The Hindu Business Line : Three brands and a disaster

The 26/11 terrorist attack on Mumbai basically involved three brands and a disaster. I live very close to two of them, and in one of them. I am referring to the Taj, the Oberoi and to Mumbai respectively.

Now that it is three weeks since that fateful day when terrorists opened fire in Mumbai, many people have been questioning why the media and the masses have been talking and writing non-stop about the Taj, and to a lesser extent about the Oberoi, but hardly anything about the attack on the CST station. I believe it has less to do with an elitist outlook and more with the power of brands. Let’s look at all the three brands I mentioned.

The Taj is an iconic brand. Legend and lore have been spun around it, and care has been taken to let a misty shroud of mystery hang around the legend. No one is sure if the fantastic building was supposed to have been built facing the way it is, or the other way round. No one is sure if Jamsetji Tata was actually turned away from the Royal Yacht Club, or the Majestic Hotel or the Watson Hotel (today’s Army & Navy building). Frankly, nobody cares. It fires one’s imagination to see that this magnificent edifice was built by an Indian, in those days of the Raj. The details are irrelevant in this context.

Everyone has his or her favourite Taj story and enough has been written about it to fill several tomes. The fact of the matter is that if you lived in Mumbai before the ‘70s, you really had only one big hotel in town, so it is almost natural that everyone my age, or older than me, has special memories about the Taj. How can I forget the elaborate lunch buffets we were taken to as children in the ball room? Or, the evening my wedding reception was held at the Taj? Or, the many, many Tuesdays attending the Rotary meeting at the Taj? Is that why people are so sentimental about the Taj? Maybe, but it is also true that the Taj works its magic in many ways that creates those special memories. And this magic is really something that emanates from its staff. Either the human resource development team at the Taj is really awesome, or it is just “brand Tata” that somehow reflects in so many little ways. And the staff, and the way they conducted themselves, really went to establish the Taj brand in such a glowing light.

The CST terminus in Mumbai.

Does that mean the Oberoi lacked in some way? Sure, they don’t have a heritage structure but they have a contemporary hotel that is truly world-class. The Oberoi is a class act. And the Trident (before they did the dreadful name-change game from Sheraton to Hilton to Trident) is comparable to any hotel in its segment. In fact, one unpublished story came from a fellow-Rotarian whose son had given in a couple of suits to be laundered at the Belvedere (the exclusive members-only club at the Oberoi) a couple of days before the 26th of November. In the wake of the carnage all around the Belvedere, he obviously wrote off his suits and forgot all about them. He was stunned when he received a call from the Belvedere sometime recently requesting him to pick up his laundered suits. Business as usual? This is what legends are made up of. Yet, the Taj hogged all the headlines.

I believe it had nothing to do with the classy rooms, the impeccable service or the painstaking human resource development at the Oberoi. It had to do with the fact that the Taj brand has been built over a 100 years, and Ratan Tata is a brand by himself. A brand who rolled up his sleeves and appeared to be completely “hands-on” during the crisis. That brings us to the brand Mumbai.

In every previous disaster, the resilience, the never-say-die-attitude, the fortitude, the “spirit of Mumbai” was brandished as some balm that was spread thinly over the wounds of a bleeding city.

The Oberoi hotels

This time, it was the anger of Mumbai that came to the fore. And it was mostly aimed at the political system. From fiery blogs to candlelight vigils and peace marches, the average Mumbaikar wanted to make his and her outrage clear to the politicians who have run the city almost to the ground.

If the DNA of brand Mumbai is its people, the demographic just changed. The younger people in Mumbai were more vocal and trend spotters could hardly miss this new feature. Sure there were the Padamsees and Parekhs and Sukhtankars, but this time around it was the young Mumbaikar who really showed the politician his place.

Brand Mumbai just re-invented itself. And the butterfly emerging out of the cocoon is young, outspoken, filled with derring-do, and out to make a difference. Brand Mumbai is now all about youth-power and marketers need make a note.

Sure, the city is limping back to normal and shadowed by a sense of fear. Yet all three brands are set to return stronger than ever before. One need not be a rocket-scientist to imagine the kind of mania the (re-)opening of the Taj will be greeted with. “Shaken but not stirred”, was the line this hotel used in an advertisement that appeared in Chennai after their Coromandel Hotel was vandalised by political hoodlums. This time it might be shaken, but the Mumbaikars are stirred.

The Oberoi too will emerge as strong a brand as ever after a make-over. Sure, this time around the memories associated with both hotels will not just be happy ones. But long after time heals the deep wounds that have been inflicted; the memories of valour, of a spirit of service that goes beyond the call of duty will remain fresh in the minds of people. This will be the new brand architecture for these hotels.

And what about Brand Mumbai? The city will pick up the pieces of its broken heart and will soon remember to celebrate the coming of age of its youth. And hopefully a brand new beginning …

Related Stories:
The day the Taj burned
Indian Hotels to reopen Taj Mahal Tower on Dec 21
Trident Oberoi secured

More Stories on : Brands | Hotels | Terrorism

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