Retired Heart

B21's life was fast resembling a kaleidoscope. There were fresh, uncertain patterns with every new twist. He had suffered a coronary thrombosis in love. He had a cardiac infarction of the emotional kind. His heart was broken. He had pledged his heart and, like all true lovers, he did not hedge his heart. Also like all true lovers, he had considered serendipity to be his closest friend, marching blindly down the one way alley, confident that the cul de sac will dissolve into a window to his lover’s heart by the time he reached the end.

It didn’t.

Brands have fresh waves of lovers too. Think Amar Chitra Katha or DC Comics. Poppins. Leo Mattel. He Man or GI Joe. For years passed and hopefully years to come, they will entertain, enthrall and intrigue generations of young lovers — old enough to fall in love but too young to know it can’t last. They laugh and cry with Mr Weatherbee, pray silently for Teela, make a cup of coffee for Ken or travel without seat belts with Doctor Who.

Hell, we also fall in love with brands all over again. Like a chance encounter with our college sweetheart at the airport and seeing her for the first time once more with new eyes. Think Phantom ‘cigarettes’ or Tommy air guns. The lover has changed, the loved hasn’t. And herein probably lies the absolute perfection behind such an imperfect concept called love.

B21 raced up the stairs, his head full of chunky thoughts dripping with impish intent. He meets himself at the top landing and plays an elaborately planned and supremely well executed practical joke. On himself. How enormously alone can he get? Is there a solution? Was there a problem?

Brands have a place too. In the lives and loves of all sorts of people — the pessimist, the introverted, the obscure, the obtuse and the absurd included. This is where they fit in with greater significance probably — for in these lives, they do not complement anything. They are both the subject as well as the object.

Brands that seek consumers, clients, customers, franchisees, markets and patrons are doing fine. At the rational level, with statistical mandates and quarterly top line targets, this works beautifully for the time being. However, the Holy Grail is not current retail offtake alone. To put it bluntly — it is to get more people to buy more, more often for more. But they have to love to do this. They must want to do this over and over and over again, with happiness, with panache, with pride and finally, with love. It is not really a moony, lash fluttering utopic yearning. It is the cold blooded cause and effect logical apparatus that is easy to understand but near impossible to practise consistently.

And this, finally, ladies and gentlemen is B21's largest learning — if we get people to love us enough, they will find a way to keep doing so.