AgVoice | Has incredible India missed the global brand bus?

Recently, in my Global Brand Strategy class, I was sharing the Interbrand rankings of the ‘Top 100 Global Brands 2011’. Some of my students raised an important and interesting question, “Why was there not a single Indian brand in the list?” (After all, we are there nowadays on most other global lists). This got me thinking and raised more questions than answers.

 

The Interbrand list is populated with the usual suspects from the US, Europe and Japan, but not surprisingly, there are also brands from Korea and Taiwan.  The impressive India growth story and predictions of India emerging as an economic superpower in the near future seem incomplete, without Indian brands having a significant play in the global arena. One may argue that India has given the world Yoga, Chicken Tikka Masala, Software, BPO Services, Bollywood, but these are ‘generics’. Brands such as Titan Watches, did dabble in going global, but possibly not with the conviction and consistency that was necessary to succeed. Where are the made in India global brands? Are we content being the world’s back-office?

 

We’ve had our opportunities to get on the bus, but somehow missed them. Here are some that come to mind. Those who could have been-there-done-that:                                                                          

 

 

Protagonists may argue that India liberalized itself from the Hindu rate of growth and the mindset of ‘Brahminical’ restraint, only in the early 90’s and that it’s early days for creating global Indian brands.

 

This does not hold water, if we look at the exponential and disruptive growth in several sectors like telecom, automobiles, ITES to name a few. India and several developing BRIC economies have short circuited conventional rates of market evolution and growth. So, why not follow the same pace in creating and building global brands. After all, many Indian business houses have built strong Indian brands in the domestic market, in a relatively short span of time.

 

The answer perhaps lies in the mental DNA, more than anything else, (and please let us not pass the buck on to the Government of India, for a change).

We certainly have the knowledge and the skills, but do we have the attitude and vision?

 

Do Indian businesses focus too much on the short term, to have the patience and perseverance required for nurturing a global brand?

Are we still suffering from a post-colonial hangover, where we shy away from taking on the best in the world? And underestimating our own capabilities and national pride?

David Ogilvy had famously said, “Anyone can make a product, but it takes patience, perseverance, vision and genius to create a brand.”

 

 

The huge domestic Indian market and growth in demand and consumption is paradoxically a boon as well as a bane, in catalyzing Indian companies to create global brands.

On the one hand, it provides captive economies of scale, for Indian businesses to leverage and create a global footprint. While on the other hand, it makes them contented and complacent in developing a ‘frog in the well’ attitude.

In fact, necessity is the mother of invention, which is why brands from smaller countries like Korea, Taiwan, Switzerland and Japan had no option, but to tap overseas markets to fuel growth.

In India, we are blessed with a fast growing and consuming market and that should be our biggest opportunity (rather than a mental block) to unlock overseas markets with our own brands.

The trick lies in understanding and leveraging our competencies and resources, while identifying the high potential areas, where India can create and build powerful global brands.

 

There is a lot more going for India, in addition to the massive domestic market.

We have some of the most qualified, experienced and capable technologists, scientists, managers, business leaders and thinkers, contributing unparalleled brain power. A lot of them indeed are the brains behind some of the best global brands and corporations. Given the heterogeneity of consumers and the geographical spread of the market, Indian brands have an inherent understanding of handling cross-cultural diversity and scale- essentials in ‘glocalizing’ brands in today’s world. We have greater expertise than most countries, in serving and competing at the ‘bottom of the pyramid’ with value engineering and low-cost business models. The great Indian Jugaad (or ingenuity), our homegrown approach to innovation, gives us immense flexibility and adaptability in finding solutions    to complex business problems.

The ingredients of taking our homegrown brands global are certainly there. What’s required is the will, and the way.

 

A new generation of business leaders and businesses, born in the post-liberalization era, is our best bet to create truly global Indian brands. Hopefully they have it in them to see the world as their playground, with a will to go for it and win. Let us now examine the ways in which they could go about it. What could be the blueprint for India’s global brand journey?

 

With demand and economic power shifting to developing and emerging countries, with large and aspiring middle class populations, the traditional markets of America and Europe are no longer necessary to build global brands. Indian brands can focus on these emerging, high growth markets before targeting the developed world. These markets will provide better return on investments and the leverage to become more competitive. Samsung, Hyundai and Acer successfully adopted this route and are now names to reckon with across the globe.

 

Indian brands are best poised to tap the ‘bottom of the pyramid’ markets in the developing economies. Having already done this in the domestic market, they have the formula to succeed by adapting and expanding their low-cost business models and price-value based ‘fighter’ brands. Chik form Cavinkare, which opened up the shampoo market with its single serve 50 paise sachet, is one such example. Indian brands can take the lead in being the world’s top BOP brands.

 

India’s rich cultural legacy is another global opportunity.

We have ‘generically’ exported our food, customs and heritage.

It’s time to now build global brands on this platform. Ayurvedic and herbal personal care, ethnic fashion, Indian cuisine and India’s royal heritage are premium branding opportunities.

ITC’s Kitchen’s of India can easily become a global ethnic gourmet brand and Amul can take the ‘Taste of India’ across the world on a more mass scale. India Kings can symbolize ‘Indian Royalty’, like Marlboro symbolizes ‘American Machismo’. According to a Harvard Business Review study ‘On How Global Brands Compete’, the American myth is on the decline across the world.

Why can’t Bheem (the mighty Pandava Prince) replace Ironman, as the next comic book superhero?

Heineken’s new global commercial has a Mohammed Rafi track set to a Shammi Kapoor like jive, a clear case of Bollywood’s growing world influence. How about packaging and marketing the ‘Indian Myth’ more aggressively.

 

The time has come for the Indian knowledge economy, which contributes extensively to build intellectual capital across the world, to create its own power brands. These idea based brands can be the mantras to showcase our thought leadership. The services sector, biotechnology, ITES, hospitality and education need to break free from their back-office mindset and harness their creativity and imagination to create and market global brands from India.

 

India’s spiritual wisdom is the light at the end of the tunnel for a world in increasing political, economic and cultural turmoil. While many gurus and maharishis have propagated this (at times, mired in controversy), Indian brands based on strong values that uplift the ‘human spirit’ are ripe for the picking.

These brands can become evangelists for a new world order based on compassion, kindness, peace and harmony. ‘Being Human’ (from Salmaan Khan) can become a lifestyle brand in the genre of True Religion or Muji representing a ‘big ideal’- a lethal marketing cocktail of Bollywood glamour with a dose of human values.

 

The road ahead promises a lot. The journey would be as exciting and challenging as the destination.

Ladies and Gentlemen of India, the bus is still waiting.  So are my students and Interbrand. | By Anand Narasimha, is Dean & Professor of Marketing at IFIM Business School, Bangalore

 

About the writer: 

 

Anand Narasimha, is Dean & Professor of Marketing at IFIM Business School, Bangalore. With over 25 years of experience in Brand Marketing, Advertising and Consulting, he describes himself as a ‘Brand Mentor’. He can be reached at anand.n(at)ifimbschool.com