MUMBAI: Omnicom Group’s Interbrand India has released the second edition of its Best Indian Brands 2014 league table, the definitive guide to the top 40 brands in India.

While unveiling the table, Interbrand global chief marketing officer Graham Hales said that with an impressive growth rate of 14 per cent across the brands within table, it can be seen that investing in brands is a good opportunity for Indian business. “Indian business may have been slow to start the process of creating really strong brands, but the opportunity is now evident and in its own right that should feed the impetus to create stronger brands,” he said.

Interbrand India managing director Ashish Mishra believes that not just Indian, but very few Asian companies have managed to build valuable international brands. “In my mind, it has to do with a prevalent business belief that brand is a cost, rather than a strategic and long-term investment. Here businesses clearly lead the brand and are not led by it, with the brand mostly relegated to being an expression tool.”

As a brand consultant in the region, he sees the need to continue to educate senior managers, about brands being an asset that requires long-term management and planning. If Indian companies begin to change their brand mindset, the opportunities are limitless.

“Indeed opportunities are a positive way of looking at the challenges. And there can’t be a stronger motivation for us than to act as a bridge of sorts in the Indian corporate world - between the two league tables we bring to the market – best Indian brands and best global brands,” adds Mishra.

Beyond resulting in a numeric value, the brand value perspective brings in an appreciation of where and how brand and business value could be created. These are the discussions Interbrand wants to create in the Indian market to create a rightful leverage for Indian Brands on the domestic as well as the global scale.

The league table is pasted below: