We've seen it before – a product that doesn't quite match up to the expectations that the advertising seemed to suggest or promise or advertising that seems to target a particular constituency but the consumer finds that, when he actually sees or experiences the product, it was not quite what he expected.
In the short time since the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) took charge of Delhi, what we see is a nightmare as far as product-promise mismatch is concerned.
At the most fundamental level, the AAP was advertised as the party that would make the country corruption-free. As far as their Delhi campaign was concerned, the Delhi voter thought that he or she was buying a non-corrupt party, and that he or she would never again be in a situation where anyone asked for a bribe. It was much like the expectations of a woman who buys mosquito repellent and uses it once she gets home. Now, she expects to be free from the nuisance of the mosquito.
The AAP seemed to choose the issue of corruption carefully.
Representational image. Reuters
"Fortunately for us, corruption is an issue that cuts across classes. Corruption is an illness which affects people in different ways. But all of them recognize the illness with the same name. So, a very powerful, well to do businessman thinks he is a victim of corruption. And a rickshaw puller also feels he is a victim of corruption. So corruption is an issue that cuts across classes. For us to carry that issue was actually the real strength," AAP's Yogendra Yadav told Storyboard's Pavni Mittal in an interview.
Back to the mosquito repellent example. When a consumer makes a choice of a mosquito repellent brand, he or she needs to believe that the company making the repellent is capable of keeping a promise, will use ingredients that are safe, and so on.
When the AAP promised to remove corruption, it was a believable promise. The AAP was more trusted with this promise than any other brand was. Imagine the Congress or the BJP making such a promise – it would have been laughable, to say the least.
It was when the AAP decided to enter electoral politics in general and the Delhi elections in particular that they realised that they needed to be more than a corruption repellent – they needed to address issues such as the water problem, the electricity problem, housing, safety of women and so on.
Imagine a mosquito repellent having to also be a detergent, a body soap, a shampoo and a hair oil. While that is certainly an exaggeration, it perhaps describes the challenge that the AAP faced – and it seems that the solution that the AAP found was found wanting.
Astonishingly, they thought that all this was possible – and more. The AAP, for example, decided that, in addition to addressing the issues mentioned above, they would also take a position on FDI in retail, without quite thinking through the implications. The result is this headline in The Times of India yesterday: 'Blocking retail FDI to rob India of 1 crore jobs.'
The article tells it all:
The refusal by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to allow foreign retailers to set up shop in the national capital will block creation of new jobs, dash hopes for consumers and create policy uncertainty for global chains."
The move comes at a time when several global retailers led by Tesco are planning to enter the multi-brand retail sector, which has the potential to add strength to the tentative economic recovery underway.
"The red flag for multi-brand retail will also mean a blow to the battle to tame high prices hurting the common man. Hopes of setting up modern warehouses to cut out massive wastage of fruits and vegetables will be put on the backburner and also delay revival in the real estate sector banking on global retailers."
Each day, there is more focus on issues unrelated to corruption – and the AAP seems to be either bumbling along or, simply failing.
It is a larger worry when, in their first demonstration of the commitment to eradicate corruption, they came a cropper and had to flip-flop on a decision.
After his first 'janta darbar' ended in a total chaos, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said there would be no such public meets and the government will open new channels where people can report their grievances online, via post and through calls.
The trust is also collapsing, as more faces of the AAP are exposed.
"This is the situation that we start with. Either we invent 17 known faces within a few weeks, which we can't. Or we make use of the one credible face that we have," Yogendra Yadav said when asked about why the entire Delhi campaign focused on Arvind Kejriwal.
Day before yesterday we saw the AAP getting into trouble with another face.
The Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government faced its first embarrassment with regard to a Cabinet member when allegations of its law minister Somnath Bharti influencing a witness surfaced on Tuesday. This morning we have seen the Binny fiasco.
So not only is the product being asked to do things it wasn't designed to do, the trust in the manufacturer is being eroded as well. This is going to be a tall mountain to climb for the AAP.
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