Finance Minister presents CNBC AWAAZ Consumer Awards 2010 for India’s Most Preferred Brands

Finance Minister presents ‘CNBC AWAAZ Consumer Awards 2010’ for ‘India’s Most Preferred Brands’

HUL, SBI and Big Bazaar steal the show at the awards

Mumbai 29 June 2010 : CNBC AWAAZ, India’s No. 1 business channel, honoured ‘India’s Most Preferred Brands’ at the sixth edition of ‘Consumer Awards 2010’ held at the Taj Lands End, Mumbai yesterday. Honourable Finance Minister of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee presented the awards to the winners. The theme of this year’s awards was aptly titled ‘Made for India, Made by India and Made in India’, celebrating not only the popularity of India’s winning brands but also honoring the people who have dedicated themselves to make these brands admirable in the minds of the consumer.

Bharti Airtel - Most Preferred Brand of Cellular Service Provider

Speaking on the occasion, Hon. Finance Minister, Shri Pranab Mukherjee said, “I am very happy to be here today in Mumbai for the presentation of the CNBC Consumer Awards. I am told that these awards are based on an exhaustive consumer survey done by M/S Nielsen across 21 cities spanning 12 states. The awardees deserve the accolades due as they achieved this in the face of an economic downturn in 2008 – 2009 which was a difficult year for most companies and sectors. As the saying goes, when the going gets tough, the tough gets going.”

The Finance Minister also said, “The awardees must be given their share of credit for the fast paced and robust economic recovery that Indian economy exhibited in 2009 – 10. By recognizing and awarding those who have excelled in adverse conditions, we not only acknowledge their exemplary accomplishments, but also inspire the younger generation to follow suit. This is one of the effective ways of cultivating and perpetuating excellence. And with such a spirit of excellence, we may be able to realize the dream of a developed India sooner. I once again congratulate the award winners. ”

Further, Mr. Sanjay Pugalia, Editor in Chief, CNBC AWAAZ said, “CNBC AWAAZ was launched 5 years ago with the aim of democratization of wealth and investor protection, investor education and consumer empowerment. These are the four pillars that our channel stands on. In the past four years the business channel viewership has quadrupled and CNBC AWAAZ has been a catalyst in that.”

He also added, “CNBC AWAAZ felicitated advertisers, creative agencies, media agencies and marketers. Our findings are based on a democratic process by a third agency, The Nielsen Company. This is a real recognition of those who have done good work and honoured the consumer.”

Apart from the Finance Minister, the event was attended by some of the biggest names in  the Indian Business and Marketing Communications  Industry namely, Nitin Paranje, CEO, Hindustan Unilever Ltd.; Kishore Biyani, Founder & Group CEO, Future Group; Sanjay Kapoor, CEO, Bharti Airtel Ltd.; Alok Gupta, Director, Café Coffee Day; Anil Dua, Senior Vice-President (Marketing and Sales), Hero Honda Motors; Mayank Pareekh, Executive Officer (Marketing & Sales), Maruti Suzuki; Ajit Varghese, MD, Maxus; Chanda Kochar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank Ltd.; O P Bhatt, Chairman, State Bank of India; TS Vijayan, Chairman, LIC; V. Vaidyanathan, CEO & MD, ICICI-Prudential (India); Kuldeep Goyal, Chairman & MD, BSNL; Bhargav Dasgupta, MD & CEO, ICICI Lombard; PRP Nair, Senior Advisor, RK Swamy BBDO; Marcelo Villagran, MD, Bata India Ltd; Colvyn Harris, CEO, JWT; Sam Balsara, CMD, Madison Communications; R Gowthaman, MD, Mindshare India, Ambi M G Parameswaran, ED & CEO, Draftfcb Ulka Advertising, Mumbai; Arvind Sharma, Chairman & CEO, Leo Burnett; R Balki, Chairman & CCO, Lowe Lintas India; Prasoon Joshi, Executive Chairman, McCann Erickson India; Piyush Pandey, Executive Chairman & Creative Director, South Asia, Ogilvy & Mather, Harindra Singh, MD, Percept Holdings; Harshad Hardikar, VP, OgilvyOne Worldwide, Prasad Subramaniam, Director, Capital Advertising; Vikram Sakhuja, CEO, South Asia, GroupM Media India Pvt. Ltd.; Lynn D’Souza, Director, Lintas Media Group and Genelia D’Souza, Actor.

