MxMIndia

Category: MARKETING

  • Ignite! Is being held from February 6 to 11 between 10am to 4pm at the Centre for Management campus in Bandra.

    Industry bigwigs share insights with students at Ignite!

    By A Correspondent

     

    “You won’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate!” said Vijay Mansukhani, Co-Founder & Managing Director of consumer electronics giant, Onida Ltd.

     

    Mr. Mansukhani shared this and other insights with students of Centre For Management at the inauguration of Ignite!, CFM’s Industry Week on February 6.

     

    Sharing vignettes of his entrepreneurial journey, Mr Mansukhani spoke about how in the 1980s, the nascent Onida signed a joint venture withJapan’s JVC, beating larger Indian manufacturers, by understanding how the Japanese mindset worked.

     

    Additionally, the highly successful (and radical) TV campaign where the Devil said that Onida TVs were ‘Neighbours Envy, Owners Pride’ was due to the fact that they picked a young low cost ad agency and couldn’t pay for the larger conservative ones.

     

    Students later said that it was refreshing to hear from a successful entrepreneur who was willing to share both the positive and negative aspects of his life.

     

    Also giving his valuable inputs was Mr. Chandrakant Salunkhe, President of the SME Chamber of Indian who adviced the students about the government schemes available for micro and small entrepreneurs. “Rs1 Crore collateral-free loan is available to micro and small entrepreneurs under the Government’s Credit Guarantee Trust,” he said.

     

    What was interesting about the above fact was that the vast majority of people are not aware of this facility. So many budding entrepreneurs never start their own business due to lack of funds. If this was widely known, there would be many more companies starting up.

     

    The SME Chamber focuses helping entrepreneurs through education and networking on ways they can grow their businesses faster.

     

    When he asked the assembled management students how many of them wanted to start their own business, a majority raised their hands. This was a huge shift from the older mindset where students just wanted a good corporate job after graduation.

     

    Mr. Salunkhe and Mr. Akhil Shahani (Managing Director of Centre For Management), spoke about the need for jointly creating an MBA especially for the SME segment.

     

    It was a great eye opener for CFM’s students on the ways they can start their own business.

     

    Ignite! Is being held from February 6 to 11 between 10am to 4pm at the Centre for Management campus in Bandra. Every day, well known achievers from Indian and international industries as diverse as electronics, pharmaceuticals, media, transportation and retail will come to share ideas with the students to inspire them to greater heights in their own post graduate careers.

     

    Centre for Management is part of a global network of 75 Universities and 500 colleges that bring internationally recognized MBAs toIndia. It is an initiative of the Thadomal Shahani Trust, whose trustees sit on the managing board of 24 colleges in Mumbai includingThadomalShahaniEngineeringCollege, HR College,JaiHindCollege, KC College,MMKCollege,NationalCollegeand others.

  • He will be incharge of the data and international businesses

    Gopal Vittal back @ Airtel

    By A Correspondent

     

    Having resigned from Hindustan Unilever just last month as Executive Director – Home & Personal Care, Mr Gopal Vittal is set to return to Bharti Airtel Gopal Vittal as Group Director for Special Projects from April 3. He will be incharge of the data and international businesses.

     

    Mr Vittal was with Airtel from 2006 to 2008. Said Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal, Bharti Airtel CMD, in a statement: “We are delighted to have Gopal back at Airtel. Given our global aspirations and a fast evolving mobile telephony landscape led by explosive growth of data services, we are preparing a strong platform for the next phase of our growth.”

     

  • 92.7 BIG FM, known for its fresh program initiatives, innovatively engineered the launch of 'The Perfect World'.

    Sonu Nigam launches Priya Kumar’s “The Perfect World” on 92.7 BIG FM

    By A Correspondent

     

    92.7 BIG FM,India’s number one FM Network and the Radio Broadcaster of the Year at the Golden Mikes, on Tuesday launched renowned motivational speaker Priya Kumar’s latest inspirational book ‘The Perfect World – A Journey to Infinite Possibilities’ by singer and musician Sonu Nigam.

