 "Hero Honda is now - Hero Honda?")
Every Google doodle tells a story, and yesterday’s was no different.
The moment you went to Google, you saw an image of a stark building - and wondered why it was there. You held the mouse over the image and you got the first connect. You would have learned that the doodle celebrated the birth anniversary of German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
If you wanted to know more, you might have visited the Wikipedia page on Van der Rohe and discovered that, in addition to his undoubted and celebrated talent as an architect, he also crafted the phrase ’less is more'.
He is also credited, by some, with the creation of the phrase ‘ God is in the detail(s)' .
Most of us wouldn’t have heard of van der Rohe. However, most of us would have heard the phrase ‘God is in the details’.
Which brings us to Hero MotoCorp. The motorcycle manufacturing company, earlier a joint venture between Hero and Honda Motors, was reinvented as Hero MotoCorp when the two companies in the JV decided to part ways.
And, since there was a new entity, a new name was required and a new corporate identity was required, and consumers needed to know that Hero Honda no longer existed.
As the company’s annual report itself says, “Although the Company can use the Hero Honda brand till 2014, it is aware that it has to eventually create a new brand association among customers without Honda.”
Impact Shorts
More ShortsSo Hero MotoCorp spent a small fortune on the change on a multimedia campaign . This, the print component of the campaign, is the ad which launched the newly christened company.
“Your Hero Honda is now Hero MotoCorp”, is how the advertisement ends.
Then how does one explain this ad?
[caption id=“attachment_258006” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The Ad.”]
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Because van der Rohe (may have) said God is in the details, take a look at the details.
Loud and clear - the bike in the advertisement is a Hero Honda, not a Hero.
Hero MotoCorp may be legally free to use of the Hero Honda logo, but, having gone through the trouble in the creation of, and having invested in informing the consumer of, a new corporate identity, the effort should be in erasing the Hero Honda name, not reinforcing it, as this ad does.
Unless, of course, Hero MotoCorp consciously wants to use the Hero Honda name…
Spot the Honda in the full ad here
Anant Rangaswami was, until recently, the editor of Campaign India magazine, of which Anant was also the founding editor. Campaign India is now arguably India's most respected publication in the advertising and media space. Anant has over 20 years experience in media and advertising. He began in Madras, for STAR TV, moving on as Regional Manager, South for Sony’s SET and finally as Chief Manager at BCCL’s Times Television and Times FM. He then moved to advertising, rising to the post of Associate Vice President at TBWA India. Anant then made the leap into journalism, taking over as editor of what is now Campaign India's competitive publication, Impact. Anant teaches regularly and is a prolific blogger and author of Watching from the sidelines.