The architecture of Brand IIT

IIT has become a globally recognised brand these days. Branding principles can be applied to it. There are four steps to enhancing brands in general.

First is to define it, second to sharply articulate its distinctive feature, third is to develop a brand plan and fourth is to define how to implement it.

Defining the IIT brand

It is useful to recall the circumstances in which it was born, and subsequently nurtured. Although the Nalini Ranjan Sarkar Committee had submitted its report in 1946, it was after independence that action was taken on the report.

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Therefore, it was free India's first professional institution, conceived of and built by Indians for the unique developmental needs of a free India.

The N R Sarkar Committee used global benchmarking to define standards without knowing the term by stating that "the proposed institutes should attain a standard not less than Manchester and Massachusetts." There was value seen in the use of international faculty as evidenced by the presence of Professor R A Kraus and Professor H Tischner in the original academic team.

The word brand was not used those days, but Brand IIT evolved through the consistent and credible actions of the early leaders. The vision was articulated in very rich words by N R Sarkar at the time of the inauguration in August 1951 when he wrote, "IIT must build a high tradition, on which its future success must depend. . ." The first director, Dr J C Ghosh, said about the skill to be taught, ". . .capacity to organise thought, to correlate facts and ideas logically, and express them well. . ."

To assess the results of 51 years of IIT, one has relied on published literature, as well as on a specially-designed Quick Brand Survey (QBS). In the QBS, 50 IIT-ans were interviewed from all the institutes, across age groups, but mostly from the corporate world.

The alumni have spoken very evocatively about what this brand is all about -- India's biggest, global brand; after IIT, it was a cakewalk at IIMC, Harvard and Carnegie Mellon. Narayana Murthy explained how his son could not secure admission into IIT, so he went to the Ivy League School at Cornell instead! CBS anchor Lesley Stahl described the summation of Harvard, MIT and Princeton as representing an idea of the status of IIT.

During the QBS interview, IIT-ans were asked about their top-of-the-mind, spontaneous recall with respect to IIT. Four themes emerged -- superlative students, door opener, meritocracy, not just studies. These are exemplified by actual quotations that are very evocative and powerful.

In the QBS, respondents were asked to describe the images in their minds. They used words and expressions that meant speed, brightness, energy, life, hope and so on. The imagery is of a resplendent island in an ocean which is only lightly bathed in faint moonlight. Perhaps exaggerated, but real imagery! In responding to what feelings IIT evoked in them, respondents spoke in paradoxical terms -- superiority, pride and accomplishment accompanied by humility!

When asked what unique contributions IIT had made to their development, they chose five themes: problem-solving attitude, education to handle life, high standards, spirit of community and challenging. It is difficult to achieve these even by design, so truly they are fantastic outcomes.

If somehow we could replicate these outcomes in more educational institutions in this country, truly it can be said that we would have an unstoppable India. Let us remember one thing about marketing and branding. It does not matter how much other people agree or disagree with these views of IIT-ans, the purveyors or carriers of Brand IIT. These words used by IIT-ans reflect a reality about their own mindsets and attitudes. And that is what defines the essence of the IIT brand.

The distinctive feature

The unique achievement has been that it has become free India's industrial leadership institute. The mandate of this institution has been to achieve the rapid industrialisation of the nation through the development of outstanding industrial leaders in three areas -- research into engineering sciences, development of industrial technology and development of industrial leadership.

IIT has emerged as a world in itself, inhabited by a tribe of people with their own religion and culture. In general, tribes have invisible and visible manifestations of their unique identity. The invisible one is their core values -- their very essence, unquestioned beliefs. The visible manifestations are three -- their rules/rituals, their heroes and their symbols. Rules/rituals are the guidelines that tribe members are required to follow and the prescription of socially essential activities, even if they are functionally superfluous.

Heroes are the role models, real or imaginary, they personify the mental picture of what they stand for. Symbols are pictures, objects, gestures, words -- for instance, the bindi, the sari or the namaste for Indians -- widely used in the hospitality industry. All these visible and invisible manifestations of the tribe lead to practices and behaviour.

