Videocon ≠ Shah Rukh Khan

This is perhaps one of the lousiest cases in branding that I've come across. There was this aged prof who came to talk about marketing plans. The fellow seems to have worked with a lot of Pharma companies and consumer durables of which one is Videocon. Interestingly he seemed to brag about this example while I found it a complete nut-case. In fact its an eye opener to the fact that using brand ambassadors is perhaps the easiest route to supposedly 'enhancing' a brand's image, but does that really work well is a matter of question.

Anyways, the case was about the why's and how's of Videocon roping in Shah Rukh Khan as a brand ambassador for itself. According to the professor, Videocon was perceived to be as a 'middle-class' brand and was looking at upgrading its image to an 'upper middle-class' brand. And the best way to deal with this situation was to rope in Shah Rukh Khan!

There weren't many drastic changes in the product line, there wasn't a change much in the pricing patterns either. Just plug in a celebrity and you're done! How sick can you get?!

Also a brand ambassador works on the rationale that there's some connect between the brand and the endorser. Here there's none! Also the rationale for taking SRK is a funny one. Videocon wanted to project itself as a 'truly multinational' brand or something. Bottom-line it wanted to project itself as a multinational, and to prove that it took SRK. Why SRK? That has an interesting answer.

Now according to the professor, SRK is very popular amongst Indians outside India (repeat… 'Indians' outside India). Thus, if the company wanted to project itself as a multinational SRK was the best choice.

Hmmm. One question… no… make that two… Do 'Indians', or for that matter anyone outside India buy Videocon? Nope.
And do Indians in India really care about the fact that SRK is famous globally as well? Nope.

Then where's the connect? Indians in India don't care a damn about what SRK means to the foreign world and the foreign people don't care a damn about what Videocon is selling to the Indians.

Then why SRK? Or an even more fundamental question, why project to be a multinational?

The answer is simple. This is the easier way out.

P.S. In reality Videocon is much larger than what its image really is. It is the world's 3^rd largest picture tube manufacturer, and has a huge stake in Oil and Gas exploration with one of the lowest operating costs in the Oil and Gas exploration field. And SRK just doesn't do the job really well.