Every age tells the story of change. Not to be stagnant is such an important agenda of our existence. Dress, design, fashion, food, entertainment, the way we look at ourselves have only one story — how we have changed, become different and finally have evolved.

The saga of change is a story of tension; the tension that is played between the centre and the circle. The centripetal force of unchanged core fights it out with the centrifugal force of change which wants to move out of the established orbit; together they create an ever expanding circle that includes and assimilates new thoughts, new ideas, and new zones in its original space.
In marketing, survival of a brand depends to a great extent on the understanding of the play of these opposite forces. Brand survives the monotony of its defined space by rejuvenating fresh new elements to its core idea. For a good brand it is important to be surprisingly novel and reassuringly familiar at the same time. Advertising being the visible expression of a brand in many ways plays this tension-packed drama in all successful communication. A piece of bath soap communication transported the cloistered house wife from her daily monotony to the freedom of a fantasy shower under a waterfall (Liril). A piece of chocolate communication moved beyond the world of condiment and unlocked the boundless joy of a woman as she watched her boyfriend achieving landmark in a cricket match (Cadbury). A detergent powder has broken the monotony of removing dirt and got more powerfully connected with its consumers. The world of pain balm transforms into a saga of passion and attraction (Amrutanjan). When this calibration of change is perfect, the communication gets a life which could be independent of the life of the brand for which it was made. Liril is a case in point. Liril soap has seen its days but its freshness story still resonates in consumers’ minds.
However, it is easier said than done. Very few brands try to do this and majority is happy trading the beaten track in the name of creating a new piece of communication. In majority of washing powder commercials, housewives are still busy chastising their brands for not bringing desired safedi; face creams are still obsessed with gorapan; what has changed is the urgency of getting gorapan immediately — a new paagalpan (madness).
Lifebuoy is still trying to convince people that two capful of Dettol liquid in the bath water is still not adequate for the safety of their children.
Recently two commercials of a brand are making an extra effort to tell a story of change. Havell’s fan. Playing in the category of products that deal with air delivery, the communication strategy is perfectly aligned with the proposition of change — winds of change — hawa badlegi. The first commercial depicts change too literally. It’s a change of title but there is a twist. In a marriage registrar’s office, the man declares that after marriage he will adopt wife’s title and not the usual other way. Change indeed, and lest the audience fail to notice it there is a voice over hawa badlegi (winds will change).
The second one is a little more nuanced. It is a family dinner situation. A maid is serving food to the family members and once her serving is over she is asked by the maalkin to join them on the same dinner table. Hawa badlegi. As viewers we are as much surprised as the maid who was asked to join.
The question is where the change is taking place? Surely not in the world of the maid who is still the timid, silent kaamwali bai. She has the right of passage inside the family of her maalkin without the passport of being a member. She continues to be an outsider even being in the inner circle. So what is the change the commercial is talking about — feudal will be less feudal.
“Look at us we still order our maids and command obedience but we have evolved, she has just been given the democratic right to have food with us with our full consent and she is enjoying even though diffidently and with some amount of initial discomfort . She will get used to it ... hawa badlegi.”
The story could have been more interesting. A couple of years back, there was an interesting commercial about Onida AC which revolved around the story of behaviour change. Whoever gets a blast of Onida AC shows an air of superiority in their behaviour pattern. The little girl discards the frock she has been craving for so long. Under the influence of Onida Ac she now finds it not worthy of her and donates it to Sakubai who was already in the AC room. She picked up the frock with all disdain and used it as a floor mop — Onida AC ki hawa lag gayee.
Amidst all these conversations of change one question often baffles me; what consumers make out of the saas bahu serials? They have not changed a wee bit for the last ten years. A number of them are running, season after season women in them are perpetually plotting in the kitchen, bedroom, puja room wearing benarasi saris and matching jewellery — morning, evening & night. The good ones in them look traditional and bad ones look glamorous, “dented and painted” even in the midst of dire disasters. The very fact that these serials have set audience who take care of the essential TRPs is a proof that they are connecting with the viewer’s somewhere.
Consumer is definitely not a moron; she is a swan and has the unique ability to separate milk from the water. The interesting question is what is milk and what is water here. Or it could be that nothing really changes — the more we change more we remain the same. What do you say?