BrandAdda is a Platform for collaboration between Consumers & Companies, centered on Products, Services and Brands. For consumers, it aims to be the hub for authentic self-expression on Products, Services and Brands. For companies, it provides ways to collaborate with an engaged audience.

The platform provides a wide variety of tools & functionality such as Reviews, Forums, Photo/Video sharing, Brainstorming, Polls, Notes, Ads and Promotions.

BrandAdda runs on the "Web OS", and has distributed presence. Its components include a Website (brandadda.com), Widgets that can be deployed on any website, and Applications on popular Social Networks. Thus, the platform can be made available wherever consumers choose to spend their time.

Not a shopping tool (no product comparisons, price comparisons, detailed product literature etc).

Not a mouthpiece for Consumers, and Not a mouthpiece for Brands. BrandAdda is meant to be an open, transparent, wiki-like meeting ground for Companies and Consumers.

Interact with Products, Services and Brands that you care about in a community setting using any of the following ways that appeal to you:

• Participate in Discussion Forums on specific Products, Services & Brands.
• Review Products, Services & Brands.
• Share your ideas. Brainstorm with Companies. Help them improve their Advertising. Help them improve their Products, Services & Brands .
• Share your knowledge. Share pictures & videos. Enhance the experience for others.

You can also send private/public messages to other users.

Consumers can access the BrandAdda platform in a variety of ways:

• on BrandAdda.com
• via Widgets that can be installed on any website
• via Apps on popular social networks, such as Facebook, Orkut, Ning, etc

In a nutshell, Companies can create vibrant Communities around their Products & Brands. They can listen closely to consumers, talk to them and build strong relationships with an engaged audience. There are interactive tools and applications that enable companies to do the following:

• Ideation: Products/Services Strategy & Design, Ad campaigns, Branding campaigns, etc. Dell Idea Storm and My Starbucks Idea are good examples of Ideation with Consumers.
• Research: Ad Testing (Pre & Post), Product/Service Testing, Market Testing.
• Sharing: Content that is fun and useful, such as "How to" videos, or Exclusive Brand Ambassador Photos
• PR: Post Notes, Participate in discussions, Respond to Ideas etc.
• Promotions.

Companies can access the BrandAdda platform in a variety of ways:

• via their microsite on BrandAdda.com
• via a customized microsite running on their own domain
• via Widgets installed on their own websites
• via Apps on popular social networks such as Facebook, Orkut, Ning, etc

You have a broad range of tools to express yourself on Products, Services or Brands you care about, and to see where the community stands on what matters to you. Believe it or not, you are helping in making Products, Services, and Brands better for everyone!.

Each user accumulates points for posting, viewing and sharing content with friends. We would like to redeem these points for something meaningful to consumers. We need the Community's input on how best to structure such a redemption program. We're always open to ideas from the Community on ideal ways of recognizing their contribution. Please share your ideas with us.

Lastly, you could also take advantage of goodies, offers, promotions from Companies.

Traditionally, Marketing has been about a monologue from Companies to Consumers, in the form of Mass Broadcasting or Niche Broadcasting. With BrandAdda, Companies can say to Consumers "Tell us what you feel, what you think and what you want. We're here to listen and serve you". Everything we do at BrandAdda is about creating opportunities for companies to listen to their consumers and engage in a purposeful, meaningful dialogue. In addition, companies are expanding the pool of creativity and intelligence beyond the company's borders. All of this can lead to vastly superior results:

• Improved Brand Equity: Consumers whose hearts & minds are engaged are powerful brand ambassadors, spreading buzz both online and offline.
• Optimized Advertising: Feedback on your advertising from those who know you and care
• Better Product/Service Strategy/Design: Consumers tell you what they want through their ideas and reviews
• Research: You have a great focus group and a source of instant feedback

A company can run a customized version of its microsite on its own domain. Its microsite on BrandAdda.com cannot be customized.

The mission of BrandAdda is to enable and nurture a win-win relationship between Consumers and Companies. We believe that the future of Marketing is going to be partnership-based, and we're here to facilitate the partnership between Consumers and Companies. We like to call it Partnership Marketing.

A rich dialogue between Consumers and Companies can do both a lot of good!. Companies make Products & Services for Consumers, and Consumers use these Products and Services everyday. They are inter-dependent, and the Berlin Wall between them must go!.

