Times Private Treaties participated at the Mindshare Brand Equity- COMPASS 2009, a marketing strategy summit, organized by India’s leading business daily The Economic Times. The theme for COMPASS 2009 was “Leveraging the downturn for creating stronger brands”, supplemented with innovative marketing practices to combat changing market conditions.

The forum was graced by esteemed speakers from Corporate India such as Nokia, Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, Idea Cellular, Tata Sky, Samsung India, Johnson & Johnson, HSBC India, GSK Consumer healthcare, Jet Airways, Ernst & Young and many more

Media Magic: (L to R) Farokh T Balsara, partner Ernst & Young, Roshan Abbas, managing director, Encompass Events, Sunil Lulla, director, Real Global Broadcasting, S Sivakumar, CEO Designate, Times Private Treaties and Prashant Panday, CEO, Entertainment Network India

It was unanimously agreed that brands should continue to invest in advertising and there was a shared need for measurability of these spends. The undisputed perspective was on building innovation to create opportunities during a downturn. The speakers reiterated that this is the perfect environment for building brands and speaking to consumers when they want to hear you. The need of the hour is how to calibrate the shrinkage of consumer consumption and manage expectations for growth. Speakers strongly felt that this is the opportune moment to focus on the core brand and communicate with the consumer; since brands are viewed critically during tough times.

Panel discussion on the changing role of media and communication for marketing success in a slowdown, had opinions from stalwarts across mediums such as print, electronic, radio, event organizations and research organizations. As part of the panel, Mr. S. Sivakumar, Principal Secretary & CEO designate, Times Private Treaties, said “It’s important to tap the changing rules that are shifting the aspirational want to a functional need. Times Private Treaties helps brands to maintain relevance, build market share and reserve cash; especially in a market like today and also when times are better. The requisite is to move out of complacency and innovate through tactical modifications.”

The forum served as an exclusive platform to the marketing professionals for knowledge sharing and networking. This exclusive one day forum was addressed by marketing gurus, industry experts, analysts and practitioners across industries including IT/ITES-BPO, Financial services, Telecom, FMCG and Healthcare etc.