What makes iconic brands iconic [S02, #7]

I don't think the difference between 85 and 95 and 90 people only between 0 and 90. At the top there's only room for one right? I believe in India 80% of celebrity usage and advertising that I see is not what's creating is easy. What to create is a million dollar question. Hi, you're listening to Marketing with Bali in which I speak to Marketing gurus. Together we decode how Marketing works in the real world to grow your business. What is an iconic brand? How do brands become iconic? And are all familiar brands iconic? How do iconic brands evolve to stay relevant to their consumers? These are the big four questions answered in this episode, peppered with loads of examples from both global and local. Amitri, a serial entrepreneur, XCity banker and now a podcaster himself, questions Vani on what makes brands iconic? Listen on. Vani, we had a conversation before this particular conversation. And I know we spent a lot of time, friend of figure out one very basic question, which is what is an iconic brand? So, that's a good case for us to start. For me an iconic brand is one that is in most cases the first brand that you think of, when you think of that category. So for example, if I had to buy a phone, for me, I would think of a OnePlus. If I had to buy jewelry, I'd think of taneshq. If I had to buy functional furniture for my house, I'd think of IKEA. If I have to think of a snack, I'd think of either Kulkare or Viraams. If I had to think of a car, I'd buy a Volvo, if I could afford one and so on. So for me an iconic brand would be one that is the first brand, also the brand that you would then you most love. That is the most top of mind for me would be an iconic brand. The other one would be that in all iconic brands, what is absolutely certain is that the brand offers a very consistent consumer experience, which means that every time I walk into a Starbucks, I know exactly what to expect. When I buy a Volvo car, I know exactly what to get. I know that it will be in my mind there is no car that is safe for them to walk. Or if I open the Bhujiya packet of Haruli Ram's, I know exactly what taste. I know what it will look like, I know what it would feel like in my hands. I know exactly what it will taste like. So for me that's an iconic brand. So a brand that is most likely the first brand that you think of when you think of that category and a brand that is always delivered a consistent consumer experience. So it's a brand that is consistent. It lives up to its promises. Brands don't, these are brands that don't make empty promises. They live up to their promises. There are many brands that we have actually heard of. Orlix is a major brand from my childhood anyway. So are all brands that are familiar? Are they one iconic, would you say now? I think all brands are familiar or certainly not iconic. First of all, I think Holix at one time was certainly an iconic brand, but I think Holix has lost the plot. I think Holix has failed to reinvent itself. Holix has failed to stay relevant in the face of a whole lot of increasing competition. And in the face of the evolving consumer awareness on the various other additives or various other dietary supplements that serve that purpose. But a Holix aside, your question was does any familiar brand become iconic? No. Any familiar brand is not iconic. For example, Mama Earth is a familiar brand, but that doesn't, it doesn't qualify to be called an iconic brand. An iconic brand is more than a strong brand. It's also more than just a brand that has high awareness. It's more than a brand that is merely familiar. Because an iconic brand usually is a brand that has the ability to stay true to its course, stay true to its promise for a long period of time. In fact, timelessly. So for example, if you think of Royal Ensel, Royal Ensel is, has almost got its like following. Now, Royal Ensel has not said that let me suddenly start doing bikes in different colors. Royal Ensel is very clear about the psychographic of the audience it wants to appeal to. And they're happy being exactly that they don't try and become everything to everyone. So I think a very important point actually is that iconic brands are very sharply defined. They don't try to become everything to every brand, which is in any case a fundamental rule of brand proposition. But iconic brands more so have the gumption to stay the course, stay true to their promise. And even if they remain they find ways of remaining relevant to their boy wing consumer culture. But they don't fundamentally change what they stand. I take the Santur example very often. The tour is very old brand. Now, Santur is an iconic brand. And if you see how Santur has communicated through the times, even how the product has evolved, it is the fundamental premise of their brand, what they fundamentally offering is always and has stayed with the Hindi Chandan. Now, how that Haldi Chandan is presented the context of the story changes. The woman who's mistaken to be not a mother, she has evolved with times. The situation's changed, the story's changed. But the promise of the soap, the functional promise of the soap doesn't change. And it's always presented in the same way. I know exactly what to expect. Also, thinking about the Santur communication exactly, is an important point in the fact that these are brands that have built very strong consistent codes. For example, it will always be about admiration of a woman by a man. It will always be worth mistaken to be not a mummy, a young girl. Oh, mummy, oh, your mummy, really? That hasn't changed. It's always been mummy only. It hasn't become mum. It hasn't even been that hasn't changed. So, there are the way the product is shown, the Haldi Chandan is shown. All of that has been said. I'm not saying that choosing changing mummy to mum is going to in any way significantly bring down their iconic statue. But the point over here, the larger point over here is that iconic brands have consistent codes. I know what to expect. I have a mental picture of the brand when I think of an iconic brand. When I think of Coke, I'm immediately thinking of the shape of the bottle. I'm immediately thinking red. I'm immediately thinking of the fizz from the bottle. So, there are