Brand SRK

ITC sunfeast, Santro Zing, Tag Heuer, Pepsi, KBC - all have one thing in common that is Brand SRK. In Indian media very few personalities have done these variety of ads most important being Sachin and BigB and now SRK. SRK being from Film industry directly challenged BigB thus. And this attack has been successful thanks to the image SRK has formed for himself. Brand SRK is the golden hen that SRK has nurtured over the years in his hands. And it is going to milch money and fame for a long time for him and many others.

What is a brand?
Wikipedia defines Brand as -

A brand is a customer experience represented by a collection of images and ideas; often, it refers to a symbols such as a name, logo, slogan, and design scheme. Brand recognition and other reactions are created by the accumulation of experiences with the specific product or service, both directly relating to its use, and through the influence of advertising, design, and media commentary. A brand is a symbolic embodiment of all the information connected to a company, product or service. A brand serves to create associations and expectations among products made by a producer. A brand often includes an explicit logo, fonts, color schemes, symbols, sound which may be developed to represent implicit values, ideas, and even personality. link...

If we see SRK's presence in entertainment industry and in particularly Hindi cinema, it becomes very clear that SRK is one of the best example of brands which evolved in recent times in Indian scene.

SRK was imported in Cinema from TV. Circus and Fauji marked entry for a young Delhi boy in entertainment world. They gave a chocolate faced boy to the Indian crowd. This boy did not belong to any filmi clan and did not have any godfather. Only route to the stardom was hard work. And he chose exactly the same.

In marketing they teach you that make a product when there is market, or make a market when there is a product. So in essence its both, idea and product are sellable.
After showing promising performances in first few films (notably Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa, Deewana, Chamtkar) SRK developed the confidence in the directors to give him some power-packed roles. And this was the birth of product SRK.

While all other heroes where busy doing run of the mile romantic cinema, SRK chose to do the other way around. He gave a chocolate faced villain to Indian cinema. Baazigar, Darr, Anjaam, Ram Jaane were the roles not many so called heroes would love to do in early part of their career. SRK gave us a villain who is lovable, we surely cried at the end of 3 hours saga. So while at one hand he got super hit movies in his kitty at other he showed his talent to the world.

Once you have a product in hand, next thing is to look for prospective customer. So SRK, still under development, started to do the popular cinema. Love, romance, emotions, comedy - all rasas of life portrayed to perfection in his movies. Comedy also helped him in targeting the youngsters and children. Mind you they are the future customer for SRK. Families that eat together, watched movie together also could visit such movies. More fans per smile. So the same hakla effect gave him the dangerous look in Anjaam and Darr while in others it made him object of affection for public.

one can not just go and change the system. You have to live in it to be effective. As SRK saw himself getting successful, he started firming his routes in the cinema world. After all Johars and Khans thus became friends over time. They both needed each other. And they both know that together they can and they will rule bollywood. So when everyone thought SRK was just giving brilliant performances in DDLJ, K2H2, DTPH, Pardes and others, he was actually doing a customer relation work. Serve them well for a better return.
The trio of Karan Johar, SRK and Farah Khan is the result of the same efforts.

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