Why do we behave in a particular manner in a lift?

If the elevator is crowded, everybody stands still, stares at the ceiling, at the floor or the button panel as if never seen before. If two strangers are together in the elevator, they stand as far as possible from each other, don’t face each other directly, don’t make eye contact and don’t make any sudden movements or noises. Much of people’s behavior in elevators is not the result of rational thinking. It’s an automatic, instinctive response to the situation. There is an artificial threat of aggression, and yet mind responds as if it is, and produces behaviors meant to protect ourselves.

Imagine two Paleolithic cavemen who follow the tracks of a large bear into the same small, dark cave. There is no bear in there, only the other hungry caveman ominously waving his club: clearly an awkward situation that requires an exit strategy. In those Paleolithic days, murder was an acceptable way to get out of socially awkward situations. In the cave, one of the cavemen whacks the other over the head with his club and the party is over. Similarly, when male chimpanzees in Uganda encounter a male from another group, they slash his throat and rip his testicles off — just in case he survives and has any future ambitions for reproduction.

Our minds have evolved from the minds of the cavemen, and their minds, in turn, evolved from the minds of their primate ancestors — apes that looked lot like chimpanzees. Some of our mental abilities like our ability for abstract reasoning, language, love or spirituality make us different. But the way primate minds respond to potentially dangerous social situations hasn’t changed in millions of years.

When two rhesus macaques are trapped together in a small cage, they try everything they can to avoid fighting. Moving with caution, acting indifferent and suppressing all the behaviors that could trigger aggression are good short-term solutions to the problem. The monkeys sit in a corner and avoid any random movements that might inadvertently cause a collision, because even a brief touch could be interpreted as the beginning of hostile action. Mutual eye contact must also be avoided because, in monkey language, staring is a threat.

The monkeys look up in the air, or at the ground, or stare at some imaginary point outside the cage. To avoid immediate aggression, and also to reduce stress, an act of communication is needed to break the ice and make it clear to the other monkey that no harm is intended or expected. Macaque monkeys bare their teeth to communicate fear and friendly similarly humans smile

 However people react very differently in a glass elevator. They tend to look out at the view rather than face the doors. They also tend to use the fact that there is a view to break the ice and act more casually. They even speak sometimes which is highly unusual in mundane elevators because people don't like the idea of being overheard by strangers. The presence of a young child in the elevator also serves as an ice breaker. Virtually everyone will smile at child who wants to push the button and who makes a comment about the sensation of movement. 

Future of branding the building in India

With Delhi government interested in building Delhi a sky scrapper city and want to allocate good budget and investments, it is becoming a lucrative sector for the capital city and investors. Infrastructure and real estate are the most sought after sector in which there is a huge potential of growth in India. Plethora of various real estate builders can be seen owing to the unraveled opportunities in India. Marketers have found a new innovative way to explore new ways of marketing

Various evolutions in the field of marketing and branding are always on the move. Though not a very recent phenomenon but still new enough to be applied on large scale is that of building branding. Initiated by DLF long time back in 2009 by branding the DLF’s ship building in Gurgaon by Videocon. This created a good buzz among the people who passed by the way and it became a benchmark for sometime. To some extent the branding of the official building of Dabur is also an iconic move. The building itself is branded in such a manner with the picture of the brand ambassador Amitabh Bachchan as well as a girl holding their product in hand that it is visible from a distance. People recognize the area with the building of Dabur as it is so distinctly seen from distance.

Branding the infinity tower and the ship building of DLF was a new strategy adopted by them, brand the building and create a new revenue generation source. This branding on the exterior of the building has been adopted at several places by DLF. This enables the real estate owner to generate a highly visible space and creates in a pull strategy for the marketers. Marketers purchase the space for quite some time (few months) and then real estate owner again has a chance to invite tender for some other brand.

Why will brands give a thought to this type of marketing over digital or TV or Print

Let us examine the pros and cons of this branding strategy on a broad level:

Pros:

1.       Revenue generation by the real estate owner

2.       High visibility gained by the advertiser

3.       People start identifying with the building by the name of the advertiser

4.       High top of the mind recall of the brand

5.       Breaking the clutter by innovatively spending the money

6.       Life cycle of a banner or an outdoor display is short vis a vis branding building

7.       More effective than earning high TRPs on TV by purchasing even the premium spot

8.       If invested at the right time say e.g. if the recession is around and the company has limited money to put in marketing then this is the best way to catch the eyeballs

Cons:

1.       Frequent change of the brand displayed can lead to confusion or clutter in the mind of the customer

2.       The ROI of the investment cannot be measured

3.       High investment involved

4.       Risk of Over branding

Now, we can classify this phenomenon in stages.

At present it is at a nascent stage, not very much in practice in India. This may be the reason it can be seen as breaking the clutter at present. Very few buildings are worth reminding and hence noticeable. Everybody wants to be noticed and this initiates a cattle race. All the brands shall want to be the part of this race.

The next phase in this new phenomenon can be big building at each and every location start branding themselves and slowly with due course of time this become  a common practice. At this stage, the distinct identity of the buildings will start diminishing after certain period of time. This may lose the requisite attention and hence money which was earlier well spent to break the clutter now will be a general phenomenon. This will affect the revenue generation as it may become a generic phenomenon.

Now, an innovative way of marketing should not go wasted just because of the cat race. What can be done so that this practice do not go in vain as well as not affect the revenue generation? In my opinion a well organized approach can be taken into consideration.

If the areas are divided in a manner a territory is divided things can be at ease. Elaborating on this thought, most of the time there is a circle or crossroad in order to reach a particular sector or a society. If that entire space is owned by any brand say e.g. Nestle, so now Nestle is responsible for maintain the crossroad as well as the neatness to be maintained themselves with full propriety rights to advertise in and around that region. Now branding the particular building in that area is also under the discretion of the brand how it wants to brand the building in its own way or manner. This will ensure that the brand will be there for a longer presence as compared to limited to the building only. Also it will ensure a greater recall value as the visibility is not only limited to building but to its surroundings also.

This will be helpful in earning the CSR initiatives by keeping the surroundings clean and green as well as branding initiatives. Though the thought is farfetched but it can have some critical execution in the near future. Brands who will take initiation in an adequate manner can be a successful advertising story.