THE POWER OF MYTHS

Just think about it. What are the three great sources of authenticity? Well we are talking in the Indian context here.
By authenticity we mean, the credible faith builders. The first of course is Science. If something as rational as Science says so, then it must be true. The second is History. That which actually happened, cannot be false. The third one is the most fascinating. It is the Grandmother's Story, which is handed down generations to hapless grandchildren as mythological tales. By their very definition, they are myths and so therefore not true. But their massification lends them credibility. Every religion is handed down as mythological tales by grandmother. And every religion is populated with fables and has enigmatic storytelling at the heart of its longevity.
Brands too are myths that layer reality. What would be the Beetle worth, in the absence of the myth of being an 'ugly bug'. But that is still a remote argument. Much closer, one would do well to wonder why gold is more valuable than silver, when logically, silver may even be better looking. Or for that matter why should a 'fake' diamond command a lower price than a real one, when to the common eye, they both appear as attractive. Why should the Jaguar be a young boy's dream car any more than a Bentley?

Now this begs the question - why are myths so powerful that they even make 'ugly' seem appealing. Well that's because they come from not just human experience, but deep felt human experience. In other words, fiction is a better way of telling one's own real story, because autobiographies are incredible self-indulgences. That is why the tone of an ad is better than its facts.
No wonder then that Salim Sinai in Salman Rushdie's Midnights Children was actually Salman himself. The young boy in 'Boyhood' by JM Coetzee was Coetzee himself. And in "God of Small Things", young Rahel is Arundhati Roy herself. The book is actually her own sad story. It is her deep felt sadness that comes through and that is the power of the book. Now when Prasoon Pandey who hails from Almora, creates ads with Hindi as the language and the character is set in small town India, it works. Otherwise it doesn't.

Now let's see storytelling from one more angle.
An ugly man becomes a matinee idol, because people see themselves in him and the massification of his appeal comes from multiplication and not simple addition. We human beings love to do this - we only multiply, we never add. When we praise someone, we overdo it and when we criticize, we actually condemn. There is bit of maths in this. What do you get when you multiply 0.1 and 0.1. Well you get 0.01, which is lower than 0.1!
A brand with a bad 'myth' (read story) gets killed as rapidly as the meteoric rise of a brand with a good myth.

In 1984, after Mrs Gandhi's death, Rajiv Gandhi was compared to the ablest administrators in world history. One year later, people relied more on Laxman's cartoons to understand him, than from the headlines.

On the subject of brands: what makes a man stare more at a bottle of Jack Daniels than a bottle of Smirnoff. It's the myth.

Another thing about myths - they are excessive in character. One doesn't ever know the full story. There are some dotted lines always. Plus while everyone knows about them, no one knows it all. Ask someone if Versace is a big brand and the answer will be affirmative. Now ask him why, and he will run for cover.
Do you remember all of Mahabharatha and Ramayana? Next question - does that make you less devout.
Now that brings us to the point where we are compelled to understand the myth in the context of brand creation. What makes a myth a more powerful story besides the natural appeal of fiction. One is that is many-layered, like good value proposition. And then the structure of the story. It must have a five stage structure, as any Creative Writing program would have us believe. The first stage is when a problem is introduced; the second when a conflict is created; the third when the conflict climaxes, the fourth when it is resolved and the fifth, the moral of the story.

So what is the moral of this complicated story?
One, that for something to be believed, it doesn't have to be believable. In other words, advertising stories do not always have to stem from rational appeal. Two, create fuller value propositions. Three, be true to a single perspective. Four, have sharp characterisation viz sharply defined target audiences. Five, immerse it all in a setting replete with rituals. Now rituals, well they are vital for brand building, but on that later. Mythology can't be written in just a single day! So see you again.