Sumit Roy

Sumit Roy, Founder Director, Univbrands Ltd, India, talked about co-creating consumer ‘tribes’.

He posed an important question to the participants, “Does your brand have a purpose, other than making profit?”

He believes that we focus on products, services and profit instead of meeting our brand tribes’ emotional needs.

Roy says, “Instead of measuring market share, we should  measure prosumer quotient.”

As per Roy, every time you recommend or use a brand, you can co-create it. You do not need large advertising budgets to build brands because the world’s most powerful medium is the consumer.

“The consumer is a walking, talking co-creator of brands.” Moreover, marketers and advertisers need to listen to their co-creators, befriend them and share ideas.

Roy concluded by suggesting that marketers and advertisers look for obvious emotional truth on which their brand can be based.

Vino B Sookloll

Vino B Sookloll, CEO and Executive Creative Director, CREAD+FCB, and President ACA, Mauritius, enlightened the audience with the holy truth about branding.

He made comparisons between religions and brands. Sookloll says, “Like religion, brands help us create our identity.”

Sookloll pointed out that there is always the original brand and then the imitations of it similar to Abrahamic religion Judaism, which originated first, and was followed by Christianity and Islam.

He says, “Original brands can survive through time like the original Abrahamic religion Judaism.

Brands have their own brand manuals, logos, taglines, icons, headquarters, environment, designs, flags and outfits.

Similarly, religions have their own holy books, logos like the ‘Holy Cross’ for Christianity, taglines like ‘Amen’ for Christians, and headquarters like the holy church.

Very much like religion, brands use same strategies to keep momentum.

“Brands generate strong beliefs to the extent of creating rivals because we worship brands. And, brands are so powerful that they sometimes create conflict.”

Dr Carla Enslin

Dr Carla Enslin, National Academic Head of the Vega School of Brand Leadership, South Africa, gave a presentation on building a meaningful brand.

She focused on the significant shifts in brand orientation.

Her presentation covered various aspects of branding along with the difference between marketing and branding strategy.

“Brand is any idea that should have a specific meaning to connect with others.”

She explained the importance of having a purpose for any brand. According to her, “It is important to be mindful of why the brand exists and why it matters.” Enslin emphasised that a brand is not a promise made but a promise kept.

Sridhar Sunkhad

Sridhar Sunkhad, Managing Director, EON Reality, Singapore, talked about ‘Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality and how it can change the whole world of Travel, Tourism and Education’.

His presentation was very descriptive followed by a number of videos.

He believes that integrating virtual reality with branding can help promote the product better. He says, “It helps connect deeply with the customers.”

Further, it also allows learning faster because knowledge transfer is a priority.

He states, “Innovative brands are trying to recreate themselves today.”