FNI: In Search of Relevance for an Irrelevant Product

Forum for New Initiative (The Forum)

The forum was established in the early 1990s as a think tank and not-for-profit entity. It undertook research in the area of traditional skills with a view to finding out opportunities for communities dependent on these skills for their livelihood. Some of the initiatives of the forum included livelihood programmes, repositioning skills and collaboration with creative communities. It had also engaged with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) in the promotion of traditional skill sectors including cuisine, linguistics, crafts, performing arts, health and beauty. Currently, the centre focused on skill set identification, the creation of sustainable models and organizing multi-stakeholder meetings and workshops for possible collaboration. The high net worth individuals and corporate executives were invited to these meetings. An appeal was made through PowerPoint presentations and roundtable discussions to collaborate with the forum and make a difference to the lives of marginalized artists.

Saanya, the Vice-president and CEO, had an illustrious background. She had been a Fullbright scholar at the Smithsonian Forum for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and a scholar at the Heller School of Sustainable International Development, Brandeis University. She had consulted and mentored several non-governmental agencies in the creation of sustainable livelihood opportunities in the traditional knowledge sector. Safina, the Director and Programme Coordinator, had been a researcher with Asian Heritage Foundation in Traditional and Cultural skills of Asian countries. Piyali, the Secretary at the Forum previously worked at the World Bank as a consultant for developing inclusive models for marginalized tribal communities.

The State of Affairs

Saanya was deeply moved by the miserable state that these communities of performing arts were being pushed into. For these communities, their skills were the only source of earning a livelihood and were handed down from one generation to the other. She echoed her concern:

The survival of these performing communities is in danger.

Vardhan and his colleague were still struggling to grasp the correct meaning of the term ‘performative arts’. The expression ‘performing arts’ was repeated many times over in her conversation. But what it actually meant was unclear. Vardhan questioned:

What do you mean when you say ‘performative arts’?

India being an old civilization had been home to several forms of arts and crafts. Cultural and ethnic diversity contributed immensely to their evolution and prosperity. Each region had been home to a different type of art and craft. Some of the highly evolved craft forms that flourished in India include pottery, wood carving, carpet weaving and stonework. Performing arts had been an integral part of Indian cultural heritage. Saanya replied:

Performing arts involve artists to use their body, voice and objects to produce creative performances. Some of these are magic, dance, mime, puppetry, circus and theatre. These are essentially performances by people conducted to entertain the audience in private or public gatherings.

The haze that surrounded the topic of discussion began to thin. Saranya’s narrative was more or less socio-ethical. The tribes who solely depended upon their performative skills were unable to find enough patrons in the new urbanized environment. Vardhan tried to look at the problem from a marketing angle. To him, it appeared almost like a situation of service obsolescence. Several questions echoed in Vardhan’s mind and he looked at Aadya and observed:

Can the performative arts be compared with any other service which once thrived on the patronage of its customers? These must have had an enabling ecosystem. The declining demand for performative is suggestive of a disturbed fit between the product and customer requirements. This requires a fuller understanding of the ecosystem that prevailed then and now.

Aadya concurred with the observations and nodded silently. Saanya and others appeared a little confused. The background difference interfered with their understanding. They were unable to fully grasp the import of what was being said. They were unable to appreciate how arts could be equated with a service and what was the relevance of an ecosystem. Many doubts echoed in Saanya’s mind. How could art in any form face obsolescence? How could marketing jargon be used for arts? It was not easy for her to surrender her perspective. But she wanted to add weight to her concern and tried to draw attention towards the implication of this so-called obsolescence:

The performing artists have been left with no means to support their families. This has forced many members of these communities to apply their skills in petty crimes. For instance, street jugglers are forced to apply their tricks on traffic signals to extract alms. Magicians use their trick into selling magic remedies to gullible people. Folk dancers face the risk of drifting into prostitution.

The sorry state of affairs painted by Saanya made a compelling argument in favour of developing some kind of solution. But then the government must have had some programmes to support these sections of society. Vardhan could not resist questioning:

What about government’s support to these communities? Taking care of marginalized sections of the society is the primary responsibility of the state.

Saanya was quick to answer.

The issue to ponder over was why these communities were not able to switch to other vocations or professions. Why these people could not learn new skills and made a switch to something new. Aadya raised the issue:

Why are we not able to re-skill them? Like brands are rejuvenated and repositioned in order to reverse declining fortunes.

