Category: Blog

Dissecting the brand & communication partner relationship to understanding when to hold on and when to let go

Insanity is replicating the same thing in the same way and expecting a different response. We see this more as a personal life phenomenon, and professionals seem to be, for the most part, more sane and pragmatic about finding solutions. Having said this, many brands, often, shop for agencies with the brief focused more around how they felt their last few communications partners could not deliver rather than the trying to immerse the new agency partner prospect in their business and expectations. There are business acquisitions made by consultants on being better counselors and listeners rather than strategists and experts in their fields. Changing communication partners again and again expecting the same result is insanity. Unfortunately, at times, as marketing and communications teams change, this vicious cycle sees no end, and the brand ends up working with multiple agencies, little to show for it, and the same complaints ready against the past partners for the briefing of their new prospective partner.

While it should be noted that some partners may not be actually able to deliver as per their commitments and this phenomenon may not exist in every brand team, the fundamental attitude that changing your agency partner will take you to the promise land is unfounded, and most successful relationships are ones where there is a long-term commitment between the agency partner and the brand with an oath to stick together in sickness and health. The relationships that can make each other better and are solution oriented, rather than justification/excuse oriented, survive. But again, this should not lead to another dangerous cycle of an inability to kill a relationship when it is clear that the two entities cannot see eye-to-eye and spend more time in conflict then in resolution. So, how does one find the balance between not falling in a cyclical insanity of constant change and an inability to kill a relationship that needs to die for the betterment of both the entities?

Stay True To the Relationship If:

Attitude Alignment
If the personalities of the brand and agency teams match, brands should resist the urge to change the partner and try to work towards a solution. With skillset and experience evaluated at the time of getting into the relationship, a personality synergy between the two entities is extremely hard to find, and once you find it, hang on to it.

Transparency & Honesty
This maybe the most important reason a brand-agency partner relationship can survive in times of challenges and conflict. Most conflicts arise out of the lack of honesty and clarity of commitment. A transparent and honest agency partner, who doesn’t beat around the bush, accepts their mistakes, and never accepts until they truly believe in something, is a great partner to have.

The Language of Solutions
What language do you speak in your discussions, brainstorms and meetings? If a large part of the conversations are about justifications and reasons from the brand and consultancy side, its not going to work, but if both entities agree that they will only speak the language of solutions in every aspect of the relationship, it’s a relationship to cherish, and the two entities will surely do some great things together.

Kill the Relationship & Move On If:

I have no more questions.
When meetings and brainstorms start to get majorly tactical and there is no questioning to the approach by either entity in the relationship, its time to start rethinking the relationship. Curiosity is at the core of the human mind, and if you have no more questions, there is no more challenge. A lack of challenge will not push the relationship to do more and be aspirational.

Is this a relationship or an algorithm?
The agency-brand relationship always starts off to an exciting start due to a new subject matter, sector and brand for both entities, but once an approach that works is found, the relationship may be at the risk of being robotic. While the approach works, both the brand and agency partner get so comfortable in the routine that there is no scope of innovation or creative thought. Its great to get comfortable in the personalities of the two entities, but if both entities get too comfortable with the strategy and approach, it’s, unfortunately, time for a change.

The Fire Doesn’t Burn The Same Anymore
The relationship needs to professionally turn on the brand and the agency partner teams. If each entity is not getting excited, challenged and breaking their head on the next phase of brand growth on a continuous basis, the attraction will start to cease to exist. The relationship needs to be open to taking risks with their campaigns, open to failure, and resist the temptation to do the same thing merely basis the fact that there are no other new ideas.

It should not be mistaken that core skillsets, expertise and clarity in thought process are not important. They are extremely important and an irreplaceable aspect of a successful brand and communication partner relationship, but the softer aspects of the relationships are also important, especially when relationships are not driven by just needs/requirements, but aspirations to do something great together. But then again if a relationship is driven only by  a need, then there is no relationship, and the agency partner would be more aptly referred to as a vendor anyways.