Traditional Marketing has relied largely on thrusting uninvited advertising in the face of unwilling consumers, wherever they are, whatever they do. Companies are largely clueless about the ROI of this monologue, and the spend is large! (approximately USD 600 Billion spent annually worldwide on advertising). A study by Yankelovich Partners found that two-thirds of Americans feel constantly bombarded by ads and nearly as many respondents felt that these ads have little or no relevance to them. Consumers lash out more often than reach out to Companies, and vent their ire on personal blogs and product review sites - again, a monologue. A meaningful conversation between Consumers and Companies offers value to both. It enables Win-Win Marketing.

Seth Godin, the Marketing Guru, spoke about Permission Marketing at Entrepalooza, "You want to talk to people who are listening, People who give you permission to talk to them are listening. The days when the marketer with the loudest voice and fattest wallet dominates are over. What matters now is leading people and finding a tribe that wants to follow you".

What we are proposing goes one step beyond Permission Marketing, where the consumer is still the listener, albeit a willing one. We're proposing that the companies do the listening. There's tremendous value in it for them.

Consumers who have something on their mind about Products, Services and Brands. BrandAdda is the right platform for those who have something to ask, something to express, something to share, or something to suggest to Companies.

Companies and their Agencies who want to listen closely and talk to their Consumers.

A Brand is something that represents a Company or more broadly, an Organization. We typically use the term "Brand" to mean Product, Service, or a Brand owned by an Organization. Some examples of "Brands" are: Sony, Google, Gmail, HP, HP Pavilion Laptop, Kissan, TVS, Red Cross, Nike, Ford, Ford Fiesta, etc.

Is a "celebrity" a "Brand"? (e.g. Madonna, Shah Rukh Khan). If the community feels so, why not?. However, we do expect these to be unusual cases from our perspective.

Anyone can create a "microsite" or a "page" on a Product, Brand or Service. On this microsite, both Consumers and Companies can publish content, such as Reviews, Comments, Photos/Videos, Ideas, Polls, Ads, Promotions and Notes. Some content is retrieved from services across the internet and presented (e.g. tweets, news about a product/brand).

Almost all the Content is generated by Consumers and Companies. Some content is also retrieved from services on the web such as Twitter. There will also be links to content hosted elsewhere (such as Logos, Pictures, Videos, etc), and embedded content from other sites that allow their content to be embedded (such as YouTube).

No. BrandAdda is not a platform where you'll have to create your Social Graph yet again. We would rather leverage what you've already created (similar in spirit to our use of OpenID). In fact, the BrandAdda platform includes applications which you can use from within your favourite social networks (we support most popular networks, but not all though). The platform also includes widgets that you can use from any website that can include them.

Having said that, we do offer our users a way to communicate with each other in private or public - similar in spirit to Orkut scraps.

The most important difference is that BrandAdda enables engagement between Consumers and Companies. Product Review sites record the voice of the Consumer Community, but the voice of the Company is tuned out or limited. On BrandAdda, full-blown participation is possible for both Consumers and Companies, using a rich set of empowering tools.

BrandAdda is a social platform that runs on the "Web OS". In other words, it is available almost wherever Companies & Consumers need it.

Adding a Product, Service or Brand is open to any registered user on BrandAdda. There is no control exercised by any individual entity on this process. Mouthshut requires approval from its content team, and Epinions requires approval from a Category Lead.

Facebook is a socially oriented communication platform. BrandAdda is a niche platform whose focus is specifically on communication between Companies and Consumers. So, the most important difference is that of focus.

Another vital difference is the question of ownership. Facebook Page and Experience is controlled entirely either by the Brand or by a single user. Bias is inherent in either scenario. There are potential battles and issues arising from ownership ambiguities (e.g. see http://www.niallkennedy.com/blog/2007/12/facebook-pages-deletions.html, and http://www.allfacebook.com/2007/12/facebook-deleting-unofficial-pages/).

A BrandAdda page can be created by anyone, but is owned by no one. There is no single point of control. Consumers and Companies are equal partners. BrandAdda only administers the platform, and provides tools to the community to help keep the content clean, and useful.

