Marketing lessons can be learned from the inspirational people of our independent era

By,

Aravind Chalapathy R | Executive member of Marketing Club | (Crowd Core)

Source : Book written by H.C. Sharma, Dharam Singh

“Be where the world is going”, is the present trend of Marketing. But I always feel, a single night is not enough for a tree to grow, it takes years. So, before discussing about the tree and the fruit, we shall discuss about the root and the soil, where the world begins.

In the present world, technologies have a vast development, which made marketing so simple and precise. People’s ideologies, interest, opinions have become so transparent, where every marketer is now making use of it. But what was the scenario with the people of before independence and even before the British arrival. How the marketers dealt with the consumers and created awareness. This is what we are going to discuss for few minutes.

Here comes a timeline of our marketing practices that took place in India, from the 1st millennium till present date.

BEFORE INDEPENDENCE (1505-1961)

How the Indians stood against the British empire and fought with them to get the India back. Who were our real marketers who gathered the people to fight against them, even though they have been working as a slave for the British? Before that, why our freedom fighters are called as marketers? What they actually did?

Here’s why?

During 1500-1600, the arrival of Portuguese and British took place and they formed the East India company. They started as a monopolistic trading body so that England could participate in the East Indian spice trade. It also traded cotton, silk, indigo, saltpetre, and tea and transported slaves. With the help of Jahangir, the son of Akbar, British East India Company sets up trading post at Surat.

Source : Pinterest.com

From here the Indian indentured laborers began, but even the spark of light for the independence also begins from here. Some of the great leaders of those period understood, only one cannot stand against the British empire, so they decided to gather people and market them, motivate them, trigger the importance of freedom. The great valiant leader, Chhatrapati Sivaji was the first ruler to build a major naval force. But he failed, the British defeated them.

A few years later, another great leader the tiger of Mysore, Tipu Sultan, who understood the dangers the British imposed to India, he preached the people about the danger and planned four consequence war to oust them from India. Tipu sought the French people for support to oust the British from India. He bought the gun maker, engineers, and other experts from France to Mysore. By the end of fourth war, he was killed.

Source : downtoearth.org.in

Gandhi, once returned from South Africa to India, announced that the time had come for Indians to assert their independence from British domination. He considered three great evils afflicting India. First evil was British rule, second one was Hindu-Muslim disunity, third one was Hindu tradition of classifying millions of Indians as a caste of "untouchables".

He wrote a letter to two great leaders, one from the north the nationalist leader, Marathi scholar Bal Gangadhara Tilak and one from south the powerful leader, V. O. Chidambaram Pillai, also known as Kappalottiya Tamizhan or "The Tamil Helmsman". In his letter he stated that, gather the people by celebrating two festivals Ganesha Visarjana and Sivaji festivals, and preach the people about the unity, importance of fighting together against British.

Source: Twitter.com

While Gandhi was using non-violence as weapon, on the other hand, a great warrior, commonly known as Netaji decided to shed blood to pay for freedom. Gandhiji helped Subash Chandra Bose to join Indian congress party and work there. But soon Netaji decided to fight against British, so he went German, seek the help of Hitler and with his advice he came back to Asia by submarine, from there he approached Japan and Singapore, where there were 40,000 Indian soldiers who were captured by them. The captured soldiers became Netaji (“Leader”) Bose’s Indian National Army (INA) and marched behind him to Rangoon. But the British forces at India’s eastern gateways held until the summer monsoon gave them respite enough to be properly reinforced and drove Bose and his army back down the Malay Peninsula.

Source: Telegraphindia.com

Subash Chandra Bose was a follower of Swami Vivekananda. There were 3 main reasons which proves Swami Vivekananda was an astute marketer.

1. Packaging and Repositioning of Hinduism - He adeptly packaged modern Hinduism for Western consumption, in a global attempt to rejuvenate and enthuse nationalist consciousness. Vivekananda adroitly repositioned the concept of prana (life force) and derived success in concurrently purging the oft-practiced ‘queer breathing exercises of the Hatha Yoga’.

Source: Linkedin.com

2. Adoption of a Polycentric Approach to Religious Branding – As is the quality of a marketer adopting a polycentric approach to international business, Vivekananda knew his audience. His prowess in deftly adapting himself to diverse cultures is a testimony to his innate modernism.

Source: Linkedin.com

3. Specialist in youth-marketing - Although there is no conventional definition of ‘youth’ as such, if we delve into what is called the youth marketing spectrum, Vivekananda had an inherent ability to connect to young people and preach them.

This is why, Vivekananda is considered to be a youth marketer in India. Thus, from this it is clearly shown, our great freedom fighter, even at the time of poor communications among people, the great leaders understand the people’s (consumers) need, supported them, united them, and fought with the British empire for 250 years and finally gains independence from Britain. India is the place where the marketing among people originated tremendously. India the land of Marketing.

Thank You,

Jai Hind.