1) Draw: get your idea out of your head and share it,

2) Luck: assess when the time (and the market) is right to execute your idea,

3) Iterate: take in the feedback, be a rigorous editor, and refine your idea.

Ling and Chun are going steady in Jilin.

Ask girls in low tier cities what makes a good husband, and the answers are pretty consistent.

“He’s got to have a good job and an apartment,” says Lin, 24, a sales clerk in Xuzhou. “Looks aren’t that important.”

But when it comes to boyfriends, that’s another story.

“Most important, he’s got to be good to me,” says Lin. “Plus he should be good looking.”

Low tier youth may be conservative at heart, but with marriage further off on the horizon than it was for their parents’ generation at their age, a culture of dating to have fun is developing before these 20-somethings in lower tier (smaller) Chinese cities tie the knot.

Live for today

Jun, 19, is a student at Hunan City University, and she plans on letting her parents choose her husband even though she is dating on her own now.

“My parents know what’s best for me,” says Jun.

Traditionally low tier youth marry young for stability, and arranged marriages are still common practice.

“Our younger customers are very practical,” says Ms Li, proprietor of Beautiful Wedding Dress bridal shop in Jilin. “They marry older guys for money.”

But today’s young bucks need to work longer and harder to meet the necessary requirements for marriage, and parents and kids are more open minded about relationships. So many low tier youth are marrying later.

My girlfriend buys me clothes. I buy her cute trinkets all the time.

— Bai Song, 21, student, Dongbei Electric University

“My customers are mostly 27 or 28 years old,” says Ms Li. “They waited to find the right guy.”

That’s a long time to wait for a little loving, and plenty of Jun’s classmates don’t. Business is good for an increasing number of cheap campus hotels, or ‘love hotels’, where students can escape their packed dorms and shack up for around RMB 50.

Low tier youth often feel that their future holds stress and responsibility. They want to enjoy themselves now, spending on things like entertainment and travel. So they seek out partners that can provide good memories, even if they can’t provide for a family just yet.

Ling and Chun, 21, study together at Dongbei Electric in Jilin. They’ve been dating for a couple of years, and plan to marry some day.

“But I need a career first,” says Chun. “Right now we’re happy just to be together.”

The consumption connection

Clothing and personal grooming are important for singles on the prowl, and industries are developing in lower tier cities to meet the needs of the growing young, single class.

“A guy has to have clean shoes,” says Lin, 25, a boutique clerk. “He has to take care of himself.”

More than merely looking good for each other, “gifting” has become a prominent behavior for lower tier young couples, although they aren’t breaking the bank, preferring smaller tokens of affection.

“My girlfriend buys me clothes,” says Bai Song, 21, student at Dongbei Electric University. “I buy her cute trinkets all the time.”

Believe it or not, snacks are an important category for couples. Snacking is considered more of a female habit, so a guy has got to stock the cupboard for his lady.

“When I go for groceries I get chips and chocolate for my girlfriend,” says Bai Song. “I don’t usually eat that stuff.”

And while they don’t represent a big category as far as gifting goes, sex shops are also on the rise.

“Hey, nobody is going to talk about this with you,” says Mr Xu, proprietor of a sex shop in Jilin. “But we get plenty of young people in here. I wouldn’t have opened this place if I thought I was going to starve, you know what I mean?”

Originally done by SFW Porn, Diesel borrows the motif for it’s upcoming anniversary, making sure its XXX birthday invite stays Safe For Work.

Originally done by SFW Porn, Diesel borrows the motif for it’s upcoming anniversary, making sure its XXX birthday invite stays Safe For Work.

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With more brands opting for multiple ambassadors, is this the new trend on the block? afaqs! asks some industry experts for their opinion.

K S Chakravarthy
National creative director, Draftfcb Ulka

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Advertisement

If you have lots of money, get several celebrities. So it would seem when you see idea-challenged TVCs, like LG Cookie Pep, resorting to a flock of celebrities, and still making a dog’s breakfast of selling such a neat product.

It is the same with Airtel’s uninspired launch of DTH. Was this the brand that had always been bigger than its endorsers? On the other hand, Pepsi — which has always had a bunch of stars — manages to leverage them reasonably well; if seldom brilliantly (can you imagine a Youngistaan peopled by real kids?).

Celebrities make brand sense when they are clutter-breakers, acting out strong, idea-based brand stories, like Wipro Santoor — stars come and go, but ‘Mummy!’ rules. Bulk celebrities mean you are looking for ways to cover up a complete lack of real ideas.

Sudhin Mathur
Business head, mobile communications, LG

Today’s age is driven by conversation and networking. There is a shift from “I” to “We”.

That’s the reason why companies are engaging with multiple brand ambassadors.

Most companies rope in multiple stars, because they believe that many ambassadors create a wider appeal and connect to a bigger base of target audience.

With competition, it’s important for any brand to play with innovation and offer fresh communication, along with new products. A group of brand ambassadors complement the company’s advertising model, which leverages the authority and credibility of such personalities to create a powerful direct marketing strategy.

A group of stars are more zealous, motivating and appealing to customers. Many brands feature multiple stars in their campaign to support the theme, cause and worth of the product. A known group of celebrities speaking about the product is much more effective and reaches out to wider audiences.

Richa Arora
Founder, Five By Six Consulting

Multiple brand ambassadors help address tricky situations, which could arise due to injuries (Sachin’s famous tennis elbow), self-inflicted wounds (a famous Tiger’s infamous moves) or erratic performances (where’s Rani?).

India is evolving as a consuming society. We crave diverse experiences in everything — food, clothes, entertainment and places we travel to. We have more brands in every category, more variants for each brand and more options. Even cricket comes in three flavours.

There are soaps and ‘swayamwars’ on TV, and movies as different as 3 Idiots, My Name Is Khan and Ishqiya. There are multiple “Khans” (though there is only one SRK). Why would things be different when it comes to brand ambassadors?

Madhukar Sabnavis
Country head, Discovery and planning, Ogilvy India

We are a nation that believes more is better. So, it’s natural to have brands using multiple celebrities to promote them. After all, two is greater than one; three is greater than two; four is greater than three.

This celebrity craze is not a new thing. It is just that, today, more brands are able to afford it. More brands are feeling left out not having one and are jumping on to the bandwagon.

It doesn’t matter to advertising thinkers that some of the most popular campaigns didn’t have ‘brand ambassadors’. Vodafone Zoozoos, Tata Tea Jago Re, Surf Daag Achche hai, Cadbury Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye and Bingo, to name a few, had the common consumer as brand ambassador.

As markets become crowded, the easy way out is to turn to God for help; and in India, celebrities are the contemporary gods. It’s time for marketers to remember the adage, “God helps those who helps themselves”. What ultimately matters is the idea. Think how many multi-starrer films have sunk, because they didn’t have strong scripts.

What do you think ?

My take on this is, is your brand product is good, a) you don’t need a celebrity for advertising  b) We use celebrities because they sell, why else you use them.

Entertainment, spa, relaxation, and business areas are all common but costly requirements for the modern lounge. Venire tied up with other South East Asian companies to form a high-end team of experts specializing in office interiors.

A solution relied heavily on two principles: delivering Venire’s service ethic and creating a flexible solution that would be defined to their customers.