Advertising and the Navarasa

The Navarasas are the nine emotions spoken of in our scriptures.

If you’ve had a dalliance with Indian theatre, classical dance, mythology or storytelling, you’ve probably encountered them already.

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Advertising, after all, is just a conversation between the brand and its consumer.

And where there’s a conversation, there’s always a rasa involved.

Communication has always been about the Navarasas.

We have for decades been focusing on what to say.

Communicate the product benefit in an interesting, entertaining manner.

In Hindi, rasa hona is to have interest in.

Something boring is called neeras.

Something is interesting because it’s feeds an emotion in you.

If a brand has to hold the interest of the audience, it has to say the right thing in the right rasa. Consistently at that.

The intent always is to say something that leaves an impact on the mind.

To make a statement.

The most powerful brand campaigns are the ones that have always found their rasa and stayed true to it.

No matter how much advertising changes, evolves, and reinvents itself, it still stays the same.

It tugs at heartstrings. And it makes people feel. Feel the nine rasas.

Our Indian aesthetic tradition defines the nine fundamental emotions.

These have been depicted in dance, drama, literature and all forms of artistic expression. And this concept can be applied to advertising.

The rasa is the aesthetic experience evoked in the person receiving the communication.

This concept lights up the path to the strategy, the creative and the execution.

While the archetype tells a brand what to be, the rasa guides what emotional experience to create.

When the rasa becomes the filter, the communication flows more naturally and resonates more deeply.

#Branding #emotionalbranding #brandacrchetypes #consumerbehaviour #marketingcommunication #advertising

Author: Madhavi Kalra has done 25 years in advertising in most WPP agencies, across brands and categories. She believes that brand communication is but a conversation between the brand and the consumer. Formats come and go, but the conversation goes on.