counted. But there’s something here for everyone to mull over, discuss and act on: from the behemoths who want to stay where they are, to the chal-lengers of today to brands that cur-rently exist only as a vague embryon-ic idea in the heads of the ambitious men and women of India. Here’s to ambition, courage and enough dissat-isfaction with the status quo to want to change it.

Bar a few shuffl es up and down the list, there are no major surprises in this year’s edition of Best In-dian Brands, a valuation study conducted annually

by Interbrand and published exclu-sively in Brand Equity. However, we believe the more or less static Top 10 itself is or should be a great motiva-tor to Indian brands of all shapes and sizes, to take a crack at dethroning the reigning champions.

And this issue gives you a great in-sight into just how that’s possible. It tracks the strategies of the Best In-dian Brands, and is fi lled to bursting with expert advice on scaling up and

d ar

Best Indian Brands

Growing Global Indian Brands

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Reliance (ADAG)

2015 RAN

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Tanishq2015 RA

NK: 25

Zee2015 RAN

K: 26

Dabur2015 RANK: 29

Ultratech

2015 RANK: 27Kotak

2015 RANK: 30Punjab National Bank

2015 RANK: 28Adani

2015 RANK: 23

Britannia

2015 RANK: NA

IndusInd Bank

2015 RANK: NA

Kingfi sher

2015 RANK: NA

Yes Bank2015 RANK: NA

NTPC2015 RANK: NA

Union Bank2015 RANK: NA

Canara Bank2015 RANK: NA

Ashok Leyland2015 RANK: NA

JSW2015 RANK: NA

Jindal Steel & Power2015 RANK: NA

Airtel2015 RANK: 3

Reliance Industries2015 RANK: 2

HDFC Bank2015 RANK: 6

LIC

2015 RANK: 4

State Bank Of India

2015 RANK: 5

Infosys

2015 RANK: 7

ICICI

2015 RANK: 8

Mahindra

2015 RANK: 10

Godrej

2015 RANK: 9

Wipro

2015 RANK: 11

This week’s Brand Equity is dedicated to the Interbrand Best Indian Brands study. Read on to fi nd

which brands dominate the leaderboard, why and how. And what the Best Indian Brands need to do, or do more of to

crack the so far elusive Best Global Brands list

12

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11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

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742.18 bn

350.44 bn

349.24 bn

240.06 bn

236.05 bn

232.21 bn

230.64 bn

166.59 bn

156.78 bn

153.88 bn

139.69 bn

134.89 bn

121.78 bn

115.63 bn

101.3

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86.85

bn

83.33

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82.53

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66.0

8 bn

58.14

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15.22 bn

17.32 bn

18.80 bn

53.31bn

51.33bn

50.34 bn45.72 bn

45.49 bn44.31

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39.20 bn

38.42 bn

38.34 bn

30.53 bn

26.33 bn

26.18 bn

24.81 bn

24.39 bn

20.72 bn

20.03 bn

Ever wondered why Indian brands don’t make it to global brand listings? Here’s how they can get there. By Ashish Mishra

There are no Indian Brands in Interbrand’s Best Global Brands league table yet. While a

number of Indian businesses are global, they haven’t been able to establish themselves as global brands so far. Merely growing global business will not realise corporate aspirations of being admired as a global brand. To know why, it is useful to under-stand what truly global brands deliver today.

Having begun with the Age of Identity, the world has swiftly moved through the Ages of Val-ue, Experience and now, thrives in the Age of You. The future thinkers call it Globalization 3.0 or the Cognitive Era. After the Reigns of Empires and MNCs, it is now individuals who rule.

People with high cognition are in the vantage position and us-ing brands to design their lives. Given this new expectation, and the accelerating pace of change, it devolves upon brands to move at a new speed. At Interbrand we call it the Speed of Life.

Brands confi ned to local ge-ographies may still remain im-pervious to this new norm for a while. But brands that are (or as-pire to be) global have no choice.

So what should Indian Brands do?

They will need to be frontrun-ners in designing lives and cre-ating better experiences, at the speed of life. This requires re-invention and reinterpretation in the context of resolution of confl icts. Finding new relevancy

and role in creating better life experiences. Finding a Purpose.

Purpose-bred not just purpose ledAt a conceptual level, it would have been enough to provide a purposeful direction to global brand aspirants. But there are challenges brands and market-ing have to contend with. And the toughest today is a lack of experience and ability to man-age exploding micro experiences within customer journeys.

There is a desperate need for a powerful anchor that inspires and connects people, to tie it all together, on the inside around culture, and on the outside around experience. Clearly, the organisation’s ability to do so with its brand will create the only possible differentiation in the easy-to-imitate age we live in.

Unfortunately that’s where the problem lies with Indian busi-nesses.

From businesses leading brands to brands leading businessesHistorically, Indian businesses have always been driven by en-trepreneurial business strategy followed by functional strategies – HR, sourcing, manufacturing, R&D, distribution, sales, mar-

keting and so on. Somewhere within marketing was commu-nication and brand.

At Interbrand, we have strived to dispel this paradigm. To take the brand out of the confi ning preserve of marketing and place it in the centre of the organisa-tion, making it a potent tool for growth. It’s the only way of driv-ing growth for businesses aspir-ing to grow global. And unlike traditional comms-led practices, there are defi nitive, measurable pathways of global growth

1. Through structural optimisationWhat if we integrate the func-tional strategies of a brand though an organising princi-ple? And what better organising principle than the brand?

2. Through inter-nal anchoring in brand purposeThere are two kinds of organi-sations – busi-ness-driven and purpose-driven. The very act of leveraging a brand as the central organising prin-ciple creates a fundamental shift from

purely business-led to purpose-bred. This purposefulness is the premise for stronger em-ployee engagement. McKinsey’s Service Profi t Chain model de-scribes the rationale succinctly. Organisations with stronger internal engagement have con-clusively delivered superior fi -nancial fundamentals.

3.By focusing on premium demand drivers and demand sustenance

Demand generation in any business or category, as also its premium, is a function of how strongly the business owns im-portant drivers infl uencing pur-chase.

4.Brand as anchor for glob-al portfolio management and governanceMany Indian organisations have a proliferated portfolio. New products or service opportuni-ties either found the same brand cover or a new disjointed name. There was no strategic basis or a long-term naming system to en-sure coherence.

