REBRANDING A PERSONA

I define a brand simply: The brand is a thought. A thought that lives on in a person's mind.

- HARISH BIJOOR

This week, one such personal brand that lives in our collective thoughts jumped out of the blue and back into our public consciousness. Dr Vijay Mallya. While many who write on Vijay Mallya avoid the honorific, I still use it. The idea is to preserve what he wanted to be addressed as in public space, never mind the fact that he is a 'fugitive' on the run out of India accused in alleged economic offences done in India.

In many ways, I stoked the fire. I put up a LinkedIn post right after the stellar IPL win by RCB. The Royal Challengers were no longer challengers, they were champions. In my post I said a simple thing: "As we celebrate the success of RCB @18, it is important for brands to credit those who deserve it. RCB is today an IPL sensation. A business sensation even. It took a lot. Every brand has 'nayaks' & 'khalnayaks'. The role of Mallya as the builder of RCB cannot be forgotten. We must speak the correct along with the politically-incorrect." I ended with, "What say?"

I have some 1,76,000-plus impressions on the post, growing by the minute. And people said a lot. I got a lot of flak. And crazily, a lot of admiration for calling a spade a spade. This got me thinking. And right then dropped the VM podcast.