What is it about the best brand ambassadors? What makes an ideal brand ambassador?
Could anyone be a brand ambassador?
According to the rules, the best brand ambassador has to be a person who represents the same beliefs of the brand, someone who embodies the image, the values and everything the brand stands for. The person everyone sees as the direct consumer of the product who believes in the product. That's the original way to do it.
Let's classify this as class A.
However, in recent times brands have taken the cheat route and just pulled out a currently popular person to represent their label as brand ambassadors. With no common values and weak or inconsistent personal identities of their own, these are usually spoiled celebrities who walk in and assume everyone loves them.
Let's classify this as Class B.
Lastly comes the brand ambassador of a entirely different kind.
The one who is born from an idea and with a strong back story and unique identity.
Let's classify this as Class C.
The Brand Ambassadors we have now:
Virat Kholi & Alia Bhatt
Class B
I admit that Virat has his share of talent for the game he plays and is good at what he does.
Came up the ranks in the right way and has his rightful place. But then he adopted this bad guy poster boy image. Looks like he is angry at everyone all the time and wants you to believe that fairness creams and low range smartphones and clothing will take you places.
Alia Bhatt on the other hand comes from a family well established in the industry. Daddy picked her up and put her on the top step of the podium. The typical loud bubbly college girl every time in every movie. Anything wrong about her can be fixed by throwing money and a bunch of PR articles.
Class B ambassadors don't stay true to one brand and move on to other brands which offer the same products or services and this could cause major confusion in consumer's brand recall.
Amitabh Bacchan
Class A.
Tall, handsome and has that nice heavy voice. The Amitabh of today enjoys the rebirth of his fame that kicked off in the early 2000's and in recent times has become the hand puppet of the government. He does have power over the villagers and tells them to stop pooping in the fields, build toilets, give their kids polio doses and all of that, but now we're really pushing it.
Making him tell us GST is the greatest thing ever!?!
Brand ambassador for OnePlus! What even!!
With any brand that can afford him, choosing to go with him makes no sense.
Ramesh & Suresh
Class C.
The Cadbury 5Star duo of Ramesh and Suresh is an excellent example of well written 'character brand ambassadors'. A well established behaviour pattern and lovable characters who we always want to see more off. The actors need not be famous but with the beautiful blend of story, character background and comical tones of communication make them memorable and solidify brand recall. Ramesh and Suresh are a modern day favourite.
The ones we had:
Milind Soman
Fit at 50, the manliest man, the epitome of male supermodel. He was popular in an age where social media didn't exist. Handsome then and even more today. He truly stands for what he represents, promoting fitness and women's health. He walks, runs and speaks his heart out where it matters.
Liril Girl & Sundrop Yellow Kid
Remember the 90s when nothing was subtle. The brand ambassador dressed up in brand colour from head to toe. The actors had to work hard and not just look pretty. The Liril girl had to go into a waterfall and the Sundrop kid had to do cartwheels. Times were hard in the 90's.
Bonus:
Trivago Guy
Class of his own:
We understand that Trivago has the same theme running across all their international ads.
One random person + Simple clothing + Walk in and explain how the website works.
We first saw Trivago with the lovely lady in a simple blue shirt and black pants.
Then came this guy Abhinav Kumar, who happens to be the Trivago head of India.
There are so many things that are done differently here, he wears ill fitting clothing, his hairstyle and facial hair is not one bit appealing, nor does he have a commanding physical personality.
BUT.
He managed to stay in our minds, and piss a lot of people off. But he really did a good job in talking about what Trivago does. Isn't that what every brand wants! Brand recall.
He came in did the job, got a ton of taunts for it and took it all sportingly. He even retweets the jokes about him on Twitter.
Not only that, he came back in another Trivago ad, this time with much improvement.
Better outfits, more enthusiasm and trimmed facial hair.
Cheers to you Trivago guy!
Special Mention
Amul Girl - Class C
Air India Maharaja - Class C
Santa Claus for Coca Cola - Class C
Could anyone be a brand ambassador?
