Growth is the oxygen that all companies need to survive and flourish. Sustainable growth requires the continuous delighting of existing consumers and the widening of this consumer base over time. The rules of the game are clear. Winners succeed by developing powerful insights based on a deep understanding of what consumers seek, creating products and services to meet these needs in unique, distinctive ways, and ensuring access by making these products available and affordable.

In recent years, however, there have been three changes in the rules of the game:

1. Access to capital is far easier than it was a few decades ago. Capacities are, therefore, easy to put up, and, in many cases, already available and can be hired very quickly.

2. Segmenting media is far easier today than it was a few years ago, given the explosion of regional and local television options. This has lowered entry barriers, and has resulted in a relatively higher quality of access to smaller regional markets when compared to what it was in the past.

3. Finally, in what is perhaps the most far-ranging change that is taking place, there is a huge battle for the consumer's share of wallet. As a matter of fact, the share of wallet of FMCG and basic products has actually declined by almost 2 per cent in the last two to three years.

The fight for the share of wallet is driven by some key changes in consumer attitudes that have taken place in the recent past. First, there is a huge change in the attitudes towards debt. Where debt was seen as anathema amongst Indian families not too long ago, debt today is a perfectly legitimate and easy way to create assets and aspire for a better lifestyle. This changing attitude has seen the emergence of a number of very easy credit financing options. The second key shift in attitudes has been rising aspirations and changing attitudes to recreation, entertainment and lifestyle expenditure. As a consequence, today, a basic product like a soap or a detergent competes with a credit card, cell phone or digital camera. It is, after all, bought with the same rupee.

Compounding this reality is an explosion of choices of products that have such seemingly subtle differences between one and the other that they are often not even perceptible to consumers. These imperceptible differences accentuate the tyranny of sameness that a number of brands and categories have fallen prey to. This tyranny of sameness has led, in many categories, to a vicious spiral of consumer down-trading, price-based competition, value destruction, erosion in profit margins and the consequent death of brands.

So, what makes for winners today? How do brands break out of this vicious spiral? The answer, ironically, must lie in much stronger, much more powerful iconic branding. While this does sound simplistic, the difference between winners and losers is really in the way they bring brands to the marketplace, in the way their brands engage consumers-unexpectedly, delightfully and with deep relevance. The commonly-used examples of iconic branding are brands like Nike, Coca-Cola, Levi's, Starbucks and so on. What sticks out about these examples is the fact that in these cases, branding has been done very successfully through lifestyle and badge value. Others are those that have created a truly differentiated experience-for example, Starbucks, or closer home, Barista. However very few people believe that an FMCG brand, a soap or a shampoo, or for that matter a food brand can aspire to the same iconic value. I believe, passionately, that it is possible to build an FMCG brand to be as powerful as the Nikes of the world. We must remember that FMCG products such as these are bought by the consumer for either her own use or for her immediate family. She uses these brands in the privacy of her bathroom, bedroom, kitchen or home. In addition, because of their very nature, she meets these brands very frequently and shares a very personal, often intimate moment where the use of this either gives her personal joy as she cares for herself or the joy of caring for those she loves. These are brands that I would call 'I' brands. 'I' for the truly intimate relationship that they have with the consumer, 'I' for appealing to the inner self, not for badge value, 'I' for appealing to the individual in me and helping me live my life with joy, and 'I' for going well beyond product attributes and benefits to what I would call inspiration.

So, how can we get to iconic branding? To me, iconic branding is about really getting three things right:

The first and most important is segmentation. Now, segmentation is a much used word, but it can make the difference between winning and losing. Segmentation must go way beyond the generic functional attributes and features if it has to be truly powerful. It must seek to understand the functional, the psychological and the emotional gratification that the consumer derives.

The brand idea is the starting point, which defines the philosophy, the ethos and the culture of the brand, which must then be reflected and manifested in each and every facet of the brand

A very good example from our company, Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL), is Lux. This is a brand that has been marketed as 'the soap of the stars' for more than 50 years. Endorsed by film stars, it is a product that has always stood for glamour and luxury. A deep engagement of consumers over the last couple of years has shown that the consumer in Lux's target segment is looking for luxurious products that make her feel beautiful and special. A deep understanding of this desired 'feeling of specialness' has led to a strengthening of the Lux position in the recent past from the 'soap of the stars' to a soap that 'brings out the star in you'. It is a shift that recognises that each woman is special, that there is something magnetic and star-like in every woman, and that the consumer is not willing to buy into a brand whose only reason for existence is that it is endorsed by stars. It is, therefore, a very significant shift that has essentially come about due to a very deep consumer understanding that goes beyond the functional, and captures the emotional and psychological facets as well. The result of this shift is a brand that connects more deeply with the consumer, and puts it in a place that is more unique and distinctive in the consumer's mind when compared to many other products with similar functional attributes. In a market that has, by and large, remained stagnant, the Lux brand has grown at close to double digit in the last three years.

