The PunchLine Expert

In the 1 st part of this article, we looked at the meteoric rise of brands such as Xiaomi, OnePlus and a political party, the Aam Aadmi Party.  So, how was the impossible made possible? Was there a method to the madness? Were there any common linkages to their respective strategies? Clear and Distinct Messaging The brand identity which the AAP seeks to project is a party which stands for certain clearly defined values such as Corruption Free India, Transparency and Power to People. Xioami also picks up the Power to the consumer thread by reaching out directly to them through a direct sales model and seeking constant feedback from users to improve their products. Us vs The Enemy The US President, George Bush once said,  "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists” . The enemy lines were clearly defined in these cases too and the consumers/voters were asked to take a side. In the case of AAP, the enemy was the big corporate houses and politicia...

Upstarts Xiaomi and OnePlus are shaking up the Smartphone World. Established brands and market leaders like Samsung are losing market share. The God of the present Smartphone world, Apple, is taking notice. Another upstart, the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi has done something similar. Established parties like the Congress have seen their vote share in Delhi decimated. Since the victory in the general elections, the BJP and the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi could do nothing wrong. Successive victories and huge successes of national schemes were filling up the mass media. But the disruption, that was the AAP, reduced them to less than 5% of the seats in the Delhi assembly. So what is happening here which is defying logic? Let us look up Modi first. The main marketing media which the BJP employed in the general election was Modi and his huge rallies. Those were a revelation then, an articulate, aggressive Modi, compared to the silence of Manmohan Singh, the erstwhile Congress PM. Peo...