THINK of Shimla in winter. Or autumn. Can you hear the music that might accompany the picture through the seasons? When The Cecil in Shimla reopened recently after 13 years, the special invitees and corporate guests received a specially compiled, slickly packaged CD recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, the inlay card carrying the message—the Oberoi Group celebrates the renaissance of The Cecil, Shimla.
The Oberoi's memento for the reopening of the Cecil wasn't just a one-time, five-star freebie. Gift-wrapped music spans the entire gamut—from plush five-star environs to the farmlands of rural Punjab. With every bag of urea, Chambal Fertiliser and Chemicals gifted its precious clientele a cassette put together just for them—Uttam 10, a collection of Hindi film songs. Shift into high gear on city roads with the Opel Astra. There's a gift which comes with that too—Life is a Journey, Enjoy the Drive with Al Martino soulfully lamenting his Spanish Eyes. Caution: the president and MD of General Motors delivers a welcome speech and Pam Crain belts out the Opel Astra song.
There's music and more music for the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker. From the classes to the masses music is the latest image-building exercise for corporates, who are capitalising on the '90s music boom. Whether it be a corporate gift, a cross promotion or a redemption offer, companies are piggybacking on popular music as a cheap advertising vehicle to spread goodwill and promote their products. Who would mind a few jingles thrown in if Hanste Hanste Kat Jaye Raaste, the Caltex lubricants' compilation for truckdrivers?
That's just the idea, says HMV's manager, product development, Pavan Malhotra: "Music has a lasting quality. You just cannot wipe out anything. You can remove the company logo by throwing away the cassette cover, but the inlay card carries a message and a two-minute jingle is played four times in the duration of the cassette. It travels home with you and the entire family listens to it. It turns out to be a real image rub-off for the company and, of course, for the music company." In other words, it serves to slowly brainwash the client into buying a company's product and maybe lasting loyalty. A kind of backhanded bribe? Counters Ramesh
Kaul, manager, advertising and production, Oberoi Group: "It's a way of adding value to the services. Vivaldi is internationally acclaimed and we selected Four Seasons because we were relaunching Shimla as a place to enjoy the seasons. It fit with the Cecil nostalgia, the first property to be acquired by Rai Bahadur M.S. Oberoi." And this isn't the end. The buzz is that Rajasthani Mand folk music is next on the cards for the Oberois' new venture in Rajasthan. Prama Bajaj of General Motors echoes Kaul's sentiments: "There's a special ceremonial Opel delivery system. The car is handed over gift-wrapped to the customer along with a specially designed key chain, sunshade and chocolates. Over and above that if there's good music on the drive back home, it makes the customer feel very special." Predictably, Ford is following suit.
There's no stemming the tide, it seems. Even All India Radio, which has been sitting on a goldmine of archival material, has teamed up with the Human Resource Ministry, Culture Ministry, Air India and HMV to bring out a commemorative four-cassette pack in the 50th year of Independence. It will feature 50 patriotic songs of archival value such as Pandit Omkarnath Thakur's recording of Vande Mataram and other regional songs and carry the official '50 years' logo. Planned as a gift for NRIs, the package may later be available off the shelf.
The Army too has a gift for its jawans. Martial Heritage, a two-cassette pack aimed at familiarising the present generation with the rich and glorious tradition of using trumpet and bugle calls to convey orders on the battlefield and in the barracks.
Explains Shyam Bhargava, CEO, Fusion Advertising, who has handled a number of such music accounts: "Corporates have woken up to the realisation that music is something that everyone can identify with. Some music goes very well with the character of a particular product." And then the product begins to be identified with the music. Bhargava illustrates this with the Mahaveer Spinning Mills' cassette of Mohammad Rafi songs, a gift for tailors, a community which "identifies with the late singer". The response was phenomenal. Tulsi Mix pan masala naturally gifted Khaike Pan Banaraswala and other Amitabh Bachchan film hits to pan masala addicts and pan shop owners. Bekelite Hylem gave away qawwalis to carpenters because "it's an image thing—carpenters prefer qawwalis", according to Malhotra. Down Memory Lane With Kotak Mahindra, another compilation Bhargava has worked on, captured 15 years of Indian film music along with a commentary linking the songs with the company's own history. Identification is all-important. Close-Up was possibly prompted by the stunning Aishwarya Rai's dazzling smile to go in for a cross promotion of the music for her first film Aur Pyar Ho Gaya.
