In the evolving market place nature and brands are no longer on talking terms. While nature requires an undisturbed environment to grow and flourish in, brands require the chaos of opinions, experiences, challenges, analyses and the angry cacophony of competing claims. It is in this churn that brands today develop and thrive.
The 21st century is unlike any in our history. Empowered with information, taught to question and increasingly dump loyalty, consumers are demanding more out of brands than ever before. Unwittingly they are pushing brand custodians to re-think strategies, tread uncharted territory and deliver on several counts at the same time.
What can potentially emerge from this ‘disorder’ are powerful, iconic brands that have seen moulded by public opinion, crafted by market needs – and if they have survived long enough – tested by time.
Superbrands will be created out of the cosmic dance of these markets.

Superbrands display resilience, endurance and all-round relevance. They are not only continually contemporary but they achieve this through being overtly and subtly futuristic. They either project future or aspirational images or they offer the next wave of benefits or they simply surprise you with the unexpected and new. In almost every case, they are seen to be continually evolving and delighting, over a sustained period by skillfully blending in with the current, yet remaining in a state of fluid motion.
An institution or an organisation to ensure maintenance of Superbrands has to structure itself around the evolutionary needs of the brands. In other words, the requirement of the brand in most cases would dictate the organisation processes and structures and most importantly its ongoing prosperity.

The market is rapidly changing.
With a variety of options in products and services, a consumer is finding it increasingly difficult to make intelligent choices. Hence, the proper deployment of brand values, brand experience and ultimately the brand delivery are gaining greater importance.
This by itself poses a new challenge not only to the brand owner but to brand loyalists as well.
One clearly sees in India the emerging trend of customers actively desirous of co-creating value along with the brand keepers in practically all product segments. Even in matters of advertising and communications, consumers are tending to express their views strongly about ‘their brands’. While this mood is still in its infancy, its rapid maturing can be easily seen. This would possibly be the new avatar of emotional bonding between the customer and the brand owner.
With Indian brands facing the challenge of global competition both in India and offshore, a Superbrand would be an even more relevant benchmark in a brands journey towards global positioning.

When one thinks of a Superbrand, one thinks of immortal, timeless, iconic symbols of the best-in-class or category. But that’s the easy part. What is more important is blueprinting its DNA to ensure that it’s relevant and can live up to that mantle, across time, across consumers.
We are all creatures of our own hedonism. In pursuit of pleasure, of satisfaction, of knowing that when we buy the best or most relevant – beyond the intrinsic product advantage – we are, in fact, buying a heritage of emotional benefits which live up to the promise of what the brand stands for.
To justify the cachet attached to the Superbrand label needs the finesse of understanding the difference between any brand and a Superbrand. Superbrands become role models for others to follow. They command intense loyalty across time and by virtue of these attributes are rich, cashable assets: to stakeholders, to consumers.
Have ambition, have aspiration, have vision and build trust. And you have the foundation for creating a Superbrand.

Traditionally, brands have been built on problem-solution platforms. Good brands excel at solving consumers’ problems most effectively and conveniently. Great brands rarely talk of problems. They offer no rational basis of identification. In fact, the only way that they attach themselves to their consumers is by striking a fundamental chord in their daily lives that goes beyond physical and rational satiation. What they provide is emotional gratification. In times of rapid flux, they become one of few emotional anchors for their consumers.
Communities of loyalists – including fanatics – grow around such brands. Consumers don’t relate to these brands as products or services; they value them for the powerful human myths they embody.The myths are already prevalent in the consumers’ collective consciousness and are brought alive by these brands. Their ability to harness these myths catapults such brands to the top of their brand hierarchy. This lends them ‘divine’ status and places them in the league of ‘Superbrands’.

The role of brand builders and the role of Superbrands in developing markets is actually rather simple: it is to improve the everyday lives of consumers.
The best way to begin is to ask consumers what they want and then simply give it to them. The challenge, of course, is that the consumer is often a poor articulator and cannot explain the need gap; this is where innovation comes in.
There is an old saying that the only strategy the consumer sees is what you execute in the market place. Ultimately it is how you execute the plan that will determine whether or not you have a Superbrand in the making.
In a shrinking world where customers are more global and consumers more demanding, ever-evolving innovation on execution becomes more critical.
This has been the way at P&G. It’s a company that believes ideas can be created any where and accessing them from wherever they are created is the key to brands that will last a hundred years and more.

At the time of going into press Dr. Mallya was not available for comment. We regret not having the benefit of his wisdom and experience – Editor.

Brands cannot accomplish distinctiveness without strong delivery. Once a brand consistently delivers on its promises, a Superbrand is born. Using rational benefits, super brands create an emotional bond that puts customers in a comfort zone; provide an assurance that the product will outperform and outlast other options in the market.
A Superbrand develops the market by questioning existing fundamentals and creating an entirely new market space with its products.
Hero Honda has always endeavoured to do all this and more. In the process, the company has turned out to be a Superbrand that has the pride and glory of being an Indian and the world’s largest two wheeler company.

A Superbrand often becomes the category itself. It has the power to live longer than its consumer, to constantly reinvent itself and to make itself more meaningful and relevant to a new set of buyers, with different value systems and emotional makeup.
A brand acquires the status of a Superbrand when it becomes a part of the consumer’s life. The basic fact that marketers give brands a personality means that brands are meant to be as ‘human’ as possible: and need to become consumers’ companions. A brand acquires a status of a Superbrand when it is wholesomely welcomed into the consumers’ life space.
Brands turn into Superbrands when the organisation has an unambiguous vision for the brand, a well-crafted brand personality, a clear brand identity and a brand promise, coupled with consistent delivery mechanisms.The passion and belief of employees charged with delivering a Superbrand is significant: if folks who deliver the brand experience aren’t sold on the brand and don’t ‘live the brand’ why expect a customer to do so?

I would define a Superbrand as a brand that has stood the test of time, is almost synonymous with the product category to which it belongs, and has the highest top-of-mind recall amongst competing brands. It will also necessarily need to have the best ‘Brand Character’ in its class, scoring high on both product and non-product attributes. Only a small proportion of brands can meet all these criteria; it is these that have been presented in this book.

Indian consumers have traditionally been more loyal to brands than consumers in more developed markets. In the latter, consumers often pick a store brand that provides benefits similar to those of the leading brands at a lower price. In India, however, most consumers shop in small mom-and-pop stores where they get the pack only after asking the shopkeeper for the brand by name. This means that the role of the brand is far more critical in India.
Distribution, too, is determined by the brand’s strength. Across categories, the distribution of the market leader is significantly higher. The role of above-the-line communication is also far more critical in markets like India. Brands that have invested extensively in mass media have had more consumers ask for it by name – and have thus grown faster than the industry average.
But as the Indian FMCG space matures, we are likely to see benefit overlaps within brands– and as modern trade grows, brands will face different challenges to sustain in a market place where consumers can compare competitive offerings. Those that stay relevant and maintain leadership in this changed environment will be the new Superbrands.