 Ladies and gentlemen, it's an absolute delight for me to kick off this conference by delivering the keynote address and to invite here on the stage amongst your round of applause, picker round of applause, Mr. Rajesh Iramarishnan, managing director of Hetty Man and India. In terms of the topic, the aligning brand purpose with the brand goal. Good morning. Thank you Dr. Bhakar and Mitch for having me here for this brand talk. It's a pleasure and a privilege and I think it's a very interesting topic that has been picked as a theme which is around aligning brand purpose with brand goal. You know there are many schools of thought, one school of thought says that brand purpose is all for winning awards. Let's have a nice theme, let's have a meaningful role to play and that's just what wins awards. And then there is another school of thought which says, you know, end of the day is a brand's idea to make money. But there is also another school of thought which says that those two can peacefully coexist. I just want to show off hands in this room. How many people think that brand purpose and brand goal can go hand in hand? How many? See how many don't think so. How many think that these two can't go hand in hand? Anyone? Okay, so the majority seems to be more in the space of brand purpose and brand goal indeed can coexist. And yeah, I also tend to agree with that. And what I thought I'd do in the 20 minutes that I have is show you through some examples of how this is possible. You know when it comes to brand purpose, some of the brands that come to mind are Nike. Dow and so on, right? A little bit more serious. Brands which have a larger purpose and so on and so forth. But the brands that I picked up actually are from profiting and the reason I picked these are cause because I also wanted to illustrate that brand purpose and brand goal can go hand in hand even in categories like impulse categories of profiting. So that's why I picked a couple of examples from profiting to illustrate that point. But before I get into that, it would be nice also to make it slightly more interactive. Anyone with a definition of what's brand purpose on behalf of e-forum and commits some profiting hampers, if anybody has an interesting definition studio? Yeah, thank you for having the true purpose. I can see one hand up there. Reason why you exist. Reason why you exist, thank you. Yes, sir? Brand positioning. Brand positioning. Okay, thank you. Any other hands up? Three points. And brand purpose is really the reason for existence of the brand, right? Beyond just mere business. So why are we there as market here, as brands and so on? Of course we have a business to run and we need to run it profitably. No two ways about it. But I think what's also equally important is having a purpose. And in fact, Dr. Patra alluded to it and I'm a very strong advocate of that, which is as individuals as well, right? It's very, very important for us to have a larger purpose of existence. Of course, we have a day job and the question that I often ask is, imagine that your visiting card is taken away from you. And if somebody would ask you, who are you? Nothing to fall back on, no director, no vice president, whatever. Who are you? And we need to have a larger purpose to answer that question. So I think it's very important to have a powerful purpose, which truly sets out the brand intent in terms of what is that meaningful role that the brand can play in the life of the consumers. And you think back upon it, right? I mean, Polgate, of course, is a toothpaste. Centerfruit is a chewing gum. Dump is a soap. But some of these go beyond that to actually play a more meaningful role in your life. There's no sort of a deeper emotional connect that you build over a period of time because they not just only satisfy your functional needs, but they go far beyond that, right? So that's a little bit of what the brand purpose is all about. So what I do in the next 20 minutes is take a quick... Is happy dent. Now, if you look at happy dent, it's a functional gum. What does it do? You have the happy dent. It whitens your teeth. A massive magnifier that we used over the years, since it's been launched, it's been about 20 years now, is around sparkling smile, right? And white teeth, which leads to sparkling smile. So that's the way the brand has been built. And I still remember I used to work in Frito-Lay at Global Business Park. And Puffety used to be in the same building. And I used to look at with a lot of jealousy the kind of great work that Puffety used to do, especially happy dent. And I'll just play two ads to make a point on how it can be built with purpose. But these ads are from the early days, right? When, what were you trying to do? You were trying to build salience for the brand, in just in terms of making sure that the brand is made aware to as many people as possible. So I'll start with one of my favorite ads, which is a photographer ad. Smile, smile. It's okay. Ready? One, two, smile. Get up and sing. That's it. Smile, smile. Hold, hold. Now that's enough. Maybe one more, please. Ready? One, two, smile. Smile, smile. Happy dent, wipe gum. Smile, please. I mean, this ad is 17 years old, but it still brings a smile to our face, right? And the message is very simple, said in a very entertaining way, which is happy dent, sparkling white teeth. Right? That's a simple message. And I think brilliant creative. But to me, the next creative