can india lead the way in branding
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7/29/2019 Can India Lead the Way in Branding
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Can IndiaLead the Wayin Branding?Indian branding might be a force to be reckoned with.
By Heidi Schultz
On Brandsa n d b r a n d i n g
C U R R E N T LY , much branding atten-
tion is on China, with brand pundits
and trade press asking many questions.
What will be the impact of product
recalls on the involved brands? What
about product piracy, which is directly
related to the lack of intellectual proper-
ty protection? Is “Brand China” dam-
aged, perhaps beyond repair?But, maybe the real branding story
isn’t in China. Instead, I argue that it’s
being developed slowly but surely in
India. And it might well be that India
and Indian organizations are rewriting
the ways brands are considered,
planned, developed, and managed.
While the Chinese have mimicked
many of the traditional Western
approaches to brands and branding,
India seems to be marching to a differ-
ent drummer. Many of the approacheshave clearly evolved from Western ori-
gins. The interesting thing, though, is
that some of their methods clearly chal-
lenge Western brand traditions and the
hoary “brand principles” that accompa-
ny them. Indeed, some of the Indian
branding approaches I saw seem to be a
better fit for the 21st Century push-pull
marketplace than what is currently in
place in the West.
Western branding experts, however,
seem to be ignoring developments in
India or are suggesting that these are
minor isolated incidents from an emerg-
ing market. Many argue that once the
Indian market is fully developed, and is
as sophisticated as the West, Indian
firms will fall into line—either reverting
to traditional Western methods or adapt-
ing them as the Chinese seem to havedone.
Evidence is the development of the
BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China)
market concept, which lumps large,
emerging economies into a single unit—
and then treats them as a group, sort of
like women ages 18 to 49. The common
wisdom is that at some point, these
huge markets will ape or mimic what
has developed in the West (i.e., the
United States, Western Europe, other
“developed brand markets”).I argue that this might be a major fal-
lacy in our thinking.
Yes, India is an emerging market, it
has growing pains, and it is somewhat
like Western countries. But then again,
it’s totally different. It’s certainly differ-
ent from China and Russia, which
evolved from planned economies where
brands meant nothing. India has adapt-
ed and adopted some Western
approaches, but in spite of being the
world’s largest democracy, the Indian
approach to government, business, and
society is totally different from the West.
Similarly, Indian business approaches
are unique. Although Indian companies
have adopted some of the Western busi-
ness models, they’re also developing
some totally different concepts that
might well rewrite the traditionalWestern brand and branding rules.
Here are some branding changes I
encountered on a recent trip to the sub-
continent.
Brand and branding mental models.
Indian businesses seem to be increasing-
ly Westernized. Indian managers can,
and will, argue the latest marketing con-
cepts at the very highest levels. But they
also have a different view. As many
anthropologists, linguistic experts, and
neural psychologists can attest, Indianthinking patterns are different from the
West. Instead of linear, sequential, cate-
gorization mental models, Indian cul-
tures are holistic, networked, and
dynamic. Much is derived from the vari-
ous religions: Hindu, Islam, Buddha,
Jain, and the like. Everything is connect-
ed, everything is related, and everything
is continually changing. Western
thought patterns, which have dominated
brand thinking, are based on categoriza-
12 ❘ M M J a n ua r y / F e b r u a r y 2 00 8
7/29/2019 Can India Lead the Way in Branding
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tion, isolation, and separation. The dif-
ference becomes clear when we consider
the basic bedrock of a Westerner’s view
of brand equity and the models we’ve
developed. All are linear, all are sequen-
tial, and all are categorizations—step-
by-step formulas for success. Indian
models alternatively are networks, asso-
ciations, affiliations, and dynamic inter-
actions. This is a very basic difference in
the two cultures.
A service-based business model.
India’s rapid economic growth has come
by providing services the rest of the
world wouldn’t, couldn’t, or didn’t want
to do at a reasonable cost. Call centers,
service bureaus, systems developers,
and computer code writers are all stock in trade of Indian companies—as Wipro
Technologies, Infosysis Technologies,
and Tata Group demonstrate every day.
