"A brand is an inner journey, a search for points of human connection"

This was one of the several wisdom nuggets shared by Professor Stanley Moss, the keynote speaker at Global MDP XII at PROTON business school, Ahmedabad and Indore campuses. It was a fantastic learning opportunity for Protons to listen to Prof. Moss's insights on the topic "Quiet Brands : How enterprises are exploring avenues of greater discretion in brand strategy"

Prof. Stanley Moss is a marketing guru and a brand philosopher with an experience of 40 years in the international business community. He is the CEO and Director of The Medinge Group, a Stockholm based think-tank on international branding. He is also among the Board of Advisors of PROTON business school. His visit to the campuses of PROTON in India was part of regular global exposure to our students. the Protons.

The speaker initiated the topic with the history of brand evolution. He elucidated that brands were said to be the tools of dark side. But with time, positioning of brands migrated from personal brands to company brands. The reason is we are living in the world which is overcrowded with brands and in a crowded environment the most valuable commodity is 'Attention Span'.

Prof. Moss also talked about semiotic society at length. He said that a semiotic society is a society driven by symbols. He added that symbols are DNA that govern brands and express values. People state their identities with brands. The eminent speaker shared the views of various brand philosophers like Ian Ryder and Stephen Rappoport. He emphasized on the fact that most brands are built on a single idea but strong brands are built by people talking directly to each other. He also said that Brands are not products.

The extraordinary learning session enriched the Protons, as they came to know that the least marketed brands are, at times, the most credible brands. According to the speaker, over-branding leads to wastage of time, resources and money. It is a physical waste for print, and published media. Hence, many products in the market are moving towards the ideology of Quiet Brands. He elaborated this ideology and explained that most of the organizations are focusing on product quality rather than spending on branding the product. That's why they are moving towards un-branding, de-branding or quiet branding. He also believes that a brand needs to be local, yet brands are the ideas of selling.

Finally the distinguished speaker concluded the session by giving valuable suggestions on personal branding. He advised Protons to assess their personality through video recordings and find out the areas of improvements. The session created awareness about a new area of branding i.e. Quiet Branding among Protons.

The Global MDP XII was conducted at the PROTON Indore campus on 29th Oct 2009, and at the PROTON Ahmedabad Campus on 30th Oct 2009.

It's time for positive change!