The fine art of balancing

AGKSPEAK/ A great branding starts with understanding the audience

What I've liked
While most advertising for paints experiment with variations on the tried and tested route (ah! see how your life can change with a new coat of my paint!), the recent series of commercials for Asian Paints are really breathing new life into the category.

It all began of course with the hugely popular 'Sunil babu' TVC. Now, that really broke the mould when it first appeared, leaving us all wondering how on earth they could better that.

After a disappointing follow-up attempt, this new TVC has brought our straying faith right back on track. What a wonderful way to handle change "" to say the same story, that everything around you changes but the paint doesn't.

What was more beautiful is the tongue-in-cheek depiction of the simple mind. Whether you live in a big or a small town, I guess there will always be one 'type' of girl who falls in love with the 'house' as it were! So to pick up that little human streak, I guess, is the secret of its success.

I also like the cheeky little endnote with the kid proclaiming 'badiya hain!'. Clever direction and a neat storytelling style all add up to making this TVC a delightful successor to good old Sunil babu.

And, of course, it reinforces the dictum, that "a great brand balances the delivery of functional benefits with emotional ones and that great branding starts with a rigorous assessment of your audience and of the brand positioning in the minds of those people. A truly 'badiya hain TVC'.

What I've learned
My anger, my enemy
My great grandmother committed suicide because my great grandfather made an adverse comment about her cooking. In a fit of anger she threw herself into the well.

Three generations have passed but this story is retold in our family. Rather than sympathising with her plight, the family unanimously sympathises with my great grandfather instead! Anger, it looks like, does not have many admirers.

The Buddha had said that "Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned."

Through the ages many great minds have warned us about the harmful effects of a short temper. But yet, all that advice seems to fall on deaf ears. Why? I guess it all begins with us wanting to control events and situations.

As a child, I was not known for my temper tantrums. But yet in the 80s, it was my temper that I came to be known for. Looking back, I realise that I achieved nothing when I lost my cool. I must have made lifelong enemies, and, it definitely did not improve efficiencies. I even tried the ice-cold anger route. Silence and non-communication.

No, that didn't work either, instead more often than not, it left my target confused and bewildered! But what I have discovered over the years, is that you can affect change if, for a moment, you are able to swallow your anger and take the first step towards opening a conversation about the source of discontent.

It is, I admit, a difficult thing to do. But if you, like me are hoping that your anger would result in a positive change in the other person, then may I recommend the lost art of 'the face-to-face discussion'.

Anger truly is 'temporary insanity' as the legal pundits would define it. This momentary lapse of reason, not only consumes you in the most harmful way possible; it also destroys precious relationships, sometimes, irrevocably. As Adi Shankaracharya put it so rightly, "There is no fire like anger".

Email: agkbrandconsult@yahoo.com