This dilutes the impact of the brand by confusing the orienta-tion and ownership.

By adopting brand-centric portfolio management, one can create brand architectures via an alignment based on demand drivers and brand strengths. This helps decide the adjacen-cies of the brand and the real need for additional primary and secondary brands.

5. Through authentic and differentiated brand

experiencesThe touch points of experience are not lim-ited to communication,

as many Indian market-ers tend to believe. Touch points include product

and service experi-

ences, staff, the channel, internal and external communications. Wouldn’t it be effi cient and pro-ductive if these touch points fol-lowed a converged theme?

6. Reorienting legacy busi-nesses for the digital ageThe Best Indian Brands table is dominated by legacy businesses. They remain India’s best bet to grow global. It therefore is imperative they reorient them-selves. Understanding global customers and realigning their purpose, technologies and offer-ings will help. The caution will be balancing local opportunities with global ones. Why can’t the Best Indian Brands and busi-nesses think more like a start up? Why can’t they replicate the success of their Breakthrough Brand counterparts?

7.Nation brand supportIn many cases, brands them-selves built the Nation Brand. Korea was no Japan when it came to image but it took a Sam-sung to change that. Why can’t a Tata, Reliance or a Mahindra do the same?

It may also be worth consider-ing a centre-led effort to reposi-tion the Nation Brand India, from a trade, investments and acceptance of Indian Brands perspective. There are examples of Holland, Kenya, Turkey (Tur-quality) and Vietnam (Vietnam Value) to study and build on.

8. Connecting brand strat-egy to business resultsIf we open up our minds beyond business and fi nancial process-es on one hand and communica-tion levers on the other, we will see the vast opportunities that connect the two. Unfortunately the proponents of these two ends prefer to keep them dis-jointed to hide their inability to straddle them.

It is our vision to bridge the two for the Best Indian Brands.

The author is managing direc-tor, Interbrand India.

making one’s offering more relevant.We analyse just why Indian brands

are yet to crack Interbrand’s highly sought after global list, and what they need to do on order to get there. In ad-dition, we offer Interbrand’s take on the key drivers in many of the world’s

This issue tracks the strategies of the Best Indian Brands, and

is fi lled to bursting with expert advice on scaling up and making

one’s offering more relevant

Indu20131 3 Indu20131 3 Indu2031 3 Ind2031 3 Ind2031 3 In231 331 331 331 33131313131

2016

hottest categories and our own analy-sis of what the purely local factors in-fl uencing these categories are.

Sure, starting off nearly a century ago is an advantage that cannot be overlooked. Nor can the speed at which some of the giants move be dis-

Interbrand’s Jez Frampton on how Indian

brands can transform

potential to performance

Rebuild And They Will Come

ANIRBAN BORA

I am delighted to present to the Best Indian Brands 2016 league table, now in its fourth year. The world today keenly waits as India brims with potential. As we already work with a fair number of Best Indian Brands, I am confi dent India is nurtur-ing some truly world-class brands that are set to make their mark on the global stage. This year’s theme, ‘Growing Global’ addresses the Indian brands’ ambition to become global brands.

Growing global is not just about saying “I want to be a Top 10 business in the world in my category,” because the fi rst question that comes back is “How?” And that “How?” is connected to a deep un-derstanding of the forces of growth within a business, which will help you accelerate the organisation.

The fi rst and most funda-mental force of growth is an inward harnessing: the growth of people. Growth of their ca-pabilities, their understanding, their ability to work together; your processes: the way that you actually do things, how you utilise people; the products and services you bring to mar-ket: how you create innovation processes to make sure that capability grows over time.

That’s the biggest shift in the industry today: the recog-nition of the importance of brands inside the organisation. While earlier they were seen as a subdivision of the market-ing department, they’re now understood as the fundamental way of how you do business. Simply because, if you’re go-ing to make something move and grow, you have to get peo-ple to move with you.

Continued on Pg3 >>

Ashish Mishra

Des

ign:

Shu

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SPECIAL ISSUEBEST INDIAN BRANDS

THE ECONOMIC TIMES AUGUST 31-SEPTEMBER 06, 2016 � WEST

1. Tata GroupTata Group continues its seemingly un-assailable run as India’s most valuable brand. Brand value is up 11%, and compa-nies across the group spent the last year making bold innovative strides. When the spread of the Zika virus threatened to cast an unpleasant shadow over the launch of its car named Zica, Tata Motors quickly ran a contest encouraging people to vote for the name of the new car, with Tiago emerging the winner. Tata Motors also scored a coup of sorts with football legend Lionel Messi as brand ambassador who — recent controversies notwithstanding — has a remark-ably strong connection with the youthful demographic in India. Its passenger vehicle division launched the Zest sedan and Bolt hatchback. Key appointments this year at Tata Motors included CEO and managing director Guenter Butschek, with previous experience at Airbus and Daim-ler. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) crossed the trillion ru-pee mark with a total revenue of `1,08,646 crore up by 14.8% compared to last fi nancial year. Tata Global Bever-ages is moving beyond tea, coffee and water to foray into the dairy business. The group is also making a foray into the e-tailing space with TataCliq a phygital model which allows for greater convenience when it comes to making purchases or returns.

2. AirtelAs India’s leading telecom network, Airtel is also a lightning rod for issues that con-tinue to plague the sector: call drops, spotty service and a customer base with a litany of complaints. While most companies would try to brush this under a rug or a dozen, Airtel has es-tablished its credentials as a leader, touting itself as the open network. It’s allowing subscribers the chance to see the number of towers, apprising them of new services and responding quickly to feedback and critiques. Just one of the many factors that’ve pushed Airtel up a notch, mov-ing one rank to No 2. The brand value has grown by 8% over last year. In the fi rst quarter of this year, its losses in Africa halved to $78 million on the back of strong data consumption and stable currencies in most of the markets its present in. Through 2015, it launched its 4G LTE ser-vices across India after months of trials. A tie up with Uber ensured that Airtel Money could be used to pay for cab rides. In January this year, a merger was announced with Malaysia’s Axiata Group in Bangladesh to create the coun-try’s second largest network.

