Page 16 - BrandZ Top 50 Most Valuable Indian Brands 2015

Part1 | Introduction-Overview
Overview
BRAND SUCCESS REQUIRES DEEP INSIGHT
While the opportunity in India is great, it can’t be realized by simply implementing the strategies or tactics that proved successful in other country markets. India is complicated for many reasons that are distinctive to India. Indians are comfortable with dualities and tensions that don’t exist to the same extent in other markets, and making decisions based on appearances alone can lead to costly mistakes. These dualities include:
Modernity and tradition: As Indians welcome more brands, and the modern comforts and conveniences they offer, they try not to displace cherished traditions, but rather integrate them. Brands need a strategy for responding to this reality.
Individual and collective: As brands in other parts of the world try to infuse brands with purpose beyond simply making money, higher purpose remains a basic expectation in India. Building a brand also means helping to build India. The government mandates Corporate Social Responsibility spending.
Urban and rural: Almost 70 percent
of the population still lives in rural India, and these individuals overall are poorer and less well educated than the growing middle class of India’s cities. But the urban-rural divide is changing. And the most successful brands are trying to close the gap.
OPPORTUNITY TO BUILD BRANDS
In May 2014, Indians rejected the Indian Congress Party, which had governed the country for most of the almost 70 years since independence, and elected a new government led by Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party, which presented a transformative vision of a more prosperous and equitable India.
In less than two years in office, this government has promulgated several initiatives to advance this vision in ways that both support brands and invite their participation. The permitted levels of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) increased across many categories,
for example, and FDI rose almost 25 percent in fiscal 2015, according to India government sources.
The government’s Make in India initiative and other programs, such as Digital India and Smart Cities, are aimed at increasing access to education, health care, jobs, and adequate housing. Brands have
an opportunity to engage with these endeavors, which ultimately can result in a larger and more affluent consumer market.
Brand building in India requires some patience, however. India is a democracy – the largest democracy on earth. Change often happens slowly and not without rigorous debate. But when change happens, it tends to be stable and sustainable.
India has the possibility not only to become a more prosperous and equitable nation, but also to achieve this goal in a different, “Indian” way
that becomes an alternative economic growth model – slower, perhaps, but more sustainable, adding financial value while maintaining cultural values.
Brands can participate in this growth and build successful brands, while at the same time helping India develop as a modern state with products and services that add convenience and comfort, but leave the planet more intact and individuals more emotionally and spiritually nourished.
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