Mall Culture: Making apes out of us!

I was in the mall yesterday, and I just happened to look around closely at the people around me. I just realised the mall culture is making us all look alike in the way we dress and carry ourselves, it is defining the so called "sophisticated" look for us in the metro. How else will you explain the identically dressed people, the brands you can easily identify, the now so predictable mix and match of attire. It is all influenced by each other, social groups and also mass media. We now find fashion affordable and achievable. The look that we coveted only in movies can now be ours. We somehow try to ape each other in our dressing and our style. Personal style being lost somewhere in the bargain.

An example of this trend is standardization of product category with the brands most well know in those categories. We all have come across the famous "Baggit" wallet which is now becoming generic in the ladies wallet category. Never has a bag brand gotten so popular in the ladies fashion market. Its become a wardrobe must have. Also, in Ladies kurtas, how I wish to see people wearing any other brand than the very common "W" for Westside kurtas or Biba. They are typical and again, easily identifiable. Westside and Biba I believe started the whole trend of wearing Kurtas on leggings as a neat semi-formal look, which now passes as office wear. In the handbangs category though, Esbeda and the now infamous Louis Vuitton lookalike bags have become huge successes. For guys, "Woodland" shoes are easy to choose, go well on formals and casuals alike, and save them the trouble of keeping too many shoes, and hence minimal fuss, so become a mens shoewear must have.

Such culture is mostly followed in Metros, I cant speak for all of them, but yes, I have stayed long enough in both Mumbai and Bengaluru, to speak for them. It is somehow diminishing the importance of having a personal style and upping the need for following the latest trends in clothes, bags and shoes. Even actors are prey to this trend. What is the differentiation however, is in the money factor. People who can afford big brands with sky high price tags, go for those, and the moderate spenders go for the more popular reasonably priced brands.

When I see these people, most of them, in ladies, will sport a trendy hairstyle, with streaks being hugely popular, and one of those long tunics, three-fourths or smart jeans, and heels or pumps. This describes a majority of the women mall goers. Men, would mostly be in jeans or cargos, that could be from anywhere, with a simple Lacoste T-shirt thrown on. It is so so common, that every other person you lay your eyes on is thus dressed. Not to mention the kids brigade with fun frolic colors, the Gini Jony types. What is the matter with people, so engrossed with dressing alike and looking socially acceptable, that they fear change or looking mismatched. Just look around, and laugh at the ridiculousness of all of it. Then you know what I mean.

My Own Project Thesis: Fruit hai re- Viral Marketing at its best

This is the viral marketing initiative of the brand 'Fruttare' by Hindustan Unilever Ltd. This innovative campaign was launched on March 19, 2012, and was structured so that it will reveal the product identity on 25^th March, 2012. The viral campaign was a unique one amongst the existing viral campaigns. The buzz word was ‘Fruit hai re’, and this phrase was aired on television as an advertisement, and was all over the internet through videos and posts on social networking sites.

It has a catch phrase- Not a bird, not a TV show, not a clothing range and definitely not a lipstick! This was circulated widely. It garnered immense word of mouth publicity because in this time span everyone was asking each other ‘What is fruit hai re?’ It got 46,587 likes on Facebook on its facebook community.

Currently it has two advertisements running on television on all major channels at prime time slots. One is Fruit hai re kya hai, which now has 2000 views on YouTube, another one ‘Fruit hai re Juggalbandi’ which has 1,104 views until now and Fruit hai re Annual Day which has almost a 1000 views. It has a twitter account dedicated to it too.

Buzz Creation Contest

It had a contest running where people had to guess what product fruit hai re is endorsing. The winning prize of which was a Blackberry Curve. This contest too helped in creating a lot of buzz in the social networking space. This contest required a social networking id to participate.

People posted lot of answers for it. The most common of which was a fruit drink. There were many unique answers like of it being a Blackberry application (because of the winner prize being Blackerry Curve), a show on Sony Channel, a publicity stunt for IPL, clothing line, Shampoo, etc. The facebook community ‘Fruit hai re’ further intensified the curiosity by posting curious questions itself which had the public guessing and impatient.

Some of which were:

The electronic industry is abuzz with news that Fruit Hai Re is a mobile phone range which will take on Berries and Apples.

Newsflash: An amateur Indian band is taking the credit for Fruit Hai Re saying it’s a song they’ve created for a Hollywood film. Sure guys, we’re still waiting for an actual hit from you!

Newsflash: 14 youngsters detained at CST station for disrupting the crowd in a Mumbai Local. Eyewitnesses say all they did was chant Fruit Hai Re. Were any of you there when this happened?

It is that global phenomenon which is taking over India. No one knows what “Fruit Hai Re” is, but we know for sure, it’s going to change many lives; it’s going to surprise us, delight us and leave us smiling! Are you ready to find out what Fruit Hai Re is all about?

Hence, It was an amazing hype that it did to vow the public. Now finally on 25^th March 2012, the suspense is finally over, and it was a good move that it ended its suspense in a few days only so as to not let the efforts fizzle out because of waiting too long. Fruithaire has posted that it is indeed an Ice Cream. Its description is as follows:

Kwality Wall’s Fruttare is made with 100% real fruit juice and pulp. Fruttare is free from artificial flavours and colours, is naturally fat free and less than 70 kcals per serving. Its available in 3 yummy varities – Mango, Litchi and Grape. Every bite is a refreshing delight.

It was a brilliant marketing move, and a successful viral marketing campaign for launching a completely new brand and instantly familiarize the audience with it.