"Brand" New Avatar!!

Brand logos as all in general public eye know are face of the huge corporations, which have become an inevitable part of our ever evolving lives. So eventually when these brand logos undergo a change we under our long standing inertial stupor wiggle and crib about the “unnecessary” new paint job done. But like it or not some of the most high performing companies from diverse sectors have had the audacity to shake of their bygone era identity logo and adopt a new riveting Avatar. I will specifically focus on two mammoth brands which risked shedding their old garb for some new makeover- Airtel and Hero.

Case I- Airtel - The new logo- a failure or just an imitation of rival telecom brand logo? 
Airtel was always one of the biggest telecom major force to reckon with. Be it being market leaders in terms of having the biggest subscriber base or entering emerging risky(controlled) international markets. As a brand Airtel was always strong, though its service quality issues cropped up time and again. Anyways, though having a strong logo – a bold red set Arial calligraphy set logo conferred all the message about the strong identity of the company. Consumer connection and brand association were also fairly strong, when suddenly one day Airtel came up with all new logo. Critics pulled it down calling it an unnecessary aberration to an already successful brand story. Some called it a pull off of Vodafone logo. The consumer found a major disconnect with the sudden bold emblem being shifted to almost a swivelled @ . To add to the despair of Airtel brand managers, consumers rejected it because of the inadequate communication to piggyback the new changed avatar. Things were not looking hearty business wise too. African “safari” venture turned out to be not as lucrative as planned to be. To cut it short, things took a sharp turn this late August of 2011 in a rather August way! Airtel hired an outsider communication firm –Taproot media to come up with a new ad campaign. The result has been there for all to see. The “Har Ek Friend Zaroori Hota Hai” has turned out to be an iconic Class-A act by relatively niche firm like Taproot. The mass youth connect with the friendship under current has caught on like wild fire! Social media tools and microblogging community have embraced it like a teenage to PSP3 ! Suddenly the communication seems to complete the whole new evolved Avatar of Airtel over this one-one and a half year. So where Vodafone comes out with brilliant Zoo-zoo campaigns which are a talk to all ad-festivals, Taproot has surely put a big contender for Vodafone in reaching out to that ever-enticing Cannes Gold- the ultimate recognition internationally!

Case II- Hero –“Hum mai hai HERO!”
In times of scams and grafts, as the nation is gripped with a “confused, lost & indecisive” syndrome we need to be affirmed that the real change agent lies within all of us. Hero Honda, a number one in its category just in terms of huge volumes sold every year, come rain or shine, boom or recession! Hero Honda had proved that they were the best. But then the happy communion between the Munjals and Honda went for a toss, the Munjals wanted to come out of the long standing relationship with Honda and stand up alone. They knew the way, they just wanted the confidence from their supporters. They again went for an outside agency instead of tapping into their incumbents JWT and DraftFCB Ulka and came out with the simple yet resounding message delivered by the sonorous echoing voice of the Master, AR Rahman. The campaign visual also delivers strongly, creating a beautiful mosaic of dignity and self respect for the spectator. This campaign sure made heads turn- it created a lot of noise at the right time, mobilising the youth against corruption in the Jan LokPal agitation. Twitter and Facebook as well other social media platforms were replete with voices calling out for the revolution using this synonymous auguring simple line “Hum mai hai Hero!”- stand up, for you can bring in the change you wish to see. Both the campaigns have done a lot in terms of consolidating the brand position and creating a place of high relevance in the market. As they are welcomed amid a raucous fanfare and aplomb I wish to see more such soul elevating campaigns done by smaller media firms in near future. Till then for nth time today ..and here it comes again on the Tube “ Jaise chai ke liye toast hota hai.....Waise hare ek Friend Zaroor Hota hai” Amen to that! Ciao!

The Posthumous Cult: Fact or Fiction !

The "l'il old man in a white hat" phenomenon !!

The “L’il man in a white hat” phenomenon!

