Until last year, a coffee table book (usually referred as CTB in the print industry) was merely a 'time-killing' picturesque display for me. Resting in the designer shelf of a premium hotel lobby, the 'effort' could hardly explained its existence to an amateur like me, who for instance was busy differentiating between those who could lift it and those who could read, after lifting it.

Realization of the true potential of the vehicle started with my close stint as a business development executive with one of the leading hindi newspaper groups in Rajasthan. "Rendezvous- A date with the jewels", a coffee table book that takes you on voyage into the rich gems and jewelery industry of Rajasthan, happened to be my first encounter.The book narrates the success tales of those who took Rajasthan's jewelery industry to another 'degree of recognition' in the global market.

The response was overwhelming.

In a market like Rajasthan, where print media holds utmost importance and plain vanilla advertising 'rules d roost', a branding exercise of this sort drew tremendous attention. The initiative was basically aimed at branding the entire state as an ideal hub for jewelery trade and induced a 'no-sale' process by distributing it complimentary to the entire corporate clientele of the company.

Why just one business sector? 'Rajasthan', holding the largest geographical boundries in the country is yet to 'clear its due' . Being rewarded with a 'culturally rich' tag doesn't serves the purpose until the other business verticals also get some recognition on the national scale.

'A tree is strong if its roots are strong'. A simple brain-storming session led us to decide that the biggest hurdle Rajasthan is facing today is being 'culturally rich' with the inhabitants considered to be 'traditionally backward'. Despite having good infrastructure and a pool of highly qualified academicians, the state is facing corporate ignorance owing to the above mentioned fact and the only way to break this myth was to share a glimpse of our education system and establishments with the 'intellect community'.

'Pathfinder' was born.

'Pathfinder-Your best bet for professional education in Rajasthan', a coffee table book that boasts of the premium engineering, medical and management institutes of Rajasthan with career counselling articles from renowned career counsellors like Usha Alberque and Parvin Malhotra was 'one of its kind' initiative in the advertising history of Rajasthan. A concrete platform for the educationists to brand and compete with the 'metro rivals' turned out to be a reader's delight. Owing to the great market response we also launched the magazine edition of pathfinder so as to cater to the local audience.

Continuing the trend, came "Gurkuls of Rajasthan- Shaping present, Moulding future", a coffee table book that talks about the most prominent residential schools of Rajasthan, thus justifying the state to be an ideal playground for your seedlings. The profiles of pioneer institutes like Mayo College and BITS pilani strengthen the fact of existence of quality institutes in the desert state. The book turned out to be a dream platform for the new entrants to share the limelight and setting up a reputation base among a nationwide 'corporate pool' by standing in the same premier league.

In a nutshell, in today's world where a new newspaper or a magazine 'classified' with an ad clutter is launched everyday, a coffee table book designated to a particular business theme can prove to be an ideal branding vehicle.

If Rajasthan, where branding is still considered to be an 'alien game', can respond well to it, i am sure it will do wonders in the 'metro markets'.