Sample this email subject line that global sports major, Adidas, sent to the participants of the Boston Marathon 2017, once they had completed the race. “Congratulations for having survived the Boston Marathon.” The internet has a field day regarding the perceived insensitivity of the usage of words just a few years from the horrors that affected men, women and children in April 2013.
What a few weeks it has been for some of the world’s most recognizable brands. Pepsico, United Airlines, Uber (where do we start?) and Snapchat have all been the source of some much publicized faux pas. They’ve then been lined up in front of the proverbial firing squad and seen their legacy tarnished leading to capital and brand erosion. What could they have done differently?
Before we embark on a deconstructing journey within the safe confines of hindsight, let us be clear that a brand apology has more variables associated with it. Equally important to note is that we are not trying to measure the intensity of person to person forgiveness versus one that is made by a brand. But millions of users, their collective anger combined with lightning fast communication mediums mean brands might as well decommission the traditional crisis playbook. Brands create various response teams and protocols to deal with errors and some hit the mark while others compound the problem. Maybe the real place to start comes much before.
Listen. If only brands were more attuned to the current state of affairs, they’d be able to predict reception for some of their marketing strategies. Case in point, Pepsi, made the cardinal sin of trying to jump onto the bandwagon of free speech and the right to have your voice heard. Well intentioned theoretically, can you imagine the backlash a homegrown brand like Rooh Afza would face if they released a similar ad except with the CRPF personnel and Kashmiri youth as participants? In a society already polarized by the rise of an unlikely and unpredictable President, the ad struck all the wrong chords. Not to mention the choice of celebrity who is part of a family derided by most, irrespective of your political lineage.
Worse yet, is to shirk responsibility of poor decisions and violent action. Enter United Airlines. If it wasn’t enough brand hara-kiri seeing gory images of a customer (whether he should have been allowed on board or not) being dragged across the aisle, the first response statement actually put the blame on the system and the passenger. This did not come from a staff spokesperson or a PR rep, but the CEO himself. It remains to be seen if ‘re-accommodate’ wins ‘Invented Jargon of the Year 2017’ but the letter backing United employees, most of whom were already embarrassed by the turn of events, was also in poor taste.
I hate to kick a brand when it is down, but having been a resident of the great city of Bangalore for the last 8 years, I haven’t been ‘locked up at home’ until Uber came along and improved our collective Happiness Index. And no, I do not own a motor vehicle. Brands leave themselves open to ridicule and the mercy of trolls by making statements of grandiose which alienate their customers. Have they made travel easier, safer and more convenient? No doubt, but shouldn’t you be letting your satisfied customers do your evangelizing for you? An apology made after generations make for a great Bollywood happily-ever-after ending but in the real world, it is best done immediately. And sincerely. Unfortunately, Uber seems to have the hand-brake on when it comes to rectifying its errors for a few months now.
For an app that made its mark by allowing users to send images which disappear in a few seconds, Snapchat seems to be doing the disappearing act from our mobile phones equally fast. Once again, the source of the problem has been the guy at the top. It must be the rarified air at multi-billion dollar IPOs that make decision making really tough. To insinuate (allegedly or not) we are ‘too poor’ to consider expansion is akin to digging your own grave. Users are uninstalling the app (seems to be in vogue these days), hackers are releasing private user data and poor Snapdeal is also facing the brunt for sounding a little too much like them. A sincere apology involves admittance of hurt caused to the ‘victims’, in this case, a nation of 1.2 billion people. Now whether the statement was actually made or not, Snapchat needs to seem accountable enough to make amends. Releasing India specific filters to placate an irate internet mob is certainly not the way. A brave CEO might even ditch the traditional route and embark on a charm offensive. A visit to India with a plan to make Indians an integral user base of his popular app in due course of time might not be such a bad idea.
Good communication is always a two way process. If you listen, chances are that you will be able to say the right things. The same applies to brands. Listen well to avoid blunders, quixotic or otherwise. And remember, acceptance is the first step towards salvation. To err is human, to forgive, divine. Or in the case of some big brands today – To err is self inflicted, to stop the trolls, futile.

It’s almost been a year, thinking to myself in a crammed balcony while I separate myself from reality with the usual getaway ritual – chai and toast. All around me was noise. And as I sip and eat, I gaze down at people. The typical smell of Bombay, of congestion and chaos, was getting the best of me. At that moment, the Usain Bolt in me wanted to run and settle in the Himalayas. This was typically the first thought that crossed my mind each day as I persevere through failed hopes and fake-pleasing everyone.

All I was craving for was my bed back home and ‘mummy ke haath’ pakodas.

Ah Alas! It was only the first bummer of the day. Like I actually counted and waited for it. I was one those people, whose life started and ended at work. A 9-6 person was something that I never thought I’d become. With a horrible social life, friends I could count on my finger-tips and vada pav as my meals; I had become a slave to the“I’M WORKING! I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR LIFE” excuse.

