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The Rediff Special/Anvar Alikhan

Cherry Blossom and Chandrababu

Poor Rajiv Gandhi. Wherever he is Up There, he must be feeling pretty sorry for himself.

And the reason is that Chandrababu Naidu seems to have hijacked his entire agenda: the thrust on infotech; the "professional management" style of governance; the professional adverting pundits to craft his brand image. And the worst part of it is that crafty old Chandrababu seems to be making it work like Rajiv himself was never able to do. Chandrababu is being touted as a visionary, action hero and God's Gift to India; Rajiv was merely written off as an elitist, ivory-tower Doon School nitwit.

To put it in a nutshell, why is Chandrababu never called "Computerji" the way people sniggeringly called Rajiv? Clearly, it's not what you do; it is who you are. Or, to be more precise, who you are seen to be.

The latest development in this area, of course, is that Chandrababu has brought in Alyque Padamsee as his image consultant. Or as his Brand Manager, if you like. It's a great choice. After all, who better than the the old guru who masterminded all those very successful brands like Cherry Blossom, Liril, Surf, Rin and KamaSutra... not to mention "Brand Alyque Padamsee" (which many people believe is the most successful of all the brands that Alyque has created).

It is said that Saatchi & Saatchi helped Margaret Thatcher soften her image: teaching her how to modulate her speech, style her hair, and dress "less threateningly". It would be interesting to see how Alyque is going to take "Brand Chandrababu" into the future. Because one of the things that has made it so successful so far is the very lack of professional buffing: the country-boy image, the scruffy beard, the two-sizes-too-large bush shirt, the tongue-tied style of speaking. It is precisely this rough, unpolished persona that I believe has made his infotech thrust and his professional management approach acceptable to the electorate. Take the same man, give him a crash course in sophistication, a few elocution classes, a well-tailored bund-gala suit, imported dark glasses and Gucci shoes... and before you can say Rajiv Gandhi, he's a dead duck, politically.

But, of course, Alyque knows all this only too well. In fact, a former Lintas associate of his claims that Alyque once told him, "The reason why I wear these slightly eccentric flowered waistcoats is to catch clients offguard. They expect me to be some kind of naïve 'creative' type. Then when I start talking market segmentation and return-on-investment, they get completely flummoxed."

Just a few weeks from now, Alyque is going to be making his first strategy presentation to Chandrababu, and I'd give anything to be a fly-on-the-wall at the event. The lights will go out and the slides will come on: "Strengths", "Weaknesses", "Opportunities", 'Threats', etc, etc, etc...

We, of course, will never ever know the precise agenda. But all I can say is that if Alyque does even half as good a job on "Brand Chandrababu" as he has on "Brand Alyque Padamsee", Chandrababu has really got it made.

The Rediff Specials

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