For God, brand and country!!

Coming to think about it lately, much has been written about brands and there humongous existence in the every day world. Step out of your house and you will swear by it. The mammoth sized billboards on the streets will ache your neck till you figure out what it is all about. Kotler will tell you that for a brand to become successful it has to be able to coexist in your mind with everything else.

But with new companies sprouting out every now and then, the term Branding has taken a quite a lot of beating. Everything and anything is being promoted in the name of a brand and to gain entry into the corporate jungle, to eat up competition and sustain competitive advantage. Well, there has been quite a bit of time when I last saw a strong brand emerging. The most common brands that I remember in everyday existence are Colgate and Nokia. Both of which I am an ardent user of.

In a much debated discussion with my friend recently, the idea of God being promoted as a brand came up. The idea is not a new one and has been much talked about by marketing gurus across the globe for some time now, but is an interesting topic anyways. Just see the flexibility and ease with which god has been promoted across the world. Like beauty god has its own meaning and significance in the eye of the beholder. Religion has been sold successfully in the name of GOD. It’s a brand that has gained unquestionable popularity into the hearts of all. The story for the launch of God as the savior of the human race has been scripted beautifully by our ancestor’s long time ago. And it has stood the test of time.

Like any other marketing strategy the line Extension for the brand GOD has been crafted out beautifully. So for different needs you summon the relevant god. But what has made this brand so successful and sellable is the gravity with which every character has been drafted out. It takes quite a bit of imagination to draw the picture of a thin saint, residing in the Himalayas with hair so thick that it could contain the Ganges and a third eye, which ones opened could destroy the world. “Yes”, Lord Shiva is the greatest character sketches written in all time. Just imagine a saint having so much power and who could perform the dance of destruction so magnificently. I am always amazed with the sheer veracity with which this lord is described in the Vedas. I was also told that the first piece of advertising work to be recognized as a poster was a cave painting done by our ancestors millions of years ago. So is advertising really that old? Did at that time also man felt the need of his cultures and traditions to transcend boundaries and become popular. Our advertising Scriptwriters should really learn from the Vedas. How beautifully has our tradition been written! Ved Vyas and Tulsidas were to my opinion the greatest story writers ever. They have interwoven the epics so magnificently with life like characters that it is hard to forget them. I feel every script should be written as if it’s an epic in the making. Then only a story will fulfill the expectations of its audience.

Every brand is an epic in the making. And it’s the marketer’s job to see a brand till that point. Or else no great brand will emerge. A brand should at last keep fulfilling its customer’s expectations. That is what a brand is destined for. Which is equivalent of saying that God must keep on disposing the proposals of man. That is what it is destined to be doing. So many expectations have been carved out of this brand that we begin to develop a curse if anything goes beyond of what was expected from him. And our faith towards the brand withers a bit. Consistency is what we start looking in a brand. And to that call a brand must respond to. But aren’t we asking too much? Are we that consistent ourselves? I think we should let loose our expectations a bit and let God relax a bit! Wht say??