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Lesson #3: Make a solid brand your company’s backbone

Article Overview: Mallya might like to joke that he is “The King of Good Times,” but it is no joke at all. That slogan, and Mallya himself, represent billions of dollars to the UB group. “I am the brand ambassador,” he says.

Lesson #3: Make a solid brand your company’s backbone

Mallya might like to joke that he is "The King of Good Times," but it is no joke at all. That slogan, and Mallya himself, represent billions of dollars to the UB group. "I am the brand ambassador," he says. When Mallya's father turned down his idea of relaunching the Kingfisher Beer brand, he decided to take things into his own hands.

"I went to various colleges and interviewed youngsters, 17, 18, 19 years old," he recalls. "I asked them if they drank beer, what kind of beer they drank. And I found out very quickly that the youngsters in India had a whole lot of aspiration. They wanted to live a more free, more western-oriented life. Because India, since independence has been a very controlled, sort of socialist economy. So I decided that Kingfisher would be a lifestyle brand, positioned on a lifestyle platform."

That was the beginning of a branding process that would catapult UB to the global playing field, and Mallya into the public eye even more than he already was.

"We started sponsoring music events, we started sponsoring sporting events, we started putting Kingfisher into yachting, and fashion," says Mallya. "So Kingfisher over the last 30 years has grown into a sort of generic name for lifestyle in India. I mean, if you talk to anyone on the street and ask them about Kingfisher, the first thing that will come to mind is the good life or the good times."

Mallya has been described as a "man with money who knows how to spend it," and someone who enjoys living "like a maharaja." He splurges his money in public, sponsors some of India's top derby championships, owns a yacht once owned by Elizabeth Taylor, has a personal Boeing business jet that he uses to travel around the world, owns more than 26 luxury homes around the world and over 200 horses, and likes to party hard at night.

But at 50 years old, living a flamboyant lifestyle is no accident on Mallya's part. His association with the rich, trendy and luxurious have impacted his business brands as the public face of all of his business ventures. Indeed, Mallya is a great example of a business leader that has become the most vocal ambassador of his brand.

But Mallya's image is not all just smoke and mirrors. He follows it up with hard work, and is known among friends and colleagues and someone who is willing to go the distance for his work.

Michael Laybourn, founder of Mendocino Brewing Co., credits Mallya with having saved his firm by giving it an infusion of capital and putting it in charge of Kingfisher's operations in the US. Once, Laybourn shipped the company's newest beer from its brewery in Ukiah to Hopland, down the Russian River. But he did it on a raft, and Mallya felt compelled to sail right along with the beer.

"Vijay went along with it," says Laybourn. "He even left his entourage behind."

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Article Tags: ambassador, backbone, billions of dollars, good times, slogan, ub group



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