'SMEs must understand importance of branding'

Ad guru Pralhad Kakkar says SMEs must promote its products through social media which is very effective

"SMEs must understand the importance of branding. Now, branding is not only restricted to advertising for television, print media or radio. SMEs must promote its products through social media which is very effective", said veteran advertisement guru Pralhad Kakkar in Pune.

He was speaking at the 22nd forum 'Secrets of Success on SMEs, organised by India SME Forum (ISF). It was centered on the objectives of knowledge-sharing and the best practices to enhance competitiveness of the small and medium entrepreneurs in association with Business Standard.

While elaborating importance of branding and social media Kakkar said," Social media is very cost effective as compared to other advertisement mediums. Social media has become a platform for personalised engagement with SMEs. Branding can contribute in this area significantly. This is a smartest way to engage with the target community. The capability of social media is immense for SMEs. As they can target their potential markets according to the regional specifications."

Citing the example of Gujarat Chief minister Narendra Modi's, Kakkar added, " Narendra Modi is an ideal example of effective usage of social media. Other politicians of almost all the parties are using social media for the promotion.

If you have to make your product global, branding is very important. Selecting an appropriate name for your company or product itself is a branding.

The forum was inaugurated by Lt Col Prem Anand, general manager DCCIA, Ratnesh Rathi president CMDA, Anant Sardeshmukh, director general MCCIA, Sanjay Athalye, Reliance commercial Finance and Vinod Kumar, Country Head SDRC & honorary vp India SME Forum.

Speaking on this occasion, Dushyant Singh Rathore, channel partner lead, Microsoft India said, "Technology can open many opportunities for SMEs. Information Technology (IT) does play very important role for SMEs. It helps to increase competitiveness of the business. It must adopt latest platforms for effective communication. It can actually save costs with cloud scalability."

The first session talked about Towards a Sustainable Financial and Economical Ecosystem for SMEs having the panelists like Maninath Jha, SL Khosa, deputy general manager of New India Assurance, NS Mohan, assistant general manager , SME city centre, Bank of Baroda, Nandkishore Attal, chairman, Vaisnodevi Dairy Products and Sanjay Athalye, chief risk officer, Reliance-commercial and home finance.

The second session was conducted on 'Reaching Your Customer Branding and Managing Growth for Profitability and the panelists were Prahlad Kakkar, Rajesh Chakrabarti, chief marketing and innovation officer, Reliance Commercial Finance, Dushyant Singh Rathore, channel partner lead, Microsoft India and Sreekant Srusti, brand capital, BCCL.