Giva, ask Sabyasachi for a Brand Map

The outfit that Kriti Sanon wore for the Giva jewellery Rakhi ad would not raise eyebrows in most Gen Z circles or even at a standard wedding any more. And it is very much in line with the brand ambassador, Kriti Sanon’s, dress code. But is it in line with Giva’s?

Given Giva’s immediate capitulation to online outrage while Kriti stood by the ad, I suspect they haven’t actually got a dress code as part of their brand blueprint. Oh, wait, do they have a brand blueprint?

Contrast this with the brand Sabyasachi. Just looking at his clothes and new sprawling 20,000 sq ft shop I can write a Hofstede Onion Cultural Blueprint for the brand. I know for sure that anyone posing in an ad for Sabyasachi is going to have their clothes scripted for the occasion, and that it will adhere to his intentional maximalism meets minimalism ethos.

This brand works with various models, but even Kim Kardashian looks very demure, very mindful, when dressed in Sabyasachi for a Vogue shoot. The brand controls the narrative, not the model.

Sabyasachi is now close to Rs 500 crores in turnover and is 51% owned by Aditya Birla Retail.

In my proprietary Star Power Model, a brand’s foundation rests on the 3Cs – Community, Culture, Consistency. Without this foundation, marketing becomes all tactical and focused only on gaining visibility, and converting any customer. It is a plant that is being watered and trimmed, but with no soil for its roots.

With influencer marketing being a big part of the tool kit, when an influencer with a strong foundation associates with the brand, they transpose their culture onto the brand for the period they are associated with it. Which is what happened with Kriti Sanon and Giva. She is an investor which gives her even more clout.

When Kim Kardashian works with Sabyasachi on the other hand, the Culture of the brand overarches that of the model.

Not at all – all organizations know what they want to look like. Or should. It comes under the Symbols section of the Hofstede Onion.  Even if it is to have the clarity that they don’t care what they look like. For example, an Infosys founder was deputed to go shopping with me for an outfit for a CNBC TV shoot that I was anchoring while working there, just to ensure that it met the guidelines.

I remembered this while at a party celebrating Infosys’ 45th Anniversary and Mr Murthy’s 80th birthday, organized by the Exfoscions (ex vs In, get it?). It was a lovely meeting of amazing people and as always I am blown away by how the Infosys of the early 2000s was full of such nice people who were also super clever. Again, hiring was based on the core values of the organization, and all rituals, practices and symbols of the organization were super clear to all stakeholders.

At a Paul Writer ad shoot for a client we had to ensure that though the celebrities were known for their rough housing and coarse humour, nothing in the script or video would show violence or bad language that would upset the Japanese parent firm’s norms. The celebrities were not happy about the changes, but the client was 🙂

Heck, we all know instinctively what we want to look like, and when we are willing to change! Yes, I have been pushed (sort of gently) into experimenting with GenZ fashion by my daughter, but it has been a conscious change in the “Consistency” aspect of the Star Power Model.

Before you start communicating be really clear in your head about who you are, why you do what you do, why your customers choose/ought to choose you. Write it down so that everyone is literally on the same page or AI screen. Then communicate it in a way that is aligned with the 3Cs.

It is a lot of fun!

Next week I am going to write about why Sabyasachi thinks GenZ won’t spend money on his brand.