Branding of India

MARKETMIND

The current issue of Business Week "" with India on its cover story "" has done further good to the very rapid global build-up of 'Brand: India'.

The same issue also carries another story "" on a fast rising international automobile manufacturing company named Magna Steyr that is enjoying recognition as the company that has most recently created the new X3 compact SUV for BMW from scratch.

The story credits Magna's achievement to its top grade brain trust "with 2000 engineers spanning the globe from Pune, India to Detroit" (I note with pride the precedence given to Pune in this story).

Brands, in the commercial sense, help businesses acquire customers and then retain them; help businesses maintain or improve marketshare; help businesses in maintaining or improving margins; and help businesses tide over tough times that are a part of any business cycle.

Branding of India is likely to generate similar benefits for the nation on a larger scale. It can help the country find new strategic partners while helping its businesses find new international customers. Branding of India can help the country attract a larger share of international investment and retain the same in India.

Branding of India can allow it to move up the value chain, thereby generating better financial and political results for itself. And finally, branding of India can help it take a stronger position on various international matters without coming under inordinate pressure from the developed countries.

However, like in case of businesses, branding requires careful thinking and sustaining, it requires substantial vigilance and investment. Unmet needs or wants of the global customers have to be continuously identified, and products and services created that satisfy such needs or wants successfully. Most importantly, the 'promise' of the brand has to be delivered on a sustained basis else after the initial start, brands do fade away.

India already has had two false starts in the last 15 years or so. The first one was when a very young and seemingly well intentioned Rajiv Gandhi became the Prime Minister of India. Alas, the promise could not be converted into anything of lasting value.

The second was in the early years of the Narasimha Rao "" Manmohan Singh government when they made the first serious effort to reform a closed and moribund economy. The world looked at India with interest once again, only to lose it as the political leadership lost its zest for sustaining reforms in the second half of the '90s.

Fortuitously for India, the current resurgence of 'Brand: India' has nothing to do with our political leadership "" much as they may now wish to take credit for the same. This time, it is a myriad of ordinary Indians who have achieved extraordinary success in the global arena and in the process, earned respect for India and a more serious interest in India.

Our politicians and our bureaucrats, in fact, continue to take some of the sheen away. One only has to look at the very sorry state of our airports "" the first gateway to India for any of the international visitors.

No changes have been made in the pathetic experience each Indian and foreigner has to go through while going through immigration, with pompous bureaucrats and politicians still walking past the serpentine queues with impunity. The condition of the taxies at the airport is abominable.

The newly coined BSP factor (Bijli, Sadak & Paani) still remains to be tackled. Filth and stray animals continue to litter our overcrowded cities. Caste-based politics is still being played up. Multi-billion rupee scams continue to be unearthed in different parts of the country with no visible, swift retribution for the scamsters while honest citizens continue to get murdered for their vigilance.

As ordinary citizens of India, we have earned our place under the sun through our own hard work. We are, therefore, the true custodians of 'Brand: India' and hence need to put our own best effort in sustaining it. We need to continue thinking global, to continue to protest against anything that can damage our brand equity without worrying about any direct personal losses from such protests, to continue to adopt global best practices both in the business and our civilian lives.

We need to rapidly get rid of caste and religion-based dogma, and become truly secular in action. The momentum is in favour of India, and we can all contribute our bit in our own ways to give it a further thrust, and thereby make India a truly enduring brand representing the most 'happening' nation of this new millennium!

Arvind@ksa-technopak.com