Dr. Alok Bharadwaj, Senior Vice President, Canon India

All humans have needs & demands. Our demands have two needs. One is functional and the other emotional. Whatever we consume whether Darjeeling tea, French wines, car ride, airline travel, hotel stay, management schooling, TV viewing, VAR India magazine content or just about anything satisfies both these needs. It is this process of contextual definition of what we consume is called a 'brand'. Because the role of perception is high, it becomes a 'mindgame'. Branding is therefore a place that you own in consumer mind. Those brands that create deep impact carve out a concretized space for themselves. At that stage they become powerful and are called 'Power Brands'. A brand represents an aura, a lifestyle alongside quality. Canon has been long established as one of the best known brands in the world in terms of reliability, innovation and quality. A brand is not merely a product or logo or technology or even product's identity. There is a saying that 3M's are necessary for a successful brand building - Money, Message & Media. I call it a 3C clarity viz: Create, Convey and Continue. When you do this, you build a Big 'C' brand. It means Charismatic. Long live brand managers of India.