I was recently invited by PepsiCo to join a dinner being hosted in view of the charismatic CEO Indra Nooyi’s visit to India. She was voted the most powerful woman in business in US for the third year in a row by Fortune Magazine. Irene Rosenfeld who heads Kraft was the second most powerful. Irene is a PepsiCo alumni as well. Moral of the story: Food and beverages make people powerful. So eat well, I told myself.Pepsi is certainly one of the iconic brands of the world. I ask myself what could an individual learn from a successful brand? If you were to learn lessons from Pepsi and Shah Rukh Khan what would they be?The evening dinner hosted in her honor has loads of PepsiCo alumni. There is much bonhomie that is there in every alumni meeting. Much backslapping happens and the lines that everyone hears when old friends meet.”You still look the same.””I would have never recognized you. Hey, let us meet this weekend. How long are you in town?”The PepsiCo board is meeting in India as part of their country immersion. The surprise of the evening is that Shah Rukh Khan is part of the invitee list. Full disclosure: I do not find Shah Rukh to be a great actor but he is certainly one of the biggest stars ever. But the hysteria he evokes in most of his fans is intriguing.
As Vineeta, a fan from Fiji says, “Shah Rukh Khan is inspirational. He has inspired me to become a better human being. He is a complete role model. His energy, intelligence, charm and love for everyone has completely changed my perception of what a good human being should be like. He is the best actor in the whole world.”
India is a cinema and cricket crazy country. So film actors and cricket players (as long as they keep performing well) are worshipped. They are mobbed. The adulation is unreal and universal. In my post Do You Have a Lovemark I had written
“Kevin Roberts (author of Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands) talks about some brands that go beyond and become what he calls “Lovemarks“. When you plot brands on a 2×2 matrix of Love and Respect, there are some brands that inspire love AND build respect for themselves. Those in that hallowed zone are called Lovemarks. When a brand achieves Lovemark status, the consumers becomes evangelists for a brand. The relationship between the brand and the individual is beyond the realm of logic. “
If you look at the top ten Lovemarks you see three Bollywood actors who have reached the hallowed zone.
A year back I had said, “The sobering thought is that, the No 1 Lovemark in the list of top 200 Lovemarks is not a corporation but Shah Rukh Khan. Apple at number 4 trails Kajol (another Bollywood Actor and Google is at number 9 followed by Rani Mukherjee (another Bollywood actor).”
A year down the line the top ten lovemarks list has a few names substituted. What has not changed is that Shah Rukh Khan (http://www.shahrukhkhan.org/) is still No 1 in the list and Kajol is still no 3, Apple is still No 4 ( while iPod is No 11), Google is still no 9 while Rani Mukherjee is still tenth in that list.A quick glance at the list shows Pepsi as No 153 on the list while its brand ambassador for thirteen years is the world’s no 1 Lovemark. He has been Pepsi’s brand ambassador for thirteen years and that evening he was inducted into the Pepsi Hall of Fame. He is the third brand ambassador to be inducted. the two others being Michael Jackson and Elton John.Organizations spend millions of dollars building brands and promoting their products, yet Bollywood inspires hysteria that a brand never would. So what is special about Shah Rukh Khan (aka SRK)? Here is what I saw that evening.
Marketing gurus have said this forever, “Break the clutter”. SRK does by being punctual. A punctual filmstar is an oxymoron. SRK was punctual and prepared. He was waiting in the wings two minutes ahead of the scheduled timing. So that quality breaks the clutter – for any star in India. We are still looking for a punctual politician in India.What makes you successful I ask him. “I know what I can do best and I do it with all my heart. If I have committed to doing something, I will do it without any short cuts.” Over the years he has sharpened his skills as an entertainer. That makes up for his not being a great thespian. When he shares a stage with Indra Nooyi, he tells the audience, “I feel my IQ has gone up instantly … it did as soon as I hugged Indra (Nooyi).” Indra reciprocates by saying, “If I tell my Indian friends in US that I hugged Shah Rukh Khan, they would not believe me.”Communication skills contribute significantly to the actor’s popularity. He is a skilled communicator especially in one to many scenarios. He can charm a crowd. That explains the mass hysteria. I noticed how he stopped to speak to not just the invitees (I guess he was paid for that appearance) but that he also stopped to pose with all the hotel staff as they whipped out their camera phone to capture the moment. I did the same.