Piyali who kept quiet so far was quick to take the question and explained:

The profession in India is often not a matter of choice. Rather it is determined by one’s identity. It is handed over inter-generationally. So folk dancers passed on their dancing skills to their children and puppeteers or magicians do the same. Community norms do not let people abandon their skills. And those who venture out get socially ostracized. Mostly these communities belong to low social hierarchy and do not enjoy political or social clout. This is the reason why governmental scheme of universal education does not cut ice because of pressure to conform with the norms of the communities. The solution has to be found within this constraint.

The problem that the forum sought to solve was multi-dimensional. Vardhan saw it as an amalgamation of sociology, culture, economics and marketing. Skills and status belonged to the domain of culture and sociology and value creation through those skills pertained to marketing and economics.

Sanya’s Strategy

Now fog of confusion got lifted. The marginalization of performative communities was outward manifestation of a deeper malaise. It required deeper analyses of the whole situation from a marketing perspective. The root causes for the decline had to be dug and a new concept in synchronization with the new environment needed articulation. Tactical attempts could not provide sustainability. But Saanya was quick to suggest:

It is a common knowledge that all the top brands have a good name. So we can create a market for these performing arts by coining attractive names. By creating names we can attract customers just as Coca-Cola or Nike does. In my opinion, the key here is to create an attractive name. For instance, a magic show could be named ‘tamasha’.

Saanya was a sharp observer. Her suggestion prima facie made tremendous sense. She probably based her suggestions on Indian child naming practice. She continued:

In India, a common refrain is that a good name sells. So an attractive name is a key. We must create catchy names for our performances.

This was a superficial interpretation of a profound reality. Brand creation could not be equated to brand name creation. Vardhan who quietly listened to Saanya countered:

Do you think top brands sell because of their names or they sell something which is signified by the name? They sell ‘experience’. If a consumer experiences an association with the brand that is aligned to his expectation, he feels satisfied. Otherwise he will move away from the brand. And in many cases, the names are not attractive at all like Haldiram or Dabur but brand experiences are good. So a good product may have a bad name and bad product may have a good name. The name is a signifier, but it is more important to have a vision or idea which the brand name would stand for and truthfully deliver. For instance, if a puppet show is named anything, it would remain a puppet show; the name would not alter its reality. And given the situation, it would not have any market. It is going to be something like old wine in a new bottle.

This left Saanya a little confused. She always thought that all it takes to create a top-selling brand is to give it a good name. This impression came to her from the Indian child naming tradition. Indians typically consult astrologers and priests to name their children. It is believed that name exerts influence on a child’s personality and destiny. Vardhan continued:

If naming was the key in that case brand creation would be the easiest thing to do. Just coin a good name, paste it on a product and offer it to the market. Consumers do not buy the name, they buy value. They expect positive experiences. A name is just a signifier or a sign. But what it signifies matters. What do you want the name to stand for?

The meeting was getting heated up. Saanya began to wonder if the name was not so important then what was. Notwithstanding her background in arts, she had been making efforts to learn about business and marketing. She had been privy to discussions of advertising and positioning on business channels. Managers often spoke of their success through good positioning and communication. This had kindled a desired in her to learn more about these terms. Accordingly, in a bid to educate her, she had been making attempts to learn more in the area of marketing through Internet searches. She thought all that required was to craft a catchy message and push it aggressively. She proposed:

Like other brands, we can position these arts as creative and entertainment platforms. We can communicate a message about the aesthetic experiences to sell these arts. Many of these arts are so good that they can lift mood and soul. People in urban areas live haggard life. These performances are not only to be appreciated for their aesthetic value but also for creating a valuable and positive distraction. A variety of experiences can be generated for the audience through these performances like surprise, humour, joy and entertainment.

Vardhan was pleasantly surprised by Saanya’s exposition. How could somebody with a background of arts and culture talk about positioning with such an ease? She was not wrong in many ways. She had been observing the marketing scene and could effortlessly talk about various success stories in India. She made a brief remark about how Nirma washing powder could succeed on the strength of its ‘low cost’ positioning and Fogg managed to earn leadership in the deodorant market by positioning itself as ‘no gas’ deodorant. Aadya had been quietly listening to the conversation and she could not resist intervening:

The idea of positioning is very important in a competitive landscape. Each of these art forms has a value which is the reason why they could succeed for generations. For instance, mimicking entertains and magicians surprise. Communicating the value that these performative arts produce is akin to telling that toothpaste cleans teeth and a pen writes. But these arts have declined because the value they create has lost relevance. The challenge here is either to find new markets for current value or recreate new value for the current market.

