Focus on Brand India
|
While some truly global Indians urged India Inc to at least break mindsets if not rules, others were bullish on taking Brand India on the global map, says Ratna Bhushan
|
Cine Star, Amitabh Bachchan, with foreign delegates at the Ad Asia 2003 meet in Jaipur.
SO, WHAT did the four-day-long 23rd Ad Asia 2003 Event really break any rules?
Well, it led to cross-country networking within the advertising fraternity, showcasing creatively acclaimed work and bringing to the fore the creative people behind all that work, bringing several captains of Indian industry (some of whom, by the way, confessed to not being connected to advertising in any way), on one common platform, and some slip-ups as well.
While some truly global Indians such as Rajat Gupta urged India Inc to at least break mindsets if not rules, others such as Mukesh Ambani and Kumar Mangalam Birla were bullish on taking Brand India on the global map. M. S. Banga, Chairman of India's largest fast moving consumer goods major Hindustan Lever, cautioned about brand devaluation.
While the 1,400 speakers and delegates ranged from across the Asian continent including China, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Taipei, Singapore, Pakistan, Korea, the UAE and Nepal, the four-day conference brought global marketing and advertising gurus such as Lester Wunderman, Jack Trout, Scott Bedbury and Stefano Hatfield.
Providing the event its touch of glamour was Amitabh Bachchan, who lit the ceremonial lamp and made a telling statement, "When you want to break the rules in a positive way, look for the rules in the way ordinary people want them broken.''
K. M. Birla's confidence
Mr. K. M. Birla, Chairman and Managing Director, Aditya Birla Group, moved the idea of setting up a Brand India Foundation. "The Foundation, as I see it, would be responsible for steering India to be among the Top 10 global brands by 2010. Use Indian intellectual capital as a platform to build Brand India,'' he said.
According to Mr. Birla, India already has the ingredients of a potentially powerful global brand. "We can make Brand India more power-packed globally; a powerful brand is the key to wealth creation. We can make India the No. 1 destination of choice in the world for infotech, manufacturing, education and tourism,'' he said. Among the reasons why India would succeed in its brand building exercise, said Mr. Birla, were facts such as its GDP likely to grow at 8 per cent while the world average is about 3 per cent, Goldman Sachs predicting India to be the third largest economy in the world by 2050, over 35 per cent Silicon Valley start-ups being by Indians, and 100 Fortune 500 companies outsourcing work to India.
However, the downside, Mr. Birla added, was that Brand India does not command the respect it deserves. "We have to stop scepticism and focus on the positives. The one barrier we need to overcome is from within. Very little effort has gone into marketing the country. There is a general tendency to focus on the negatives and ignore our successes,'' he said.
Ambani's call
Carrying forward in Mr. Birla's mode, Mr. Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries, urged India Inc to believe in itself. "I believe India's moment has indeed arrived. It has every making of a 21st century miracle. In the New World, we cannot afford to ignore building Brand India. It is a commandment,'' he said.
Mr. Rajat Gupta, Senior Partner — Worldwide, McKinsey and Company, U.S., pointed to market forecasts that Asia is expected to drive a significant proportion of the World GDP — contributing over 30 per cent of the growth in world GDP over the next five years. "Though Asia has been growing, the growth has not been enough to make it a superpower. For Asia to earn the right to be a superpower, we not only need to make a significant contribution to the world economy, but also, and perhaps more importantly, we need to see the emergence of several successful global companies out of Asia,'' Mr. Gupta said.
According to Mr. Gupta if locally successful companies such as Tata Motors in India, Hang Seng Bank in Hong Kong or Legend in China do not go global, their arena will be captured by established global giants.
Asia has few global champions — low global competitiveness, local workforce and management culture, lack of organisational sophistication and limited global ambition are among the reasons, Mr. Gupta added.
Hindustan Lever's Banga expressed concern about the challenge brands in India face today. "The country is experiencing a retail revolution and an explosion of new categories of consumption, all of which stack up favourably with corporates. Yet, advertising revenues have been growing in single digit over the last 3-4 years. Building an `I' brand strategy could reverse this trend,'' he said.
As for the Big Fight between establishing share of voice and share of wallet for the marketer and advertiser, Mr. Banga talked of two `fatal disconnects' the marketing fraternity seems to be trapped in — clutter versus choice; and resisting change versus embracing change.
Jack Trout, President, Trout & Partners Ltd, U.S., cautioned about breaking the wrong kind of rules. "If you make a mistake, your competitors quickly get your business. And you don't get it back. The problems lie in the fact that many companies still don't understand the need for differentiation. And many companies that do understand, don't know how to do it.''
"As in life, there's no substitute for being direct,'' said the `Buddha' of direct marketing, Mr. Lester Wunderman, Chairman Emeritus and Founder of Wunderman, U.S. "We are not in the business of creating favourable impressions, nor are we about such abstractions as brand awareness and brand recall, although we recognise and welcome their benefits. The hard, inescapable fact is that we succeed only when we create share-of-market rather than share-of-mind.''
`Most demanding market'
Calling India the channel's biggest and most demanding market outside of the Europe, Jane Gorard, Director of Marketing, BBC World, U.K., chose to speak on the subject of `global local conflict.' "The abundance of communication channels — from television, radio and print to the all-pervasive Internet — gives all marketers, whether national or global, a headache. Can we take a global brand and make it relevant to local audiences without diluting the core values of the brand?'' she questioned. She drew attention to brands such as Coke, Pepsi, McDonalds, Kodak, IBM, Reader's Digest and Time — all of which have had to grapple with making their brands locally relevant. "This becomes more challenging against the backdrop of social exclusion of regions and countries as a result of world events, which has led to dilution of trust and economic instability. In marketing terms, this implies fragmentation and niche audiences, because if people distrust global brands and multinationals, they may shy away from established names and switch allegiance to companies with greater local relevance,'' Mr. Gorard pointed out.
Piyush Pandey, Group President & National Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather, India, had the last word. "The last 18 months have been the most eventful for Indian advertising. It has a rawness and simplicity which makes it so refreshing.''
Indian advertising does indeed appear to be on the threshold of global greatness.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Business
