Page 157 - BrandZ Top 50 Most Valuable Indian Brands 2015

TOP 50 MOST VALUABLE INDIAN BRANDS 2015
That India is a young country is an oft-repeated cliché. And this young India is not only driving the nation’s economy, but also its way of thinking. While most brands deine youth as their ideal target group, how many are actually able to speak their language?
In our quest to decode the ideal language to connect with youth in India, we recognized that the globally relevant phenomenon of “coolness” also inds huge traction with Indian youth. However, this “Cool Quotient” that makes brands desirable to Indian youth, can’t be replicated from global success stories.
India has its own brand of cool, and during our journey we discovered some quintessential ingredients that help infuse the “Cool Quotient” into brands. We call them the “Cool Mantras.”
So what is cool in general.?
All things cool, when studied closely, can be distilled down to some common strains and characteristics. Identifying them is what we call cool spotting. Here are a few:
COOL IS SILENT REBELLION Quietly rebellious highlights in hair or hidden tattoos are symbols of non-conformity that make a statement without screaming out loud
COOL CREATES ITS OWN IDEOLOGIES With no real unifying causes or great wars to unite us, cool resorts to creating its own ideologies, like LGBT rights, and crusading for them.
COOL IS THE RESOLUTION BETWEEN INDIVIDUALITY AND BELONGING
Stand out too much and you’re weird; blend in too well and you’re inconspicuous. Cool is the perfect balance between the two polarities.
COOL DOES MORE, TALKS LESS Many brands, like Lenovo and Lead India, brought this truth alive through initiatives that glorified the “Do” way of life.
COOL IS PARADOXICALLY COMPETITIVE
Cool is a ferociously competitive spirit disguised in a nonchalant, unruffled refusal to play by someone else’s rules.
COOL IS RESPECT
Cool earns the respect of its peers, and sometimes their envy. Perhaps that’s why stunt- and task-oriented reality show “Roadies” called its tenth season “The road to respect.”
What’s uniquely cool for Indian youth.?
In our exploration of the world of the Indian youth, we discovered some uniquely Indian characteristics of coolness:
IT’S COOL TO BE DESI
Whether it’s homegrown brands like Micromax or Fastrack, or phenomena like Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the national mission to take personal responsibility for the cleanliness of public spaces, youth are participating wholeheartedly in the India story. It’s cool to be Indian.
IT’S COOL TO PURSUE YOUR DREAMS The youth want to break free and be the authors of their own destiny. They follow their passions.
TECH-SAVVY IS COOL When even toddlers can work laptops like previous generations would Lego bricks, it’s easy to see how important technology is for the youth.
IT’S COOL TO TAKE THE LEAD
AND CHANGE THE STATUS QUO
The bystander days of Indian masses are likely to become history as the current trend of taking the lead and “fixing” things continues. Youth are raising their voices against injustice and using the social machinery
in a constructive manner.
IT’S COOL TO BREAK TABOOS Very little is taken for gospel truth by the youth. They question the old ways, and find that ideas like divorce, same-sex relationships and pre-marital sex aren’t taboo; they’re just a different way of living.
HEDONISM IS COOL Unlike previous generations that believed in abstinence and self-restraint, young India is hedonistic, seeking pleasure, whether it’s eating out, or going to the movies, or patronizing pubs or discos.
So how can a brand be cool to today’s youth? How can it successfully emulate and embrace the Indian cultural codes of cool? (Please see next page).
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