The Hindu Business Line : Tata brands could be worth $6 b

THE Tata Group is currently engaged in a second round of brand valuation, essentially an upgrade of the earlier exercise done by the UK-based Inter Brand.

"I won't be surprised if our brands are worth $6 billion," Mr R. Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director, Tata Sons, said during an informal chat with newspersons here on Tuesday.

The exercise is scheduled for completion in a few weeks' time, he said. While TCS, Tata Tea, Tata Steel, Indian Hotels Company Ltd and Tata Motors had figured in the earlier round of brand valuation, the second round covers 17 companies, he said.

According to him, the brand marketing challenges in the 1990s had encompassed making the Tata business contemporary, retaining basic values, entering emerging businesses with potential to balance traditional ones, preparing for brand competition and not just price competition. In internal surveys subsequently done, it was discovered that the Tata Group had managed to successfully shift its image as a business "but not as a person".

This perspective was based on the premise that people viewed brands both for the business they represent and as a human being.

The attributes on which brand Tata was seen as still lagging were being adventurous, energetic, ambitious and young.

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