Narendra Modi: A Brand in the Making

India's politicians finally begin to have acknowledged the value of conciously creating a brand image, though its a rare phenomenan which is just developing its roots as of now.

A politician carrying a persona or consciously trying to build his persona, trying to be identified with certain attire has not been new to India, after all we have so many politicians, right from the ones who try to dress and speak like saints to the ones who want to extend their cultural heritage across, through their appearence and language. Though all of this so far has been a little messed up, its like  getting inspired by the appearence and manifesting the inspiration through the appearence. There goes if at all a very little thought behind touching all aspects of a politician's life and weaving it together to form a single identity, right from what you believe, whom you believe, what you do, what you say, how you look and then too making sense of all of it.

The recent initiatives though of one of the politician had been quite visible and is a precurcor to the political make over India is going to witness in years to come, at par its international counterparts, where every aspect of a politicians life is inspired by a thought and to be accurate a unifying thought.

Yes offlate I have been seeing, hearing and observing a lot of Narendra Modi.He seems to be making a very intelligent approach,to travel from one extreme to another, from ridicule to glory. What lies behind the scene is always a grey area where opinions differ from one person to another, however what attracts our attention is an obvious process that makes Narendra Modi: A Brand in the making.

Developments in Gujarat have brought applaud to Modi from all over the world,and what makes him sound and seem sensible is not only the intelligent decisions he is taking but also an intelligent communication of those decisions, the logic, vision, ideology and going futher inspiration behind them.

Its not only about actions, but its about integrating actions with communication and making sure both come out from a single core or a brand essence. Its about a Politician who is decisive, intellectual, visionary and ambitious, who is sensible and sensitive.

Its about communication, encouraging people to put forward their opinions, discuss in open forums , participating in different kinds of motivational and educational events, making these initiartives VISIBLE and behind all of these efforts binding them together with a UNIFIED VISION.

Narendra Modi : A Brand in Making, is not a new fad, this reality is taking place every day every moment, every hour, either through a social media channel, through announcing a new social, educational, economic welfare scheme or through a more recent Google Plus Hangout.

Modi is carefully selecting the issues pertaining to society, employement, education, health, industry, taking thougtht full decisions, communicating them across, at the same time is engaging with the common man of India, listening to him, talking to him, addressing his concerns.

This seems like a concsiously thought through political career plan, where all aspects of his political success are clearly defined, the performance in numbers, sensitivity towards environment,society and nation at large, his sensibilty, his approach and how much he is approachable, and  all lead by his vision, mission and values.

He is the pioneer of change, amongst very rare breed of politicians(in India), who are utilizing technology not for luxury or using it in their political speech but as an intelligent user like a common man, very much aware that his words matter, they will be heard, consumed and followed.

Brand Modi seems to be very selective even in the issues he takes up aginst his political rivals, that benefit him from both ends, as those issues not only challenge the weak points of opposition but also position him as sensible and sentive at the same time.
After all amongst all this political noise, we are hearing one voice that is clearer and definite. How much successful this Personal Branding will result in upcoming elections, is best left to be judged by time, but it will surely create a benchmark in Indian politics in years to come giving politics a touch of professionalism and turning a politician as answerable as a CEO.

Brand Ramdev

My recent visit to the Patanjali Chikitsalaya, to fetch some medicines for a relative, surprised me to the core. I was amazed to see that Patanjali Chikitsalaya, official store under which all the products and services of Baba Ramdev are sold, sell not only Ayurvedic Medicines, but almost all categories of FMCG products. Well this wasn't  something new that I discovered but to be frank I wasn't aware of the scale and depth of his business.

What surprised me more was a long queue of people wanting to buy different categories of products, confectioneries, health drinks,food items,cosmetics etc. Each product line was explored intensively, for example in the types of biscuits, there were equivalent variants of Monaco, Marie Gold, Multigrain and what not. Shampoo category had a product for  hairfall, dandruff etc.If someone was asking for a packet of biscuit he would say I want the one like Monaco,and also the one like Marie Gold.

Now this is the contradiction that I noticed a person buying a product from Patanjali Chikitsalaya, of a brand named Divya, and showing a brand recall for different brands.The brand recall  Monaco or Marie Gold have created for a particular type of biscuit is actually used to buy the similar product but from a different brand. This might seem a very small thing at a glance but it challenges the traditional concept of branding that the more we are able to create a positive brand recall the more influence we are going to have on the consumer's purchase decision. Now here hardly two or three people showing this behavior might not challenge the market share and branding initiatives of the above mentioned brands who have far more better reach and presence, but it certainly creates a question where this more than 1200 crore of turnover is coming from for Patanjali Chikitsalaya, is it another Giant in the making, to challenge the huge corporates like HUL and Nestle.

Isn't it the time that these FMCG giants start considering this small emerging business, who has accumulated a brand equity perhaps more then these companies, if not in numbers but at least in comparison to the cost they incur every year to build and sustain their brand versus I am just guessing what cost Baba Ramdev has incurred in creating  a brand for its products. Baba Ramdev is at advantage as his personal brand is so strong among rural and non metro Indians, and to a certain extent overseas that he is virtually incurring no cost and leveraging his existing brand equity.

This event and understanding has once again proved one point that a product to sustain in this fierce competitive market has not just to deliver what it is supposed to but something more than that. It has to create a legacy of where it is coming from and what its intentions are, and going beyond what are the founders of the company like, being untainted is not enough, are you there for satisfying a need or you have serious business to do, how much concerned you are for the consumer and are your products the manifestations of your concern towards a consumer, a society and a nation at large.Of course these brands spend crores of rupees to build the same perception and create the same legacy, but in this race the winner will be surely the one who looks real, whom consumer considers one of us and who seems honest.

it will not take a long time to see where this Brand Ramdev reaches, but for sure  Ramdev resides in the hearts of rural urban Indian middle class, and a little bit of conscious branding might make him reach the hearts of class conscious urban Indian, who look forward to him now atleast for the pure bottle of Honey.

The Storyteller's Opening Speech

We are living in an age when we have abundance of choices, we look around to pick up any product we find thousand of brands calling and saying Try Me..I am better.

Every one has created its distinctive appearence, language, way of saying things, way of doing things...every one follows a signature style that makes it a brand..and everyone ultimately aspires to be picked up by the customer. Offlate most of them have realised that they are more or less identical at least functionally until one comes up with extremely out of the box developments, they have also realized that there is very little they can compete on about pricing, given that most of them are at par when it comes to their onshelf availability their fate totally depends on a random consumer picking up a random product...but the question is is it that random?

Fight for Market share, meeting sales targets, increasing revenue, increasing profits, does it all boils down to a random customer picking up a random product? Ofcourse not, I too share this opinion with you all.Therefore through this blog I will try to identify what are those tangible and intangible factors that influence those random decisions of that random customer so that it becomes a product of choice.

The upcoming posts will be my experiments and encounters with the products, their growing aspirations, what is going on in the minds of brand managers and ofcourse where all of it is leading to finally...

Happy Reading