     

    Sonu Nigam launched the first copy of the book at an event held at the 92.7 BIG FM studios, also present were model Shamita Singha, Moni Kangana Dutta and Teesha Nigam (Sonu Nigam’s sister). The event was hosted by RJ Ankit, the breakfast jockey at 92.7 BIG FM’s Mumbai station.

     

    92.7 BIG FM, known for its fresh program initiatives, innovatively engineered the launch of ‘The Perfect World’. The book launch is being promoted across the 92.7 BIG FM network through interesting on-air integrations.

     

    The book takes you through the journey of Niki Sanders, who is living an ordinary life burdened with fear, loaded with dreams, a very demanding relationship, a dissatisfying job, a bitter attitude and ever-eluding aspirations. In a desperate attempt to seek clarity, courage and confidence, she unwittingly leads herself into meeting with two evolved souls from across the universe. These superior souls belong to The Perfect World and with them Niki Sanders embarks on the most thrilling adventure of her life; an adventure into infinite possibilities and self discovery.

     

    Sonu Nigam, an avid book lover, said: “Reading Priya is an ongoing healing effect.”

    Talking about the book, Priya Kumar said: “My books fall in the genre of ‘inspirational thrillers’. I tell stories that inspire people. Stories loaded with spiritual wisdom, which will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page. The Perfect World is an extraordinary story of the truth about your own eternity that will find a place in your daily consciousness.”

     

    The company spokesperson for 92.7 BIG FM said: “Our endeavour is to give innovative content and bring something unique to our listeners every day. This time around too we used the 92.7 BIG FM network to launch a book by Priya Kumar, known for her works like ‘I am another You’ and ‘License to Live’.”

     

    The Perfect World published by Embassy Books is available at bookstores across India and is priced at Rs. 275/-only.

    Renowned motivational speaker and bestselling author, Priya Kumar is the CEO of Priya Kumar’s Training Systems. She has worked with the best names in the corporate world. Her interactive and at times unconventional methods of training continue to deliver much sought after tangible results. Apart from being a columnist for leading newspapers, Priya does several radio and television shows on Motivation and Peak Performance.

     

  • Mudra Max has exclusively implemented a high decibel campaign in Mumbai and Delhi through a mix of digital, experiential, on ground and OOH execution

    Volkswagen & Mudra Max go 360 on OOH for Think Blue

    By A Correspondent

     

    Volkswagen is not just a brand but a proud bearer of automotive heritage. ‘Think Blue’ is a philosophy of the brand’s ecological and sustainable activities that has been designed to promote it’s key corporate objective of sustainability and environmental protection.

     

    The current initiative aims at strengthening the brand’s ‘Think blue’ philosophy using the opportunity provided by the Delhi Auto expo.

     

    Mudra Max has exclusively implemented a high decibel campaign in Mumbai and Delhithrough a mix of digital, experiential, on ground and OOH execution. The campaign is based on the international template which tells the story of the Volkswagen brand’s evolution as a responsible brand leveraging the ‘Think Blue’ philosophy.

     

    Mudra Max and Volkswagen installed an exceptional art-piece of the iconic Beetle created wholly out of scrap collected from various Think Blue clean-up drives undertaken by Volkswagen at different locations.

     

    The concept has given life to lifeless objects that have been discarded. The team took 15 days to put together a real-sized Beetle, made entirely of scrap ranging from discarded mother boards, keyboards, disposed machinery parts, mobile phones, cans, plastic bottles, cassettes, wires and other such scrap.

     

    To maximize impact and reach, the Delhi T3 terminal served as the venue to exhibit the Beetle art-piece along with a holistic mix of media elements, ranging from a constant running AV on the Think Blue philosophy and the making of the Beetle, a digital set up which connected the location live to Volkswagen’s micro-site and pages on Facebook, cameramen to capture pictures of passersby and giving them away in custom made ‘Think Blue’ photo jackets as mementos, with promoters engaging people to a classic steel-plated information kiosk on the heritage of Volkswagen and Think blue.

     

    At the same time garbage collection drives were initiated where the trash collected were mounted in cases and put on billboards to spread awareness and to have a more responsible behaviour towards the environment.

