``Two things will happen. One: You will not have channel preference but programme preference, for example. And two: as consumers get more choicesthey will become more impatient. So the choice to accept or reject will be immediate,'' said Suhel Seth. So, out of the three kinds of brands-lazy, active and forecasting-the smartest brands will be those ``who not only speak today,but are also the voice of tomorrow.''

According to Seth, four variables will influence the brand preference of consumers: peer pressure; media implosion; social image; and sharper risk assessment of the brand-buying decision. ``Relationship marketing is now giving way to experiential marketing,'' said Seth, ``where the experience stems right from the pre-purchase stage, to using the product, to dumping the used product.''

``For each stage, the language constantly changes,'' said Seth. A brand must therefore face: the challenge of information overload; the new price-value equation where it is not just the tangible and intangible benefits but also the overall experience that will drive the purchase decision; and enormous investment in the brand process, not in terms of valuation of shares, but in terms of brand value. Added Seth: ``A brand's ultimate duty is not `need fulfillment', but `experience satisfaction'.''

It's all in the jeans
Concurs Capital Advertising's director, HV Subramaniam:``Brands are like people you form relationships with. The ultimate brands are personal-psychological as well as physical. They make you feel better, different, bigger, smaller, happier, more comfortable, more confident. And they reach parts other brands only dream of.''

He should know. Subramaniam recalls how one day, he heard a plaintive cry-``And then I felt all alone...bare...as though a part of me had left me''-only to discover that it was his teenage son complaining bitterly that his Levi's jeans had been sent for a wash by his mother!

Little wonder then that Subramaniam stresses: ``It's the emotional foundation which is essential to forging a relationship with a brand. Unless there is a meaningful relationship, the brand stops speaking to the consumer. Brands which speak the consumer's language, understand his/her attitudes and care to appreciate the consumer's state of the mind, build this relationship.''

Subramaniam thus defines the impact of the many lifestyle changes-demographic, occupational,social structure-through a troika of ``entertainment, communication and information''. So while satellite television has beamed entertainment into homes it has also brought exposure to global lifestyles; shaped attitudes to music, fashion, fitness and health; and allowed marketers to catalyse the creation of desires and needs. Says Subramaniam: ``That has opened up new positions for products and brands.''

While new communication technologies-like the mobile phone-are changing the very way business is done, the `infoplosion'-fuelled by the PC and Internet-has the potential to change almost everything.

Says Subramaniam: ``Brands that recognise the changing lifestyles and adapt and evolve in the way they position themselves, the tone and voice they speak, and the personality they create, are the brands which will succeed in furthering the relationship they have created with the consumer.''

The change curve
``Change is evolutionary and seldom revolutionary,'' cautions Rajesh Pant, COO, SonyEntertainment. So while it is difficult to pinpoint a change or predict it with any degree of accuracy, Pant instead prefers to track the lifestyle pyramid for the early indicators of change.

On top of the pyramid are the ``pioneers''-usually the youth who are quick to change and the first to experiment. Following next are the ``fashion conscious materialists'' who bring about change through the mode of fashion and lifestyle. The ``imitative socialists'' are the large mass which follow in a herd and finally, at the base of the pyramid are the ``slow-to-change laggards'' who are often the harbingers of the next round of change.

The evolution of change thus follows a parabola of pressure, over time. It starts with `uninformed pessimism'' which rises sharply to ``informed pessimism'' and then flattens out to the ``check-out phase''. Once the consumer has experienced that, he quickly moves to ``hopeful realism'' and ``informed optimism'' till he reaches a point where the pessimism is minimised with ``completeinformation''. Says Pant: ``The challenge is to smooth out the graph as much as possible in such a way that the consumer moves quickly from uninformed pessimism to complete information.''

According to Pant, some of the forces of change are: nature, process, roles, resilience, commitment, resistance, culture and synergy. But the factors which are affecting lifestyle changes in India currently are: technology (the Internet, for example); media (the knowledge economy); increased affluence; and a burgeoning and overestimated middle class.

To that extent, there are brands which have learnt to speak a new language as a consequence of changing lifestyles: DeBeers for example now touts aspirational values to youth instead of to the middle-aged, as potential diamond buyers. Raymond's personality statement has changed from a middle-aged executive to a young upwardly mobile executive.

The new Braun advertising is based on the convenience factor-but with very in-your-face imagery of a man checking when the womanshaved her legs last.

Similarly, Levi's talks to the youthful brat pack-as well as the brat in each consumer. Hyundai flogs Shah Rukh Khan not as a star but for his cult status-in terms of a celebrity endorser. And in health styles, its the deceptively homely granny of Ayurvedic Concepts who talks as knowledgeably about software and the Spice Girls-as about ayurvedic benefits.

Says Pant: ``The impact of all this on the future will be a borderless world, where the social values are going to be put under intense scrutiny. Marketing people will therefore need to respond to social changes.'' The secret then, for coherent brandspeak? Anticipate and leverage the language of change-and the brand will speak for itself.