Will The Indian Market Live Up To Vahid’s Optimism?  ( November '8,2002, FE)

Even as the Indian advertising industry is coping with an economy that is moving out of recession blues, a $10.5-million Middle East-based strategic branding and communication firm is all set to open shop here.

An industrial designer, a self-taught magical realism painter, business strategy visionary, architectural visualist and a brand futurist—Vahid Mehrinfar may be a bundle of creativity, but in India he sees a bright future—for himself and his work—as a brand futurist, at the moment.

Recognised as a catalyst in the evolution of consciousness to design in the Middle East, where he serves as executive principal—Idea of Lowe Contexture, Bahrain—part of Lowe and Partners Worldwide—and chief brand architect of Vahid Associates, a Bahrain-based strategic branding and communication firm, Vahid, now has designs on corporate India.

“I consider India the market and feel that India is ready for my work. My forte is corporate branding...and India is very important to me,” says Vahid.

And he’s serious. “I’m looking for a partner who can either be a communication group or a business house with advertising in its portfolio,” says Vahid. While Vahid candidly admits that he will enter into a joint venture with a Indian partner, he’s still holding the cards close to his chest when it comes to investment. “I’m a win-win man,” declares Vahid and quickly adds: “I work for corporates who want design for the sake of profit and not just for the sake of design.”

Any talk about the current economic situation, particularly the not-so-rosy state of the Indian advertising industry, just does not bog him down. His retort: When people want to do house-cleaning, image becomes an issue.

Point taken. But just why will India lap up his work? Aren’t there enough good designers here? “Manpower is no problem, sure, but design is very weak here,” he says.

Tata, he points out is a perfect case study. “India is so preoccupied with indigenisation that they make do with such naive designs. Tata’s Indica, for instance, the basic car design is wrong,” says Vahid, a car enthusiast since childhood who finally moved to the US in 1973 to pursue his dream of becoming a car designer. An alumni of the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California, Vahid, an Iranian-born Houstanian, was trained as an industrial designer specialising on transportation and product design.

“I believe evolution is a good thing, but when you don’t have time, you must leap...you must invest and be futuristic,” says Vahid who believes that branding is somewhat like the art of fortune telling; it is prognosis rather than diagnosis that must take center-stage. “Rather than relying merely on the rear-view mirror, it is about seeing the future through the front windscreen.”

But how about branding in a culturally diverse market? “In a culturally diverse market, the challenge is to find an imagery that transcends the differences,” says Vahid. Elaborating on his theory of branding, he adds: An enduring brand needs a Prevailing Common Denominator (PCD) that is the instigator triggering strong preferences, a bond that motivates members of a diverse audience to unite in their common liking for a brand. The more versatile a brand is, it acquires greater relevance, market share and longevity. Identifying the right PCD through the lens of the consumer comes from intuition, experience and multi-cultural exposure.

Vahid also postulates that in the Middle-Eastern markets, generating ‘likeability’ has been more important in the creation of successful brands than ‘over-scienticised’ attribute analysis-driven positioning.

Vahid’s professional career over the past 24 years has earned international recognition through his work in a variety of projects ranging from art direction for Hollywood productions, corporate promotional illustrations, rendering visualisation of palace interiors and private jets, architectural renditions of mega development projects to creation of brands that have pioneered a new outlook in product development in the Middle-East.

Vahid considers this juncture of his life, personally and professionally, to be a gateway to a new era where, once again, he will impose a self-challenge to break into new areas of creative and intellectual achievements.

But for now, India is his first love.