Reliance plays scramble with Big Bazaar

How do you build a brand? You pick a niche, then a name and work on it and spend a lot of money on advertising.  That would take years to build. You have just started a shop and are just trying to sell products. Now, that wouldn’t drive as many customers to the shop would it? What do you do then? Simple. Just pick a successful brand in the area you want to do business in and play with the alphabets a bit and voila you got your brand. No Harvard grads or Phd’s are required for this. You just need a 4th grader who likes to play scramble.

That’s exactly what Reliance did. It registered a brand name as “Big Bazar” and got through with it. It might even open few stores in the near feature. Registering a company name should not be like registering a domain name. Domain name registrations are susceptible to this, which are unmonitored. But the trademark registration or the officials who are monitoring these will know that there is already a brand name called Big Bazaar and both of them sound the same.

I am not naive to think that this is a pure coincidence. Because, this is not the first time it has happened. Reliance also has one more patent pending for I Phone. Apple has its brand name as iPhone. Reliance has applied for a trademark of I Phone. There is a capital I and a space. How do you pronounce it? In the exact same way.

But, I Phone even if it is granted shouldn’t be that big a problem because a iPhone buyer is usually well-informed. And a brand cannot coax a person to buy a phone, which does not have the Apple magic. The same logic doesn’t hold good for Big Bazaar. No body really watches the tag line or the side note where it says the company is a Future Group, Reliance ADAG, Aditya Birla Group or a Tata Group. Both Biyani and Ambani know that very well.

Here is a tip to Reliance. If you really want to beat the competition and increase revenues – try innovation. Not just in the products but in brand names too. You don’t know where to start read this: Made to stick by Chip and Dan Heath.