Old-time memories linger on and on, and you generally become happy while remembering those incidents, happenings and other things. There are certain things which become associated with your old memories, and one of them is Consumer Brands of good old days, which you may or may not see in the market now, but your memories are attached to those brands. I am listing below a few commercial brands which were quite popular in the 1970s and1980s:
1 Binaca Toothpaste
This toothpaste was launched in 1950 in the country, and it was one of the top toothpaste brands till the 1980s. There was one more reason for the Binaca brand becoming popular was the radio program ‘Binaca Geetmala’, which was a weekly hit parade of Hindi film songs. In the 1990s, this brand was sold to some other consumer company, and this product/brand is extinct now.
2 Gold Spot
It was one of the most popular Orange flavoured soft drinks among children in those days. It was equally popular in both urban and rural markets. In the early 1990s, this brand was acquired by Coca-Cola company.
3 HMT Watches
Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) was established in 1953. The watches manufactured by HMT became very popular and were the number-one watch-selling brand for the next few decades. There was a time almost 80% of middle-class Indians were wearing HMT watches. Now all the units manufacturing these watches have been closed.
4 Paan Parag
This is a paan masala brand which started in the late 1970s. First, it was sold in round tin boxes and later became very popular when it started trading in small pouches. Paan Parag is still available and has become a generic name for paan masala.
5 Charminar Cigarette
This was the most popular and cheapest non-filter cigarette brand from the early 1950s, and it was still a leading brand when the filter cigarette trend caught up. It was a highly advertised brand in the print media.
6 Dabur Amla Hair Oil
Dabur is an Indian brand, which was established in 1884 country. This hair oil was launched in 1940, and it became the very trusted brand. Dabur Amla hair oil is still one of the top hair oil brands in the country.
7 Nirma
Indian brand Nirma began its journey in 1970, by mid-1980s its washing powder became very famous soon that MNCs like Hindustan Lever started getting jittery with Nirma’s detergent bar and washing powder. This brand is still fighting with MNC’s brands.
8 Poppins
It was quite popular brand among children in the last century, it was a pack of fruit flavoured round candies. You may find this product in some odd stores.
9 Dalda
It was launched by then Hindustan Lever in the year 1930. This product was Vegetable Ghee, and became very popular among Indian population who could not afford Desi Ghee.. Not in India, it became very famous in other Asian countries also. In 2003, Hindustan Lever sold this brand to Bunge ltd.
10 Usha
This company was founded in 1934, and became famous for its products like sewing machine, cookers, fans. Some of the company’s product are still popular in the country.
11 Allwyn
It was established in 1942 in Hyderabad, company manufactured Refrigerators, scooters, wrist watches etc. It was very popular brand in its field. By the end of 20th century with so many other MNC brands entering the market, slowly this brand vanished from the market.
12 Bata
It is a Chezc company, was established in India in 1930. Its main business is production of shoes, which became most trusted shoe/footwear brand in the country. Its speciality is to give the good quality footwear at affordable price. The brand is still active in the country.
13 Cadbury Gems
It is sugar coated colourful candy launched in 1960. This is still very popular among children.
Friends, if you remember some other popular consumer brands of the later part of last century, please do write about the same in the comments section, at the end of the blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
8th August 2023