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The Brand Summit witnessed luminaries like Shivnath Thukral, Group President (Corporate Branding & Strategic Initiatives) – Essar Group, Yogi Sriram, Executive VP – Larsen & Toubro Ltd including other professionals across the industry. The discussion spearheaded by distinguished guests spread across how various elements of Marketing have evolved through different paradigms. “In today’s scenario a marketer needs to have the willingness to change, the willingness to see what is changing around them and then deliver according to what the consumer wants” said Ms Anshoo Gupta, COO – Pinstorm.

Some of the key discussions of day 2 at the brand summit were –

Speaking on the importance of new emerging media channels Ishan Raina, Director & CEO – Out of Home Media (India) Pvt. Ltd. said “The dynamics of the consumer is changing but the marketer and middle men are refusing to change. In terms of advertising, one has to adopt mass customization using different advertisements for different sets of consumers even if the idea behind the advertisements is the same.”

Sameer Kaul, VP Marketing – Dr. Lal Pathlabs, speaking on the Health industry said “The Paradigm for this industry is shifting from Illness to Wellness. Consumers today do not undergo tests only when they are ill but proactively conduct various tests to keep a track of their wellbeing. In this scenario marketers need to innovate, invigorate and refresh to meet the requirements of these consumers”

Speaking on The Retail & Experience paradigm Ajay Kakar, Chief Marketing Officer – Aditya Birla Group said “The retail industry has evolved. In the current scenario we need to think from a brand perspective where a brand can attract the consumer and lead the consumer towards the brand. A Change should be initiated from Marketers and their products rather than waiting for a need to arise from the consumer.”

Ameera Shah, MD & CEO – Metropolis Healthcare Ltd stressed upon brand customization through brand building exercises and knowledge management tools which will help in creating awareness for consumers.

The Day II of the Summit also featured distinguished personalities such as Prabhat Pani, CEO – Ginger Hotels, Alpana Parida, President – DY Works, Manish Advani, CMO – Mahindra SSG, Pramod Sadarjoshi, Executive Ditrector – GSC India JP Morgan Chase and Chitra Krishnamurthy, Head – Young Talent, Group HR – Aditya Birla group

Thus, the Day II of All India Management Association (AIMA) 6th Brand Summit comprised discussions on service and experience to build brands. The sessions emphasized on the evolution of the technology in today’s competitive scenario with facilities like social media, cloud computing, mobile applications and other sociological and product trends.

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Commenting on the occasion, Shobhana Bhartia, Chairperson, HT Media commented – “”We launched the Summit in 2003 to provide a platform where thought leaders from India and the world could debate and discuss contemporary and topical issues that are of relevance not only to India and South Asia but also to the world. The idea was not just to help shape opinions, policies and awareness through these discussions but also to create an annual forum where a select audience could interact with leading thinkers from across the world. I am pleased to see that, as the Summit enters its eighth year, it has grown in both size and stature and has emerged as one of the region’s most anticipated conferences.”

The first session at the Summit was that of His Holiness the Dalai Lama where he shared his views on – ‘The Art of Happiness in Troubled Times’. His session was followed by that of Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India and Shashi Ruia, Chairman, Essar Group on ‘Going Global: Prospects and Pitfalls for India Inc’. The other speakers on day one were Jairam Ramesh, Hon. Minister of State for Environment and Forests, India and Sunita Narain, Director, Centre for Science and Environment. Next, Vir Sanghvi interacted with the popular matinee star Rishi Kapoor and his son and emerging star Ranbir Kapoor in an interesting session on cinema.

Pranab Mukherjee, Hon. Finance Minister of India shared his invaluable views on Balancing Reforms with Inclusive Growth: The Agenda for the Future in the penultimate session on day one.

The closing session on the first day looked at the serious issue of Diabetes – a disease which is assuming epidemic proportions in India – with Dr. Edward Horton, Professor, Harvard Medical School, Dr. Anoop Misra, Director and Head of Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases, Fortis Hospitals and Wasim Akram, Former Pakistan Cricket Captain talked on The Diabetes Pandemic: Challenges and Solutions.

The second day of the Summit will start with the keynote address by Dr. Manmohan Singh, Hon. Prime Minister of India, who will share his views on ‘Winning the Next Decade’. The Prime Minister’s session will be followed by a special address by Al Gore, Vice President of the USA, 1992 – 2000, on ‘Climate Change’.

