Category: Brand

  • Signals, Trade-offs, Outcomes, Perceptions

    In S2E6 of The Good Fight, which was our first go-to drama during the Corona lockdown, the focus is on Adrian Boseman (played superbly by Delroy Lindo ). Thanks to his appearance on a cable news show as a legal pundit, he becomes a viral sensation. They invite him back for a couple of shows and increasingly try to channel (pun unintended) his angst into a stereotype. In his third and final appearance on the show, Adrian rebels and lets it fly, causing the channel to let him go. The episode’s last scene has him looking in the mirror, without the greasepaint. I really liked this story arc. It’s almost as though, after he experiences viral fame, he sees it for what it is, and how he can’t play along, and gives the system the finger.

    Or maybe I am projecting. Not that I ever became a viral sensation, but my favourite phrase in this context has been “Popularity is the slutty little cousin of prestige.” (Edward Norton, Birdman) Now that’s a very arguable point of view. In my defence, I don’t think of it in the scathing, condescending manner of the original quote. It’s a tempered, mellower, “I can’t bring myself to do this sh*t” perspective. (more…)

  • The idea of brand

    It’s been a little over a year since Mastercard launched its twelve-second sonic logo. Sensory branding isn’t new – from Mercedes‘ door closing to Britannia’s jingle to the Rolls Royce’s new car smell, there are many examples. But this wasn’t an isolated move, a month before that, Mastercard had done a revamp of its logo, ditching the brand name. After I wrote the language post, it struck me that both these elements of brand identity – two coloured circles without a name, and a jingle – are language agnostic. In a world of connected speakers and voice-enabled interactions, this does seem like, well, a sound strategy!

    It made me reflect on the larger idea of brand. Specifically, if brand is a perception in the mind of a consumer, what are the factors that are influencing the perception? Three broad areas immediately came to mind (more…)

  • Mind your language?

    Aachi Masala’s ad – Malayalam transliteration from Tamil – has been providing unintentional humour for a while now. It reminded me of Karthik’s post on Quartz a while back- “How brands are hurting themselves with pan-India “Hinglish” ads“. 

    The crux of the post is marketing effectiveness and how, by not communicating in the language the audience uses every day, the communication is losing its effectiveness and its ability to persuade. “Advertising is not mere communication. It’s persuasion” is a reasoning that’s hard to argue with. The common justification given my marketers are apparently “everyone knows Hindi” and “cost”. I wondered though – can marketers be that callous? Could there be other reasons? A brief thought exercise followed.  (more…)

  • Nike: Big shoes to fill

    It has been just over a year since Nike celebrated the  30th anniversary of its “Just Do It” campaign with a series of ads, featuring athletes including Colin Kaepernick, and triggered a controversy. I wrote then, about Nike’s “skin in the game” approach to brand messaging, and argued that it was perfectly placed to polarise and reap dividends in a world of attention-scarcity. But..

    Woke might make you broke!

    One year later, a (rightfully) sharp post on Pando alerted me to how the NBA got embroiled in the Hong Kong protests conversation, thanks to Daryl Morey, General Manager for the Houston Rockets tweeting his support. China vs NBA resulted. The NBA apologised. Nike pulled its Houston Rockets merchandise from five stores in Beijing and Shanghai (via). It didn’t stop there. LeBron James, refusing to be left out, waded in by stating that Morey was misinformed. Thanks to Nike’s $1 billion lifetime association with LeBron, that dragged the brand further into it. As per USA Today Nike’s business in China from June 1, 2018 to May 31, 2019 is upwards of $6 billion, and has doubled in the last 5 years, while remaining flat in the US. The stakes are high. (more…)

  • Efficiency, a zero sum game?

    In vs Amazon, I had cited Simon Andrews’ article – it might be “easy” to get about $50m, the journey to $100m and beyond gets tougher because efficiencies start maxing out. In this context, “efficiencies” relate to acquisition when building a DTC business. It led me to think of “maxing out efficiencies” in the broader context of the organisation and the business environment it operates in. (more…)