Brand Ambassador for Durga Puja

These days we have become accustomed to the concept of brand ambassadors to promote products and services, even some states of India have brand ambassadors, this is relatively a new trend, but a brand ambassador for a Durga Puja is not what one would normally expect. In this year’s Durga Puja the organizers of Sarbojanik Durga Puja, D.N. Nagar, Link Road, Andheri West, Mumbai appointed Rituparna Sengupta, a well-known actress of Bengali cinema, as brand ambassador. The first thought that came to my mind was, where is the brand? This puja does not even have a logo and this is only their second year.

Advertising at the puja venues are common but having a brand ambassador is new to me. It was reported in The Times of India (Mumbai edition) dated October 13, 2010 that the organizers chose Rituparna Sengupta for the “connect she forges between Bengali and non-Bengali audiences”. Although I did not see a single banner of the actress inside the pandal, there were plenty of them placed at regular intervals on the main road outside. I wondered why anybody would want a brand ambassador for a local Durga Puja, perhaps they wish to attract more people to their pandal.

This brings to my mind the Lokhandwala Durga Puja which is not very far from D. N. Nagar; it is hugely popular and has over the years evolved into a brand. The Times of India is its chief sponsor; there are sponsors and advertisers as well. The efforts of its founder president Abhijit Bhattacharya, the well-known playback singer, have clearly paid off.

The organizers of Sarbojanik Durga Puja, D.N. Nagar could begin with their Puja a distinct name and designing a good logo for next year’s Durga Puja or for future Pujas, this would be the first step to creating a brand identity.