IT was the fourth of December, 1987. Tarun Sethi woke up with a jump at the ridiculous hour of 5 am, and bolted to his parents? bedroom. The ancestral four-poster bed quickly doubled up as a trampoline, as Tarun proceeded to bounce on it incessantly. ?Wake up, wake up. It?s my seventh birthday,? screamed the boy. Fifteen minutes later, his father sipped on his cup of morning coffee and watched with amazement as his son started playing an imaginary game with the Superman and Batman action figures he had just received. Over the years, his obsession got shelved behind dusty thoughts of how to sell detergent in the rural market, but he noticed that the lessons he learnt from his comic book heroes were slowly getting reflected in everything he did, and the branding environment around him.
Firstly, no! A robot has not taken over the world, aliens have not landed, and no one has developed heat vision yet! However, if we closely scrutinise the behaviour of all that we love and consume around us, we will clearly see how close everything is to the fantastical superhero — universes created by the likes of Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster and Bob Kane. Superman, created in 1933, saw the light of day in Action Comics No.1 in 1938. Over the many decades, this character has become a universally loved, respected (and for a few fans, worshipped) iconic brand. Let us deconstruct him and show Tarun how close his world of branding is to the universe of his favourite superhero.
Marketing theorist Douglas Holt defines an iconic brand as one that addresses acute contradictions in society. This can be directly correlated to the genesis of Superman. The Great Depression saw people in America losing hope. Our hero took on the role of social activist, fighting power hungry businessmen and other evils that fed off the maladies of society at the time. Holt continues his description by stating that iconic brands develop identity myths that create imaginary worlds, offering escape from everyday reality. The world of Superman does exactly the same. Metropolis, the hub of all the action, represents a parallel version of any large urban city. However, the rest of the canvas painted by the creators portrays a vast universe of known and unknown civilisations. This universe has allowed the brand to explore an infinite number of conflicts and stories that stay fresh, and continue to excite readers more than 70 years after it was created. A strong lesson can be learnt here?a lesson in foresight; a lesson in effective creativity and storytelling. A brand universe created in 1933 that remains relevant and open to upgrading in 2014 is something that any brand custodian would give an arm and a leg to achieve. Today?s brands would be wise to build a universal platform that remains evergreen for time immemorial. A great example is Coca-Cola?s Open Happiness. Even Superman would not argue the time-agnostic nature and universality of happiness!
The creators of the Kryptonian took great care while crafting their product. Super strength, x-ray vision, heat vision, flight (a skill that evolved over editions?earlier the man could just jump really high!), invulnerability, etc., were on the list of his fantastic features. The reason to believe was ludicrous and yet compelling?he was from an alien planet. The functional benefit he brought to the table was protection and safety; but most importantly, the emotional benefit he delivered was hope and bravery. A great lesson can be learnt from this construct. Today, a lot of brands/products believe in communicating a plethora of features. The new 8 gazillion megapixel, sight-activated, microwave oven (which doubles up as a mobile phone) usually spends all its money communicating its features. The brand that gets built, unfortunately, is nothing. Let?s take a page (literally) out of Clark Kent?s book and keep it simple. Finding a gorgeous human-connect, which joins complicated and fantastic features with a simple life changing benefit, could perhaps be the need of the branding hour. It seems to have worked with one of the oldest, most popular fictional brands across the world. BMW, with it?s ?Joy of Driving? platform, is a great example of how the complexity of automobile attributes were funneled down to a simple yet powerful human canvas.
This well thought out construct covered all the quintessential marketing bases; including logo design! Emblazoned across his chest is an imposing shield with letter ?S?. The ?S? can easily double up for the word ?simple?. Sometimes simplicity leads to the most powerful designs. Today, the S-Shield does not have top-of-mind recall problems, and definitely does not need to be made dimensionally bigger for salience and recognition on any piece of communication. This level of simplicity is seen in some of the most iconic companies of this century?Apple with, well, an apple, Honda?s H, Batman?s bat and Nike?s iconic Swoosh. Overthinking, overdesigning and over justifying logos lead to confusion, and only boardroom understanding. Ultimately, as in the case of superheroes, if a brand logo turns into a popular tattoo, the marketers can rest at ease and focus on further product development!
That brings us to product development. Tarun (yes, we have not forgotten him!) marveled at the glorious feats performed by his hero. And yet, every time, his hero nearly lost the battle?nearly. These near losses exemplify the brilliance of brand Superman. The creators built in a subdue switch that allowed the brand a certain sense of vulnerability. This was their crown jewel?the duality that resided within the product?Superman. In brand speak terms; he had an inherent tension that was preloaded?vulnerable invincibility. Two very opposite, yet powerful slices that allowed his character to be challenged, be defeated and ultimately, be more human. The love for humans forced him to adopt a weaker alter ego?Clark Kent?to ensure that no harm ever befalls them. His physical repulsion to Kryptonite guaranteed his vulnerability when in battle against the more resourceful villains. These two cracks in his invincible armour make for great stories of struggle and passion, building the brand consistently and powerfully over time. In our own earthly realm, smarter companies (sometimes inadvertently) have adopted strong dualities that have led to powerful brands. Be it the sexy fun that is infused into a pure service brand like Virgin Atlantic, the affordability that halos the luxury provided by Honda or the prestige linked with the value offered by Britannia. Siegel and Shuster created this tension intuitively. If we, as marketers, come across a paucity of such intuitive brilliance, we would be wise to take into account lessons learnt from such powerful brands while building our own.
Over the years, Tarun realised the similarities between his world and his hero?s universe, and started implementing them in his work. A word here or an indulgent image inserted sneakily into a briefing session kept his blood pumping. It all suddenly came alive for him when he recently re-watched one of his favourite animated shows. He quickly realised the biggest similarity between brands/products and his obsession?the fight between good and evil. A superhero would not exist without the presence of an equal opposite; and neither would a good brand. Most iconic brands are constantly at war with deep issues that afflict their consumers. Nike battles lethargy, Dove wages war against the lack of self-esteem and Apple confronts complexity. From childhood, we have seen anthropomorphic negatives defeated by the good guys (the products/brands). Who can forget advertisements with
mean-looking, green, bad guys that were thwarted by Vicks, Colgate and other germ repellants? Great brands, like Superman, need to address an evil in the lives of the consumers, battle with it and come out the victor. Greater brands, such as Surf Excel, Tarun?s biggest competitor, join hands with the bad guys to achieve some thing better (Dirt is Good). This is a recurring theme in the superhero world, where Superman teams up with Lex Luthor to defeat Darkseid (people like Tarun would know exactly what we are
talking about!)
The lessons are numerous, the references are infinite; be it Batman with all his dark-hero tensity and gritty Gotham universe or the Greek goddess-like Wonder Woman with all her mythological heritage. One common learning emerges. They capture our imaginations, speak to our yearnings and entertain us constantly. The comic book creators from the days of yore, armed with intuition and creativity, have developed larger than life brands. Brands that tell stories across media ? be it comics, films, video games or even a series of action figures. Brands that nurture us from cradle to grave. Brands that build themselves. Brands that will never die.
There are many Tarun Sethis out there. It would be nice if a few of them turned to brand building the 1933 way.
* Ad-dendum BY Gautam Talwar and Prithviraj Banerjee
Gautam Talwar is chief strategy officer, Rediffusion Y&R and Prithviraj Banerjee is head, strategic planning, Mumbai, Rediffusion
