Amul has emerged as India’s Most Meaningful Brand. In India, Indians have the highest attachment towards Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the iconic state-owned insurance group, are some of the findings of the India Study Findings of Havas’ Meaningful Brands 2015 study.

Havas Media India & South Asia CEO Anita Nayyar, CEO explained, “This is our largest India study to date in size and scope. Marketers will be encouraged to know that India once again stands out as the No.1 country, globally, where consumers have the closest relationship with brands. India is also the most ‘grateful’ country, rewarding meaningful brands, in business terms. We are seeing that in a developing economy like India, unlike the West and more developed economies, people are more trusting of brands. People here believe brands can play a meaningful role in their lives and that brands are working hard towards improving our quality of life and wellbeing. This creates tremendous opportunities for brands in India to communicate and connect with their customers, in our organic world – which is at the core of the Meaningful Brands Project.”

‘Food’ is one of the most meaningful sectors, attaining strong attachment and trust. Food brands are especially meaningful for making peoples’ daily lives better with their rational benefits of savings, convenience, health and better nutritional habits.

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Local brands like Amul take the lead with multinational corporations like Cadbury who introduce local brands to resonate with consumer context and tastes, locally. The study says that 86 percent of people would care if LIC disappeared tomorrow as compared to globally where most people do not care if 74 percent of brands disappeared the next day.

In India, brands have a high level of meaningfulness and are seen as providers of personal and collective wellbeing; they are viewed as much more than functional products. Brands in India are also seen to be meeting consumers’ expectations more than in any other region.

75 percent of Indians believe brands should play a role in improving our quality of life and wellbeing; the Asia Pacific the average being 69 percent and the globally average 67 percent. More than half i.e. 67 percent of Indian’s feel that brands are working hard at improving our quality of life and wellbeing, very impressive, compared to an Asia Pacific average of 55 percent and Global average of 38 percent.

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The top 10 Meaningful Brands in India are Amul, Cadbury, Google, Britannia, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), Microsoft, Intel, HP, Parle, and Samsung, as compared to the Global top 10 Meaning Brands that include Samsung, Google, Nestlé, Bimbo, Sony, Microsoft, Nivea, Visa, IKEA, Intel.

Havas Media Group India Managing Director Mohit Joshi summarised, “People in India are happy to have brands as partners and as enablers to help them improve their quality of life and wellbeing. While in the West there is a high commoditisation of brands, people in India, have ‘high expectations’ and ‘reward’ those brands that contribute to their wellbeing – this is the second time in a row that LIC has scored as the brand with the highest attachment. The study throws open exciting possibilities for marketers and brands to interact with their customers.”

Meaningful Brands is Havas’ metric of brand strength. It is a global study in its sixth year globally and in its third year in India, to show how our quality of life and wellbeing connects with brands at both a human and business level. On a global scale, the study covers 1,000 brands, 300,000 people, 34 countries across 12 industries. The research covers aspects of people’s lives that include the impact on their collective wellbeing, in personal wellbeing, and marketplace factors, which relate to product performance such as quality and price.

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