     

    Taking the display of the art-piece forward, the Beetle was brought back to Mumbai and is now exhibited at Mahim causeway, one of the most significant junctions in the city catering to high decibel traffic and footfalls all day long.

     

    This would further heighten the impact and buzz created by the art-piece and would create talking points around the brand’s philosophy of Think blue and achieving sustainability while creating something beautiful.

     

    A concept of ‘Fence branding’ preceded the entire ‘Think blue’ activity. A global template campaign of Volkswagen was rolled out worldwide on December 15, 2011. The primary requisite was continuous running space which would complement the ‘story telling’ creative of Volkswagen.

     

    Huge fences at Inorbit mall, Travelators at Delhi T3 airport, Fence branding at the T1 Delhi Airport were taken up. The size of the media was enormous running up to 700 square feet at one go.

     

    In addition, an entire Delhi Metro train was wrapped with the ‘Think Blue’ story to create higher impact and interest. This was coupled with a block-out media presence across significant stations of theDelhi metro & DAME.

     

    Speaking on the execution, Vikas Nowal, Vice President, Mudra Max-OOH on behalf of the Mudra Max team said: “We wanted to ensure that the Volkswagen campaign receives equal prominence in the communication across media. Therefore, the need of the hour was to create disruptive opportunities for the message to hit home. The Earth Hour activity was probably the simplest yet most relevant introduction to the brand’s commitment to taking care of the environment. The Beetle installation is something we are all extremely proud of achieving, and is the best embodiment of the iconic brand, and the worthy cause it champions. We continue to look at how we can help spread the brand’s message to a wider audience.”

     

    Bishwajeet Samal, Head of Marketing Communication at Volkswagen India said: “Our aim was to create buzz and drive home the message of ‘Think Blue. Drive Blue.’ With Out of Home activations like the Beetle art piece constructed purely out of scrap, branding of a Delhi Metro with the ‘Think Blue.’ message, creating the ugliest billboard in New Delhi from garbage collected from cleanliness drives in New Delhi; our outdoor agency effectively positioned Brand Volkswagen as a responsible automobile manufacturer.”

     

     

  • A Comms has tied up with the e-commerce site for a unique campaign across India

    A Comm’s latest TV campaign for snapdeal.com

    By A Correspondent

     

    One of India’s largest network media houses, Aurora Comms (A Comms) has tied up with one of the most popular e-commerce sites, snapdeal.com for their campaign. A Comms, which has been connecting brands to consumers at consumer spend zones, has tied up with the e-commerce site for a unique campaign acrossIndia.

     

    A Comms brought to the Indian market the innovation of streaming communication on multiple LCD panels in electronic stores. It has successfully been running campaigns connecting premium brands with technology climbers. snapdeal.com will be the first brand in e-commerce segment to be displayed in Croma and E-Zone outlets acrossIndia.

     

    A Comms uses multiple television panels in electronic stores to create an experiential zone for the brand. While some brands may use the medium as pure-play display medium, for some it also works as sampling.

     

    In the case of snapdeal.com, which already has a recall among tech-savvy and upwardly mobile audiences, this tie-up will only take it to the premium consumers of the two electronic stores and make them aware of its creative approach for getting the “Best Deals everyday”. That snapdeal.com itself has attractive offers in the same cities where Croma and E-Zone are present, is the X-factor of this tie-up.

     

    Samir Vithlani, Director – Key Accounts, Aurora Comms, said, ‘It is our endeavour to deliver targeted consumers in a contextual manner. Croma and E-Zone attract intellectual consumers; therefore we worked on offering branding and showcasing the deal site across these stores.”

     

    Abhimanyu Rishi, Head Activations, snapdeal.com feels this will help the e-commerce site get a new audience. “The footfalls in electronic stores are always increasing. Our tie-up is a unique attempt to promote snapdeal.com to the smart, upwardly mobile urban citizen. We want to drive home our messages innovatively, not intrusively,” he said.

     

    The Campaign:

     

    [youtube width=”400″ height=”200″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFrkWV-yZ44[/youtube]

    Aurora Comms, popularly known as A Comms, is India’s largest advertising network media house offering branding solutions across various consumer spendzones. The company already has tie ups with over 4000 destinations in about 600 cities inIndia.