Well a couple of weeks have passed since the all the brouhaha surrounding the fast unto death drama, ‘who said what’, queer alpha males joining the bandwagon and the UPA’a awkward incompetence in dealing with a smash blow right again on their faces, have settled with the passing storm. To set things straight for record I am not a political commentator and not wish to be one, with my humble base of wisdom and gyaan! But here I am, to write about an issue that has irked me right from its onset.
Anna hazare was a part of our “traditional folklore” wherein elders used to often talk about this “lil old man in white hat” (DISCLAIMER: that is not how I address this gentleman that was just one of the blatant comments posted by a 20 something yuppy on a social website, incredulous to Anna’s existence!). And where was I ..ya, folks, across Maharashtra landscape we are vividly aware of the legend of this long serving and diligent Gandhian who stands by everything that bapu promoted. The nation was swept off with the warm air of revolution, aah don’t you just love “the revolution”…the proletariat rising against the fake bourgeois and taking them in the Armageddon of masses Vs the Classes!..stuff what legends are made of… Keeping aside the Bolshevik romanticism, the nation just overnight stood up for this frail 72 year old without asking any question about his mysterious existence till now. Most of the Gen-Ys busy in their BBs and X-boxes have not even heard of him before. Overnight media houses, wannabe politicians(Read: Ramdev Baba), bureaucrats, preening movie stars joined his campaign against the unjust that had been crushing us all till now, but no more they said ! Looking at a bespectacled, khadi kurta clad and topi adorning Anna taking up a such a feisty task to bring down the smooth talkers and clean out gutters of the dirty vermins was heart wrenching at same time re-igniting the romantic mythological heresies we’ve heard as bed time stories all these years: The day shall come when Mother Earth- repulsed and violated , shall burn out vitriolic lava to split open its womb and a divine form shall emerge out of it and it shall rise against the devil and shall destroy it! We always loved to believe in this story of good over the bad, the David Vs the Giant Goliath and gloated in our fantasies. Moreover, an old belligerent petite figure taking up a cause without any political undercurrents and wishful tradeoffs to contest in elections, this demure Gandhian sure has stirred the mythical middle class moraled blood!!
Retribution & Brand Anna!
It is a matter of few more days and I foresee a gamut of anna memorabilia, merchandise to flood Indian markets. It’s an interesting phenomenon to see how Gen-Y prefer to wear their heart on sleeves with blunt and loud messages screaming out of the canvas of their t-shirts & caps, extending to the web paranoia with overflowing tweets and updated FB walls! Youth have taken to this simple image of retribution like fish to water and eagerly promoting its longevity through their over expressive mediums!
Nevertheless, this old Anna taking on a system as intricate and god forsaken as the Indian politics though immensely laudable and commendable, had me stirring deep with vague thoughts of introspection. For argument sake I will list out my points of contention and you can obviously retort back if u feel I am inadequate in elaborating them.
Argument 1: Its not just the UPA , all the governments have had a corrupt inclination .
As an Indian and whatever odd adult years of existence I have had, I have observed that all the governments have done some random vile acts which have put us rather them in moral halls of shame in front of the world. The need of the hour is not too delineate the entire political class but rather go for structural reforms. Plus its not just the government but everybody worth their designation in this country demands an under-the-table ‘chai nashta’ to push the work to next level. The Indian judicial system is painfully slow and frustrating. Cases pending for decades and subjects dying out the case’s lifetime is not a new phenomenon here. Fast track courts are few and sporadically evoked which makes their whole essence useless!
Argument 2: We Indians are easily romanticised by the ideas of revolution and vacuous adventurism.
Now again, I am not belittling Indians in any sense, but we do get carried away sometimes and that’s agreed! Anyways, instead of drawing parallels with previous socialist movements like the famous student protests of the 1970s headed by Jayaprakash Narayan, we need to look at realistic solutions instead of putting our iron suits on for ensuing battle! We cannot imagine and afford, with our healthy 5 stable GDP growth rate of 8.5 %, that the thousands of middle class youth rise up to this war cry giving up on colleges and jobs waiting answering calls to “Bharat safaai andolan”. Instead we need a mandate for greater reform not just economic deregulation, easier business policies but a blue print of a new government in place, which is a rational expectation considering our ballooning aspirations.
Argument 3: If Lokpal comes out what happens to other machinery of regulation and authorities.
Someone wise once said that if you spent more time on the drawing board planning then you could get done faster once you have execute that plan and eventually, the job done is also excellent ! Its time we go back to our drawing boards and look at the rust affecting the working of our formidable institutions like the Income tax, CBI, judicial system, financial regulators to all the law enforcers in their uniforms. These institutions drafted on the basis of the constitution of India were keeping in mind the India of the 50’s and 60’s. Indian political and social landscape has changed dramatically since then and we need to register this to bring out corrections and revised versions of laws governing them. We need to oil the creaky disbanding parts and replace some to crank start “The Machine“ again! The system failure has happened because of the ineptness of its operator – the people who put such dramatic pressure on these machines that they blow, they hoot, they gasp and they eventually die like an exhausted cripple who carries the burden of two people on him. I am not saying that Lokpal will be detrimental or is superficial in its existence, but with a little bit of tweaking and rearranging we can still make our system work like almost new- hence the need for authoritative rather than authoritarian governance and accountability! And if Lokpal turns out to be a reality, will it be above all these institutions and who would check for any misappropriations that are likely to affect its working? Its time to keep aside folksy wisdom and turn to reality!

And finally….
Colloquially, we are not looking for an Ayn Rand-ish idealism which in itself is an utopian philosophy, but at the same time we also need to clean up the multitude of failures that have crippled our pace when we face our daily race to compete with a menacing giant red Dragon spearheading in front of us or of the giant multinationals who perpetually send out raging tirades about our shameless rotting bureaucracy and incompetence ! We look at this global playing field and look at ourselves and find trouble. Doing a simple SWOT analysis will make us realize of our discrepancies and shortcomings. It’s clear we need to disinfect the rot within to venture out to compete and make tall claims! The Anna Hazare phenomenon has spruced us all up and we stand united, however we have to realize to keep it realistic and look out for strict establishmentarian solutions instead of a total upheaval.

Please feel free to express your opinions and make this space more colorful…cheerios!


P.S. I am cynic at heart (Period !) and getting sceptic in between my writings is something I cannot control..please bear with my odd sense of being!