The Hindu Business Line : If it ain't broke, just flatten it!

Bangalore has become a global brand synonymous with software, and changing its name now will affect its image. Employees at Infosys campus, Bangalore.

Mediocre but arrogant" is the title of an interesting and occasionally hilarious book that I recently happened to read. In case the title of the book doesn't ring a bell, let me try and explain. The title of the book is a tongue- in-cheek reference to MBAs and some of their brand properties!

Being an MBA myself, I am well aware of the failings of some of us. And I have been subjected to a fair share of ridicule myself. But one of the most sobering expansions of those three letters is attributed to a branding expert from the UK who described the MBA as a "murderer of brand assets"!

His reasoning was simple. Twenty-something MBAs are entrusted with a company's most valuable asset — the brand, and they have no clue about its value or what to do with it. Hence, they change integral parts of it, usually for worse, and treat something that is as precious and as beautiful as crystal like a piece of clay that they can mould, shape and change at will. After all, they want to leave their mark on the brand and the organisation that they serve (briefly)!

As I write this column, the brand of Bangalore has suffered a similar, needless change. And the change is (thankfully) not by an MBA but by the Chief Minister of Karnataka who has not only made the garden city Bengalooru but has simply gone bananas by changing the names of 11 places in Karnataka in one go.

Twenty-twenty the way to go!

When the present epoch-making (!) Chief Minister of Karnataka assumed office he had a 20-month period of office. As is not uncommon in India, another Chief Minister from BJP would follow him for his own 20-month term as Chief Minister. And as a prominent cartoonist depicted, "By the time you say Tomu, Dicku, Harryu twenty months will be overu."

And while the seeds of the name change may have been sown earlier, it is in this 20-month term that it has actually happened. After all, people want instant results and recognition and mindless entertainment — a la 20/20 cricket. The purist might be offended by the increasing popularity of 20/20 in England — the original home of Test cricket and one of the few countries where it is still being watched. The run to the wicket, wild slog and chat with the commentator from one's earpiece may perhaps be the way to go to get new watchers in. But to me it is execution that precedes everything else - strategy included. And the current name change is so ill-advised and devoid of thought that it makes the most illogical and ugliest hoick in 20/20 cricket seem like an intricate move of chess!

Recognition - the name of the game

"The three key rules of marketing are brand recognition, brand recognition, brand recognition" — Anonymous. People who are involved with the creation and sustenance of brands in a crowded market place know the value of this statement. A category like pressure cookers for instance has no less than 250 brands competing for the consumer's attention and vying for a share of her wallet. Cities are no different. Nor are countries.

Ask any foreigner what associations could be attributed to our great country till the '90s. India was the land of snake charmers and elephants. Cricketers who visited this country (and not everyone did) complained not only about the raging turners that were passed off as cricket pitches, but also of rats in five-star hotels, India belly ... you get the picture. A few cities were recalled, more so by people who visited them. Delhi, Bombay, Agra and, at times, even Madras. After all, there had been a tied cricket test match there. Then a few things happened in India.

Liberalisation of the economy happened. Foreign capital and foreign brands that only a few of us had heard of, seen and on rare occasions even experienced, started wooing us. Nor was this all. Indian brands such as Nirma and Bajaj showed us the way and gave us confidence that if your brand was relevant and different then it could not only hang in there but actually give the international brand a run for its money.

Then India discovered information technology and software. While people who knocked its success spoke about "low cost labour" and "body shopping", India was making its presence felt - with Fortune 500 companies in hotly competitive global markets. And leading the way in the recognition game was Bangalore. IBM, Oracle, Cisco Systems, Motorola, Accenture all made their way into Bangalore and, to the chagrin of people in the US who were being "Bangalored," it was not only the low-end jobs that were being moved to Bangalore.

And software companies such as Infosys ensured that Bangalore was the leading exporter of software in India. The city was `the' happening city in India. The rest of the world sat up and took notice. And Thomas Friedman did his bit to put Bangalore on the recognition map of the world with his best selling book The World is Flat. Of course, our politicians ignored all that was happening around them but certainly did not ignore the real estate boom that was happening in Bangalore by securing their own share of the pie.

Nor did recognition elude even ordinary mortals like me. I am a nondescript Indian with a typically wheatish complexion carefully earned in the sultry heat of the city of Madras where I was born. I could have easily been mistaken for one of the billion others from this part of the world. And yet, in far off and not so well informed places such as Johannesburg were my cricket watching took me, when people asked me where I was from, I said Bangalore with an element of diffidence ready to give a prolonged and protracted explanation as to where it was. The reaction used to be instant and the respect palpable as they would say "Software!"

Yes, software was king. And Bangalore was synonymous with software. I was assumed to be a techno wizard who had made his millions and lost his hair in the bargain. And now our 20-month hero has ensured, with this sweeping change, that recognition, respect and a place in the global map of the world are less critical than taking away people's attention from his government's non-performance or the media attention that his teenage son is getting for all the wrong reasons.

Hands off! It's mine

I have said this before and will continue to say it till the cows come home. Brands are difficult to build and nurture and easy to lose. And successful brands have owners or custodians who are passionate about them and possessive about retaining their essence. People like Steve Jobs. Brands like Apple, Nike and Starbucks did not happen by accident. Nor were the custodians of these brands idle. They gave these brands direction. They sustained them in good times and bad. And customers became attached to these brands and felt they actually owned them. Hence, the violent reaction to the changed formulation of Coke.

Yes, brands belong to customers. And what about cities like Bangalore that are brands in their own right? Looks like they are orphans as you and I are keeping quiet. We crib about Greg Chappell and the Indian cricket team but turn a blind eye to gross acts of political expediency like these. Acts that take us back in time. How can a sophisticated, global brand have a rustic, antiquated name? How can a city that rocks to A.R. Rahman suddenly move back to the mood and music of P.U. Chinnappa?

Fifty, retired hurt

Today, Karnataka has turned 50. It is clearly an important milestone in a State that has done well for itself, to put it mildly. And in all fairness the last 10 years have seen phenomenal progress thanks to software and technology. Companies like Infosys that are headquartered in Bangalore have put the city on the world map. And the current government which had very little to do with all this achievement is getting into the act.

Like this friend of mine who used to give multiple gifts to his wife on her birthday. The reason? He had no ideas of her likes and dislikes and hoped that she would like one of them at least. Haradanahalli Deve Gowda Kumaraswamy, I suspect, has very little idea of what people want. He has given us multiple gifts. Yes, he has renamed 11 places in Karnataka. Bangalore will be Bengalooru, Mysore - Mysooru, Belgaum - Belagaavi, Gulbarga - Kalburgi, Mangalore - Mangalooru, Tumkur - Tumakooru, Bellary - Ballari, Hubli - Hubballi, Shimoga - Shivamogga, Chikmagalur - Chikkamagalooru, Hospet - Hosapete.

Are you still there? And what about me? I am confused! As I am sure would be the rest of the world. They knew one place in India. Had images of it and associated modernity and progress with it. They wondered about how it could have reached the heights it did in such a short time-frame. And now, they will wonder how they will pronounce it. They will wonder at why we do these things and yet will be too polite to talk about it. And by the time they get used to pronouncing the name the way our parochial leaders want them to, a new leader will lead the way - with another name change!

And yet this piece would be incomplete without some recognition for Bengalooru's brand custodian who has just dealt a body blow to the brand's assets. Maybe we should grant him an honorary MBA from some management institute in Bengalooru!

(Ramanujam Sridhar is CEO of Brand-comm)

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