Deccan Herald Advertising Seminar 2004 takes a look at 'Branding' in today's context

Catalyst, the 19th Deccan Herald Advertising Seminar 2004, featured stalwarts from the worlds of advertising and marketing redefining brands and brand building. The seminar saw advertising and marketing honchos speaking on various topics related to the power of branding. The speakers included Titan Industries COO - Watches Bijou Kurien, Lowe-India national creative director Balakrishnan R (Balki), Macann Erickson Delhi president Santosh Desai and Bajaj Auto Ltd VP business development and marketing Ramchandra R L. Kurien in his keynote speech spoke of the various persons in an organization involved in brand building. Speaking on the topic "Building a Titan", Kurien recounted how brand Titan was built from 1987 onwards when 80 per cent of Indians owned mechanical watches against a almost 65 per cent of persons around the western world who owned quartz watches at that time. Balki spoke on the "Cutting edge Indian work" in advertising. Balki felt that localized communication of an international brand was the next step in advertising. Balki said advertising could take advantage of the differences in the regions instead of focusing an ad towards the entire country. Desai dealt with "Connecting Brands with life". He said brands were repositories of symbolic meaning. Desai said spoke about how brands today make a statement about the users. Speaking on the power of brands, he narrated how brands have been making us believing in ourselves, in other people, in today and in tomorrow. Ramchandra R L spoke on "My brand building experience". He spoke of the strategies evolved by a losing market leader in a two wheeler market when it entered a new segment - motorcycles- which now constitute 80 per cent of the two wheeler market in India and the efforts involved in their Pulsar brand capturing 55 per cent of the market share in its category. Trent Ltd GM Himanshu Chakrawarti spoke on "Building a brand". He spoke on the efforts involved in building a distinguished brands and creating an awareness of this chain of stores owned by the Tatas.