Why aren't we seeing iconic advertising like in the past? I blame it on commodification of creativity. Intellectual & technological commodification. Key to creative communication that address a billion & half people in a country as large as ours is a combination of finding its common functional and emotional threads and deep functional understanding of your product & category. Both seem to have come a cropper in the creative profession over the last decade and a half with a few exceptions. Identifying common emotional threads of India is about knowing its demography, geography, its cultural sensitivity, its aspiration, its motivations. Creatively visualizing a communication that resonates involves deep understanding of the category, the business, the product and its functional propositions. Most creative professionals of today seem to have a media filtered view of India from behind the screen. I find few interested in dirtying their feet on field, gaining knowledge about creation of the product or service, understanding the supply chain or meeting consumers and assessing moments of truth. They operate in a virtual cultural bubble inside their screen. Far removed from reality. This gap is the core reason we don't see iconic advertising. The demand for commoditised creativity is so large that it has spawned a crowd of agencies dispensing volume over quality which is accepted. They seem to be less creative agencies & more aggregators of Gen Z digital manpower who operate basic software tools. The scenario is the same on the client side. For the marketing team an agency it is an outsourced manpower resource that is at their beck and call to produce layouts of little consequence. A brand is a sum total of all aspects of business, communicated clearly. Even if manufacturing, pricing, supply chain, sales etc function smoothly and the creative aspect falters no brand can ever be built. There is Canva for layout, Shutterstock for images, Claude for copy & a Runway for video. But no tool can replace visualization. That purely is a function of intellect, observation, interaction & sensory experience. #Brand #Strategy #Communication #marketing

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Before sustainability, circular economy & recycling became modern buzzwords .. Us children at home were given one last chance before trashing a fused light bulb. To somehow connect the disjointed dangling tungsten filament ! If it had any hope, you managed sometimes. Bulbs life extended, family saved money & you earned a brownie point. Lesson learnt - frugality? Sustainability? Effort & reward? Happiness? .. All. Or Parvati Bai. She came around every few months exchanging useless old clothes for shiny useful stainless steel utensils with Mom. A barter that left, albeit after some haggling, both parties happy. Mandatory end was a parting chai for Parvati bai. Lesson - Circular economy? Waste to Wealth? Win Win Negotiation? ... All Strange are the ways of modern consumption economy. Propagate use & throw at individual level. Institutionalize the act of sustainability. Create scalable business model. Circular economy in India is a $20 billion annual business. From solid waste to bio waste to metal scrap to waste .. there is a goldmine under that trash business. Some robust lsited companies too. And hugely profitable. Don't trash the trash .. there is big money to be made down under ... #Sustainability #circulareconomy #indianeconomy #strategy #beyondobvious #managementconsulting Helicon Consulting