5/21/2018 For God's Sake An adman on the business of Religion

For Gods Sake: An Adman on the business of religion

Reviewed by : Sharad Agarwal (IIM, Ranchi)

Sharad2021@gmail.com

India is a land of many religions including Hinduism, Islam, Jainism Buddhism, Christianity, and

Sikhism. Western scholars, in the past, have found religiosity as one of the most important cultural

forces and influences on consumer behaviour. Although, there is some research done in the western

world on the role of spirituality and religiosity in influencing the consumer behaviour, the

mainstream marketing academics and the practitioners have neglected the role of this dimension in

consumers decision making process. In the Indian context, this book by Dr. Ambi Parameswaran is

one of the first steps to explore this important aspect of Indian consumer behaviour.

Religiosity is defined as a belief in the existence of God, and a commitment to comply with the rules

of the religion. This book wonderfully explains some of the facets, how the Indians are influenced,

most of the times unconsciously, with their religious beliefs, while making their consumption related

decisions. One of the examples of the role of religiosity and spir ituality in influencing consumers

decision making process is the rise of Baba Ramdevs, Patanjali Ayurveda and Divya Pharmacy,

whose product ranges from Ayurveda medicines to FMCG products such as soaps and toothpastes.

The firm although is in the initial years of its operations, is giving tough competition to MNCs, such

as Hindustan Unilever and Colgate Pamolive and has reported total sales of Rs. 455 Crore during the

fiscal year 2011-12 and expects it to quadruple it to Rs. 2000 Crore in the near future. The experts

accredit this success to Spiritual Marketing, which unconsciously satisfies the spiritual needs of the

consumer.

In the context of young Indian fast food consumers, researchers have found that their ethical beliefs

are not impacted by any of three predictors (importance of money, intrinsic religiosity, and spiritual

well-being). Instead they found that it depends on the interaction of importance of money, intrinsic

religiosity, and spiritual well-being affects consumer ethics. These results, in the Indian study are not

only counter-intuitive but also depart from the results of consumers in western individualistic

society. In light of the example mentioned above and the findings of Indian research, this book is a

crucial resource to understand in detail the role of Indian consumers religious beliefs on their

consumption pattern and practices.

Dr. Parameswaran brings with himself immense experience of running campaigns for numerous

firms with the leading advertising agency Draft FCB Ulka, and this book is an outcome of his

experience in launching products and services, which many of the times were different from the

usual ones. The book is divided in 24 short chapters. In chapter 3, while discussing the role of

weddings in Indian marketplace, he expects the actual size of Indian wedding industry to be much

greater than Rs. 1.5 lakh Crore, the figure cited in a report by Hindustan Times. To grab a share of

this pie, brands try to associate themselves with the wedding scenario. Some of the successful

examples quoted by the author are Godrej storewel, Bajaj scooter & Tata Indica. An intresting

example quoted by the author is of the brand called Manyawar, Manyawar seems to have managed

to build tremendous traction, selling over Rs. 500 Crore worth of goods in 2012 (p.29)

5/21/2018 For God's Sake An adman on the business of Religion

While discussing the role of cinema in promoting the festival itself, author quotes an interesting

example of another Hindu festival, Karva Chauth, an Indian answer to wests Valentines day. The

festival has gained immense popularity with Bolywood movies like Dilwale Dulhaniya le Jayenge and

Baghban.To cite how the companies use this festivals to promote their product, author cites

example of Hyundai, Karva Chauth was featured in a Hyundai car commercial which shows the

loving husband driving home in a hurry in his new Accent car to join his wife to lo ok at the moon

(p.125)Dr. Parmeswaran has done a wonderful job in presenting the historical account of the Indian

festivals or customs and how the brands are monetizing these opportunities in the Indian markets.

The quintessential example author quotes is of Akshaya Trithiya, which was virtually unheard of until

a few decades ago. Akshay Trithiya is associated with the god of wealth, Kubera, and it is

considered auspicious to buy Jewellery in his honour(p.42). Not only jewellery brands like Tanishq

and Gitanjali promote their products during this occasion, car brands like Volkswagen enticed

customers to wolcome prosperity with a Skoda Fabia on Akshaya Trithiya. This phenomenon of

riding on back of religious festival to advertise the product is not unique to India. Globally brands

practice it to come more close to their consumers. Author promptly quotes example of Harley-Davidson. The iconic bike brand sought the blessings of Pope Francis for its 110

thanniversary. On

June 2013 Pope Francis blessed thousands of Harley-Davidson riders. (p.51)

