Santosh Desai picks up one-third stake in DY Works in his personal capacity

The well-known brand consultancy’s President - Alpana Parida will continue to lead agency while Future Brands remains majority stakeholder with 60 pc

Eminent brand consultant in the country, Santosh Desai, has picked up stake in brand strategy and design firm DY Works. Mr. Desai picked up the remaining stake from the erstwhile promoter of DY Works, Mr. Sanjeev Malhotra of Alia Group. In 2009, Future Brands helmed by Desai picked up the majority stake in DY Works.

Speaking on the occasion, Ms Alpana Parida, President, DY Works, said, "We'll be looking for future synergies between the work Future Brands is doing and design work DY Works does. Given Santosh’s in-depth knowledge and wide experience, we are confident of building synergies through culture-based design and rural-focused brand amplification strategies. We'll be working together on some projects. We'll be focusing much more and building design for India in product innovation and creating brands which are more India-specific.“

Commenting on the development, Mr. Santosh Desai,said, “The synergy between strategy and design is relevant. DY Works encodes solutions through design, thereby creating designs that impact market shares and brand valuation, Additionally, an approach embedded in culture is common to us as well. For brands to succeed in India – we need an understanding of the Indian cultural context, of dimly lit kirana stores and changes in consumer mindsets.”

DY Works has grown almost 3-fold in the last 6 years and has Corporate, Consumer and SME practices with offices in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. The firm also focuses on the rural market and is currently undertaking an extensive rural research to understand the emerging consumer – new behaviors and beliefs in over 150 villages firsthand.

Ms Parida believes that understanding India is the key to building successful brands - and that building strong brands should not simply be an outcome of how large your advertising spends are.  Understanding the deeper belief systems of Indian consumers, the retail environments and the shopper experiences at kirana stores, the understanding of why some products and brands are adopted in inner India and why some are not - and using that understanding to create solutions that grow market shares is what makes this firm unique.

While Alpana will continue as President; Desai will continue as an advisor with the company.