The Hindu Business Line : `Branding has become all-pervasive today'

"A BRAND is a mere thought and the thought is owned by the consumer in his mind and not by a company or by an advertising agency," Mr Harish Bijoor, CEO of Harish Bijoor Ltd, said.

Elaborating on the concept of brands at the national brand seminar organised by the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, he added that brands in today's world have "become omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient, which makes them even comparable to God."

The two-day national seminar on `Building brands in Indian markets' was organised by IIM Kozhikode and the All-India Council for Technical Education, in the background of the sudden change in the paradigm of business due to the adoption of free market economy and the emergence of large multinational brands with additional brand value to be delivered to the customers.

And these new brands are backed up by financial muscle power and technology, unheard of in earlier years. The seminar was meant to highlight the whole gamut of strategies followed by Indian brand managers in building brands in the Indian markets.

Highlighting the generative and degenerative aspects of brands, Mr K.S. Ramesh, CEO of Kavincare, who was the chief guest at the function, said that the most generative aspect of a brand is to give value for money to the consumer rather than to give substandard and low priced products.

Though price discounts can generate short-term market share, only quality and value for money products will ensure long-term strategy to increase market share.

Mr Ramesh talked of his "vast and rich experience" having worked in FMCG majors like P&G and creating a pan-Indian brand identity in Chik shampoo, that has penetrated the rural markets and is the No. 2 brand in the country in that segment.

Inaugurating the function, Mr B.K. Menon, Chairman of Kochi Refineries Ltd, said that India as a brand is very weak within the country, while it is gaining greater currency abroad.

Mr Tapan Panda, Chief Coordinator and Chairman of management development programme at IIMK, welcomed the participants to the seminar.

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