In the sign of changing times, BSNL has decided to hire a “film star” to endorse it’s products clearly aiming at revamping it’s image. This link comes to you via Hindustan Times; most of the article is devoted to the phenomenom of faiding appeal of cricket stars and why the film stars are the “in thing”. Oh my God! And this too in a national newspaper. No wonder, they are running out of ideas. Whom do they want to hire? Head over to the link for yourself.

My take on why this strategy is going to fail.

BSNL’s support structure is not even worth writing home about. If ever you step in a “customer care centre”, you would realise the futulity of dealing with people who have no clue why are they there in the first case. My insider sources reveal that they are mostly excess staff- who had no use elsewhere. Getting any information out of them is like finding needle in a haystack. Remember, this is my own personal experience. Your’s maybe better or worse.

There is no coordination with the execution wing and the Customer Care people. The ultimate person for the job is the lineman and the JTO or the Junior Telecom Officer. Most of the times, they remain inacessible- they seem to have certain secret codes amongst themselves to chatter and fritter away their time. I wonder what the “film star” is going to communicate about the product.

Would we have to ask her/him whether he/ she uses Dataone? What of the contention ratios? What would you do if BSNL phone plonks in the middle of the day and you have no complaint resolution. Note that I wrote in- middle of the day! It’s that bad. The line is often restored in 24-48 hours. If it is vital for you- you are a dead meat.

How does the appeal of a “film star” cut across the linguistic and technological barriers? A case in the point here. Before we went in urchase for a new car, I tested both Wagon R ( from Maruti ) and Hyundai Santro. Santro is being endorsed by Shah Rukh Khan. Either you hate him or hate him more- take your pick.

Yet, Santro won but only on the account of better product. For me, the endorsement didnt make any difference.

Yet, perhaps it works for a majority of people. I know not. BSNL’s ad campaign would be worth looking out for- since they are known for insipid advertisements. Surprisingly, they spent 100 crores of tax payer’s money last fiscal.