All my life I have been brand
loyal. And before I knew the science behind it, I had found myself making
choices which baffled many, sometimes even myself. When I got deep into it much
later into life I realized few things, got more questions than answers and the
fascination remained. A couple of months I made a decision which shook the very
foundations of my life long belief system and my choices. And while making the
decision I realized an absolute irrefutable truth about psychographic segmentation
– we all have multiple personalities and rarely does any archetype explain an
individual completely.
In the early nineties entire India
was swinging to a song called, “Yehi hain right choice Baby” and we flocked to
the stores to drink Pepsi while all of us had grown up on Thums Up. It was a
difficult transition but we all made it. In a country starved for lifestyle
brand, the eighties children lapped up the promise of Pepsi.
It was the brand of the rebel, of
changing stereotypes, of a new India yet to find its place. When coke finally
came in, the battle was already lost. It did a smart move by acquiring Thums Up
but by then it had lost the moral high ground to fight for the minds of Indian
youth.
It was My Brand. I respected Coke,
admired their ‘Paanch’ campaign but always it was the brand of the others, of
older people (who btw loved their old Coke coming back), a brand of the
establishment. I continued to order Pepsi when we went out with friends.
But for the last few years Pepsi
started losing the plot. It did too many things, stood for too many aspects of
youth and you never knew what it was saying. Was it Sports? Was it Music? Was
it Youth? I never knew. I still continued with Pepsi graduating from Pepsi to
Pepsi Max. But almost always it was a choice forced due to a lifelong loyalty.
Coke in the meanwhile came up with
their ‘Open Happiness’ campaign. The first few executions went over the top. I
did not know what it meant. But to give them full credit, they stuck on with it
and became better. The conviction behind their Masterbrand was phenomenal and
slowly I saw myself liking the latest coke ads and while I did not want to let
the rebel die within me, I saw him transform into a rebel with a cause.
The other day I went to the
supermarket and suddenly I did not want to pick Pepsi anymore. The generational
shift had happened. The eighties children had started moving onto their
thirties and the new age Pepsi made small sense to them just as Lady Gaga
remained incomprehensible. Coke had taken over the family space.
Will Pepsi again speak to me? Will
a 20 year old relationship truly die? What will Pepsi’s new found mantra of
focusing on Music do for me?
We wait and watch.
