‘Mini’ versions of our selves

One thing about us has changed significantly, which hugely impacts how we engage with brands. Everything we need or seek these days have become smaller. We have become "mini" versions of our usual consuming or consumer selves. A fundamental psychological shift has been the increase in our need to get satisfied immediately. Brands have understood...

Taking your brand ‘next door’

I have been neck deep in discussions lately on "adjacency plays". That does sound like another marketing buzzword, but is nothing more but finding opportunities to extend a brand into adjacent categories. To magnify the chances of success of your brand in an adjacent category, the word 'adjacent' requires close attention. It is not about what...

Marketing your brand to ‘technology’

In Mobile World Congress 2018, Maurice Levy, chairman of Publicis Groupe, made an interesting comment about the future of brands in the world of home technology — “If we go to the extreme — and we’re not there yet — the marketing and communication of tomorrow is computer to computer, where brands will not be marketing...

Conversational brand building is not about #hashtags

For ages, brands have talked to their consumers. In the majority of instances, this 'talk' is one-sided, which is defined as the continuous bombardment that consumers face from advertising stimuli through the day. Consequently all this brand talk has now been degraded to shouting. The sad part is that with the advent of social media...

Build a brand, build on irrationality

We can blame the evolution of technology for a lot of societal evils, but nothing can take away its positive impact on our own development. On a similar vein, we blame technology for rising consumerism, increase in complexity of life, decline in productivity and a constant state of restlessness. But all this blame game does...

A strategy for “voice”

According to ComScore (a respected name), close to 50% of search actions will be done through voice by 2020. I am still in the other 50%, having not done a single voice-enabled search till now. But I might "convert" soon. It is a known fact that Amazon's Echo has taken a march over Google Home...

Brands are eternal…let’s debate the right things

The idea to write a longer piece came to me when I saw my 1200 character post getting quite a bit of traction. Below is my original LinkedIn post: “A lot has been written and discussed lately on how we are going to move towards a future where brands don’t exist. Much of this utopian...

The art of rebuilding

Rebuilding anything is difficult. Rebuilding things that do not have a tangible presence is even more difficult. An architect can recreate a building like for like to the last brick by referring to the plan, design and a set of detailed pictures. A skilled painter can recreate a whole painting to the last brushstroke. A...

Brand leadership – What does it mean?

Leadership is a much debated subject. The debates range from whether we are born or made as leaders, successful personality traits, do's and dont's, creating more leaders or followers, standing the test of time and hundreds of other topics. But at least there is consensus on who is a leader and what defines leadership. When...

Brand transformation or re-wiring?

Brand transformation has become a heavyweight term and conjures up visions of hundreds of strategists burning the midnight oil, boardroom strife, war games, million dollar marketing and advertising budgets and staff churn in the process. In reality, what is described above is an organisation's struggle to come to terms with new reality and new ways...