took this even one notch higher. And this is, again, one creative that we can all, I can speak for myself, keep watching again and again, and you still are engaged in every single scene of this. So let me play this for you. So again, this is one of those larger than life kind of ads, taking a leap of faith to really say the power of the sparkling smile in terms of what it can do. But cut back to the present days, in fact, a couple of years ago, we wanted to re-create our communication campaign on happy dent. And then what did we say was that how can we give this brand a larger purpose? Right? So we do not want to let go of the sparkling smile, because that's what is a core to the brand. And yet we wanted to build upon it. So what did we do? We said, let's take the sparkling smile to throw light on social issues. Right? So it was Dikha Bhattisi, Karbaad Kuch Achisi. So again, taking the fundamentals of the brand in terms of what's been working for the brand, elevating the brand to a higher level by taking a higher-order position to say that have happy dent. Of course, it's a chewing gum. Don't take life too seriously. But still use this opportunity to throw light on social issues. So it's not about really the heavy issues like abuse and violence and so on and so forth. But the kind of issues that we see every day around us and very often don't do anything about it. Right? So that was the kind of a higher-order position that we took. And I'd like to share the communication that we did around that. Excuse me. Lady sitting. Dikha bhi hai. Hidhar? Ame toh nahi didh rahe? So as you can see, the whole point is everything else is the same, right? What does the brand stand for? The core values of the brand, they don't change. And I'll talk about it later. So that's also very important. It's not that you keep changing the brand, the positioning. Somebody spoke about positioning, the values, etc. Those need to be constant. It's like us. We can't be one way to somebody, another way to somebody else. So we need to be consistent about how we are. But what is important is how do we build on that and elevate to a larger purpose, right? So that's what we did. And I think the important thing is also how do we bring this alive at every touch point? So what did we do? We died up with a few NGOs and then collaborated with them to say, how can we, for every time a happy dentist consumed by somebody, we contribute a certain amount of money to the underprivileged and help and support them. The other very interesting thing we did in the middle that you see, happy dentist make a dent contest, where we invited consumers to actually shoot their own videos with a phone, saying whenever you see something which is not right, how can you throw light on that issue? And the kind of creativity that we saw and the kind of entries that we got were absolutely stellar. And we, of course, rewarded them with more happy dent. So that was a little bit of an example of how the purpose came alive in happy dent. I'll share another example of a completely different brand, Chupa Chups, right? Now, Chupa Chups is relatively a new brand as far as India is concerned. We launched it here about six years ago. Fun fact on Chupa Chups, the logo is actually designed by Salvador Dali. He was sitting in a restaurant somewhere in Barcelona with the original owner of Chupa Chups, the brand. And he wanted a logo, the owner. And Salvador Dali took a napkin in the cafe and he designed this logo that you see, the yellow one with the red. Actually, on that, and that's how the logo came into being. So Chupa is, again, a very interesting brand. And the larger, higher-order purpose that we give here is to say that, you know, as kids, we all have fun. But as we start growing up somewhere, we forget to have fun, right? And we become serious. As teens, you have your own set of challenges. Young adults, it becomes college life, job and so on. And the thing never ends. So the whole point was, how can Chupa play a meaningful role in the life of the consumers to allow them to have fun forever? And that's the basic premise on which the brand has been built. And if I were to look at the numbers, it's a two billion brand available more than 400,000 outlets and doing exceptionally well growing at about 50%. But that's the growth part of it, right? And to me, what is more important is the meaning part of it and I'll just show you some examples of that. No cheating, huh? Students, an important announcement. Yes, sir. This is Chupa Chups. This is how you eat it. Split it. Trist it. Understood? Yes, sir. That's it. Stop. Wait! And yes, this is sour bites. Let's eat it with style. Understood? Not just the exam. Take fun seriously too. New Chupa Chups. Sour belt and sour bites. Sour sweet, soft candy. Take it and eat it. Chupa Chups. Take fun seriously too. As you can see, the whole point is around, yeah, you can have fun at any age and it's very important to have fun as well. Another example of illustrating this. What you also see in this is the product is very, very integral to having the fun, right? So when you say you want to have fun, the brand also needs to provide the opportunity for the consumers to have fun, right? And which is why you find the belt which you can pull out, the bite which you can play around with and so on. And in a way, if you look at it, the 360 that I spoke about, so we have a gaming studio for Chupa where consumers can come in, log