Go on, Sell Yourself

In an age of hard sell, success depends on how well you market yourself. From stars to spiritual gurus, nobody’s immune to the urban cattle fair

NOT long back, you just completed a project and moved on. An actor's job ended with acting; an author’s, with writing; an artist’s, with painting, and so on. Not any longer. Nowadays, the real work begins after you have completed your work.

Actors, authors, artists, editors are all out there strutting their stuff in the hope of ensnaring as many takers as possible. And in a market where everybody is selling and everybody buying, the going is tough. The ones with the best strategies and long-term planning come out flying while the meek and embarrassed get left far behind.

And the competition is intense, particularly where big bucks are involved. Like Bollywood. No sooner has one star finished his high intensity drive than another takes to the road with his wares, providing the audience one long caravan of entertainment, on-screen as well as off screen. Aamir visiting various cities in disguise, Amitabh doing the Auro dance, Shah Rukh getting down on his knees and getting mock engaged to a girl — all publicity stunts to market movies! Come to that, what else are stars doing on Twitter but marketing themselves and their friends with the fervour of bigots? Amitabh Bachchan has been lamenting this off and on in his blog. As he blogged on December 28, 2009, “Marketing and promotions are now akin to making another movie almost; with the time and energy required for its production, its presentation and its delivery.” Marketing yourself is a pain, at least to the modest and level headed amongst us. And when you know that the fruit of your hard work depends on it, it becomes an intolerable pressure! And yet without it, you cannot hope to succeed. Nobody can deny that 3 Idiots was a phenomenal film, and yet what made it a phenomenon was the acute marketing exercise that accompanied it.

And riding on the crest of this marketing wave were not just Aamir Khan, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Raju Hirani, but also another unlikely candidate --Chetan Bhagat! As a fellow author says, “This was a very cunning strategy devised by Chetan. In management parlance it’s called ‘Attack the Leader’. And once he was assured of the success of 3 Idiots, he chose his moment to attack. Otherwise, why didn’t he protest earlier?” Superb marketing.

M a r ke t i n g oneself isn’t confined to B o l ly wo o d alone. Society women can no longer be just pretty young things. All Beautiful People come with large tags, announcing the brands they endorse. They sculpt their bodies and chisel their faces to attract brands to come hang their wares. It wouldn’t be surprising if a time comes when Beautiful People offer to tattoo brand endorsements on various available parts of their lovely, pricey bodies!

A party can no longer be just a get together of friends. When Naina Balsaver hosted an all-women lunch at Fio in Garden of Five Senses, it wasn’t just the newly-launched restaurant that got the attention they needed, but also W Factor Club who shared sangria knowhow; a lady who read fortunes from coffee dregs; Varun Narayan, the puppeteer who held a show with an undercurrent of erotica; Nu Skin who promoted their anti-ageing products; Dhruv and Pallavi, designers whose clothes kids walked the ramp in; Minola whose canned spinach was given as a thank-you gift to guests along with an evil eye bracelet from Naina’s own jewellery design line, Hair Looms.

So eight brands got promoted at one lunch! You are typically invited to a multi-event evening co-hosted by multiple people through an invite that carries various sponsor logos. An art show c o u l d well be clubbed with the launch of a wine and a fashion show and jazz concert.

Now, must we all sell ourselves? Well, depends. On the one hand, when even spiritual gurus are actively marketing their spiritual wealth, who are we to protest? On the other, do you really have something that needs marketing? And the inclination to hardsell it? Invariably the end result will dictate the answer to this question. At least you have a choice. Which is more than can be said for those stars who have crores riding on their shoulders as they mime and disguise and gyrate and propose under duress, trying to seduce an audience already sold out to another!

In a space overflowing with marketeers bent upon selling themselves, the name of the game is innovative techniques of grabbing them by the balls — eyeballs, of course!