Stories of Epic Ramayana are still relevant... Shairing one read of my friend showing How Brand is above the owner.. A Branding Lesson from Ramayana... Got this interesting read from one of my friend and thought of sharing … Relevant in today’s biz too… --- Interesting topic? Let me get straight to the story – Here is an extract (super summary!) and synopsis from one of the chapters (Yuddha Kand i.e. the 'War Episode', which describes the war between Rama and Ravana) of Ramayana. Having received Hanuman's report on Sita, Rama and Lakshmana proceed with their allies towards the shore of the southern sea. There they are joined by Ravana's renegade brother Vibhishana. The monkeys named "Naal" and "Neel" construct a floating bridge (known as Rama Setu) across the ocean, and the princes and their army cross over to Lanka. The incident goes like this: The challenge in building the bridge was to make the stones float (as all stones will sink the moment it is thrown into the ocean). It is said that a solution was offered by supporters of Lord Rama, i.e. inscribe the name "Rama" on the stone and then throw it in the ocean. The same was done and it worked! Lord Rama was watching the progress and Naal and Neel progressively built the bridge. At one point, Lord Rama decided to extend a helping hand. So he picked up a stone and threw it in the ocean (i.e. which an expectation that it will flow). Surprisingly it sank without a trace! Why? Because the stone was not inscribed with "Rama" Lord Rama was confident that he do not need to use his "brand" as he was THE "brand" and tried to repeat the magic. But it did not work. It was not "branded" with "Rama". Moral of the story: Brand is bigger than the "owner" of the brand. Subtle Moral of the Story: Feel good, when people recognize you by the name of your company i.e. brand. This means, your brand is becoming bigger than you. And this may stay beyond you.