Open your ARMS...

IIPM - Admission Procedure

...and embrace the ICONS of today

An idle trumpet is a waste for this highest sounding member of the brass family. But, when played, everyone stops dead in their tracks to listen to its sweet melody. But if not handled effectively, the same trumpet can create cacophony. ICONS Communication believes in playing the trumpet to the hilt, what with its logo itself carved out of the instrument. It’s almost as if ICONS is sweetly announcing its arrival on the country’s ad scene.

When we reached this agency, we were promptly ushered in to meet Sumit Gupta, MD, ICONS Communication, who couldn’t stop talking about his association with ARMS (Advertising Research Marketing Solutions). And rightly so. ARMS has been in business for almost 40 years and was closely associated with ‘Malgudi Days’. The heritage must surely have their client list hooked, as it did for us. But not wanting to rest on past laurels, Gupta wanted to do something on his own and so he conceptualised ICONS in 2000.

He also did not want to simply restrict himself to advertising and so ICONS calls itself a brand custodian (and not just a brand architect), and takes pride in keeping the brand top of the mind from the time it enters the market till the time of purchase. For many agencies, the job ends once the ad is out, but for ICONS, the job continues even after an ad has been released. Their below-the-line (BTL) campaigns have made many brands household names. These extensions to the brands help them get noticed beyond print & electronic mediums.

But don’t you lose heart if your bank balance (or read ego balance) does not reflect a branded YOU. Most often the early adopters could fail to bite the bait as laggard markets testify. Sample these great examples where the initial signs showed nothing but classical failures...the pole opposite of what they have become now – titanic names in history! Socrates was branded, “An immoral corrupter of youth.” When Peter J. Daniel was in the fourth grade, his teacher, Mrs. Phillips, constantly said, “Peter J. Daniel, you’re no good, you’re a bad apple and you’re never going to amount to anything.” Beethoven handled the violin awkwardly and preferred playing his own compositions instead of improving his technique. His teacher called him ‘hopeless’ as a composer. Charles Darwin’s father looked down upon him and said that he cared for nothing but shooting, dogs & rat catching.

Today, his seminal work, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859), is something every educated individual has heard of! Walter Elias Disney was fired by a newspaper editor for lack of ideas. Leo Tolstoy, the towering Russian author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina, failed in his studies at college. He was described as “both unable and unwilling to learn.” Winston Churchill failed sixth grade and was considered intractable; his grammar drove everyone to despair for his future...and the long list goes on and on...

Thus is the power of brand ‘Rejuvenation’ and YOU have it in you. Change your offering or change you target consumer(s). To emphasize the point, more recently we are all aware of the dramatic ouster and phoenix like come back of (y)our “ dada – Sourav Ganguly – a brand which a lot of it’s consumers would have passed off as a fallen wicket.

So, no matter who you are – a senior executive or the president in your company or even any ordinary employee – managing your brand is critical to achieving your professional goals and once you do that, you’d laugh your way to a brand new brand bank!

4Ps B&M research: Priyanka Rajpal

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
When IIPM comes to education, never compromise
IIPM, GURGAON
IIPM is A World of Career
Why Study Abroad When IIPM Gives You 3 global Advantages!