Nike holds the flag up high for celebrity advertising

It is okay to splurge on a celebrity ambassador, but keep a few things in mind while doing it

 

 

The 2016 Wimbledon Women’s champion was, hold your breath, Serena Williams! She equalled Steffi Graf’s record of 22 Grand Slams and beat her own record of being the oldest women’s player to win the record. I guess most people were happy as they admire her tenacity, fitness and will to win. None more than Nike the brand that she is endorsing. Let’s for the moment ignore my disappointed friends who for some unknown reason were supporting Maria Sharapova who too was an earlier Nike model. But let me come back to Serena and invite you to view the Nike commercial if you haven’t already seen it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5G3No4Kwfo

Having been in advertising for two long, I can’t rate it as an all time classic but it brings out an important feature of the brand and that is “attitude”. Nike is all about champions who hate to lose and Serena certainly is a champion and as her record demonstrates, the one thing she hates is losing, even to her distinguished sister.

Catch them young

Nike has not always been the dominant brand that it is today. In the early days Phil Knight would roam the colleges of the US with shoes in his car, find budding athletes and exhort them to wear his shoes. Some of them obliged and few of them graduated to being champions and they remembered the brand that had supported them before they were stars. The brand’s essence though was clear - it was for athletes who had the grit, desire and attitude to put in the hard miles. People who hated to lose whether it was Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Shane Warne or our own Serena Williams.

Match the celebrity with your brand’s personality

While signing on a champion athlete for your brand per se is no big deal, Nike’s best ambassadors have been those who were at times at the edge in behaviour. People who didn’t always conform. They have had their brushes with authority and often controversy. They don’t hold back. A bit like Serena who spoke about the disparity in prize money between men and women or wore clothes that made people raise their eyebrows. Two such earlier champions were Andre Agassi and our Shane Warne. 

Since I am assuming you are cricket mad like me, let me wax eloquent on the greatest spinner of my lifetime. One of the best commercials of Nike featured the classic spinner. The script is worth recalling though the commercial has been pulled off YouTube.

When would you give up asks the voice over. When the wickets refuse to fall? When you are told your team is better off without you or when your child is born on the other side of the world? And we have a dejected Shane Warne on the frame but as they say you can’t keep a Nike model down. The film cuts to his bowling Herchelle Gibbs with an unplayable ball in the 99 World Cup semi-final and the rest as they say is history. The commercial ends with the celebrated Nike tag line of “Just do it “. Yes, Shane Warne was the man of the series in the 99 World Cup that I had the good fortune to watch live.

Think long term

This leads me to the learning from Nike a brand I admire. Nike thinks long term when it comes to celebrities. Today, sadly many brands and brand managers are obsessed with the short run and quick fixes. Its celebrity strategy is not new and some of the greatest sportsmen and athletes have been proud of this superior brand. This is an important aspect of successful brands like Pepsi and Nike who have been consistent in their strategy of always using celebrities. And in the case of Nike there is another feature that I have noticed and admired. They have always looked for champion athletes and sportsmen but like Warne they have always been people who live on the edge, who are unafraid of speaking their mind and who have the odd transgression as they are human after all. But they are all people with “attitude” and people who hate losing.

So what’s your strategy?

This leads me to an important question for your own brand. Yes, it is okay to use a celebrity and pay an arm and leg for it. But is your strategy in place and more importantly is it long term. And finally does your celebrity’s personality match your brand’s personality?

Think about it before just doing it!

How disruptive brands like Uber, Airbnb, transform lives

They offer opportunities that had not hitherto existed, giving people a chance at a better life

