Brand Bangalore: Get Inclusive Or Get Excluded!

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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Bangalore Mega-city and its Micro-cities: An Interview

Interview with Harish Bijoor

Brand-strategy specialist  &

CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.

1.     The city has many micro-markets such as Indiranagar, Jayanagar etc. What has led to these acquiring a distinct brand image of their own?

In the beginning there is the city. And then there are the micro-cities.  We live in urban agglomerations that are getting to be bigger and bigger in some ways, and smaller and smaller in other ways. Both these movements work together. Mega-cities happen by the fact that more and more people from all over gravitate to live in these mega-clusters, drawn to the magnet city. And micro-cities happen within them as a reaction to the fact that the mega-city has gotten just too big for liking.

Micro-cities are movements that are spontaneous. These are movements that occur when smaller localities get more and more self-sufficient. People who live in these localities want to travel out less and stay self-sufficient for all their wants, needs, desires and even aspirations. These smaller localities then offer the best of F and B options, the best of shopping locations and the best of entertainment options. When a locality becomes totally self-sufficient with the bank branch, the eating out ‘adda’ and the shopping destination, the micro city emerges. In many ways, a Koramangala, an Indiranagar, a Kamanahalli and a Jayanagar are classic examples of the micro-city.

 Micro-city is therefore a city within a city. A self-sufficient cluster, content on its own. Each of these clusters gradually acquire their own unique identity and brand image. Over a period of time, new settlers in the mega-city pick and choose their own micro-city to live in, depending on the dominant functionality and dominant imagery that each conveys.

2.     Some micro-markets such as the Outer Ring Road are prime office space markets. Do you see these turning into the city's prime business districts commanding a premium in the future? What is driving them?

Even as micro-cities emerge, specialty districts will emerge as well. These districts will be the Shopping District of Bangalore, and the Business District of Bangalore and more. For all you know the BIAL area will emerge as the Aviation District of Bangalore.

The Prime office space locations that have emerged on the ORR and the IRR for that matter, as well as the ones that will emerge on the road to the Kempegowda International Airport, will command a distinct imagery of their own. The more builders and their marketers invest in this generic brand building opportunity of developing district-imagery oriented districts, the more will it benefit their price appreciations.

Imagine the opportunity to develop the BIAL area as an “Aerocity” and the ORR as the “OfficeHub” of Bangalore. And maybe an area in Whitefield as the ‘EntertainmentDistrict” of Bangalore.

3.     What are the attributes that give a micro-market its brand image?

Focus is important. A keen yen to focus on a set of three unique attributes helps the branding process that much more.  Look at Koramangala. It offers the widest range of food and beverage options you can imagine, in mid-price range. In addition to what it offers, if one can focus on street-food and offer an entire street that goes “closed to traffic” on a Sunday, and open to the street-foodies of Bangalore, the brand identity will develop, slowly but surely.

Koramangala then gains a magnet status on Sundays. When you think food, you head to Koramangala. If it is a Sunday, you go Koramangala. These micro-cities then start competing with one another, offering distinct USPs that help position every micro-city as it emerges.

A mega-city will then become a sum of its whole.

4.     Is the city heading towards an agglomeration of micro-markets, each with its own distinct image?

 Yes it is. I have explained this in detail. Bangalore will aggregate at one end. More and more people will throng to Bangalore as it offers more and more jobs. Bangalore will attract people from all types of cities, towns and villages. As the mega-city emerges as an ‘opportunity-center’, people will throng to it. Bangalore the mega-city will then become bigger and bigger. This mega-city will be a mixed city. It will have people form every country, and people from every state in India. It will have urban folk rubbing shoulders with rural folk who have just entered it.

In the midst of all this aggregation, will occur dis-aggregation. The micro-city trend will ensure this. Economic groups will form as a function of rentals in these micro-cities will dictate who can afford to stay where as well.

5.     How does this phenomenon of almost each locality being a micro-market impact the image of the city as a corporate/investment destination? 

As an investment destination, the mega-city will not suffer. The city will continue to attract interest. In fact micro-cities will bring about a better governance structure as well. Ward-level governance will need to deepen and the city will be managed better with boroughs of micro-city interests pushing more and more of local self-governance.

Our villages have local-self-governance mechanisms with Panchayati Raj in place. Our cities need to replicate that through the Corporation Ward level management system. There needs to be a greater degree of autonomy in the management of these boroughs. The locals who live in these micro-cities need to decide how their budgets will be deployed and on what. Citizen-participation, as an adjunct, will need to deepen in these micro-city management systems.

6.     What sort of impact does the brand image of a micro-market have on its real estate prices?

An excellent and positive impact. Real-estate prices will go in tandem with the image of the micro-city. The more you invest in a micro-city image, the more you rake it in, in terms of real-estate prices. I would recommend every real-estate player in the city to invest in the ‘think’ towards the micro-city movement.

7.     Is there need to plan some brand management for the city now with a view to attract global investments?

There is surely a need. Unfortunately, when it comes to brand thinking for a city, everyone puts it on the back burner. In the bargain, the city writes for itself a self-fulfilling prophesy of mediocrity. And that’s precisely what’s happening in and to Bangalore.

Twitter @harishbijoor