Concrete

Assessing the Role of Branding

Published

3 years ago

July 17, 2023

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ICR looks at differentiating factors that influence the branding decisions for cement companies and the impact of messaging and brand positioning on the customer’s mindset.

Branding gurus will say that the purpose and intentionality of branding is to create an image in the minds of the consumers and the connected community at large, which could be much more than the mere product on offer (with its features and characteristics). The image, once firmly entrenched in the minds of the interested people, would augur well to create a sense of trust and loyalty, the hallmark of connectedness with the ‘idea’ that exceeds the sum total of what the product offers. This trust, loyalty or the bond establishment is at the core of creation of a brand as an asset that would provide cash flows many years into the future. If one wants to measure the value of a brand, one would need to look at the net present value of future cash flows that the brand-asset would end up coalescing, which could only happen when the right actions are directed to ward off competition and a stability is provided to the continuing engagement with the final consumer, either directly or in conjunction with various intermediaries.
Some of this would simply flow from the community to which the customer is part of. In the case of cement, this starts from the building and construction engineers, the architects, masons, builders, dealers, channel partners, partners in the community, which could include the government and regulatory agencies as well, where the product in question is being used. The place could eventually become part of the greater whole, the region or the country, if the product is integrated into a large bundle of choices put into one that transcends the locale.
Product positioning If we want to direct our attention into cement branding, we can hardly ignore the fact that cement remains a commodity, which by definition means that differentiation possibilities are minimal.
Harold Hotelling’s paper, Similarities in Competition (1929) for products that are commodities, gave us the mathematical proof that in markets for selling such products, one would see them being sold as close to each other as possible. This explains why in local markets you have commodity sellers like vegetable sellers or fish-sellers selling in the same place, sitting next to each other, side by side and not far apart from each other. This is because the customers would want to minimise the cost of logistics (the cost of connecting becomes the only differentiating factor, which the customers want to minimise).
The exact opposite of this would be when two dis-similar items are to be sold that are highly differentiated. The proof of this is provided in Jean Tirole’s seminal book, Industrial Organization, the ‘position’ of these two selling items will be as far apart from each other as possible. Here, the cost of connecting is where the maximum differentiation will lie and that is going to be the pivotal factor in making the two items dis-similar from each other.
Thus, creating a unique value proposition in a commodity would be to make that commodity appear as a different identity when compared with a similar commodity. This identity cannot be simply the product features, attributes or specification, but an identity built on an idea that makes a unique connection with the consumer.

Leading by example
How on earth could we create a unique value proposition through branding of this commodity? That is where cement branding has been the most successful model among almost all commodities.
But cement is lucky in some respects as it can be packaged and once you package it, what is inside loses its meaning and what you end up seeing is the package that can be used to replace the product inside. The package assumes the identity of the product, no matter how similar or dissimilar what is inside, one could end up creating an image of what you want the ‘interested party’ to believe it to be. This could be a way of initiating the branding exercise in cement, or what we call the ‘tip of the iceberg’, which is in the packaging of the product. But we will see that it is a very small part of what the total brand is all about.
Furthermore, trust can only be established over not one but many transactions that look at the value that stems from painstakingly creating the ever-expanding pie of the future. This is no splash in the pan, but a continued engagement that must rely on all signals that the people on both sides would be happy to be a part of.

Making the message work
Cement brands, no matter how different they are, have been able to create their unique value proposition or niche in the market. You have some leaders in the Indian market that built their brand on the appeal it creates on the engineers, architects, masons and the builders; they are the community who will influence the bulk of the buying of cement. With taglines ranging from the ‘Engineer’s Choice’ and ‘Giant Compressive Strength’ to ‘Cementing Relationships,’ and with the central idea of trust as a theme, the brands have evolved to dominate their own individual space. The continuity of the messaging and complementing such themes with actions on the ground, building partnerships that resonate on these themes is where these brands have progressed and prospered.
Messaging to the consumer on the product quality, durability and strength have been the dominant theme among the local communities. These have remained the final conversation that cannot be avoided when the eventual buyer, the individual house owner and the builder combine to make the final choice with the influencers of all kinds. Consistent messaging that lives up to the expectation and stays with the combine when the product is in use for many more years, would be the foundation to build on. But these may not be the only messaging, as prices could become the bone of contention, sparking messaging like ‘Not Cheap’, stating that the perception could be wrong about the value of the product.
Some brands have got rebranded, for example Grasim got merged with L&T Cement and came up with their overarching value proposition to be the ‘Engineer’s Choice’, a path-breaking branding that has catapulted them to the top of the league. But making the company and its values be aligned to the messaging is where the actual scoring happens. The customer’s trust stems from the overall experience of buying that is weighed against the sum total of promises made and the actual experience tallied against them. It would be wrong to appeal to some specific attributes while strengthening your brand, you could dilute the attention required on every other aspect that you hold the promise to.

