The trivialisation of Life, the Universe and Everything

I returned from Cambodia, where I had marvelled at the old temples of Angkor Wat that have stood testimony to the lasting value of an idea for 1000 years.

And then I was brought back to today's reality by a news anchor on a business channel.

He was interviewing a highly placed guest from a financial services firm, and asked whether the worthy thought we were heading for another 'Lehman moment'.

'Another Lehman moment'? 'Moment'??? The entire shenanigans of recklessly leveraged financial behemoths whose greed, irresponsibility and to put it bluntly - dishonesty - caused untold havoc around the world; whose burden of the bailout by the US Government is in excess of trillions of dollars and whose after-effects may continue to traumatise the world for several more years, reduced to two smart alecky words: 'Lehman moment'! Like a 'Fukushima instant'? Like a '26/11 episode'? Like a 'Hiroshima jiffy'?

But such is the nature of our collective consciousness today. Caught up with an accelerated fast-forward pace of thought and actions, we look at the world through mental binoculars held the wrong way. Binoculars used correctly, help to bring distant things close and show them in greater detail; but with the inversion of intelligent perspective, recent events recede into a distant past, and major events look like the minutiae of the world.

As for the temporal dimension, one cannot stand still and contemplate: one must offer an instant sound bite. Reflection as a mental activity has been replaced by reflection as the image of oneself. One's narcissistic admiration now regularly available for the world to 'like' in sundry fora. (In an unintended act of revelation, the most ubiquitous of these fora is not called 'Brainbook' - its appellation refers to the face.)

The pundits of pelf are no different. Stock picks are 'for today'. Seldom do the charts showing price movements go beyond a few months, and often show only the gymnastics of the previous day's trading frenzy. (Wasn't 'investment' supposed to have a longer time horizon than that?) I have seen more long-term thinking by gamblers at the turf club. But the 'long term' is so 20th century!

That this affects the way brands and advertising are managed is then, hardly surprising. Coca Cola has changed baselines as frequently as watering your plants. A sampler (in no particular order): "Sar uthaa ke piyo"; "Jo chaahe ho jaaye, Coca Cola enjoy"; "Thanda matlab Coca Cola"; "Jab Coke khule to baat chaale" - finally reduced to a speechless shiver: "Brrrr". Compare this meandering litany to the line for Thums Up: "Taste the thunder". Which one do you think the consumer remembers? Not that the advertising industry is unaware of powerful, long-running brand campaigns. Absolut. The Economist. Levi's. Closer home, Thums Up. Maggi.

But there seems to be a self-reinforcing circle of behaviour today that does not recognise the idea of accretion of brand value.

OK, quiz time.

Question 1: If the consumer computes the calculus of these thoughts from Maruti Suzuki, what do you think is the total of: "Maruti-Way of Life!" + "India comes home in a Maruti" + "Kitna deti hai?"

Question 2: Of all the things that Reliance mobile has said, what do you remember?

Question 3: What is the Videocon baseline?

Well, you get the idea.

But then, ask yourself, how long do people (including your friends) want to work before they change jobs. How long do they want to work on a brand before they want 'fresh challenges'. How long do VCs want to wait before exiting.

Perhaps time has no value ... other than as an unit to determine the intervals between change. Of course, that perspective is one that only makes sense if you believe that your customer has the attention-span of a fruit fly and the time-horizon of an earthworm.

The truth is that you need to

(a) have commitment to what you really stand for,

(b) consistently reinforce that commitment, and

(c) don't change out of a sense that anything that is older than 6 weeks is now redundant.

But then, maybe nobody wants to build another Angkor Wat either.