The Marketing Genius of Poonam Pandey – the Girl who Dared to Bare for the Indian Cricket Team

The Marketing Genius of Poonam Pandey – the Girl who Dared to Bare for the Indian Cricket Team

Sodas are the greatest product marketed in history of consumer products. The entire list of benefits is all imaginary and made up. They deliver nothing but bad health, and yet they have such a huge market. Very few advertising efforts and campaigns have been done in history where a product was NEVER really sold, but the entire campaign was created on MERE PROMISE. And yet the campaign raked in money. One the greatest marketing genius award of our times should, in my humble view, go to the model – Poonam Pandey. The girl who dared to go Nude if the Indian team won the World Cup. Except she never did. But got written on by EVERY paper, magazine and internet site in EVERY cricket (and some non-cricket) playing country. With her glamorous pictures. She managed a campaign without spending a dime! Yes, on mere promise.

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And every act of hers creates even more and more buzz. LIke her letter to the Board of Cricket Control in India (reproduced below). To make her act of going buff even more “holy” she promised a private therapeutic performance with a hapless but lucky psychologist in tow. Poonam is not a person for the traditionalist and the cultured crowds. She is outrageous to the core and can get on the nerves of those who value “Values” in society. In a society where the young and the restless want to shock and admire those who are “out there”, she can be just what sells in the market.

Many years back, in 1974, a young model – Protima Bedi – had streaked along Juhu Beach in broad daylight for the launch of the Bollywood magazine, Cineblitz. That incident made her an instant star. Years later, she said the following about her streaking performance.

Society has a special way of turning a joyous expression into something ugly.
Here I am in all my totality. Those who have leered at women, lusted for them and gone through discovering just that little bit more, I say to them: come, see me I was born this way.
Our thoughts, our mind are narrow, arid and hollow. Emotionally we are starved. Religiously and intellectually, we are repetitive and dull.
Politically and economically, we are regimented and controlled.we are not a happy people. We are not free and joyous.
At home, in our temples and in our schools, we never achieve a creative being. There is no deep release in our daily thoughts and actions.
One of our hindrances in free living is fear and respectively manifestation of that fear.
They know not the meaning of the axion that truth is beauty and beauty truth.
They are enclosed by the walls of their own righteousness and cannot see beyond.
Their stained glass morality based on orthodoxy, conventions and taboos has nothing to do with morality.

She obviously could have learnt a thing or two from Tabloid India’s latest sensation – Poonam Pandey. Unlike, Protima Bedi, this girl hasn’t even shown anything, but hit the right note for advertising. What are the main principles she used in this campaign, that are worth examining by the Advertising firms?

Stick to your Core Competency: She is a model and an outrageous one who has tried to do some raunchy and skin bare campaigns, so this Nude-For-India’s-Cup campaign fit with the core product brand extremely well. All the publicity and the engagements coming in based on such a campaign would further strengthen the brand’s image in its original market. There is a difference between, say a lady who wants to be a great actress and one who wants to make it big in the glamour industry. She is the latter and she makes no bones about it.

Select the Best Time and correponding event to launch your brand: World Cup cricket was the biggest event of a game which is the most popular with Indians. What better time to advertise than the final stages of the biggest stage? Every eye and ear is on you.

Be Outrageous: Many products are out there in the market. Getting prominence is not easy. It is important to say and do the things that no one can. Saying openly that she would go Nude was as outrageous a thing that one could have said. It was a first.

Poonam Pandey’s Letter to BCCI

he Board of Governors/Manager
The BCCI

Dear Sir,

I write to you as a great fan of Cricket and above all a patriotic Indian.

I want India to win the Cricket World Cup 2011 and am willing to go the extra mile to do anything so that India wins the World Cup. I am a model and actress and have decided to do what I can for India!

I have already expressed my desire to further motivate the Indian Cricket team to perform better and lift the World Cup.

I am ready and willing at any place and time of the Indian team’s choosing to go in the nude to boost their sporting spirit to perform better.

This, I say seriously as there are many studies conducted by various Universities abroad which confirms and infers that such performances/expectations boost and inspire people to perform better in any field, be it sports or otherwise. Even medical books on psychology and psychiatry confirms this.

You will appreciate that India has been longing for a World Cup ever since.

Cricket today is a religion in India. Should India lose the World Cup it would demoralize hundreds of crores of Indians and people may react violently in some places too.

It is therefore my humble request to you to allow me to perform in the privacy of the Indian Cricket team’s dressing room or any other place of your choosing.(YOU MAY ALSO CHOOSE A FOREIGN LAND LIKE PARIS IN FRANCE, SO THAT THE LAWS OF INDIA – IF A HINDRANCE , SHALL NOT APPLY.)

This shall be a private therapeutic performance with a psychologist’s presence and hence, cannot be an offence under any law for the time being in force if the team members have no objection and the BCCI gives the go ahead.

Only appearing in the nude in public is an offence, but in private with consenting adults for a purpose therapeutic is no offence. Even a contract for the same can be drawn up and should not be in violation of the Indian Contract Act as it is not opposed to public policy or morality. Besides, the BCCI is not a Government body and can enter into such a contract.

Should such a contract be needed to be drawn, you can approach my lawyer, Advocate Prashant Uchil on 022-32639020 to discuss modalities and the same shall be signed by me without any hesitation to protect the institution (BCCI) and indemnify it .

Looking forward to your assistance to make Team India win the World Cup 2011!

Warm Regards

Poonam Pandey

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