Brand Anna hits on unique marketing strategy in India
Who would have thought that a 74-year-old Gandhian, who studied only till seventh standard, doesn’t speak English, wears a near-extinct traditional dhoti-kurta and lives in a small village in Maharashtra would become India’s most popular brand in a span of 13 days. But suddenly Brand Anna – associated with honesty and uprightness - has become every image conscious Indian’s favourite because it stands for the aspirations of three generations – from Facebook/Twitter geeks to their grandparents who saw the Freedom struggle of 1947 to the ones in between. No wonder then that an entire country of a billion plus wants to buy it, wear it and be it.According to a recent tracking by India Influencer list that tracks over 3,000 Indian online entities daily and ranks their influence based upon their impact on social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc, Anna is amongst the top ten brands online. It beats Vodaphone, MTV and even Amitabh Bachchan, India’s iconic film star.Named after Kisan (farmer) Baburao Hazare – now of course Anna (big brother) to the world - this new brand has a strong online presence and is selling Gandhi topis (caps), National Flags, T shirts and Ganesh idols, besides getting hits on a mockup of a popular game for android and ipad devices called Angry Anna. This ranking makes Anna Hazare’s Jan Lokpal movement against corruption - that stirred up the largest post-independence peaceful protest amongst Indians worldwide – even more influential online in India than established brands. The movement attracted over 500,000 fans across Facebook, over 100,000 followers on micro-blogging platform Twitter and a Klout score of 80, which is higher than even Amitabh Bachchan , says a study recently released by Pinstorm. A Klout score is a social grading service which measures a person’s influence in aggregate of all of their social networks presence.In India social media has been used for political activism after the terrorist attack of 26/11 when a few lakh people in Mumbai got together for a protest meeting using Twitter, Facebook and SMS. The Stand with Anna petition online got 500,000 signatures within 48 hours. It was powered by Avaaz.org, which describes itself as “a global web movement to bring people-powered politics to decision-making everywhere.” “I am Anna”. Gandhi caps, made popular during the movement by activists and students, have showed up on ramps on the heads of models and films stars. Anna T shirts with anti-corruption messages are selling online and Angry Anna, a mockup of the popular game Angry Birds by Rovio is rapidly gaining lots of likes and tweets on the internet. It shows Anna Hazare, Baba Ramdev and other popular anti-corruption leaders breaking politicians’ faces with a battle cry of Vande Mataram. Designed by Geek Mentors Studio, a Noida-based technology start-up, the game features the activists fighting against corrupt politicians to get black money back, the same way that birds target the green pigs in “Angry Birds”. Angry Anna was a trending topic on Twitter. Uploaded on 24th of August, the site confirmed more than 46,000 hits in 24 hours.Recently, the students of Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University, even had a class on ‘Brand Anna’ where it was explored how a simple man who you wouldn’t look at twice on the street turned the corruption issue into a brand with an exciting marketing strategy. A lot of the credit goes to social networking sites that have brought a wave of young people – collegiate, school kids, young working professionals – into the fight against corruption. The anti-corruption movement is a perfect example of how viral a social movement can be through the smart use of social media.Anna Hazare is championing a citizen-developed bill called Jan Lokpal that aims to create an independent body, selected by judges, citizens and constitutional authorities that will have the power to investigate and punish all politicians from the lower bureaucracy to the Prime Minister.