Marketing fitness: A lesson from the road

When did we become fans of such muscle-loving, bicep-brandishing hulks Culturally, we never allotted much importance to the robustly built bodies of male heroes.

I watch the banjaras across the street from our apartment every day. They sell earthen pots, vessels along with a wide array of iron tools — hammers, cutters, choppers, pliers, chisels and spades spread in front of their make-shift tents and jhuggies. One fine morning, I found to my surprise their roadside display of tools were replaced by shining sets of body building tool kits. Apart from weights, dumbbells and barbells of different shapes and size they had exercycles and spring contraptions for enhancing muscle power, trade mills and chest expanders.

For a group of people who, for such a long time, traded in earthenware and iron tools utilising their ancestral skills of a potter and a blacksmith, this new merchandise was so different that curiosity got the better of me and I ventured down to investigate and have a closer look.

Before I could ask anything, the middle aged woman manning the shop as she smoked a brass hubble-bubble told me that at my age I should use the excercycle to improve my cardio and should not risk pumping iron. My jaw dropped at her impromptu advice. She seemed to have guessed what was going through my mind. “Times have changed,” she said. “Village boys ride bikes, go to the beauty parlour, exercise in the gym and also want a set of the equipment at home. Even we need to change,” she added. She had sold five sets of iron to some boys that morning. “Oh money is no problem for them; buying equipment worth five six thousand rupees is no big deal,” she said.

I looked around and suddenly realised that things around this sleepy town of Faridabad had changed a lot — flyover, metro connectivity , expressway furrowing the green fields and villages on either side blurred the boundaries of the class one town and the hitherto unknown villages were now filled with concrete buildings and market places. The rows of small unoccupied shops lying vacant for the last 5 years are filling up fast, with garages, real estate offices, white goods showrooms, eateries, fast food outlets, paan, cold drink shops, unisex beauty parlours and gyms.

I remember the first gym, when it came up six years ago, was basic. It had a monopoly in the market till 2014 when four more mushroomed side by side, equipped with ACs, high voltage music, power backup and in-house instructors and dieticians. What surprised me most was an outlet full of body building food supplement products across the new gyms.

Oversized foreign body builders with rippling muscles, on hoardings and signboards on and around the shop, lure health buffs. The message on the wall was also smart — Columbus travelled the world in a sail boat ...and you can’t get to the Gym “

When did we become fans of such muscle-loving, bicep-brandishing hulks Culturally we never allotted much importance to the robustly built bodies of male heroes. Our gods are slim, shaven feminine, while ashuras are burly and hairy, as are our Bollywood villains. Our film heroes of the 60s and 70s barely had robust body structures, nor do we have any myths of brawny superheroes like Atlas or a Hercules. We have our Bhim in the Mahabharata. But his prowess has never given him the status of a hero that Arjuna enjoys. Bhim is an embodiment of excess — he eats big, talks loud, fights, marries and fathers demons while his revenges are gory and spine chilling; he is also the butt of jokes and taunts of his Kaurava cousins. It is true the Super Ape of the Ramayana adorns the wrestling Aakharas inspiring handful of wrestlers to build strong bodies and fight bouts but his popularity among masses is more as a quick problem solver than as a body builder.

Body worship is a fairly recent phenomena amongst us. Although like every other new fad and fashion, India’s interest in body building is linked with globalisation. Its origin can be traced to proliferation and diffusion of popular western action films in the 1970s and 1980s. Throughout this period, bare-chested images of muscle-bound actors like Bruce Lee, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone could be seen all around movie halls and public spaces in India. The growing popularity of this trend was later picked up by the Khans of Bollywood, who started projecting six pack abs and bulging biceps in their blockbusters. Body became the new canvas. Fashion fomented the trend by popularising attire for both men and women which displayed uncensored views of skin through low rise pants, plunging neck lines, bare backs of cholis or minimalist hot pants.

People saw the magic of body sculpting through extended media coverage of a chocolate hero transforming himself into a hulk. Television rolled out Amir Khan’s workouts, in his private gym, in body hugging outfits. People learnt more about body mass building products from his physical instructors.

Meanwhile, female actresses showcased their sessions in CDs. Shilpa Shetty and Bipasha Basu became India’s Cindy Crawfords through the popularity of their workout CDs. As actress mothers of different ages made come-backs as glamorous divas people, woke up to the reality that it was possible to put age on a leash and stop time.

Brands, marketers and the media made the most of these new consumer interests. Bipasha ran in ads for Reebok shoes, while Saina Nehwal and Sania Mirza became new brand ambassadors for a host of brands. Priyanka Chopra, Farhan Akhtar and Amir Khan all blurred boundaries between real and virtual as they acted in biopics of real life runner, boxer and a wrestler.

Television sucked Indians into reality shows underlying importance of good looks and appearance. “Am I putting my best look forward ” became the new critical question. What was anxiety for silver screen heroes and heroines has now become a daily concern of young India.

Marketers and media want them in big numbers in routine marathons, rahagiri, school fests, college events, promotions done in malls and super markets. Everybody needs to look fit, every upload of mobile camera shot in social media should become an instant hit.

For the new age parents, body building of their children has become as important an agenda as their academic development. Build your children’s look bit by bit, block by block, by individual body part. Each zone needs expert attention, specialist intervention, scientific workouts and extra-potent food supplements. All milk additives and health drink brands have gone back to their labs to add extra nourishing bits to their brands and products. Advertisements coined new terminology to convey value additions — DHA, Vitamin D and Hemocal nutrients. On top of that, you need to look extraordinary, and those who do not need those specialised muscle-building phoren packs of body building supplements. Click on Amazon and you will get an eyeful of them. Swipe your card and order. Now you can just go across to your gym and walk into these specialised food stores. Build your own gym at home; banjaras are selling equipment at a discounted price.

It is not just banjaras, I find the small paan and cold drink shops around the gyms have changed! They stock flavoured milk, yogurt, fruit juices, expensive energy drinks like Red Bull, Gatorades. These shops may be running short of regular Coke and Pepsi but not their diet versions. How quickly they felt the pulse of these neo consumers and how fast they change their stocks! These small outlets and roadside shops tell us that in changing times to build a robust business one needs to be alert, nimble and proactive all the time.

The writer is former VP, consumer insight, McCann Erickson India. You can contact him on kishore.chakraborti0@gmail.com