Indian brands trail MNCs in attractiveness

Despite spending top dollars on marketing, Indian-bred brands still lag multinational brands in the market in their desirability, finds a report from Trust Research Advisory (TRA) titled India's Most Attractive Brands 2013.

Samsung Mobiles emerged as the most attractive brand in 2013, based on primary research over three months, across 16 cities, spanning 2,505 people who are employed, in the top two SEC. The Japanese consumer durables giant, Sony, though embattled in other markets, comes in second, followed by Nokia, troubled world over but strong in India, with the three separated from each other by just 2 per cent. At fourth place is LG, the South Korean chaebol, lagging by 8 per cent. A home-grown brand comes in at fifth - Tata - trailing its predecessor by 11 per cent.

"It was a revelation that Indian brands were far and inbetween in the top-20 by way of attractiveness. Tata was fifth, Godrej was eighth, followed by Bajaj as ninth and then Amul as the 18th entry. All the top attractive Indian brands are legacy brands, with Amul being the youngest of these," says N Chandramouli, CEO, TRA.

What is at work across the 36 matrices of the report? Chandramouli says there were four appeals to determine the attractiveness quotient of the brands. Two were the classical appeals of logic and emotion. The other two were aspirational appeal and communication appeal.

"Despite these measures, attractiveness can prove to be a whimsical, temporary phenomenon. One wrong step by a brand can dent its image deeply. That is why it is imperative to be nimble-footed and work on the brand's attractiveness through communication. That is the reason why Indian brands could have lagged their multinational counterparts. They tend to miss out on communication and aspirational appeal," says Chandramouli. However, the study does capture nuances specific to the country, where  Apple does not figure anywhere in the top rankings for attractiveness, akin to sacrilege in most other markets but is a result of the brand's lack of reach in India.

At the all India level, Lux, the bath and beauty brand from the HUL is the sixth-most attractive brand but trails Tata by 48 per cent. Maruti Suzuki ranked seventh and Dell tenth. The report's top 10 attractive brands include two mobile phone brands, two durables brands, three from the diversified category, one each from FMCG, automobile and technology segments.

In the west zone, comprising Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Pune and Mumbai, for which data has been released, Sony came up trumps, followed by LG, Tata and then Samsung Mobiles.