Political merchandise is a great business

On Holiday, Bihar saw brisk sales of pichkaris decorated with images of Nitish Kumar or Narendra Modi. Entrepreneurs should take note. There’s a huge, untapped market for political merchandise in India. We can easily beat the Americans, the current world champions in political merchandising. Our democracy is far larger and it’s even more volatile. That means the customers are there, the purchasing power is there, all we need is a bunch of adventurous entrepreneurs. The US has well-run companies specialising in political merchandise and innovation is key. Just look at the bumper stickers used for US elections: “Sarah Palin for 2012; the world is supposed to end anyway.” Or sample this: “If Obama was the answer, how stupid was the question.”

India’s political merchandise industry is unorganised and despite the appearance of products like Modi masks, the product lines are very predictable, and mostly badly produced. Given the chances of an official or undeclared Rahul Gandhi vs Narendra Modi battle in 2014, the possibilities for smartly executed political merchandise are almost limitless. Here are two suggestions from us, for bumper stickers or T-shirt slogans, designed to please partisans on both sides. “Modi as PM? Riot Question, Wrong Answer.” “Rahul as PM? Dr Manmohan Singh, Come Back Please.”