Did My Brand Betray Me? Did It Act Self Centered? Brand in Times of Crisis

The concepts of ‘I’, ‘Me’ and ‘Mine’ are central to consumption. From these emanates foundational assumption of consumer rationality of choice. This means consumers are guided by self interest and pursue it in their choice of products and brands. Brands are judged against these objectives and values and choice is guided by maximization principle. Consumers are assumed to be utility/ want/pleasure maximizers. So which detergent gives better whiteness Tide or Rin, better fairness Fair & Lovely or Fairever, better personality fit Harley or Ducati?

The question arises – does Covid 19 pandemic and resultant confined existence have had any perspective altering effect on people? Did pictures of hunger, migration, and suffering not shake self obsessed, self centered evaluation of things around? Did it foster reflection on Thomas Scanlon’s idea of ‘what do we owe to each other’? Did it create mindfulness towards the plight of others? Did it make us unreasonableness in the exclusive pursuit of self interest?

Probably yes. It is human to be empathetic. It’s good to be sensitive to others. The exclusive dedication to self interest and promotion is reductionist. It is animal like. The humanitarian and existentialist crises created by the pandemic could re-orient people to be sensitive to ‘others’ from an extended perspective of humanity. The insular thinking and dominance of self interest has perhaps been visited by consciousness and conscience. Not everybody is prone to be impacted equally. Tragedies and trying times are also times of reflection. They are disruptive. The ideas and ideals and their validity is reassessed from an extended perspective. Here was an opportunity to look at things from narrow confines of ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘mine’.

What, in this situation would be expected of brands? Brands are anthropomorphized (given human like character, Marlboro man) and animism  (attribution of soul to an inanimate thing) is used to extend their perception beyond ‘thingness’ to ‘humanness’. Relationship is a human thing, and brands forge  relationships with their consumers to expand their mutuality beyond pure rationalistic-utility centric dimension (usefulness and its corresponding price)  into subjective psychological, social and spiritual axis (care giver- J&J, protector-– Good Kinght, trustworthy- Tata, playful partner-Manforce). The relationship implies connection and flow. What would consumers expect to flow from brand in the times of existentialist and humanitarian crisis: indifference or action?

Here was an opportunity for product and corporate brands to expand their territory into higher realm of goodness. How many corporate and product brands were at the forefront in alleviating suffering from migration, hunger, displacement and illness? Why is it that doing good (which essentially means other-centeredness, benevolence, compassion, empathy) is not perceived to make good business sense?  Does it deliver poorly on return on investment? Is basing brand building on fundamental human values not a good strategy?

Who wins respect, trust, loyalty and love in human relationships? History shows people have always rallied behind essential goodness or just cause. They gathered, suffered and even scarified their lives for people who stood for good cause (Martin Luther King, Mahatama Gandhi). Goodness has some invisible pull. It touches core particle of the material that humans are made of. If goodness is sought and valued in human relationships, would it not be sought from brands who try to be our partners in life?

A lot can be learnt from religions of the world. The religion-follower bonding (often fanatic like) does not emanate utilitarian discourse but from precise opposite of it- extracting surrender to the idea of goodness. It explains why people associated with different religious organizations were at the forefront of serving humanity even at the cost of risk of Covid 19 infection. Did acts of policemen helping the helpless touch deeper chords in heart? Did the acts of care by doctors and other staff not make eyes moist? Answer is yes.

How do you feel about the brands who remained bystanders to the crisis? Is it a sense of betrayal?

Lock Down, Confinement, Covid 19, Empathy, Dharma and Consumer Behavior

Covid 19 has made all of us experience and experiment with a lifestyle we could never ever imagine. The lock down and resultant confinement, a preventive measure has drastically shrunk our space for physical movement. The world out there is not under our feet. The new DIY (do it yourself) life is on. The DIY activities are not discretionary pursuits any more but are survival essentials. So how is Covid 19 likely to affect humans and humans as consumers?

Servile and menial activities that are typically valued as low, primarily due to demand and supply mechanism, will now be seen from a new valuation perspective. The human condition which market valuation of goods and services ignores is likely to be included in consumer assessment. The case in point is domestic services rendered by people at fringes of society. In conduct of everyday life we survive by a very convenient and pragmatic practice of moral switching off. We simply disconnect and mentally insulate from the condition of ‘the other’ by the intellectual practice of moral insulation.

The forced upon ‘do- it yourself’ in menial roles has created ground for evolution. It is giving us a chance to become human by fostering a sense of empathy. Our schooling and growing up teaches us to become dexterous is art of practice of selective empathy. Empathy is about understanding the feelings of other, what the other one is experiencing. It is the capacity to identify with the other. And this is best achieved when one literally places one- self in other’s position.

So what is Covid 19 teaching us? It is teaching us to be on the side of ‘dharma’. Among three living forms- plants, animals and humans, it is humans alone who have the higher capacity to empathize. Plants and animals are guided by the motivation of self preservation. Only humans can transcend this base instinct and practice compassion and concern for others.  It is only humans who can imagine other’s condition. Inability to empathize reduces us to animal or plant level.

So is Covid 19 a teacher? Probably yes, if it makes are empathetic. It is an opportunity to ‘Be more’ or ‘The Complete man’ (woman included).