in and play games, which also have the product as part of the game. So there is a lot of opportunity for them to interact with the product, consume the product and have fun as well. And we've also taken up Halloween as a theme in the last couple of years and we are building a whole, you know, the range of connect and experience of Chupa along with Halloween. So those are two examples that I wanted to share with you in terms of how brands, even in the space of impulse category like confectionary, can actually be elevated and take a higher-order purpose. So as some closing thoughts, just wanted to leave a summary of some learnings. I think purpose is very, very important. The brand needs to play a meaningful role in the life of the consumer, and that is super critical if you want to build a deep emotional connect with the consumer. The second is, in terms of having a purpose, make sure that you have a clear purpose, you are consistent and you are visible. I think these two words are very, very important, right? You cannot be schizophrenic about it. You need to be consistent and you need to be visible. The third part, and this is very important, is the brand purpose should come from the product truth. And let me explain what I mean by that. If you look at the case of happy-dent, what does happy-dent do? It's a functional product. It allows you to get sparkling white teeth and a smile, and the smile throws light on social issues, right? So the higher-order purpose actually comes from the product truth. Similarly with Chupa, where you're talking about the playability of the product, you can have fun with the product, and that elevates you to have fun at any stage of your life. So it's very, very important that the brand purpose comes actually from the product truth. The other piece, of course, it has to be relevant and credible. If I look at it and say, hey, this is not something that this brand has a right to take up, then I lose credibility and I lose relevance. Therefore, it is very important that it's both relevant and credible. And last but not the least, end of the day, we are all here to build a business, right? So any purpose that the brand takes needs to be able to drive equity on one side and definitely business on the other side, right? So these two also need to go hand in hand. And that was really what I wanted to share with you, and I'm happy to take questions, if any. Thank you. Sorry, sir, I didn't get you. Brand life cycle. Yeah. Yeah, if I understood you correctly about the brand life cycle, could you elaborate what do you mean by that? Right. See, ultimately, like I said, the brands and companies exist to create value. Who are you creating value for? You're creating value for all the shareholders and the stakeholders. Consumer is definitely a stakeholder. The owners of the company or if it is a public listed company, then the public is a key stakeholder. And therefore, it's very important that anything that you do for the brand has to definitely create value from that perspective, right? And in a way, if you look at purpose, what it does is when it elevates the brand, you know, there is something called Love Mark, which is there are two axes, love and respect. And for any brand, the intent should be to move along the diagonal so that you gain the respect of consumers for the functional benefits and the love of the consumers for the higher order emotional benefits. And as you move up the Love Mark, the valuation of the brand also starts going up. And to your point, sir, the value creation significantly gets maximized. Any other question? Sorry, I... Okay. Yeah, I mean, there are two kinds of research. One is the qualitative research that we do and there is a quantitative. My view, I think the qualitative and the immersions, right? To me, going and meeting consumers in the space where they consume the products is very, very important. I'll just give you an example. When we did some work on a hair oil brand that I used to work for in Mariko, we had a cooling oil. And one of the things we used to do was go and park ourselves in the salons and sit and watch consumers getting a head massage. Because then you start getting cues on what are they looking for from a cooling oil, what kind of benefits do they seek and so on and so forth. So I think immersive qualitative work is super critical, which is what we do also. And of course, you need the quantitative work to back up in terms of data so that we are able to make the right kind of decisions. Is that adequate? Because today, 80% of what people think about and decide comes from the subconscious mind. Absolutely. Which is neuroscience. Yeah. Are you doing any neuroscience research? We have just started taking baby steps in it. I wouldn't claim that we do too much of neuroscience work in our categories yet. But yeah, companies are starting to do that. And I'm sure there is a lot more that will happen in the days to come. Just for example, is any serious neuroscience being done in India at all? Not that I am aware of. Sorry, I wouldn't be able to answer that. Hi Rajesh. Good presentation. Just wanted to understand, and this is typically a question which comes in, that the organizations and the brands which a certain organization has, number of brands. Is there a purpose connect between the organization's purpose and the brand purpose also? And have you come across that? This is just a question which kind of links these two. Yeah. And