Brandkill

A few years back. It was a company party. To announce something big to the fawning people in the audience. Invitees who had come in were plied with food and drink to make them adequately comfortable for what was coming. Order and attention was called for by a few people on stage. They struck a banter that signified the kind of brand the company wished to foist onto the people. Predictably, the banter was in English. So, the brand was decidedly elite and modern. Not something like laal dantmanjan. A few nattily dressed gentlemen walked up on stage to present what they felt would be good for the brand and the people inside the room. The philosophy behind the brand, what would be the objectives and where the brand would or should be if all went well. Then, the showman got onto the stage. The managing director. Presumptuous. Unprepared. Unscripted. Not really focused on the brand but on his own identity that he wanted to push through. The eternal wannabe. Matters went downhill from there. The people behind the brand felt that they weren't working for a unified mission anymore. It was all focused towards a person and his whimsies. The brand was launched. There were the usual good to average press coverage. But the stakeholders who were not included in the road to PR success though they had worked hardest, melted away. Naturally, people have better things to do. The brand lurched it's way to a follow up event in it's second round of operations. That was that. The third and the fourth events were death knells. Competition, in the meanwhile, just went on and scripted better stuff. And things went from bad to worse. It's nearly over now, for the brand. Most political parties, most Indian companies and practically all the events that take place in India have this syndrome. Then one day a Maharaj shoots himself just four hours after writing a tweet critical of a government. How come?