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| Emotionally
Branding Films and Cricket |
By
Nikhil Kamkolkar |
| Everything I know
about emotional branding, I learnt from
cricket. |
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I'm a
filmmaker. I've only made one feature
film, so that doesn't really allow me
to call myself a professional. But since
I do have a film under my belt, I allow
myself the guilty pleasure of calling
myself a filmmaker.
But what
in the world am I doing trying to relate
"emotional branding" and "cricket"?
And why in the world should you care?
You see,
I don't think one is a professional
at something until one can work the
clock, and get paid for it. If you can't
write a script under pressure (think
Misery or Adaptation), and make money
off it, you ain't a professional. And
the hardest thing in this world besides
landing a rover on mars, is making money
from making films! Ok, I exaggerate,
there certainly are more difficult things
than recovering your investment in film,
like curing cancer, but by golly (oops
that's my imperial conditioning asserting
itself), it sure comes close!
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| And this
is where the idea of emotional branding
took hold in my mind. The problem was
simple. How could I, who is so passionate
about my film, transfer that passion into
another human being — well, atleast
enough to get them into a theatre to watch
it. The marketing gurus say that this
can be done through emotional branding.
And I quote from the book by Gobe : "Emotional
Branding is the conduit by which people
connect subliminally with companies and
their products in an emotionally profound
way."
Wow! Cool! Nice! But. how do I do it?
Thing is that I really didn't know how
to translate these ideas into action.
I didn't even know what being emotionally
branded truly felt like. Until I started
to observe myself watching a cricket game.
The one in question being a cricket match
between India and Australia.
The stadium was filled with Aussies of
all shapes and forms, in all types of
costumes — even a whole group dressed
as croc feeders with little plastic babies
placed way too close to the croc's mouth
(you'll know the story behind this only
if you read trivial news items like I
do). And among them, the Indians, little
pockets of color I felt strongly connected
to. Well, atleast for the duration of
the match...
When they cheered, I cheered too. And
when we lost a wicket, I cursed as loudly
as they did, even if it was in the solitary
confines of my living room. I watched
myself, in a surreal (and embarrassing)
out-of-body experience, leaping out of
my chair, thrusting my fist victoriously
towards the sky (skylight in my case)
when VVS Laxman (incidentally from my
hometown of Hyderabad) delivered a boundary
to make his century and take the team
total over 300 on the very last ball of
the innings.
“Yes!” I exulted.
“Yes! Yes! Oh Yes!”
Folks, it was better than whatever Meg
Ryan had in that movie, you know, When
Harry Met Sally. it was way better.
But what was even better was that I finally
made the connections. The neurons in my
brain sluggishly but surely started networking.
Action potentials surged along the Axons
and Dendrites and suddenly, there was
light!
I got it! I got "Emotional Branding!"
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Without going into the whole
politico-socio-existential debate about
nation-states, and our conditioned branding
and hence, loyalty to such concepts, was
the more simpler understanding of what emotional
branding really felt like, when you were,
well, emotionally branded!
I am Indian. And as much as I love my friends
down under, I would be very unhappy if they
won. My loyalty was to the Indian brand.
This brand was filled with more brands
like Yuvraj, Tendulkar, and even the new
kid on the block Rohan Gavaskar.
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I'd protect them as fiercely
as a mother would her child, and turn against
them if they lost a match, as savagely as
a lifelong democrat in Florida would against
Bush, but by God, I'd never, ever change
brands!
I, ladies and gentleman, am proud to declare
that I, Nikhil Kamkolkar, am emotionally
branded. And damn proud of it too!
And so are the Aussies! A sign in the crowds
said — "You've got your Hindu
(sic), but we've got CHRIST-ianity"
— an obvious reference to Mr. Gilchrist,
one of the players on the Aussie team. In
the end, they had their brands. And I had
mine. And neither of us would ever switch.
This is the closest I've come to Enlightenment.
I'll never become the Gautama, but hell,
I don't need to achieve Moksha, I just need
to find a way to get people to come out
and see my movie. Unfortunately though,
the understanding brings me no closer to
action. It only gives me the yardstick with
which to measure if the actions I take can
be classified as successful, or dismal failures.
I still have to find a conduit that will
have you (as willingly as I have in the
case of cricket) allow yourself to be emotionally
branded and in love-love with my movie,
Indian Cowboy: A Love Story.
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..- End
Of Article..... |
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