Brandate, an insightful rendezvous

The greatest exponents of branding converge…

Bangalore, 3rd July 2007: Most successful brands market their products targeting the most influential segment of society; the youth market. They are critical because of their buying power and their influence on the spending of family members. In addition, teens and young adults often set trends that are adopted by other demographic groups. This is evident in the successful campaigns of Fastrack, Levi Strauss and Nokia.

To build a forum to discuss the successful branding stories of eminent brands, Integrated Brand-comm Pvt. Ltd., in association with The Hindu Business Line and Exchange4Media organised Brandate ’07 on the 30th June. This insightful rendezvous brought together experts from industries across all verticals, in a quest to impart the marketing and branding knowledge required to build and nurture great brands.

The yearly Branding Seminar was a platform to discuss topics as diverse as “Marketing to youth” and “How blogs can help our brands” to “The future of Ad agencies in India”.

The insights gleaned from this elite panel were manifold. Shumone Chatterjee, MD, Levi Strauss (India) Pvt. Ltd. cautioned that brands should never make the mistake of setting trends; brands should convert trends to the market proposition and then market them. Adding insight on how to capture the consumer, he said “you have to find the opinion leader, inspire them, seduce them, engage them and create an exciting buzz around them as anything exciting works well with youth.”

“Youth is not a Demographic or a psychographic segment… Youth is a state of mind and today’s consumers are increasingly adopting a younger mindset. Having grown up in the age of the internet, today’s youth want the freedom of the west while still retaining the eastern culture, “says Fazle Naqvi, Executive Director, Landmark Group. This observation is echoed in the successful launch of western brands like Kappa and Bossini in India.



Bangalore as a brand was a topic that drew a lot of interest from the audience. Is everything alright with Bangalore as a brand? The unanimous answer was no.
Ravichander, CMD, Feedback Consulting, felt that the brand “Bangalore” needs a vision. “Egypt’s forward thinking with regard to The Pyramids has resulted in a large portion of their revenue being generated from tourism. Similarly, Bangalore needs to look ahead to improve the current city experience. This should be done in the context of the larger ecosystem (Karnataka).”

The branding Seminar was held at The Grand Ashok Hotel. Eminent speakers and session chairpersons included: Mr. Bhaskar Bhat (MD, Titan Industries), Mr. Shivkumar (VP & Country General Manager, CMO-India Nokia), Mr. Raj Nayak (Chief Executive, NDTV Media), Mr. Sohanjeet Randhawa (Senior Manager – Marketing, Volvo, India), Mr. Prateek Srivastava (Group President, Ogilvy & Mather, South India), Mr. Fazle Naqvi (Executive Director, Landmark Group Brands, India), Mr. Rajesh Lalwani (Founder, BlogWorks), Mr. Shumone Jaya Chatterjee (MD, Levi Strauss, India, Pvt. Ltd.), Ms. Simeran Bhasin (Brand Manager, Fastrack), Mr. Anurag Batra (MD & Editor-in-Chief, Exchange4Media Group), Mr. Bhaskar Pramanik (President, India GEM Sun Microsystems India), Mr. Ravichander (CMD, Feedback Consulting), Mr. Ravi Naware (CEO, ITC Foods Ltd.), Mr. Anand Sudarashan (MD & CEO, Manipal Education) and Mr. Ramanujam Sridhar (CEO, Brand-comm).


About Brand-Comm:

Brand-Comm was set up in December 1998 by Ramanujam Sridhar. It is Advertising, Public Relations and Brand Consulting firm with headquarters in Bangalore and offices in Chennai, New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata.


Brand-comm’s clientele includes Philips Innovation Campus, Indus League, Pantaloons, Perot Systems, APC, GCI, CSR, MindTree Consulting, Sanyo BPL, WebEx Communications, Scullers, Indigo Nation, Jealous 21, Urban Yoga, Central Malls, Big Bazaar, MEMG, Manipal Centre, Metlife, Lifeken, AMCO Batteries, Jainson’s Retail, ClientLogic, MobiApps, Ma Foi, SKYLINE constructions, NR Group, Vakil Housing, and Dalmia Cements among many others.