What have you learnt, stupid??

Another day of learning...meeting for Chanakya (my college magazine) teaches me a lesson (both hard and soft) always. Many a times the learning is reinforced. You should have standardized processes there on the table. No matter what happens, you should follow them.
I love Chanakya. Then why do I think that it's slipping away from my hands? Is that 'love' the reason behind that? Possibly yes. Love always runs away from you. Then what should I do? Shall I stop loving Chanakya? If that doesn't work, then? What will happen to my Chanakya?
Wish I could take full responsibility of Chanakya. Right now I can't. Studies don't let me do that. Otherwise I would've endeavored to make Chanakya a successful magazine.
I think now I should put that standardized process in place instead of writing my thoughts on my blog.

What a brand does to you??

While finding out answers to the questions struck in my mind during brand night, I feel that branding is becoming my passion and the love for it is even increasing day by day.
We talk about product benefits and added values. We talk about brand personality, image and attitude. What all we have to do to place all these stuffs into the customers’ mind space? Selection of right segment is necessary, but the real job starts after that.
Why should I target a teenage and not a 25 yr guy when both may come under youth segment? Why an upper class and not middle class guy? The deeper you go, the closer you come to the consumer. The ultimate lies in the behavior and lifestyle of the consumer. Here only product attributes and benefits don’t work. One of the most important things is how the communication is positioning brand’s image in his mind space. The message of the communication relates to the consumer behavior possessed by the target customer. It creates an attitude in customers’ minds when the customer is able to associate (that behavior) with the brand. This is brand attitude.
But mere attitude is not enough. All goes in vain if the attitude doesn’t result in purchase (behavior) of the brand. Behavior is the outcome of its consequences. Purchase will take place if and only if the Brand (which is a perception created in customers’ minds through communication) becomes a connection/linkage between attitude and behavior of the customer. None wants dissonance in what one says and what one does. If the brand reduces that dissonance, the brand becomes stronger and the probability of repeat purchase increases. In other terms, customer moves towards becoming a Brand Loyal (knowingly or unknowingly).

Brand Night...a rare experience...

On 25the July, I attended my first Brand Night. You might be thinking what it is. Brand Night is the event (initiated by our marketing Prof. S. Anantram) where everyone, who is loyal to any brand, expresses his feelings, cherishing moments, love, affection, and experience with his brand. Not only this, the loyalty has to be shown by reflecting the Brand’s personality in you by dressing up in that manner. In simple terms, we had to reflect – “If my brand were a person, how it would have been”.

The scene at the venue was unprecedented. There were logos on faces, chests, backs, hands, and legs. Everyone was so excited while showing his loyalty for his brand that when someone said – “Boost is the secret of my energy”, another Brand loyal of Kingfisher Beer (pointing to the kingfisher logo on his chest) said – “Mine is this, not boost.” There were brand loyals for Dove, Maggi, Closeup, Nivea, Lo’real, Goldflake lite and you name it. The atmosphere at the event was blazing, dazzling, and blatant.

I would call it the show of ‘power of brands’. I got to think about many insights. How does a customer perceive a brand? How does he respond to the communications of the brand? Companies spend billion dollars on studies to know this but they hardly get to know what exactly is there in customers’ mind. Sometimes the customer can be crazy for the brand for a very silly reason that the academic jokers can never think of.

What makes a customer loyal for a brand? Does that reason remain the same for a large number of customers? Can that reason be extended to the overall product class that the brand belongs to? These are some of the questions that, if answered, might prove to be very helpful in getting Brand Insights.