Brand
Bangalore
Get Inclusive
or get Excluded!
By Harish
Bijoor
My definition of a brand: The
brand is a thought. A simple and focused thought that lives in a person’s mind.
Brand Bangalore is a thought. A
thought with a potent imagery. An imagery that has traversed varied positioning
stances in the minds of people. It started off as a calm “Pensioner’s paradise”
positioned with the blissful weather and the equally blissful and all-inclusive
attitude of the Kannadiga at large , as valuable support statements.
And then things changed. In came
the Pubs of Bangalore and we became the “Pub City” and the ‘Pub capital” of
India. But then, certainly there
was more to our beloved city than just its beer that flowed out of some 860 Pub
taps. This imagery had to change.
In came IT and ITES. Add a bit of
Biotech to it as well. The city morphed from being a sleepy “pensioner’s
paradise” , and most certainly from its image of an even sleepier “Pub city”
imagery, to become “IT city”!
Today then Bangalore is the city
that is a brand to watch out for. A city that has one of the most mixed
populations in India. A city that boasts of the highest expatriate population,
and a city that is aggressively young. 63 % of those who live and work and
study and thrive in Bangalore, are below the age of 25. The city nudges
top-bracket numbers in terms of per capita income as well!
Where is brand Bangalore headed
then? What’s its next stop?
The city is today a magnet city
brand that attracts the best, never mind the traffic and infrastructure woes
that keep getting thrown up. This is an aggressive city today. The city and its
people pack fire in their bellies to get moving and going. There is a need to
move on and move forward. That in
essence is its beauty. Brand Bangalore is a hungry city.
This hunger then is of two types.
The hunger of the ‘haves’ who are more and more hungry to get this city do
better and be better. And then there is the hunger of the “have-nots”. And this
I do believe is a matter of concern. Bangalore is possibly one of the worst
cities to live in when it comes to inflation biting the purse but income not
keeping pace.
From my perspective, the acute polarization
of these two classes is a matter of concern. Grave concern. Those with money
are very, very rich, and those without money are really on the brink. In a city
like Bangalore, where overt consumption, show, pomp and display has now become
a social norm, this very ostentatious consumption will hurt the city. The city
needs to get a lot more inclusive than it is today.
What’s the right direction to go
then?
I strongly believe that every
home that has money needs to start thinking of its immediate eco-system. One needs
to look out of our ‘gated communities’ and there needs to be a community reach-out
program that will make Bangalore society more inclusive.
I do not believe in the culture
of “giving”, as this is a not a permanent solution. I would rather believe in a
culture of “teaching”. Teach the kid in the slums. Teach jobs. Teach skills.
Teach ways to grow out of the economic morass most of our poor find themselves
in. Teach security. Teach hygiene. Teach literally everything that is needed to
live a good quality of life at large. Things that we take for granted.
The one thing that the better-endowed
Bangalore person needs to spend is not money, but time. Time with those who
don’t have all that all of us imagine they do.
What must we do then? Get
inclusive, or get excluded! Touché!
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Harish Bijoor is a brand-strategy specialist & CEO, Harish Bijoor
Consults Inc.
Twitter @harishbijoor
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