3. Reliance IndustriesIf Reliance Industries was not diversifi ed enough already, the company added mobile phone handsets to the mix this year. According to research fi rm IDC, the LYF brand is al-ready in the Top 5, beating many more sto-ried players who’ve been in the market far longer. LYF’s range includes sub $50 devices, equipped to take advantage of 4G and come bundled with a preview of Reliance’s ambitious Jio suite of services. Mukesh Ambani, chairman, Reliance Industries has described Jio, as “one of the largest transformational greenfi eld digital initiatives anywhere in the world, with an investment of over `150,000 crore.” While offi cial launch dates are still shrouded in mystery, Ambani has as-serted his service will cover 70% of the country from the day of launch.

Reliance Industries signed on veteran sports marketing and management professional Sundar Raman, former chief operating offi cer of the IPL, as Chief Executive Offi cer – Sports to further the group’s interests in this area. The brand value of the company is up 3% over the past year, even as it cedes a rank.

4. HDFC BankHDFC ranks among the highest climbers in terms of year-on-year brand value, up 15% from 2015. Powered, in part, by its attention to the needs of emerging seg-ments. For instance, SmartUp, launched earlier this year as a dedicated solution for the bank-ing needs of startups, in association Zone Startups India

(ZSI), a Mumbai-based accelerator. Smartup aims to provide enhanced transaction limit with no minimum balance for the fi rst six months, cus-tomised salary accounts besides ad-visory and forex services. Not one to be left behind in the app space, HDFC Bank has rolled out PayZapp, which aims to be a secure convenient pay-ment gateway. For its rural audiences, HDFC came up with ‘Dhanchayat’ an educational fi lm on the dangers of bor-rowing money from unorganised sources. Besides, HDFC Bank has proved to be a marketer unafraid to dabble with new un-tested concepts, going in for a sonic brand-ing exercise which has led to the creation of its own signature music.

5. LICIndia’s largest insurance company, is also one of its most trusted. Year after year, LIC dominates Brand Equity’s Most Trusted Brands survey by a large margin in the life insurance category. After years of high decibel emotion-ally charged advertising from several private players, LIC still controls nearly 70% of the insurance market. Among its nods to a more progressive outlook in doing business is introducing the third gender as an option in its proposal forms in line with a 2014 verdict from the Supreme Court. LIC has also tied up with several partner banks – most recently Axis Bank – to sell its insurance policies.

6. The State Bank of India (SBI)For the second year in a row, SBI was declared by the central bank, the Re-serve Bank of India, to be one of the two banks in the country deemed ‘too big to fail’. The technical term is D-SIBs or do-mestic systemically important banks. The systemic im-portance score was arrived at after an analysis of the banks’ size as a percentage of annual gross domestic product (GDP). SBI remains the bank with the largest ATM network in India, clocking in over 21,000. It has offi ces in 32 countries. SBI recently launched the ‘Japan Desk’, a fi rst-of-its-kind initiative to help Japanese cor-porates looking to invest in the country, with banking and advisory services. With its mobile wallet State Bank Buddy available in 13 languages, and bundled with spe-cial offers from brands like Domino’s and makemytrip, SBI belies the reputation that government run services are saddled with of being sluggish to adapt to new de-velopments and being most comfortable with the older ways of doing business.SBI Card, one of India’s leading credit card issuers, has

partnered with 7 of India’s biggest e-commerce play-ers including Amazon India, BookMyShow, FabFurnish, LensKart and Ola. It has partnered with PayPal allowing customers to use debit cards via the payment gateway.

7. InfosysThe posterchild for the Indian IT ser-vices and consulting revolution, Infosys maintains its position and registers an impressive 12% increase in brand val-ue. Even as it faces challenges due to a more cautious client attitude post Brexit, Infosys con-tinues to innovate. New CEO Vishal Sikka has brought a greater focus on “design thinking”, a change from the more process driven approach of the past. Its artifi cial intelligence platform Mana launched this April “brings machine learning together with the deep knowledge of an organisation to drive automation and innovation.” It aims to help fi rms reinvent their system landscapes and lower maintenance costs. The 193,000 strong or-ganisation has launched an apprenticeship programme to identify and mentor its best young talent. Infosys also launched the #sitwithme campaign on International Wiomens Day this year to work towards a more bal-anced diverse leadership.

8. ICICILike the State Bank of India, ICICI was declared ‘too big to fail’ by the Reserve Bank of India. While it re-ported a 25% drop in net profi t for the last quarter, its retail banking business posted an 18% growth. In January 2016, ICICI entered South Africa with a full service branch at Sandton in Johannesburg.

Keeping it future ready are initiatives like the ICICI Ap-pathon, a mobile app development challenge. The winner, iMobile SmartKeys helps customers transfer money with-out exiting the app they are currently on: be it a game, chat, email or browser. The ICICI Foundation launched a nationwide referral programme called ‘Gift a Livelihood’. It invites people to refer deserving but underprivileged youth to be trained at the ICICI Foundation Skills acade-my which since inception in 2013 has trained and placed 36,000 youth across 22 centres.

9. MahindraWith 14 new products last year, no one can accuse Mahindra of takings things easy or taking its foot off the pedal. A US $17.8 billion global federation, Mahi-ndra’s brand value is up 14%.

Earlier this year, following its 51% stake in Peugot’s motorcycle business, it was reported to be looking to bring in other iconic bike brands like BSA or Norton. For the more eco-conscious US market, Mahindra has launched GenZe an electric scooter and e-bike.

Airbus Group awarded an aero-components produc-tion contract to Mahindra Group to manufacture airframe parts for the AS565 MBe Panther rotorcraft. The contract makes Mahindra Aerostructures the fi rst Indian company to become a Tier I supplier to Airbus Helicopters. A release from the company states “Mahindra Aerostructures will gradually emerge as the global single source supplier to Airbus Helicopters for these parts,” a true Make-In-India partnership. In vehicles, the category its most strongly as-sociated with, Mahindra’s stated aim is to double revenue to `53,000 crore and be the second largest vehicle maker in India by volume. It also has a play in the burgeoning organised pre-owned vehicle market with Mahindra First Choice Wheels.

10. GodrejAt No 10 — down one spot from last year — is a company that intends to be 10 times the size it was in 2010. Godrej has been pursuing this vision, to touch the $10 billion mark by 2020 across the extremely diverse businesses that make up the conglomerate from consumer products to real estate.

This year, Godrej has been in acquisition mode, ac-knowledging that its stated targets require both organic and inorganic growth. One of its acquisitions, the US-based Strength of Nature, has a strong global presence and focuses on serving women of African heritage. It’s in line with chairman Adi Godrej’s stated 3 by 3 strat-egy: “A presence in emerging markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America through three core categories – hair care, home care and personal care.” It also acquired majority stake in Kenya based home and personal care company, Canon Chemicals.

