Booming Brands by Harsh Pamnani promised to be in the same genre as my book The Mouse Charmers. Having been written 4-5 years after my book, I was curious to know how Harsh has perceived the new age businesses of India. In fact, two of the eleven companies he profiles are common with my book, and two of them were potential candidates for my book but they did not make it to the final cut.
Going by the title of the book, I assumed that Harsh Pamnani would be focussed on the branding of the companies he has chosen to showcase through his book. However, I found that each chapter has its own style and there was no clear focus on the branding aspect. It was there, as a brand is an inherent part of a consumer business, which most of the businesses here were. However, I could not find a clear focus on bringing out the branding aspect that the upcoming companies can pick up from the book.
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Narrative
The narrative is quite incoherent. This is the first book of Harsh Pamnani that I have read, so I am not sure if this is how he writes. Two chapters on BookMyShow and Elephant Design were straight out of their corporation media deck. There is so much focus on HR policies and management jargon that I lost interest as a reader. Having said that, some chapters are written very well. You understand the journeys of those businesses and the entrepreneurs behind them.
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The book is designed very well. There is a visual element that defines the chapter. Each chapter ends with some nuggets of wisdom from the founders. I read it on my Kindle, I assume this is one book you may like to hold in your hand and read.
Booming Brands – Inspiring Journeys of 11 ‘Made in India’ Brands
I must say I read the chapters on Zomato and Shaadi.com very critically as I had studied them in detail. I was happy to read the updates in both the organizations as they moved to new verticals or to a mobile-first mode. Paper Boat is another of my favorite brands from India. The focus of this chapter is about storytelling way of marketing, which I know is very unique, creative and innovative. However, there are design elements and research elements that need their due credit.
Buy Booming Brands by Harsh Pamnani at Amazon
Goli Vada Pav and Su-Kam were an interesting read for me as I did not know much about them. BYJU’s a PagalGuy are interesting as businesses. But I would always look at them as creating an alternative system where the primary should work. In the case of Pagalguy, it is our obsession with competitive exams that creates business opportunities.
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Of the 11 companies featured, 6 are online businesses. That says a lot about the upcoming areas that the new entrepreneurs should look at. The book is published by TV 18 Ventures. I did not know that they are into publishing books as well. So that was a discovery for me. Hope to read more business books from their list.
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I wish the language of Booming Brands book was more coherent. I am still not sure if Harsh Pamnani had a structure in mind for the chapters. It looks like he gathered all that he could about the company, at times from the HR or Corporate Communications team only and wrote what best he could get out of them. The only problem with these is that the story becomes a series of jargons that make no sense to a lay reader and others know may not have anything to do with reality.
Take your call.
