INDEPENDENCE DAY SPECIAL/ BRAND STORY - BRANDS THAT BUILT INDIA

INDEPENDENCE DAY SPECIAL BRAND STORY - BRANDS THAT BUILT INDIA





It's a few days to Independence Day, but that won't stop us from celebrating India's freedom from British Raj. Besides there's no Brand Equity edition on Saturday! Today, we go back not only to the birth of a nation but to homegrown brands which have built India, metaphorically and literally.

The food brands have nourished generations of Indians. Others mobilised the entire nation: giv ing people the means and wheels to work, learn, grow and excel. Brands have made our lives eas ier and some continue to serve India after almost seven decades of liberation.

There were quite a few that fit the bill. But what we've got here are some cream of the crop.

We've also got leading marketing minds on various subjects: like the personalities that helped take Brand India to new heights on a global stage and the myths marketers have been labouring under.

So, might we suggest you enjoy your freedom this Independence Day with Ben Kingsley's Gandhi and this issue of Brand Equity? Read on.

Friend-zoned and loving it

THE TELCO THAT WANTS TO BE EVERYBODY'S FRIEND -AIRTEL

RAVI BALAKRISHNAN

Airtel may want to be remembered for its snazzier, youthful advertising, but one of its definitive commercials is the barber's shop ad from the mid-2000s. As the trademark Airtel ring tone sounds, customers and the barber hastily reach for their phones. But the call is actually for the chaiwala, subtly establishing the brand's ubiquity and ability to cut across classes.

Over the last two decades -Airtel turned 20 this July -it has grown to be India's largest mobile network. For lakhs of Indians, it's been the first telephone connection of any sort.No mean feat in a hyperactive market that at one point in 2009, had close to 10 players and has been through supposedly giant slaying trends like mobile number portability. According to Srini Gopalan, lead ­ consumer business, Airtel owes it all too keeping its core essence intact. He explains, “Human connections are at the heart of the brand. Over the years, we've been able to capture this in multiple memorable ways.“ For instance, Express Yourself starring AR Rahman to the more recent Har Ek Friend which acknowledged that friends were a new form of family. It's a singleminded stance at variance with many newer entrants who initiated price wars or took potshots at other players. Says Gopalan, “While others have obsessed about specific technology or the competition, we have obsessed about customers, providing a great network and service.“

Of course, there's a lot more to Airtel than a few well liked ads. It has tailored itself to various target audiences offering internet and videos at `1 for the population that's getting online for the first time. It claims to have started providing 4G to its 3G subscribers at no extra cost. Gopalan explains: “I don't think the basic formula has changed from when Sunil Mittal started this business.We'd rather keep that intact and customise product, communication and service rather than be different things to different people.“

Long live Amby

AMBASSADOR -THE FIRST INDIAN CAR STILL LIVES

DELSHAD IRANI

In May 2014, Hindustan Motors stopped manufacturing the car with Sophia Lorenesque curves, the Ambassador, due to fast declining demand. For almost six decades the Ambassador traversed across India, carrying multiple generations of Indian families. She's still around, though, thanks to government and military officials, taxi drivers ferrying natives and tourists and Amby aficionados.

The story of the first Indian car began in 1957, when BM Birla owned Hindustan Motors (established in 1942) manufactured the first Ambassador, modelled on the Morris Oxford. It was a matter of prestige to own one, especially after a five-year waitlist. She was a symbol of a liberated, new India, forging ahead in nothing less than a beautiful tank, so to speak. You couldn't find a tougher passenger car. And still can't. In 2013, the BBC show Top Gear put this to test -before Jeremy Clarkson famously punched his way out of favour. The Ambassador went up against Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Toyota and Honda, all in service as cabs around the world, in a deadly taxi shootout. While the rest emerged dismembered, the Ambassador crossed the finish-line intact and in good spirit.The irony: It was the advent of the Maruti 800 in the mid-80s and 90s that heralded the decline of Ambassador as the queen of Indian roads.Of course, changing consumer likes killed the Ambassador, too. Unchanged over the years, a car reminiscent of the bowler hat isn't everybody's cup of tea. And competition grew from two (Premier Padmini and later the Maruti 800) to today's smart sedans, SUVs, MUVs, hatchbacks for every taste and type of Indian clan.Just 2,200 Ambassadors were sold in the year ended March 2014, according to reports.

However, the Ambassador's legacy is one adopted by others as their own. Even before Maruti pitched itself as the “people's car“ with an outpost in every cranny, it was the Ambassador that could be mended by the sides of highways with a spanner and some ingenuity. Today, however, Ambassador parts are increasingly rarer, expensive and harder to source. The Amby is also the original ancestor of supersize, utility vehicles, which can accommodate the entire family, pets and luggage for holidays through temperamental terrain. With room to spare for Ego. So, you see the Ambassador's not quite dead. Long live the Queen. The taste of India

AMUL -THE BRAND THAT'S BUTTERED GENERATIONS OF TOAST

RAVI BALAKRISHNAN

Few brands can stake as much of a claim to literally having fed India as Amul. Its ubiquitous butter shows up in bread baskets at fine dine restaurants and at streetside sandwich and snacking stalls that advertise their `made with Amul' credentials on large chalk boards as an assurance of quality.

A mu l b u t t e r c a m e i nt o it s ow n i n 19 6 6 when it s agency DaC u n h a Communications, perhaps unwittingly, created what would go on to be one of advertising's longest running campaigns.The Amul butter girl was initially a foil to a sexy milkmaid mnemonic of arch rival Polson's. Topical ads were introduced a year after the Amul girl first appeared and continue to date.

Along the way, the campaign has become less about butter and more about what Amul stands for. A good move since butter is no longer Amul's flagship product, accounting for a mere 10% to 11% of its `21,000 crore turnover of which 50% is cornered by milk. It's arguable if the campaign flogs more product. But the ads -now also freely available via Facebook -have become an amusing, sometimes sentimental, sometimes sardonic document on life in India over the last five decades.Rahul DaCunha, director, DaCunha Communications observes, “The advertising has stayed consistent and the Amul girl has truly become the daughter of India: there's a possessiveness people have about her. Too many advertisers let go of concepts too soon. That we've stayed consistent while updating the campaign every year has helped.“ While hoardings are still a mainstay, on Amul's Facebook page there are sometimes new topical ads every day that are eagerly discussed and shared.

Amul has staved off competition, which has intensified particularly over the last decade and a half. According to managing director RS Sodhi “Our business strategy evolved 68 years back by Dr Veghese Kurien is C2C or cow to consumer. When both producers and consumers are with you, you are not afraid of competition. We do not replace expensive natural ingredients with synthetic cheap ones like other companies.“

Which explains why Amul and its moppet are one of the few Indian brands that have survived the slog from pre to post-liberalisation India, a culling that consigned many former market leaders to history books.

ET12AUG15