     

  • Panasonic is presenting the 4th Green Globe Foundation Awards (GGFA) to honour India's environmental crusaders.

    Panasonic Green Globe Awards on Feb 2

    By A Correspondent

     

    The 4th edition of the Green Globe Foundation Awards presented by Panasonic is scheduled to take place at the Taj Palace, New Delhi on February 2. The awards have been instituted as a salute to the efforts of organizations and individuals who are actively fighting climate change through their work in environment preservation and regeneration in our country, today.

     

    Launched at the IIFA Awards 2008 in Bangkok, the Awards are partnered by illustrious partners like United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and The Energy Resources Institute (TERI) that is led by Nobel Laureate Dr. R.K. Pachauri, among others.

     

    This year, over 100 nominations have been received over 8 categories and will go through a stringent procedure before the final winners are decided.  The jury panel consists of Young-Woo Park-Regional Director, UNEP; M.C. Mehta- Environmental Lawyer; Jyoti K. Parikh-Executive Director, Integrated Research for Action and Development (IRADe); Mr. Kartikeya V. Sarabhai- Founder Director of Centre for Environment Education; Ranjana Saikia- Director, Educating Youth for Sustainable Development, TERI; and Annapurna Vancheswaran- Director, Sustainable Development Outreach Division, TERI, among others.

     

    The categories under which Green Globes will be give out are Outstanding Contribution in Architecture, Outstanding Contribution by an Educational Institution, Product Innovation and Design,  Business Enterprise- Manufacturing, Business Enterprise- Services,  Outstanding Contribution in Media,  Outstanding Contribution by an NGO,  and Outstanding Contribution by a State Government .

     

    Manish Sharma – Director, Sales & Marketing, Panasonic India said, “As part of company’s eco initiatives, Panasonic has sponsored for Green Globe Awards 2012 which are aimed to encourage, acknowledge and award the Champions of the Earth for environmental leadership globally contributing towards protecting our environment.”

     

    He further added, “It gives us immense pleasure to be a part of such leading environmental awards which helps in increasing awareness and interest among people for contributing towards the environment for a healthier and better tomorrow. Keeping in lines with our vision of being No. 1 Green Innovation Company by 2018, we at Panasonic continuously focus on introducing innovative technologies, products and solutions which are eco-friendly.”

     

    The voting process is a rigorous and methodical procedure that is closely monitored by KPMG, the official auditors for the event. The results are surrounded by secrecy and the credibility of the voting process is one of the key parameters of this prestigious celebration.

     

    Sabbas Joseph, Director of Wizcraft International Entertainment said, “Being a developing nation, India is specifically faced with the challenge of sustaining its rapid economic growth while dealing with the global threat of climate change. As citizens everyone one of us has a moral duty toward preserving the earth and ensuring a better future for the generations to come.

     

    “The Green Globe Foundation Awards are an endeavour towards creating a world that is habitable and through this initiative we recognize star performers for their contributions towards environmental preservation and regeneration.”.

     

    The Green Globe Foundation Awards is conceptualized and promoted by entertainment and communication major Wizcraft International Entertainment Pvt Ltd.

     

  • UCO Bank is the Banking Partner forMaharashtraand Madhya Pradesh, Dena Bank would be the partner forGujaratand Rajasthan and Corporation Bank for Karnataka

    Future Media takes its partnership with banks to regional level for ‘Sabse Saste 5 Din’

    By A correspondent

     

    It is that time of the year when hordes of people throng the alleys of the country’s most economical retail supermarket for a once-in-a-year opportunity to purchase goods at the most economical price ever.

     

    Big Bazaar is back with its ‘Sabse Saste 5 Din’ offer and has loads of surprises planned for the consumer. For the year’s most economical five days of shopping to be held from January 25-29, Future Media, the Retail Media arm of Future Group has partnered with three leading banks ofIndiaat a regional level.

     

    Having tasted success in 2010, Future Media has been tying up with various partners for a variety of Future Group’s properties. However, for the first time, staying true to the potential of the medium, Future Media has broken down the partnership at a regional level.

