Of outstanding products and brand magic

AGKSPEAK

At the outset, let me state that this is an unabashed ode to all Johnson & Johnson baby commercials ever made.

We don't realise that the phrase "" "how cute, just like a Johnson & Johnson baby" has arisen only because of the amazing consistency of the brand to make a cliche look so lovable, commercial after commercial.

Hats off to the client, the agency and the incredibly patient producers. Almost all of us have, at some point in time have been fortunate to experience the magic that a baby brings with him/her.

But try capturing it on a film and you will appreciate the humungous task that the Johnson & Johnson team manages to pull off so effortlessly year after year.

The latest in the series is the ad for baby cream which celebrates a baby's first steps. Living up to its heritage of capturing unbelievably beautiful moments on-screen, the TVC creates stars out of both the mother and the baby.

The two radiate incredible amount of joy and warmth so much so that it spills out of the screen and into the hearts of its viewers. Yes, thank god for babies and for Johnson & Johnson commercials which reminds us of what true beauty is all about.

What I've learned.
Branding India
Bill Bernbach once remarked that the magic is in the product. In his usual pithy style, Bernbach articulated a belief commonly held by all marketers and advertisers who spend their lives trying to fit products into the lives of millions.

And as an advertising professional with 30 years of experience in building brands, I know that this is one truth that you face very early on.

And this is the reality that all of us, propagators of 'Brand India", have to come to terms with "" the reality that is India.

I'm sure we mean well as we stoutly defend India the product, but the truth is that our entire brand building effort will fail unless India the product delivers "" the two (brand and product) being inseparable from each other.

So here's what I would do "" arrive at a solution through a process-led analysis rather than look at it from an emotional viewpoint. To do so, I would consider "India" just as I would any other product that requires to go through a branding exercise:

a)understanding the product b) do a SWOT (strength, weaknesses, opportunities, threat) analysis c) find a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) "" even though it is old-fashioned these days, it still works d) and then create a brand from what emerges

a) Understanding the product: India wouldn't need any research, not really. There is an abundance of secondary data available, besides, of course, our own personal experience of the product. So let's do a cold, hard reality check of "product India".

India ranks quite high as one of the most corrupt nations of the world

We are among the least literate, and, one of the poorest nations "" our annual per capita income is Rs 23,000 (Bangladesh's is Rs 18,000 and Australia is Rs 9.95 lakh!)

We have inadequate infrastructure. Fifty per cent (500 million Indians) have little access to the basics "" bijlee, sadak, paani

Very little foreign investments come in. In the FDI category it's less than a billion dollars (April-Sept 2003).

And, India is nowhere near its more advanced competitors in Asia

Few pockets of excellence, such as IITs, IIMs, some IT organisations, Reliance etc

b) Now these being the various aspects of the product, let's do a quick SWOT

Strengths: India's billion strong people and its few pockets of excellence "" like the IITs, IIMs and world-class corporates like Infosys, Reliance etc. Then there is our current sense of optimism that "we can do it", fuelled by a growing economy and several other feel-good factors

Weaknesses: A constantly bickering, divided nation, a rotten political culture with the majority of the population struggling for basic amenities

Opportunities: The sky is the limit. All that we need is strong and able leadership to mobilise and properly channelise this 1 billion strong nation, in the same manner in which our neighbours China, Singapore, S Korea and Malaysia reinvented themselves

Threats: All other nations, internal upheavals

c) Our USP: Nothing major and saleable at the moment

All brands have two dimensions, the tangible (product/attributes) and the intangible (the emotional aspect). Without strong tangibles and only with the intangible no brands were built or can be built.

Three of the consumer brands that I worked with will illustrate this "" "Tasty and economical" Rasna (product benefits) built a "strong emotional bonding" with its core customer "" children.

"Rationally pure" Dhara (product) has built a "warm, durable and emotional relationship" with various housewives.

"State-of-the-art fabric technology" backing Vimal has helped the brand find mass acceptance as a "modern" fabric.

This product called India then, for which all of us are responsible, needs a lot more product development and refinement.

Only then can it be positioned and relaunched. So let all of us who care for "Brand India" work towards making the product truly world-class.

Lest we end up as another statistic to substantiate David Ogilvy's famous remark "" "Nothing kills a bad product faster than great advertising."

agkbrandconsult@yahoo.com