Trip to India - Entry 14 – Marketing master classes

This morning, we went to visit the Times of India, a newspaper. The way in which the presenter from the marketing department discussed the newspaper was a completely different way of approaching the print media than we are used to here, especially in Seattle since the Post Intelligencer went out of business. Overall, even though we saw her perspective as admirable and certainly appropriate for the current reality in India, we agreed in the debrief that as soon as Internet penetrates deeper into the Indian market that print media will decline as it has for us.

At the beginning of the session, we had a moment of silence for 9/11. Even though it happened eight years ago now, and I know no one who was there, and don’t actually know anyone who knew anyone who was there either, I still get a visceral reaction in the pit of my stomach when I see photos or am reminded of the towers collapsing. It is literally painful to think of how significantly that one act shifted not only our own view of the world, but how the actions resulting from this changed the world’s view of us. 9/11 isn’t just the “new Pearl Harbor” – it is also the date which marks the beginning of cowboy diplomacy and the beginning of one of the more shameful chapters of our history.

After that rather depressing moment of remembrance, we spoke with the editor of features about the attacks in Mumbai last year, in which one of their good friends at TOI died. When she finished her story, there was simply silence.

After TOI, we went to Lowe Lintas, an Indian advertising agency. A few interesting points of note:

- Rural India makes up 65% of India, and farmers don’t pay taxes. This means that there is actually quite a lot of wealth in rural areas
- The CEO was British, but had spent quite a lot of time in Asia. It was interesting to see how he defined his role – bringing value through worldview and process – when so few Indian companies are led by expatriates. In fact, he said that there are actually only 1200 expatriates in all of Mumbai.
- The tea with milk and sugar was delicious
- The ads produced for Tata Tea and Bajaj were very clever and culturally relevant – I am at a loss to think of something similar for the United States. It would seem that humor is the primary method in which advertisers grab our attention, rather than these culturally relevant issues used by Lowe Lintas

Being a Friday night, many in the group are going out and making a night of it. In the morning, we head to Elephanta Caves and fly to Goa (everyone is jealous when we tell them) tomorrow afternoon. I am very much looking forward to the massage opportunities in Goa.