Any discussion on religiosity and consumption is incomplete without a talk on religious tourism. The

author, in chapter 8, makes it a point to discuss the religious tourism in India. India is a home to

shrines and pilgrimages for almost all religion. Hindus have temples and pilgrimage across the

country. Country is a land of 10,000 tirthas, author quotes Wendy Doniger from her book, The

Hindus, tirthas are shrines where one can simultaneously cross over the river and the perils of the

world of rebirth(p.66). Seven of the eight holy Buddhist shrines are in India. The Harmandir Sahib in

Amritsar, the Golden Temple, is most sacred gurudwara for the Sikhs, likewise the country containtsmany prominent shrines important to respective religions. Global hospitality brands are cashing on

this opportunity, Carlson hotels Worldwide has hotels in Katra, Hardwar, Shirdi, and Badrinath.

ITCs Fortune hotel operates in Shirdi, Madurai and Tirupati to tap the growing affluent religious

travellers (p.69)

Religiosity and altruism are closely related as is evident from the ritual of zakah or zakat, the

purification of wealth, practiced by prosperous Muslims. Islam prescribes that each Muslim

contributes 2.5 per cent of his annual wealth to the poor and needy. The Indian government seems

to have adopted this idea while it made mandatory for companies operating in India to spend 2 per

cent of their profits on the CSR activities thus we see that the religious rituals have deep implicationsfor businesses and policy makers.

Businesses can also be seen learning from religions and deploying their directives in the businesses

practices to create differentiation for themselves. Author quoted example of Wipro Unza, one of

the Malasias largecosmetic companies having a halalcompliant cosmetic brand called Safi which

has seen tremendous growth over the last five years. In the Indian context, IndiGo, one of the best

run airlines in India, has ensured that all the non-vegetarian food served on its flights is halal

compliant. This disclaimer on the airlines menu caught the authors attention and we believe this

would help them to differentiate themselves from other in the competitive airline sector in India.

However, this is a risk and challenge in adopting this strategy, and as Dr. Parmeswaran rightly points,By trying to create Muslim - friendly products and services do they run the danger of driving away

5/21/2018 For God's Sake An adman on the business of Religion

Hindu/Christian customers? (p.121). This is something which managers have to extremely

thoughtful of while carrying out such differentiation strategy.

Apart from the numerous strategies religion has to offer to the managers of large corporations, it

also presents great opportunities for budding entrepreneurs. One of the classic examples author

cites is onlinepraad.com, founded by Goonjan Mall, an Indian entrepreneur, the site offers to do a

puja and send Prasad to you. The venture plans to tap into the growing $ 1 billion religious spends by

Indians on the internet. This online venture is an attempt to serve the spiritual needs of the

consumers simultaneously providing them an enjoyable online shopping experience. This opens up

an opportunity just waiting to be tapped by the future entrepreneurs.

Individual finds a meaning to his/her life through religion, brands jump on this bandwagon by

associating themselves with the religion or religious festivals/ events. In the process they manage to

sell their products to the consumers who then try to look for that meaning in those products. The

author also predicts some of the market opportunities, which are neglected by the marketers but

are ripe for growth. The author, most of the times, gives examples from the brands/ outlets or cases

from Chennai, from which every reader might not be familiar with and may find himself/ herself to

connect with. Examples of national brands/ logos would have served the purpose better.

The author wonderfully depicts the role of religion and festivals in consumer buying behaviour with

examples from several local, national and domestic brands. He also presents lot of opportunities

which are currently neglected by the brand managers/marketers and are ripe for getting exploited.

However to further answer the epistemological issue of why the consumers are motivated to buy

products when it has some religious connotations associated with it? or what persuades the pilgrims

to travel thousands of kilometres in tough environmental conditions to visit a particular shrine in

Himalyas?, an ethnographic study is required to be done. It is a research area which some doctoral

students can take up in their research to further advance the domain of our current knowledge in

this area.

The book is an easy read. Each chapter is independent of other and if readers are short of time, they

may be interested to read particular chapters of their interests. The author also provides meanings

of religious vocabulary under the heading, Religion: An essential vocabulary at the end of the

book. This is one of the major strengths of the book and acquaints the readers with major religious

practices/concepts of all major religion.

All in all, this book is an indispensable resource for anyone associated with the marketing function ofany product or service, student of management or anyone interested to understand the influence

the religion on the Indian consumer.