Prominent speakers such as Brinda Karat, Member, CPI (M), Political Bureau and Mr. Arun Jaitley, Hon. Leader of the Opposition, Rajya Sabha would also grace the Summit and present their views on Key Issues that Confront Us.

A special address by Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown, M.P. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 2007-2010 on the Lessons from the Last Global Crisis will be conducted as the penultimate session on day two.

The final session of the summit will be addressed by Dr. Kenneth Lieberthal, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies, The Brookings Institution, Prof. Yasheng Huang, Professor of International Management, MIT Sloan School of Management and Prof. Richard Rigby, Executive Director, The ANU China Institute, Australian National University, who will speak on The Rise and Rise of China: What It Means for India.

At the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit 2010, together – and individually – all these leaders would look at yesterday, today and tomorrow; from these they would tick the challenges that need to be tackled in the coming years.

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The Aegis Global Academy provides an MBA equivalent course, which aims to prepare professionals specifically for the services industry. The service industry is the fastest growing sector in the country and the need to have a curriculum that addresses the specific requirements of this industry was a gap that was identified.

Aegis Global Academy is a first of its kind offering in India and offers students a business education that has a strong grounding in customer experience, thus preparing them for a career in one of the fastest growing sectors of the Indian economy. Customer experience is a new concept that is slated to be the next big thing. This course not only provides students with a strong grounding in customer experience, but also helps them prepare for a career in the booming services sector.

The brief to Indigo Consulting is to create awareness about this special curriculum among students and professionals (in the early stage of their careers), who are keen on pursuing a career in the service sector. Since this TG is predominantly present on the internet, there was a need to target this media for creating awareness. To meet these objectives, Indigo Consulting will be carrying out SMM and SEO activities. As part of social media marketing, Indigo Consulting will create innovative interactions on Twitter and Facebook to create a buzz and thereby meet the defined objectives of Aegis Global Academy. The use of viral videos created by Aegis Global Academy is one of the routes to create this buzz.

On having chosen Indigo Consulting for their digital activities, Subir Ghosh, President, Aegis Global Academy, said, “Indigo Consulting has been a thought leader in the field of internet marketing and has been associated with the Essar Group companies. They also share a good understanding of the customer service domain along with a track record of innovation. We hope to be able to generate the buzz required using this expertise.”

Vikas Tandon, MD, Indigo Consulting, said, “Non-paid media like SEO and SMM is becoming increasingly important and a key driver of customer engagement online. With Aegis Global Academy, we have an exciting opportunity to create awareness about their offering of a specialized management curriculum for an audience which thrives on such non-paid and democratic channels.”

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On completing two years, Haresh Nayak, Managing Director, Posterscope India said, “We have had a phenomenal success in last 2 years, agency has grown from 0 to 100 crs + which is a good achievement in OOH business, we have won 63 clients out of which 70% are on AOR basis. I personally believe the success go to the teams which we have been able to retain with lowest iterations. In last two years we have consolidated our OOH business and we see it growing, we have also diversified in retail in big way through Hyperspace and we believe as the infrastructure development happens in India retail as a category will continue to have double digit growth”.

Some of the proprietory tools customized to India are PRISM PLAN, PRISM SCREEN, PRISM SHARE, PRISM SCORE, PRISM CREATIVE, PRISM MAP, PRISM MONITOR and PRISM MAC.

Geographically, Posterscope India today has presence in 25 cities and has the best team of OOH professionals in India, exceeding 85 members, each trained on the latest tools & developments in the OOH world. some of its key clients include the Future Group, Philips India, P&G, Nestle India, Essar Group, Titan, Tanishq, Samsonite, Symantec, Lee Cooper, Levis, Bharti,AXA, Ray-Ban, Amul, Mont Blanc, Google, AirAsia, GoAir, Adidas, Blue Star and Tata Second Career.

Shivnath Thukral

Shashi Ruia, Chairman, Essar Group said about the development, “Shivnath has a rich experience of analyzing Indian businesses, financial markts and economic affairs. He also brings to the table international experience of engaging with global thinkers, economists and CEOs. His skills and expertise will be invaluable in strategically reaching out to appropriately position the Essar Brand with its various stake holders whilst articulating and helping Essar’s journey from being a domestic manufacturing company to being a respected global entrepreneur.”