things about iconic brands, which, I mean, if you would do a word cloud on an iconic brand, assuming it's a global brand. Even in different parts of the world, you pretty much get the same words. McDonald's is pretty much the same across the world. They may have a few different parts of it. But fundamentally, the brand experience is consistent. Your music of Starbucks, it's always wooden interiors. It's always a certain shade of green. I know how I'm greeted by the stop behind the character. I know they have a certain degree of license. It's tomato and my sandwich has gone bad. She would have the authority to change the sandwich. I know what the signs of the sandwich will be. I know what the ambience of the place would be like. I can almost imagine what the furniture would be like. It's not just about the visual elements actually. It's also, it's all of the sensorials. Everything, the world brand experience pretty much stays consistent. Does it mean that this iconic brand has to be the best delivery of the functionality that you're looking for? Who is to decide what is the best coffee? Or who is to decide really what is the safest car? There is an engineering angle to it for sure. But I'm saying that's where the value of a brand comes in. Value of a brand versus a product. The thing is that everything we first evaluate emotionally. For example, because I love Starbucks, I would go and have that coffee even though I may not think that coffee is the greatest. But there is so much else that makes that brand an iconic brand. What the ports of the brand are, you know what the ethos, the culture of Starbucks as a brand is and that's the main consistent for that reason. But like you said, should it necessarily be the best chances are that brands we consider iconic. Because we consider them iconic, our brains are usually much attuned to having a more partial view towards the assessment or towards the delivery of that brand. Even if there is another product that actually delivers on the same. I mean, for example, in the word of phones, there's this new phone has been launched nothing. If you see the feature by feature comparison, this is true actually for phones. It's true for most electronic. You would look at a Sony TV versus a VU, which is an American brand, I think. Or even the wonder cars, for example. I mean, the difference in the features is so minuscule feature by feature we would compare. You can't really say, oh, this is decidedly the best. No. But our brains are attuned to believing iPhone is the best or that let's say a Volvo is the best or that a German car is far. Definitely going to drive far better has higher better engineering than any other Indian make car for sure. It's a German car. It's got to be better. So it's, and similarly, so by the way, for whatever we put it in a mouth, it's more true for what we put in our mouth. You know the factors that the brain tastes much before the mouth tastes and this has been proven again and again in all blind versus branded. If you were to blind taste to products, you might actually pronounce a poorer decision, a poorer appraisal for an iconic brand. But when you open your eyes and you're seeing what brands than your assessment is different. I mean, it's true for wines, for example, isn't it? So the whole idea, why do we want to build iconic brands? Why is it that we look towards creating iconic brands? Because iconic brands give you pricing power. Iconic brands help lift the product from mere product features or to being the assessed for more than product features. You're not merely a product then, you know, you see the thing is that in the yesterday years for iconic brands, it was relatively easier because competition was not as intense. But today, one could argue that with so, so, so much clutter, it becomes even more difficult for a brand to stand for a USB to have a differentiating product feature. Now, I think it's not possible to take 2000, 3000 years to court because we have so many of these things. How should a brand like Kulkur is taking rather, which is by staying through to what it is? Don't change that taste. Don't change the masala. Don't change the fundamental quality of humor, for example, for what the brand has been built. The reason why the brand is bigger than the product is because Kulkur has always been able to show a mirror to society, you know, you funny Indians, you have funny traditional rituals and funny reasons for why follow our rituals. And they do that without offending anyone. So, Kulkur is a combination of kind of innovations we bring to the market. So, Kulkur is certainly starting saying, "Okay, there are, there are these young kids who might find that the pick has too much." Or if we were to appeal to the older segment who might find the cut, "Let's go and do a brand Kulkur." Whether Loha Tikka, Lavo Lanchkar, didn't know. I mean, they may have the ability to extend, like Laze did a Laze baked. But then Laze baked is a very small decimal percentage share. The overall contribution to sales of Laze baked to overall Laze is very small. So, stay true to your core. Why are staying relevant to the changing consumer? See any kind of limitation, like the Huzar, or the Huzar, or the Huzar, or the Huzar, it's very lovely, his fondle won't have limitations, right? So, it's as Vikasam says, "Invitation is the best form of flat to be." So, that one can't help. In this country one can't help. You can't take people to court. So, you just live with it. You actually, you know, what do you say? You take pride in the fact that I'm worth imitating. I must be big. If I have, if I've spawned as many different limitations, then I must be big as a brand. Is why, is why, for example, Colgate has become a category generator in the app, they call it here. The surface becomes a category generator. The surface stands for any detergents become a category. Yes, the surface is a full-gatored iconic brand. So, does it mean that many brands can be iconic in every category? Yes, I think there can be multiple brands in the same category that can be iconic because they have different brands of position for different audiences. So, the audience for a Royal Enfield is very different for our Rajaj. The guy for whom our Bajaj is relevant, his top of mind