it's an absolutely great question. Thank you for that. Because, you know, it's very interesting. In the cases where the organization and the brand are, there is a one-to-one synergy, like a Nike, right? There is a greater chance of alignment between what the company stands for and what the brand stands for. Or Google, for that matter. Whereas in companies which have multiple brands in their portfolio, obviously that's not possible. Because each brand, the reason why it exists is because it serves the need of a specific set of consumers and it stands for something. So example, Pafeti. We have seven key brands. I mean, right from Center Fruit to Center Fresh to Mentos to Alpine Libé and Happy Dent. So obviously, they stand for different needs. And hence, by definition, it can't align to the larger purpose. However, having said that, they will have a very strong linkage with the values of the organization. So for example, for Pafeti, the values of the organization are around consumer focus, executive excellence, and so on and so forth. So some of these flow into the brand as well in terms of what they stand for. So the linkage comes at that level. But obviously what the brand stands for and what the company stands for, they would not because there are many brands in the same company. I hope that answers your question. I can see a hand up there at the back. Sort of. So my question is, should every brand have a social purpose along with a brand purpose or the brand purpose and social purpose is one and the same? One. Second, what if the social purpose becomes the overall brand purpose in the long run? The brand could have a different functional benefit which they would want to communicate to the consumers. But in the longer run, the social purpose becomes much more important than the functional benefit of the product itself. So two questions. Again, great question. You know, brand purpose and social purpose don't necessarily have to be the same. So just to give you an example, Nike. I mean, at one level it's an accessory for sports in some form or the other. But it encourages you to push the limits and say that impossible is nothing. You can do stuff. So in that sense, it makes you question stuff, the paradigms, and pushes you to do something which you think you couldn't do. So in that sense, there is a larger purpose and the brand actually plays a meaningful role in your life. But it is not necessarily a social purpose, so to speak. So a brand could have a purpose. Ultimately, like I said in the first chart, what is the purpose? It is, is it able to play a meaningful role in the life of the consumer? The purpose could be to do with the consumer or the purpose could be there has a social angle or an element to it. So I think that's the distinction. But it's not that it has to be the same. And I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch your second question. Okay. The second question was in the longer run, does social purpose become much more important than the actual functional benefit of the product or the brand? Like for example, if I have to quote like Detol. Detol has become synonymous with all the Swachhata and all the larger campaign that the brand does. Yeah. Similarly, if you look at the brand like Safola, Safola, I mean, they have taken over the complete heart related. I mean, the hard day has been taken over by Safola, the brand itself. So does the social issues that the brand stand for become much more important than communicating the actual functional benefit of the product or the brand? Got it. Yeah. Again, marketing point of view. Got it. Great question. You know, if you look at it, the ladder is its functional benefit. Then you go to the emotional benefit. Take your same example, Safola, right? If you have to buy a cooking oil, it's not that you're emotionally connected to Safola, but you will go to the shop and buy fortune, right? You buy first into the what the product gives you, right? You are seeking some functional benefit from the product. You buy into that. And that's the point I was making about the respect and the love. The respect comes when you find that the product or the brand is able to satisfy your functional requirement first. Then you move to the love aspect of it, which is how is it able to satisfy your emotional requirement and connect? So highly unlikely that one would the higher order would happen and you are not bought into the brand for your requirement. So the chances are if you're emotionally connected with a brand, you would also be buying that brand if you're using that category. It's not that you're going to use a competitor product in that case. Ladies and gentlemen, unfortunately due to the paucity of time, that would be all for the questions that we're taking for now. Well, I would like to thank you not only for delivering a brilliant presentation, but also for taking us all for a quick stroll around down the memory lane. Thank you very much. And with the same, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to... such a kind audience. I'd like to invite Ms. Devika Sharma, director, APAC, O&O business in Mobi to present a small token of appreciation, a memento to Mr. Ramakrishnan for the time that he is dedicated to this. And ladies and gentlemen, if you're planning on to capture this moment and post it across your social media platforms, please do not forget to use the hashtag pitch brand talk. Thank you very much.