When Captain Kirk declared ‘Space - the final frontier’ all those decades ago an entire generation was inspired to gaze skywards and imagine. In many ways the iconic series Star Trek wonderfully dovetailed with NASA’s historic missions and portrayed a glorious fictional extension to a great story already rendering itself in human consciousness. But to limit the influence of this magnificent idea to just the realms of entertainment would be doing it a gross injustice. For the exploits of the starship Enterprise intrude into many other aspects.

From presenting an optimistic world view in an uncertain time to triggering a whole new revolution in technology, Star Trek made telling contributions to societal thought processes. And in re-examining this legendary entertainment franchise as it plays out in cinema houses across the country yet again, one might discover some instructive lessons pertinent to the branding world. In these days where branding inspiration is as elusive as stumbling upon an intelligent alien civilisation, embarking on cerebral flights of fancy, well and truly outside the confines of the boardroom, could be the critical mission which present day branding teams need to undertake.

Here are just four milestones (of a possible several) any branding cadet might unearth, as she sails along this eventful voyage …

The totally offbeat path

Star Trek truly blew across American television screens like a breath of fresh air. At a time when general entertainment options on TV usually confined themselves to living room kind of settings, Star Trek not just left the house, it traversed way beyond the planet. One can just begin to imagine the intellectual chasm between the conversations generated by standard daily soaps, and those catalysed by Star Trek . In bravely breaking away from the conventional wisdom and established practice of the time, Star Trek managed to carve its own distinct niche.

In the present times of market commoditisation, brands sometimes need to have the courage to deliberately stand apart. By throwing open an entirely different perspective, they give their distracted consumers reason to make direct eye contact with what they have on offer. When Pepsi first staked its claim on the ‘younger generation’, it was travelling contrary to the prevailing mindset of targeting everybody. But this daring positioning added a differentiated fizz to its personality, and it has never looked back ever since.

Arriving at the perfect time

In his illuminating book The Power of Cult Branding Mathew Ragas puts forth an interesting theory. According to him, one of the primary reasons for the fanatical following that Star Trek managed to develop was that it surfaced during an extremely bleak period of human history – the Cold War. In the context of these times, it presented a story of much needed hope for the human race. Star Trek was set in a future time, when humans had gone much beyond their petty internal squabbles, and were exploring the expanse of the cosmos.

Timing, as many cultured batsmen would agree, is everything. And it is no different when it comes to the launch of both brands and categories. From riding the wave of a new consumer trend to exploiting a key change in the demographic, or leveraging a change in government policy, this specific aspect has many considerations. The rise of the reality show entertainment genre in India is perhaps also down to these shows airing in front of an audience far more assured of their own place in the world. It would be interesting to speculate on the fate of these programmes just a few decades ago. Unlike the prodigious Enterprise, few, if ever, would have reached warp speed, when it came to taking off.

Nurturing co-passengers

What is truly stirring about the Star Trek saga is the role the fan base has played in its mythology. When NBC was threatening to cancel the show, it was the fans who got together in an unprecedented letter-writing campaign to persuade the channel to do otherwise. Star Trek conventions, organised by devotees of the franchise, were informal gatherings where the legend of this series was further fuelled. A similar role was also carried out by fan-based content on the series, especially on the Web. Star Trek has truly succeeded in getting those on board to fly the story of the brand a lot further.

In an interactive era, those brands which have an ‘open source’ kind of framework where consumers can also actively participate are the ones which are set to do much better. When audiences feel that their participation is being valued and acknowledged, they become true evangelists for the brand, and the burden of marketing itself is taken off the shoulders of the company. The aura and mystique of the Harley Davidson brand has undoubtedly been taken many miles further by its riders. Initially nudged by rides organised by the company (like Route 69), Harley Davidson owners everywhere began to take the initiative to create their own events. And every such forum kept revving the engine of the brand’s equity to extremely good effect.

Perfect balance

Finally, beyond all that transpired otherwise, a huge factor in the success and popularity of Star Trek was the simmering chemistry between its two male leads, Captain Kirk and Mr Spock. Two friends perennially engaged in a conflict of ideas. This was accentuated by the fact that the earthling Kirk leveraged emotion and gut feel to add an edge to his thinking, whereas the Vulcan Spock usually was always at his cold and logical best. But as the two ideologies grappled, the Enterprise’s decision-making process was always a sound one, exquisitely poised with inputs from both worlds.

The call for innovation in many of the branding processes is a strident one today. Teams need to brainstorm on a regular basis as to how specific aspects of their marketing mix can take a quantum leap. Often these tend to be lopsided debates, with either hard-nosed rationality or blue sky creativity taking centre stage. Yet, to truly uncover something of value, conflict is necessary – between the imaginative and the evaluative, or the creative and the logical. It is extremely important to involve another form of thinking. Only when an appreciation of a completely different point of view begins to get fostered within the team culture does the journey to breathtaking brand innovation truly begin.

As the Star Trek franchise gets rebooted with a new film, it is perhaps necessary to do the same with our thinking patterns, when it comes to the craft of branding. Only by seeking inspiration from far beyond the settled paradigms of our domains can we truly usher in freshness in our functioning. And then to re-phrase Captain Kirk’s words, ‘the brand can truly go where no brand has gone before’.

Vinay Kanchan is a creative thinking trainer and an independent brand consultant.

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