If you haven’t already, read the last two posts, here and here for a fuller introduction.

In this post: what can be done to escape the trap of the first impression, the gravitational pull of physique?

1. Don’t Step, Leap—But Keep the Bungee Tied

Switch to a category so unlike the original that the original physique seems to not apply.

One answer to reach escape velocity may be to switch to a category so unlike the original that the original physique seems to not apply. Such a long cross-category leap, of course, needs a central idea to make it work. The brand needs an external reference figure outside its product sphere, an external pole star if you like, by which it finds its way. It could be a founder, a central idea, or values-in-use (which can be sensed, unlike those on some mission/vision/values ‘statement’), or better, more than one of these acting together.

So, Yamaha’s diversity (pianos, tennis racquets and motorbikes, and that’s not all) can be said to be bound by the central theme of leisure in modern living (a value dear to the first Mr Yamaha). Kingfisher successfully transferred its value of flamboyant hedonism from beer to airlines (the lager picture, says the ICD wag), and so no physique interfered. Similar values also attach easily to the physique of the magnificent Mr Mallya (who is also an external reference figure): yachts, bungalows and supermodels fit as easily with beer as with a sort of stylish airline.

2. Regency: an Antidote

The last events in a series are weighted more than the ones in the middle of a sequence of facts.

Another answer is to exploit the recency effect, the opposite of the primacy effect: the last events in a series are weighted more than the ones in the middle of a sequence of facts. In the Tata growth story, for example, both recency and the external reference figure are at work.

So it helped that Tata Steel was preceded by the Taj (hotel) brand, whose close association to the head of the dynasty gave a new physical dimension to the Tata corporate concept, without using the the Tata name. So long as they don’t front the Tata name, Tanishq and Titan, like Taj before them, (the original T-series, says the office comedian) can enjoy the Tata assurance—connected to the founder’s reputation—and escape being weighed down by Tata’s industrial, nation-building physique.

3. The Age of Impressions

But act quickly! The duration of the original imprinting may matter. The Taj Mahal in Bombay opened a few years before the steel and power businesses. Hyundai Motors’ Accent was launched within four years of the iconic Santro. Hyundai has been a bit more successful with its longer wheelbase cars than Maruti has, which waited seven years to launch the 1000, the forerunner of the cramped but enthusiastic Esteem, which it astonishingly continued till 2008.

From then, Maruti has had a long, slow slog to the C segment, via the old Baleno and SX4 (both discontinued) and the gone-in-60-seconds, long-bodied Baleno Altura. The Baleno is back, but cut to size, as a hatchback (good move) and has great early bookings. The compact DZire which is built on the Swift platform, finally inched past the little Alto, only in July 2015. Restaging can work, if you keep at it, as recency overcomes primacy—slowly.

As for Tata Motors, it really must ask whether lifestyle cars are within its physiqual reach. The Nano is a baby; it doesn’t fit the mould created by generations of successful trucks and grey, smoky steel plants, which better suit the Safari or Sumo. Says Guenter Butschek, its latest CEO tasked with the turnaround of Tata Motors, “We really need to consider how we position the brand.” Shyamal Majumdar’s incisive piece (Business Standard) argues for pulling the Nano. From a physique point of view, it makes sense. But it may not fit the ‘car is a car is a car’, psychology-phobic way management often thinks. Tata have solved this problem before, as I’ve pointed out earlier.

Limitations of Physique

Not all product categories and brands excite this ‘physi-qual’ reaction; and further, it needs sensing and interpretation.

Not all product categories and brands excite this ‘physiqual’ reaction; and further, it needs sensing and interpretation. It is far from a complete explanation of brand-product fit. Physique is a fit matter for further research.

In a future post, I will reveal — no, make that speculate on — when physique applies, and when it’s a stumbling block and when not. If I get enough requests!

Tailpiece/Stop Press

On the same day as the Pininfarina story, the papers reported on the (relatively) poor sales of Royal Enfield’s much-admired Continental GT. The Harley Street 750, which costs about two and half times as much, almost overtook it in 2015. Price-product-position play a role, but does the Continental GT, in some subtle sense, lack the Royal Enfield physique?

Since the time of writing, the Mahindra KUV (connotes a small SUV?) in eye-catching orange, was launched with XUV-ish shape, but not size; perhaps a good move in physique terms. Royal Enfield now has a Himalayan model, which seems on first looks closer to the Enfield physique than the GT.

The post Physique Part 3: Three Escapes from the Grip of Physique appeared first on ICD | Blog.

Since physique is defining for some brands, it can be seen as a constraint. Of course constraints can be beautiful, in that they guide us to solutions by eliminating distractions.

Automobiles are certainly a case in point. The size and design of many cars (or trucks or earth movers) impacts their brand’s personality; so can the physique of an industry (what images flashes in your mind when you hear ‘iron and steel’?)

Here are three paths along which to think.

1. Brand Architecture

Physique, in this sense, is a subtle, powerful aspect of a brand that’s underweighted when brand architectures are built, and brands are mapped to products. At a guess, it’s the rational considerations that rule, such as category, price bands, and the like. So if we’re talking cars, then an automobile is an automobile is an automobile.

