Idefine a brand simply. The brand is a thought. A thought that lives on in a person’s mind. This week, one such personal brand that lives in our collective thoughts jumped out of the blue and back into our public consciousness. Dr Vijay Mallya. While many who write on Vijay Mallya avoid the honorific, I still use it.
The idea is to preserve what he wanted to be addressed as in public space, never mind the fact that he is a ‘fugitive’ on the run out of India accused in alleged economic offences done in India. In many ways, I stoked the fire. I put up a LinkedIn post right after the stellar IPL win by RCB. The Royal Challengers were no longer challengers, they were champions.
In my post I said a simple thing: “As we celebrate the success of RCB @18, it is important for brands to credit those who deserve it. RCB is today an IPL sensation. A business sensation even. It took a lot. Every brand has ‘nayaks’ & ‘khalnayaks’. The role of Mallya as the builder of RCB cannot be forgotten. We must speak the correct along with the politically-incorrect.” I ended with, “What say?”
I have some 1,76,000-plus impressions on the post, growing by the minute. And people said a lot. I got a lot of flak. And crazily, a lot of admiration for calling a spade a spade. This got me thinking. And right then dropped the VM podcast. All this was preceded by his posts that told the world at large and his 5.6 million followers that he was still avidly tracking the IPL, ball by ball. In the podcast, VM said sorry to the Kingfisher Airlines staff whom he had left high and dry after the fiasco. He jolly well needed to. This is his big crime of omission and commission.
The VM brand does not seem to be down and out, as most believe him to be. He is alive and kicking. And kicking a lot after the RCB win. As Brand VM is in focus again, let me quickly examine what went wrong and what went right for it. What went right first.
VM did well when he decided to get his branding act right. He decided to step out of the mould of his father, the renowned Vittal Mallya. He realised that the business of spirits needed a spirited imagery that all the boring use of film stars in surrogate advertising could not handle.
He decided to be the persona both behind and in front of the brand. Richard Branson and his persona-centric bravado branding was a model he adopted with passion. He was quickly and quietly labelled “The king of good times.”
His Kingfisher Villa in Goa became party central and his parties became the best pieces of brand advertising there was to follow. He looked at the Pirelli calendar format and created the eagerly awaited Kingfisher bikini calendar. He said Kingfisher was surely more than a beer and took to fashion through the Manoviraj Khosla route. Kingfisher was a lifestyle statement he was making.
A lot more happened in consumer psyche. Please note, brands are owned in consumers’ minds. Slowly, an otherwise very hard-working VM was branded as a party-goer on the loose. Never mind that VM worked 15 hour days, his party appearances mattered more to the imagery that was built around him.
Overt flaunt was the model. Page 3 was more important than the cover of Fortune and Forbes to this consumer imagery that was built assiduously. Never mind the truth, whether you liked to party or not, you had to fit the role and do just that. Your karma was in place. And karma can bite.
In many ways, it’s persona branding that got VM. The key visual elements of being larger than life, the splurger, being the king of good times, and the party guy on the loose in his brand imagery kit got him. VM got painted as the frivolous boy, the spoilt brat.
When the business, corporate and political classes wanted a piece of the frivolous pie, it went to him. When things went south, everyone distanced themselves. Everyone around him, close friends included, seemed to cut their losses. And that is the tragedy of persona branding gone wrong.
There is a lesson in it for everyone who wants to dabble in persona branding. My completely unsolicited advice is: don’t. Just be who you are. You be you. Be straight. Be honest. If you are a thug, live the thug life. If you love your curd-rice after your evening peg of single-malt, show just that to the public. Stop embracing a persona that stultifies you and your being.
When you do persona branding wrong, you do branding wrong. VM did it wrong. Maybe the other VM, Vittal Mallya, did it right.
Vittal Mallya has the prestigious road that runs in front of UB City in Bengaluru named after him. I am afraid Dr Vijay Mallya will never have that honour, honorific or not.
The author is a brand guru & founder, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.
(Views are personal)