Brands and their images

Long ago, branding used to be known as the act in which owners of livestock used to mark their ownership on the poor animals. Today , the word has come of age and has become synonymous with the name of the product. Nowadays people buy a product just because of it’s name and image. Products fly off the shelf in the marts just because of their tags. Brand building is now more of a marketing exercise and a long term process.

In India, certain brands have carved a niche area in the minds of consumers just by the image they portray. For instance,
1)TATA has become synonymous with ” trust” and has a good perception amongst the masses. It tries to pass off as a reliable and reasonable brand. Consider Tata Indica (Indian car).It is priced reasonably in the medium car segment and it is very fuel efficient and has low maintenance cost. Other TATA products like TATA tea have tried to give a very ”clean” and “trustworthy” image. Infact the Jaago Re campaign is actually a Tata tea promotion gimmick.
2)Nokia –“connecting people” .That is right, this Finnish firm which accounts for one-third their country’s GDP has actually connected very well with people here. They attacked the markets with the then new GSM technology and have captured the Indian market as well as our pockets. Right from Nokia 1100 to Nokia N 95, the range is excellent , the phones are sturdy and last long.
3)CocaCola-this fizzy bubbly is here to stay. The main reason behind it’s success is it’s “secret” formula, unknown to even the labour in it’s production facilities. Coca-Cola Corp. is in fact one of the biggest companies in the world. It is the most sought after beverage, simply because this sugar-water mixture tastes great. People identify with coke as “Enjoyment” and ”Good Life” .Bringing cheer to millions this beverage from USA is going to only get bigger.
4)Infosys-Narayan Murthy started this “ethical” company when he thought banias were capturing the software outsourcing market. With Nandan Nilekani and few other simple but hardworking, South Indian Brahmin programmers. Infosys has grown tremendously with time. Today, Infosys is the leader in the IT services market in India. People identify with the company as one with business “integrity” and “ethics”. It exemplifies what a business can achieve without advertising.


In the foreign arena, iconic brands like marlboro signifies “independence”, nike stands for ‘winning” and hence associates only with the best athletes; Rolls Royce is the epitome of luxury. I could go on and on.

Or as someone rightly said, ”Branding is not merely logo, colours or the advertising or the meaningless message on the phone saying ‘you are important to us’ (and then making the poor guy wait for five minutes) or the media coverage .Branding is the total consumer experience and many people do not realise this.”

So if you plan to start your own company, make sure your product or service is good and then make a brand out of it. If you can pull that off, you can then make another product out of the brand. That is what successful conglomerates like PG,HUL,etc did. Let me explain in a little depth. Procter and Gamble were guys who married sisters and they started out selling soap. They built their business around soap and kept growing. As the sales volume multiplied they diversified with good timing. Today, PG is the largest conglomerate on the face of the earth, selling Pringles,Tide,Gillette,blah,blah. You name half the products you buy and there is a high probability that it might be from PG’s stable.

That’s it about brands. I conclude this post with a quote by the legendary Warren Buffett, ”A brand is a moat of the company. It is one of the most intangible asset a company has. It’s value is the most difficult to quantify for any investor and it has become a prime asset on the balance sheet.”

(actually the Oracle of Omaha did not make this quote ..it is mine ...but what the heck!!)