     

    While UCO Bank is the banking partner forMaharashtraand Madhya Pradesh, Dena Bank would be the partner forGujaratand Rajasthan and Corporation Bank for Karnataka.

     

    As part of the partnership, each of the banks get branding visibility across the stores in their respective markets and also a perfect platform to interact with millions of customers who will shop in Big Bazaars during this period.

     

    “For the first time, we have opened up the sponsorship at a regional level, thereby enabling banks to partner us in markets crucial to them,” said Sandip Tarkas, CEO, Future Media.

     

    “In addition to the Branding and Customer Interaction, these banks will also get presence across Big Bazaar’s ATL & BTL promotions”, he added.

     

    Every year more than 10 million customers acrossIndiashop in 200 Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar & Fashion@Big Bazaar stores spread over 89 cities, making it one of India’s largest consumer events.

     

  • With the core thought of amplifying 'Always Hoyenga' on ground and build a high recall, Greenply has come up with a 10×10 Graffiti wall

    Greenply aims to make entry to Limca Book of Records

    By A Correspondent

     

    Greenply, the interior infrastructure company, has come up with an innovative marketing – “Greenply Always Hoyenga- largest graffiti wall in India”. The new marketing is in sync with its new campaign, Always Hoyenga, Greenply has come up with a consumer activation program to create a graffiti wall in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore and invite everybody to come and express their wishes for the future by either painting or writing on the wall.

     

    With the core thought of amplifying ‘Always Hoyenga’ on ground and build a high recall, Greenply has come up with a 10×10 Graffiti wall. This graffiti wall from each city will add on to creating the mega Graffiti wall measuring 27,000 sq ft in Kolkata creating the largest graffiti inIndiaand will bid to enter the Limca Book of Records.

     

    The Always Hoyenga campaign by Greenply is aimed at making durability more relevant and fresh for the audiences.

     

    The graffiti will be created on January 21 in Delhi at Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj and in Mumbai at Phoenix Mills, Lower Parel, respectively; on January 22 in Bangalore at Garuda Mall, Ashok Nagar and in Hyderabadat City Centre, Banjara Hill respectively. The event will be from 11 am to 8 pm.

     

  • Top 10 finalists submitting an idea for Tanishq’s Mia jewellery line Mia to win Rs1,00,000 each and get to collaborate with designers at Tanishq to design latest collection

    Tanishq inspires million thoughts through ‘My Expression’ competition

    By A Correspondent

     

    Tanishq,India’s largest and most preferred jewellery brand, on Thursday announced the launch of its first ever co-creation activity ‘My Expression’. The activity is an open for all contest aimed to identify and reward the best creative minds across the country.

     

    Interested participants are requested to submit an idea for Mia – the new Working Women’s line and the top 10 finalists stand to win Rs1,00,000 each. The selected idea will be used to in the next collection for Mia.

     

    To participate, users should first register by visiting the website www.myexpression.tanishq.co.in, login and then submit ideas. After logging in, users can choose to either enter text, or upload a picture or upload/paste the youtube link of their idea, explaining the concept in detail.

     

    Points will be awarded for originality and innovativeness of the idea, degree of detail in idea submission, the fit with the brand and ease of manufacturability. The deadline to submit idea is February 14, 2012.

     

    Once the ideas are collected, public will vote for their favourite ideas through an online poll system, and the top ideas will make it to the Jury Selection round, at the end of which the top 10 will win the cash prize of Rs1,00,000 each.

     

    A 3-member jury comprising eminent personalities including Revathi Kant, GM – Design, Innovation and Development, Tanishq, Anaita Shroff Adajania, Fashion Director, Vogue India and Shimul Mehta Vyas, Mentor, Textile Apparel and Accessory Design, National Institute of Design (NID) will evaluate designs and ideas to shortlist top 10 winners.

     

    Announcing the launch, Mr Sandeep Kulhalli, Vice President, retail and marketing, Tanishq, said: “My Expression is the first of its kind initiative in the Indian jewellery industry. We are excited about the contest as it is interactive platform to engage with our customers and fans.”

     

    He further added: “Through this engagement, we can also secure useful insights on Tanishq’s jewellery collection, and also find intelligent, creative and smart young designers with great ideas. We look forward to active participation and indulgence from our fans and help make co-creation a success.”

