Brands
With Rs 1000 cr investment, Thomson forays into home appliance segment
MUMBAI: Super Plastronics Private Ltd, the brand licensee for French electronics Thomson in India, is all set to expand into the home appliance segment by launching its washing machine, starting 23 June. The company is also looking to strengthen its overall presence across India’s consumer electronics sector and has also invested in a new plant in Uttar Pradesh.
Like its television portfolio, Thomson’s washing machines will be entirely made in India. Starting with its semi-automatic range under Thomson brand, which will be exclusively available on e-commerce platform Flipkart. SPPL CEO Avneet Singh Marwah told Indiantelevision.com, “We will be investing over Rs 1000 crore in the next five years to strengthen home appliance segment. And we will have a make-in-India product strategy, our focus is now local manufacturing. If a brand wants to survive in India, it has to produce or should have its own manufacturing facilities otherwise it will be difficult for them to survive as it’s a cut throat competition. The spending powers have really gone down. The only thing that matters the most is affordability and best of spends. Therefore, we thought of our own manufacturing plant. We have already acquired the land. We aim to complete the construction of the plant in the next two years.”
SSPL has witnessed a 300 per cent growth in the last one month, thanks to the ease in lockdown. “As restrictions are lifting and pockets of spending return, business does seem to be getting back on track in next few months. Due to the outbreak of the pandemic, consumers are spending more time at home and want to become self-reliant. Absence of domestic help and ‘work from home’ in the lockdown has created demand for appliances, there has been a spike in the use of washing machines too. We have a pipeline of new launches, for the coming months and every year we will continue to broaden our portfolio across the home appliance category. As consumers seek convenience, we hope to see strong demand from first-time buyers and nuclear families for washing machines,” he added.
On the marketing front, Marwah shared that the company plans to spend heavily on digital. “We’re planning to spend heavily on digital to spread the word. Digital has always helped us and we’ve always preferred digital over any other medium. We’ll be targeting our own potential buyers, we’ll be investing huge on Flipkart and other digital platforms as well.”
The company will also unveil its campaign called ‘Life ka undo button.’
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.
