Question Hour

Not enough leaders in the game

Do chess players stand a chance in the brand endorsement game anymore?

Mumbai

Dear Ram, a chess player is an excellent brand ambassador for financial services and financial strategy-oriented companies, for the connect it affords. In a country where skimpily clad actresses are used to endorse tyres, and where very tall gentlemen actors with a baritone are used to advertise cars in which they will never fit, this is refreshing. The connection is umbilical.

Chess is about the mind and strategy. It is a game that knows both peril and success. Financial services are just the same. Chess embodies in itself the ethos of strategy and the ethos to take beatings and emerge from them with panache. This association is relevant to the financial services category. The chess player is therefore is a good fit. The endorsement game is all about the leaders in the pack, though. Only the top two chess-players really stand a chance in the brand endorsement game. Not more than that. Less, for sure.

Alcohol comes in friendlier packaging of late. Cartons, for instance. Why?

Bangalore

Lalith, alcohol-marketing companies have been on a soft-branding spree. Typically, within the Indian context, alcohol brands belong to a category that I call the “socially ostracised” category. To this category belongs tobacco as well. These are essentially categories that are considered addictive and oriented to ill health due to long years of consumption.

As liquor companies belong to the hard category in consumption, the attempt today is to soften its appearance and acceptance. PET packaging, miniature offerings, and cartons are all part of this exercise. The idea is to make packaging in the category resemble that in softer categories, such as soft beverages that belong to the fast-moving consumer goods category. I do believe this is not a great way to go. As alcohol becomes mainstream, it is important to maintain clarity in terms of packaging imagery. When you see alcohol in a PET bottle or for that matter in a carton, you tend to subliminally give it a softer cue. Consumers discern categories and brands as an amalgam of the brand name, colour, format, packaging and its price level as well. One needs to be careful here. From a social point of view we need a law that makes sure that alcohol packaging does not get as friendly as soft drink packaging.

Is there gender in the two-wheeler brands category?

Madurai

Gowri, there is a very thin line dividing the masculine and the feminine. Ancient Indian literature tells us of the ‘Ardhanareeshwari’ concept at large. Eastern philosophies have also put forth the theory of the Yin and the Yang. Both go to say conclusively that we are all an amalgam of the masculine and feminine.

To that extent, every product category witnesses gender cycles and changes in consumption continuously. The scooter segment is surely an example. In the beginning, the men flocked to it. And then came growing dual usage, with more and more women opting for it. And then it’s the women who dominate. This is when the image of the product category changes and assumes a gender tag. Men consciously move out. The cycle then continues. More and more liberated men enter the terrain. These are men who are confident of their sexuality and do not give a darn what others think or say. Consumption then gets evened out between the genders. In this chakravyuh, the segment keeps changing.

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

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