Sensex & brownie points

The beauty of advertising is that it throws you ever interesting challenges - questions in short - brief in precise. While working on a brand’s brief & thanks to a contest by #Youngshits by Kathryn Kvas & Vignesh Seshadri , I started pondering on questions like -Is business acumen, financial literacy or negotiation skills enough? Will just these skills make us more healthy, wise or happy? Rather, let me reframe, I was wondering how can commerce be more beautiful? How can behavioral economics be more behavioral? I know the questions I threw above may look vague & can be of existential proportion. So what, what can be the solution? I don’t know. But here is a direction that can help perhaps.

What if the stock market had more colors? As if color blind, why have we just stuck to just red & green? What if commerce had more symbols? As if creatively tired, why have we just stuck to + or -, ↑ or ↓? This binary mode of representation has pushed capitalism into a tradism mode. It gives people a feeling that finance is just profit & loss. No wonder the saying - ‘traders go to hell’. Another problem is, the more an economy or market is dependent on unorganized middle men, the more it is vulnerable to a tsunami of change brought in by platformized automation or aggregation by bigger players. But, do we have to prey on one market to create another market, reduce one first then accumulate in another? Finance & the art of business can be far more flowering. Capitalism can be so beautiful. If you like novel coinages then should we call it neopitalism*? Let’s not get dreamy. Let’s explore possibilities or demands hidden away from plain sight.?

Here is a ‘for example’. Everytime someone invests in a SIP, digital gold or takes an insurance cover for their family, can they be provided with a Tambola ticket? Bounties can be varied as per the type of investor or insurer like say -?

• For adults: The aspirational prize can be - a walk with the Prime Minister or at least a video call, cars, houses, etc.?
• For youth: It could be consumer goods, electronics etc.?

By the way, the lottery is legal in 13 states in India. So, what if we made winning easier & use it to encourage positive behaviors? Similar meritocratic gamification with magical possibilities, can be extended to traffic rules, educating about taxes or health care too. Paying taxes is often perceived as an annoying uphill task by many. Evading taxes are often seen as wit or smartness. But when I skimmed through my cousin’s chartered accountancy book, I was surprised to know the plethora of earning avenues or income streams that exist. So paying tax is not necessarily a liability. In fact it could be seen as a token of progress, as milestones of personal growth. One can always aspire to explore newer money making options by exploring the types of taxes levied. On similar lines, if tax paying & tax payers’ club was more sexier, then many may aspire or use taxes as financial growth ballparks.

Next. It is compulsory in India to show morbid images of oral cancer on packs of tobacco products or to display health hazard warnings on scenes depicting smoking, drinking. Similarly, what if sin company stocks were grayed - that too light in color, almost invisible? No red downwards ticker or green upwards ticker. Rather there could be just one constant symbol, of a skull. Are there listed companies that care for their human resources? I mean those that provide benefits like 5 days work week, employee insurance cover, mental health allowance, period leaves, something seriously significant. Listed firms offering these to all their employees could be celebrated with a neon blue ticker, a yellow smiley or some golden glitters?

So much resources are pumped into encouraging consumption of products by various brands. Armies of psychologists or rocket scientists are working to make that potato chips look more cute or make that car a second faster. If so much so, then how could a tinycule stream of these efforts be channelized to poke people into investing? Imagine you are out there shopping. You could be out there buying anything - ice creams, underwear, shoes or just a cup of coffee. Now what if, just besides the QR codes of payment apps, there was another QR code that allowed you to scan & buy shares of that company (if they are listed) ? We all are dealing with many listed brands day in, day out. Putting a reminding nudge at the point of sale, can make customers curious to research about the business & invest in their stocks. Similarly, for the brand, it pushes them to focus more on their investor relations & PR.

I don't know if any of these directions will end world hunger. Neither do I need to give you any disclaimers or heads up. These are just nudges. What's surrealistic today, may very well seem stupid or super prophetic tomorrow, who knows. All I ponder is, how can we use + or -, ↑ or ↓, elsewhere? Or what more columns can we add to balance sheets than just profit & loss? What if an artist, a CA & a politician meet in a bar? That’s clearly an article for another day :)

* word available for grabs as I write! Zero Google results for now