StartUp India will benefit from the immunity dose of Vitamin BM: Siddhartha Mukherjee

Last few years have witnessed plenty of discussions and activities towards giving StartUp India the required nudge. A variety of mentors and financers have emerged to breathe life into them. Government has also announced many intentions for entrepreneurship to take off! I am not reviewing or analysing the effectiveness of the above. My only message here is that along with all of these, a proper and well thought through dosage of Vitamin ‘BM’ needs to be administered to the StartUp India community. ‘BM’ stands for a thorough understanding of Brand Management - how to create & sustain demand and reputation for their business.

Yes, I am referring to a thorough orientation initiative for the StartUp India community about the world of Brand Management.

Majority of the StartUp Management Teams from ‘Bharat’ do not have the luxury of prior corporate experience or knowledge of brand or even business management. What they essentially bring with them is a bag full of deep routed understanding of India’s on-ground realities, gap identification, aspiration, vision, passion, business plan and most importantly, the stamina to fight through the long & arduous marathon test of business challenges.

When you review the reasons behind why some of the most amazing startup ideas bit the dust, you will find that lack of expertise in demand management was one of the key factors. Despite successfully navigating the funding stages and receiving some of the best business mentorship, many aspirants have struggled to achieve success is the demand creation and/or sustenance phases. Brand Management hadgaps in knowledge, preparation or homework.

Understanding the importance and therefore taking the Vitamin BM pill seriously and regularly can help StartUps in the following ways:

1. Balance Sheet Health: If you look closely, both Assets and the Liabilities sides need immense support through Brand Management. Revenues need demand creation and sustenance. Goodwill or Reputation score is another asset element that needs to be kept healthy. The Liabilities side needs minimization of business risks or the damage control of the aftermath.
2. Takes care of three pillars: Typically, a business organization, irrespective of size, can be split into three components – Symbol, Promise and business Behaviour/ Experience. Brand Management certainly takes care of the first two. More so, it provides a torchlight to the Management on how the stakeholder or custodian experiences should be. Stakeholder reputation success or failure is a result of right balance between Symbol &Promise on side and stakeholder Behaviour or Experience on the other.
3. Insurance for Business As Usual and Not As Usual: Of a business annual plan, the frequency of business not as usual phases is only increasing. Business as usual is a rarity. Covid has only hastened this reality. Brand Management helps Startup brand owners to brave through the Business Not As Usual phases. Out of the 12 months of annual plan, instances of BNAU months will only increase…that’s a new normal. Brand management understanding offers a discreet insurance.
4. Budget Optimization and leveraging right communications tool: Historically, the FMCG industry has played a huge role in orienting our thought process in brand management. While that was the boon, the bane that followed through was that the rest of the industries have had to go through something, which I personally would like to describe as the “FMCGization” syndrome. Today, most of the industries are still struggling to come out of the spell that made us believe that Paid or Advertising bombardment is the best or only route of brand or demand management. This has led to impartial budget allocation to communication desks. Realistic orientation of Brand Management will help StartUp owners believe that there are other potent tools like Earned, Shared and Owned platforms which are the rising stars of brand management. This will help in effective budget allocation and ROI effectiveness.
5. A thorough understanding of ERPs: Brand Management is a long assembly line with many cogs of Efforts, Resources and Processes orchestrating seamlessly. StartUp owners will acquire a thorough understanding of the ERP components starting with listening to the mood of the business ecosystem, planning and target setting, execution, measurement & evaluation. This actually enables the StartUp owners with a customised MiS for regular &constructive use.

Administering the Vitamin of Brand Management needs focus and dedication. I am aware that there have been attempts made by various individuals and some organizations towards administering the understanding of brand management into the StartUp community. A cohesive and larger scale effort will only help StartUp India and our economy at large!

(Siddhartha Mukherjee is Founder, Brand Balance.)