While reaping the benefits of technology, the effects of environmental damage are minimised by using laws, social norms and international agreements.In this we are inspired by Nash equilibrium in game theory. It is named after John Nash, a mathematician and economist. In game theory, a Nash equilibrium is a set of strategies that, once discovered by a set of players, provides a stable fixed point at which no one has an incentive to depart from their current strategy.
Such an equilibrium is reached when the players understand the consequences of their own and others potential actions. For instance, in cold war, peace among nuclear powers depended on the understanding that any attack would ensure everyone’s destruction.
However, of late technology has evolved so rapidly that it is difficult to understand the consequences of any new action. Below a certain level of complexity the Nash equilibrium is useful in describing the likely outcomes. Beyond that, there is chaotic zone where players never find stable and reliable strategies. Then they cope with it by shifting their behaviours in irregular way. The outcome is random and unpredictable.
The emerging technologies in computing, software and biotech such as gene editing are unstable, evolve faster than regulatory frameworks. We may be approaching a profound moment when the guiding idea of strategic equilibrium will run up against its limits.

In content marketing, one trend is visible — use of influencer marketing. Instead of a scriped campaign, brands invest in this tactic. Here a brand chooses specific key individuals. They are leveraged on social and other media through their endorsing the brand in a more personal manner. Influencers are used to announce a new product or brand. They are used to educate consumers about a new service or its usage. They are used to create targeted campaign with a clear call to action.

Automobile companies use influencer marketing. Experiential categories such as fashion and life style resort to influencer marketing. Technology companies rely on it.

Influencer does affect consumer behaviour. The right influencers are chosen using market insights, consumer affinity, digital tools and dashboards. Their reach and engagement are analysed. It is to be seen how relatable they are and how effective.

Baba Sehgal has been used by KFC in their Chilly Chizza campaign with the catchy rap SorryPizza.

As compared to other countries, influencers are less used in India. It is an unstructured industry. There are no software solutions around targeting and organising influencers. The brand objectives are myopic. There are no tracking methologies.

As ad blockers are widely used. it is better to divert to other formats such as influencer marketing. Influencer marketing helps in targeted exposure to the right kind of consumer who is interested.

A firm can use a team of micro-influencers for macro impact.

Alpha consumers are the early adopters. They could be made a company’s ambassadors. They shape the product of the company. It is better to nurture such customers. They facilitate the initial marketing efforts and testing of the product. An ordinary customer becomes an alpha customer when he repeat purchases, when he is a social media evangelist and when he refers the service to others actively.

A company communicates with alpha consumers — both online and offline. There are offline meetings, contact programmes. There are online groups, blogging and hosting. Alpha consumers use different forums like quora to motivate potential customers to try the service or product. A company keeps in touch with the community through WhatsApp and Twitter. The feedback is well-received. Alpha consumers can be roped in core decision process. They can host events on behalf of the company. They are given both monetary and non-monetary incentives.

Marketers always try to put a group of adolescents into a generation archetype on the lines of the baby boomers. How far such slotting is correct is a moot point, but the fact remains that a teenager of today is really in a different environment from the one that prevailed some ten years back. Each generation has some unique characteristics, some of which may have been borrowed from the previous generations. Generation X was a generation in the 1970s. The Vietnam war had ended and the US was exposed to the Watergate scandal. Generation Z is a product of Generation X. The elders focused on the safety and security of their children. They lacked it. Through the 1920s and 1940s, there was the so-called Silent Generation that was shaped by war and the Great Depression. They believed in hard work and were career-minded. This grown up generation we had seen in the 1950s and 1960s. Gen Yers grew up to be the Facebook users who were bold enough to post openly whatever they felt. Millenials were raised in the relatively peaceful times of the 1990s, but they witnessed two catastrophic events in 2000 and 2008. Millenials are brash and narcissistic. They pioneered the Facebook selfie. Their innocence was lost. Generation Z is grown after the millennials, say the early 1990s to mid 2000s. Perhaps a Generation Z youngster is bracketed in a block of 15 years, starting from1996. They are thus 5-19 years old now. They form a huge size in the US as well as in India. They have remained close to technology of Tumblr, Instagram and Facebook. It is the first generation with the smart phones. They have not seen times without the social media. Advertising to them must be short and pithy, say in five words, and with a big picture or else the message will be lost

Generation Z is not like the brash millennials. They understand their privacy and personal space. They have good spending power. They are a matter of study for the market researchers, cultural observers and trend forecasters.

There is increasing older population of 50 plus in the US and Europe. Advertising industry calls them woopies  –well-off older people. They will have a large discretionary income, money left over after necessities are taken care of. All grey heads cannot be treated alike. There are several distinct segments. Those aged 50-64, 65-74, 75-84 and 85 and older. The first group may be flush with funds. They are at the peak of their career. They have fulfilled most of their family obligations. The 65-74 and 75-84 group spend money on travelling and buying gifts for grand children. They are usually retired. Their budget is, therefore, tighter. The elder group of 85 plus spends big amounts on health care.

