Brands
Publicis launches customer experience centre of excellence
MUMBAI: Publicis Communications has launched its new customer experience centre of excellence in India. Three Publicis Communications agencies – SapientRazorfish, DigitasLBi and Indigo Consulting – have come together to consolidate their top-end user experience and user interface capabilities to form the experience centre.
The centre will house some of India’s best UX/UI professionals. In addition, it will have access to the Publicis.Sapient team based out of India, one of the largest customer experience-focused teams in the country, covering the breadth of design and technology.
This team helps brands connect with consumers, focusing on delivering rich design experiences across domains and industries for Fortune 500 clients, globally. Publicis Communications’ India clients will now have access to unprecedented thought leadership by heads of verticals spanning financial services, automotive and retail, amongst others. They will also have access to other offerings such as rapid prototyping and the immersive UX lab.
The centre will be led by SapientRazorfish’s customer experience director Hemant Bhagia who has over 17 years of domain experience, working across sectors such as technology and BFSI.
Prior to joining SapientRazorfish, he worked with Capgemini India as head of the UX practice.
Bhagia has worked for clients such GE, Airtel, AT&T, Verizon, Metlife, DHL and the Government of UK (where he was involved in the ‘Smart City’ project).
SapientRazorfish and DigitasLBi CEO – India Himani Kapadia says, “This strategic shift is in line with our vision of creating client-focused best-in-class solutions. It made sense to create connections between our immense ‘for India’ and ‘from India’ CX capabilities spread across brands, so that the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. Each brand will continue to have teams under their roof, thus ensuring insulation for clients, while being part of a platform that gives them access to thought leadership, best practices, talent and infrastructure to deliver new age experience solutions.”
Indigo Consulting CEO Rajesh Ghatge adds, “The voice of the customer is demanding best-in-class, best-in-category, immersive CX solutions. This ask can only be addressed by getting in the best talent that is supported by distilled insights and collective experience. The centre is aimed to build a competence in UX and UI, in depth and scale, which is unmatched in the country. The benefit to our clients is going to be immense, helping them win bigger and win faster in the marketplace.”
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.
