Sanmit Ahuja, CEO, ETI Dynamics

Deriving Brand Benefit – a great tool for the success of start-ups, saw Sanmit Ahuja, CEO, ETI Dynamics in his keynote address at the unique and first of its kind event, Great India Marketing Weekend.

Sharing learnings from his extensive experience Ahuja spoke about how during his master’s at the London School of Business, he, for the Indian chapter, had to organize a Roundtable Conference of Indian CEOs. For the same, he connected with CEOs from big brands in India. He further added that he realized that because of his Alma Mater, London School of Business, he could easily connect to the CEOs who otherwise were far away from his reach. His accessibility to the big brands’ CEOs is what can be defined as ‘Derived Brand value.’

Ahuja said, “If you are in a company, where on your right as well as on your left you have established brands, it becomes very easy to penetrate into larger organizations.”

He emphasized that being associated with the correct brand can lead to success. The faith and confidence that a particular individual or a brand creates for itself by which it’s perceived as successful is the basic ‘Brand Marker’ and that is why image building for brands is very important. He stressed that building a brand image is not a one-night journey but is a long journey. People need to know the brand extremely well to have faith in it.  Another key aspect is that the ‘right people’ should know about the brand and the exercise for spreading awareness about the brand should be restricted to relevant people. Ahuja stated, “Don’t try to be everything to everyone.”

However on being asked how difficult it is for individuals who plan a start-up but don’t have Alma Mater as reputed as London School of Business, Ahuja answered by saying, “Networking is very crucial tool and so is engaging with the right people who are relevant.” He stressed that engaging should be focused with a very clear idea of the message about the brand or the brand awareness that needs to be spread. The objective of engaging and the message that needs to be conveyed have to be very clear. He further added, “The institutions like IIMs, LSBs and other reputed organizations are very open and people can always go and meet the Alumni.”

Ahuja shared his success mantra and suggested the steps that the young startups should be taking. They should first derive value from established brands, organize roundtables with experts of the field and approach the alma mater. After this a white paper should be published and again roundtable should be organized and taking a level further, a conference should be organized. Ahuja said that the steps mentioned above executed properly over a span of twelve months, can lead to getting good clients by the start-ups.

Concluding his address he tipped the young start-ups to be collaborative and to spot the problem early, explore opportunities and should try problem solving with the available resources at the earliest.