Influencing the customer
The economic impact of a brand, simply summarised, would be the effect of the brand in the customer’s buying decision. The customer in this case is just not the buyer, which could be different in different cases, but a whole lot of influencers – from institutions, government, community, the common home buyer, builder, architect or the engineer or the dealers, the effect of the brand must be looked at in all these constituencies. Building trust on such a wide group of people cannot be made with just messaging alone. It can only be built through long hard work on all the aspects we just discussed, where quality of product and service, packaging, price, tradition, delivery on promise, all could play a
vital role.

-Procyon Mukherjee

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CII Calls for Greater Alternative Fuel Use in Cement Industry

Published

18 hours ago

October 29, 2026

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The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), through its Green Business Centre and Energy Efficiency Council, inaugurated the 16th Conference on Alternative Fuel and Raw Material Usage (AFR) in Goa on 27 October 2026. The two-day conference brought together more than 350 industry leaders, policymakers, waste management experts and technology providers to explore strategies for accelerating alternative fuel adoption in India’s cement industry.

Held under the theme ‘Preparation for Net-Zero: Alternative Fuels & Raw Material in Cement Manufacturing’, the conference focused on reducing dependence on conventional fuels, improving waste utilisation and strengthening circular economy practices across cement manufacturing operations.

E R Raj Narayanan, Chairman, AFR Conference 2026, and Business Head and Chief Manufacturing Officer, UltraTech Cement, highlighted the industry’s progress in alternative fuel adoption. He emphasised the need to scale implementation, strengthen supply chains and extend circularity beyond fuel substitution to alternative raw materials through technological innovation and industry collaboration.

Harish Adconkar, Managing Director, Goa Waste Management Corporation, highlighted Goa’s progress in scientific waste management and refuse-derived fuel (RDF) production. He stated that approximately 765,000 tonnes of RDF had been supplied to cement plants, contributing to an estimated displacement of 320,000–560,000 tonnes of coal. He emphasised the importance of consistent RDF offtake and stronger coordination between urban local bodies, waste management agencies and cement manufacturers.

Dr L P Singh, Director General, National Council for Cement and Building Materials, identified AFR as an important opportunity for decarbonisation and resource efficiency. Drawing parallels with the industry’s successful utilisation of fly ash, he stressed the need to address quality, technological and economic challenges to expand alternative fuel adoption.

Dr Sharad P Kale, Special Advisor to the Chief Minister of Goa and former Head of Technology Transfer and Collaboration at BARC, emphasised treating waste as a resource. He highlighted decentralised biodegradable waste processing, reduced food waste and improved resource recovery as essential measures for minimising landfill dependence.

Kiran Ananth, Executive Director, Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy and Green Entrepreneurship, CII-Green Business Centre, noted that India’s cement production reached approximately 491 million tonnes in FY2025-26, while the industry’s thermal substitution rate (TSR) stood at 7.5 per cent, with around 7 million tonnes of alternative fuels utilised annually.

He added that the industry had invested over Rs 12 billion in co-processing infrastructure during the past six years. Improving RDF supply reliability and quality assurance would be crucial to maximising the utilisation of existing infrastructure and accelerating industrial decarbonisation.

The conference also featured discussions on advanced AFR co-processing technologies, waste pre-processing solutions and industrial best practices for improving fuel substitution and resource recovery.

