The brand is an amoeba, not paramecium: Harish Bijoor

BANGALORE, INDIA: Wikipedia describes brand as the "name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers." We can't disagree on that, but when one goes a step beyond that description, there is a whole new meaning attached to it.

For Harish Bijoor, brand-expert & CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc, brand is a thought that lives in people's minds.

"The brand is a powerful thought that drives passion. A powerful thought that stays and stays. A powerful thought that leverages its way into usage, habit, attitude and power," he says.

Many companies have sustained change in maintaining their brand image. When asked to name name a few, Bijoor says, "In India, we have Vodafone that has gone through its many avatars of change. Worldwide, we have brands such as Starbucks, Google, and indeed Apple that have led the way with sustained change." He didn't leave out the telecom sector in

India which, he feels, is a classic example of this dynamic change.

Undeniably, in the changing environ, every company needs to have a strong brand strategy to be successful in the long run. "The environment we live in today, and the environment ahead is one of constant flux. In such a situation, brands need to keep pace with the flux. Brands need to stay alive, and ahead of consumer movements. Consumers change fast, but brands don't. That is not such a great thing to do today."

He feels gone are the days when brand-thinkers would espouse the cause of the

'constant and unchanging' nature of brands. "I espouse a different cause today altogether. Brands need to be alive and kicking. As alive and kicking as the consumer is. In fact, brands need to stay one step ahead of consumer movements, wants, desires and aspirations."

"I don't look at the brand as a paramecium. The brand is an amoeba instead. Brands need to behave amoebically in the future," he says.

Ask him how is social media changing brand strategy and pat comes the reply: "Social media and all the action you see on it is the true-blue barometer of all change in new and emerging society. Web activity today and everything we see on social media is the crucible of new society on the morph phase."

The recent social media revolution hasn't failed to impact the brand giants. Bijoor says: " Social media is forcing brands to adopt the contemporary. Social media is waking up slumbering brand giants from their otherwise somnolent attitudes. Social media is a great window for brands to peep into consumer lives and attitudes and learn from."

Despite knowing the reality, companies tend to make mistakes and fail in their digital brand strategy. The reasons range from lack of focus to understanding consumers' pulse.

Bijoor attributes it to lack of emphasis on consumer research that is digital-space focused. "Most brands tend to use old and outdated consumer knowledge from the physical world and super-impose it on the digital consumer. This just never works. These are

two different spaces and the consumer in these two spaces is a very different animal in each."

So, what should the companies do? "It is important for the digital branding evangelist to believe in deep research in digital space. This is a patience-process. And most digital

branding folk don't display and have this patience. That is fault number one among maybe six other faults in this space," says Bijoor.

(Harish Bijoor, Brand-expert and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc, is one of the speakers at CIOL's annual event C-Change, which will be held in Bangalore from February 21-23)