I just wanted run into my mother’s arms and cry my heart out. But obviously, I couldn’t because I had to be the independent girl. Keeping myself strong, I finally decided to do something, one too many times done in Bombay. Hop into a train, catch a bogey to Marine Drive, and sit there amongst a thousand other people trying to ‘figure’ life out. OH LIKE MARINE DRIVE KNEW WHAT WAS TO BE DONE RIGHT IN MY LIFE.

So I went. Reached there in a glorious mess, helplessly trying to hold my tears before I sat with music plugged in, minding my own business. My heart told me to not leave this place until I had it all ‘figured’ out. Being the drama queen I am, I tuned into ‘Iktara’ from Wake Up Sid! A movie that has always been close to my heart, the song forces me to cry like a baby every time. People around me begin to stare at me weirdly. I wanted to shout and tell them how much I hated this city and what it had done to me!

Reminding myself to be as mature as possible, I pull myself back together after a heartfelt 15-minute moment. Maybe a breakdown in public was something that I really needed. I’d finally figure out why it was imperative to make my way in this big city and why it was okay to be crammed up in a 1BHK alone when you live with 20 million other people and still feel alone.

It suddenly was all okay. It was okay to make my own breakfast, it was okay to go out for a coffee alone and the biggest of them all; it was okay to stay away from family. This city is nothing but full of people giving off a uniform smell. Yet as though some magic spell, it casts onto you a reality to face Life. It lets you wear a mask but also help you to discover yourself.

From visiting Chor Bazar at 9pm to shopping at Crawford Market, alone, I knew that I could manage it all. I’d finally become who I’d want to be at 21. A girl who can live alone, an independent and strong girl who could take the shit that life threw at her. And she’d finally found a home – Bombay.

For all that matters, I stuck through the chaos and filth of a city and finally discovered myself.

You are a product of your environment, be it the people you hangout with, the kind of upbringing you had or the hobbies you pursue. Everything affects your personality to an extent and brings out the best or worst in you. In this case hobbies are a major factor that holds the key to changing your personality and creating a better version of it. Something similar happened to me; since childhood I have been a fan of combat sports like boxing, wrestling or taekwondo and hence took up Mixed Martial Arts training. I always used to feel there is something cool about this sport. The athletes, the finishing moves, the physique but never thought of the positive changes it can bring in one’s life. It has been two years since I started training and unknowingly it has made me a different person altogether.

From being one of my favourite hobbies, MMA has become a part of my daily life; not only my personal life but professional too. While training, you are taught to be disciplined, patient, empathetic, fearless, confident and be respectful towards your opponent and your surroundings. These things have started reflecting in my professional life.

Let’s start with discipline – without discipline one cannot be a good fighter; not on the mat and not in personal/professional life. There is not much of a difference between discipline one follows in MMA and in personal life. In MMA, you must be discipline in terms of training, workout, eating and drinking habits. These are the smallest things that makes a huge difference in your performance. Discipline helps in achieving the level of dedication required to acquire necessary skills of fighting and self-defence. Similarly, in my work it has helped me in following the discipline of being in line with the processes and keeping small things in mind to get the desired results.

A good fighter is always patient, always work hard with utmost dedication and never expects things to happen overnight. In my professional life, it has taught me to work hard; leaving no margin for error as well as going that extra mile in terms of achieving the desired result. To go that extra mile, one needs patience. Many times, it came to my mind that I should stop at certain point cause the results were not evident, here I kept telling myself to be patient and to go that extra mile. In terms of handling people, patience plays an important role. Nobody is perfect in terms of skills and knowledge, when there are people in my team I try to be patient and empathetic towards them. Everyone has a different level of understanding and grasping. It just needs the right kind of push with a balance of patience and empathy to drive the best out of them.

Fear is the first thing that stops you from taking that first step towards your goal. Overcome your fears and 80% of the job is already done. As for the remaining 20%, leave it upto your skills. Being fearless is what my sensei taught us during training. Even in the worst possible situation in real life, fear can be a spoiled sport. People get robbed cause they get scared. A good MMA athlete never fears the consequences and walks up to his opponent and fights him and even if he is scared he needs to walk to the centre of the mat stare right into the eyes of his opponent and start fighting and that’s how he conquers his fear. By doing this fear can be mastered and that’s where the confidence comes from. Resistance to fear is courage, it has helped me in being fearless while taking decisions on my own for my client with 100% onus. Conquer your fear of fire and you will gain the confidence of taming a dragon.

