The Hindu Business Line : Branding without advertising

Brands can most certainly be built without advertising. Most older dominant brands of the day have been built with very little mass-media advertising.

THE realm of branding has been inextricably linked with that of advertising. The less you advertise, the less you brand and vice versa. It's time to challenge this paradigm in branding then. Do you really still need advertising of the mass media kind to build brands?

My friends in the world of advertising will want to tear my gut out for this outrageous view. What a stupid thing to say? How can you build brands without advertising? And why must you?

The answer is out there blowing in the wind. Blowing in the winds of change that several vibrant categories are facing. In the change signalled by legislation hitting categories of socially ostracised products. Indian society and the Government are fast catching up with the ways of the developed economies of the world.

Several categories of products and services are fast falling into the slot of politically incorrect offerings. Offerings that tend to hurt society at large and health in particular. Take three categories for a start: cigarette, liquor and gutka.

This is indeed just the beginning of a trend that will fast slot more and more products into the category of the politically incorrect offering. Something that can't be banned outright in its consumption (unlike Marijuana), but something that just can't be allowed to be advertised for sure.

Society, continually over the years, will tend to get more and more intrusive into products and services that cause long-term turmoil in the lives of people. Addictive categories of products and services will particularly face the brunt of this movement, an intrusive society will spearhead. The movement of choice will still remain around. So will advertising ostracism of every kind.

This triumvirate category of cigarettes, liquor and gutka, with a whole host of aggressively built brands, will face the frontal assault of an advertising ban. And it is indeed this category that will first need to find the answer to the question whether brands can be built without advertising.

My strong contention: brands can most certainly be built without advertising. Most older dominant brands of the day, which rule the roost at the top of brand charts, have been built with very little advertising in the older days. At least very little of advertising of the mass-media kind.

Current legislation in the country, and more that will come tomorrow, will prohibit the use of mass media for many a product. This will be for several reasons. Remember, Doordarshan in the initial days avoided carrying advertisements for the sanitary napkin with the issue of "social sensibility" in mind. And in later days, there was an exclusive slot in late night programming ("after the kids have gone to bed") for advertising that focused on the Nirodh and Carefree advertising of the day.

Legislation will progressively inhibit advertising of products such as cigarettes, liquor and gutka only to the outlet that sells it. What option does the marketer in these categories have to build a solid brand for the future?

Many really. Look back keenly at the good old way brands were built in the pre-mass-media years. Marketers depended on one-to-one modes of selling. Communication was specific, direct and targeted. The geography was identified, the prospect delineated and then approached. One-to-one marketing is therefore a great tool to reinvent then. Get back to the good old days of working hard in the marketplace to find your customer. Get back to the days of personal-touch.

Mass media advertising wastage, which touches both the prospect and the non-prospect at the same time (remember advertising for your brand of smoke-stick reaches the man, woman and child in the house alike) will now pave way for a targeted approach that has no wastage and one that does not cover the innocent category of those you must not touch with the barge pole of your idea.

Point-of-purchase advertising will emerge in a big way then. This is a wonderful way of advertising your brand of liquor in a liquor shop. The view is clear. Anyone visiting a liquor store approaches it with the intent of a purchase. This is a person who already belongs to the category then. There is no coercion of the innocent segment here then. Go for it with vigour.

Get away from the trite old exposure calendars that display many a bust and more, and get into specific forms of intelligent brand communication through the POP route. Intelligent brand messages that track the customer from the point of purchase to his point of actual consumption, and an intelligent networking of the messaging through his lifestyle and habits, are potent tools to use as well.

Direct Marketing will remain a tool to exploit to advantage. Use DM with the creative urge that will yearn to get your brand into the psyche of the consumer. Use the medium as a medium, and certainly not as an extension of your now-junked advertising campaign! DM used right, and DM used sensitively can help catapult your brand into the participative life of your target audience.

Events will still hold a sway. Many brands will be able to get away with event sponsorships, just as long as these events cater only to the immediate target segment of the brand.

The "Wills Made for Each other contest" was a wonderful social event! Re-jigging the mechanics of such events, with a careful toeing of the official line on the subject of legislation at play, will take the brand into the lives of your consumers in a vibrant manner.

Viral marketing with the old way of building brands through word-of-mouth, needs to do a comeback. Time then too for the playing cards, the soda bottle-openers and the apple juice! Time to think of the good old ways of building brands. Time to go back to the Vedas of brand building.

Brand Managers managing these social ostracism categories need to reinvent themselves and discover for themselves new paths to tread. Just imagine for yourselves that a massive mass-media purge has just occurred. A selective atom bomb has decimated every form of mass-media advertising for you. How would you approach your prospect consumer?

The answer will dawn on you then... ... .in many a creative format.

There certainly is life after death! Life after the death of mass-media advertising for your brand!

(The author is a brand-domain specialist and is currently COO, Zip Telecom. Feeback can be sent to bleditor@thehindu.co.in)

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