Communication and Brand(a speech at a corporate forum)

Following is a speech written for a corporate discussion at my work place:

If not professionally yet, my academic grades qualify me to be called as a ‘Marketer’ and on the same grounds, I shall key some thoughts of mine here!!

To me the concept of marketing is simple – We all conduct businesses in a crowded market, where the customer has the liberty to choose his options and businesses need to break the clutter, to differentiate and then deliver quality to ‘woo’ the customer again!!!

To do the same, one needs to talk to the right customers, needs to reach out to target them and hit them with messages, visuals, symbols, logos, pictures, credentials, testimonials and what not - conveying ‘what’ the product/solution/idea being offered to them is and ‘How’ would it be useful to ‘Give’ them some benefits.

The above paragraph captures the essence of this write-up, cause it explains nothing but the process of ‘Communication’ [albeit one-sided] and talks of the mediums which when registered as an identity in the mind of the customer is promoted to be called a ‘Brand’.

Creation of a ‘Brand’ is the ultimate property of a Marketer and it’s an outcome of a strategic psychological process involving mind games between the marketer and the customer’s targeted.


One of my favourite examples has always been FAIR & HANDSOME

Fair and lovely – the first variant of the product was positioned only for female’s, however, marketers failed to realize that Men also wanted to look fair and stealthily used/bought fair and lovely – to wade away from the embarrassment of using a feminine cream!!

Consequently, they marketed the same product (not many changes in terms of ingredients and the basic product manufactured) differently, renamed it as Fair and Handsome and positioned the product for MEN.

The message was communicated through mass-media as Shah Rukh Khan (Credential, testimonial) shouted to all men in the world, that finally we have realized your underlying ‘need’ to look handsome (WHY), we have made an exclusive product for you (HOW) and you can buy that facing no embarrassment and look – ‘fair and handsome’ (Benefit)!!

Fair and Handsome – The name in itself was the Brand and Shah Rukh – the ambassador. The message was clear and convincing and so were the sales figures later!!

Creation of a good brand begins from the marketer, establishes with a customer and ends with a manufacturer!!! If the product does not stand up to the hype, hoopla and expectations created by the marketer, then the product would never-ever be able to recover!!

Imagine if after all the marketing, fair and handsome ended up ‘Tanning’ and ‘Darkening’ people – be it Shah Rukh Khan or Sachin Tendulkar – the product would not sell !!!

Like all cricket captains after losing a match say – that the captain is as good as the team. A marketer and his Brand is also as good as the product itself!!



Branding is a philosophy and not an entity! It has its constituents that encompass its beliefs and convey a message.

People, who share the same philosophy, vouch for the brand and are willing to pay a premium for it!!

The exercise of Branding involves complements like; Brand Identity/Logo/Picture etc, Brand Name, Brand Ambassador, A Punch line etc

Taking the case of Infosys – the trademark logo calligraphically written as INFOSYS is the Brand Identity. The logo is nothing but a representation of the company – but the company’s positioning as a quality and ethical IT business partner exudes the philosophy of being a righteous and successful business entity.

It is only because of this philosophy that customers are ready to pay a premium to us; it is only because of this philosophy that resources want to be part of the company. It is this philosophy – built successfully over a period of time – that represents Infosys – at large and is identified by that logo!!

It is this philosophy that I call the philosophy of Branding!!

Other examples that I can think of are – ADDIDAS identified by its calligraphic logo along with the parallel stripes is positioned for high spirited, passionate performers and people high on octane. The slogan matches the same philosophy as it shouts ‘Impossible is nothing’.

Nike – Swoosh (Tick) is a famous brand identity underlined by the caption of ‘Just Do it’ philosophizes the art of challenging oneself and accomplishing the impossible.

The process of branding would be rendered ineffective if it is not executed with the same vigor as it was thought of, strategized and planned.

‘A blemish that often stains most branding exercises is the marketer’s bias towards strategy and planning, than towards its execution and communication’

Marketers quite often spend a lot of time, thought and resource on strategizing the entire exercise of branding i.e. to identify the segments, articulate the positioning of the product, design the brand identity, and carve its philosophy – however, all this would only make sense and effect, if and only if – it is communicated in the appropriate manner.

It may sound a little exaggerated, however to my understanding, the act of designing the branding strategy is so involving and overwhelming that in the mix of it marketers deem the process of communication to be a mere activity and not an integrated process of the entire philosophy.

One needs to chose an appropriate medium for the message to be communicated, a medium that can articulate the message well, a medium which has a good reach, desired frequency, suits the budget and importantly hits the right audience and creates an impact.

Ariel once released a global print advertisement across the globe – in leading local country journals. The advertisement showed a storyline (an advert jargon) wherein the clips ran from left to right. Left – first, showed a transparent bucket full of soiled- dirty clothes, Left-Second, showed Ariel detergent being dropped into the bucket and the dirty clothes and the final clip from the left showed washed, neat clothes dried on a rope string.

The message was simple and clear; the detergent was being positioned as a powerful cleansing agent, the medium (print) and the story line designed - created an impact; however the execution failed especially in the Gulf and Middle East part of the world.

Marketers did not pay attention to detail, in the gulf and other Muslim countries, where people read from right to left and not from left to right as is the common practice.

This meant that the advert to them conveyed that ‘Ariel is a powerful detergent that could grease and soil your neatly dried clothes’!! The advert bombed and boomeranged to create a negative impact as Brand Ariel ended up getting de-marketed.

Disney, worlds most popular cartoon maker, amusement park operator and owner of some of the most recognized brands such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and other cartoon characters – could not establish themselves in Europe and to a large extent even in China.

The reason again is a communication strategy failure – they failed to localize their marketing messages and customize their branding exercise to the local lands from where they were operating. They represented themselves an icon of the Americas, communicated the same aloud amidst envy and pride.

Lack of subtlety in communication led to their failure in two of the world’s biggest markets – again establishing a classic case of how communication of a brand is of supreme importance!!

As markets explode and customer’s purchasing behavior matures, the relevance of brands and their existence transpires!!

Hence, as products compete for space and attention in the crowded, global markets – the one’s who would pass Darwin’s law of survival – would be the one’s who would carve an identity; the one’s who would be known, recognized and philosophized by the customer.

The one’s who would be branded; marketed and communicated would be the one’s to stay alive!!