People are consuming brands in three ways today (post pandemic), noted Harish Bijoor, Brand Guru and Founder, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc., delivering the inaugural keynote at the first Medianews4u.com Futurescope Conclave in Bengaluru on 15th July 2022.
They consume it physically, in their minds (without actually buying it), and visually alone (on digital).
Those ‘massaging every aspect of a brand’ in their minds could be advocates or consumers in future, while those experiencing and interacting with it online too are in a way the brand’s consumers, he explained.
“Brands have become intrinsic entities as opposed to being extrinsic beings,” said Bijoor, revealing findings from a research over 11 months covering 23 Indian cities, besides two test centres in Boston and Rochester, among 23,850 people.
“This is a tough one; because brands belong to those people who don’t spend a single paisa on those brands, even. So your consumers are those who don’t buy your products and services – you have to understand them as well,” Bijoor added.
Society has morphed
Society has crept back into its shell, the speaker observed, forced by the pandemic, governments and institutions like the WHO. Society has, as a result, been reduced to thinking as a unit of the individual family and within that, every individual for himself/herself.
“Eventually, we are becoming a nation that is into ‘self-pleasure’. This is a worry for us, this should be a worry for marketers. Because a society which believes only in itself is a worry for marketers. ‘Self pleasure’ is a digital and digitalism reality. A lot of us are locked into our phones – we never look up,” he explained.
While we remain a hedonistic society, yet we remain sensitive, noted Bijoor – sensitive in media terms.
“Society is very, very sensitive today; selfish-sensitive, vicarious-sensitive. Rome is back. People would love to watch gladiators fighting and dying. The same thing has come back, but differently. We are sensitive to stimuli of every kind – stimuli from world organisations, governments, marketers, advertisers, brands, even political parties. We listen to everything they tell us. But there we listen as a mob, not as individuals. That’s strange. I’ve become an individual, but I’m listening as a mob,” elaborated the speaker.
While individual sensitivity is at its sensitive best, mobs fuel it on. And society has – worryingly – grown to enjoy ‘hollow-pleasure’ or pleasure born of another’s suffering, according to the research findings.
He cited examples of brands that have been at the receiving end of social media criticism in the recent past for their communication, including Tanishq, Myntra, Saybasachi, Dabur Fem, FabIndia and Manyavar. Not all those criticising the brands are consumers of those brands, Bijoor pointed out.
“Everything is much more expensive than before. At another level, there is a very sensitive society. What must corporate brands do? Corporate brands steer their consumer brands and consumer brands give back to their corporate brands. Life in this track is symbiotic,” he noted.
So what must corporate brands do, in the context of the present, sensitive society?
“Corporate brands must decide – decide not to nudge society. Corporate brands have been nudging society for decades. The Tata (Tea) Jaago Re was possibly one of the first ones. There have been many others. My view is, don’t nudge society – not yet. Woke is not for India as yet. There was a time for it. And there will be a time for it in the future,” observed Bijoor.
Brands must listen to society in order to thrive in it, noted the speaker.
Urging brands to steer clear of religion and politics, he surmised, “I know you don’t like to hear this. But brands are not agents of change {for now}. Should you touch sensitive subjects that will polarise? My view is, you should not. The corporate brand is not a social change agent – not now.”
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