By A Correspondent
Amul has emerged as India’s Most Meaningful Brand as per the Havas Media ‘Meaningful Brands’ study announced today. This is the study’s sixth edition globally and for the third year in India.
In India, ‘food’ is one of the most meaningful sectors, according to the study, attaining strong attachment and trust. Food brands are especially meaningful for making our daily lives better with their rational benefits of savings, convenience, health and better nutritional habits. Local brands like Amul take the lead with multinational corporations like Cadbury who introduce local brands to resonate with consumer context and tastes, locally, according to a communique.
The Top 10 Meaningful Brands 2015 are as follows:
India: Amul, Cadbury, Google, Britannia, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), Microsoft, Intel, HP, Parle, Samsung
Global: Samsung, Google, Nestlé, Bimbo, Sony, Microsoft, Nivea, Visa, IKEA, Intel.
The findings note that Indians have the highest attachment towards Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the state-owned insurance group. Interestingly, 86% of people would care if LIC disappeared tomorrow (globally most people do not care if 74% of brands disappeared the next day).
Meaningful Brands, Havas’ metric of brand strength, tracks 1000 brands and 300,000 people over 34 countries, across 12 industries. The India leg, its most extensive yet, covered 100 brands, 13000 people, 11 sectors, across the country. The research covers all aspects of people’s lives, including the impact on collective wellbeing (the role brands play in our communities and the communities one care about), in personal wellbeing (self-esteem, healthy lifestyles, connectivity with friends and family, making lives easier, fitness and happiness) and marketplace factors, which relate to product performance such as quality and price.
Further, Asia Pacific stands out as one of the best relationships between consumers and brands from across the globe. According to the study, in India, brands have a high level of meaningfulness and are seen as providers of personal and collective wellbeing. They are viewed as much more than functional products. Brands here are also seen to be meeting consumers’ expectations more than in any other region. Sample this: 75% of Indians believe brands should play a role in improving our quality of life and wellbeing; the Asia Pacific the average being 69% and the globally average 67%. More than half i.e. 67% of Indian’s feel that brands are working hard at improving our quality of life and wellbeing, compared to an Asia Pacific average of 55% and Global average of 38%.
The study found that for every 10% increase in meaningfulness, a brand can increase its purchase intent by 6.6%, repurchase by 3.2% and price premiums by 10.4%, statistically demonstrating that a brand’s
Speaking about the study, Anita Nayyar, CEO, Havas Media India & South Asia, explained:  “This is our largest India study to date in size and scope. Marketers will be encouraged to know that India once again stands out as the No.1 country, globally, where consumers have the closest relationship with brands. India is also the most ‘grateful’ country, rewarding meaningful brands, in business terms. We are seeing that in a developing economy like India, unlike the West and more developed economies, people are more trusting of brands. People here believe brands can play a meaningful role in their lives and that brands are working hard towards improving our quality of life and wellbeing. This creates tremendous opportunities for brands in India to communicate and connect with their customers, in our organic world – which is at the core of the Meaningful Brands Project.â€
Added Mohit Joshi, Managing Director, Havas Media Group India: “People in India are happy to have brands as partners and as enablers to help them improve their quality of life and wellbeing. While in the West there is a high commoditisation of brands, people in India,have ‘high expectations’ and ‘reward’ those brands that contribute to their wellbeing – this is the second time in a row that LIC has scored as the brand with the highest attachment. The study throws open exciting possibilities for marketers and brands to interact with their customers.â€
Havas Media Group India has been awarded the integrated media mandate of Doctor 24×7 which will involve traditional as well as digital and mobile duties. The account will be handled from the Havas Media Gurgaon office.
Parle Products has extended its countrywide ‘Litter Free’ CSR project and launched an out-of-home campaign in Delhi-NCR on the back of its nationwide TV campaign rolled out earlier this January.
