First things first. I have not watched Eye to Eye’s in its entirety. I haven’t even clicked on any link sent to me about Angel. These two realities still don’t change the fact that Taher Shah is a better brand than any other one launched in the last few years. What difference does my viewing a YouTube video make to someone who has millions of followers anyway?

The truth is that every single brand health KPI you wish your brand had achieved to gain market leadership, Taher Shah has achieved. Let’s have a look at how Taher Shah outperforms your brand:

His product and marketing are disruptive
We know that no publicity is bad publicity. We know that in today’s social media driven age, word of mouth is a far stronger communication tool than advertising. Now think about it. How many people voluntarily talk about your brand at work? What is your brand? Just another packaged milk or sugar based drink or mobile phone package. We have tons of those and your brand does not stand out against any other. Now think Taher Shah. Even the busiest workaholics have seen the videos and have talked about them to someone or another. And it is not as though the industry Taher Shah operates in does not have competition. There are tons of singers and song released every month. We still remember and shamelessly hum the 2013 version of Eye to Eye. It is our guilty pleasure.

His follow up campaign is even better than the first one
You have launched your brand with great campaign and few months down the line you do a follow up campaign and some advertising critic in a marketing magazine accuses you of not living up to the brand promise. Taher Shah has not faced this. While your brand struggles to deliver on its promise in follow up campaigns or product offerings, Taher Shah exceeds the expectations of his audience. People who thought Taher Shah’s follow up could be anywhere near Eye to Eye have been hiding in caves like Chelsea fans since last week. Taher Shah has not only delivered; he has over delivered and proved he was not a one hit wonder. #Respect.

Bigger brands are copying him
As a rule of thumb, big brands face counterfeit issues and parallel imports from one market to another. How many times have you seen a newly launched brand copied by other brands in the first year of launch? Think again. Think hard. Think Hrithik Roshan dedicating Eye to Eye to Ranveer Singh on his birthday and Ranveer Singh uploading a YouTube video of copying not only the song but Taher Shah’s appearance as well. That is counterfeit right there. And it doesn’t stop there. A couple of days ago, Ali Zafar produced his own version of Taher Shah’s Angel.

Has Taher Shah copied any of them? No. He is original; they are copying him. Too bad, nobody is copying your products in the first week of your launch. You are definitely doing something wrong. Learn from Taher Shah.

His vision is clearer than your brand’s
Over and over again you see a brand trying out a line extension that is too stretched and fails miserably. This is because it lacks the vision and clarity of where it wants to go. That is not the case with Taher Shah. If you visit his website you will see how he has outlined his vision and future expansion plans; he plans to start his own TV channel.

Now, who wouldn’t want to subscribe to an Eye to Eye network? I can so visualise Ali Zafar and Ranveer Singh hosting their own shows on E2E TV. Let the sponsorships flow in.

Admit it, Taher Shah is everything you budding and seasoned brand marketers wish your brand could be, but is not. There is only one Taher Shah and he has established that he is ahead of the curve. We will realise his true worth as a marketer only when we see what he is doing without a bias. Until then, the angel’s character speaks like a flower.