In the realm of branding, there are offerings of every kind. There is the kind you drink as a cup of coffee in the morning and then there is the sort you clutch onto like a mobile phone that is forever alive in your life. There is the Kannada Kantara and there is the English Avatar 2.
There is Swami Nithyananda who has a country of his own called ‘Kailasa’, and there is the name of every politician you can think of in the world. Your local corporator, your MLA, the wannabe MP, and most certainly every one of our ministers who occupy high offices. Every one of them is a brand.
What then is a ‘brand’? While definitions abound, my definition is made up of five words: The brand is a thought. A thought that lives in people’s minds. By that definition, everything you eat and drink is a brand, just as everyone you meet and party with is a brand.
As per a 12-city and 41-village study just concluded by us, an average Indian today has as many as 97 brands in mind at any point in time. And those are a lot of brands in that brain, are they not?
Is it then difficult to create a brand that lives and thrives in people’s already cluttered minds? Is it difficult to plant that brand in a mind and make it dance? What is a good brand? And what is an also-ran? My research in this realm leads me to two sets of explorations. One in the realm of the “inanimate”, and the other in the realm of the “alive” brand.
The category of the inanimate is every brand we try to build from the realm of what we eat, drink and use. Items that have no real life of their own, but thrive on the life brand managers imbue them with over the years.
People brands are therefore as important as non-people brands. The key questions then: Are people brands? And are brands people? I do believe both are personas with life and zest of their own. Each lives umbilically connected to the psyche of modern man, woman and child. No one is spared by the brand and its influence. To that extent, the brand is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent. Particularly so in today’s very commercially driven world!
This led me to experiment. As of today, I am trying to work on a model to see whether human brands can be consciously created from scratch. Yes, there is the concept of people brands and personal branding, but I have had a rather negative take on the subject for long.
My personal beliefs have not allowed me to handle people's brands. Over the decades I have had politicians, sportspersons, film actors, sundry businessmen and women, religious leaders, and many more folk from every realm—all asking me if I could manage their brand.
I have consistently refused as I have seen an issue here: Everyone who comes to you asks you to make him or her “look good”. And that is a problem for me. I do believe that this is a demand that lacks integrity. I keep telling the film actor of repute that he has the good, the bad and the ugly in him. Why would he want me to showcase only the good? What about the bad? And more importantly, what about that ugly bit in his persona?
In my view of the integrity process in brand building, you must represent what and who you are clearly. In the case of inanimate brands like soap and shampoo, you can build them from scratch and imbue them with brand personality. You can build it backwards, keeping in mind the target segment and the market you want to segment for your commercial popularity needs. In the case of people brands, however, everyone comes with baggage. People are complex.
I will reiterate this again: They have done things good, bad and ugly. They will, in the future, do more of each as well. Would it then be right to portray them as angels? What about that streak of the imp in them, if not the devil incarnate himself? How do you ignore all of that? And if you did ignore all of that, is that not cheating the very audience they are building themselves for?
Therefore, to people brands with an ambition to build themselves, I say this: If you are a dacoit or a poacher (as Veerappan was), brand yourself as one. Deepen that thought. It will work best for you. And most importantly, it works best for the audience that will love you as well for the truth you are telling. The truth remains that Veerappan is a hero in some hearts, just as Che Guevara is one in many more. If you are a wolf, brand yourself as a wolf. Don’t do what everyone else does. A wolf in sheep’s clothing is a temporary fix, and the clothes fall off embarrassingly, all too suddenly.
No politician, sports star, film actor or businessperson wants anything but the positive to be portrayed in their personas. And well, that is something that the profession of Public Relations handles best. So, when they ask for their positives to be showcased, I simply guide them to the best PR agencies in the neighbourhood.
In my quest, I am currently engaged in a long-standing study on building the politician brand. Out here, I have chosen sets of young politicians who want to emerge as winners in their chosen space. I have a total of 26 candidates (names kept confidential) who I have been mentoring for the past five years.
These candidates come from the realm of national politics, national political parties, regional parties, and independents looking for a party ticket. The belief I am working on is the fact that you can make a difference if you represent yourself with integrity.
Showcase every good, every bad and every ugly point. And disseminate all of this in the constituency you wish to represent in the future. And do it for five long years with consistency before the election. After all, all of us are humans. If humans are not faulty, who can afford to be? Certainly not my iPhone!
If you represent the truth, people will love you more than when you present the fake narrative of yourself you create with the help of your PR agency and the positive and slick personal branding coach. Let’s see if my thesis on this works. Come election time, these 26 candidates will tell me if I am right or wrong.
I promise to tell you the results with integrity when the time comes.
Harish Bijoor
Brand Guru and Founder, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc