Centre to popularise the initiative through metal key chains, shirt pins and plastic logos at government sponsored events and overseas industry fairs
Call for Make in India satellites to submarines, pharma to biotech has just created demand for key chains and shirt pins!
The Make in India campaign is set to turn self-fulfilling in its objective as the government plans to procure thousands of metal key chains, shirt pins and plastic logos in a bid to popularise the initiative at government sponsored events and overseas industry fairs.
The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, the nodal agency for spearheading the campaign, plans to procure 5,000 metal shirt pins and 2,500 key chains carrying the image of the Make in India's lion logo and also several hundreds of detailed logo featuring cogs within outline of a lion over the next couple of months.
The department has specified that the shirt pins should be made of brass with golden coating while the key gains could be of metal or acrylic material.
The supplier has to give an undertaking that these materials are genuine! To be doubly sure, officials of Wieden+Kenedy, the creative agency that did the Make in India logo would check the quality of such chains or pins.
It's not that the Make in India campaign is being promoted for the first time.
After a grand unveiling by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September, the campaign was taken to World Economic Forum at Davos in January where the famous 'India Adda' gave way to the Make in India lounge.
From the joint of the rich and the famous, Make in India would now be taken to the masses though brand experts and custodians are of divergent views about effectiveness of key chains and such stuffs.
"We have seen how the brand Make in India was effectively promoted at Davos where there was even a bus wrapped up with the Lion logo which caught everybody's attention. Now we will have key chains and shirt pins. I believe this is also an effective tool for communicating an initiative but only in the early days of the promotion. The campaign need to evolve with time beyond handing out such trinkets," said Harish Bijoor, a brand domain specialist who runs a boutique consulting outfit.
But there are other views as well which says that key chains and pins are now passé.
"The Make in India campaign has set a new benchmark for advertisers and brand gurus. However, it is indeed heart-wrenching for brand professionals to see that the same source has used such pre-historic means for branding, spending money in the age-old brand recall merchandise, which are not used even for mundane campaigns. This is a futile way to promote as these have no shelf life beyond the day of the fan-fared launch when everyone will be made to wear the pins and use the key chains. The idea of having branded merchandise is to generate a utilitarian as well as a recall value. The lion needs to roar louder seeking freedom from chains and pins," said Mahul Brahma, head, branding, mjunction Ltd, the firm that managed the just concluded telecom spectrum auction.
Beyond Davos, the government is looking forward to an equally important global event, Hannover Messe 2015, world's largest engineering technology exhibition, slated for next month where India, as a partner country, would be highlighting the Make in India campaign again.
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