People will respect you only if you show them respect. A great fighter always respects his opponents and his surroundings there is no place for arrogance. Here surroundings are the equipment we used to train ourselves in MMA viz. mats, punching mits, pads, gloves, the dojo etc. A great fighter is always respectful towards his opponent and humble in victory and more importantly, in defeat. This has taught me to be respectful towards my team and people I interact with in my professional life. Show them respect and be humble during successful moments as well as give the due credit to the team for their contribution in work however big or small it may be.

These are a few of many things that MMA has taught me which are equally useful in personal and professional life. I used to think of MMA as a sport but now it has become life, it has helped me in bringing out a better version of myself.

My colleague had earlier asked me about my plans for Diwali that night. To which I responded half-heartedly as I was just getting to know him. Had he not been good-looking, I wouldn’t have dismissed him with my explicitly conniving thrall. Work is stressful as equally as its mentally rewarding. In the business of communication, one is entitled to a duty that reluctantly demands your time post-office hours. Who doesn’t work hard and not have to hang back to get things done even till 8PM? The sun swiftly retires from over our heads to under our beds. And there is an imminent psychological change that tethers to oneself when the time comes to wrap-up and go home. It was 7:45PM, just a few hours after he spoke to me and he was just sitting beside for me so I complete my work so we could talk on our way home. As we left office we waited in the lobby for a smoke the receptionist at her desk observed me in a weird way as if I m a psychopath or something. Walking down the street I spoke about the work pressure and achievements where as he was in a very different world of his own speaking about life, travel, hobbies etc. which was an alien language for me now.

I just realized that I am getting addicted to the company of my friend. Oh, man… Seriously I need to get out of this. I hope nobody has observed it.

F**k, I am sweating. I need get out of this cycle. Wait who am I following? Or someone else is following me?

Who is the shadow? Is it in front of me or its behind me? Have I lost it? I have lost directions?

This is weird, I haven’t smoked up in days… This spookier than weed…

I know a place. I think that’s the only solution now.

Now we have to figure it out. We can’t stay like this.

Shit shit… why are you coming our way?

Are we going somewhere?

As lust crept my mind, I heard her say something in my ears.

“I think you’ve forgotten to send an e-mail to the client.”

That’s when I realized that it’s THE client who was after me since the past week for a way forward plan. But I did send that mail! What if it was still in my Outbox?

I heard her again – “You have to go back to office to check your mails.”

I hurried back. The office was locked. Thankfully I had the keys. Oh wait, there was no one in the office. No one. As I realized this, I felt a trickle go down my spine.

Was it planned? Empty room, solitude, darkness.

Did this mean something?

I quietly tip toed into the office… there was strong feeling inside me that there was someone there, right there, waiting for me. I switched on the lights, pressed the switch thrice, on, off, on, there was no electricity! I switched on my phone torch, went to my desk, switched on my laptop. It was dark, my face was blue with the light from my computer.

Tip… tip…tip…

Ugh damn it, the leaking tap! it was so more freaky at this moment. Anyway, I opened my mail; there it was, in the outbox. I re-sent it.

Drrrrrr,  my phone vibrated, Client calling… I apologised and said that the mail just got sent. A sigh of relief, but the leaking tap was irritating. I shut my computer, switched off the wifi; but I HAD to close the tap, it was too annoying.

I went to the washroom, it creaked open, I turned the tap around and closed it and ran to the door. There was no one around. I locked the door and turned, there he was.

Standing in a black suit, tilted head, a smile plastered on his face.

“Long-time…”, he said.

I thought, WHO IS HE?!

May be this is an illusion, I thought to myself. Or is it my colleague playing a sick prank. I can see a tall figure blending with the darkness.

I am frantically looking for the switch board, damn it, it’s okay, breathe. I assured myself.

“Who are you?” I asked with a confident tone, He or ‘it’ should not sense my desperation.

“I am your worst fear, I will cause you great angst”, he said.

I could feel him smiling at me, moving closer and closer.

At this moment I am scared beyond belief. I jumped back, startled and anticipated for the worst.

I hear trickling of water, I can’t move or breathe. I could feel the darkness overtaking my soul.

This is it, I thought to myself. This is my end.

Suddenly my alarm bell rang and I woke up with a jerk.