The Business of Branding
The Economic Times - June 2001

One of the things that 10 years of liberalisation has produced is far more respect in the non FMCG part of India Inc. for the Brand. In the era before, when production capacity was the biggest marketing advantage, brand building was regarded as some sort of art form that fmcg companies indulged in to sell dreams to gullible consumers.

Nowadays it is a pleasant change to read the head of a leading software business say "the current market slowdown is a defining moment - companies will have to have stronger brand skills and financials to win" or the CEO of a B2B chemicals businesses say that they are losing market share to a MNC competitor because "they have a stronger brand".

However there is still some misconception that the brand is a magic add-on thing to be built and managed at a different plane from the rest of the business. The mental picture is that of a separately built plug - in module that is fitted onto the business, related with it but not quite connected to it. And the dominant view of the brand building process is about deciding logo colours, copy baseline and choosing billboards.

Lets look at some good Indian brands that the last decade has produced (and despite all the breast beating about deep pocket MNCs coming and destroying Indian brands, the list is impressive). Jet Airways, Infosys, ICICI (in its transformed avatar), Bisleri, Zee TV, Nima soap, Maruti and Hero Honda (the latter two are older names but have significantly increased brand power in the last decade). What do they all have in common? They are all businesses that are delivering tangible benefits to customers, consistently and continuously, better than any of their competitors do. Maruti? The Maruti business and brand is about enabling people who have never had a car before to buy one, with the best quality possible at that entry price. It is easier to do business offering higher quality at higher prices, but it is providing attractive quality at affordable prices that builds the aspirational brand. Hero Honda is not about 'fit it and forget it' type tag lines but about continuous upgrading of product style and service without compromising on the core of mileage performance. Infosys in India is a great investor brand and a great employer brand, again built by consistent and competitively superior delivery on both counts. Bilseri did not become as big as it did because it had a clever logo style or base line. But because it was a great business operation that made potable water available as widely as possible, in quantities that people wanted at prices that were affordable. Nima continues in the Nirma tradition to provide consumers great value products with benefit minus cost equations far better than any one else. It is the result of the product, the low cost business system that manufacturers and distributes the product and also the very keen insight into the mind of the low to middle income woman. The brand of Jet Airways is not compelling because of yellow rose logos, but because Jet has managed to actually take the pain out of flying. Remember the Indian Airlines monopoly days? The ICICI brand has made this huge transition in the last decade from a FI serving corporates to a broad spectrum retail financial services one. Again, it was probably less to do with Bharat Bala's music and Amitabh Bachan's face but more to do with extensive distribution, a plethora of product choices and a general high standard of customer advice and service, aided of course by its history and heritage . HDFC, another great Indian brand which I have not included on the original list because it is more than a decade old, has been built because it delivered comfortably friendly (homely?) yet outstanding service, and tilted the power balance away from itself, despite it being the lender.

The most important point about brand building is that a brand is a name that merely works as a shorthand to tell people what benefit they are going to get when they buy you - a benefit that is born out of what your business really delivers. Branding is the external and customer face of the core competence of the company, and is completely connected with it. The logo types and clever base lines are just one tiny part of the shorthand. It is the total consumption experience that the product / company delivers that builds the brand. The Zee brand was built by delivering the 'interesting programming' benefit better than others. And equally when it slipped on this count, the sheen from the brand dimmed too.

The benefit that the company offers to customers is at a rational level leading to (and the words 'leading to' are important) an emotional feeling which is powerful leading to a desire to buy and to stay loyal. And that is the context in which it is said that great brands connect at an emotional level. I think emotionally of Jet as my saviour. Otherwise with the amount of traveling I do, I would be a wreck both physically and in terms of time management. Bisleri is the great liberator, releasing me from the tyranny of carrying water bottles, staying thirsty till I got home, and not needing to do messy plumbing in the office for safe drinking water. I connect emotionally with my financial services provider only if he is capable of delivering all the things I need to help me make the right and profitable financial decisions and be a good provider for my family.

There are three parts to brand building. One, answering the business questions "who am I", "what benefits should I provide for someone to buy me and not competition", defined at the rational and leading on from there, an emotional level. Two, delivering consistently, continuously on those benefits better than anyone else. Three communicating in a short hand and easy to understand fashion this 'who am I", "why buy me". Maybe the 'art form' association with branding is the third area. But that only follows from the first two, which are all about having a sound market strategy and running a good business.