‘Today’s Branding is About Unlearning the Conventional ‘

NEW DELHI: It is fairly common statement to say that the markets are changing. The main reason for this statement is because of the fact that today’s consumer is changing.

In such evolving market condition innovative style of branding is the need of the hour. For startups and Small sized entrepreneur this is a touchy subject.

The edited excerpts:

When did you decide to start your company?

I come from a business family from back home. But I wanted to do things differently for years and so married a guy I had known all my life and whose family I was extremely fond of, chose the communication field and pursued that wherever he went. This in fact is my second foray into entrepreneurship!! I kept being flexible and learning right from writing, editing, teaching, corp.comm and brand building, setting up project teams to working in social sector both voluntarily and heading one to starting a strong experiential marketing team in a leading agency. Ran large projects efficiently and effectively for the advertising industry and for the international market.  And then the gypsy in me hit out to start a new chapter with a colleague. So here we are running QiCom Brand Solutions and Waulite Technologies along with a couple more forays that we will talk about soon.

What are the basic parameters of  brand building exercise for any startup.?

Hard work, net working, identifying correct opportunities and failing a few times! Yes, I hated failing till I became an entrepreneur.  Today I feel it is so critical to fail and learn. As a kid my dad used to tell me a story of how the sikh families trained for military life as kids- with every fall the mother would tell the child to rise and fight again and not cry over a few injuries…"Girte hain maidane jung mein sheh sawar hi, who kya girnege joh ghutnoon ke bal chalte hain” (in a war only the ones who ride horses fall fighting, people who barely walk and give up never learn the joys of a win). This is the adage I live my life with till date. Eternally a positive fighter.

What level of awareness you experience among CXOs regarding branding?

It’s a learning curve for all of us. We are in the space on breaking grounds and that means many times breaking all applicable or understood rules. That is what makes an entrepreneur. We learn, relearn and unlearn all the time, trust me, if anyone says otherwise I would not call him an entrepreneur at all.

What are the key unique offerings that your consulting bring to your clients?

I am a jack of all trades and master of some. This, for me a great advantage. I am completely flexible and don’t play by the rules. I love bending, changing, integrating and flip thinking 180⁰ . I also have travelled widely in India across all major states, and I specially love to work in small towns and villages. Brands have given me opportunities to experiment and create effective working campaigns for rural markets pan India. More so the network we have now can be activated immediately.

My first hand understanding of the ground helps clients to really dig into the ground deeper than usual and the insights that our team with extensive advertising, communication background brings integrates the best in a cost effective and result oriented manner. Our greatest strength of helping to build networks and new ways of integrating the key elements of brands to effective ground work in the biggest opportunity for clients who work with us. 

What are the key opportunities you witness?

India is on a change path for last few years and the start-up culture is going to edge it to change faster that any of us can anticipate or predict. There is an amoebic growth that we will see in every aspect of life. Be it education, healthcare, infrastructure, IoT. More so, this is first time we are witnessing the intensive interest of Government of India to change the face and history of growth. Every elected representative in India is looking at honest growth…not just sloganeering. And trust me this is the best thing for us as entrepreneurs and indicators of change that will create more and more opportunities in coming years. We are making history and the world will see.