I am writing this blog just a day before general election results will be announced .In this election marketers tried to sell political parties to voters like any other product and services.
Media was used and exploited by almost all the political parties. There was significant role played by news media in influencing voters in the general elections...
You will be surprised to know that political parties spent around Rs 800 crores in two months on communications — an amount that top advertisers like Hindustan Unilever spend in an entire year.
So why this was done this year??
The obvious reason which I could think of is that, this time, there were more than 10 crore first-time voters, mostly in urban areas.
So the political parties after identifying (segmenting) this group targeted the voters by using most effective media.
Media may not yet swing an election in someone’s favour but media, more than ever is gaining a reputation of being an influencer.
An average urban Indian viewer is mature enough to understand the exaggerations, but the same cannot be said about the semi urban and rural voters for whom TV is possibly one of the most important influencer.
Mistri diagnosis:
What we see and read is only the battle between the post, power and money. So it is like voting for the best amongst the worst. Media does play the role of informing the citizens on what’s happening in the country about politics, but when it comes to the individual decision of giving votes, I’m sure most of the citizens do not even know their candidates. So this time I am in favour of conventional marketing because advertising for political parties is different from advertising for products and services .The earlier method of door-to door voting was at least more informative.
Author: Sanjay
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