a huge scale without notice. Unfortunately this day doesn't unite people anymore, if we want to create a society where people celebrate, come and interact and try to understand each other than probably we need more of days such as Valentine's, Christmas, New Year, etc. At least on such days youth of 21st Century without worrying about sure shot terror attack from local political parties gets courage to go on roads and celebrate. And in case if you really want to see the national spirit of people of India than you should wait for India Pakistan match rather.

Please, I just want you to be truthful at least to yourself, if not others. Please ponder over it and answer this question. Do you actually feel proud about Independence Day in today's world?

If your answer is yes than probably you have yet not travelled or remain unsolicited in a crowded public place all alone on the night of Independence Day.

Role of perception in consumer marketing

This one is based on personal experience.

Some time ago, I often used to hear from an elderly age group of people about the complexities that new technology has introduced. Say an ATM machine. Those people were introduced as oldies or outdated people. But today such complains have decreased substantially or to put it in other words those complains have escalated one more generation gap. The people in their mid ages have mostly got adapted to such technologies. Due to which marginal people of next level has also followed.

Now interestingly the fact is that there had been hard efforts to reduce complexity in using technologies, but however it alone did not help substantially to get more people using these technologies. Infact without changing the customer perception by proper marketing mix it would not have been so successful.

Its very hard to alter an established perception of a consumer. Only a deliberately thought marketing can help to make it real. The perfect marketing mix is what is needed to hit the established thought process of the consumer. Especially when we talk about Indian consumers who has their traditional and conventional products and alternatives, which they have been using for years, its very difficult to alter their taste. And majority of brands has also failed in doing so. Finally the marketeers has to adapt to the consumers, the best example being Pizza Hut with its Indian - Punjabi Menu and Mc Donalds with its Indianzied food. Still its not easy for them to get customers to their restaurant. Mc Donalds in India faces heavy competition from Vada Pav stallers, who without any strong marketting, forms the basic diet of lower working class of people of Indian metros especially Mumbai, Surat, Pune, etc.

Mc Donalds have hence evolved to a marketing strategy which serves the basic purpose of transmitting the message that the burger is yet cheap and that that the outlet is not only meant for kids or youths but to older people who has lost their love for such foods. It aims at altering the general perception that the product is expensive, and though if logically thought a visit to their outlet finally proves to be heavy on a normal customer's pocket as he end up spending more.

The basis of any marketing is to make the target audience realize that there is a neccessity of his product in his life and to make him agree to spend his disposable income on the product. The challenge was bigger in recent future. But with the increase of purchasing power of the consumers, more and more class of people has migrated towards better standard of living. Hence Air Conditioners , Laptops, Car Makers now lays more importance on middle class people as their target audience. There has been tremendous increase in advertisement of laptops from "Life is Easy, to King Khan's Compaq series". It has now been accepted trend in Indian consumers that in case you are looking for a machine for your small or big need then better go for a laptop. Needless to say that the sale of laptop has surprassed that of desktop by a huge number.

To sum it up, I would conclude that for any marketteer the most necessary thing today is to first read the conceived pereception of targeted audience and then mould the same with proper devised marketing principles and fundas.