Image artist Wally Olins has handled marquee brands such as LVMH, Coca Cola, Visit London, the Royal Opera House, East Timor Development Agency, and now brand West Bengal. In an interview with Namrata Acharya and Ishita Ayan Dutt, the Saffron Brand Consultants Chairman talks about how he plans to align reality and perception about the state - his first such assignment in India. Edited excerpts:
How did your meeting with the state Chief Minister go?
We talked about what we felt made Bengal and Kolkata unique and what we could do about it. The key is to understand that this is a very long term project. It’s not an advertising campaign and not about Beautiful Bengal or Incredible India. It is about aligning the changing reality of Bengal with perceptions. The perceptions are that of a declining state. The reality, however, is very different. The fact is that the state is moving out of the decline into a renaissance. We believe we can help a lot of people understand that.
Is this your most challenging assignment?
Every state or city that you work for is challenging for very different reasons. If I am working for Lithuania, the challenge is how much do you know about it. It’s important to find out who the audience groups are. If I am working for Bengal, I have another challenge, which is to arrest the image or perception of decline. The facts are changing, but the perceptions are not. Every city/state has different characteristics, and personalities.
What are the personality characteristics of Bengal?
There is something about the personality of this region that is very, very particular, and there’s nothing like it anywhere else in the world. Once we have the idea, we have to make it manifest in everything we do. Not through an expensive advertising campaign. Use it wherever — whether it’s water purification or a film festival.
How different is branding a company from a state?
It’s much, much harder, but much more interesting too. It’s harder because you don’t know who’s in charge. When you’re working for a company, there is a goal, there is an aim. The aim is to make the company better known. Also, somebody is in charge and if he or she gets it wrong, you get fired immediately.
It’s much harder for a country because first of all, you don’t really know who’s in charge. We are currently dealing with a government which is coming up for elections in six months. We want continuity, they want continuity. And I hope that we will get continuity.
A company chief executive is not going to face elections in six months’ time. Another difference is, how do you know it’s working? Usually in a company, you can tell relatively quickly. With a government it usually takes quite a long time because the mood of the people you are dealing with, changes very slowly.
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When you say long-term, do you have a timeframe in mind?
The idea is to develop a core brand idea, to introduce it through everything that happens in Bengal. It has to become part of the DNA.
What we are trying to do is create something that initially is managed and then becomes intrinsic.
When can we see the benefits of the campaign?
Early new year should see things happening. I am not in favour of a high profile launch. Over a period of one year, the attitude towards Bengal will change. There could be a whole series of symbols that can be connected.
What kind of an impact do you think Singur has had?
Terrible. The impact, in terms of PR, was huge. The reality was actually not that bad because the year later there was more investment. But the perception of the impact was terrible. So if I’m in San Francisco and I’m thinking of investment, when it comes to Kolkata I would say, they stopped those guys. The fact that you are dwelling on this, two years later, when I’m trying to turn things around, shows the impact.
You have done some work for the Tata group. What exactly was it?
Well, I worked with Ratan Tata 10 years ago or so when he was looking at ways in which the Tata-ness of the different companies within the organization could be enhanced. So the intention was to infuse a Tata spirit. For example, we recommended changing the name Telco to Tata Motors and Tisco to Tata Steel. We talked about the Taj group and we thought it was useful to keep the Taj brand. I think what we did was to help strengthen the Tata imagery.
Isn’t branding to some extent aimed at glossing over reality?
If you’re saying whether branding is about seduction, then it is partly about seduction. But the truth of the matter is, if you project an idea of yourself which is unreal and you try and seduce somebody, they will sooner or later find out — probably sooner than later.
(For the full interview, log on to www.business-standard.com)