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The changing market place necessitates major shifts in brand strategy. The third edition of Brand Summit aims to understand these changes and point the way ahead for brand management.

THE third edition of the Brand Summit, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, kicks off on Thursday at the Taj Coromandel, with a galaxy of marketing professionals participating in the two-day event.

An innovative feature of this event is the launch of the `CII Brand of the Year' award, which will be given away on Thursday evening. The award aims to recognise the most powerful brand in the Indian market, in the B2C space, that has dominated consumer mindscape by creating a lasting impression in an ever-changing market, according to the CII. The initiative has met with good response, with 135 nominations of various brands by 101 companies.

According to the CII, the five-step process of selection has been developed to ensure a 360-degree evaluation by all stakeholder groups: customers, channel partners and the marketing community. After the initial round of self-nomination, the nominated brands move to the second stage, called `Brand Wagon,' and go through a screening based on specified parameters. The short-listed entries then move to the next stage, called `Brand Microscope,' for a quantitative evaluation, after which the top brands make it to the final short-listing stage, called `Brand Inquisition.'

The inaugural of the Brand Summit this year, the theme of which is `Connecting with the Consumer in the Changing Brandscape,' will feature a keynote address by Mr Erich Joachimsthaler, CEO, Vivaldi Partners, USA, and co-author of Brand Leadership.

As the CII points out, brands today are more important than ever before. Expert opinion explains the power of the brand and that brands hold greater sway since they play to perceptions and emotions as well as rational factors. Experts also point to the explosion of choice in the market place, and brands thus make decision-making easier.

`The Changing Landscape' will be the theme of the first session, when Prof John Harriss, Director - Development Studies Institute, London School of Economics, and Mr Phiroze Vandrevala, Executive Vice-President, Tata Consultancy Services, will discuss the impact of socio-economic and political changes and technology on brands.

The next session, focusing on `The Changing Consumer,' will feature Mr Santosh Desai, President, McCann-Erickson India; Ms Rama Bijapurkar, strategic management consultant; Mr Sarang Panchal, Executive Director, ACNielsen India; Mr Madhukar Sabnavis, Country Manager (Planning), O&M; and Mr John Shaw, Director (Strategy & Planning), O&M Hong Kong, through a video conference.

According to the CII, in the current business environment, the changing market place necessitates major shifts in brand strategy. Among the key priorities is that companies need to build their brands both internally and externally, creating brand advocates among employees and customers. Unless brand strategy can communicate with and inspire partners inside and outside the organisation, it will not be effective. These will be discussed at the session on `Integrating Brand and Business Strategy,' which will feature Ms Lalitha Gupte, Joint Managing Director, ICICI Bank; Mr Dilip Kapur, President, Hi Design; and Mr David Friedman, Managing Director and President, Ford India.

The second day's programme will have panel discussions on topics such as `Enhancing Consumer Connect,' `Perspective of Brand India,' `Is the Consumer Expecting the Moon?' These sessions will feature Mr E.K. Bharat Bhushan, Principal Secretary (Tourism), Kerala; Mr Parag Samarth, Country Manager (Industrial and Distribution Sector), IBM India; Mr C.K. Ranganathan, Managing Director, CavinKare; Mr Jaydev Galla, Managing Director, Amara Raja Batteries; Mr Ajit Mantagani, President (Denim Division), Raymond India; Mr R. Balakrishnan, Executive Creative Director, Lowe; Mr Rajesh Gupta, Vice-President, DCM Sriram; and Mr Pankaj Mehra, National Sales Director, L'Oreal India.

A special feature of the second day's programme would be a talk by Mr Jairam Ramesh, a Congress (I) Member of Parliament and part of the party's think tank and one of those instrumental in drawing up the party's election strategy for the last Lok Sabha elections. An economist, Mr Jairam Ramesh will talk on the implication of socio-economic and political changes for marketers.

The valedictory session will feature a talk by Prof Venkat Ramaswamy of the University of Michigan Business School and co-author of The Future of Competition: Emerging Patterns of Value Creation, who will address the issue of creating and sustaining valuable brands.

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