On 6th December,2014 Ms.Ronita Mukharjee, the Senior Client manager, Landor Associates graced TAPMI with her presence and gave students an insight to the world of branding. She started briefing about Landor Associates, being the oldest branding company started by Walter Landor. Walter Landor was a German product designer who started his company in 1941 while he was in San Francisco at a product exhibition. Landor has defined the meaning of branding and how we know of it today. Ms.Mukharjee showed us the logo of her company which was a big ship, she added that the very heritage begins with the Klamath. Their first office was a big ship equipped with impeccable infrastructure which included an amphitheatre and also clients enjoyed coming to their office.

Ms.Ronita Mukharjee spoke about how the culture and tradition is inculcated in their offices as well as in every Landor employee. Ms. Mukharjee took students into the world of branding and mentioned the prolific work of Landor with almost every brand we come across on a daily basis, for example Citibank, Café Coffee Day, FedEx, etc.

Ms.Mukharjee then talked about the services provided by Landor associates which includes Strategic designing, number crunching, brand image, logo creation, brand engagement and also employee engagement.

Ms.Ronita Mukharjee then engaged the students in a game where a picture of a product like Apple, and then asked the crowd what if apple was a hotel? What characteristics would we attach to it ? Likewise she showed pictures of BMW and what characteristics it would hold if it were a musical instrument. Then she told the students that the exercise was to voice the brand perception, brand image and brand recall that the Apple and BMW hold.

She further spoke about the difference between brand and branding, the main difference is that brand is something the firm believes is their product and branding the message that’s sent out through advertising and other marketing means which creates brand perception. “Brand is the story or meaning and branding is the signals that give the customer an experience”, she added. She ended the lecture with stating the most important characteristics of branding which are : Effectiveness, emotional connect, commanding a premium, reducing the risk for expansions and to galvanize employees.​