Small Gestures...

Giving in to my sweet tooth, I picked up a box of Naturals ice-cream as an add-on to my daily dose of Netflix binging. Nonchalantly, as I unpacked the contents, I came across the ice-cream company’s philosophy. “Purposefully Slow”. Yes, you read that right. The message, etched on every Naturals ice-cream box reads “ Time?that’s our secret recipe. It has always been. We have always taken time to make our ice-creams and now that we are changing, we are changing just the way we make our ice-creams….Slowly”.

And at the side of this note, I noticed a pack of soap strips, neatly stapled to the packaging. The tactic was authentic and evocative, cutting through the clutter of token gestures and cosmetic conversations. The approach was ingenious and subtle. The intention was not just the rush to acquire, but also the quest to delight. “Purposefully Slow” and perhaps clinically efficacious in a world of handy sanitizers and instant disinfectants, I said to myself holding the colorful strips of soap laden paper.

Michael Eisner had once said, “Brand is the product of a thousand small gestures”. Well, here was a “small gesture” that transformed a utility-oriented engagement of ice-cream enjoyment into a reverie about the distant past. The bygone era where soap strips found a place in “travel-ready “ toiletry kits as convenient cleaning agents. I fondly recall using them back in the day during my train journeys returning home from the boarding school.

Experiences that can toggle between gratifying the “here and now” and invoking a dormant memory are like marketing gold dust. In a world of fickle-minded consumers and shifting preferences, memories are cast in time. And that’s where the power of nostalgia lies. These tucked-away time capsules can reincarnate the taste of mother’s secret recipe, the smell of new books, the rhythm from a throwback anthem, the feeling of grandmother’s caress or even the sight of the Sunday living room huddle watching Lord Ram slay Kumbhkaran in Ramayana. The only restriction? Your creative acumen and authentic intent.       .

I polished off the ice-cream and “as expected” it was delectable. Yesterday’s above par taste had become today’s baseline expectation. But what lasted beyond the taste was a nothing but a small gesture - a pack of colorful soap strips and a hint of nostalgia.