Local giants, global dwarfs

The Brand Derby results are a wake-up call for Indian brands

The Business Standard Brand Derby results, published on Monday, have only five Indian brands in the list of the top 30 successful launches of 2014. That the picture has hardly changed even though close to 10 months have gone by in 2015 is a fair assumption. One example of the losing clout of Indian brands is that Indian businesses have stopped supplying virtually all the products with which the consumer starts her day. Consider what a typical consumer has for breakfast: Apart from Amul butter or milk, her cereal is probably from Kellogg's and coffee from Nestle. The phone she uses is probably from Apple or Samsung (both have cornered the top three slots in the Brand Derby) - though the presence of Micromax Canvas Power (10th on the list) suggests many of her colleagues are also finding value in the desi company's offerings, although their import content is still fairly high. And more and more consumers are driving off to work in cars that are made in factories owned by foreign companies. All these examples state the obvious: a dominant segment of consumers couldn't care less about any swadeshi pitch and are switching loyalties to those who understand them better. The Brand Derby results are also in tune with a Brand Finance study that showed that the Tata brand, which was India's most valuable at over $15 billion, was ranked 65th in the global list and remained the only truly global megabrand originating in India.

The Brand Derby list is populated not only with the usual brands from the US, Europe and Japan, there are also several of them from South Korea and Taiwan. It is quite obvious that all this talk about the India growth story will be incomplete without Indian brands having a significant play in the global arena. David Ogilvy had famously said, "Anyone can make a product, but it takes patience, perseverance, vision and genius to create a brand." That is where Indian companies have failed spectacularly, resulting in their brands wearing a permanent tag of "potentially world-beating". There is also a growing perception that many companies in India still believe that brand-building is a short-term and tactical advertising campaign, or a quick exercise to refresh their logo. What is required is out-of-the-box thinking. For example, Nike never mentions selling shoes in their advertisements. That's because Nike doesn't want its buyers to think about shoes; it wants them to think about the whole experience and about a lifestyle.

Also, the context for brand-building has changed because of the country's demographics, better connectivity, more empowerment of the consumers, higher population of value-conscious buyers and higher competition across categories. In that context, it's sad that Indian brands still have miles to go in having a comprehensive strategy for digital brand-building even though the digital space has become more central to people's lives. Brand experts point to yet another area where Indian brands have faltered and that is consistency. That's because when consumers come back to a business for repeat purchases, they usually expect to receive the same level of quality as they did the first time, which makes it so important to adhere to a certain quality standard with a product or service. Steve Jobs had once said the best example of a successful branding initiative is when people recommend a brand without getting paid for it. Indian brands would do well to work towards this to get global acceptance.