Ageless brands: Fact or myth?

We never know what, when or how a brand gets affected. Sometimes it is mere packaging, or branding, or an advertisement which couldn’t touch the hearts of the consumer or sometimes it is just nothing at all. There are sad stories of huge brands which fall down and never grow back as before despite all efforts put professional resume creator. The Indian consumer is tricky to understand. Ranging from spiritualism to ‘jugaad’ to ‘kifayati daam’ to ‘sasta sundar tikau’ we never really know what fits the Indian consumer best. Till now brands were giving functional benefits to consumers as per Maslow, but its not all what the consumer needs. Brands that have built India and nurtured all the population by making lives easier and still not losing its sheen is what we call ageless. Let’s look at some of the famous brands which have never failed to put a smile on our faces and without which our lives could not have been what it is today.

BAJAJ SCOOTERS

My dad owned a Bajaj Chetak. He sold it two years back. The bike was 18 years old. I remember him dropping me at far away music classes, going to the market where he filled the dickey( so spacious ) with the all the veggies available and stuffing my bag with it too, going to the petrol pump just twice a month and hardly dropping it at the service shop. ‘Buland Bharat ki buland tasveer’ indeed matches what the scooter provided all of us. With confirmed news of the Chetak coming back, Bajaj has confirmed the world that its scooter is indeed a ‘Lambi race ka Ghoda’.

PARLE-G

I dip five biscuits in my tea, make a mash and enjoy. My friends just dip them. My mom eats it plain. Parle-G is the ‘aam aadmi’s biscuit’. The days where there is nothing to eat for lunch or the days when its too heavy to have dinner, a hot cup of tea and a packet of Parle-G can give immense happiness which even a buffet cant. From the elite class to everyday labourers, everyone loves Parle-G. The picture of the kid on the cover has still not changed neither has our love for the country’s favourite biscuit. Even after competition from cream biscuits to chocolate biscuits, Parle-G has always kept its motive clear of being the common man’s biscuit by not increasing its prices and winning all our hearts. And Happy 70^th Birthday to you.

AMBASSADOR

The maximum time one had to wait to get an ambassador home after registration was five years. You heard it right! And why wouldn’t one wait? The car had everything. Class, beauty, luxury, a sense of prestige, and was the symbol of free India. It is one of the strongest car ever made and for the strongest people. It has travelled across India for more than six decades and is still around, thanks to government and military officials, taxi drivers and Ambassador aficionados. It is a people’s car to such a level that it can be mended with a spanner and some skill at the side of a highway. It will always be the King of Cars. All Hail Ambassador!

AMUL

I still remember the advertisements I saw on Doordarshan – A small girl snatching away an Amul ice-cream from her brother; a dollop of butter slowly falling over pav-bhaji; a grandmother giving her grandson Amul curd before his examination; smart army people drinking a class of hot Amul milk. I felt unity. Unity over class, gender, age and employment. It is a brand we still think the moment we think of dairy products. The Amul newspaper ads have been the best advertisements because of its humour and precisely describing a big and complex issue in one line. From subtly portraying APJ Abdul Kalam’s death to the victory of the Indian cricket team to promoting people choice of films, Amul has done it all. It indeed is ‘The Taste of India’.

All the brands have touched our hearts in one way or the other. Be it the taste, the ride, the class or the nostalgia. We will never forget what we feel when we think of these brands. They have always supported us and united us throughout. Never can a brand replace Bajaj or Parle-G.

As mentioned, the Indian consumer is tricky. But the brands above are the trick masters. They always knew what the consumer wanted and will continue to do so for decades.

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