The start-up world is coming up with brand names that are causing a commotion. Take BookMyBai, for instance. What’s this all about? Is there a future for brand names such as these?

Revathi Joshi

New Delhi

Revathi, yes, for sure. BookMyBai is sure making noises with its brand name and advertising positioning stances. The controversy is on.

This is good for the brand in terms of brand salience, for sure. If not for this controversy which has panned out even on national television, the brand would linger and would have to burn lots of VC money to establish itself.

Thanks to this controversy, I am sure app downloads have been big.

From a pure brand-naming point of view as well, this is a good brand name. There is a BookMyShow, there is a BookMyBai. What the app does is absolutely clear with no doubt at all. The brand name is cogent, clear, crisp and tells all.

The problem really lies when you dissect this effort and its advertising. The key point to remember is that you can book the inanimate, but be careful when you attempt to do the same to the animate. A bai is a human being. Can you book one? Maybe you can? How does the bai in question feel about it?

Will there be a BookMyWife or a BookMyHusband in the future, or a BookMyDog? Stay careful. Be safe. But then these are two phrases start-ups do not necessarily subscribe to. Remember, they have a business to run.

The print media is filled with advertisements during the festive season, so much so that there is more advertising than content. Does this sell?

Gopinath Mandali

Hyderabad

Gopi, the festive times are really festive for the print medium. Same is the case for all media. The festive season is a period when consumption and the consumptiveness attitude is on overdrive. This is a period when mood rules over mind.

Yes, newspapers in particular have raked it in this season. The key contributor to it all is the ecommerce players by and large. Add to it a whole host of start-ups in application space, and you have big spends.

Expect as much as ₹4,000 crore being spent by ecommerce players on advertising this financial year. This is causing the boom in the ₹52,000-crore market for advertising in India.

You will notice that the format of advertising is also larger than life. The full-page advertisement is as common as it gets. In the old days (say three years ago), a full-page advertisement was rare and got you big attention.

Today, the norm is the full page. If you are not out with a full page, you will get lost. By the way, today, even if you have full page advertisements on, you will get lost. There’s that much clutter.

The unique thing we see today is that online players love to advertise offline. This is the day and age of the e-commerce player advertising in Print. Give it another five years and you will see the Print player advertising on e-commerce portals, for sure!

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

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