Matching 'Kundalis' for Gay Jodis - The Marketing Perspective

For ages parents went to the astrologers to match the kundali of their son or daughter with the kundali of the prospective bride or bride groom. When the kundalis matched, jubilation and celebration followed and in some cases when the kundalis didn’t match, the astrologers matched them by the revenue from under the table. There were some instances which came in the news that some mangliks were married to trees etc. All in all it was an easy, respectable and profitable job for most of the astrologers of the country.

Then came up a storm which was slowly brewing up in the Indian society; Section 377 or legalizing Gay marriages. Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code is a piece of legislation in India introduced during British rule of India that criminalizes sexual activity "against the order of nature." The section was read down to decriminalize same-sex behavior among consenting adults in a historic judgment by the High Court of Delhi on 2 July 2009. Section 377 continues to apply in the case of sex involving minors and coercive sex.

In the entire brouhaha, where some were fully buoyed and some others were up against in arms against the law, then there was a third kind…..Not exactly buoyed, not exactly against it but very confused – The Astrologers. The big question in their mind was what to do when two guys or two gals come to them to match their Kundalis?????

Matching Kundalis of Gay couples is totally a new market for the astrologers and we can bet our last penny on the fact that none of the astrologers would be aware of the Ansoff’s Matrix as to what strategy to be applied for carrying on an existing service in a new market. We are writing this article to help them in their hour of distress.

Well Market Development is the strategy that is to be used to market existing services in new markets. The strategies they could follow are as follows:

1) The first step in developing Market Development strategy would be to target the customers. What we feel is initially all the same sex couples would marry in courts, so the astrologers can set up exclusive small kiosks in the vicinity of those courts and put up their assistants and directly market their services to the same sex couples by offering them prices lower than what they would charge to a normal/straight couple. The astrologer who sets up his kiosk first would obviously have a first mover advantage and can be able to gain publicity and that would boost up his business.

2) A group of astrologers can come together and form an organization that would specialize matching gay kundalis and also in conducting gay marriages and they could name their organization as ‘Reverse Swing’ etc because in India everything associated with cricket sells.

3) This organization could also provide the gay couples with additional benefits like discounted referrals, which means that the other gay couple which they recommend to these astrologers would get a 15% off and the same 15% would be refunded to the initial couple. This chain could continue and prove beneficial to both the astrologer and his customers.

4) This organization can tie up with the Bombay Dost Magazine (India’s first gay magazine) and advertise their services through it. They can come up with an offer that if one person of the gay couple who want their kundalis matched is a subscriber of this magazine then he could avail those services for free. The astrologers in turn can take their commission from the magazine.

5) Another strategy would be that these astrologers can hire Pandits who would conduct the marriage of the gay couple and the gay couples who got their kundalis matches by these astrologers would again get a discount in the expenses of conducting their marriage.

6) This organization can rope in Celina Jaitley (the current champion of gay rights) as their brand ambassador so as to get in eyeballs and promote their organization.

Bane Chahe Dushman Zamaana Hamaara,
Salamat Rahe DOSTANA Hamara !!!

P.S: The above post is jointly written by me and my friend Pankhuri. We developed these strategies by working on an idea given to us by Prof. Sunil Pevekar in our Services Marketing class. We don’t know the feasibility of our strategies but we had a lot of fun in formulating them.