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Ramesh Narayan

Painting a success story takes a vision backed by product and distribution strengths, not just a grand line.

I NOTICED a `Nerolac Paints' advertisement. Two things caught my eye. Firstly, I seem to have missed out on when Goodlass Nerolac became Nerolac Paints. Pardon my ignorance. Secondly, the advertisement looked very corporate, and it had the picture of Amitabh Bachhan, larger than life (if that is possible), smiling a very enigmatic smile at me. He was saying "Sirf Nerolac. Hum Keh Rahe Hain."

Yes Sir, I will definitely keep that in mind the next time I paint my office or house. First, I will choose the shade, and then remember to specify the brand to be used. Frankly, now that I say this, I have never really been asked to choose the brand of paint I want. My interior designer, or architect, props up a shade card before my nose and then I get to select some colour which she gently nudges me towards. After that I only marvel at the painted surface. And wonder if they used Asian Paints Acrylic Emulsion, Luxol Silk or whatever Nerolac calls its premium paint.

Don't get me wrong. I am also one of those who has never been asked or told if his plywood is held together by Piyush Pandey's Fevicol, someone else's Movicoll, or any other unbranded adhesive.

On the other hand, I would love to know if any of you all have specified Fevicol to your carpenter.

Makes one wonder about why people advertise sometimes.

Back to paints.

Paint companies seem to have decided with some timely collective wisdom that mascots are out. Nerolac, I remember had `Goody the Tiger' who pranced around cutely, ensuring recall with the brand. Well, I guess with `Goodlass', `Goody' seemed to have been put out to pasture as well. And the lion of all celebrity endorsers, Bachchan, has been pulled in. I must admit the Big B has done wonders for ICICI and even Pepsi (before `toxicity' took over), so his track record is unblemished, in his second innings at least. I am told there is a TVC with him as well, which does not appear on the channels I watch.

The advertisement itself talks about how Nerolac adds colour to your life in more ways than you can imagine. A sailor in a sparkling white uniform is shown with his palm smeared in blue paint. When I understand why, I will tell you.

Talking about `Mera wallah blue' reminds me of Asian Paints.

Asian Paints has had several memorable advertising campaigns. There are two current favourites. One for their exterior paints where they show the man, his wife, his car, in fact everything, except the exterior paint ageing. I love it, and so do many people. In fact, when you start seeing take-offs on a creative effort, you know it has really caught the imagination of people. I have noticed a couple of take-offs on this TVC.

The other is the `Har ghar kuch kehta hai' TVC. I liked it in the original version where it had Piyush's smoke-tinged gravelly voice reciting poetry disguised as an advertising copy, and I like it in its latest avatar where the magic of music has extended the life of a memorable line.

I will of course never come to terms with the demise of Gattu. To me at least, that little imp, created by R. K. Laxman, had come to signify the creativity in Asian Paints, the company, and in its advertising.

His earlier shenanigans amused us, his quietened-down version charmed us. He helped create the Asian Paint brand and in a sense became symbolic of all that the brand stood for, specially, eternal youthfulness. I will remember this mascot long after the paint which is dripping off the new `Made in Singapore' logo is wiped off.

No paint-related advertising story is complete without reference to what has to be one of the most famous lines in advertising — `Whenever you see colour, think of us. Jensen & Nicholson.'

The little line also conceals a great marketing truth. A marketing success story needs to be scripted by more than just a fantastic line. It has to be backed by the quality, range, distribution strengths, pricing policy and vision that an Asian Paints obviously had. No matter that they didn't have that great advertising line.

I guess people saw colour, thought of paint and bought Asian.

(The author heads

Canco Advertising.)

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