These acquisitions bolster its presence in sub-Saha-ran Africa, where consumer products wing GCPL has annualised revenues of $200 million. In the meantime, GCPL is also making a play for the premium hair colour space in India via Bblunt. Godrej Properties achieved the highest sales in a fi nancial year with booking value of `5,038 crore.

There are three key components in all of Interbrand’s valuations: an analy-sis of the fi nancial performance of the branded products or services, of the role the brand plays in the purchase de-cision, and of the competitive strength of the brand. These are preceded by a decision on segmentation and at the end of the process are brought together to enable the fi nancial value of the brand to be calculated.

SegmentationSegments are typically defi ned by geog-raphy, business unit, product, service or customer group. Why is segmenta-tion important? A robust valuation requires a separate analysis of the in-dividual parts (or segments) of a busi-ness to ensure that terms of the three key components of the brand valuation (fi nancial performance, role of brand and brand strength) can be taken into consideration. From a brand manage-

ment perspective, the insights and recommendations that result from the brand valuation exercise will be at the segment level, so it is also important that they are at an actionable level for the client’s brand teams.

The number and choice of segments therefore depends on:

The strategic priorities of the busi-ness and of the brand valuation exercise. The level at which brand management decisions are taken. The number of parts of the business that can be identifi ed where fi nancial performance, role of brand and brand strength can be isolated and analysed separately. The availability of data.

Financial AnalysisThis measures the overall fi nancial re-turn to an organisation’s investors, or its ‘economic profi t.’ Economic profi t is the

after-tax operating profi t of the brand minus a charge for capital used to gener-ate the brand’s revenues and margins. A brand can only exist and, therefore, cre-ate value, if it has a platform on which to do so. Depending on the brand, this plat-form may include,for example, manufac-turing facilities, distribution channels, and working capital. Interbrand, there-fore, allows for a fair return on this capi-tal before determining that the brand itself is creating value for its owner.

Interbrand builds a set of fi nancial forecasts over fi ve years for the busi-ness, starting with revenues and ending with economic profi t, which then forms the foundation of the brand valuation model. A terminal value is also created, based on the brand’s expected fi nan-cial performance beyond the explicit forecast period. The capital charge rate is determined by reference to the com-pany’s weighted average cost of capital.

Role of BrandRole of brand measures the portion of the purchase decision that is attribut-able to the brand, relative to other fac-tors (for example, purchase drivers like price, convenience, or product features).

The Role of Brand Index (‘RBI’) quanti-fi es this as a percentage. Customers rely more on brands to guide their choice when competing products or services cannot be easily compared or contrast-ed, and trust is deferred to the brand (eg computer chips), or where their needs are emotional, such as making a state-ment about their personality (eg luxury brands). RBI tends to fall within a cat-egory-driven range, but there remain signifi cant opportunities for brands to increase their infl uence on choice within those boundaries, or even extend the category range where the brand can change consumer behaviour.

Brand StrengthInterbrand’s experience shows that brands that are best placed to keep generating demand and profi t into the future are those performing strongly (relative to competition) across a set of ten factors.Four of these factors are internally driv-en, and refl ect the fact that great brands start from within. The remaining six factors are more visible externally, ac-knowledging the fact that great brands change their world.

These are the factors that Interbrand believes make a strong brand. Perfor-mance on these factors is judged rela-tive to other brands in the industry and relative to other world-class brands. The strength of the brand is inversely re-lated to the level of risk associated with the brand’s fi nancial forecasts (a strong brand creates loyal customers and low-ers risk, and vice versa). A proprietary formula is used to connect the Brand Strength Score to a brand-specifi c dis-count rate.

Brand ValueThe brand-specifi c discount rate is used to discount brand earnings back to a present value, refl ecting the likelihood that the brand will be able to withstand challenges and deliver the expected earnings into the future. This is equal to brand value.Brand valuation provides a common language for brand performance around which a company can be galvanised and organised. Responsibility for Brand Strength factors can be allocated to functions, building engagement and a sense of responsibility for the brand across the organisation.

How did the Top 20 Best Indian Brands in the Interbrand report get to where they are? The answer lies in what some of them have done over time, but especially over the last few years.

How They Do ItInterbrand’s Brand Valuation Methodology

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The Best Of The BestTHE ECONOMIC TIMES AUGUST 31-SEPTEMBER 06, 2016 2

11. WiproSome days ago, Wipro CEO Abidali Nee-muchwala is known to have issued an in-ternal memo, possibly one of the fi rst ever by any large fi rm in India’s $150 billion outsourcing sector, where engineers who know the emerging programming lan-guages (like Swift, Python) will be better compensated when compared to their brethren with a knowledge of traditional languages like Java. Change is clearly in the air. The company also launched a $100 million corporate venture capital fund that will invest in start-ups with cutting-edge capability. This has been done to fi ll in any gaps in market or technology presence. Wipro has bet big on the digital business and its capabilities in technology, digital strategy, design and digi-tal architecture, to be a comprehensive digital transforma-tion partner for the entire C-suite. One of the high decibel associations was coming on-board as digital and IT partner for Barclays Premier League club, Chelsea FC in September 2015. Incidentally, its cognitive computing system is called Holmes or heuristics and ontology-based learning machines and TM experiential systems). IBM’s cognitive computing system, named after its fi rst CEO Thomas J Watson, is called Watson. While Wipro insists its approach is more collabora-tive than competitive, we are not so sure

12. Larsen & ToubroWhich other Indian company can stake

claim to be behind the world’s largest coal gasifier (exported to China), the world’s longest heated and insulated oil pipeline, the world’s biggest ethylene oxide reactor for a petrochemical complex (in the Middle East)? That is not all; Larsen & Toubro has

also been be-hind airports in

India and the Mid-dle East, metro rail

systems for Riyadh, Qa-tar and major Indian cities

amongst many projects.L&T, the $16 billion technology,

engineering, construction, projects, manufacturing and financial services con-

glomerate, has been growing from strength to strength in multiple sectors.

Long before CSR became a buzzword, L&T was quietly transforming the lives of the underprivileged – starting with those around its manufacturing facilities. Thus, its chief ex-ecutive A M Naik recently pledging 75% of his income to phi-lanthropy should not come as a surprise.

