So, the consumer shall now experience Tata.Cars. New font. New colours. Definitely new flooring, furniture and fixtures too. Very interesting exercise. There must have been solid logic behind the same, with some heart too added for flavour.
Do I like it? Too early to comment. Do I dislike it? Too early, once again. Branding, and rebranding, is a funny creature. There’s fur and then there’s flesh. Initially, we get caught up with the fur – the very name, the font, the colour palette, the digital renditions, the landing page of the website, the look of the social media handles and so on. Over time, we get to get down to the flesh. The behaviour. The response time. The availability of spares. The RSA. The cleanliness of the service bay. The timely reminders. The smiles and scowls.
My brand strategy guru, Wally Olins, taught me that the brand is beyond all the fur. It lives in the flesh. “The brand, Avik, is the promise of an experience delivered consistently, over time.” This is what he had told JRD and RNT when he helped with the entire rebranding of the conglomerate in the early 1990s. This is what he told every brand and person he interacted with.
Any rebranding has to be judged after a good 8-10 months of its ‘launch’, though I am personally not in favour of all the hype and hoopla around it. It has to come alive at every customer touchpoint. To deliver its promise. Which is not an advertising tagline or a logo sign-off. Those are words crafted to explain what the promise is. So, “Nothing’s too far” is the expression that has to manifest itself in multiple ways for the promise to be delivered. In technology. In network reach. In customer response time. In accessibility. In affordability. This is the flesh. The hard work. The routine that can tire someone. The rigour that can break many.
“The brand is a wasting asset,” said the remarkable Shunu Sen, one of the country’s best-ever marketers. The moment a brand is launched, it starts depreciating, just like the moment you drive a new car out of a showroom. Every moment of customer interaction is also a moment of both delight and devaluation. Hence brands need to keep refreshing themselves, through a new look, new products, new promotions and even inducting new people. Everything revives consumer interest in the brand that otherwise might end up being a blind spot. Not an easy job for both the brand custodian and the product planner.
So, let us not get into whether the [.] in Tata.Cars is sheer inspiration or mere gimmick. Let us see if the brand delivers its promised experience, consistently, at every touchpoint, over time. Then, it would have literally crossed the t’s and dotted the i’s.
Sergius Barretto
Rishaad Mody
