Diwali is the biggest festival for most part of India. Do we really celebrate Diwali with as much gusto as the western part of the hemisphere? it is only 5 weeks to go for Diwali and I see only 2 ads that have Diwali orientation? Are we working on firing the consumption engine? Are we doing enough as marketers?
I decided to refer to a gentleman known as Ivan Pavlov. He has done some good work in relation to psychology and conditioning. He used another mammal (dog) to develop his theories. I am saying that all mammals are the same.
What did Mr. Pavlov do (or say)? The typical procedure for inducing classical conditioning involves presentations of a neutral stimulus along with a stimulus of some significance, the "unconditional stimulus." The neutral stimulus could be any event that does not result in an overt behavioral response from the organism under investigation. Conversely, presentation of the significant stimulus necessarily evokes an innate, often reflexive, response. Pavlov called these the unconditional stimulus (US) and unconditional response (UR), respectively. If the neutral stimulus is presented along with the unconditional stimulus, it would become a conditional stimulus (CS). Pavlov used the term conditional because he wanted to emphasize that learning required a dependent or conditional relationship between CS and US. If the CS and US always occur together and never alone, this perfect dependent relationship or pairing, causes the two stimuli to become associated and the organism produces a behavioral response to the CS. Pavlov called this the conditional response (CR).
Let me now try and translate this complex theory from Mr. Pavlov into simple marketing concept. The customers (or consumers) go and shop when Diwali is around, which is unconditional response (UR). However, we want them to shop early. Which is conditional response (CR) we want to generate. When do our customers begin to shop? When the Diwali date is nearby. Could be 2-3 weeks from the date of Diwali. So, the conditional stimulus (CS) is provided by the calendar in this case. Question is how do we provide the unconditional stimulus (US)? Diwali is associated with crackers and lights. Wouldn’t the customers start believing that Diwali is around the corner when the lights are lit and crackers start firing? So, can we marketers do that? In any case most of our Diwali advertising campaigns show lights and crackers. Just that if we all started our advertising campaign 2 weeks before last year with lights and crackers (US), the customers will start believing that Diwali is around the corner and rush to shop!!
A Pavlovian response or too simplistic and naive theory on my part? Will wait for your feedback. To help the cause, in my housing society I have suggested that the Diwali lights should be up by 1st October. Will you also light up your house early and signal Diwali?
At the same time do remember that the media clutter goes up when you are closer to Diwali. So, aren’t you better off beating the clutter by advertising earlier and getting a larger share of mind (or shall I say heart)?
Next time you plan your campaign think, “Diwali aa rahi hai”!
Shubh Diwali
You can also reach me out at @agrawalsanjeev on twitter
