Page 83 - BrandZ Top 50 Most Valuable Indian Brands 2015

TOP 50 MOST VALUABLE INDIAN BRANDS 2015
Aparna Jain
Planning Director Ogilvy & Mather Aparna.Jain@ogilvy.com
With inancial and social empowerment comes personal
responsibility. However, urban Indians seem
to be recklessly enjoying their new found empowerment. no holds barred. This is seen in the indulgences and
over-indulgences of various kinds, which are relected in rising lifestyle diseases, drunken driving, substance abuse among the youth and road rage to name just a few examples. But real empowerment will come when we as a country can enjoy it without abusing it.
Empowerment
helps us gain control
over our lives. It
signals change and
progress, yes. But to
mistake empowerment for entitlement can be the very thing that undoes us. How
can brands help? Brands have already begun nudging at
the corners of social change with advertising that shows same-sex couples, live-in relationships, delayed marriages and other contemporary social phenomena. Perhaps it’s also time for brands to show that without balance, responsibility and even self-imposed restrictions, empowerment may well be pointless.
EMPOWERMENT
Depict responsible empowerment not mindless entitlement
Ravi Raman Iyer
Strategic Planner
Contract Raman.Iyer@contractindia.co.in
What signiies success for this increasingly young and virtual generation? Is it the size
of the bank account or the length of the car? Ostentatious displays of success and status are a social no-no, of course. No one really “likes” the “pics” of the your new sedan or your check-ins at the international airport. Been there, done that, boring.
To the young generation, success is not the “monetary capital” you’ve accumulated, it’s talk- worthy “social capital” you display. A Turkey vacation after reading Orhan Pamuk, capturing the Byzantine mosques gives you a lot more social currency than the mandatory “pic” in front of Big Ben in London. You have backpacked in Europe away from the tourist
circuit and posted about hidden gems largely unknown to the rest of the world. You have an interesting life and your social bank balance
just went up.
Everyone
vacations in
Goa on a long
weekend, but
driving there,
and exploring
coastal cuisines
on the way, gets you the real social currency, measured in likes, hearts, shares and the number
of conversations you can carry of. In this virtual-vicarious world, the corner oice may no longer be the most aspirational goal. In running to reach it, you might run out of social currency.
NEW STATUS
Social currency has become the new measure of success
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