“A branding programme should be designed to differentiate your cow from all the other cattle on the range. Even if all the cattle on the range look pretty much alike”
– Al Ries

All of us are brand loyal to at least a couple of products and services that are a part of our daily lives. Whether it’s Palmolive shower gel or Heinz ketchup, it appears in my grocery bags without conscious thought being given to it. That’s loyalty. But the fact is that marketing, advertising or ‘branding’ consultants are much in demand because we consumers are, by and large, completely brand promiscuous.

The same person who would pick up Clarins’ night cream with regularity, wooed by the slick TV campaign of Olay’s Total Effects cream will actually buy the latter next time without a twinge of guilt. Consumers merrily bounce around between brands and these
decisions are made on a variety of platforms: price, clever advertising, special promotions, celebrity endorsements, lucky draws and the list goes on.

The BusinessToday brand survey is based on unaided recall. We chose this path because we believed that the first recalled name when you mention a generic product or service implies superb brand exposure which in turn indicates clear competitive advantage in the brand space. It is simply the brand that will be evaluated first at times of purchase.

Besides the top ten brands recalled across 13 categories, we also have an overall brand winners’ category for the first time. Adding significant value to this edition of the brand survey are columns by eight advertising agency heads of Oman who share their beliefs on branding and marketing.

To end on a lighter note, whoever said this about advertising was so right: “If you explain something so clearly that nobody can misunderstand, somebody will. If you do something which you are sure will meet with everybody's approval, it won't quite work. No matter how often a lie is shown to be false, there will remain a percentage of people who believe it true.” No one said these guys have it easy.

Mohana Prabhakar
mohana@apexstuff.com
Managing editor