Brand gurus push India's multi-culturalism

Brand India with its thriving, vibrantly multi-textured brand personality can give Brand China's authoritarian, staid image a run for its money in the global market, feels Lynn Upshaw, global brand expert and author of international bestsellers like "The Masterbrand Mandate: The Management Strategy that Unifies Companies and Multiplies Value".

Upshaw is in the city with Clyde Fessler, former director Harley-Davidson Motor Company, for the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Brand Conclave.

For that extra edge in positioning with our neighbours, an alternative strategy was suggested by Fessler.

He recommended adoption of a 'barriers to entry' checklist "" a formula devised at Harley wherein a checklist of the barriers in competition and ease of doing business was prepared and each item then individually tackled.

Upshaw felt that multinational companies and brands experienced problems in India (like Kellogg's and Levis did) as they oversimplified the Indian middle-class and failed to understand the myriad complexities.

The companies indulged in 'glocalising', confusing India's character with unified nature of China, he said.

There should be agreement among various stakeholders on the focal area of brand building in India as the country had "more than a thousand facets".

Bollywood and software could emerge as the key portals to the gateway called India, noted Upshaw.

For example, the successful wine industry in Australia and south America challenged the traditional market dominance of wines from Europe and California, and Bollywood could use the same techniques to take on Hollywood.

Fessler said the Harley three-pronged approach to branding "" understanding even the most subtle differences in one's products, the customer approach or aligning the product with the consumer, and finally, extensive research to gauge consumer aspiration and expectation "" was the lesson Indian companies need to learn.

Pronouncing the epitaph for customer relationship management (CRM), Upshaw said it had become a relic as the age of current brands demanded customer partnership at the brand-building stage, if not from the product conceptualisation stage.

Many companies globally were doing this, he said.

"As a result consumers manage their own quality, expectations and even ascertain the level of emotional involvement. The onus lies with brand custodians to convert that emotion to excitement to drive consumers to the outlets," Fessler said.

Speaking on the impact of outsourcing on branding, both the experts said the brand should be able to communicate that outsourcing also involved an insourcing and the balance between the two was being maintained for the better.