Demographic Dividend : Myth Or Reality.............

One of the prime driving factors of Indian economy is its demographic dividend. Experts comparing growth prospects of Indian and Chinese economies are betting high on the younger India over aging China.  As the recent studies affirm, India will be the youngest nations with the average age in late twenties.  There will be addition of 200 Mn youngsters in the Indian economy in next 20 years from 2011-2030. 

With the great Indian growth story of the last decade, economist across the world have singled out demographic dividend as the most important factor in realizing the long awaited dream of emerging as an economic superpower.

The demographic dividend is competitive advantage to any economy as it means less no of dependents which in turn helps in increasing the productivity which directly results in a favourable impact on the GDP of the country. 

In recent times China has been successful in exploiting demographic dividend to its fullest potential. It has emerged as the world manufacturing hub. Today’s world Economic & Geo-political policies cannot be designed without reference to China. 

Economist across the world have forecast that India will be the next superpower, fundamentally  based on the promising growth witnessed after the opening of Indian economy and stable socio-political environment with huge FDI and obliviously demographic dividend.

In above all the demographic dividend have two sides to it. It may backfire and would do more damage to the country’s economy, If not managed properly.

The series of events in last couple of years have halted growth story of India. There have been large number of corruption cases which has virtually halted decision making at each level, there is complete policy paralysis due to coalition govt., important bills like land reforms, coal & mining, FDI in retail and lokpal to control corruption are pending since long, foreign investment is drying up on account of international events, the increasing twin deficits & stalemate on reforms initiative by the government. 

On the backdrop of this economic scenario the demographic advantage would be burden than the dividend. There will be addition of 10-12 Mn youngsters every year in economy for next 20 years looking for employment. To provide employment opportunity to such large number will be herculean task and India can not afford the price of failing to do so. Failing will not only impact India economically but will cause the imbalance in the society at large.

There is need for  strategic planning at each level of employment generation starting from education, entrepreneurship  and reforms in all three sectors of Indian economy.  

Currently, only 30 % land is irrigated, yields are all time low which makes today’s youth no longer interested in making a career in farming. The manufacturing hub seems to be distant reality without land acquisition reforms and ensuring the availability of very basic utilities power & water to industries to flourish.

The IT & ITES sector which has played crucial role in India’s growth story is losing out major chunk of business process outsourcing business to small countries like Taiwan and Thailand as India is no longer amongst the  lowest cost service providers.

So far young India has been promising and have grabbed whatever opportunities been offered to them. Young Indians have been successful in leaving their mark of excellence in every field they have been into. 

Today’s youth is well informed, educated, more dynamic, creative, competitive and have zeal to excel. If provided with right opportunity there will be no stopping for India to be emerging as developed country in near future otherwise demographic dividend will be just a Myth in case of India.

New reality for marketers :- Augmented Reality

In today’s knowledge based economy technology is playing crucial role in shaping the world. Technology is impacting every aspect of business from manufacturing to consumption and from marketing to distribution. For instance, since the last three decades, Internet has emerged as a strong force which has drastically changed the way business is done.


Recently there has been a lot of talk about the concept of “Augmented Reality” which is a term used to describe a live view of a physical, real-world environment that is augmented by computer-generated sensory input, such as sound or graphics. A typical AR environment has digital information transposed onto a real-world view. The termed coined by the Tom Caudell to describe a digital display used by aircraft electricians that blended virtual graphics onto a physical reality. The most common example relating AR to common people is sports broadcasting showcasing football field marked with yellow line to show offside player.

Since 2008, the concept has gathered huge momentum, thanks to the surge in usage of Smart phones and tablets across the world.

In the last two years, there has been a huge increase in the applications of AR in almost all the business sectors. There are number of innovative AR based applications in the market for Business cards, Equipment servicing, Weather services, Travel application, 3D gaming, Computer Aided Surgery, Airport Information, Navigational Overlays, Interior design & Modeling, industrial plant maintenance and many more…..

Marketers across the world have responded very positively to this new concept as it helps in engaging the customers in a better manner to create unique kind of brand experience.

Leading brands like Volkswagen, Kraft Foods, Coca cola, Carlsberg, Toyota, BMW, and Nestle have executed brilliant communication campaigns using AR. the key benefits of AR in the communication campaign are:

• AR increases engagement and ensures better user experience & usability

• Research has shown that AR increases the perceived value of products and brands

• AR is mobile and personal and, therefore, hugely accessible to a rapidly growing Smartphone market

• AR is an inexpensive alternative to other media platforms as no specific media needs to be purchased

• Brands have access to detailed analytics enabling them to truly understand their audience

According to ABI research the market for AR based application in the US alone is expected to be $ 350 Mn by 2014 from just $3.8 Mn in 2008. Juniper research predicts that revenue from mobile AR is expected to reach $ 1.5 bn by 2015. With current development and the pace at which it is growing, AR has a huge potential which is yet unexplored. I am sure a few years down the line, AR will be the crucial part of marketing communication for marketers across the world. And for the very same reason, there is no alternative for the budding managers but to equip themselves with the know how of augmented reality.


