Anooja ^ Ourea – The ‘Woman Brandpreneur’ who conquered Mountains
Branding domain is a difficult mountain to climb for most companies. They mistake branding with positioning, marketing, advertisements and what not. Anooja Bashir is an acclaimed brand strategist who has climbed all the way up to the top of the mountain. The name ‘Ourea’ itself means mountain in ancient Greek Mythology.
Anooja has successfully demystified the mythologies surrounding branding and made it an accessible and empirically understandable domain. After having done Strategic Management from Wharton and Brand management from IIM B, this passionate entrepreneur is here to transform companies in India who faces lacunae of strategic support even after having throbbing ideas.
In a developing economy like India, where market forces are unleashed for the past 30 years, the ‘brand building universe’ has bloomed only the past 2 decades. India too had huge brands in the pre 1990’s like TATA or Reliance, but the energy unshackled after LPG policy change led to a paradigm shift. This is where Ourea & Anooja comes to the fore. In this digital age, a brand does not need ‘any other agency’ but a ‘Strategic performance Partner’ boosting the brand and optimising the performance in the market.
Anooja points out – “it is not the digital marketing or design that matter, but the deep branding strategy which a company needs. Branding is that pathway to win the mindshare which will be converted to market share’.
Every start up would like to climb to the top of the mountain and the best who can guide are the people who journeyed to the top. Thus Ourea handholds startups, SME’s, SMB’s and MSME’s to conquer the mindshare and capture the market share. Ourea heralds – “just like individuals are unique, brands are also unique – we discover the uniqueness 1st and builds on with an exclusive, customised brand strategy”.
Along with deep research on niche domain, competitive analysis, SWOT, USP, Anooja has developed a notion called ‘Soul of the Brand’. It’s ‘Pride for BMW’ , ‘1st to be Trillionaire for Elon Musk’, ‘Stability for TATA’, ‘Innovation for Apple’. Anooja says “There is a Soul for every organisation like an organism, only by stirring the soul, we will be able to have the inner radiance of the brand and company”.
Ourea discovers the soul and ignites it in a scientific manner and transform into the measurable performance. Ourea is a complete business solution provider to start-ups & organisations. They breathe life into the brand, nurture it, and handholds it to achieve high performance. With a team led by Anooja which combines the synergy of people from various domains with vast experience, Ourea is a flight every start up would be eager to take.
Featured in leading magazine portals like Fortune India, Entrepreneur India, Your story, The week & Insight success stories, Anooja has received laurels and awards in the industry for her excellence in branding and design thinking skills.
Anooja being a Mentor of change (Niti Ayog) has been guiding startups as a mentor in incubators including Atal mission, JESERC ,Wadhwani Foundation, JNFU, IIT Mandhi , IIM Kashipur ,KSUM,TiE,WICCI and a few others too.
When asked about the core strength of Ourea, Anooja elaborates “our core strength is our human resource. For our partners, they break down the business vision into different milestones and finally achieve the business goal. We have a team which is a blend of corporate experience of more than 2 decade and youthful energy who breathes the ‘oxygen of innovation’. Ourea partnered with Mr. Vinod Chacko and Mr. Naman Modi, to build a vibrant organisation with a clear sense of purpose, measurable goals and tenacious infrastructure.
Anooja and Ourea’s philosophy has one very unique proposition regarding the human resource they have. Anooja says “Our fundamental philosophy is that innovation & vigour are the foundation of any branding paradigm. For this to happen, inner energies of an individual needs to be unchained. Even our office atmospherics are designed in a way to enhance the creativity and productivity of the employees”.
She continues “I would say that creating a new branding plan is similar to creating a new song. Lyrics and music hitherto not present emerges from the creators mind and new a creation is born in to the world. So is the case for a brand too. A unique, ‘new life’, a new baby brand is born. Like an individual lives and evolves, the brand too grows and evolves. Brand is your brain child”.
A philanthropist by persuasion and entrepreneur by passion, Anooja Bashir has been instrumental in giving a hand to many companies for the up hill journey and also reaching out to less advantaged section of the society radiating her energy.
