In a city like Chennai, almost on every street we find a Biryani restaurant. In the last few year’s they have mushroomed throughout the city. Beer and Biryani are all the rage in many hot spots.
I came across a spot in the city and the only reference this place has is a pseudo name called ‘Bhai Biryani’. A simple happy looking 50-year-old Muslim gentleman, who is also lovingly call ‘Bhai’ walks out with a huge bowl of Chicken Biryani, places it on the table and starts serving with a humble smile on his face. People queue up in the 10’s and 100’s. They bring dabhas and containers of all sizes from all around the city to buy the tasty, sumptuous, mouth-watering, homemade kind of feel Biryani. In just 30 minutes he serves up almost 200 kgs of Biryani and that’s it, he is done.
This quaint little shop has no brand icon, no mascot, no fancy sign board. In fact, it does not even have a name! It’s just a hole in the wall kind of place.
This little start-up food outlet is popular, successful, cash rich, debt free, independent, bootstrapped, etc, etc.
Now, what does this mean? Why is he doing so well?
Now, what does this mean? Why is he doing so well?
This means that this ‘Bhai’ has consciously or unconsciously or accidentally done one thing perfectly and hit the nail on the head — “Branding”
As found in most start-ups the core value and ethos of the founder is intertwined and embedded in to the core value of the brand. In this case, ‘Bhai’ as kept it simple and followed through with his core value every single day and maintained his brand promise — to provide happiness to people around him. He is doing it by providing the tastiest biryani he can cook every single day.
The secret recipe to cook an amazing Biryani has probably more than 25 ingredients and a dozen steps and processes. Similarly, promoting a brand has multiple dimensions and options. Brand Name, Brand Icon, Brand Jingle, Brand colors, Brand Mascots, Brand Ambassador, Brand Mobile App, Brand Marketing, Word of mouth, referral, email marketing, tele calling, social media campaigns, print ads, influencer reviews, explainer videos, whatsapp campaign, etc, are some of the options we have in today’s tech driven life. Having and doing all of these may do wonders to any company.
With a generous budget, these may help accelerate the speed at which a brand can communicate with customers and support building a solid internal team. It may even increase the volume of orders and shoot up revenue in a very short time period.
But without the core value in place, it is simply not feasible to influence the odds in our favor consistently and sustainably.
It doesn’t matter if you are big, small, corporate, start-up, non-profit, for profit, etc.
If you haven’t already, then start working on observing, identifying and verbalizing your core values and brand promise. Once this is in place then communication is the only part left.
Become the light that shines from the house on the shore,
that guides those souls, back home through the tides that roar and soar.
– Abishek Ranganathan
Inspired by my brother from another mother — Praven Kumar’s (stand-up comedian, evam ) talk on briyani. https://youtu.be/JP5g1RD3PcE
