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Make your brand experience a delightful one: Jayanta Sengupta

Adman turned consultant Jayanta Sengupta unveiled his book, ‘Wrap Around – Delivering a Great Brand Experience’, on July 20. Using five brand case studies, the book aims to throw light on how brands need to constantly oil the relationship they have with their consumers and make it a lasting one

Jayanta Sengupta, director, Skills Bridge Consultants, turned writer with the launch of his book, ‘Wrap Around – Delivering a Great Brand Experience’, at the Crossword book store in Mumbai. The book aims to understand the emotional bonding between brands and consumers and how brands need to constantly provide consumers with experiences they’ll cherish.

‘Wrap Around’ begins with a chapter on how crucial it is becoming to differentiate because while products may be the same or easy to replicate, brand experiences need not be. “The area of the experience that a brand delivers to its customers is emerging as a new battleground for a brand in its war against competition,” Sengupta asserted.

The book further deals with how brand experiences can be made to do the job of a differentiator and how one should go about designing this brand experience. ‘Wrap Around’ deals with five brand case studies, brands which, despite stiff circumstances, managed to thrill their consumers with memorable and emotional experiences.

These five brands are Hutch (here, the brand transformation from Orange to Hutch and how consumers were made to adapt to it are discussed), Planet M (where the versatility of the store was brought out interestingly to its consumers), Tata (on its corporate branding in 2004), Manhattan Credit Cards (on how it simplified procedures for its customers) and, lastly, Shopper’s Stop (which, through its loyalty programmes and other initiatives, changed the way consumers looked at shopping).

The book’s final chapter deals with the 12 golden rules for providing a great brand experience and what a marketing manager should and shouldn’t do.

Sengupta was inspired to write this book after he delivered a lecture on the topic at the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata, in 2001. He feels that while Indian authors have touched on brand building, few have explored the area of brand experience. However, certain authors from abroad have written on a related topic – experiential marketing. “But this book takes in only the Indian perspective and I haven’t included any examples from overseas. What is the point when we have enough to learn from in India itself?” Sengupta explained.

Sengupta feels that this book will benefit both students and young advertising practitioners, more so the latter. For the record, Sengupta has spent over 27 years in advertising, having worked for FCB-Ulka (then Ulka Advertising), Contract, Lowe (then Lintas) and Rediffusion DY&R (where he spent his longest tenure, 16 years). Later, he turned consultant and teacher.

The book was unveiled by Anand Halve, co-founder, Chlorophyll brand and communications consultancy, and Ajit Balakrishnan, chairman and CEO, Rediff.com.

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