A publication titled ‘From Waste to Kiln: Scaling the Use of MSW-Derived RDF in Indian Cement Plants’ was launched during the inaugural session. The report identified inconsistent RDF supply and quality as major barriers to achieving higher thermal substitution rates.

According to the publication, many cement kilns already possess the technical capability to achieve higher alternative fuel substitution. However, variations in RDF availability, moisture content, particle size and calorific value continue to limit utilisation. The report emphasised the need to strengthen waste segregation, pre-processing and aggregation systems to establish reliable RDF supply chains.

The conference’s second-day agenda includes discussions on innovative domestic and industrial waste management solutions, alternative raw materials for low-carbon cement and strategies to increase alternative fuel utilisation across India’s cement manufacturing sector.

Concrete

Sameera Group Enters Industrial and Logistics Real Estate

Rs. 1.5 bn project to support manufacturing and supply-chain firms

Published

2 days ago

October 28, 2026

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Sameera Group has entered the industrial and logistics real estate segment with a 450,000 sq ft development in Sriperumbudur, Chennai. The group will invest Rs. 1.5 bn in the project, expanding beyond residential plotted developments into business-to-business real estate.

The proposed park will serve light manufacturing, e-commerce, third-party logistics and other supply-chain businesses. Building plan approvals have been secured, with construction expected to begin shortly. The development is scheduled to become operational within 12 to 15 months.

Sameera Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Jayakumar Murugesan said the project marked the next stage of the company’s growth after nearly four decades in land acquisition and real estate development. He attributed the choice of Sriperumbudur to its industrial activity and growth prospects.

The Grade A development will include internal movement routes and shared infrastructure for modern manufacturing and logistics operations. The group is pursuing Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) Platinum certification and plans to provide rooftop solar readiness, rainwater harvesting, wastewater recycling, energy and water monitoring, and electric vehicle charging facilities.

The project is being developed amid increased demand for industrial and warehousing space in Chennai. Knight Frank’s India Warehousing Market Report 2026 recorded 8.3 mn sq ft of warehousing transactions in the city during 2025, up 42 per cent from the previous year, with manufacturing accounting for 59 per cent of demand. The Sriperumbudur-Oragadam cluster contributed 77 per cent of transactions.

Sameera Group plans to develop 5 to 6 mn sq ft across a larger industrial and logistics portfolio over the next five years, involving an estimated investment of Rs. 18 bn. Land has been acquired for projects in Chennai, Hosur and Bengaluru. Established in 1982, the group has developed more than 900 acres, sold over 13,700 residential plots, and currently has 35 projects under development and 28 in its pipeline.

Concrete

UltraTech Cement Expands in Andhra Pradesh with Rs. 26.5 bn

Petnikota plant adds 3.6 MTPA cement dispatch capacity

Published

7 days ago

October 23, 2026

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UltraTech Cement has expanded its manufacturing footprint in Andhra Pradesh with the commissioning of Petnikota Cement Works, an integrated cement plant built with an investment of around Rs. 26.5 bn. The facility is located in Petnikota village in Kolimigundla mandal of Nandyal district, in the Rayalaseema region.

Construction of the plant began in May 2025. The facility has a clinkerisation capacity of 3.3 MTPA and a cement dispatch capacity of 3.6 MTPA, strengthening the company’s production and distribution presence in the State.

The plant is expected to provide direct employment to 650 people and indirect employment to another 2,000. It has been designed to operate entirely on green energy and does not have a captive thermal power plant. The project also uses no groundwater, according to information released by the Andhra Pradesh Government.

Nara Lokesh, Andhra Pradesh Minister for Information Technology, said in the release that the facility was taken from groundbreaking to commissioning in 14 months. He described the project as a state-of-the-art addition to the company’s operations in the State and said it would create 2,650 direct and indirect employment opportunities.

Petnikota Cement Works adds to UltraTech Cement’s manufacturing capacity in Andhra Pradesh while supporting industrial activity in Nandyal district. The plant’s energy design and stated groundwater-use policy are also intended to reduce the environmental impact of its operations. The company has identified the facility as part of its continuing capacity expansion in the Indian cement market.