13. Bajaj AutoBajaj Auto has enjoyed a smooth ride in a diffi cult year for the industry even as it remains India’s largest exporter of motorcycles and three-wheelers. Much in news has been its fuel effi cient and emis-sion friendly four-wheeled vehicle, Bajaj Qute, that was fi rst unveiled in 2012. The Qute brand has been exported to 13 markets across the world but is in the midst of an ongoing court case and so unavailable in India.

Its global footprint has also been equally robust - 24% in markets where it operates in Latin America, driven by the Pulsar 200NS; and 33% share in the relevant markets of Afri-ca where the Boxer continues to lead motorcycle sales. Bajaj Auto retains rank at No 13.

According to managing director Rajiv Bajaj, its domestic sector leadership can be attributed to a strategy of creative differentiation — which has helped in capturing major, of-ten leading, market shares in three categories: (i) the super-sports segment with the KTM and the Pulsar RS 200; (ii) the sports or performance segment with the Pulsars and the Avengers; and (iii) the entry–level segment with the Platina and CT 100.

14. Maruti SuzukiThe ubiquitous car manufacturer has for long been the leader in the Indian auto sector. But over the last year, it’s made its most concerted play so far for the more pre-mium end of the market. It started with a bespoke retail channel Nexa for some of its more premium models like S-Cross and Baleno. This year Maruti Suzuki’s brand value has increased by 16% compared to the prior

year; the highest rise in brand value on the list. In March 2016, Maruti Su-zuki launched Vitara Brezza in India, a sub-4 meter SUV, developed over a fi ve year period with a localisation level of 98%.

Maruti Suzuki’s success is also attributed to bringing to life a phi-losophy espoused by many car-makers the world over: the quick importing of features associated with premium vehicles to more mid or budget priced cars. For instance, bringing in an automatic transmis-sion model to the Ritz range.

In a country where ‘kitna deti hai?’ (how many km to the litre?) is still a question that most car buyers obsess

over, Maruti’s smart hybrid, Ciaz claims fuel effi ciency of 28.09 km per litre. Cou-

ple this with well received advertising and an above average presence and engage-

ment on social media, and Maruti Suzuki’s performance surprises exactly nobody.

15. Axis BankGetting top Bollywood actress

Deepika Padukone as the face of the brand has paid rich dividend

for the private sector bank in gaining traction as well as a more recognisable

personality. The bank began its opera-tions in 1994 and is already the country’s

third largest private sector bank. In the Best Indian Brands list, Axis Bank maintains its position.

But then the bank is not only about celebrity association or mindless media spends. It is equally pragmatic about staying on top of the technology curve – whether through its loyalty programme or India’s fi rst multi-social application launched to enable peer-to-peer transfer of money/recharges through social media platforms like Whatsapp, Facebook and Twitter. Or the most recently introduced augmented reality feature in the mobile banking application, using which the custom-ers can deploy their mobile camera to hunt for dining of-fers, cash backs, ATM locations and even apartments which are pre-approved for home loans. Sounds familiar? Yes, it is indeed inspired by the chart-buster success of the popular game Pokemon Go.

16. ITCTo be the country’s largest cigarette maker and also be one of the respected corporates in sectors as diverse as confec-tionary to cosmetics and apparel to hotels is indeed a tall order and a leap of faith that the Indian behemoth has managed to get its consumers to take. A journey that YC Deveshwar, the chief executive for 20 years shared and acknowledged in his farewell speech at the AGM recently.

The biggest game-changer in this journey has possibly been the strategy to pursue multiple drivers of growth, as against banking solely on the tobacco business in which the com-pany has been very strong. The approach has led to a 17-fold growth in the company’s non-cigarette businesses since 1996, registering a net segment revenue of `23,000 crore. The hospitality business of the company has grown to over 100 properties today, from just 12 in 1996. ITC Hotels has emerged the greenest luxury hotel chain in the world. The FMCG businesses, have crafted a vibrant portfolio of around 25 mother brands and have recorded a consumer spend of more than `12,000 crores. Of these, the Aashirvaad brand crossed the `3,000 crore mark, ‘Sunfeast’ over `2,500 crore while ‘Bingo!’ and ‘Classmate’ exceeded `1,000 crore each.

17. HCLFrom starting life as a garage start-up to a conglomerate with businesses spanning four verticals, HCL has come a long way. The four verticals include Infosystems, Technologies, Healthcare and TalentCare. It’s staffed by over 110,000 employees across 31 countries. HCL has moved up one rank from last year to No 17.

The Technologies division covers the entire gamut of so-lutions and services including infrastructure management, application development, BPO and engineering and R&D services, while Infosystems is the leading distribution and IT services solutions company. The company has recently outlined its modes of growth to enhance value as well as business potential: bringing automation to traditional areas, a focus on cloud services, IoT, security services and lastly a thrust on IP (intellectual property)-oriented products and

platforms. In a fi rst of sorts, HCL Technologies tied up with Manchester United to become the football club’s offi cial digi-tal transformation partner in September 2015. The company has a formidable global footprint and has been making a few acquisitions as well that include the UK company Point to Point as also the external IT (information technology) busi-ness of Sweden’s Volvo Group.

18. HeroHero MotoCorp has the unique honour of being the Number One two-wheeler company in the world, a distinction it has held for 15 years. The brand is present in 29 countries globally and enjoys a market share of 39% in the domestic two-wheeler market. The brand did go through a makeover, post its transition from Hero Honda to Hero MotoCorp and continues with its leadership position getting the nation to hum the ‘Hum Main Hai Hero’ ditty. This year, Hero has slipped down a rank to 18.

In 2015, it launched two new models Passion Pro and Xtreme Sports as well as two new scooters – the ‘Maestro Edge and Duet’; the fi rst products developed by the in-house R&D team. To get a slice of digital commerce, the company tied up with Snapdeal and sold over 100,000 two-wheelers. Sports has been a major pillar for brand-building and it has been associating with a range of properties like the Hockey World League Final, Caribbean Premier League’s T20 tourna-ment, as well as the prestigious golf event ‘World Challenge’, along with the Tiger Woods Foundation, in the Bahamas.

