Friendly technobabble

Market evolution is driving tech brands beyond their traditional domains of influence.

One look at the recent Lenovo ad featuring Saif Ali Khan, and your feet start inching up in relaxation. It feels like an ad for Bagpiper or Thums Up or something else suitably relaxing. Or take, for that matter, the new Compaq ad featuring Shahrukh Khan. Does it sell a computer? Er, uhmm "" well, that too.

Remember the time when technology products advertising was about technology? Those days are long gone. One of the main reasons, say observers, is that the PC no longer inspires much awe with gigabyte chunkloads, processing speed and all the rest of the technobabble.

It has become such an integral part of ordinary life that the target consumer must be wooed some other way. Of course, Apple Computer was doing this decades ago. But for the wider market, this is a new era of product friendliness.

As Shuchi Sarkar, head, marketing, Hewlett Packard India, puts it, "The PC has reached the masses as well, and there is a need for products to have a universal appeal." Which is why "giga" seems the last thing on Khan's mind by way of "byte" in the Compaq commercial.

Meanwhile, the need to "educate the consumer" is also wearing thin. Special offer-driven advertising is on the wane too, largely because organised sector brands consider "value" the more important part of the so-called "value for money" equation, recalling Oscar Wilde's famous line about a cynic (someone who knows the price of everything and value of nothing).

In all, it's a sign of market evolution, says Sandeep Bhargava, CEO, FCB Ulka. "With IT playing a pivotal role in the economy as well as common man's life," he says, "the advertising has seen a major shift."

So what we have now is an attempt to get close to the consumer's inner motivations. That's a brand game, according to Saurav Adhikari, vice-president, corporate and strategy, HCL Infosystems. "More and more communication activities serve to prop up the brand these days," he says.

According to IDC, about 4 million computers were sold in India in 2005, up almost 25 per cent over 2004. With numbers rising fast, ad spends are going up too. Last year, HCL spent almost Rs 10 crore, and has earmarked Rs 30 crore this year. "We need to build the image of the brand and reach out to the masses," explains Adhikari.