When Amitabh Bachhan became Vijay in 1973, brooding, intense, hurt, angry, focused, determined to take things in his own hands, he became the anti-hero who instantly appealed to millions of Indians. His success came as a surprise to many because he was till then a struggling actor, uncouth, gangly, not knowing what to do his hands. In the deepest sense, however, it was no surprise; not that Amitabh Bachhan succeeded but that Vijay did.

The early 70s in India was a period of great strife and social unrest, with respect for authority at it’s lowest. Law and order must have been at its nadir. Inaction characterized everything. Nothing seemed to move. Contempt for the corrupt in uniform was open and uninhibited. Existing role models had ceased to be inspiration. The space was ripe for someone who cocked a snook at authority and preferred in stead to take the bull by its horns.

Into that space walked Amitabh, alias Vijay. The overwhelming reception he received showed the empty space that was crying for an inhabitant. It is a tribute to Salim and Javed’s fine sense of the times that they created a character out of people’s suppressed anger, deeply felt resentment and the desire to bring about a change rather than wait for it to happen. They touched the right nerve. But all that creativity would have probably come to nought but for Amitabh’s great acting skills which gave a convincing body to such a character. You can never run away from the body; an idea has to take shape. Both together create success. Thuraiya was the inspiration for the Hutch “our network follows you” advertisement. Thuraiya was a great concept, but Hutch was effective execution.

Much as the subsequent history of this outstanding actor makes a great story, we will pursue other things. We will pursue space as in something that is ready to receive, hold. Just as India of the early 70s was waiting for a Vijay, nothing can enter unless its space is ready. A good marketing professional has a nose for this ‘space’.

It is of course more than a question of nose. When Mark McCormack wrote ‘What they don’t teach you at the Harvard Business School’, he created a new space for books of that kind and size. However, it didn’t unleash a flood of books of that kind and size. It was to be many years later with “Who moved my cheese?” by Dr Spencer that this space would be revisited and populated.

Dr Spencer’s book is more than a matter of size. It’s an intuitive response to the stress that defines the lives of most people. All of us struggle to cope with something or the other. And people are always looking for help. Is it any surprise that some of the largest selling books are of the “How to” nature?

Literature and theatre teach us the importance of the poignance of space. So do religion and philosophy. When you read Anna Karenina you can actually feel Anna growing into another, full-fledged woman, because Tolstoy devotes an increasing amount of space to her as the book progresses. He is creating her space step by step; it comes across as genuine and her very own, something she earns by the way she has chosen to live.

At the other end of the pole is Lord Jim whose entire life changes in a moment and who becomes instantly a different man. He has leapfrogged into another level of character. Not for him the luxury of gradual build-up with some defining, rupturing moment where you metamorphose into someone else. His new space was created in a moment.

Such is the case even in the world of business where products, services and brands play characters. Marketers and brand owners can learn a lot from a ‘reading’ of fictional (and real life) characters. Finding the open space that is ready to receive (and let flourish) is a skill that marketers would give an arm and a leg to possess. We read the world around us to draw relevant meanings that help us navigate better, and towards a goal. If we didn’t, we end up misreading and pay a price.

Similar to fictional (and, may we add, real life) characters, products and brands may evolve into a new space or may catapult themselves or be catapulted into a new space. There are times when change in your space comes from without. For example, when wire agencies became a regular and continuous source of information to subscribers, newspapers changed, as products, even if they remained the same. Someone else began occupying the space which once used to be exclusively theirs. Or the growth of 24-hour news channels. Consumers begin expecting different things from you. As they see it, your space has changed. Remember the story of how to make a drawn line shorter without changing it? You draw another, longer line.

Finding anchor points is vital to an enjoyment of space. Or be able to tolerate deep disturbances. Just as individuals and groups learn to find those (emotional) anchor points, brands learn to do it too. If their owners let them, that is. Some brands may resemble children; they have to be shepherded. The adult brands find their own. Good marketing or brand sensibilities is knowing which brands are what. Successful owners understand and practise all that goes with good space.

Moov for example found its space amidst an amorphous mass. And having found it, deepened its space because it became the anchor point for its population (women), lending it an emotional space that rivals would find tough to disturb. An emotional space permits no squatters. You will be unseated in no time.

In a fundamental sense, space is linked to time, such as when we say a product is ahead of its time. You cannot artificially create space; it has to find its time. Ceasefire is an excellent example of a product (yes, product) that answered what must have been latent consumer needs.

Isn’t this merely segmenting, in other words? The notion of space is perhaps a better means of articulating than segments, because we live in a world which is ever so frequently torn asunder. Space is a confluence of many elements. As Marx would say, the concrete is a concrete because it is the result of many determinations.

Creating space is more than positioning. Positioning tends to get frozen; spaces can and do shift, with every disturbance, self-inflicted or induced from without. Equally important, spaces can accommodate. Notwithstanding what Jack Trout may say about the many variations of Colgate, it has managed to create and hold on to a population that resides on the varied Colgate space.

Thinking along space also lends dynamism because space is inextricably linked to and with time.

USP Age magazine 2004