question hour. Is brand-consciousness among youngsters going berserk?

Is brand-consciousness among youngsters going berserk? Is it a healthy trend?

Kolkata

Mohita, I do believe the craze for brands is just about crossing its limits in very aggressively urban centres such as the National Capital Region, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. In other places, there is still some restraint. Unbridled brand passion is a trend that needs to be restrained. In the long term, it is not a positive development. There is more to life than brands. We need to understand it and live life the way it must be lived. The day you forget kingfisher is a bird and think it is a beer is the day the brand has won and the bird has lost. The day you think Red Bull is an energy drink and forget that it is a bull that is red, the brand has won. It’s for you to decide what or who you want to make win. You are the consumer. The choice is yours. The money is yours. The time is yours.

The life is yours. No one can or has the right to get prescriptive here. Youngsters need to be totally aware of what is happening around them. They must also have the ability built into them to distinguish the good from the bad. I do believe our modern education helps build all that in. In many ways, the youngster will turn out to be more intelligent than all of us on this one. I hope.

The younger you are, the more brand-conscious you are. That is the good, and sad, part of our contemporary lives. Good for the brand marketer at large, and sad for a society that will progressively move away from the basic, pristine, pure and undiluted commodity form of everything. Never mind whether you are buying water or gold or mud for the face ( Multani mitti )! Never mind whether you live in a city or a town or a village, this is the reality that is staring back at our faces.

Youngsters are aggressively brand-conscious. This starts from brands that are eaten and brands that are drunk and moves on to brands that are worn to be flaunted. And then it goes inside. Goes into stuff that one wears which no one ever sees, as well. Brands have a way of invading the psyche of the individual, so much so that the brand stands out quite apart from everything else, commanding a value and a premium that is distinct, different and craved. In many ways, therefore, the brand is a premium. A premium you crave for and pay for equally.

Therefore, you end up paying Rs 995 for a branded shirt that just might cost you all of Rs 200 to stitch at your corner Amar Tailors. Without the brand dog-tag, of course!

I personally do believe that brand consciousness is fine, up to a point. There is a Plimsoll line the mania for brands must not cross. This is the point beyond which brand craving must not go. A point beyond which it turns to be brand mania and madness rather than brand-rational purchase. Brands are good till you buy them out of volition and out of a careful rational assessment balanced with a wee bit of the irrational push. The moment the irrational push tilts everything about this key brand purchase decision, it is time to sit up and smell the coffee. Unbranded, of course!

Brands seem to be focusing on the local as well. What is this localisation all about?

Rohit, the smaller the region, the more homogenous a set of consumers. This really means that the smaller the radius of a brand in terms of reach, the more common are its consumers in their tastes, needs, wants, desires, aspirations, up-bringing, cultural values and more.

Micro-localisation of brands is a great way of appealing to this common need and want. Micro-localisation really gets away from the macro appeal and focuses on specific area need and want. In this way, the appeal of the brand is reasonably higher common denominator-oriented rather than lowest common denominator-oriented.

Very few companies are able to do this well. Most companies don't really do it in an overt localisation manner even. Many try and many fail. Marketing to local communities means first understanding the local community and catering to its specific need. This translates into product form, packaging, taste appeal, advertising, marketing and branding as well.

Harish Bijoor is a business strategy expert and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. Send your questions to cat.a.lyst@thehindu.co.in

COMMENT NOW