The New Order

The present state of these tribes was caused by a drastic decline for their talent in current forms. Rapid urbanization, change in the rural structure along with diffusion of entertainment technologies was to be blamed. Earlier these artists were patronized by landlords, the wealthy and rulers who commissioned their services to add value and entertainment to grand celebrations like marriage ceremonies and festivals. Precisely because of the crumbling of the old order, that these communities had been forced to migrate to cities. Performative arts could not compete with new methods of engagement and entertainment in urban areas. Aadya continued and raised another relevant question about the target market:

The old order has changed. Therefore these artists have been forced to arrive at the fringes of urban cities in search of livelihood. But urban cities do not have landlords, kings, and masters. People get entertained by modern means like satellite television and cinema; malls and water parks; clubs and resorts. The old style fairs and circuses have ceased to appeal urban audience. Who should be targeted for our performances? ‘What reason to buy’ would we offer to them? What would be our competitive priorities that may establish competitive advantage?

Now the discussion had become even more serious. The demand for performative arts had dwindled in rural societies and they were not pertinent in urban areas. But Saanya had a plan up her sleeves. She thought she could use her connections in schools and corporations to push these performances on a regular basis. Saanya explained:

These arts can be packaged differently like ‘Joker up and down’; ‘Amusement on the street’ and ‘Fun without hardship’. For instance, ‘Joker up and down’ can be marketed to junior schools and, ‘Amusement on the street’ Is good entertainment products for foreign tourists.

To Vardhan, it seemed that Saanya was trying to repackage an old product and trying to push it on to a different market, he observed:

If this was true then no product would ever face decline. It is like fitting square peg in a round hole. Both persuasion and packaging are means. Persuasion involves shaping others’ opinions about an idea. And packaging wraps or contains something. The product creation process must start with a study of the market. The potential market segments in urban areas must be identified and their requirements must be assessed. These performances in their current form are unlikely to make sense to urban clients.

Saanya and her colleagues looked a little upset. Sensing their discomfiture, Aadya jumped on to explain:

Performative arts and the fate of artists are our concern but for the corporate and schools, it hardly is a concern. A good starting point would be to dig into what their concerns are and how a matching solution could be devised for them.

As Aadya Spoke, Vardhan interrupted and reinforced the point:

A good example can be found in the world of cricket. Earlier country teams played a test match against each other in a five-day format. Cricket was about country loyalty, class and gentleman ship. The five day period is too long for new time starved busy people. The IPL is created by an out of box thinking. Somebody looked at cricket game from a new perspective and created a hugely popular IPL format. Prima facie, IPL is a game of cricket but its format is that of entertainment. It borrows both from entertainment and cricketing. It is built on best of both worlds of cricket and entertainment.

The Challenge: Marketable Product

FNI wanted to create a mechanism for sustainability of creative communities of performative arts but not by adopting a mechanism based on charity. This was only possible if these skill-based performances could be converted into marketable products relevant to consumer segments hidden in urban cities. The point that Vardhan conveyed was that performative arts had lost their previously served markets. And new markets for them had to be found but in the current scheme of things they had little relevance. Vardhan concluded:

Schools are in the business of education, corporate firms want productivity, leisure tourists want entertainment and foreign scholars want education and exposure to diverse culture. The challenge for FNI is how value embedded in performative arts could be reformulated to create something meaningful for these markets.

Epilogue

The events, characters and issues, in this case, are real. But, for the purpose of secrecy, their identities have been masked. The case reports a problem that FNI is faced with. The situation described in the case is located in India which has been home to several performative arts and crafts. Under the old rural order, these communities were patronized by the wealthy landlords and rulers. But with the onset of urbanization and diffusion of new means of entertainment, these communities have been economically marginalized. The market for their skill-based performances has diminished drastically.

Saanya heads a non-profit organization, FNI, which intends to create a model by which livelihood opportunities are created for members of these communities. In this regard, she wants to collaborate with governmental and corporate entities to raise funds for this endeavour.

This case can be used in graduate and postgraduate programmes in management, in courses like brand management, marketing management, marketing strategy and product management. The topics that could be covered by this case include brand identity, product rejuvenation, marketing environment, brand positioning and marketing strategy

The intended learning outcomes are:

Understand the concept of product decline and the dynamic nature of the market environment or business ecosystem

Products are part of a dynamic environment. Therefore, obsolescence is a common reality. However, product life can be extended by recasting its image or ingredients in order to (re)establish its relevance in the current or new market. Old gramophones do not play music but enjoy market as display objects. Innovation in marketing often is about imaginative thinking.

Declaration of conflicting interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this case.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this case.