Lesson 1: Listen to your customer or perish!
Congress erred into believing that it could afford to continue to provide electors freebies and choose to remain ignorant of the larger and substantially changing demand and preferences of the voters. Before, it could take stock of the situation it found itself in a situation where the party was facing a target customer-set whose preferences had changed. The voters had changed their preferences. They were no longer dependent on government to dole out of roti, kapda aur makaan. Instead, they wanted enabling infrastructure in terms of education, jobs and business enabling policies which was largely corruption free and bipartisanship.
The Congress party failed to assess this tectonic shift in the preferences of the Indian voters. The newly floated Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Modi-led BJP had somewhat been able to read the sentiments of this section of voters better.
If we consider the political parties as astute marketeers who are trying to sell their ideologies, dreams, aspirations and goals to Indian voters then we can say that for now, Congress has not been able to read the mind of market segment of young voters. The better-than-expected performance of AAP has been testimonial to the fact that the mind of the voters has been read by them in a better fashion.
Marketeers know the trouble they fall into when they fail to gauge the sentiments of their target customers. Political parties which were quick to respond to the changing needs and demands of the voters have performed well. For those who have languished, it is necessary for them to assess and take stock of their offerings, go back to their drawings boards and come up with new offerings and marketing plan. When the Gandhi-scion announced that Congress and its methods of functioning would change, it brought to light a lesson that each marketeer has come across sometime or other - when faced with changing preferences of customers and arrival of new and much fancied rival product they quickly resort to changes in their own product offerings and try to match what the new or existing rival is offering.
It remains to be seen who is the better marketeer who shall manage to win the faith of Indian voter.
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