Brands
GD Foods to expand its presence in the Eastern markets
KOLKATA: The fast-moving consumer goods (FMGC) company, GD Foods Manufacturing (India) that has two brands – Tops and Royal Taste – under it, plans to expand in the eastern region.
In the present fiscal (2013-14), the company has earmarked four per cent of the turnover on the marketing spend that would include on-air and on-ground activities. However, in the next fiscal the spends would increase marginally, going up to five per cent.
The company wants to expand its presence further in the eastern region by increasing the spends as well as by entering with the Royal Taste products beginning with Kolkata market in the next five-six months.
The company has no plans to set up its manufacturing base in the eastern region but in order to capture the markets of Bihar, Odisha, Jaharkhand, it is looking at the best distribution possibilities.
In the current fiscal, the company spent around Rs 8 crore on marketing and advertising initiative.
Also, GD Foods which witnessed a turnover of Rs 153 crore in the last fiscal (2012-13), is confident to cross sales of Rs 200 crore in the current fiscal 2013-14. “Our turnover is likely to be higher than Rs 200 crore in FY14,” said GD Foods VP, Marketing Monika Solanki.
Before foraying in the Kolkata market, the company is looking at hitting 360 degree marketing campaigns including outdoor media, regional television and newspapers papers. “Our own team is working on below-the-line activities that also include on-shop activities,” she added.
The flagship company of the group – Tops – with key consumer products categories like jam, tomato ketchup, pickles, instant mixes, custard powder, culinary sauces, vermicelli, jelly among others has crossed 167 stock keeping units. “Tops pickles and culinary sauces are the main categories of products that largely drive GD Foods,” said Solanki.
A media and brand expert from the eastern region says that because of Tops’ popularity, the company will have to be really innovative to make a mark with Royal Taste. “If the company is looking to enter the eastern region with ‘Royal Taste’, it has to do innovative campaigns to win over the existing national and regional players in Kolkata and eastern region,” said the expert.
Brands
Godrej clarifies ‘GI’ identifier after logo similarity debate
Says GI is not a logo, will not replace Godrej signature across products.
MUMBAI: In a branding storm where shapes did the talking, Godrej is now spelling things out. Godrej Industries Group (GIG) has issued a clarification on its newly introduced ‘GI’ identifier, addressing questions around its purpose and design following a wave of online criticism. At the centre of the debate were two concerns: whether the new mark replaces the long-standing Godrej logo, and whether its geometric design mirrors other corporate identities.
The company has drawn a clear line. The Godrej signature logo, it said, remains unchanged and continues to be the sole logo across all consumer-facing products and services. The ‘GI’ mark, by contrast, is not a logo but a corporate group identifier intended for use alongside the Godrej signature or company name, and aimed at stakeholders such as investors, media and talent rather than consumers.
The need for such a distinction stems from the 2024 restructuring of the broader Godrej Group into two separate business entities. With both continuing to operate under the same Godrej name and signature, the identifier is positioned as a way to differentiate the Godrej Industries Group at a corporate level.
The rollout, however, triggered a broader conversation on design originality. Critics pointed to similarities between the GI mark’s geometric composition and logos used by companies globally, raising questions about distinctiveness.
Responding to this, GIG said its intellectual property and legal review found that such overlaps are common in minimalist, geometry-led design systems. Basic forms such as circles and rectangles appear across dozens of brand identities worldwide, the company noted.
It added that the identifier emerged from an extensive design process and was chosen for its simplicity, allowing it to sit alongside the Godrej signature without competing visually. While acknowledging that elemental shapes may appear less distinctive in isolation, the group emphasised that the mark is part of a broader identity system that includes a custom typeface, sonic branding and other proprietary elements.
Following legal and ethical assessments, the company said it found no impediment to using the identifier, reiterating that the GI mark is a corporate tool not a consumer-facing symbol.
In short, the logo isn’t changing but the conversation around it certainly has.
