Patriotic Marketing - How Patriotism has Become the New Marketing Trend in India

Patriotism is a political ideology. It means an emotion of devotion and a sense of attachment to the homeland. This feeling creates a sentiment of oneness among all the citizens of the country. This quality is quite omnipresent in the world. We love where we are born and that attachment can be seen throughout. We feel like a part of something big and the hope that it brings is immense. That feeling of being united with all other citizens who are sharing the same land and laws is what we call patriotism.

However, as capitalism grows and more and more businesses are being set up, we can see how the world is changing. It is changing and the little elements are changing too. We see business and advertising penetrate into our daily lives. They are so omnipresent that if we don't find them, we feel like something is missing. That kind of effect can be seen in every strata. Businesses have changed and manipulated the meaning of patriotism to its benefit. They have now begun using the term for promotions of their product. It truly makes a good combination. This article is just about that, no BS. read on to see how the marketing world innovatively uses patriotism as a promotion mechanism.

What is Patriotic Marketing?
Advantages Behind these Patriotic Adverts
Examples of Patriotic Marketing
FAQ

What is Patriotic Marketing?

The phrase patriotic marketing is that form of marketing when the theme of the marketing campaign aligns itself with the feeling of patriotism. There are slogans, images and catchphrases to lure people and convey a message of pride and honour for the country.

This new form of advertisement uses that united and pride feeling of the citizens as their face of the marketing campaign. This helps in the wider reach of the campaign and that also ensures that people are connected to the advertisement (emotionally). The intentions are yet to be found but patriotism as a marketing technique works 9 out of 10 times in India.

It can take many forms and types. It can be promoting the product that is “Made in India”, or the product being made with raw materials from India. It can also use colours to wake up the inner patriot in you. This happens every August when brands start campaigning about independence and freedom.

Moreover, they tend to change colours too, to green and saffron and white. The change in colours happens to instil the feeling of patriotism in the citizens and to cash out on the opportunity of the big independence day.

Advantages Behind these Patriotic Adverts

There are countless benefits for colouring a brand campaign into the colours of the national flag. The benefits entail some said and some unsaid feelings, it also goes through people’s hearts. This type of marketing has to be very careful in its actions as it can make someone feel bad or offend someone in some way. If done right, it can become the recipe for success for your brand and the product that your brand offers. Let us see on what dynamics, this sort of advertisement helps and why.

Unity and crowd

This is the most basic example of why patriotic marketing works. It is the epitome of unity and connectedness in this digital world. Anything that has the ability to unite people will result in activating some sort of crowd work, which leads to more conversion of viewers into customers. Most Indians are patriots and thus most Indians will be moved by this type of marketing campaign.

Emotional appeal

There have been countless incidents that have proved that ‘marketing’ works mostly on principles of psychology. Humans are social animals and they love to live in clusters because it is safe and efficient. Emotions originated from being in constant company with others.

When we see something emotional, our hormones go dancing and we remember that thing for a long time. This is what marketing with any emotional theme does to our brain, it brings the emotional hormones to life and it makes them dance.

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Examples of Patriotic Marketing

If you have read this article all this while, then you might be bored of explanations and more explanations. This chain needs to break to save the attention timeout of your brain. Let us now see a few examples to make the topic more clear.

Tata tea

This famous phrase “Jaago re” is the campaign aired by Tata tea. Tata is a brand that has a long history and strong goodwill. It has maintained to face the Indian business seas for many decades now. Its history and integrity are as old and strong as India itself. Jaago re is an attempt to wake up India and act in a positive direction.

Chai or ‘tea’ is the perfect partner for this campaign because it is the most common drink Indians have after waking up in the morning. So, going by that theme, the Jaago re campaign kicked off. The campaign aims to change how people look at India. Their tagline goes like “Chai piyo, soch badlo” which means to look at things from a different perspective.

As India faces many issues and problems, we cannot deny the fact that we have also done some good work in many areas. It is about perspective and the will to act in a positive direction. Jaago re which means ‘Wake up’ in English is a synonym for ‘Waking up to act’.

Here's the campaign. The video entails a protagonist or the lead person giving people chai to wake them up. He says that widely awake people are still sleeping. Upon asking why, He says “If you are not casting your vote on the day of voting and came to watch a film instead, then you're not awake, you're sleeping” then comes the tagline that says “Jaago Re” which inspires people to be more than just onlookers onto the development of the country India. The tagline inspires people to volunteer in the process of developing the nation.

Amul

There is a big chance that you have already heard that catchy jingle that goes like “Amul doodh peeta hai India”. That literally translates as ‘India drinks Amul milk’. The advertisement campaign shows various colours of India. It shows the various activities young people do, like dancing and playing and running furiously anywhere.

The youthfulness of the advertisement resembles the youthfulness of the country. The reason is the fact that India is a young nation with an average age of about 28 years. This campaign celebrates the activeness of Indian youth with a catchy jingle that is sure to get on to your mind.