As a consultant I am a great admirer of “disruptive” brands like Uber and Airbnb. To someone like me whose very life and livelihood is about brands these are the ultimate aspirational brands. And yet, I am also aware of the bad press that dogs a company like Uber, at least which includes horror stories of rape, outrage over “surge pricing”, complaints from  the government of Karnataka  about its non-compliance (with some horribly archaic and unfriendly rules)… But as a consumer I have more often than not been delighted with the new cars, generally polite drivers and use of technology. I wish some of the companies that I work for including mine have half the energy of an Uber which is a happening company. But let me talk more as a consumer and less as a consultant  and about what happened last Saturday night in Bangalore as my friends and I attempted the impossible - driving through the city in the rain on a Saturday evening! We ambitiously left JP Nagar in South Bengaluru at 6.15 pm in pouring rain wanting to reach RMV stage 2 by 7.30 pm. As our luck would have it we had an Uber driver who was an exception and proved extremely uncommunicative and unfriendly as he kept talking on the phone perhaps to his wife who to all intents and purposes was extremely unhappy with him and our torturous ride continued till 8.45 pm. A small matter of two and a half hours for 20 kms as our trip sheet sadly showed! It took me fifteen minutes and two malts to get over the ordeal. Not one to take it lying down, I rated the driver poorly and promptly got a response from the company.  Another case of technology and its value in customer service.

Things change dramatically for the better

We left again at 10.30 pm thankfully avoiding the traffic and had the benefit of a smiling, chatty driver. On probing I discovered that his name was Waseem. He had completed his BSC degree in Bio Technology at Bijapur and was desirous of studying for his MSC. Thankfully one of the bigwigs in Bijapur is an honest government servant at Bengaluru (yes miracles do happen) who owns a few cars and he offered him a job for three months where he earns 1000 Rs a day should he meet his incentive targets.  He does that regularly, smilingly. So in the three month break he would earn close to 80,000 Rs which would enable him to study. I was pleasantly surprised at the demeanour of this friendly, ambitious young man who represents the middle class aspirations of India which strongly believes that the way to advancement is through education. More importantly companies like Uber are providing opportunities that had not hitherto existed and making a difference to the passenger comfort in cities like Bengaluru which have no public transport worth speaking  about even as they provide opportunities to the Waseems of the world.  Of course Waseem is not the only one to benefit.  My own driver of 27 years is today the proud owner of a Toyota Etios and as an Uber owner driver he earns more than twice of what he earned with me.  Even if a driver complains to you about companies like Uber rest assured it is a great opportunity to the entire driver community who promptly get their dues paid and makes twice at least of what they used to earn before.  The more enterprising ones are running small fleets of 3-4 cars and becoming entrepreneurs in their own right.

A State Government with its own agenda

Even as I pleasantly exchanged a good night with Waseem my overwhelming thought was one of regret for the way our state government operates. Instead of supporting enterprise that is providing an opportunity to people to move up in life they are putting obstacles and hurdles in their way, clearly with objectives that are not above board. But then such is our karma!

As I went to sleep I was just wondering if Waseem had been more cheerful because he was single!  But that’s another story!

 

Of poll symbols and their promotion in Tamil Nadu

Chennai, May 8 (IANS)

"It is Mango season" begins a PMK TV spot for its election symbol. In other TV commercials, ripe mangoes burst into juice - but PMK's mango symbol bursts out of mango juice!

Perhaps PMK is the only party in Tamil Nadu to buy airtime on different satellite channels mainly to popularlse its election symbol ahead of May 16 assembly elections.

While the party's chief ministerial candidate Anbumani Ramadoss has reached the people through its campaign - Change and Progress - it is time for PMK to popularise its symbol so as to make the connect between the two.

On election day it is the battle of party symbols that would determine the winner and political parties have to popularise their symbols to gain the voter's mind share.

This is important as rival parties tend to prop up candidates with identical names to confuse the voters.

According to an Election Commission official, each voting machine will have 15 buttons against the symbols of political parties and one NOTA (none of the above) button.

"Symbols of political parties are more earthy and functional than the logos of corporates. People recognise symbols and shapes," Ramanujam Sridhar, founder and CEO, Integrated Brand-Comm Pvt Ltd, a brand consulting company based in Bengaluru, told IANS on the phone.

According to him, logos of political parties are consistent, unlike corporate logos.

Tamil Nadu has around 15 known parties, several smaller outfits and many independent candidates in the electoral fray.

This time, the ruling AIADMK is contesting the polls aligned with a couple of small parties in 234 constituencies.

