Maharaja MacLulu RaghavanDecember
Korea’s L Electronics seems to understand thisprinciple very well. ts corporate headquarters tookon the burden o expensive national advertisingcampaigns or its ndian subsidiary to establishits brand with ndian consumers. his investmentallowed L to maintain price competitivenessdespite its massive advertising spends. hecompany even invests in making its expatriatemanagers eel comortable at home in ndia.Korean-speaking maids who can cook Koreanood are dispatched rom Seoul to make adjustingto ndia much easier or the Koreans, therebyincreasing their motivation and productivity.
Rule 2:Reach out to the consumer
wenty years ago, ndian consumers hada reputation or blindly accepting most importedWestern goods. But consumer behavior hasundergone major shis since then, and it isimportant to understand the uniqueness othe ndian consumer today. hey are extremelyvalue-or-money conscious and highly demanding.hey careully consider eatures, unctionality,and service levels at all price points. Analyzingmarket potential and brand awareness cannotreplace real-world consumer understanding andrsthand experience.arget roup ndex (TGI) has compared brandbuilding in Brazil, Russia, ndia, and China. tssurveys suggest that global advertisers can beexpected to “experience the widest divergencerom international norms” in China and ndia.
Even so, these two rising economic powers areremarkably dierent consumer markets. Korea’sDaewoo Motors, or example, tried to adapt itsMost multinationals that have built strong brands inthe country have been guided by a simple mantra:“hink dierently about your ndia strategy.” nparticular, they have been willing to completelyrethink issues around
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Brand investment
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Consumer ocus
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Localization and innovation
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Market segmentation
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Regional diversityn the ollowing sections, propose ve rules ormaximizing branding success in ndia.
Rule 1:Invest in your brand
o successully build a brand in ndia, you will needpatience and a long-term view o the market. Morethan in any other part o the world, you must beprepared to invest time and money beore yourcompany starts to see nancial returns. Keep inmind that ndian consumers like to do businesswith companies that have been around or a while,so you can’t just bring your brand to ndia andexpect to see prots rom day one.he ndian market is complicated, diverse, andidiosyncratic. t takes time to understand ndianconsumers. t takes time to localize products. ttakes time to navigate through the red tape. t takestime to acclimatize to the diversity and constantcontradictions that dene ndia.Coca-Cola, orexample, has ound the ndian market very toughto crack. t reentered the country in the 10s aera 16-year absence and did not begin to turn a protuntil 2006.
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Doing well in India dependson a willingness to thinkdiferently about all aspectso the business.
4 Archna Shukla, “Cola Majors Bet on the Fizz in ndia,”Livemint.com (9 April ), http://www.livemint.com//4/9494/Cola-majors-bet-on-the-zz-in.html (accessed 4 April ); and Jennier Kaye,“Coca-Cola ndia,” business case or uck School oBusiness at Dartmouth (4), http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pd/4--.pd (accessed 4 April ). Masanori Kondo, “Success o MNCs in ndia: MarketResearch, Product Localization and Advertising,”
Weekly Economist
(July ), http://www.nihongobashi.com/news/japanese-mncs-.html (accessed March ). , “Brand Building in the BRCs,” http://www.tgisurveys.com (accessed April ).
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