According to the rules, the best brand ambassador has to be a person who represents the same beliefs of the brand, someone who embodies the image, the values and everything the brand stands for. The person everyone sees as the direct consumer of the product who believes in the product. That's the original way to do it.
Let's classify this as class A.
However, in recent times brands have taken the cheat route and just pulled out a currently popular person to represent their label as brand ambassadors. With no common values and weak or inconsistent personal identities of their own, these are usually spoiled celebrities who walk in and assume everyone loves them.
Let's classify this as Class B.
Lastly comes the brand ambassador of a entirely different kind.
The one who is born from an idea and with a strong back story and unique identity.
Let's classify this as Class C.
The Brand Ambassadors we have now:
Virat Kholi & Alia Bhatt
Class B
I admit that Virat has his share of talent for the game he plays and is good at what he does.
Came up the ranks in the right way and has his rightful place. But then he adopted this bad guy poster boy image. Looks like he is angry at everyone all the time and wants you to believe that fairness creams and low range smartphones and clothing will take you places.
Alia Bhatt on the other hand comes from a family well established in the industry. Daddy picked her up and put her on the top step of the podium. The typical loud bubbly college girl every time in every movie. Anything wrong about her can be fixed by throwing money and a bunch of PR articles.
Class B ambassadors don't stay true to one brand and move on to other brands which offer the same products or services and this could cause major confusion in consumer's brand recall.
Amitabh Bacchan
Class A.
Tall, handsome and has that nice heavy voice. The Amitabh of today enjoys the rebirth of his fame that kicked off in the early 2000's and in recent times has become the hand puppet of the government. He does have power over the villagers and tells them to stop pooping in the fields, build toilets, give their kids polio doses and all of that, but now we're really pushing it.
Making him tell us GST is the greatest thing ever!?!
Brand ambassador for OnePlus! What even!!
With any brand that can afford him, choosing to go with him makes no sense.
Ramesh & Suresh
Class C.
The Cadbury 5Star duo of Ramesh and Suresh is an excellent example of well written 'character brand ambassadors'. A well established behaviour pattern and lovable characters who we always want to see more off. The actors need not be famous but with the beautiful blend of story, character background and comical tones of communication make them memorable and solidify brand recall. Ramesh and Suresh are a modern day favourite.
The ones we had:
Milind Soman
Fit at 50, the manliest man, the epitome of male supermodel. He was popular in an age where social media didn't exist. Handsome then and even more today. He truly stands for what he represents, promoting fitness and women's health. He walks, runs and speaks his heart out where it matters.
Liril Girl & Sundrop Yellow Kid
Remember the 90s when nothing was subtle. The brand ambassador dressed up in brand colour from head to toe. The actors had to work hard and not just look pretty. The Liril girl had to go into a waterfall and the Sundrop kid had to do cartwheels. Times were hard in the 90's.
Bonus:
Trivago Guy
Class of his own:
We understand that Trivago has the same theme running across all their international ads.
One random person + Simple clothing + Walk in and explain how the website works.
We first saw Trivago with the lovely lady in a simple blue shirt and black pants.
Then came this guy Abhinav Kumar, who happens to be the Trivago head of India.
There are so many things that are done differently here, he wears ill fitting clothing, his hairstyle and facial hair is not one bit appealing, nor does he have a commanding physical personality.
BUT.
He managed to stay in our minds, and piss a lot of people off. But he really did a good job in talking about what Trivago does. Isn't that what every brand wants! Brand recall.
He came in did the job, got a ton of taunts for it and took it all sportingly. He even retweets the jokes about him on Twitter.
Not only that, he came back in another Trivago ad, this time with much improvement.
Better outfits, more enthusiasm and trimmed facial hair.
Cheers to you Trivago guy!
Special Mention
Amul Girl - Class C
Air India Maharaja - Class C
Santa Claus for Coca Cola - Class C
A really amazing post. Had a really good laugh while reading it. And I guess Brand Ambassadors really are like this haha. But they still do work really hard.
ReplyDeleteGreat knowledge, do anyone mind merely reference back to it grammarlyfreetrial.com
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