Why are all you Delhi people so aggressive?" she asked, before clarifying, "I'm from Gurgaon."He interjected, "Isn't it the same thing?" She looked at him quizzically. "No." He looked annoyed.A 2017 report ranked London, Singapore, New York and Paris as the world's "best city brands". Mumbai was 73rd, Delhi 78th, and Bangalore was placed 90th.In a connected world, cities are powerful brands that compete with each other to attract people and investment. Good branding can assist in making cities desirable, just as bad branding can make them undesirable destinations. So is there a "city brand" called Gurgaon? Does the city with the third highest per-capita income in the country have the makings of a great city brand?Let me begin with the standard question we ask in brand research: What comes to mind when you hear Gurgaon? Corporate offices? Condominiums? Malls? Cyber Hub Huda Metro station? Waterlogging?For any city to become a good brand, it must possess defining and distinctive characteristics that can be readily identified. And these characteristics reside in its physicality, its people, and the emergent culture.So let's explore the physicality first — the infrastructure and landmarks of Gurgaon. The city's urban landscape has been organised in such a way as to drive convenient and efficient living (convenient, but perhaps indistinguishable and bereft of any character). Areas like Golf Course Road , Sohna Road and Sector 29 have become familiar but they will keep changing as this work-in-progress city takes shape.Places like Dubai, which didn't have historical landmarks, commissioned and created a landmark asset like the Burj Khalifa, which gave them a recognisable identity. Perhaps Gurgaon needs one too.But Gurgaon runs the risk of its brand image being defined by its infrastructural bottlenecks. We associate Shanghai with pollution and Jakarta with its traffic mess. So Gurgaon should be wary. The next defining asset of a city brand is its people — we, the Gurgaonites. Who is a Gurgaonite? What are the emerging traits of this archetype? Are Gurgaonites really different from Delhiites?An image of a Gurgaonite is of someone who works in an MNC, leads a condominium life, runs half marathons, is environmentally conscious, and depends on maids and drivers for smooth functioning of life.But that identity is just starting to take shape. For a young city, we are yet to meet the 'born-and-brought-up-in-Gurgaon' generation but as Bangaloreans or New Yorkers have shown, even immigrant citizen behaviour can create a defining image of its people. How we behave on roads, and as communities — not only online but also offline — will fashion the 'Gurgaonite' brand image.Gurgaonite or Gurugrammer? For a place called Millennium City, doesn't Gurugrammer sound more apt? It's an app-savvy population that has Facebook pages and WhatsApp groups for finding maids and drivers. Our answer to Pandara Road or Paranthe Wali Gali is Zomato and Swiggy, and our closest equivalents to Chawri Bazar and Lajpat Nagar are perhaps Olx or Amazon or Flipkart. Hence, the software coding of Gurugrammer sounds just right.Gurgaon's biggest challenge will be to foster a sense of collective pride and a shared but characteristic city culture. For that to happen, Gurgaon needs its own cultural watering holes. It needs its own lit fest. And it needs its own IPL team, perhaps backed by a Gurgaon-based company (if Pune can have one, why can't we?). And why stop there? Delhi has chhole bhature and Mumbai has vada pav. Wouldn't it be great if a chef created a signature street food of Gurgaon?As a young city, Gurgaon is well placed to create its own brand but it will be some time before we will be able to say, proudly, "I am a Gurugrammer, not a Delhiite."

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