MIC Rebranding - Heading for Failure

It has been more than two months since the political tsunami that hit the nation and we are still feeling tremors reaching 8.0 in the Richter scale that could create more more tsunami. The latest being Tun Dr. M's resignation. Much is being said in blogs and the media and it will go on for sometime. However what I would like to discuss here is about Samy Vellu's so called rebranding of MIC.

Since March 8 we have had a lot of 're' words from the BN component parties like reinvent ourselves, review the party's status, reenginner, repair, rebuild, reunite with the grassroots, relook at the rakyat's grievances and a few more so that they can rebound to the glory or yesteryear's.

Last week Samy Vellu decides to rebrand MIC after a central committee meeting. What is rebranding in the first place? The process of taking an existing brand and reworking the brand into something different and better than before. The key words here is "better than before".

Branding is a set of values, a vision, an attitude. In the commercial world or otherwise, branding is a carefully orchestrated experience, based on complex marketing strategies and sophisticated psychology. It's about creating an entity in the consumer's (the Indians') mind so they can see, understand and identify with what's being offered.

Firstly, he wants to change the MIC logo. A brand is much more than a style or a logo. It encompasses the philosophy and values behind a product or service in this case the party's representation to the Indians in Malaysia, the way it is delivered, the way it engages with its customers, the Indians.

MIC did not loose the election because of the logo. No one voted for the logo. They voted for the 'dacing' or should I say they did not, which was the logo on the balloting paper and not the MIC logo. Now, Samy Vellu wants to spend thousands engaging a crony consultant to come up with a new logo. The logo was never the issue so why change the logo.

Secondly, he wants to change the uniform of the youth and the puteri / women wings. How is this going to help MIC and the Indians. Hear again the new uniforms would be contracted out to a crony who will be laughing all the way to the bank. No Indians care about what colour of the uniforms are and that did not cause the failure of MIC in the election.

Thirdly, he wants to increase the composition of youth to give fresh blood. Of the three the first two are stupid ideas for rebranding but the third is dangerous. Why? Most youth who join MIC would be the uneducated and the unemployed from the rural as well as the urban areas as they would be easily swayed by the smooth talking MIC veterans and also be bought. These are the marginalised Indians that Hindraf highlighted. Most of them would be thugs who would then protect the recruiters and the veterans. The educated ones will not join as they are well read and would prefer a more multi-racial party like PKR and DAP if they ever did.

Finally, he wants to maintain the motto "MIC Cares". Thousands of ringgit was spent two weeks leading to the elections advertising MIC with this motto in the mainstream media. Did anyone notice? If anyone did it was probably a blogger who would have torn it to pieces in his blog. Did it work? Obviously no!! Yet he wants to us the same motto. All Indians except those still loyal to MIC knows that MIC never cared all these years and it is not going to change.

Any Indians or for the matter Malaysians if they close their eyes and think about MIC the first thing that would appear in their minds would be the despicable face of Samy Vellu ie. Brand Samy Vellu. Mind you unlike Brand Beckham this is one brand most Indians would not want to be associated with. Hence the rebranding of MIC should start with the removal of Brand Samy Vellu which has lost its value over the years and is of no value now.

Any rebranding exercise usually starts in the mature stage of its life-cycle to keep it relevant. For MIC and its components parties it should have been in the mid 90's. However this was ignored due to their arrogance and comfort. The life-cycle of MIC and the rest reached a decline stage in the early 2000's and the rebranding was still ignored. Now it has come to the end of the life-cycle, the product is dead and any attempt to rebrand and revive the brand will only produce zombies.