9 lessons brands can learn from Aam Aadmi Party

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title_image*For those who do not know what AAP is – AAP stands for Aam Aadmi Party (Common Man’s Party), it recently fought Delhi Assembly Elections in India in December 2013. AAP was formed a year back under the leadership of Mr. Arvind Kejriwal. Their unbelievable achievement of clinching 28 seats out of total 70, has created a wave in the Indian political circuit and it won’t be wrong if we say International political circuit*
So, here it is our viewpoint about what brands can learn from Aam Aadmi Party, the hope of India’s political future.

Speak the language of your customers

It is very important for brands to understand that unless they do not get what their customers are saying, the whole communication plan will be of no use.
Arvind Kejriwal, from the very beginning clearly understood the pain points of the masses and his every communication comprised of these qualities

Go out in the field

To get the real feel of the market, how the end user perceives your product/service, never hesitate to go out and see the real game. Assess the conditions in which your offering is being sold and always make efforts to read between the lines.
Volunteers of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were always there in the field talking to people, interacting with them and hence they were very well aware of the situation which in turn strengthened their positioning strategy.

Your customers aren’t blind

Father of advertising, Mr. David Ogilvy quoted “The consumer is not a moron, she is your wife”. Brands often underestimate their customers in terms of awareness/experience and hence their strategies which rocked the boardroom end up tanking in the real market.
The other traditional parties like Indian National Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party assumed that the masses will not go for a newcomer when it comes to choosing their leader, and in the end Mr. David Ogilvy was right once again

You need not have multi-million dollar marketing budget to beat your competitors

Think of ideas which are easy to execute, low on costs and great on results. This way not only the risk quotient decreases but also it fosters the brand image.
Aam Aadmi Party backed with a mere funding of INR 20 crores, mobilized thousands of people to volunteer for them and people happily participated in the event. This was possible only because of the correct communication strategy used by AAP.
Being Transparent Helps
A brand which shares every possible detail with their stakeholders always gets rewarded for its honest policies and fair treatment. This ensures customer loyalty and trust.
The website of Aam Aadmi Party clearly highlights details of every funding they receive, doesn’t matter how small the amount is. This level of transparency and honesty helped AAP in winning the trust of people and hence the 28 seats in Delhi assembly.

Always believe in collecting feedbacks and be ready for criticism

Brave are those who love their enemies, not those who know the best defence. Brands, especially on social media platforms in case of any PR crisis often fail to accept the mistake therefore ending up in a mess. Though the awareness amongst brands is rising, but majority of them are still lagging in their response mechanism.
Arvind Kejriwal, the front man of AAP, made it clear in every communication that if they find their team members indulging in corruption they would straight away cancel his/her election ticket. And, such incidents did happen when people reported to AAP authorities that some of their candidates are corrupt, and in the response, AAP cancelled their assembly tickets

Never ever compromise on your USP

Brands sometimes compromise on their unique offerings just for achieving the annual sales figures and for saving their face in the annual general meetings with their stakeholders. In the long term, this further weakens their foundation and hence the growth stops then and there.
By sticking to their resolution of not accepting any kind of support from the two parties, AAP succeeded in creating a milestone in the eyes of the voters and emerged as the most trustworthy group of people Indian politics had ever seen.

Bring your team in the limelight; let customers see the real faces

People feel more comfortable when they know the team behind the product/service as it gives a human touch to the entire process and brings more trust in the eyes of the customers. Hence, brands should always ensure such interactions with their customers.

Innovation is plain vanilla; Disruptive innovation is the complete dessert

In this internet age, when users no longer surf the internet, because now they ski, brands have to look for disruptive innovation methods, sustainable methods will not work now.
Aam Aadmi Party, created a wave in the political circuit when they used cloud technology to reach out to the masses and recruit volunteers for their campaign. They gave the task to a Delhi based startup, VoiceTree which came up with a unique solution to reach out to maximum number of people without indulging in duplicate messaging.
Read here, what VoiceTree did for AAP!
 The victory of AAP is not only a political win, it is actually an incident which has changed the way how elections are fought in the online world and how brands can reach out to their audience.
While writing this article, we came across some really simple and easy to implement methods which can revolutionize the way content is created and marketed.
Cheers to content and cheers to AAP!