The second principle behind iconic branding is what I call a powerful brand idea that the brand must always live and breathe. A brand must have an idea if it is to break out of the tyranny of sameness and stand for something that is big, bold and aspirational. In a sea of choppy waters, the brand must stand tall and be a guiding beacon of light for consumers to want to belong to. A brand idea must come from a clear understanding and articulation of the defining purpose and vision of the brand. A role that the brand seeks to play in the larger context of consumers' lives. The brand idea is the starting point, which defines the philosophy, the ethos and the culture of the brand, which must then be reflected and manifested in each and every facet of the brand. In doing so, the brand moves beyond being a physical, tangible product, but embodies a bigger purpose, a bigger thought, which can become a source of sustainable competitive advantage.

An example within HLL where we have seen this work powerfully is Lifebuoy. For over 100 years, Lifebuoy was a tough cleaning soap with a strong germicidal perfume. In the late 1990s and in early 2000-01, the brand started losing relevance, which forced us to go back to the basics and really try to understand it in a far deeper and relevant way. From this consumer engagement came the understanding that Lifebuoy was a soap that was not just about germ protection, but really something bigger. It was a brand that met the basic health and hygiene needs of consumers and offered them peace of mind and emotional reassurance. This was not a brand that was in the soap business-this was a brand in the peace of mind business. This led to a powerful articulation of the brand purpose: "To make a billion Indians feel safe and secure by meeting their health and hygiene needs."

This philosophy was reflected in every element of the product mix: the packaging with its shift from the masculine symbols of health and robustness to family health; the advertising, which moved from champions shooting football goals to a family doctor giving a simple tip to be free from hygiene problems; the perfume, which was changed from a harsh carbolic smell to a more fresh and clean smell that all family members liked. In addition, the brand invested in a large-scale rural hygiene education programme (Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetana) directly contacting 70 million rural consumers as a first step to living by the guiding purpose of the brand. As a result of this, in a market that has remained stagnant, Lifebuoy has grown at well over double-digit rates for three years in a row.

The third principle behind iconic branding is to engage consumers through an all-pervasive 360-degree approach. With the fragmentation of television as a medium and the enormous clutter on the screen, it is vital that brands go beyond television to engage consumers and touch them in unexpected and myriad ways, in ways that bring out the idea that the brand stands for with deep relevance and meaning. It is critical that brands seek to do this in multiple ways at multiple touch points.

The fight for attention and relevance is a fight for the consumer's share of mind. Brands must, therefore, look at ways of bringing the brand idea alive at every potential occasion where there is a role for the brand-using unconventional media, at events and indeed at the point of purchase. Equally, it is critical to do this with scale, to do this in a manner where it can make a genuine difference to the brand and its growth. For scale, it is vital to have fewer, bigger brands. One of the driving factors behind our power brand strategy within HLL is to give fewer brands bigger scale so that these brands can then be truly iconic.

The key question for companies is to really answer how they can build iconic brands in a sustainable and distinctive way. How can companies stay ahead of the game and, therefore, shape trends rather than follow changes and trends?

I believe that the key catalyst for this transformation of brands to truly iconic brands is an empathetic and deeply connected organisation that is consumer facing. I believe, it is not just the marketing department's role to understand consumers. It is the role of everyone in the organisation to engage consumers deeply since these consumers are the very reason for an organisation's existence. I also believe that in the new world of today, deeper functional specialisation even within marketing will make a huge difference in building iconic brands. Specialisation, where there is a group of people who are passionately committed to driving innovation that is living and breathing the brand idea, while a separate team of people is focussed on realising and executing the idea amongst the multiple touch points where a brand interacts with its consumers. Finally, I believe that it is vital to create a culture of learning, where people within are curious about changes, curious about what can be learnt not just from within the category, but about what can be learnt from disconnected categories. A culture where people are always looking for better and newer ways of doing things. A culture where people embrace-indeed, thrive on-change and learning.