CNBC AWAAZ, in association with India’s leading research organisation The Nielsen Company conducted a comprehensive research to arrive at a list of ‘India’s Most Preferred Brands’ perceived by the end consumer for each of the sub-categories covered in the study. The key objectives of the research were to arrive at a list of the ‘Most Preferred Brands’ as perceived by the end consumer for each of the sub-categories covered in the study and also identify the drivers that influence the selection of a particular brand in each sub-category.  The research was conducted amongst 4000 respondents across 20 major cities and markets within the age-group of 18 – 45 years, both males and females belonging to SEC A, B & C households. A Random Sampling technique combined with an interview methodology (face-to-face interviews & questionnaire format) was adopted to conduct this research. Selected after such an exhaustive survey, the winners of these awards are thus the true and most credible reflection of the Indian consumers’ today.

The Winners of the CNBC AWAAZ Consumer Awards 2010 are:

The award ceremony was also preceded by a panel discussion on ‘Understanding the Changing Needs of the Mysterious Consumers’ by Mr. Nitin Paranje, Mr. Prasoon Joshi, Mr. Sanjay Kapoor, Mr. OP Bhatt, Mr. Colvyn Harris and Ms. Chanda Kochar. Below are the excerpts from the panel discussion:-

Nitin Paranjpe: One of the changes that we are seeing in this country is that the consumer is becoming increasingly more evolved and sophisticated and certainly more complex. There was a time you could easily segment consumers saying the rich consumers do this and the poor consumers behave differently. Today the same consumer behaves differently in different situations and the challenge for us is developing a better understanding of this rapidly changing consumer.

Prasoon Joshi: We still have an urban perspective when we look at the consumer. We are not launching products especially for the rural market. We are still trying to fit the urban products in the rural lifestyle. We need more work in product design for rural markets.

Sanjay Kapoor: There are a lot of developments happening in the rural markets that the people in the cities cannot see. Almost 60% of the customers coming under the fold of mobile telephony are from rural India.    We have developed a distribution channel for rural India by training to the sons and daughters of the farmer. We have developed the service centres in rural India. Because the representative speaks in the customer’s language, the customer has more confidence in him/her. What works in urban India doesn’t work for rural India and you have to tailor-make it penetrates down to the nth customer.

OP Bhatt: There’s no consumer more complex than the Indian consumer. There’s a generation shift taking place right now as well as a knowledge shift. Indian youth is at par with the youth in other countries berceuse of the internet, television and multi-media. They know everything about everything and want the cheapest and best products which are very unique to India. More and more women have the purchasing power or the power to make the purchasing decision. That’s why many of the ad agencies are consciously focusing on women.

Chanda Kochar: Consumer’s aspirations have increased. Discretionary spending of the consumer is increasing. More than 50% of the middle class population will be in tier II and tier III cities. Earlier agriculture was the main contributor for the rural economy but now it is complemented by services. The consumer’s demands are different and diverse. So the corporations have to understand that the one size fits all strategy will not work anymore.

Nitin Paranjape: There are a lot of companies that come to India and try to adopt a model that they have already worked with. But the longer they stay here they realise they have to adopt the ‘horses for courses’ principle here.

Colvyn Harris: The future of India lies in the middle and rural India. Wealth distribution will act as the catalyst and will impact the brands and the businesses.

Sanjay Kapoor: India and China have proven that for a technology to prove itself, it has to click in these markets. I agree that there are a lot of gaps to be bridged but we must fully leverage the consumption patterns and consumption opportunities and that’s what makes us exceedingly unique.

Chanda Kochar: The corporations will only grow if they deal with consumer in a fair and transparent manner.  Today’s consumer is savvy. He chooses a corporation based on comparisons with others.

Prasoon Joshi:  Rural consumer does not have as many platforms to communicate to the marketers. But the moment this power comes to them we will find that there will be a large difference in the product as well as the creativity in catering to the market.

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