Prof. Yogesh Baviskar


Reference:-

http://www.bannerblog.com.au/news/2009/06/35_awesome_augmented_reality_examples.php

http://mashable.com/2009/12/05/augmented-reality-iphone/

http://www.inc.com/guides/201104/how-to-use-augmented-reality-in-advertising.html

http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2010/12/13/augmented-reality-marketing-in-2010-and-beyond/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6irc0jwKC8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fGav7FI5P4&NR=1&feature=fvwp

http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/research/8969.html

The Road To Superpower VIA Innovation & Inventions

Since last two decades the world economy is experiencing the transition, BRIC nations have shown promising growth and emerging as the new centers of power. Growth of BRIC nations is interpreted as “Third economic super cycle” marked with emergence of China as economic superpower by 2050 and India as third largest after china & USA. The great visionary like Dr. Peter Drucker forecasted this shifting of power to east in 90’s attributing t mainly to change in business models, manpower and material resources in his book titled “Managing in turbulent times”.

Today we are one of the leading economies with robust banking, huge demographic dividend, Strong domestic demand, stable political environment and huge forex kitty.

But on the contrary, there are some serious issues related to infrastructure, energy, healthcare, food security, employment opportunities and poverty (200 Mn people at Bottom of the Pyramid). Currently our economy is led by the service sector dominated by export led IT & ITES, manufacturing is yet to recover from the global downturn and agriculture is highly depended on monsoon.

On the International horizon China has emerged as world manufacturing destination, minnows like Taiwan, Malaysia and Thailand are emerging as new low cost outsourcing centers, where as product and services from countries like South Korea, Japan, Germany, Holland and Finland along with USA are dominating the global markets. More over, India is seen as most lucrative market with huge growth potential by the economies across the world. Today, Indian market is flooded with global brands; on the contrary there are few Indian brands successful in global markets.

In order to join the league of developed country or super power in near future, we need to address the serious domestic issue and work on building the capabilities in delivering the innovative product and service at the global level and to do that, we need to concentrate and mobilize our resources on infusing the culture of innovation and invention at all possible level in the society.

Innovation and inventions are the crucial tools of competitive advantage in today’s knowledge based economy. Unfortunately our country with great legacy of Arybhatta, Chanakya, Dr. Bose and Ramanujan has failed to raise the bar in innovation and invention. In 2012, India rank 62^nd in the innovative index and have ranked much below China in filling of Patents.

Today there is need to build the ecosystem for nurturing the culture of innovation and research at all levels. There is need for strategic interventions in education system from primary to higher education in providing optimum infrastructure, qualified resource, sophisticated equipments, rewards & recognition for the motivation and assistance for scaling up & commercializing the innovations.

Industry- Academia relationship is also very crucial in innovation and research. In spite of large scale industrialization, there is huge gap pertaining to the same. There is need for fostering atmosphere conducive for strategic industry –Academia partnership. It helps in sharing infrastructure and resources & to increase the pace of new product development

With proper attention, we are the country with huge potential to unleash; Indian’s have gave the very famous word “Juggad” which simply means “workaround” or “Resourcefulness” and which is the integral part of every average Indians routine life.

With the announcement of 2010-2020 as the Innovation Decade” by our Hon’ble President, If right stimulus is provided, we are the country to with potential to rule the world many decades to come………………….

Just doing it…………………Hero Moto Corp Way……………

In today’s era of fierce competition, product, media and information explosion along with fragmented consumer segments, it is getting very difficult to occupy the space in consumer mind day by day. But there are very few companies come out as Winner in such a tough condition and Hero Moto Corp is one of them.
The brilliant campaigns like “Hum me hain Hero” make herculean task of repositioning of brand looks very easy.
There was lot of scepticism about the future of Hero Moto Corp. after the split from the joint venture for almost four decades and it was really tough task for Hero Moto Corp. to come out of shadow of Hero-Honda and establish its different identity in the minds of millions customers.

But with the recent “Hum me Hein Hero” campaign they have undoubtedly won the first round by successfully establishing the brand in the minds of Indian customers

Let’s talk about the creative part of the campaign designed by the leading advertising firm Law & Kenneth. The message is woven beautifully to evoke the positive emotions, (confidence, self-belief, realizing the power of self, the feeling of “I have it in me” in the form of song. Which really reaches out to the every Indian and it becomes more relevant on the backdrop of recent Socio –political environment in the country. The campaigns really struck the chord with the Indians by saying every one of us have “HERO” inside. The word “HERO” is in prevalent in the societies across the world, it means someone who has solution to all the problems and who comes out Winner all time and every time.

Along with the message part Hero Moto Corp. have been equally good in the execution. The music and singing by AR takes it the new height altogether, every time you hear the commercial you wish to hear it more & more, also it really touches one’s heart and evoke the positive emotions every time.

The slice of life approach in the execution of the message also adds tremendous value in the communicating massage.

They have not stopped at just creating and airing it but the have gone one step further by providing user generated content platform, where people from various walk of life and upload it on the website and if lucky they can be the part of TV commercial along with AR. The source mix of the campaign is strategically designed which has AR –The legend, common people.

At the end I would say Hero Moto Corp has excelled in crossing the first milestone of establishing their unique identity in the millions of Indians. I am sure this campaign will be remembered for longtime in the history of Indian Advertising Industry.