They come with quality and reassurance. That is why they are seen everywhere in our houses. Each such brand has thus over a long time become a name and a well known name. Look around in your house – from salt to soap, from honey to balm, they are all branded. The richer and higher the society the bigger and famous the brand.

But there are some brands which are used all over by all – be it a king or a pauper. Well a few examples I state below; actually when I started writing I was surprised just how many I could come up with for their familiarity and bonding with all types of consumers.

In the modern times, who hasn’t held a Nokia phone till date or demanded ‘surf’ for any detergent or eaten ‘Maggi’ for a quicky or asked for ‘GoodKnight’ for mosquito repellants? Then you may not be bathing with ‘Lux’, but which famous star hasn’t endorsed it! Tell me a household – be it one of the richest Indians Mukesh Ambani’s 22-storey house in Mumbai or an overlooking chawl in the background or a village in India’s north, south, east or west – where you don’t find ‘Dettol’, ‘Britannia’ or ‘Lifebuoy’? And hasn’t every child been given/desired ‘Bata’ sandals/shoes and a ‘Parle’ product while going to school for the first time?

Here, we aren’t discussing No.1 brands or product positions in the minds of the Indians. Else we’ll end up discussing ‘Amul’ and the likes. See, brands such as ‘Tata Salt’ (positioned as ‘desh ka namak’) and ‘Surf’ are used by almost all households in all socio-economic classes. There are so many others like ‘Vicks’, ‘Vaseline’, ‘Vim’, ‘Rin’, ‘The Times of India’, ‘Hindustan Times’, ‘Colgate’, ‘Parachute Coconut Hair Oil’, ‘Pepsi’, ‘Coke’, ‘Glucon-D’, ‘Bournvita’, ‘Horlicks’, ‘Tata Tea’, ‘Fevicol’, ‘State Bank of India’, ‘Iodex’, ‘LIC’, ‘Dabur’, ‘Cadbury’, ‘Crocin’, and ‘Zandu Balm’ to name a few.

The list goes on but the truth is that despite the disparity of the income slots and different lifestyles, all these brands have managed to infest all the households from the rich to the middle class to the poor. Now, the question is how? Is it just by sheer publicity or do they travel from generations to generations and home to home as they are favourites? How strong and long-lasting have their publicity campaigns been all these years, as they still stand strong and have a monopoly in their sectors. Or is it the durability of the products, maybe the good ad affordable price range?

Don’t you think of Vicks Vaporub when you have cold and does anything else stand even close by! Just last night I bought a brand new bottle of a pain killer ointment and yes… all I could think of was Zandu Balm. When I opened this box of Zandu, I saw a brand new bottle. I was ecstatic to see a nice round green and white bottle. It brought a smile to my face as I rubbed it on my forehead.

May be it is the comfort level and the memories we share with these brands that we keep them for generations and never let them go… By the way, “Did you Cherry Blossom your shoes today?” Also, can you tell where ‘Binaca’, ‘Moti’ and ‘Dalda’ have gone? And has ‘Lays’ actually replaced ‘Uncle Chips’ from our homes?

The research is still on! Till then you may write down your favourite brand that is part of you, always.