The Hindu Business Line : `Meshing brand with business strategy is key to success'

A COMPANY has to integrate the brand with its overall business strategy to be successful in the marketplace and in the long run generate profits. Marketing gurus at the CII Brand Summit on Thursday emphasised that creating a brand and meshing it with business strategy is crucial.

Ms Lalita Gupte, Joint Managing Director, ICICI Bank, said, "A brand is a company's identity in the market place; therefore, it is essential that the brand strategy is intertwined with the business strategy."

She said that the biggest challenge ICICI Bank faced when it forayed into retail banking eight years ago was to create awareness and establish trust among the customers, as there were a number of other banks there already. "The biggest challenge was to acquire new customers and make sure that they came to us again and again and stay with us ... we therefore used a comprehensive brand strategy to facilitate our entry into the retail space."

Similarly, Mr David Friedman, Managing Director, said that it is the brand which sustains the business strategy. "A business strategy without the brand is nothing. We were able to link business strategy and brand strategy to grow into a profitable business," he said.

Mr Friedman said that the company's strategy to position the Ford Ikon as a Josh Machine is what triggered the company's success in India. "Our new products rest on this identity, and we continue to grow Ford in India."

"The growth of our business has been all about the growth of our brands," he added.

Talking about how the company's brand strategy formed a major part of its business strategy, Mr Dilip Kapur, President, Hidesign, said that the challenge he had to face was that of establishing an international presence and drawing the attention of the consumers, considering the plethora of well-established brands. "The easiest way to do so was to advertise, but being a small brand we didn't have the funds to do so. The only alternative was to establish a retail presence, as we realised that visibility is important for success."

"And since 70 per cent of our Indian customers got to know us through our stores, it encouraged us to open stores in the international market also," he added.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Novartis' case may spark patent vs patient debate

Pester power brings more advertisers to kids' channels

Taj resort in Maldives offers new package

Airtel launches `champion' in Kerala

Retail outlet of IOC at Sirsi

`Brands can connect with consumers in new ways'

Nokia is CII Brand of the Year

ITC may launch spices, pulses under `Aashirvaad'

`India can grow without overseas market, but ... '

`Focus on what lies beneath consumer behaviour'

`Meshing brand with business strategy is key to success'

`PC market grew 32 pc in 2004'

German co launches switches for modern buildings in Bangalore

Haier launches mobile handsets