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Memories have a habit of fading into indulgent nostalgia. And in this age of villains and betrayals, charismatic heroes are so hard to find that nostalgia becomes a handy substitute for a reality check. Detroit feels nostalgic about Lee Iacocca. Microsoft feels nostalgic about Bill Gates as a nerd. Republicans feel nostalgic about Ronald Reagan. Congress workers feel nostalgic about the glory days of the dynasty in India. GE feels nostalgic about Jack Welch. Wall Street feels nostalgic about unbridled greed. And this April, many Americans feel nostalgic about John F. Kennedy (with due apologies to Barack Obama)
And yet, when it comes to fool proof strategies for April, John F. Kennedy will arguably go down as one of the worst examples in history. His Camelot administration was responsible for the notorious Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in April, 1961 which ended in both military and propaganda disaster. Fidel Castro ruled Cuba for more than one generation after Kennedy was assassinated and Americans are still trying to count the costs of that April strategy of combating communism with a steel fist. The Congress President Sonia Gandhi too will always remember April as a month she should rather shrug away in embarrassment. For, it was in April, 1999 that her trusted strategic advisors prompted Sonia to stand in front of Rashtrapati Bhavan and show a sign of victory. That ‘strategic’ victory turned out to be chimera. It was an alliance led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee that swept the marketing sweepstakes and won decisive market share in the 1999 General Elections. Of course, unlike Americans with Cuba, Sonia Gandhi didn’t have to wait for ages for redemption and recovery.
In the world of business and marketing, such ‘foolish’ foolproof strategies probably do not change the course of history. But then, they at least end up making history involved in such foolproof strategies. Just think about it for one moment. Have you seen a single new ad on TV, print, outdoor or web of Pepsi. Sure, there was that one about ‘Youngistan’. But honestly, it is already more than half of April, 2009 and have you seen any new Pepsi slogan? Don’t you wonder if it is a deliberate strategy of the soft drink giant? And what could that foolproof strategy be when Coke is going to town with high decibel pitches? read more..
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
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