19. ONGCOil and Natural Gas Corporation Lim-ited (ONGC), India’s largest oil explo-ration and production company, has retained its brand position at number 19. The brand experienced a 10% drop in its brand value. Even the Olympics did not bring much good news for the oil and gas major. What does the Olympics have to do with ONGC, you ask? At the recently concluded Rio Olympics, there were fi ve representatives sent by the company. Historically, ONGC has been betting big on sports - it presently has 179 active sportspersons and 159 play-ers on scholarships, spread over 23 game disciplines. Out of them, 93 sportspersons are international players.

A Government of India entity founded in 1956, ONGC has a unique distinction of being a company with in-house service capabilities in all areas of exploration and production of oil and gas and related oil-fi eld services. The company owns and operates more than 26,600 kilometres of pipelines in In-dia, including sub-sea pipelines - no other company in India is said to be operating even 50% of this route length.

It has recently launched a `100 crore startup fund on its Diamond Jubilee year to foster, nurture and incubate new ideas related to oil and gas sector. The company hopes to promote entrepreneurship among younger Indians creating an ecosystem that is conducive for growth of startups in the oil and gas sector.

20. Asian PaintsAsian Paints makes it to at least one more prestigious list this year, besides this one. It’s also features in Forbes’ list of the World’s Most Innovative compa-nies at No 18, sharing space in the Top 20 with fi rms like Tesla Motors and Netfl ix. A market leader since 1967, Asian Paints re-mains double the size of any competitor. Even as the paints business grows at a healthy clip, Asian Paints acquisitions in-dicate it intends becoming a one-stop brand for all home dé-cor solutions. It acquired Sleek kitchen solutions in 2013 and Ess Ess bathroom fi ttings a year later. It registered a 17.9% growth in consolidated net profi t for the quarter ended June 2016. In a regulatory fi ling, managing director and CEO, KBS Anand pointed to the double digit growth for the decorative paints business and good growth in Nepal, Fiji and UAE bol-stering its international business.

vererer

Brand Value

` 139.69 bn

is-s-s-s-s-s-----

Brand Value

` 121.78 bn

hatatatatatattttt

Brand Value

` 86.85 bn

re.ese.

es

Brand Value

` 83.33 bn

in ketetetttttt

Brand Value

` 82.53 bn

oilicsocscs

Brand Value

` 66.08 bn

e-eee

Brand Value

` 58.14 bn

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Brand Value

` 101.32 bn

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Brand Value

` 115.63 bn

as bas bas as as as s s s s

Brand Value

` 134.89 bn

You had 30 brands last year and 40 this year. Why the in-crease?Last year, we ran an abridged version. While our aspiration is to get to 50, we cap it off after a certain number because after that the analysis starts to look a little suspect in terms of the kind of brands and informa-tion available in public domain. Brands that appear at 50 to 60 are large commoditised busi-nesses and therefore because of the fi nance module, they have value, but role and strength of brand is poor, and so it doesn’t merit deliberation.

Last year, brands recorded far more impressive growth rates: for instance the top

gainer was HCL which grew 27%. This year top gainer Maruti Suzuki increased by a modest 16%. How do you ac-count for this?At a micro level, for the year under consideration, across key sectors the results are poorer. The three lead sector performances have not been as good as last year, on the fi nan-cial side. That has on an aver-age kept the contribution of the fi nancial module, poorer.

Some of the fi ndings are surprising: for instance Ba-jaj Auto ranking higher than Maruti SuzukiFor Bajaj Auto, the contribu-tion from the motorcycles busi-ness is signifi cant. Its fi nancial

performance has been phenom-enal. Their commercial vehi-cles business has grown by 46% to 47%. They are developing brands like Pulsar and coming up with interesting launch-es like V and the revamped Avenger. They are evolving the motorcycle business and lead-ing the industry as an Indian brand; and that against a back-drop where apart from domes-tic competition, global bike brands like Triumph, Harley etc are coming in. Within that context, Bajaj Auto as an In-dian brand having comparable industry leading initiatives is something that makes it high-er value than a Maruti, which of course, also had phenom-enal growth.

The second major force of growth lies in what customers expect from companies: the growth of experi-ence. The singular biggest impact of technology on our lives and businesses is the transformation of customer journeys. There is both complexity and multiplic-ity of touch points today. And the elusive ideal is all about “seam-less experiences.” People expect everything to just work brilliantly all the time. Whether it’s using an app, walking into a store, speaking to the organisation, or engaging a product or service. The implica-tions for CMOs, as the ones that understand the customer base, is that they need to be able to infl u-ence and take people on a journey across the spectrum. That’s a big shift. To deliver seamless experi-ences, all people, processes, and platforms have to be aligned. This calls for re-engineering organisa-tions, nothing less.

In today’s dynamic business environment, a brand is not only a long-term, sustainable differentiator between businesses, but is the ulti-mate agent of growth. We think of brands as ‘busi-ness strategy brought to life.’

Brands have the power to make someone choose one product over another, or one employ-er over another. They help stand out from competi-tors, become relevant to people, and even bring clarity within an organisation. They generate loyalty because they fulfi l expectations. They com-mand premium even in a market of parity. This is the power of a

brand. We defi ne it as brand strength. It grows

busi-ness and

translates into profi t-

ability and earn-ings. As levers for

growth, brands are extremely power-ful because they touch so many aspects of the

business. Such a brand is not

just built by a logo or a tagline or a communi-

cation. A brand today is not just a product or a service. It’s the environment, the culture, the or-ganisation, values and behaviours, its customers, the promises, their experience, and more importantly

a way of bridging all of it.Look at some of the brands that

have transformed global markets in the last 5 years— Google, Ap-ple, Facebook, Amazon, Uber, and Airbnb. These businesses have appeared almost from nowhere and changed how we live our lives. That’s the clue: they understand how we live our lives. They touch us, help us, improve us. Not just by what they offer but also by how they treat us and make us feel. Not just as a product, but as an organi-sation.

My advice to the Best Indian Brands wanting to grow global is to start with, looking deeper—un-derstand the anatomy of growth for your organisation, and then you can start to build clear strate-gies to achieve global growth. Something that they truly deserve.

The author is global CEO, Interbrand. Views expressed

are personal.

