As a young lad growing up in the suburbs of Mumbai, I fondly recall my tryst with the glamour of the city. SoBo – South Mumbai for the uninformed. Rare forays ventured into the gush of sea breeze right at the tip of the peninsula, where my city kissed the Arabian sea romancing with boats bobbing in the turbulent waters juxtaposed against mammoth vessels anchored with calm in the horizon.
Brand Mumbai was and still remains, a mystic potent melting pot of the colonial past, personified by Victorian buildings and Gothic monuments blended with the rustic charm of street food and local laissez-faire.
Dense, humid, and bustling 24x7 - a melange of international tourist intermingling with street urchins and tourist guides wanting to make a fast buck – literally.
Glamourised often through celluloid dreams, garnish with Indian Cinema waxing eloquence about its charm, SoBo was once the Mecca of Hollywood screenings where theatres like Regal, Eros, Strand, New Empire, Sterling and New Excelsior represented everything that could be deemed “imported”.
The first movers, the nouveau riche had consolidated their claims to the emerging real estate towering over the sundry who had their businesses spread in the old colonial buildings further expanded in commercial towers of the Central Business District.
The romance of this intriguing cocktail never felt short of giving the curious voyeur a kick without a visit to the underbelly- the nefarious downtown of this uptown, exploring thrills hosted amongst illegitimate businesses thriving in conditions that can be best described clandestine.
I used to clamour with like-minded aficionados to explore these markets for imported cassettes for my Sony Walkman II ( purchased from there earlier) and some Nike, Reeboks and Puma to wear on my pair of stonewashed Levis (all of it smuggled or fakes created by some smart Taiwan /Hong Kong-based sweatshops). Nikons, Casios et al.
Imported meant scavenging through the roadside bookstores for magazines and novels, glossies and paperbacks as well and sometimes chancing upon a hardbound to impress myself.
A dig into a princely burger bite, chicken rolls, shakes and an occasional “one beer- two-hour” session at Leopold’s or Mondegar Café.
I guess the memories I recall in nostalgia must be resonating with stories similar to where you grew up around the country - Burma Bazaar, Connaught Place, Brigade Road, or Lindsay Street.
In contemporary settings, the melee for Raybans, Versace, Tommy Hilfiger or Tag Heuer drives the adrenalin of the metrosexual as opposed to the sapiosexual.
BRANDS CRAWLING THE SHELF SPACE AND MIND SPACE OVERSEAS
Homegrown brands went global and continue to strike the emotional chord with the Indian diaspora overseas like Amul, Haldiram, Parle, MTR, MDH masala, Taj Mahal tea etc.
On the serious front, we have Infosys, Wipro, and Pharma giants like Cipla, Himalaya, who have captured the imagination of the global marketplace.
Back here, we have iconic relationships with brands that have tremendous equity with the Indian consumer. Divinity personified with Cycle Brand agarbatti, Shudh Dhara for a gloriously sumptuous meal with family, or heritage grooming by Raymonds for the complete Indian man. Some emotional. Some self-expressive.
We have evolved to be self-reliant in many ways with a TATA Harrier jostling for turbo space with a Porche Cayenne at many expressways, even in the rural sectors. Not to mention an occasional Range Rover or Jaguar both TATA-owned, for a fair comparison.
So, what is that validation that we as consumers seek while eyeing a foreign brand vis a vis an Indian?
Before I get into taking the Atmanirbharta potshots at my views, let me take you through a serious introspection that can be debated until we arrive at middle ground inducing this discussion further.
Personally, I would certainly align my favours with the Brand Juventus when it is up against a Brand Mohun Bagan, and I’m not disregarding the footballing skills of the two here. Talk of logo design, typography, brand mnemonics, voice, tone and all that titillates.
MAKE IN INDIA is a juggernaut, and vowing to be now, before wowing the world. It’s not just about creating products and services that do us proud; it’s beyond that. Styling, design aesthetics, credibility, technological prowess and also, packaging, communicating, presenting and delivering the product and its promise. A complete value proposition.
It is also about creating ownership. The Chinese and Japanese have done that. The West always did it. Why not us?
ESPN and Star Sports have brought in slick production values while DD Sports is still to add finesse to the packaging of Sports as an entertainment tool. OTT platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime have displaced Prime Time on the telly.
Swadesi vs Videsi is just a mind game we are playing with ourselves rather than blaming it as political rhetoric. As we find ourselves being cornered by this pandemic, let us look inwards as the geopolitical scenario too looks suspicious to throw caution to the winds and embrace trade alliances with a country accused of nefarious designs to disrupt world economic balances.
The suggestion is not to break off trade alliances but to realign them. The Pharma and Health Care industry has shown us the way forward. Be it exporting Hydroxychloroquine, or becoming No.2 in manufacturing PPEs for global consumption. Not to mention, Johnson & Johnson, along with Reliance Industries, are manufacturing swabs for COVID-19 testing in a big way.
There will be a paradigm shift towards selling, rather than buying from the world and of course, create a robust manufacturing environment for self- consumption.
BRAND COMMUNICATION WARRIORS, STEP UP, PLEASE!
Content creators, filmmakers, editors, sound designers, graphic designers, animation artists, 3D and special effects experts, social media professionals, digital marketing experts will have to reinvent and integrate. Creating ads sans real-time shoots of models, celebs or entertainment professionals will be the norm. Avatars of present iconic stars will act in these ads, or anchor/perform in events. Locations that may look Utopian will have to be set as backdrops for immersive viewership and participation.
WELCOME TO THE NEW!
India and its business community need a relook at branding for glocal markets. We are missing pride in branding. We need to be moving away from the extremities of functional branding and not relying on emotional branding alone.
Partnerships in branding should emerge at the conceptual stages of product/service design of not just start-ups but MSMEs, large corporates and even government agencies.
Brand identity creation, positioning, building stoic brand personalities and augmenting brand awareness to catapult every brand, big or small into the realms of the consumers reinforcing brand equity.
The brand communication fraternity needs to be sacrosanct while understanding the creative and design needs, and elaborate on providing strategic consulting. Deep-diving into consumer minds in the wake of these disruptions, empathy bonding using brand communication at multiple touchpoints to elate, elaborate and experience the connection is the need of the hour.
VIRTUAL IS THE NEW REAL
As we grapple with the future in times uncertain, we are amid an enforced genesis of relocations of businesses. Indeed, a huge beneficiary of these global manufacturing companies setting up shop will be India.
Unfortunately, this immersive action will take years actually to reap the fruits. This is the time to shed cocooned shells of comfort and immaturity and step up proactively to embrace the change.
GEAR UP FOR THE NEW WORLD ORDER
Look beyond masks, gloves, sanitisers and meds. The global business community is open to conversations on the web. Meetings, webinars, pitches and presentations have to be next level to drive economies ahead. Collaborations will displace competition. And as brand communication professionals, we have to compliment, consult and then create.
Probably that is the vaccine which will usher in a New World Order.
(Avinash Mantri is a brand communication strategist. A wordsmith, outdoorsy, music aficionado and a dreamer, he currently heads new business initiatives with one of India’s most dynamic and innovative event management companies.)
