Humble brands will not tumble

THE AUDIENCE at Crossword was busy listening to a talk on building brands, but one of them, a man too plain to be noticed, was drawing a caricature. The portrait was a jolly exaggeration of marketing guru Jagdeep Kapoor, enough to win attention for itself and its maker.

Kapoor, whose book `24 Brand Mantras' was launched in the City on Saturday, gladly grabbed the sketch. He had just discussed how to create successful images and attract markets; and some artist passing time had given an involuntary demonstration.

If brands are about appealing to needs, the caricature had appealed to Kapoor's image about himself.

Jagdeep, a marketing professional and part-time faculty for MBA schools, too had a need to satisfy when he started writing the book. His students were always asking for case studies set in India, and how foreign marketing concepts would work here. `24 Brand Mantras' was waiting for him to write it. After all, he's the expert.

Besides running Samsika Marketing Consultancy, Kapoor has been involved in building brands including Frooti, Blue Dart, Fedex and a whole lot others. He also teaches marketing at the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies and British Council's Strathclyde MBA course. So, drawing on his experience, he wrote ``a book that speaks about building brands in India. This country constitutes a large part of the globe and has been represented.''

Since it's launch in Mumbai last week, the book has made it to Number 2 in The Financial Express list of non-fiction best sellers.

For starters, the book draws on the age-old logic that brands are not built in factories but in the minds and hearts of consumers. So it has 12 mantras for the mind and 12 for the heart. That makes 24 brand mantras. There you go.

Kapoor's approach was as simple as that, but full of common-sense logic that would apply anywhere. Like his first brand mantra: Brands must not only make noise, they must also make profit. Or, ``If you want to build a big brand, have a short brand name.'' As he went on, his expertise became evident.

The audience listened as he discussed Coke's regionalised marketing, the latest thing being signing Vijay to attract the Tamil Nadu market.

He talked about the Pepsi-Coke war. ``Thums-Up ruled the market after Coke was ousted from India. Even for five years after Pepsi entered the country, it was thrashed by the Indian cola.

''Then came the big day when Coke took over Thums-Up, but it neglected and sidelined the only weapon then that could take on Pepsi. Now, they are back to Thums-up to fight Pepsi.`` Moral: If you are buying a strong brand, unleash it.

Complex concepts were explained in simple terms. The audience listened as he gave six parameters for brand accountability, explained benefit segmentation, perceived value of brands and other ideas.

For benefit segmentation, he had a little grandma story about a father, son and donkey where everyone has a suggestion for them - ''you cannot satisfy everyone; pick one benefit that will cater across segments.`` Like Dettol against germs.

And his dose of mantras - ''In great measure, brands must be humble, or you will tumble.``

Mr. K. Radhakrishnan, vice-president, merchandising and marketing, Food World, who launched the book, said he found the book an easy and simple read. And what he loved best about it was one particular mantra that said, `Respect the retailers'. ''We are not very popular with other companies.``

He added to Kapoor's discussion with his own observations, especially about how India is a great leveller. Walk into a McDonald's anywhere in the world, and you should get the same burger. But McDonald's in India has had to regionalise. ''You will probably soon get a masala burger.``

Top Ramen noodles had to relaunch in India with a masala pack. Japanese experts who predicted that noodles were not meant for India are now eating their words. In fact, the masala version is now a hit in Japan, Radhakrishnan said.

By Feroze Ahmed

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