Naturally, music companies are tripping over each other to cash in on this gift-wrapped music wave. Corporates are falling like ninepins for the strategy because, unlike in the West, India offers a vast musical repertoire which fits into any corporate profile.
And industry acknowledges that big brother HMV holds the trump card in this Rs 500-crore corporate gift market. Says a euphoric Malhotra: "It was a brainchild of the HMV House. The ball started rolling when we compiled a gift package for Credit Capital Finance Corporation way back in 1986. The music boom has helped us expand on this strategy. Other music companies like Magnasound, BMG Crescendo and Tips are doing the same kind of work but they cannot dent our market for corporate music because they don't have our catalogue spanning 90 years. Seventy per cent of the music recorded till date in the country belongs to HMV and corporate music has to be nostalgia".
While Rina Dasgupta, marketing manager, BMG Crescendo, notes that where film music is the staple, nostalgia music would sell at any point of time, she says music as a corporate gift is a fairly new concept in India and there's a market for the latest songs and new recordings too. For instance, last Diwali BMG Crescendo produced a specially compiled semi-classical set as a Diwali gift for Sony Entertainment Television and recently launched an album by new pop entrant Raageshwari. Sponsored by Coke, complete with jingles and logo, it complemented Sony's trendy image. And when Pepsi wanted Madonna, Magnasound which had the Warner rights did the honours.
Says Sharmila Sahai, product manager of Sony, the electronics giant: "The software and hardware industries go hand in hand. With the software boom it is but natural to go in for some synergistic activity." Result: a free Hindi dance mix compilation as a giveaway with Sony's new CD system. And the corporate gift market continues to grow, with CitiBank, Bata, Unit Trust, Escorts, National Panasonic, Bharat Shell, Digene, Godfrey Philips, Hindustan Motors, Apollo Tyres and a host of others taking the cue, for such promotions work out cheaper than other forms of advertising and have a high recall value to boot. In the case of cross promotions, the music company retains the right to sell but the first 10 lakh or so cassettes carry the company logo and a jingle. The cost: Re 1 per cassette.
WITH the aggressive distribution of such gift-packages aimed at specific niche customers, the person at the receiving end is all the more richer where music is concerned. There's variety, innovation, rare collections otherwise hard to come by in the regular music market. You can listen to Bach and Bhimsen Joshi, all at the same time. Most important, the customer feels coddled with a free gift custom-made for him.
Even publishing houses are offering music to attract a larger customer base. Rolli Books' series on old masters of the Hindu-stani classical genre come complete with a cassette of their recordings. Says Pramod Kapoor of Rolli Books: "It's a way to get the younger generation interested in the life and times of the maestros. Companies and government agencies picked up a lot for gifts and we received a lot of VPP orders." Sure, the sound of music might just have a hypnotic effect, or so industry hopes. Even if 10 per cent of those doctors who have received the gift of ghazal recordings by Jagjit and Chitra Singh prescribe the analgesic tablet being promoted by pharmaceutical company Indo-Cap Essar, the aim is achieved as far as the company is concerned.
It's each to his own. The Environment Society waxes on the moon in a gift for its members, office automation company HCL predictably packages 1947-1997 film songs along with computers and instruction manuals and Delhi's upmarket Landmark departmental store has—what else—landmark songs as a giveaway. Companies continue to hitch their fortunes onto the music brandwagon till it begins to sound like a medley from a Vividh Bharati programme. But no one's complaining. Orchestrated to subtly assault the senses, the corporate concerto plays on.
