Alyque put his weight behind Unique Strategic Positioning as the key to manage a brand's identity in rapidly changing times.

In a presentation peppered with classic and contemporary case studies, Alyque proclaimed the Unique Selling Proposition as dead since there were few opportunities in today's marketplace where a brand could get a clear functional advantage over a rival.

He advocated the middle brain approach or the use of Emotional Logic to get the maximum Impact Per Opportunity. Alyque cited Dalda's case in the 50's when Lintas and the now-Hindustan Lever Ltd boosted flagging sales by changing its rational, benefit-oriented advertising to the emotional plank of `trusted by mothers'.

Youdon't have to be MNC brand to be a market leader. There is hope, said Padamsee, in the present competitive environment where Indian brands fear being swamped by MNC brands. HLL's top money spinners - Dalda, Liril, Rin, Wheel and Fair & Lovely - are brands conceived, produced and marketed in India only, he pointed out. The advantage these brands enjoyed was that they were outside the watchful eye of the Unilever Plc, he said, hinting that MNC brands, including at least one MNC cola brand, often fare poorly due to the Headquarters Syndrome.

Usha Bhandarkar, group creative director, Ammirati Puris Lintas, said the reason a 100-year-old brand like Lifebuoy is still buoyant is because it has upgraded continually while keeping the core poposition of germkill intact. She presented a case study on how Lifebuoy successfully warded off the challenge of Nirma Bath by launching variants and alternating advertising from functional to emotional.

Disagreeing with Alyque, Arvind Sharma, managing director, Chaitra LeoBurnett claimed that recognising the opportunities in changing ideal consumer self-perception was a better opportunity than functional, emotional or strategic aspects of managing brand identity, he said. "People do things and buy brands to become what they are not today," said Sharma. "Brands are increasingly becoming documents of self-concepts." He cited advertising of Nike, Volkswagon, J&B Scotch, Levis 501 and the Apple Mackintosh as successful examples of this strategy.

In a presentation on `Communicating without words', Piyush Pandey, national creative director, Ogilvy & Mather, said predominantly visual communication can be effective if it conveyed a singe-minded idea. Quoting examples of powerful ads such as the Hamara Bajaj, Kal bhi, aaaj bhi, kal bhi VIP and Asian Paints festival ads, Piyush, however, reminded the audience of the evocative power of the jingle among Indians.

The conference concluded with a panel discussion on global brands and local identities. Panelist Atul Tandon,marketing consultant, exhorted marketers to go beyond brand identity to brand architecture if they wanted to successfully `glocalise' brands.

Rekha Nigam, creative director, Trikaya Grey and cre-activist of language advertising made a distinction between supercifial Indianisation and genuine Indianisation citing examples of Coke and Pepsi advertising respectively. Global brands can be successfully made `apna' if they maintained their global identity and quality while localising the idiom. Even the once puritan MTV has had to follow in the footsteps of the successful Channel V in offering a hybridised offering to Indian music lovers, she said.