5 Lessons from Imran Khan & PTI Branding and Marketing Strategy

Last two events of PTIJALSA both in Lahore and Karachi presented a new, and for many an unexpected support to this relatively new political force in Pakistan. Tahreek-e-Insaf was formed in 1997 as a movement for justice. There were handful supporters who continued their loyalties for a party that did not have any backing from the masses.

So what changed public perception about the party and how did Imran Khan managed to raise its brand equity to a level that pulled out the most lethargic people to support his Jalsas in the two major cities of Pakistan.

Before we start analyzing it deeper, one must realize that the most powerful global brands are using entertainers and sportsmen in increasing their brand value. The reason is simple, people follow entertainers and sportsmen, and hence they are able to create massive market for the brand.

Lesson 1: Imran Khan realized this and combined the two, his value as sportsman and team captain together with entertainers such as Shahzad Roy, Abrarul Haq and the Salman Ahmed. This classic combination worked in the early days and started creating some vibes.

Lesson 2: PTI realized that the older generation in Pakistan has become somewhat rigid and youth is easily transformable because they are frustrated with the usual politics. He focused at youth as the segment that he wanted to market PTI brand to and youth is mostly attracted to music. A job well done by Shahzad, Abrar and Salman for early mobilization for youth power.

Lesson 3: Imran Khan used the success stories of Shukat Khanum Hospital and NAMAL College as tangible examples of successful projects initiated by him that are considered as most transparent and corruption free private sector initiatives. He used these two projects in projecting his leadership and team building capabilities.

Lesson 4: PTI clearly outran its competition through effective use of technology. Pakistan has around 22 million internet users of which 5.5 million are hooked at facebook and about 0.5 million are twitter users. Imran created a dedicated team of techies to capitalize on this massive opportunity. As result of this, PTI has over 200,000 fans on Facebook. Imran’s own page has over 300,000 fans and around 150,000 twitter followers. This helped PTI mobilizing massive crowd at both Jalsas. During the Karachi Jalsa, at onetime 98 tweets per second were being sent that helped in trending PTI, PTIJALSA and IK on global Twitter trends.

Lesson 5: PTI has been branded as a political force that will address the issues of corruption, nepotism, injustice and inequitable treatment to poor masses of Pakistan. This careful positioning of PTI brand has now established that the people of Pakistan can count of them as a true movement for justice.

Media support was cherry on the cake, and why don’t they support the Tsunami. PTI brand has become so powerful that it started attracting political giants from other parties. This is however also a caution point for Imran Khan and his team, they really need to carefully evaluate the individual for credibility before offering party membership. Any wrong decision at this stage will hurt the brand image!

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