March 30, 2022 

By Alby Anand Kurian*

Since I have been introduced today as an advertising man who's worked with nearly every multinational major, I thought I would talk about two contrasting styles – the Indian way and the Multinational way, as it applies to advertising and life outside advertising. Of course, I could call it by other exotic names such as The Way of the Heart versus The Way of the Head, but Indian vs. Multinational sounds nice and dramatic and jingoistic, as though we are all set for a very bloody session.

Indians have always been ingenious, inspired creatures, wonderful at making do with scarce resources. Indian cooking with its rich blend of spices is a good example – the masalas make for a lip-smacking experience while hiding all signs of food that has probably gone stale in the tropical heat.

Now, let me give you an example of the two contrasting styles from my advertising experience. One of the largest consumer goods marketers in the world was launching a new variant of their laundry detergent in India. They were keen on showing a very natural before-your-eyes lift-off, sans any special effects. This meant they wanted two dirty pieces of cloth being dipped in two separate beakers – of course Brand X would not lift off the dirt at all but, in the marketer’s beaker, the dirt would slowly but surely lift away.

The multinational conducted many experiments in their labs all over the world and devised a piece of cloth that had been chemically treated – on contact with water, the dirt would simply float away. But somehow, we, on the Indian team felt it looked unrealistic… we felt it was floating away too fast for the ad to influence the buyer.

So, we applied our scheming Indian brain to the problem – we ground pieces of thermocol, painted it the colour of dirt and pasted it on the cloth. We dipped it in water, the water gradually loosened the paste and voila, we had a lovely, 'real' lift-off.

The conclusion then is that some clever adwallas in Mumbai went one step better than a giant multinational – right? Well, right and wrong! Because the multinational extended their wins over the long term, which, I am afraid, is what finally matters. They took our method, put it down in their Book of Learnings and now, even if they do a lift-off in Beirut or Borneo or Beijing or anywhere in the world in their far-flung empire, they know precisely how to clean up the problem.

Which illustrates my point – the Indian way is ingenious but the multinational works in its well-oiled, organised way, records everything, plans patiently for the long-term, and therefore, wins out in the end.

Does this reflect national character; does this hold good even in other aspects of Indian life apart from advertising? I think so – let’s talk for a moment about something as unrelated to advertising as possible.

Our ancient Indian schools of Ayurvedic medicine have evolved over thousands of years, we have observed and studied the human body through the centuries, examined it in motion and at rest, monitored it through various seasons, and at various times of the day. This has given Indian practitioners invaluable insights into the human body – but the oral tradition has meant that there is precious little accumulated, written knowledge and verifiable data that has been passed on from generation to generation.

In contrast, as a colleague who has a PhD in Chemistry noted, when a Western pharmaceutical giant experiments with a couple of mice over three months, that test generates a mountain of facts, figures, statistics and analytical insights.

When you students take up advertising jobs in India, you will come up against the Multinational way at every turn. Your creativity will have to survive the cold, clinical eye of research at each stage of execution. Your concept, your script, your “scratch” commercial and then your final commercial will all be fastidiously researched – sometimes with hilarious results. Let me give you an example – when we were doing a commercial for a multi-national after-shave, we were told that research studies declared that consumers used it only for its antiseptic properties and not to impress women.

It would have been easy enough to laugh off the research and initially we did. But a closer understanding of the findings revealed a more fundamental truth, one that applies to products across the board: men want a rational excuse to justify an expensive purchase. They will buy that sexy car or mobile simply because it has appeal, but they will still need advertisers to put out a list of features so they can justify buying it.

It’s interesting to observe that men feel the need to justify the purchase not only to others but also to themselves. Since then, I have always called these the ZPTO features - they probably mean very little, but they make a man feel good about throwing his money around.  

So, much to our chagrin, the multinational had got it right again – albeit in a very roundabout kind of way.

Of course, as creative Indians, we must continue to rely on our hearts, our instincts and our gut feel. But if we are to survive and win major advertising clients and retain them over the long term, our head must travel along on the journey too.

The two styles are not mutually exclusive but in fact complementary. Is it too much of a stretch to apply this to our national obsession, cricket? Since I can sense a stir of interest, I think I will go on – I don’t know enough about the game to qualify as an expert but since we have several million experts on the game, it shouldn’t matter if one more intrudes onto the pitch.

For many years, some of our individual Indian players, like Sunil Gavaskar, have been genius personified. Their natural gifts made them a pleasure to watch and, on a good day, they have always been unstoppable. However, in the past, the record of wins of the Indian team was rather pathetic.

In the 1990’s, the team and its management went into a complete overhaul, that included the hiring of foreign coaches and managers. Over the years, the Indian team has evolved into a well-organised, well-oiled machine – a prototype of the giant multinational. They have not sacrificed the sheer artistry of our players, but they have built enough systems in the back-room to ensure far greater consistency than in the past. They can still lose the odd series but their long-term record of wins is impressive.

The Way of the Heart or the Way of the Mind? The Indian way or the Multinational way? Perhaps, as you leave this campus to explore the world outside, you will fuse, synthesise, and create a new and better way… your own way… there’s an exciting world out there, full of potential, rich with possibilities… I see exciting times ahead.

**This is an excerpt from Alby Anand Kurian’s keynote address at the Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad. Alby leads the Doctorate of Business Administration program at the Management Development Institute of Singapore Earlier, as the founder of Emphasis, a Mumbai-based marketing consultancy, he worked with Procter & Gamble, Nestle and other multi-national companies. His book, The Peddler of Soaps, was a best-seller in India.

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