I’m back from the state of hibernation, which lasted for more than two months and now onwards I’ll try to write more frequently…
Ganpati Festival - is celebrated in one of the most grandiose manner’s in Mumbai… What I’ve felt in the past two years was that many people actually wait for the whole year, just for Ganpati to return back… People celebrate this festival at their own homes or in common pandals…
One may find lot of Ganpati pandals of all sizes and statures, everywhere… These pandals are open for common public and organized by a committee / team of people. They manage everything by the help of the sponsorship and also the donation they get from various political parties, residents and shopkeepers of the adjoining area and also from the devotees…
Outside most of these pandals you’ll find a big board or hoarding with the name of the Ganpati’s Pandal name, etc. Out of which, most of them will also have the name, flag and the photos of the leaders of thesecommunalist secular political parties… I truly don’t understand that what Bal Thackeray, Udbhav Thackeray, Raj Thackeray or for that matter any other local leader’s photo is doing on these Ganpati pandal’s hoarding??? Is this a festival or some political gathering???
According to Marketing Principles, if some individual or company sponsors some event then they may like to see their name and logo on the hoardings… I agree that if we can have the name of “Reliance Communication” or “Airtel” on any Ganpati pandal hoarding, then why not the name of any political party; they have also donated money from their accounts but is it justified to cover the 75-80% of the hoarding by sponsor related details? Some of these hoardings have photos of these leaders, which are bigger than actual size of that leader… I’ve even seen few hoardings where these photos covered almost 90% of the area and the Ganpati picture was merely covering 5-7% of the hoarding… Till date, I may not have seen many events or such festivals but from what I’ve seen, I always found that not more than 10-20% of the total space of the main hoardings or backdrops was covered by the sponsors…
During this festive season if you go out anywhere in Mumbai (I’m not talking about any other city because I’ve not see the Ganpati Festival there), you’ll always find lot of such hoardings on roadside and actually they help you to locate the Ganpati pandals… When I came to Mumbai first time, it was Ganpati time; initially I thought that some sort of elections must be round the corner that’s why so many political hoardings are present everywhere… But on close observation, I realized that these were not the political hoardings but they were the Ganpati Pandals’ hoardings… This is what I call “Political Marketing…”
Ganpati Festival - is celebrated in one of the most grandiose manner’s in Mumbai… What I’ve felt in the past two years was that many people actually wait for the whole year, just for Ganpati to return back… People celebrate this festival at their own homes or in common pandals…
One may find lot of Ganpati pandals of all sizes and statures, everywhere… These pandals are open for common public and organized by a committee / team of people. They manage everything by the help of the sponsorship and also the donation they get from various political parties, residents and shopkeepers of the adjoining area and also from the devotees…
Outside most of these pandals you’ll find a big board or hoarding with the name of the Ganpati’s Pandal name, etc. Out of which, most of them will also have the name, flag and the photos of the leaders of these
According to Marketing Principles, if some individual or company sponsors some event then they may like to see their name and logo on the hoardings… I agree that if we can have the name of “Reliance Communication” or “Airtel” on any Ganpati pandal hoarding, then why not the name of any political party; they have also donated money from their accounts but is it justified to cover the 75-80% of the hoarding by sponsor related details? Some of these hoardings have photos of these leaders, which are bigger than actual size of that leader… I’ve even seen few hoardings where these photos covered almost 90% of the area and the Ganpati picture was merely covering 5-7% of the hoarding… Till date, I may not have seen many events or such festivals but from what I’ve seen, I always found that not more than 10-20% of the total space of the main hoardings or backdrops was covered by the sponsors…
During this festive season if you go out anywhere in Mumbai (I’m not talking about any other city because I’ve not see the Ganpati Festival there), you’ll always find lot of such hoardings on roadside and actually they help you to locate the Ganpati pandals… When I came to Mumbai first time, it was Ganpati time; initially I thought that some sort of elections must be round the corner that’s why so many political hoardings are present everywhere… But on close observation, I realized that these were not the political hoardings but they were the Ganpati Pandals’ hoardings… This is what I call “Political Marketing…”
