Brands should live consumers’ lives

How do brands make people buy? And how far do brands really go in creating pull?

Kolkata

Bhowmick- da , when brands touch a chord in consumers’ hearts, heartstrings are touched, tweaked and at times pulled. Consumers live real lives in the physical world. Brands need to understand this and live those very lives. This helps pull heartstrings. And successful brands do this well. Very well. The city you live in is successful on this score, for sure. Look at Jabakusum hair oil and what it has done over the many decades.

This pulling at the heartstrings is a thin line to tread and cross. Sometimes, when you are overzealous, you cross that line. Advertising and brand propositions that the creative person resonates with as a person work best. The test is simple. If you cannot feel it, the consumer surely will not. Therefore, make sure your advertising is pre-tested on this count.

Patanjali Ayurved is an Ayurved corporate today. What defines its success and what’s ahead?

Bhubaneswar

Patro- da , marketing and branding success is all about positioning. Patanjali Ayurved is a humongous success because of the strength of its product offering and, more importantly, its positing stance that its offering is holistic, real and “back to the Vedas” in many ways.

Price has certainly helped, but what is important to notice is that the product has lived up to its promise every time. I recently asked an audience in Ahmedabad how many of them had Patanjali Dant Kanti in their bathrooms. Around 5 per cent hands went up. The next question I asked: how many have a Patanjali product in their home: 90 per cent hands went up. That’s the success of Baba Ramdev, Balakrishna and Patanjali Ayurved. Patanjali Ayurved is creating a tectonic shift in the marketing space of India. And the journey of this alternative force in Indian FMCG space has just about begun.

So do we write Aamir Khan off? Was his intolerance comment his write-off statement?

Mumbai

Bhamini, not at all. I think Aamir just needs three straight hits to walk back right into the hearts of all his admirers once again. There is nothing like success. Success has this zany way of erasing memories, and public memory is in any case proverbially and really, really short.

The more Aamir is seen involved in causes that are close to his heart and close to the heart of India at large, the quicker the healing. A fair bit of extreme jingoism hit Aamir and his image after this controversy that need not have been. Jingoism, sadly, is best fought with jingoism.

Harish Bijoor is a brand strategy expert and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. Mail your queries to cat.a.lyst@thehindu.co.in

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