The relevance of Brands Under Fire is defined by the nature of the current environment which nurtures 'aggressive social activism', increasing influence of new media and most importantly 'fully participating consumers who influence the product and brand dynamics'.
Authored by brand experts Ivan Arthur (Vice-Chairman and Trustee of the AICAR Business School) and Kurien Mathews (Founder–Director of TBWA, India), the book has chosen popular case studies to demonstrate how companies have skillfully dealt with crisis when their brands came under fire.
The examples include Cadbury's battle with the crisis of worms found in chocolate in 2003, or even the popular Cola brands such as Pepsi and Coke who were under the scanner for the presence of pesticides in these beverages (and were threatened to be taken off market) in 2006 and US-64 — UTI's flagship fund Unit Scheme-1964 which went bust in 2001. This debate, as a learning for 'practitioners of brand management and communications' and for top management of companies as a whole, is indeed valuable.
The case studies have been discussed by a panel of high profile experts such as Gerson da Cunha, Santosh Desai, Mahnaz Curmally, M.G. Parameswaran, Rama Bijapurkar and others.
Interestingly, one of the panel discussion raises a new concept of 'Brand Silence'. While the panel discussions are lively, very analytical and insightful, the section 'Writers in Action' gives a more cohesive analysis and deals with the issues with more clarity. Manhaz Curmally's 'Taking Cover Or Taking Action' is truly brilliant. Gerson da Cunha expands on the term 'brand silence'. He distinguishes between the roles of media, public relations and advertising and their boundaries with precisions. Santosh Desai has termed it 'the true test of leadership'. His diagnosis that 'crisis is linked to a network of past actions and current context' once again clearly defines the roles and limitations of activities such as public relations and advertising. He also explains with clarity the behaviour of media.
The important concept of 'Management of Brand Social Responsibility as a strategic deliverables of brand owners' has been bought up by Pranesh Misra. A whole host of brand-related issues such as traditional concepts of the brand, impact of media, brand in a global environment, the consumer-brand relationship, have been discussed in the book.(
(Pic by Tribuwan Sharma)
13 experts have contributed to this book, out of which nine are from advertising background. Hence the analysis is heavily skewed towards seeing it as a communication problem. Out of the other four writers, only Vijay Gokhale is an industry professional. The book would have given a broader perspective if it had included more writers from industry, even at the cost of dropping some from the advertising domain. With so many writers from advertising industry the arguments become repetitive.
While the whole debate is about the impact on the consumers and how his/her trust is effected, no consumer was represented in any of the panels. The book should have ideally included a few consumer surveys. For instance, did mothers try to shift the family to consuming fruit juices instead of colas, and whether consumers' views shifted to alternative/substitute products and whether their trust was impacted in the long run. Since the debate primarily deals with trust of the consumers, inclusion of some customers in the debate would have made it complete.
Another aspect that would have lent to a more compete analysis and action plan was on what the take of the competitors and substitute product manufacturers and marketers, did they see it as a potential learning? Did they take some preventive actions, or used the occasion as an opportunity to push in their brand? A study of their perceptions and actions would be useful learning for management in general and specifically practitioners of brand and communications management.
Overall, the book has used excellent case studies, debated by experts of the highest caliber and is highly recommended to all interested in the marketing of products. Final thoughts: Today it is not enough to build brands, their equity must be protected and sustained over time.
Brands under Fire is published by Penguin India (2008, Pages: 214 Price Rs 499)
Bhargava is Dean, International Relations and Senior Professor for Marketing Academic Area at Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad.
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