Straying into the grey zone

When comedian Tanmay Bhat spoofed legendary playback singer Lata Mangeshkar and cricket czar Sachin Tendulkar in a Snapchat video recently, two names figured prominently in that video. They were that of Jon Snow and Melisandre, characters from the popular fantasy drama television series, Game of Thrones (GoT) .

Bhat later joked that he never imagined Melisandre would ever make it to Marathi channels (these channels discussed the Snapchat video threadbare in their primetime debates). But for many consumers in India, these GoT characters are already household names. Many consumers have watched the episodes over and over. Some of them collect entire seasons, or download them, and indulge in binge watching over the weekend. Some of the terms used in the series are also entering popular lingo (click here: http://goo.gl/XkAT5M ).

It’s not just GoT . Another American crime drama television series, Breaking Bad, made headlines sometime ago because Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan reportedly wanted to remake it into an Indian series. In the Indian context, the success of these series and their entry into popular discourse indicates that there are enough consumers willing to lap up murder, betrayal, war as their daily or weekly dose of television entertainment. If you are into gaming, then there is a distinct and growing tribe that lusts behind games like Overlord or Golden Eye .

Greater acceptance Marketing experts say that today’s generation prefers the smooth operator to the struggling protagonist of the past. “Clearly, society is getting more real and honest. People are willing to accept they have a grey side and are also vicariously enjoying this darker side being unleashed. Deeper, it is about society grappling with imperfection in pursuit of perfection,” says Madhukar Sabnavis, vice-chairman and country head, discovery and planning, Ogilvy & Mather India.

Others think consumers are more comfortable with accepting their imperfections. Today, consumers, especially the millennials and the working professionals aged 25-40 years, staying in urban India, are a lot more informed, more travelled and exposed directly or indirectly to multiple cultures. “They are lot more aware as well and accepting of their imperfections,” says Gunjan Soni, chief marketing officer, Myntra.

According to her, that new belief system is leading to new behaviours. For instance, earlier conformity to conventions and taboos was a guiding line for behavioural expressions. But today’s youth are more irreverent, open to rebellious expressions if needed and place a higher importance on ‘standing out’ as compared to ‘fitting in’.

Opening up niches For marketers, this means there are more addressable niche segments they can cater to, for any product. “While this is still an urban phenomenon, we see that consumers are increasingly more open to trying out products or services which are reflection of their new belief systems. More specifically, in our fashion business, this has implications on the sort of catalogue we create and our communication themes,” says Soni.

However, other marketers such as Shireesh Joshi, head, strategic marketing group, Godrej says Indian consumers have always shown a preference for content that has shades of grey. According to him, “A bit of spice may be just the right thing to liven things up. The consumers prefer the real world, real characters and not the artificial, perfect ones.”

For this set of consumers, being a bit bad or ‘imperfect’ on the darker side probably signifies intelligence and smartness, says one marketing expert. Sabnavis of Ogilvy disagrees. “The concept of smartness was the theme of the first decade of this millennium. I think the dark side or grey side is a spectrum from vicarious enjoyment to being real and not really about smartness,” he says.

Marketers, however, do not think that this generation is embracing the darker side. “They are able to accept authentic individuals, who come with flaws and may not be perfect in every aspect. This has meant that they see “being grey” as being “real” and are lot more accepting of it. The previous generation would paint Ram as the ideal son, husband and ruler and Raavan as the villain. But some new-age mythology interpretations challenge some of the actions by Ram and applaud Raavan on many points,” says Soni.

She adds that in today’s world spiky individuals who stand out for either their intelligence (new versions of Sherlock series) or special talent, but have other flaws, are also accepted as heroes and role models especially by urban youth. This certainly has a lot of ramifications for brands and marketing. But that’s a grey area many brands have not yet ventured into.