It’s been an ironical week — the saffron brigade took charge of running Mumbai city at the same time that women took charge of running the alcohol industry. Diageo yesterday ‘uncorked a bouquet of women to run its India operations’.
The company promoted former Tata Global Beverages executive Abanti Shankaranarayanan as deputy managing director and brought in Zanita Kajiji as its new marketing director, the article said.
The first reaction is the predictable gush: women are shattering glass ceilings in male bastions. The second, that comes riding in after the feminist in you has been satisfied, is more circumspect — We’re talking booze here. We’re talking smoky malts, hard hangovers, chilled beers against naked skin and the ‘Bud world’ where male bonding happens over girlfriend-bashing. Will a woman really get that?
Before you accuse me of being a rabid sexist let me make my case. Brands are borne of passion. Not marketing strategies, or power-points and certainly not excel sheets. Really just pure passion.
We’re talking smoky malts, hard hangovers, chilled beers against naked skin and the ‘Bud world’ where male bonding happens over girlfriend-bashing. Will a woman really get that? Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters
Ask William Davidson or Willie G, as he is known by riders from Maine to Malibu, who is first a Harley rider and then a Vice President. Richard Teerlink, the legendary turnaround artist at Davidson once said ‘It’s not a job. It’s a way of life for us. Harley people ride their bikes to work and spend their vacations touring and rallying with other Harley riders from around the world”. Now that’s passion. Or like Pedigree which not only has employees bringing their dogs to work but they took their love for dogs one step forward and cancelled the lease on any office premises around the world if they happened to have a ‘no pets policy’. That’s passion.
I’d love to believe that Abanti Shankarnarynan or Aparna Batra, who was hand-picked to head the India unit of scotch-maker, William Grant & Sons, are no less passionate than Willie G about their product. They probably club vigorously every night, drink several men under the table, prefer whiskey than water and guffaw loudly when their advertising agency presents scripts that paint blondes as bimbettes. But I suspect it’s not true. I’m sure these ladies are not teetotalers but I don’t know if they are zealous evangelists either. But do they need to be? I’d say yes.
Especially when we’re talking about a particular set of brands and categories. A Lonely Planet writer should love the thrill of a new destination, a luxury magazine editor should have wet dreams that feature the Birkin and a soldier must be a patriot. These are not ‘good-to-have’ qualifications but fundamental pre-requisites. By the same token does a sanitary pad marketer need to stuff a napkin between his legs to sell his product? Maybe not. But then I can’t remember the last time that a sanitary napkin had a cult following or the last customer who put up her favourite napkins’ logo on her bedroom wall.
BRANDS which inspire fierce passion should ideally be led by it. At least in a perfect world. But as we know now, with the recent elections, the world is far from perfect – if saffron can rule Mumbai then Ms Shankarnaraynan can certainly sell whiskey. Whether either of them will manage to turn customers into advocates is what remains to be seen.