A city's image & what Mother Teresa did


Aroup Chatterjee's opinionated rant against Mother Teresa in the ET (the guy has written a book on the subject it seems) has less to do with what Mother did while she was alive. In fact the raving is probably more representative of the anger Aroup is harboring. Anger at what Mother did and how that has sullied the 'image' of (I am assuming) the beloved city, Kolkata. Thanks (or no thanks) to Mother and Missionaries of Charity, Kolkata for long will be associated with poverty and misery (unfairly, I admit).

Aroup, I believe resents that. Therefore the rant.

Aroup's rant is a lesson to marketers. One that should teach you that a brand won't always end up being perceived the way you want it to be. That what will matter in the end will only be what consumers see and say about your brand. Its the dumb marketer who blames others for lousy perceptions the brand gets saddled with in a marketplace. The smart one knows how to craft the 'right image' using available stimuli, and by leveraging and adapting to the social context the brand operates in.

As for Aroup and his like, I fervently wish they had put Mother out of business by ringing in all round prosperity to the beloved city of Kolkata. That would have ensured Mother had no one to care for. She would have then shut shop and gone back to where she came from. That she didn't isn't telling as much about her as it is the city she 'cared' for. 

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