Few statistics from the article:
- 214 million people are living on less than $1 a day in East Asia Pacific
- In South Asia more than 437 million people live under similar condition
- 50% of the world lives on less than $2 a day
- 1 billion people across the globe cannot read or write
- 1.2 billion people don't have access to safe drinking water
- 35% of the world's poor live in India, out of the 1 billion population in our country 350-400 million people are below poverty level and 75% of them are from the rural areas
- More than 40% of India's population is illiterate
- 50,000 people die every day due to poverty related causes
- 800 million go to bed hungry every day
9 comments:
thanks roop...you saved me some typing time!
i had thot of gleaning the facts too:-)
Is this (very interesting) site limited only to planners, or allso open to those of us who despite never being given the hallowed title of Account Planner, have been involved with building brands for aeons. I was a client servicing bod for a long time (before bizarrely switching into HR) and I am quite fascinated by the way planning and servicing are defined in India (and maybe other countries too) but at least vs the UK which is my benchmark. Every week, I get people coming into my office, either for interviews, or people already working with us, who say they want to work in planning. When I ask them why, them tell me that they 'want to think' - the implication being that suits dont use their brains. Now where I come from, the suits are the ones who do AND think. Certainly in all my years in client servicing, working on all those shiny blue chip brands, I never stopped thinking. On the contrary. I wrote briefs, made strategic presentations, attended research, presented creative, and of course kept the business ticking along and on time. What my planners added was that kind of 'magical thinking' which took my briefs and presentations to a whole different dimension. They would reword my parochial propositions using some bizarre but completely insightful connection which their very creative minds would dredge up. I really believe that planning in India has generally been dumbed down and most planners seem to be doing the 'average' thinking that the suits should be doing, whilst the suits are all getting bored. This site, and IndiaAdRant is a refreshing example of how planning could and should be. you guys should really start something like the APG (Account Planning Group) in the UK, which provides training, publishes stuff, and has its own planning awards. I know the Effies are there, but that's still ultimately all about the creative, even though they say its not. The APG and IPG awards are purely about the thinking, and the business results - the entries are full of pure planning cases, with econometric modelling and all the research critical. Anyway keep up the good stuff, planners. Any suggestions on how we can raise the quality of India's planning (and thus its advertising) on a broad scale?
Manish, objective of putting the stats out here is to ensure that through our daily interaction with brands and their managers, we help them find a best fit scenario to contribute towards the eradication of poverty. With Duke's we're doing something similar though at a very small scale nevertheless we're doing something atleast... your serious comments pls??
Heather this site is for anyone with a planning/thinking/doing bend of mind to contribute, you're most welcome.
hey roop.. v interesting idea.. but how exactly should we propose to work on this? we recently did some work for an inverter client where we suggested BTL and Events across villages - which work to boost brand image ofc but on a basic level, educate and entertain the consumers too. and supports commerce which in turn helps increase incomes (hopefully). Hard to prioritise CSR when bottomlines are the key focus... so what ideas for this noble cause?
CSR and Bottomlines are two different aspect altogether. When the focus is bottomline don't prioritise CSR.
Anyways... it would be interesting to look at your inverter clients problem in this way. Noble cause would be to set up few demo boxes (inverters) at power critical places like health center/schools/community centers on one hand (building image through educating and entertainment)and simultaneously speaking with the Gram/Zilla/District Administration on the other to purchase your inverters for the betterment of the village (group of villages) maybe at a special rate.
ummm?? thanks? for the gyan of how to see CSR and Bottomline?!?!?! I didn't actually mean, give me ideas for my client.. I meant what are your ideas for drawing attention to your noble cause? but hey, cheers
Great thought there Roop. There's a lot of suffering out there which we, in our corporate,urban lives are blind towards.
I feel we as planners should begin with actually increasing our awareness about the issues that do exist to be able to use corporate assistance in finding a sollution for them.
Take a look at the post called "lovely eyes" at ryanlobo.blogspot.com for starters.
When bottomlines are the priority CSR can not be helped. CSR is for brands that genuinly beleive in social responsibility or atleast have the foresight to see that it is bound to benefit the brand in the long run.
Shell is one such brand. F&L, i believe does some good stuff for (the unliftment of women) as well.
CSR must not be reduced to another marketing gimmick! (That will be the cherry on the icing considering the rampant lack of ethics in the industry)
Very good observation Pooja. Well ..."pehle apna ghar sambhalo (bottomline)...phir doosro ke ghar banao (CSR)." (my hindi is poor)
CSR is a long term brand building measure which should be given its due respect. Great post by Ryan. Cheers.
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