The Hindu Business Line : Making of a Superbrand

ANMOL Dar seems pensive. After all, his dream project is on the threshold of completion and another one about to be set in motion. But his pensive state stems not from any worry on how the first edition of Consumer Superbrands will be received by Indians. It appears to be rather a habit with this advertising veteran to speak in measured tones and take calculated risks in his professional life.

From chairing advertising agency FSA to creating a brand new company, Superbrands India Pvt Ltd, and foraying into completely uncharted territory of rating hundreds of brands, Dar appears to have traversed a long and somewhat risky path. For Superbrands India is unlikely to make money this year. But he's willing to wait.

"Superbrands is such a well-recognised name worldwide that it is considered a Bible of brands. When it wanted to set up operations in India, I was only too happy to take on the mantle ... we expect to make money once the first Superbrands Book is launched in August with a list of India's consumer superbrands," says Dar.

Superbrands India was established in 2002 as a part of the global Superbrands chain. And one of its first activities was to choose the first 101 consumer Superbrands of India. This was done by setting up an Indian Consumer Superbrands Council comprising some of the most eminent marketing, media and advertising professionals in the country

The Council included Anmol Dar as Chairman, Group President & National Creative Director of Ogilvy & Mather Piyush Pandey, Bennett Coleman President Pradeep Guha and advertising legend Tara Sinha besides a host of India Inc's well-known faces. Conferring the Suprebrand status on a brand entails a long, well-regulated process, which includes inviting brands to participate in this exercise and then putting up the participant list in front of the eminent jury where each member rates each brand.

The brand is rated on a set of very rigid parameters, says Dar, while emphasising that there is little chance of foul play since the captains of India Inc rate each brand individually. "This rating process is very comprehensive and hence time consuming but at the end of it, each brand has been critically examined on key parameters. Also, this process ensures that more than one brand in any product category can be chosen as Suprebrands," he added.

Dar says after naming 101 consumer Superbrands in 2004, the company now plans to catalogue Business Superbrands 2005, which will identify and felicitate the strongest corporate brands in the country. The number of business categories for scoring in India is about 101, and the number of brands under them — approximately 750.

Launched in 1994, initially as a radio programme, Superbrands is a concept developed by the UK marketing guru Marcel Knobil, the founder of the Superbrands Organisation and the former chairman of the Superbrands Council, UK. The Superbrands organisation was established to promote excellence in branding and the discipline of branding itself. It has been tracking the branding phenomenon for the past 10 years and maintains councils in 39 different countries. Some of these are Australia, France, Germany, Holland, Hong Kong, Italy, Malaysia, Philippines, US, Singapore, Spain, UAE, Indonesia, Ireland, Egypt, Denmark and India.

Again, the Council of Members for Business Superbrands include the FSA chief, Anmol Dar, as Chairman of the Council; Reliance Industries Chairman, Mukesh Ambani; former Procter & Gamble CEO, Gurcharan Das; and Tata Sons' Executive Director, R. Gopalakrishnan.

Business Superbrands offers customers significant emotional and/or tangible advantages, over its competitors which (consciously or sub-consciously) customers want, recognise and are confident about investing in.

Every year, the Superbrands council in each of the countries it operates in, selects the top brands under various categories and awards them the status of `Superbrands'.

The brands are judged on the basis of a number of criteria. Participation is strictly by invitation and only the very strong brands are awarded Superbrands status by the Superbrands council made up of luminaries within the world of marketing. These awards are celebrated by a Tribute Event and also in the form of The Superbrands Book in a sumptuous coffee-table book format. The Superbrands Tribute Event is held annually and the audience consists of senior brand guardians (chairmen, managing directors, marketing directors, brand managers) and other important industry figures. India Inc awaits, with bated breath, the Superbrands Book.

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