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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