Social anthropologists refer to the Geert Hofstede model which shows how the values are the innermost circle, surrounded by rules/rituals and heroes in two concentric circles and with symbols appearing in the outermost circle. All this leads to the behaviour and practices of the tribe. Brand IIT is represented in the Hofstede model. The core values are middle-classness and meritocracy. All IIT-ans recall how it was a great leveller of economic, social and linguistic disparities of the students entering the institute.

The rules/rituals have been captured as the Ten Commandments. The heroes include two sportsmen, Ramanathan Krishnan and Sourav Ganguly, both very middle-class; two brilliant scientists, Albert Einstein and Vikram Sarabhai; two politicians, Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi, both urbane and loved; two actors, Om Puri and Naseeruddin Shah, who rose due to sheer talent and merit, with no connection or wealth.

Symbols are not too many: the JEE, the cycle, the campus. Clearly there is scope for a tie, badge, logo, music and other symbols. The behavioural effect of all this is that the IIT-an is constantly seeking excellence, he is pushing himself beyond the bar.

Developing a brand plan

Thus, a winning proposition has been very clearly established, viz. IIT is India's foremost industrial leadership development institution. It cannot be assured that place in the future unless it follows a virtuous cycle of building the brand. No brand can be strengthened without continuous improvement of the basic product in tune with changing market needs. IIT administrations have their work cut out for them.

Four actions leap to one's attention: to continue the meritocracy in admissions, to improve the quality of faculty and facilities, to strengthen industry linkages and finally to delineate the orientation of research and industrial leadership. IIT directors and faculty have many ideas for product improvement; McKinsey has prepared a blue print, so I will not go into details. I would rather focus on the less explored areas of nurturing the brand.

Of the many rules of branding, I have chosen only five rules today. IIT has done exceptionally well in three of them -- that is, the rule of leadership, of category, and of focus. On the rule of perception (continuing to fight for product and perceptional superiority) and the rule of resource (raising the intellectual and financial resource to fuel the plan), there is an unfinished agenda. Some focus on this agenda is called for.

IIT now needs the symbols of a unified logo, tie, badge and even an anthem. We should recall that although Indian history has been recorded for 25 centuries, for 20 of those centuries, we were an agglomeration of regional kingdoms held together only by culture and trade. Only during the Maurya and Gupta empires for short periods and latterly during Mughal and British periods, and of course, post-1947, we have been a unified single brand called India.

It is perfectly normal for symbols to follow unification. It is, I believe, time to have a single IIT identity. Let the success stories about our heroes be told through the media as has begun to happen. Let the IIT values/symbols be strengthened by publishing books about IITs and IIT-ans. In ten key cities, there could be an annual IIT Endowment Lecture through a tie-up with the Institution of Engineers or the Management Association. Future students could build their role models by the IITs inviting distinguished alumni back to the campus.

An existing virtuous cycle of networking with alumni, the brand carriers, needs to be strengthened. Through them, IITs can generate funds for both product and brand improvement. Like at Harvard and Princeton, there should be appointed a Dean of External Relations, who should be a tremendously charismatic networker with the alumni. He should build a data base of alumni who are High Net Worth and Prominent.

The undergraduate B Tech alumni tend to have the strongest emotional ties because they join when most impressionable, away from home perhaps for the first time, and form special bonds and communities through the numerous campus activities. The Dean should bear this in mind. On a lighter note, but not entirely flippantly, the Dean of External Relations also needs to understand the Newtonian mechanics pertaining to alumni donations.

Making it happen

Alumni in the US and India have already set up a pan-IIT Task Force. Its mandate is inter alia to develop and oversee the implementation of a detailed plan for Brand IIT. Almost every premier institution of yesteryear has declined or atrophied within my career span -- the attractiveness of a defence career, the IAS, the legal profession. The IITs still command the numero uno status and more people aspire for IITs than ever before.

The only other thing that matches this demand is that for money and sex! India has not created too many globally recognised symbols and institutions after independence -- I, IT and IIT ("I" stands for Indiculture like Mahesh Yogi, Ravi Shankar, Shekhar Kapur, etc) among them. So far as I know, all have been fuelled by enterprise, avoidance of government interference, and meritocracy. Prosperity to Brand IIT.

The article is based on a presentation at the IIT-50 conference at Bangalore on February 26, 2003.

The writer is executive director, Tata Sons Ltd. The views expressed in this article are personal.