It seems that everyone in India who has anything to do with marketing or branding has seen the LG Innovation Story. The Corporate Brand Film created to celebrate 21 years of the brand has already seen over 116 million views on YouTube. The film is beautifully made, shot, emoted, and set to music. It tells an uplifting story. It tugs at the heartstrings and shines a spotlight on some of the relationships most precious to all of us -with our parents and our children. But for all that, it fails at the most elemental level.

In today’s world of uber-competition and hyper-distracted consumers, people form enduring relationships with brands based on a set of shared values. In that light, the fundamental duty of a corporate brand film is to showcase what drives the brand -it’s Purpose. Why does the brand do everything it does? What is at the heart of the brand’s reason for being -that inherent positive valence that makes it uniquely itself? The LG film makes no attempt to explain or reveal this essential truth. It does not say how, driven by its Purpose, it is, or wants to, make a positive change in the lives of its consumers and the society at large. The references to Innovation are entirely unconvincing without being framed in this context. The focus on the emotions ends up being distracting and ultimately overwhelms any real glimpse of the essence of the brand that reveals itself.

This ends up being an accomplished piece of work, but ultimately pointless, like a finely-engineered machine tool being delivered to someone who really wants to listen to classical music. It’s a great watch -but do we really know, or love LG any better than we did before seeing it?

(This Perspective was originally published on June 20, 2018 by Shekhar Badve on LinkedIn)