will be Rajaj. And the guy for whom Royal Enfield is relevant, his top of mind will be Royal Enfield. And could well argue, big bizarre would also be an iconic brand for certain sections of the society for certain consumers. It may not be iconic for you and me, but it is an icon. In fact, if you remember, we were also discussing, there are many brands, regional brands that you and I might not even have heard of, which are very iconic in that particular area. For example, we were discussing that Planetized Biryani in Hyderabad. It is an iconic brand. Now, even I have been on threat to that taste. It has to be iconic to that talk, though. For example, I remember when I used to work on the Talkam powder category, way back in 2002, for us one of the big iconic players that we were up against when I was working on Fah as a young brand manager, was this brand called Goku, Goku Tag in Tamil Nadu. Now, Goku Tag for the users of Goku Tag in Tamil Nadu, there is quite a flag following. But I would argue it's this very dirty tin deba that tin hasn't changed for 90s years. It's very chunky. You know, it tends to rust. The visuals look very, but for whatever face we might make about that brand, the factors for the users of that brand, it is iconic. They would buy a vocal, they would, there's no way that a vocal consumer would buy a Fah Tag from powder. What the person brand is iconic mean that it will be the winning choice. So choice of mama, Ottawa, Params, Assuming, Params is considered iconic. If both brands are relevant to that consumer, then by all means the iconic brand will be, this is assuming of course both brands are relevant and both brands are also affordable. Now, I mean, for me, a Volvo is to me the best vehicle I wish I could buy a Volvo, but I can't afford that car. So I settle for a Honda City or for a Hyundai Crata because that's all I can afford. So what I finally buy will be a function of availability, affordability, but if two brands are relevant to the same TT, definitely the iconic brand would win. I mean, if I could afford a Volvo, then why would I not buy that? Why would I buy that? Let's take the data on nano, right? It was and everybody knows data nano, but I don't think it did particularly well in the market. Could you say it's iconic? Like is there some such thing as a negatively, I think brand or is that iconic at all? I think nano was a failed experiment. Now, there was such a lot of hype around nano. So I don't know. I wouldn't call that an iconic brand because in fact it is an example of a brand that sort of let you down. Ambassador, Ambassador was an iconic brand. I remember I myself I've done this piece for an article some journalists had reached out to me on what can ambassador to do to retain its iconic status while still become relevant in the current DNA. And my point of view was at that time, Ambassador shall reduce the fundamental code of what makes it such an enduring car. You know, don't change the shape. Don't change the way it is. We don't change the roominess inside the car. Don't change the way it looks because that was the endearing appeal of that era of the ambassador. If I buy the ambassador, I would buy it for great performance. I'm not buy it for the fastest mobility of the most sound engineering. I'll buy it for ambassador because it brings back memories. I mean, it could be a car that replace everything under the bonnet and make it really smooth and could have a German engine. But I'm saying that the beauty of an ambassador was the fact that even if they were to bring a modernized version of an ambassador but they should fundamentally lose the DNA of what made that car what it wants. The fact that it occupied space of the road to the fact that it moved us out of the, you know, the seats were large. And somehow when I think of an ambassador, I always think of white tower seats because I don't know why. And I'm passing all my time to buy it. How do you change enough to stay relevant without losing your meaning or whatever actually? One of the questions, I think somebody had even asked me, "Oh, I'll kill that ass that question." I'm absolutely like, "How do I change enough without becoming somebody who you are not?" So that is creating what we call a brand book is very important. You're not defining what is the brand, what is a brand's proposition? What is the psychographic of the audience to that and to which we appeal to? Like we were discussing it, for example, if I had asked about the shoe for a serious sportsman, it's a performance shoe. For the serious athlete, the core of the brand will always stay true to high performance. There is a reason why their brand ambassador is messy. You know, messy is the God of football. So how does a brand stay relevant? And it has to come with new colors. They may come with new sloreshames. They may come with the communication that is relevant to the times. The innovations in their portfolio, which are suited to new sports, etc. etc. But the core of the brand doesn't change. So one is the core of the proposition. The reason why iconic brands become iconic is because they have a sharply defined brand book, which is the brand proposition is clear. The personality of the brand is very clear. For example, in order to brands you see these days, you can tell when the social media agency has changed. Just looking at the Instagram, you can tell from here the agency has changed and then here again the agency has changed. But you wouldn't say that when I got in the agency. That's because their tone of voice, the way they speak, the way they come across the personality, how they relate with the consumer, how the consumer feel when you choose that brand. This episode was brought to you by Cherry Peach Plum. Vani and her team of marketers and problem solvers at Cherry Peach Plum help businesses solve a wide range of growth challenges by utilizing proven marketing playbooks. Get in touch with us via Cherry Peach Plum.in if you want to take your brand to the next level. I hope you liked my show and if you did please do consider subscribing. I also have a YouTube channel by the same name marketing by Vani. Please do check that out too. Thank you. How badly can you screw up one line? 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