Service orientation has forced Indian
companies to develop different branding
concepts than the goods-based
approaches found in the West. Goods
branding has dominated Western think-
ing for the past 100 years from fast-mov-
ing consumer goods organizations, such
as Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Colgate-
Palmolive, Kraft Foods Inc., and others.The firm creates the value, and then
delivers it to customers and prospects.
Service organizations are radically dif-
ferent, with value being cocreated
between the buyer and seller. Outcomes
and final value are often initially
unknown—generally emerging from the
interactions that then naturally turn into
ongoing relationships. Services are
intangibles. They don’t show up on
organizational balance sheets, but they
do generate huge cash flows, and oftensubstantial profits. Because of this serv-
ice nature, many Indian firms are
focused more on creating value, rather
than on distributing value that has been
previously developed.
Family-owned, managed, and con-
trolled brands. Many of the leading
Indian brands are family owned, man-
aged, and operated—some by third or
fourth generation relatives of the
founders. And these family-controlled
businesses have become global power-
houses as witness Tata Group, Bajaj
Auto, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd.,
Arcelor Mittal, and others. The family
name must be protected and public trust
maintained, come what may. That
enables Indian companies to take a
longer-term branding view about how
brands are. It also allows them to aggre-
gate seemingly unrelated activities
under the family name. For example,
Bajaj produces a wide range of seeming-
ly unrelated products and services rang-
ing from motor scooters to sugar refin-
ing to household appliances—all of
which are accepted by marketplace con-
sumers. And because the family is
known, recognized, and respected in thecommunity, new products and services
can be brought in under the family cor-
porate banner with relatively low brand
communication investments.
Importance of internal branding.Seemingly, Indian companies have a dif-
ferent view of how and where brands
are built over time. Although they
develop strong consumer brand pro-
grams using the traditional Western
forms of advertising and marketing
communication, in many instances
Indian branding starts inside and not
outside. For example, recently the Tata
Group introduced a new corporate com-
munication program in several selected
markets around the world. But beforelaunching the global branding program,
Tata tested it in South Africa for nearly
two years to make sure the program was
right. And interestingly, it started the
program inside the firm, getting Tata
employee and business associate input
and support before taking the program
public.
Stretching the brand. Perhaps noth-
ing epitomizes the unique Indian
approach to branding more than the
ability to stretch the brand far beyond
what Western organizations would con-
sider. For example, Kingfisher is one of
the leading beer brands in India.
Kingfisher is also the name of a new,
high-quality, high-service, budget
domestic airline. Is that brand infringe-
ment? Not on your life. Both brands are
owned by the same man, Vijay Mallya.
People like and trust Mallya (sort of the
Richard Branson of India) and they trust
the brand, so why not use what people
know, like, and trust. Would any brand-
ing guru in the United States ever sug-
gest developing a Budweiser Airline
or a Heineken Airways approach in
Holland? Probably not, but it works in
India because people trust Mallya andthe Kingfisher brand.
India is a different market and a dif-
ferent marketplace. But, one should con-
sider that many of our Western brand
concepts are based on goods, not servic-es. If one thinks about the value of the
family name and the importance of trust
and dependability, and if one believes
that brands are here for the longer-term
and that they should build relationships
and not just short-term sales, maybe the
Indians are on the right track. At the rate
Indian companies are growing both
domestically and globally, they’re obvi-
ously doing some things right—maybe
branding is one of them. ■
About the Author
Heidi Schultz is Executive Vice
President of Agora, Inc., an Illinois-
based consultancy in brands and
integrated marketing communication.
She also lectures on brands and
branding in the Integrated Marketing
Communications department at
The Medill School at Northwestern
University. She may be reached at
M M J a n u a r y / F e b r u a r y 2 00 8 ❘ 13
It might well be that India and Indian organizations
are rewriting the ways brands are considered,
planned, developed, and managed.
7/29/2019 Can India Lead the Way in Branding
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