The Hindu Business Line : ‘Nano’ is a good brand name

Swapna, Nano is a lovely brand name. My earliest brand theory revolved around brand names. I have always said the best brand name should be a four-letter word. Simple, crisp and to the point. Amul is an example. As is Pepe. As is Tata itself. And now Nano.

I believe there is a hierarchy of good brand names we can build. The first point is that four-letter words make great brand names. The second point of fineness on this is that four-letter names with two syllables in them are great. Amul is actually ‘Am-Ul’. The third point is that such names with two syllables that repeat one after another are the best, such as Tata or Pepe. The fourth point is that four-letter names with two syllables that repeat with a slight variation are good as well, as in Nano. Going by this, I do believe Nano is a great name. Nano is a great adjective for sure. It is a very relevant word for today, really. It is a recession-word for sure. It is all about small being beautiful. It is a tech word as well. Nano packs a lot of punch and the brand name itself, in its articulation and use, provides for a wide range of applications. The moment you hear Nano, you think of the car. The car leads the imagery whenever this word is used in India.

Are Indian companies really prepared to handle a crisis?

- Joshua Reddy, Hyderabad

Josh, most companies are very poorly prepared with the ability to manage and communicate a crisis. Crisis management is quite like death. Everyone knows it can happen, but no one thinks it can happen to them. This is why most companies are poorly prepared on this count.

Crisis management in most organisations is outsourced to PR agencies, who themselves are, most of the time, not very well equipped to communicate a crisis. There is very little in terms of active drills that are done by companies or their PR partners. I do believe this is necessary, quite like a fire-drill. A crisis sure is like a fire.

What started with the collapse of the Lehman Brothers has touched all of us with pay cuts and job losses and compromises in our lifestyles. Is this cyclical? Why does it happen at all?

- Hitesh Dalal, Kolkata

Hitesh, what started has not ended as yet. We are somewhere in the middle of it all. It sure is cyclical. It happens. It is a crisis of a hollow economy getting hollower still. It is the classic case of Western economies bleeding themselves to death spurred on by the credit mentality. I do believe it all started with the credit-seeking mentality of the Westerner at large. In the beginning, the solid economy believed in gold and money. The US economy counteracted to spur on demand and credit offers helped businesses sell more. Then came the formalised retail credit offer of them all – the credit card.

The plastic economy helped boom consumer retail buys. And then this credit card went from credit for groceries to credit for cars to credit for homes (mortgages) to credit to banks to credit to loan-swaps amidst banks et al! The solid economy based on what people “had” morphed into a hollow economy based on what people “did not have but pretended to have”. The economy had to collapse. Sub-prime, derivatives and all came crashing down the economy.

This is where India is different. We still do not believe in credit as much as the Westerner does or did. We are a cash economy. We are largely led by what we have than by what we aspire to have. Our Eastern philosophy has helped us greatly. Let’s stay this way.

Banks are going to hate me. A good start would be to stop using your credit card. A good way would be to manage with what one has rather than what one does not have but wants to have. A good way would be to pay up your credit card dues every month as soon as the bill arrives, without availing yourself of the EMI services. A good way to ward all this off would be to postpone a buy rather than advance a buy!

If there is one Indian brand that needs re-branding desperately, which one would it be?

- Shaili M. Pinto, Bangalore

Shaili, interesting question. A quick answer that comes up is the Indian Police Service. I do believe the service does yeoman service to the nation. Despite it all, its brand image is a wee bit shaken and stirred. It has just not got its act together for while now.

There is a need to build a vibrant branding programme that puts a benign face to the service at large, a need to wipe out the scar of corruption that attaches itself to the service, whenever mentioned. It’s a challenge that is exciting because of the size of the task and the impact.

(Harish Bijoor is a business strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. askharishbijoor@thehindu.co.in)

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