Mr. Aseem Puri, an alumnus of IIFT, Delhi now a Brand manager at Unilevers is looking after the laundry segment, especially Surf Excel, in Asia.

The discussion centered on the pivotal theme of building powerful brands. Mr Aseem Puri gave the students an insight into how a brand is conceptualized, nurtured, marketed so as to make it a success story Students were also given some general knowledge gyaan when questions like “which is the oldest brand in the world?” Were asked. The whole session touched the theoretical aspects of branding as well as the practical aspects. Mr. Puri emphasized on the definition of a brand – it is a bundle of benefits that are unique and relevant to the consumers which leads to a long lasting relationship with them and made it clear to everyone that any brand survives in the market when it meets the consumer expectations and the when it develops the emotional attachment with them. Examples were given of companies like Hraley Davidson, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Google and many other winning brands. Golden Rules on building great brands were laid out, where it was dissected into five components – Insight, Benefits, Target, Values, Identity. These five components were shown to be the ingredients in formulating the Proposition, Essence, Positioning, and Associations. Examples of Johnny walker, Ponds, and Surf Excel were given in this regard. The finer aspects like why a Johnny walker is suited to specific segment of customers and why some prefer Kingfisher. In the same way why some prefer Dove and some go for Ponds were brought out.

As regards to Brand Building five steps were pointed out which included –
· Scanning the market
· Finding the position for the needs
· Developing the brand for the chosen position
· Developing and innovate for each position and
· Communication and activation of the brand.

Any company when it wants to succeed needs to win new customers who would add to their customer base, as regards to this the importance of a brand in such circumstances were given in the form of a graphical chart which showed different aspects like
· Continuous innovation
· Restage
· New product to current category
· New product to company category
· New product to world category

Stand out examples like the one of TATA Safari and Splendor was shown to emphasize on the various theoretical aspects. TATA Safari which earlier use to have a sales base of around 3000 cars per year after repositioning in terms of an advertisement, catapulted to 7000 car orders per day. In the same way Splendor sold more when it came out in Red colour.
Mr. Puri also threw light on the pyramidal structures on which Brand Equity is built which are
· Bonding
· Preference
· Advantage
· Relevance
· Prominence

Before ending the discussion Mr. Puri looked at the finer aspects of packaging and how relevant it is in the growth of a brand and it was made clear that the “customers would not pay a premium for any product unless it looked premium on the shelf!!!!!” So you might go for a Nirma even if it looks mud stained on the shelf but you would never go for a Surf Excel if it had the same appearance. So it’s the perception of the customers about the brand and the need it satisfies and if the brand meets the needs and satisfies the customers it is bound to go up the ladder of success.
The students at Sydenham Institute of Management were enlightened on the topic and were impressed by the way Mr Aseem Puri discussed the topic, which was not only thorough but also entertaining.