Serendipity:

I’m not a patient person by nature. Back at the office, Maya keeps saying, “Fast cars, fast men, life in the fast lane, she likes ‘em all”. There is some truth to the statement. I detest meetings that go beyond a half hour. I prefer aeroplane trips to noisy, smelly trains that meander all over the countryside – why suffer through a day of that, when you can reach your destination in a couple of hours without disrupting your deo?

So, when Lilian told me of this assignment with Diva Couture at Chandigarh, it didn’t jive with me. “Why me?”, was my whine. Lilly and Maya had been working on this prospect for months. Listening to their telecons, I was convinced the Diva folks were world-class dawdlers.

Diva is a renowned international brand in the realm of bling couture. From East European tennis stars to Vegas drag queens and hot pop stars from the Caribbean, individuals around the world proudly showcase Diva's dazzling creations in their social media and PR shots. Sometimes, as pop queen Brianna just did, Diva bling is all they sport – scandalising our prude Indian sensibilities. It’s a great feeling for the exchequer to rake in Diva dollars I guess, but not so great when the Diva Lakshmi in silver and Swarovski is dangling between a buxom pair of you-know-whats!

My protests notwithstanding, Lilly and Maya pushed me firmly out of the door and told me to go smell the roses in C’town. I read the background notes our mousy market researcher Mia had put together on Karma Kaur, the genius behind Diva on my flight over. A hard-nosed Punjaban who’d risen from the wrong side of the tracks and blazed a career across the world in 15 short years, Karma was fending off ankle biters – young whippersnappers from South East Asia – who were aping her and one-upping her in the bling game. Time for a rebrand? 

***

Chandigarh is certainly beautiful. It’s organised, I mused, as a chauffeur in all white whisks me to Karma’s villa in Sector 5. Quite unlike most Indian cities. The car is a silver Merc S-class, no surprises there. What took my breath away (other than the chauffeur’s discreet request not to smoke!) were the all-silver interiors. It was classy, no doubt, but the encrusted jewellery and silver-lined upholstery were a bit much for my taste. It started giving me an insight into the mind of my hostess. The bling begins, I thought, as I fidgeted with my phone, longing for a ciggy.

***

Karma Kaur is a force of nature. Correction, a dramatic force of nature. Her perfume and two minions preceded her as she swept into her (bejewelled, but naturally) living room. Tall and statuesque, with a mane of hennaed hair, clad in a burgundy kaftan, she exuded a regal vibe. This is how one of Ranjit Singh’s ranis must have looked, I thought to myself. She also exuded a typical Punjabi friendliness as she ushered me to her dining room after pleasantries. A huge (and I mean, huge) spread of Punjabi delicacies – think paneer, butter, chicken, onion, tomato in all variants and combinations thereof – sated me. And then we sat down to chat. 

Karma and I had a long, long chat about her roots, her aspirations and ambitions. She was restless, yearning to break free from the loud and proud Punjabi bling she had made her name on over the last two decades. She has evolved as a designer and person since – she wants to showcase her deep knowledge of Indian textiles, art and architecture. She has developed a keen interest in the various forms of classical dance and wanted to integrate these new strands in her persona into Bling!

I’ll cut to the chase and share my notes with y’all.

****

Client: Karma Kaur, Diva Creations

Requirement: Personal Branding as Diva launched her new collection Bling! [The company will do the official social media, but she wants to raise her brand quotient and go to Hollywood a la Bhanu Athaiya]

Channels recommended: Instagram, YouTube

****

The first piece of branding advice I gave Karma was to call the collection something other than Bling! Pretty garden variety advice you may say. But when you aspire to please the Pupul Jaykar and Laila Tyabji crowd, ‘bling’ is certainly not the word the mind conjures up to wow them. 

We brainstormed names as a way to start the branding exercise. From ‘Indigo’ (too airliney) to ‘Aama’ (yawn!), we went through a bunch of possibilities as the afternoon gave way to the evening. Cocktails and brazil nuts appeared miraculously as we built a rapport and hooted over zany names.  I told Karma the name wouldn’t get done so easily and suggested moodboards as a line item we could knock off on this trip. I’d got some suggested options from Mia, but after the surprising turns of this conversation, I just googled up some more for her.

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What is a moodboard?

A moodboard is a visual palette of moods – colours, colour combinations, fonts and other artefacts – that helps everyone in the team get on the same page about the vibe of a brand. Typically used by interior designers, moodboards are something we’ve found to be hugely useful to ‘set the tone’ for a branding exercise with clients. It often gets co-founders squabbling noisily during branding workshops, but hey, squabbling before branding is set, rather than after, is any day better in my book!

Here are some examples I presented to Karma. She was somewhat familiar with the concept, in contrast to many clients who aren’t. Some view the entire exercise with suspicion – especially those with an engineering or technology bent of mind! But once we show them a sample social post or two, and talk about how colour, font, tone and message pull a brand voice together, they quickly ‘get it’.

As you can see, each board tells a story, and evokes a distinct mood.

Pic: The EM Forster Board, courtesy Google Images

I call this one the ‘E M Forster’ board. It has images of the ‘typical’ – one might even say stereotypical – India.

Pic: The Ashram Board, courtesy Google Images

This one here is an ‘ashram’ board. Very spa-ey and spaced-out, wouldn’t you say?

Pic: The Memsahib moodboard, courtesy Google Images

This is my ‘memsahib’ board. The vision an Octopussy girl may have, perhaps?

I think you get the gist of where I go with moodboard conversations with my clients. Which do you think Karma went with?

If you thought the memsahib one, you were way off! I initially thought so too, but after we brainstormed more, we built a moodboard from some of her latest photoshoots and photos she’d taken on her travels. Here’s what we ended up with:

Pic: Karma Kaur’s moodboard

magenta of a patka, think the bright red of a Punjaban bridal trousseau; as well as the more sober colours of Karma’s new passions in traditional weaves and textiles.

Captures the new collection (and the new Karma) quite well, I thought! The palette, in my opinion, gives the brand a vast scope for building evocative brand collateral.

PS: This new brand was eventually now dubbed Karmic - expressive in more ways than one, I thought!

Remember, the moodboard is exactly that — the mood you want to invoke in your audience. when they see or hear anything related to your brand. Think mood when creating your moodboard!