NEW DELHI: The Superbrands India organisation today announced that it has commenced work on its next project, Business Superbrands, which will identify and felicitate the strongest corporate brands in the country with the constitution of the Business Superbrands Council.

Considered to be the Oscars in branding, the Superbrand status is highly sought after amongst the corporates in the 39 countries Superbrands operates in. The number of business categories for scoring in India is about 101, and the number of brands under them is approximately 750. The Business Superbrands Council represents as much as 20 per cent of the GDP of India between the councilors, according to an official statement issued.

In the official statement, Superbrands India CEO Anmol Dar was quoted as saying, "We are delighted to launch our next project even as the inaugural Consumer Superbrands of India 2004 book is to be launched soon. We are fortunate to have received acceptances from the most eminent people in the Indian business firmament to constitute our council and this augurs well for the quality of the task ahead of us."

The council of members for Business Superbrands, apart from Dar who's also the chairman of the council, include Reliance CMD Mukesh D Ambani, former CEO of Procter & Gamble Gurcharan Das, ED of Tata Sons R Gopalakrishnan, deputy CEO of HSBC Naina Lal Kidwai, former chairman of Ernst & Young K N Memani, Bharti Enterprises CMD Sunil Bharti Mittal, CEO, president & MD of Infosys Technologies Nandan Nilekani, chairman of HDFC Deepak Parekh, chairman of Indian Oil Corporation MS Ramachandran and CMD of Oil & Natural Gas Commission Subir Raha.

A Business Superbrand is defined as having established the finest reputation in its field. It offers customers significant emotional and/or tangible advantages, over its competitors, which (consciously or sub- consciously) customers want, recognise and are confident about investing in.

Meanwhile, some 17,000 copies of the inaugural Consumer Superbrands of India Book are currently under print in Hong Kong with 101 brands participating.

Launched in 1994, initially as a radio programme, Superbrands is a concept developed by UK marketing guru, Marcel Knobil, the founder of the Superbrands Organisation and the former chairman of the Superbrands Council, UK.

Superbrands India was established in 2002 and its first activity was to choose the first 101 consumer super brands of India.

The Superbrands organisation was established to promote excellence in branding and the discipline of branding itself. It has been tracking the branding phenomenon for the past 10 years and maintains councils in 39 countries.

Some of the countries are Australia, France, Germany, Holland, Hong Kong, Italy, Malaysia, Philippines, USA, Singapore, Spain, UAE, Indonesia, Ireland, Egypt, Denmark and India, each of which regularly stage tribute events for the year's best-performing brands. It is an independent authority and arbiter of branding.

Every year, the Superbrands council in each of the countries it operates in, selects the top brands under various categories and awards them the status of "Superbrands". According to the Superbrands Council, UK, "A Superbrand offers the consumer significant emotional and/or physical advantages over its competitors."

The brands are judged on the basis of a number of criteria. Participation is strictly by invitation and only the very strong brands are awarded Superbrands status by the councils made up of luminaries within the world of marketing.

These awards are celebrated by a tribute event and also in the form of The Superbrands Book in a sumptuous coffee-table book format.

The Superbrands books explore the history, development and achievements of the strongest brands in each of the 39 countries it currently operates in, highlighting their advertising, marketing and design successes as well as revealing any other interesting and extraordinary findings. To date, over 3,190 brands have participated worldwide in the 52 editions of the Superbrands books released so far.