However, all the candidates will be contesting under the AIADMK's two leaves symbol - a first of its kind in the party's history.

"I may not agree with the ruling AIADMK's policies. But when it comes to voting it is only the 'two leaves' symbol for me," a taxi driver told IANS, stressing on the symbol's brand equity.

"In Tamil Nadu, the two leaves and the rising sun symbols are very strong and have easy recall. Similarly the colour scheme of their flags also have good recall among the voters," Sridhar said.

The DMK has aligned with the Congress, two Muslim parties and some smaller outfits.

While DMK candidates will fight under the rising sun symbol, the Congress candidates will do so under the pary's hand symbol.

The third front led by the DMDK (symbol- drum) comprises the CPI-M (hammer, sickle and star), CPI (ears of corn and sickle) VCK (ring), TMC (coconut trees) and MDMK (top) under its fold.

The BJP (lotus) leads another front with smaller outfits while Naam Thamizhar Katchi is also contesting 234 seats under 'two burning candles' symbol.

There are independent candidates who will be contesting under different symbols.

Though the election symbols of AIADMK and DMK are well known, the two parties are not complacent.

In all their advertisements and other mass communications they lay stress on their logo so that the voters do not forget.
Comparing and contrasting the political and corporate logos, a political strategist not wanting to be quoted told IANS: "The logo strategy for a political party comes from its political strategy whereas in the case of corporates it is derived from their business strategy."

He said the symbol allotted by the Election Commission is in black-and-white and the colour scheme for the logo is decided by the political party based on its philosophy.

Though corporates change their logos at regular intervals in line with the evolution of the market and customer perception, political parties do not change their logos as it is their lifeline.

Physical promotion of an election symbol is also possible in the case of certain parties like AIADMK, DMK and Congress.

In the case of AIADMK, the two leaves symbol can be depicted by showing two fingers -ring and middle - like the victory sign.

The DMK's rising sun symbol is depicted by showing the open palm and spreading the five fingers.

In the case of the Congress just showing the open palm is sufficient to convey the message.

Communication is critical

A host of Indian companies have faced compliance and regulatory challenges to their operations in India and abroad in recent years. Here's what corporations could do to mitigate risks to their brand equity:

Just over a fortnight ago in Wisconsin, a US federal court slapped $940 million penalty on two companies of India's Tata group - Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Tata America International Corp - for allegedly "stealing" information related to medical software company Epic Systems. TCS, India's largest information technology services provider, will appeal against the judgment, but it faces a protracted courtroom battle and a threat of losing brand equity.

*Across the Atlantic but around the same time, Germany's health regulator raised the red flag accusing Alkem Laboratories of fudging data on clinical trials of an antibiotic and brain disorder drug. If its drugs are asked to be recalled, the Mumbai-based multinational pharmaceutical company won't be the first Indian firm in the sector in recent years to be pulled up by an overseas regulator.

As these examples suggest, for companies venturing abroad an understanding of the regulatory landscape, the specific compliance requirements and the penalties and consequences of violation is absolutely essential. Experts also point to how factors such as politics and divergence in perceptions and standards in developed and developing economies come into play as companies try to anticipate or negotiate such crises. Sridhar Ramanujam, CEO and founder of Brand-Comm, says any global brand could be under fire for not meeting regulatory requirements. "Who can forget the stress Volkswagen went through? Its problems continue to have an impact not only on its own bottom line but on the entire German economy." Far too many Indian brands, he adds, have managed to do well by 'managing the environment' which is sometimes less stringent back home than many other parts of the world. He calls for an attitudinal change where brands embrace global standards and norms of compliance "as a matter of choice and not something that they are forced to do".

The reason is simple: At best, the brand equity of a company will take a hit when faced with regulatory flak. At worst, it might have to pack up and leave the host country. For instance, Sun Pharmaceuticals had to contend with a dip in share prices after the US FDA issued a warning letter for the company's Halol plant in Gujarat where it raised data integrity issues. Ramanujam suggests it might be worthwhile for Indian brands to follow a mantra of "think local but comply globally". "In a global environment, compliance is going to be the key mantra for survival," he adds.

