Can India Lead the Way in Branding

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



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

[email protected].

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.



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Can India Lead the Way in Branding