Another difference is that BrandAdda is open to all web users, and is available across the entire web, including Facebook itself!.

Consumers have a variety of tools to express themselves. They can post the following kinds of content:

• Reviews
• Discussion topics
• Ideas
• Photos/Videos

Additionally, Consumers can vote on and post comments on content that is posted by Companies. The content that Companies can post includes:

• Polls
• Ads, and Polls associated with Ads
• Promotions
• Notes

Companies have a variety of tools to engage with Consumers. They can post the following kinds of content:

• Polls
• Ads, and Polls associated with Ads
• Promotions
• Notes
• Discussion topics
• Photos/Videos

Additionally, Companies can respond to content that is posted by Consumers. The content that Consumers can post includes:

• Reviews
• Discussion topics
• Ideas
• Photos/Videos

To view content, and to vote, there is no information you need to provide.

If you want to comment, or post content, then you need to be logged in. However, you need not create yet another login id. If you've got a userid with some well-known providers (such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo), you can use that id. All we'll need is your email address when you use one of these ids for the first time. The sole purpose of asking for your email is for important account-related communications. The email address WILL NOT be given to a 3rd party.

If you are using the BrandAdda platform on a social network, then you are automatically logged in to BrandAdda, and we will not ask you for any information

If you wish to create a new login id, we'll need your email address. The sole purpose of asking for your email is to verify your account before enabling it, and for important account-related communications. The email address WILL NOT be given to a 3rd party.

To view content, and to vote, there is no need to register.

If you want to comment, or post content, then you need to be logged in. However, you need not create yet another login id. If you've got a userid with some well-known providers (such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo), you can use that id. All we'll need is your email address when you use one of these ids for the first time. The sole purpose of asking for your email is for important account-related communications. The email address WILL NOT be given to a 3rd party.

If you are using the BrandAdda platform on a social network, then you are automatically logged in to BrandAdda, and we will not ask you for any information

If you wish to create a new login id, we'll need your email address. The sole purpose of asking for your email is to verify your account before enabling it, and for important account-related communications. The email address WILL NOT be given to a 3rd party.

Yes. We currently support a number of well-known providers. If you have registered with any of these providers, you can use that id here.

Please register yourself using an official email address. An official email domain belongs to or is approved by the Company that owns the Product/Service/Brand. Login using this account, and click on the "I Represent" button on the Product/Service/Brand Homepage, or just drop us an email with your contact info.

We suggest you submit the idea for the particular Brand or Product, so that the world can see it. This will help others participate by rating, commenting and sharing your idea with their friends. This will also encourage the generation of more ideas. Additionally, if the Company responsible for the Product/Brand is a subscriber on BrandAdda, they will be able to examine and respond to the idea and set a status for it (e.g. Under Review, Under Implementation, Implemented, etc). If the Company is not a subscriber, their attention may still get drawn to the idea if there is enough activity around it. Either way, this gives the idea a chance of getting realized.

You can submit an idea by using the 'Add Idea' button at the top of any content page for the particular Product/Brand you have an idea for. You can also submit an idea by going to the Idea Center for the particular Product/Brand.

Companies, of course :). We believe that BrandAdda creates significant value for Companies. It helps them to significantly enhance the performance of their business. In return, they share some of the value created.

Adda is a word in the Hindi Language that stands for a fun place to hangout. Our goal is to make BrandAdda such a place when it comes to all things related to a Company's Products, Services, and Brands.

One possibility is that you are using a Browser version we do not support. We have tried our best to support IE7, Firefox 2 and Firefox 3. We do not have the resources to optimize the platform for all possible browsers.

The other possibility is that your browser has cached old versions of some of our files. Please clear the browser cache. On IE, you may choose "Delete Browsing History" under the Tools Menu. On Firefox, you can go to Tools->Clear Private Data, and check "cache". The instructions may vary for the version of the browser you are using.

Why did your cache need to be cleared in the first place?. We are actively listening to feedback about our platform and making updates to its functionality. Some of these updates require changing files that your browser typically caches (e.g. CSS files). By clearing the cache, you can use the latest files which the page depends on, instead of the older files in the cache.

We have tried our best to support IE7, Firefox 2 and Firefox 3. We do not have the resources to optimize the platform for all possible browsers.