Birthdays- Targeting Mass vs Niche!

All birthdays end up being just a little less exciting than you dream in your head, and if you rank it, each birthday is just a little duller than the other.

This year I got to spend my special day in a factory. Yes the same day that comes every year to remind me that I'll have to live with 13 year olds calling me 'Aunty', that I'll have to move aside in a party so that 'the kids can dance' and that falling hair can no longer be blamed on 'the quality of water' :)

Now, I dont generally go around with a utopian, kites-flying-in-the-blue-skies-as-people-march to-the-tune-of-Happy-Birthday-bowing-to-me-as-they-pass, kind of an image.. but I do expect something special.. like a small party maybe..

But this year, my unfortunate location (in a factory 3 kms from the highway, 25 kms from the nearest big town, 116 kms from the nearest airport) ensured that all signs of a party without a trace.. sank. It looked sad, and all I was looking forward to was going to a mandir for puja in the evening or stealing discarded Milo from the plant.. when suddenly.. the old grey cells twitched.. (yeah kiddos.. this one still works) ;)

A few months ago.. before I anticipated this turn of events.. I'd hidden my birthdate from public view on orkut.. thinking its ridiculous to coerce people into wishing you like that. But sitting alone in my room.. with my hands on my chin, two days before day zero.. I thought.. whats the harm?

I decided to launch a teaser campaign, with a blink-and-you-miss flashing of the date, when yours truely wailed her way into this world.

The target group for the marketing plan; kith & kin, friend & foe and anybody else I may or may not know. Create noise, mass market the concept, consumerise your day of birth..

It seemed to work, atleast for the 3 hrs I let it display before I hid it from public view again, ashamed at my slimy attempts to gather more wishes..

On D-Day, with only the niche target group (the regulars) calling.. I decided to crank it up a notch and put a status message.. the original version of which was "Wish me you morons, its my b'day" however.. discussions with saner well-wishers forced me to put up a subtle yet suggestive message.. that didnt really suggest much, being as subtle as it was..

In the end, I realised that you gotta go all the way if you want more wishes than the candles on your cake.. gotta earn it like everything else.. or just be really really happy that you still have the 'regulars', the old chips off the blocks, the ones who'll always be there, and the ones who'll send in that cake and flowers and make sure you feel like you're on the top of the world everyday :)