Misused

Recently, I was privy to a conversation that made me cry. “Our client wants to reach out to a larger audience. Lets brand this cap and distribute it via an activation.” By branding, they mean stamping the logo on the cap. There are two words that are misused all the time. Used loosely in conversations. Research and branding.

Branding

Branding is like life within a body. Its the soul that gives a character to everybody. This is what differentiates one person from another. Branding helps build a character for a product. It defines even an inanimate object.

Remember that man who walked into your neighbour’s party? The blue-eyed blonde guy with a playful look? – Axe

Or that woman you see jog every morning. She’s fit and definitely looks like a go-getter – Nike

Brand planners possess the power to define the path that the product would take, the role that it will play in its consumers lives. Will the new bath soap end up in the perfectly manicured hands of a beautiful woman and be a part of her hour long bath or will it lie neatly packaged in every normal lodge’s bathroom. Brand managers are like guardians. They grow the brand.

Today, in many advertising agencies the word branding has almost lost its meaning. Merely designing a logo and affixing it to a collateral is NOT branding. What happened to all the thought that is supposed to have gone behind the process of branding. What about the research that should have been conducted prior to any action.

Research

Research. Calling up ten people who belong to the target group and asking them 10 questions is far from research. One part of the world is busy working years to derive one concept. One other group is still basing many advertisements on research conducted in a day or two. Creative routes and stimuli are derived by asking leading questions to maybe five people.

Sad, but true.

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