     

    “Tanishq has been one of the early adopters of digital media – Tanishq One, the collection targeted at men, was launched using only digital media, Tanishq Valentine 999 collection, targeted at youth, had digital media as the lead media and now Tanishq My Expression, India’s first co creation activity, is using only digital media,” said Unny Radhakrishnan, National director, Digital, Maxus.

     

    Tanishq, from the Tata Group, has been synonymous with superior craftsmanship, exclusive designs and guaranteed product quality. It has built for itself the envious reputation of being the only jewellery brand in the country that strives to understand the Indian woman and provide her with jewellery that meets her traditional and contemporary aspirations and desires.

     

  • Ford India has announced the appointment of P K Umashankar as vice president, customer service operations.

    P K Umashankar appointed VP of Customer Service Operations, Ford India

    By A Correspondent

     

    P K Umashankar has been appointed to a newly created executive position that will involve focusing on Ford India’s growing strategic emphasis on customer satisfaction as it gears up to live its commitment to the market and customers.

     

    In his new role, Mr Umashankar will lead the customer service and satisfaction initiatives across the company’s ever-expanding sales and service network in India and growing customer base and report directly to Nigel Wark, executive director, marketing, Sales & Service, Ford India.

     

    “Customer satisfaction is at the core of Ford’s commitment and we are delighted to have Uma lead our efforts on this front. Given his strong experience in ensuring quality, leadership skills and deep understanding of Indian customers, we are sure that in this strategic role Uma will lead in bolstering our efforts to achieve and grow more and more happy customers for Ford.” said Mr Wark. “This appointment also signals Ford’s focus on ensuring new levels of engagements and delighting customers through their complete ownership experience in India.”

     

    Mr Umashankar is passionate about quality enhancement and is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt, and a certified Six Sigma trainer. He was responsible for all Six Sigma projects in Distribution areas spanning Quality, Sales, Finance and Service at Ford India.

     

    In his over decade and a half long career with Ford India, Mr Umashankar has served different roles that include heading Regional Sales & Service Operations, North & East , Service Engineering, Service Marketing and Parts Operations. He steps up to the new role from being the General Manager, Product Marketing driving the product growth plans for India. Prior to that, he was General Manager, Customer Service Operations, where he looked after customer satisfaction and Parts & Service business at Ford India.

     

    Before joining Ford India, Mr Umashankar, who graduated in mechanical engineering from Madras University, served in the Indian Air Force as an aeronautical engineering officer for six years. He specialized in Aeronautical Engineering at the Air Force Technical College. He also holds an Executive MBA in Finance from LIBA, Chennai where he was a topper and a gold medallist.

     

  • Oberoi Mall hosts the biggest brand shopping extravaganza

    50 Brands @ 50 % off sale back in town

    By A Correspondent
    Oberoi Mall, one of Mumbai’s leading retail malls, will be hosting the second ‘50 Brands @ 50 % off’ sale on January 18. This sale will have over 60 leading national and international luxury brands offering flat 50 per cent off for one day.

    The brands participating in the sale are Accessorize, Nike, Adidas, Reebok, United Colors of Benetton, Chemistry, FIFA, Kazo, Levi’s, Cream Center, Allen Solly, Biba, Forever New and other leading lifestyle and food brands.

     

    Oberoi Mall is the first mall in the country to come up with a unique sale format like this, the first season of which was held in July last year. Similar trends are prevalent in the Dubaishopping festival and malls in Hong Kong.

    Commenting on this, Nirzar Jain, vice president – Oberoi Mall said: “After the success of the first ever 50 Brands @ 50 % sale, we are extremely happy to present the second season. Oberoi Mall has always striven to offer its patrons an enhanced shopping experience and this season we have more than 60 leading brands on flat 50% flat discount for one day. Our retailers too are looking forward to this event as the last 50:50 sale saw the overall sales figures shoot up by 300 per cent and foot falls increasing by almost 200 per cent on a weekday. In fact few brands like Central, Bombay High and FIFA did the highest ever sales in the city in a single day.”

