Read Between the Ps

Ask anyone about China, and more often than not, you would get few catch words like “ Increasingly Progressive ” or “ Biggest economy with youth getting more and more westernized ” or “ Conservative yet fastest growing ” .. Walk into the streets of Shanghai and a strange contrast would hit you in your face – “ Modernized westernized youth ” along with “conservative” elders, progressive culture coupled with core Chinese values, openness but within restricted norms, or westernized business aspirations camouflaged under socialist intentions and termed as, what’s my favorite, “ Capitalistic Socialist Economy ” – that is today’s China…wow! Indeed, this is China…. Consciously confusing but sub-consciously ironic ! And if you haven’t got enough to nod at this point of view, munch on and you would figure out where is this coming from. This incident is a recent one picked from the media & advertising sector - how the government played around for their own convenience and satisfaction, and...

How many times have you hummed a tune, which you really liked, only to realize that it featured in one of the recent Ads you saw? How many times have you seen a product in a store, and suddenly remembered the cute song that plays in its Advertisement? How many times have you purchased a product, only because you remember its ad on the TV/radio, and believe in the promises it has made? Such is the power of a tune…a jingle in an advertisement. Any marketing 101 book would tell you that one of the key brand elements critical to any campaign is the jingle – a background tune that enables a strong brand association and recall . As a marketer, one would ideally want a tune that sticks to the consumer, such that it acts as a cue for her future purchases, and keeps his product high on recall. Wikipedia defines a jingle as “ a memorable slogan, set to an engaging melody, mainly broadcast on radio and..on television commercials. An effective jingle is constructed to stay in one's memory ...