Oldies think of old age security. They are not able to project their longevity and health care expenses. They are after bargains. Some hotels offer them rooms at a discount. They are vulnerable to price cut promotions. They show more brand loyalty than their young counterparts. Woopies may take promotion with a pinch of salt. They seek genuine information about products. They require PR handling and product information of packs. Service is the key criterion in buying.They may be outraged by advertising treating death and disease without sensitivity. They may not like advertisers who harp on their weaknesses. A shampoo for old women should emphasise how it makes them charming in spite of the age. A nappy of old people should show images of elderly athleticism. But even such positive images are no guarantee of success. Who likes, the name ‘retirement homes ‘ and ‘ virdhashram ‘ ? Even euphemisms like ‘ senior citizens ‘ and ‘ golden years ‘ are no longer palatable.People who are questiones about their age like to understate it by at least 25 per cent.

Ageing population also buys products to satisfy their needs. So promotion should not always be age specific. Some powerful appeals for them are convenience, comfort, security, sociability and old world charm. A micowave oven used by older people should have pre-set controls which are easy to operate by older people. Cruise liners provide male hosts to entertain older female passengers. Age is a state of mind. As Twain remarked, it is a thing of mind, it does not matter. An ageing world wants marketers to adopt this philosophy.

It is a classic example of a game. Consider two suspects for a murder against whom there is insufficient evidence. They are lodged in separate cells and questioned separately.

These are the possibilities:

• Neither suspect confesses. They would be let off then as the evidence against them is not sufficient.
• Both can confess, thus incriminating them. They would be behind the bars.
• If one confesses but the other does not, then the confessor gets the benefit and the non-confessor will be punished.

Would they confess? Game theory shows that what the suspects would do differs from what they should . Here the suspects make a decision privately — without any communication with the accomplice in crime.

He could reason, confessing puts me at an advantage. I confess and as a welcher get the benefit, assuming the other would not confess. He is thus better off confessing. But the same thinking also occurs in the brain of his co-suspect. That leads him to confess too. That results into punishment to both the suspects. This is called Nash equilibrium. If an individual acts privately, trying to do the best for himself, he often ends up in outcomes in which everyone in the group is worse off.

Nash worked on such non-cooperative games. That earned him PhD and later a Nobel. The basic assumption of game theory is that people are rational.

There are situations where everyone could lose, or everyone could gain.

Dan Ariely, a behavioural economist has wriiten a book The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty. He says we like to think of ourselves as honest. Yet in reality we all cheat. Our behaviour reflects two conflicting motives  — we want to feel good when we look in the mirror. Yet we also hope to benefit from cheating. The result is that we cheat just a little  — not enough to dent our self-image. Very few people steal to a maximal degree.

Creative process is a mix of certain rules and a certain degree of non-conformism.One has to understand when to apply the rules and when to refrain from doing so.This is called rationality. In advertising, there is a wide canvas not governed by any rules. The previous precedents and case histories are a great help. And to some extent the concepts.

We have to exploit in advertising some methodology to generate the ideas rather than solely relying upon randomness or pure chance. The aim is to ignite the creative spark by generating a large pool of ideas abandoning reasoning and judgment. It may lead to better qualitative output after filtering the ideas. The best ideas come from a large number of ideas. The maxim is to use quantity to get the quality.

It is still open to research whether a group is better in generating ideas than an individual thinking alone. Yes one can have a nominal group. Let us not have excess or surfeit of ideas. It hampers the ideation process.Random ideas impede creativity. Research has now come to the conclusion that total freedom in idea generation is not always superior.

Many researchers feel creativity represents iconoclastic tendencies and does not follow any rules.It transcends all rules, and operates in total freedom. Any creative idea is not bound by constraints. No constraints means easy accessibility. Creativity is non-conformism. Conformity suppresses diversity. Diversity is the forerunner of creative ideas.

Creativity appears out of thin air, as a flash. It strikes all of a sudden. It is spontaneous. It appears when a person is thinking something else. Maybe, these ideas were stored in the mind previously. They were there and arrive so suddenly that they appear as inspiration. The flow of ideas comes forth under conducive circumstances.

There are thinkers who suspect even a pattern in the chance element and arbitrariness. Creative people are not extra-ordinary. They are ordinary people who exercise creative processes and techniques to do a good job.

Still the problem of understanding the creative process that generates creative output remains unsolved.Experts oscillate between rule and no-rules for the process. Creative ideas have an element of surprise and still they can be generated in the regular course. Both these elements of surprise and regularity co-exist.

Though by its very nature creativity is unpredictable, it is still subjected to constraints which run contrary to unpredictability.Original thinking is an amalgam of fresh ideas and familiar ideas, of constraints and unpredictability.

Creativity is considered the ultimate test of excellence.It is an elusive concept, not amenable to quantification.Many feel that to be creative means to be divinely gifted. The creative spark cannot be analysed scientifically.Though there is much research on creativity, it still retains a tinge of irrationality.They call it creative intuition.