Getting Behind The BestWe ask Interbrand’s Ashish Mishra to decode certain puzzling aspects of Best Indian Brands 2016

Continued from Pg1 >>

Rebuild And They Will Come

A brand is not just built by a

logo or a tagline or a communication. A brand today is not just a product or a

service

The Best Of The Best

THE ECONOMIC TIMES AUGUST 31-SEPTEMBER 06, 2016 3

The 6 Trends That Matter

Facebook’s Judy Lee on what legacy brands can learn from their faster, more disruptive successors

Consumers today are mar-keted to more than ever. That much choice means oppor-tunity, but it can also mean noise.

Some companies are not only surviving, they’re break-ing through the growth bar-rier. Breakthrough brands grow fast, get big sales, and garner headlines. They’re companies who had market-ing as part of their strategy from the very beginning, and seem to innovate every step of the way. How do they do it?

It’s never too late to break-through. Learning what makes them stand out, and applying those lessons, can revitalise your marketing and lead to growth.

Mobile-fi rst mindset: It used to be enough for a busi-ness to have a mobile-friend-ly site, or emails that looked good on smartphones. But today’s breakthrough brands are built from the very be-ginning to be mobile. Think Uber and Lyft.

Geography, infrastructure, and distribution all go away in a mobile-fi rst world. This plays to the strengths of breakthrough brands. How can you take advantage of a mobile-fi rst mindset, even though you might already be an established company? What aspect of your business most easily lends itself to mo-bile?

Having a bold vision: A common mistake when discussing breakthrough brands is equating innova-tion with speed. While im-

portant, if you’re headed in the wrong direction, going faster will only get you to the wrong place in a shorter amount of time.

Breakthrough brands suc-ceed because of a singularity of vision that can be owned by only their company. Be-ing purpose-led gives break-through brands a clarity that’s lacking at companies who only care about market-share or quarterly profi ts. But that kind of vision can’t be focus-grouped or tacked on after the fact. It’s not a PR strategy, marketing angle, or empty slo-gan. It has to be bred into a company’s DNA from the be-ginning. When it’s not, consumers will smell a fraud.

The new market-ing: Traditional advertising is breaking down. It’s no longer about brand versus per-formance, marketing versus sales, consumer versus shop-per. Breakthrough brands in-stead see one funnel and one person moving through it. Their ads are not mere prod-uct announcements designed to shout loudest. Instead, the

new marketing consists of campaigns that are smartly targeted, well-crafted, and designed to drive meaning-ful action.

These ads don’t happen by accident. For every new campaign, emerging brands develop smarter strategies by testing a number of vari-ations of copy, image, and ad type to hone in on what works best. Concept A or B? Stacked

vertically or horizon-tally? These are real-time tests being de-cided in days rather than weeks.

Some breakthrough brands expand the very notion of mar-keting. For brands in apparel, anything that has to do with the brand — even fulfi llment and ship-ping — is treated as marketing. They use traditional avenues, such as bricks and mortar locations, to build relationships in person. Not all break-

throughs are purely digital.Connecting the

world: Twenty years ago, less than 3% of the world’s popu-lation had a mobile phone and less than 1% was online. To-day, two-thirds of the world’s population has access to a

mobile phone, and one-third of all humans are able to com-municate on the Internet. By 2018, it’s expected that 3.82 bil-lion people will be connected to the Internet (according to No Ordinary Disruption, Dobbs, Manyika, Woetzel. Public Affairs Publishing, 2015, eMarketer, April 2016)

A more open and connected world means being able to tell your story in every corner of the globe — to the right people, at the right moment, and on any device. For break-through brands, this new-found connectivity means they can instantly reach glob-al and local audiences. Ac-cording to Facebook internal data for Q1 2016, more than 70% of businesses that adver-tise on Facebook are outside of the US.

In India, a woman quit her job to start her own business making traditional fl oral headdresses for brides. At fi rst, Kalpana Rajesh was Pel-li Poola Jada’s only employee. But business boomed after she posted photos of her crea-tions to Facebook, and today the company has 45 branches and 250 employees, all of whom are women.

Disrupt or destruct : Steve Jobs famously said, “If you don’t cannibalise yourself, someone else will.” Brands that have broken the growth barrier, as well as break-through brands that are cur-rently redefi ning various industries, prove it doesn’t take huge amounts of capi-tal to cause disruption. More are created every day. You can learn from their success or become a footnote in what-ever industries tomorrow’s breakthrough brands disrupt. The choice is yours.

The author is head of brand & creativity, North America Marketing for Facebook.

The author is head of brand & creativity, North America

Marketing for Facebook

If you’re headed in the wrong direc-tion, speed will only get you to the wrong place sooner

Judy Lee

The Global Auto Trends

From fi ghting the old markets to ruling the new marketsEven as the West waits for commercial avatars of the next big leap in auto technology, driver-less cars and the like, auto manufacturers still have factories full of vehicles to sell. Auto mak-ers across the world are relying increasingly on new markets including India rather than try to fl og more cars in the already saturated ones.

Apart from almost every player throwing eve-rything from a micro hatchback to a SUV at the Indian customer, other markets being explored are South Africa, where the seven biggest vehi-cle producers have invested at least 24 billion Rand in over fi ve years, helping boost domestic output by about 30% and exports by 44%.

From auto makers to mobility providersAutomated driving or driverless technology is becoming the place to invest for car manu-facturers from GM to Toyota. Autonomous drive features are already a part of Tesla Mo-tors vehicles, allowing people the option to go hand and feet free. Mercedes Benz upped its investment in this space from €5.7 billion in 2014 to €6.6 billion in 2015. BMW i Ventures provides venture capital to mobility compa-nies. Among its goals is to launch a “premium Airbnb for cars”.

From the outside of a car to inside a carAmericans apparently spend 900 hours a year being mobile and 25 plus hours hearing music in their vehicles. Indians probably spend short-er spans of time in our vehicles, but our roads make them feel a lot longer.

In America though, auto manufacturers like Ford are tying up with a diverse range of part-ners to provide customers unique experiences: these include Spotify, McDonald’s, 7-Eleven and BP so far.

BMW’s Connected Drive makes it the leading provider of online-based services in vehicles. Available in 45 markets, it provides emergency calls, real time traffi c information or a Wi-Fi hotspot built around an onboard SIM card. Chevrolet is offering OnStar 4G LTE Wi-Fi, in cars, trucks and crossovers.