    The 50 Brands @ 50 % sale has been clubbed up with ‘Women’s Wednesday’, which is Oberoi Mall’s existing property exclusively for women, making it a double bonanza for shoppers.

     

  • Nokia, TATA top; Anna pips Sachin, Salman and Amitabh as the most trusted personality

    Nokia, Tata star in India’s most trusted brands report

    By A Correspondent

    Trust Research Advisory, the authority on the measurement of Trust among brands, is out with the Brand Trust Report 2012, the much anticipated results of India’s Most Trusted Brands.

     

    The Brand Trust Report, India Study, 2012 (BTR 2012), lists India’s 1,000 Most Trusted Brands even though it studied over 17,000. The report is the result of a comprehensive primary research conducted on 61 components of trust – a proprietary tool of Trust Research Advisory. The research was conducted with 2,718 ‘influencer’ respondents from 15 cities, generating more than 2 million data-points from 12,000 hours of research.

     

    The research was done on salaried SEC A population as they have more engagement with people and brands. Other detailed parameter of the audience chosen for the survey also exists. According to Mr. N Chandramouli, CEO of Trust Research Advisory, rigorous back checks were done to eliminate any anomalies that might appear in the survey and the parameters were set very high for the research.

     

    He said, that according to an AC Nielsen report, $1 trillion was spent on communication last year… Considering the huge amount of money, it is of paramount importance that the money is used correctly. Mr. Chandramauli said that even though the top positions have not drastically changed over the last year, yet the trust index pattern has changed. In 2011 report, the top two brands had the trust index equivalent to the next 65 brands. However, this figure has dropped down to the next 6 brands in 2012 report. This means that the gap between the top players is decreasing and in the upcoming years one can see a drastic turn around.

     

    Talking about research methodology Mr Chandramauli said “If you want to focus on trust, we can’t focus on trust but the ingredients of trust… The survey studies such 100 trust metrics in extraordinary details.” The three components of trust are the tactile, the vicarious and the imagined concepts of trust.

     

    Nokia and Tata retained their first and second positions as India’s top two Trusted Brands this year. Sony, the Japanese electronics leader, slipped to fifth position, outranked by the two aggressive Korean chaebols, LG at 3rd position and Samsung at 4th position. Maruti Suzuki improved its position by one notch and is India’s 6th Most Trusted Brand this year. Bajaj, ranked 7th, is a new entrant this year in the Top 10 (last year it was ranked 12th); LIC and Airtel’s positions are unchanged from last year at 8th and 9th rank respectively. Reliance slipped to 10th Most Trusted Brand this year (from sixth last year).

     

    Among 22 personalities listed among in BTR 2012, Anna Hazare has gained the nation’s trust ahead of Sachin Tendulkar, Salman Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan, featured in that order. Most Trusted leaders in some other categories are Armani in Branded Fashion, DLF in Construction, NIIT in Education, ONGC in Energy, PVR in Entertainment, Pepsi in F&B, Dabur in Healthcare, Taj Hotels in Hospitality, Google in Internet, ACC in Manufacturing, Thomas Cook in Services, Being Human in Social Sector, Hewlett Packard in Technology, and Air India in Airlines.

     

    Mr Chandramouli, said: “In life, without trust, there is nothing. Each time a human engages with anything, the basis for all decisions is trust. Be it brands, other humans, or just ideas, one will react to them on the basis of the trust it generates. Last year was tumultuous for several brands, but those which focused on trust, have gained market-share, revenues and profits. On the other hand, the brands which have focused only on the latter, have invariably lost both. Focus on building trust and all else will follow automatically.”

     

    Anand Mahindra, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of Mahindra & Mahindra, has elaborated on Trust is Everything concept for the Mahindra brand in the report: “No great secret lies behind the highly-trusted Mahindra brand. Consistent delivery against every promise is the single biggest driver of trust for our brand. Apart from this, factors like high quality products and services, adherence to highest standards of corporate governance, the very high integrity of the leaders who run the company and adherence to a set of values in conducting business have helped the Mahindra brand earn the trust of all its stakeholders.”

     

    The report, priced at Rs10,000, is available exclusively at TRA offices.