Building purposeful and profitable brands
Kunal Vora, Founding Partner, ABND
Solving Business challenges through Brand thinking for Bottom-line growth.
With this in mind, we founded ABND over a decade ago. Back in 2010, we were new, hungry, and knew that we had to build credibility in this industry. We never said no, and undertook every project that came our way. But, deep within our hearts, we knew that branding was our true passion. So we set out to resolve complex brand-related challenges and work on projects other agencies couldn't handle.
Saying No.
Steadily, we inched our way toward the goal. The key to our progress lay in saying ‘No’. We said no to projects where our clients refused to acknowledge the value of branding and said yes to projects where they saw branding as an investment and a necessity for growth. They believed in breaking the silos between brands and businesses, and it was the stepping stone to success for us.
From grassroot businesses to global giants. From hair dyes to heavy engineering.
Over the years, ABND has undergone several phases of growth and development. While we continued to grow our business, we also became clear about our service offerings. We have been on an exciting journey of building profitable brands. We are where we envisioned to be a decade ago, working on projects with complexities that other agencies are unable to take up. We have helped start-ups pivot from B2C to B2B, traditional manufacturers build successful consumer brands, crafted strategies for brand growth post mergers and acquisitions, and defined strategies for industry David’s to take on Goliaths. We have built brands for start-ups, unicorns, SMEs, multinationals, global giants / NGOs across the globe.
A culture of Brand Practitioners
At ABND, we are very clear about what we do, and we are probably one of the few purist branding firms in the country. Our services are clearly defined for building brands and solving brand related challenges. We aim to break silos between design and strategy, brands and businesses. We are fostering a culture where every team member is known for building brands beyond functionality and is passionate about resolving complex business challenges with strategies that provide effective results. Functionally, they may be designers, strategists, researchers, developers, writers or marketeers, together they are all Brand Practitioners.
The Practice is not about individual skills. It is about collective execution.
Our team is no longer restricted to our in-house talent. We have an expert panel of industry stalwarts - seasoned Entrepreneurs, Architects, Lawyers, Investors, Academicians, Marketeers, Researchers, Environmentalists, and Influencers - from diverse domains who act as independent consultants whenever required. Members of this panel often participate in our workshops and are instrumental in building impactful brands.
We have also partnered with global and Indian agencies with expertise in specialised fields including Performance Marketing, Sonic Branding, Architecture, On-grounds Activation, Quantitative Market Research, Interior Design, and Sustainable Development.
Clearly identified practice areas
In 2021, we classified our offerings into four dedicated practices. Each practice area acts as an independent business unit managing its own P&L, and functions with a dedicated team, led by a Business Director.
B2B Practice
Since our inception, we have attracted several B2B clients, specifically because we are able to understand B2B dynamics, dealer-distributor networks, manufacturing, engineering, production challenges, and business services. The B2B Practice works with B2B clients at the cusp of change and evolution. Besides defining strategies, creating brands and rebranding, this division deals with businesses undergoing mergers and acquisitions, stock launches or public offerings, expansion plans, and repositioning.
Consumer Practice
Consumer Practice focuses on building impactful consumer brands (B2C) with an emphasis on long-term business growth. It specialises in helping businesses develop new product lines for untapped markets. This division has also been instrumental in creating consumer brands for several traditional B2B companies and manufacturers. The Consumer Practice also works with global businesses looking to enter Indian markets.
Edunoia
With over a decade of experience in creating and working with numerous prolific educational brands, we established Edunoia in 2020. Edunoia is a strategic brand consulting division that offers advisory services, brand thinking and communication strategies to a broad cross-section of education institutions, Edtech companies, and other learning and development units in businesses.
People Practice
The pandemic changed the way we worked. While it demonstrated the flexibility of working from anywhere, it also made us realise the importance of the people we work with. Recruiting and retaining talent is no longer how it was before the pandemic and culture building within organisations is the need of the hour. People Practice provides businesses solutions in spaces of employer branding, creating employee value propositions, and deploying culture building.
What got you here, won’t get you there.
As a collective, we believe in this because the process of branding is dynamic; it changes with time and evolves with technology. Which is why we are constantly learning, questioning our own processes, developing new methods, and more importantly building brands that stand the test of time. We have come a long way from where we started in 2010. We have grown, we have evolved, we have learnt, we have unlearnt, and we are just getting started.