So what can brands do when they get into a TCS or Alkem-type situation? Is an advertising blitzkrieg the answer or should brands look at public relations coups? The answer seems to be communication - honest and immediate.

Sandhya Shama Rao, GM, corporate communications and marketing, Vertebrand, believes the ideal response in any crisis situation is to come out into the open early and clarify one's position with regards to the allegations. This should be done by the senior leadership or company spokesperson. But more often than not, organisations clam up refusing to offer any comment/clarifications to the media. A "no comment" response is invariably construed as acceptance of guilt and hence should be avoided as far as possible, while in case of lawsuits/ongoing investigations, care should be taken to inform the public that the matter is sub judice and hence cannot be commented upon, she adds.

AN Bhattacharya, professor, marketing and social innovation, School of Inspired Leadership, highlights the political concerns resulting from the growing penetration of Indian businesses. "Fear of loss of jobs is leading to opposition from industry bodies and trade groups overseas. Protests against outsourcing are growing." Setting high quality standards is desirable, but one needs to take into account that depending on the product cycle, products and services offered by Indian companies cost less than those offered by firms in developed nations, he adds.

As a very important measure, says Atul Pandey, associate partner with law firm Khaitan & Co, Indian companies operating abroad need to undertake significant relationship building exercises and work closely with local political parties, understand their agendas and learn how to manage them. In case their investments are jeopardised by actions of the local government, the companies may also seek recourse to bilateral investment treaties (if such treaties have been signed between the Indian government and the government of the investee state).

According to Rakesh Nangia, managing partner, Nangia & Co, "Indian MNCs need to think through their globalisation strategies by clearly defining a path for international expansion, setting up dynamic global operating models and building talent, leadership and culture for growth." Also, he stresses, wherever organisations have proactive and clearly aligned regulatory functions, regulatory-compliance challenges are minimal and there is timely mitigation of non-conformance risks.

Former Indian diplomat Amit Dasgupta, who heads the Mumbai campus of the SP Jain School of Global Management, lays down pointers for companies. First, they need to put forward a strong vision and plan for their global footprint. At the same time, it is important to be conversant with the legal framework, rules and regulations. "You simply cannot break the law or be perceived as someone likely to cut corners," he stresses. Second, it is usually helpful to have a local partner, especially someone who has credible and reliable credentials and more importantly shares the same values about being well within the boundaries of the law. For aggrieved companies, he says, the only recourse is legal. "If a charge is made, it needs to be refuted in court. Get a good lawyer to present your case forcefully and convincingly."

It is here - legal risk strategy - that many companies seem to falter. Somasekhar Sundaresan, partner at national law firm J Sagar Associates, says, "In India, we have the unique approach of seeing spending on legal services as an evil and wasteful expense. Lawyer jokes abound worldwide but Indian corporates take the lawyer jokes seriously and don't really engage meaningfully." He cautions, "Unless Indian businesses start seeing legal and regulatory expense as a business necessity and not as a luxury, their risks in international operations would continue to be a threat."

The other side of the coin is internal communication - if there is a threat to a company of its business, there is a lot of confusion and restlessness among employees. The only way to deal with this is to communicate with internal stakeholders directly - and the communication should come right from the top and before the situation snowballs into a crisis, say experts.

N Chandramouli, CEO of Trust Research Advisory, emphasises that in case of TCS, the trade secrets theft allegations are not a case of organisational involvement unlike instances of wrongdoing by companies like Nissan and Volkswagen. He says, "Brand trust for TCS is high. However, the worrisome issue is that not every link in the value chain is clued in on the company's ethics. That said, TCS needs to probe the matter internally."

All said, a unanimous piece of advice for Indian multinationals is to adopt a proactive approach towards compliance. Nangia says, "The regulatory group is usually viewed as a 'necessary evil' in many organisations and is more reactive than proactive, which leads to a considerable loss of time, energy and resources. The regulatory function should be given paramount importance. They must also understand that managing regulatory risk exposure, especially in the face of uncertain regulations (for example, environmental regulations around carbon emissions) in a more proactive manner is financially beneficial in the long run."