KOCHI:
As part of CII Kerala Annual Meeting, a Brand Conclave on the theme commodities to Brand was organized in Kochi today.
The Conclave was inaugurated by Sanjay Jayavarthanavelu, Deputy Chairman, CII SR & CEO & MD of Lakshmi Machine Works Pvt Ltd, Coimbatore. Sanjay said that it is important for strategic brand building especially for
MSME and SME who need branding the most. In an environment where customers have an endless parade of comparable products at their fingertips, it’s essential for brands to create unique marketing connections, keeping up with the connected consumer becomes more challenging for brands every day said Sanjay.
Dr Sajikumar delivered the welcome address and said that brands creates a separate identity for competitors and helps create recalling value for a product. The Key note address at the Conclave was delivered by Abhimanyu Mathur, Executive Vice President, Lowe Lintas. During his address he said Kerala has to do more innovation for branding for authentic Kerala products such as Matta rice, spices and masalas, coconut oil, chips, coir, rubber and Ayurveda. Abhimanyu also stated that Kerala has been able to built very few National brands like Kerala Tourism,V guard, Eastern, Kalyan, Muthoot, Geojith etc. Hence he concluded stating that there is great opportunity available for authentic Kerala brands which we have not explored so far. The 5 pillars of brand building are ambition, growth, investment, leadership and execution.
Other speakers at the Conclave was Kishan Kumar Shyamalan, Vice President, Wavemaker (Group M) ; Navas Meeran, Past Chairman, CII (SR) & Kerala & Chairman, Eastern Condiments Pvt Ltd; P V Sunil, Managing Director, Carnival Cinemas; Thomas Muthoot John, Director, Muthoot Microfin Ltd; Gautom Menon, Founder& Chief Brand Officer, Wild Tiger Rum; K E Shanavaz, Past Chairman, CII North Kerala Zonal Council & Joint Managing Director, Peekay Steel Castings (P) Ltd; MSA Kumar, Past Chairman, CII Kerala State Council & CEO Coach & Family Business Advisor, Catalyst 3600; T Sudhakar Pai, Chairman & Managing Director, Kurlon Enterprise Ltd; Vivek Krishna Govind, Partner, Varma & Varma; P S Mony, Chief General Manager & State Head, Indian Oil corporation Ltd; Rajiv Dubey, General Manager-Media in Marketing, Dabur India Ltd; Sanjeev Shukla, Chief Marketing Officer, Muthoot Pappachan Group and Vishal S Nicholas, National Planning Head, Dentsu India Pvt Ltd.