Born Small: India’s Big Little Car

Consider that Maruti, India’s most successful car maker, has hardly ever succeeded in the upper segment of longer, plusher cars  (its Grand Vitara, Kizashi and Baleno Altura hardly rolled). You could explain that by its initial offerings: light, economy oriented, with strongly utilitarian propositions. Indeed, this is also an example of primacy at work (the information registered first takes precedence over others). Or, you could consider its physique as India’s very own first “small car”. The image of the little Maruti that brought motoring to India in a mass sense, still rules the mind (800, Alto, Wagon R and more). Maruti is a giant in a child’s physique.

Maruti is a giant in a child’s physique.

I believe that Tata Motors’ Indica and Indigo suffered in a similar way to the Logan when they came out. Early quality issues (noise, vibration, harshness or NVH in the trade jargon) were popularly attributed to its trucks heritage. That same heritage which may have cast a favourable halo on the Sumo, a match of physique.

2. Naming, Design and Looking After Your Physique

Tata’s physique (massive, grey, smoky, industrial, ‘national’) is embedded in our minds by the physique of Tata Steel, and from there carries over to Tata Motors. In the psychological sense Tata is not much of a lifestyle proposition, despite the corporate brand’s famous stretch across a bunch of categories.

So what does Tata do when it launches fine, elegant products like jewellery, watches or deluxe hotels? It names them Tanishq, Titan and Taj. Likewise, in FMCG/lifestyle, with Himalaya mineral water, or in its JV with Starbucks or Docomo, it needs to be careful how much visibility, and of what kind, the Tata name can enjoy. In Tata Sky, Sky gets its own styling while appearing next to Tata. This range of design solutions illustrates a visual architecture at work, and that’s deft management for you—so far.

This range of design solutions illustrates a visual architecture at work, and that’s deft management for you—so far.

3. Physique is an Asset

An asset, by definition, can be transferred. Physique can be seen as an asset, and transferred. The brand Caterpillar is a great example of transference of physique (again a super rugged one) from earth moving equipment to fashion. It was beautifully accomplished and, at this time, the physique connection is evident and successful.

Next: But what’s an honest brand to do to escape its physique, if it can’t harness it, like Caterpillar?

The post Physique Part 2: Is Your Brand Physique a Constraint or an Asset? appeared first on ICD | Blog.

Thought Experiment

I couldn’t help visualising, in a sort of genetic thought experiment, a car born of this auto-mating. Mahindra evokes decidedly boxy, muscular SUVs, tractors and trucks; Pininfarina evokes the slinky, feline lines of Ferrari, for whom it has a long history of designing cars. A very odd couple. Thankfully, as with the Beauty and the Beast, no such offspring is planned (a son called Ferrindra? A daughter called Maharri?) and Pininfarina may stick to helping Mahindra make better SUVs, and indeed, reports suggest that the alliance is about more than cars. Deep strategic stuff.

What’s the point here? First, you can’t help ‘seeing’ a brand in this way, and that seeing has great consequences.

Brands don’t easily escape the imprint that the physical form of their products, as a sensory perception, leaves on the mind.

Brands don’t easily escape the imprint that the physical form of their products, as a sensory perception, leaves on the mind. It is automatic, instinctive and you are powerless to resist, and it acts before formal or rational thinking can interfere. It can be stronger than logos or names, and unlike those, doesn’t require understanding or interpretation.

Time Travel

Mahindra makes SUVs we like.

Step back in time and you can see India’s original SUV, to stretch the definition a little, in the body of… the Mahindra Jeep. Go a little further back, and recall Mahindra’s origins in rolled steel, and all sorts of heavy metal bashing. That imagery is not so far from the Jeep (nowadays simply called a Mahindra) which looks as close to a purely engineer-rigged chassis-on-wheels that you can imagine. It’s a war-time design after all (from the original Willy’s Jeep). It’s a short step from there to the pugnacious Scorpio and XUV.

Meet Physique, the Hunk From Branding

I like the word physique (it is used in a related, but not identical way by the excellent Jean Noel Kapferer). Mahindra’s physique, in my sensorium, is metallic, tough, boxy, heavy, and on the large side. The idea is that once a brand’s physique is imprinted in your brain, you resist new products that don’t fit the mould, and accept those that do. So maybe physique sealed the fate of Mahindra’s sedate sedan Logan, whatever its other qualities; and perhaps it conversely conferred success to its SUVs?

The First Word

Physique may have something to do with what psychologists call the ‘primacy effect’, where we pay more attention to evidence that has registered first.

Physique may have something to do with what psychologists call the ‘primacy effect’, where we pay more attention to evidence that has registered first. First impressions, as they say. Read this pair of sentences: A is intelligent, honest, charming and lazy. B is lazy, charming, honest and intelligent. In experiments, subjects like A better than B. Didn’t you?

Design is Physique

Much of the interface between design and branding involves physique; it’s often what product designers make. For communicators, personality can be seen as a reflection of physique (consider the Mahindra logo as a match for its physique).

Or below, for a mining and ferro alloys company.

The business of packaging, in categories like perfume, is all about imparting physique.

In the next post I explore this idea further and speculate on a few more examples. What about you? How and how much do you think it matters?

The post Physique Part 1: I Like Your Body: The Grip of Physique appeared first on ICD | Blog.