At another interactive THINK Session organized by The Bengal Chamber along with Black Dog & The Telegraph, Mr. Rohit Ohri, Chairman, Dentsu India, spoke on “Democratization of Brands”. Talking on the occasion, Mr. Ohri delved on how a Brand relates closely with its Target Audience. Elaborating, Mr. Ohri took the example of Gareth Kay, a globally renowned strategic planner at a US agency (Goodby, Silverstein & Partners), who spoke about how brands’ behavior can be compared to the mating habits of birds. In particular, he compared the genetic-hand-me-down attractiveness that peacocks rely on to attract the female of the species, versus the ingenious, custom built love nests that each of the plainer looking bower birds designs to attract the female of its species. The oversimplified takeaway: as for birds, so for brands. It’s how you look, it’s what you do with and for them that will attract people to your brand.

But is it all as simple as that?

In politics, as in life, with brands, people want to feel empowered, to be partners in an ecosystem. Again, as we’re seeing demonstrated in politics though, yielding complete control to consumers might just result in brand anarchy. The trick is to figure out how to give enough slack to the reins and yet guide the course of the brand, letting consumers power it. Tough? One can bet it is!!!!! In the participation economy, people don’t want to merely buy your brand. They want to buy into the brand.