Brands need unique Expression & Freedom to play a role in the consumers’ life




Im
In the 70’s American Express (or AMEX for the US citizens) the famous campaign said ‘Don’t leave home without it’. It underlined the notion that without the AMEX card, life would be like a ticket-less traveler searching for means. It thus underscored the role the card played in people’s lives. The ad campaign went on to become one of the greatest brand building campaigns of all time.
Image: Source Google

If brands connect with you in some manner then it is a great example of ‘brands having a role to play’ in your life. That’s how brands should be – ‘solving a problem in Consumer’s life’ or ‘throwing up a benefit which the consumers may not even have thought about’. This make brands to become ‘favourite’, even followed or repeatedly used and enjoyed. Over a period of time the user may become a virtual slave of the brand or alternatively even grow out of it. This leads to the thought that brands have a life too of their own. Right from Birth they go through different phases of its life: Growth, Stability, Decline or Rebirth where users discover its various roles or the specific uses the same brand may have in the user’s life. The point is that brands are necessary in living today’s life and there is no way to escape them.

Brands today operate in uncharted territories & they discover new horizons

Now welcome to the twenty-first century where lives are far more complex. There are no ways one can take a step without Googling for something or updating one’s Status on social media or ensuring that one is abreast with the latest happenings from the various News apps in their mobile phones. Gaming is essential, watching movies are essential, knowing about the new food joints are essential too. In this free flowing world of today’s existence the brands are no more restrictive. They need Freedom and the wings to fly into uncharted territories. While the brands need you, you need the brands too.

This has given birth to the new concept of brands without horizons. Amazon was a humble online book retailer till a few years back. It now sells almost anything under the sun that need to be sold. Amazon today enters the world of futuristic retail markets known as Amazon Go with the most advanced shopping technology. It’s a strange world of marketing needs where your key benefit becomes your limitation. Amazon today discovers that shoppers are there on the street too who enjoy the touch, feel and smell of the products they want to buy. ‘Freshness’ as a concept can never really be replaced with a virtual e-shopping experience.

Brands are never limited in their self and empowerment comes first in the thinking that brands can be modern conquistadors too. Not just of territories (markets) and market shares but of people’s hearts and mind. That’s when they become real rulers for generations.

Ranjan Mazumdar
RnT Communications

www.rnt.co.in

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Time to Rebrand during a Slowdown

Image
  Is your brand ready for a rebranding exercise? Most brand managers never want to understand the merits of this exercise. Too much is at stake and too little to gain are the common thinking. In a way maybe they are right. In a world where few people remember which brand they purchased yesterday, would a rebranding exercise really matter? The question arises here – whether any rebranding is meant for the prospective customers or is it for the good of the brand itself? A brand as we all know is a dynamic entity and it grows over time and even ages with time. As circumstances change and consumers outgrow a brand it becomes mandatory for brands to reconnect with new-gen users as new avatars. Whether this is a consumer-centric or a brand-centric exercise is another debate but users do change, and tech does change lives and the way people live their lives. For e.g. post the pandemic we all have changed our attitudes towards so many things in our lives both knowingly or even unknowingly.
Read more

Brands are Concepts which cannot be defined by the limited parameters of Markets

Image
If you ask an ordinary person ‘what a brand is?’ he or she would perhaps recall a few product names that are stuck in his or her mind. What makes me wonder is what makes a brand get on top of his or her mind! Is it the usage, functionality or simply the look of it? Experts talk about brands getting into ‘the consideration set’ must be the key determinant factor towards brand preference. However in today’s context how many brands are there in a consumer’s mind and of course how many of their benefits are understood is the moot question. Brands as I understand are relationships which you enjoy over time. Remember your first Titan. Recall the fun with your Cadbury’s Dairy Milk. How enjoyable has Amul Butter been, making your toasts that much better tasting with the masala omelettes during breakfasts every morning of your life. One can keep citing examples of many such brands with which your relationship has got cemented over time.   The point is what makes these relationship
Read more