The Local Auto Trends

To own or not..Time was when owning a fi rst car was a milestone every professional dreamt of and

worked towards. With a plethora of cab op-tions, parking at a premium and congested roads that suck the joy out of driving, many people all over the world and in India too are reconsidering their options. Factors external to consumer desire also play a role as cities get tougher on legislation — note the odd-even phenomenon in Delhi. Some of the largest car brands have realised this and companies like Ford and Renault are already experiment-ing with rental and time-based ownership schemes in select markets. Indian consumers already have options like Zoom and Blah-Blah car offering such services. Besides saving the consumer the hassle of owning a car, such ser-vices make premium and luxury cars far more accessible, albeit for brief periods of time.

Challenged brand loyaltyThe product life-cycle has shrunk and differen-tiators need to go beyond tweaking the music system. Newer models need to hit the roads, but care should be taken to ensure existing custom-ers do not feel shortchanged by providing them updates/upgrades for newer features.

Brand loyalty will be severely tested by in-creasing commoditisation. Limiting customer segmentation to cities v/s upcountry or age will not work; each demographic will show all types of behaviour.

Fight the battle at home, overseas or both?Indian manufacturers like Mahindra and Tata already supply cars to overseas markets under their own brand names. The erstwhile Reva from Maini (now Mahindra Electric) was sold in the UK for several years as the “G-Wiz”. The integration into global markets is work-ing two-ways - Indian companies are expand-ing overseas and also acquiring international marquees and bringing them to India - JLR and Ssangyong are great examples. At the same time, they have their hands full on their home turf, fending off the world’s largest auto compa-nies. Renault’s dominance in the SUV segment with the Duster and now in the small hatchback segment with the Kwid are testament to the fact that Indian brands need to protect their home markets even as they take a stab at internation-al growth.

(Based on inputs from Delna Avari, man-agement consultant and former marketing

head for Tata Motors’ passenger vehicles division and Dhruv Chopra, chief market-

ing offi cer, CarWale)

Want to go global or just rule the roost back home? We bring you three global trends from Interbrand and three that are more applicable to the Indian market across two key sectors — Auto and BFSI. By Amit Bapna

The Global Trends In BFSI

Giving control to the customersIt turns out customers don’t hate banks — they just couldn’t stand ‘banking’ as it was tradition-ally practiced with multiple forms to be fi lled, queues to be stood in, windows to be visited and multiple visits, because very little ever got done in a day.

Financial institutions worldwide are deploying technology based solutions that give the power back to customers. For instance, Santander in the UK which debuted voice banking technology. Ser-vices on offer include being able to ask questions like ‘How much did I spend on New Year’s eve?’ Or ‘Where did I spend most money this month?’ Later this year, the full range of services includ-ing reporting loss of cards or setting up account alerts will be rolled out.

The mVisa app launched last year in India makes the mobile phone double up as a debit, credit or prepaid card.

PayPal’s OneTouch quickly authenticates cus-tomers, storing a login for upto six months and offering a superfast checkout option on applicable sites. PayPal claims to be processing millions of transactions, with 18 million consumers opting in.

Engaging millennials in their playgroundMany fi nancial institutions are discovering that just having an app or engaging via social media, does not guarantee a connect with millennials. There is a need to think “outside of the bank” and go beyond the “save for the rainy day” message that’s worked so well with previous generations.

The key: easy to digest content, served online to help them make better decisions. US Bank col-laborated with Buzzfeed, delivering home buying advice via funny GIFs. Chase partnered with female focused newsletter theSkimm, featuring tongue-in-cheek advice on fi nancial matters. It also posts stories on young achievers like the Jen Yuh Nelson, director of Kung Fu Panda 2 and 3, for instance. First Direct bank asked its Twitter followers to share saving goals with a #SavingCup and then responded to some of the tweets with per-sonalised coffee cup artwork depicting how many coffees they’d have to forgo to reach their goal.

A more humane approachAfter movements like Occupy Wall Street and the fallout from the bailouts of banks in the United States generating widespread derision, banks worldwide have realised they need an im-age makeover. And the way to do it is to embrace the same purpose driven approach that has been

powering a lot of FMCGs. And so we have HSBC pulling out all the stops to celebrate Hong Kong for its 150th anniversary. Or Allianz aligning forc-es with energy group Eni contributing to launch a scooter sharing service in Milan, via front and back mounted video cameras that helped quickly settle claims in the event of an accident. Allianz also tried to ‘restart’ young footballers who had missed their fi rst opportunity in Paris’s football industry, giving them a second chance.

Local Trends In BFSI

Service will matter more“To service is to sell” is the new philosophy. Banks will leverage rich customer data to “service fi rst”, rather than sell. Sales will happen because banks anticipate service moments. This will need large technology investments to sense “customer mo-ments” in real time and respond to them. Banks will shift their operating beliefs from a product-oriented organisation to a customer-driven or-ganisation. Who knows, Amazon may just launch a bank.

Paperless will be the normWhen it comes to the process of applying for a loan and getting approval, customers desire speed, ease and transparency, along with instan-taneous decision-making. These are no longer a luxury but instead have become a hygiene factor. They would also like more choices for fi nancial products and the power to customise as per their needs. Future banking will be premises-less (on-line) and paperless. With Aadhar platform, loans will be disbursed in 15 seconds, virtual cards will be issued instantly.

Banking will get more personalPersonalisation will gain prominence. India has 440 mn millennials, larger than China. This mobile-fi rst consumer wants choice, convenience and personalisation; customised offers and an ex-perience that is easy and intuitive while also be-ing contextual. With infrastructure development and increase in smartphone usage, customers expect to use services anywhere, anytime. This is revolutionising the consumer shopping expe-rience. Increasingly, consumers are relying on mobile devices to research potential purchases, compare prices for goods and services and trans-act using mobile banking.

(Based on inputs from Ajay Kelkar, COO, Hansa Cequity and Adhil Shetty, CEO, Bank-

Bazaar.com)

THINK LIKE A STARTUP

2016

Regn.No.MAHENG/2002/6711Volume 15 Issue No. 35Published for the Proprietors, Bennett Coleman & Company Ltd. by R. Krishnamurthyat The Times Of India Building, Dr. D.N.Road, Mumbai 400 001Tel.No. (022) 6635 3535, 2273 3535, Fax- (022)-2273 1144 and printed by him at (1) The Times of India Suburban Press, Akurli Road, Western Express Highway, Kandivili (E), Mumbai 400 101. Tel. No. (022)

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES AUGUST 31-SEPTEMBER 06, 2016 4