There is another advertisement that propagates the brand value of Amul. It celebrates the ubiquitous nature of Amul products. The ad shows how Amul can be used everywhere where there is food. ‘The Taste of India’ is a wonderful example of boosting revenues with the promotion in the forms of hope and unitedness.

Patanjali -

The brand needs no introduction, Patanjali is the brainchild of Baba Ramdev. Baba Ramdev is probably the most famous yoga guru in India. Also, he is by far the most notable advocate for natural living. With these touchpoints in mind and along with some Indian or patriotic marketing, he came up with the idea of Patanjali.

Patanjali is now synonymous with every Indian household. It has products that range from hair shampoos to atta noodles and more. All this with the aim of “Swadeshi” or products that are made in India and made for India.

Their marketing department knows a lot about India. They know the significance of a cow and how animals are mistreated in procuring milk or dairy products. They created a masterpiece campaign that talks about everything, from being made in India, to cow mistreatments, and safe and natural ghee.

Kajaria Tiles -

India is an under-construction country, there is always something that is under construction. The spirit of a constructing country propagates many brands that are in the construction business. One of the most iconic names is the “Kajaria Tiles”. They have a campaign named “Desh ki Mitti” which reflects the intentions and emotions of Kajaria.

It was helmed by Repindia and they roped in Akshay Kumar as the brand ambassador. They made the campaign reflect upon the value that the brand wanted to propose. The tagline went like “Dekh ki mitti se desh ko banate hain” which translates to “Let us build the country with its own soil”. It needs to be noted here that the campaign was highly successful among viewers.

This advertisement shows how India has turned out to be a super nation and how everyone hopes for the country. It celebrates how we say namaste in an international gathering because we are connected to the roots of our country.

The fact that Indians love their roots and it literally provides them energy to do more in life is the reason why this advertisement is quite successful. Be it in the field of sports, or war, or scientific advancements, India is not lacking behind in any sphere and we get that power from “Desh ki Mitti” that is “The soil of our homeland”.

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola entered the second largest country on the globe with an advertisement that portrayed “Happiness”. They have constantly tried hard to get going in that direction. It is the most popular soft drink company in India.

With its advertising around the game of cricket and uniting the different cultures of India, it has come to a point when everyone knows what coca-cola is. Thus, the company enjoys great revenues and nice goodwill. This video can be a good example to show what kind of hope and happiness this brand tries to reflect on its audience.

The real deal that these guys pull off is the India-Pakistan relation. As we all know that India and Pakistan share a love-hate relationship, brands try to monetize on this too. Coca-Cola has a very famous TVC (TV Commercial) that tries to connect people from India and the people of Pakistan a little closer.

What they did was that they install a machine in both countries. The vending machines were connected to each other through the internet or whatsoever and would only work when some actions were performed on both sides of the machines. ‘Work’ here means that it will give out free Coca-Cola to volunteers on both sides. So, people were dancing and singing and doodling shapes to get a free cola and meanwhile they felt that they were connected to the other countrymen.

Paytm

It would be safe to say that Paytm is the face of the beginning of cashless transactions in India. It is a startup but it does not feel any new, it feels like Paytm was an integral part of payments for years.

After the demonetisation that happened in 2016, online payments were the most efficient refuge for people trying to transact on a daily basis. It has started a tough fight that is against the problem of payments in India. We face the issue of coins every other day and it is hard to keep a lot of coins (Small denominator notes).

Paytm started a campaign that prompted people to pay digitally to make transactions a smooth flow. The Indian government also boosted and helped this campaign in its capacity. It was a wonderful and efficient way of translating for everyday essentials and it also struck a chord with citizens. It was titled “Aadat se Azadi”.

Soon after that Paytm became also vocal for women participation in labour and changing and upgrading Indian payments scenes. They made some advertisements showcasing women's roles in the economy too.

Bajaj

Here is a bonus clip for curious minds. Bajaj made a bike from the metal of INS Vikrant and made headlines along with real cash.

Do you remember the Bajaj Vikrant motorcycle, the V15? It was marketed as a machine that is built with the metal INS Vikrant. INS Vikrant is the indigenous aircraft carrier that was also the first-ever that was built in India. That bike was and still is quite famous.

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Conclusion

Reading the above examples I can quite safely say that Anything can be a marketing campaign. Brands have not left any product that can be marketed in any permutation or combination of different themes. You mix some products with national colours and what you get is a wonderful marketing campaign. Brands do it every time.

Patriotic marketing goes a long-long way in promoting national pride and the product. It is a topic that everyone is too careful about because it can hurt some sentiments too. However, if done correctly, it can lead to great revenues and good social scores.

Some brands are too patriotic or they do that for the sake of marketing, we do not know for sure. One thing is sure that the sense of unity and pride or patriotism unites us like nothing else in the world.

FAQ

What is patriotism in marketing?

Patriotic marketing is a marketing technique that involves the use of promotional strategies that convey a sense of national pride.

How is patriotism used in advertising?

Brands use patriotism in advertising by using patriotic imagery in their ads.