MAM
Brands need to build sustainable power: Anita Nayyar
MUMBAI: The biggest brand message in today‘s tough marketplace is to focus on sustainability as consumers, crowded with choice, tend to be punitive.
Brands not nursed well have perished. The only way to stay in the race is to build an endurance capability and invest in the brand power.
“Sustainability is the capacity to endure. The question we should constantly ask ourselves is whether our brands can sustain in the long run,” said Havas Media CEO India & South Asia Anita Nayyar.
Drawing example from the Xerox brand, Nayyar pointed out that its strong sustainable power is evident from the fact that people never ask for a photocopy but the xerox copy. “The Xerox brand has become powerful over the years and is one of the best examples of sustainable brands.”
Speaking at the World Brand Congress here today, Nair said only one-third of brands are considered meaningful to consumers. While sustainability is a key issue for consumers worldwide, few brands live up to increasing expectations.
Nayyar discussed about Havas Media‘s second annual Brand Sustainable Futures Analysis survey that was conducted via online to 30,000 consumers in nine countries: Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Mexico, Spain, UK and the US.
The study of 150 brands across 10 different industries revealed that there is a strong corelation between a brand‘s ‘‘meaningfulness‘‘ and its perceived sustainable performance. The outcome also suggested that the more sustainable a brand is perceived to be, the more meaningful it becomes to consumers.
The vast majority of mainstream consumers wouldn‘t care if two thirds of today‘s global brands disappeared in the future, according to the report. “Only 29 per cent of respondents believe that brands are working hard to resolve sustainability issues while 68 per cent think companies only act responsibly in order to improve their image,” Nayyar said.
Organisations need to listen to their customers and act responsibly to make their brands more sustainable. “Consumers punish brands that do not embrace sustainability,” Nayyar warned.
Brands
Kansai Nerolac tests paint in stratosphere for durability proof
Excel Everlast sent to 86,000 ft, survives -64°C and extreme UV exposure
MUMBAI: If walls could talk, this one would say it’s been to space and back. Kansai Nerolac has taken product testing to dizzying new heights quite literally by sending its exterior paint into the stratosphere in a bid to prove durability beyond the lab. In what the company calls a first for the Indian paint industry, a stratospheric balloon carried a payload coated with its Excel Everlast paint to an altitude of 86,000 feet above Earth. Up there, conditions are less “extreme weather” and more “near space”: temperatures drop below -64°C, ultraviolet radiation hits unfiltered, and atmospheric pressure is only a fraction of what it is at sea level.
Most materials struggle to survive such a hostile environment. This one didn’t. According to the campaign, the painted surface returned intact no visible damage, no compromise effectively turning a marketing claim into a high-altitude experiment.
The initiative, conceptualised by ULKA, moves away from simulated lab tests to something far more theatrical and verifiable. The campaign film documents the entire journey, positioning the exercise as proof rather than promise.
The test also doubles as a showcase for the Excel Everlast range, which includes features such as nano-silica-based protection, 30 per cent higher toughness and crack-bridging capability, along with a 20-year warranty claims now dramatised under conditions few buildings will ever face.
For Kansai Nerolac, the stunt is less about spectacle and more about signalling intent: in a category often dominated by functional messaging, it’s an attempt to turn durability into something tangible and memorable.
Because when your paint survives near-space, the neighbourhood monsoon suddenly feels like a very small test.
