2. Local Adaptation is Usually Necessary for Indian Brands to Win in Global Markets

Global brands often have to adapt to win in India, as for example with Pepsico’s locally developed Kurkure brand. The same is true in the other direction. For most brands going outside their home market to export markets, some adaptation or localisation may be necessary. This can be at the product level, but sometimes it is even more subtle than that. 

For example, brand success in global markets could depend on making sure that a colour palette or visual identity has an equivalent resonance overseas that it does in the home market. Another example is ensuring that linguistic nuances are localised for the export location market. Overly basic translation frequently fails and is an immediate red flag to many overseas customers, especially in premium categories.

Adaptation increases complexity and cost. So it is important to balance the needs: how can you adapt as much as you need to win in export, but as little as possible? 

Sometimes that is easy, in other cases the adaptation necessary will be so troublesome it makes export less attractive. An easy way to get a handle on this early on is to look at what competitors do in your target market and assess how much, if at all, they have needed to adapt. 

Image via Sight Machine © Asianpaints

A case study is provided by Mumbai headquartered Asian Paints. The company balances its home market with a range of export markets in very different levels of development and with different home décor styles. It manages to do this with information rich brand communication which inspires but also provides a wide range of options for each idea, so that the communication resonates even in quite different end markets.

Related: How Colour in Branding Strategy Influences the Way Customers Buy

3. Indian Brands Can Succeed Even in the Most Challenging Markets

One of the challenges of building an export market can be confidence and credibility. It’s not quite the same in your home market when competing locally. Once you start to export, you are literally competing with the best in the world.

Just because your brand is successful in your home market does not guarantee a similar reaction in export markets. Building target audience confidence and trust is critically important. This is easier to achieve when it is grounded in something concrete to which your export market customer profile can relate. 

The fact is, building a powerhouse brand is about creating value, building trust and converting that customer trust into repeat sales, spontaneous referral and an engaged community of like-minded buyers. 

If prospects or customers don’t trust, they don’t buy and building trust in an export market is typically different to your domestic market, often because of cultural nuances. This means that you need to overcome potential barriers by leveraging highly effective branding strategy because it’s the driver behind achieving higher revenue growth.

Related: Top 5 Reasons Why Brand Purpose is The Essential Growth Driver in a Fast Changing World

So a brand that responds to a universally relevant need is often riper for export success than a culturally specific one. Understanding your target market’s needs and desires, then auditing your own brands and those of competitors helps you evaluate what your competitive strengths and weaknesses would be in an export environment. 

Book Your Brand Audit Consult with Lorraine Carter here

A brand audit is an important diagnostic tool because it helps you make a “go/no go” decision, or identify what you need to adapt about your brand to be a successful exporter so you avoid lost revenue or wasted resources. It’s also important to note it may not be the same in every market.

Image via © Bira91

A case study is challenger brand Bira 91. This Indian craft beer borrows visual identity cues from world-class Belgian beers. The branding nods to India – 91 is the country’s international calling code and Bira means brother in colloquial Punjabi. But the overall branding is clearly designed to work in demanding, sophisticated export beer markets.

Related: How Strong Brand Strategy Helps Speciality Food Get International Distribution

4. B2B Indian Brands Often Emphasise Service and Value Over Origin

For B2C consumers, brand story can be important. For an origin story to work well, it is important to understand how the target user perceives a product or service’s origin. Then either the brand can play off positive stereotypes, or else surprise the user with education which helps the brand be credible. 

Consider as an example Grey Goose vodka. Most consumers think the best vodka comes from Poland or Russia. So Grey Goose explains its French origin story in terms of French expertise in alcoholic beverage production. With its rich variety of cultural elements, India can provide the basis for a positive brand story for many B2C brands.

Related: Discover How to Use Brand Archetypes To Build Your Winning Brand

B2B purchasers are likely to be expert buyers making large purchases. So they are less swayed by stereotypes about countries of origin and instead focus on actual quality, service levels and value. 

© Persona Design

That is one reason Indian B2B brands can do so well globally with a more competitive cost base and highly educated people enabling them to provide higher value coupled with service and quality that is world-class. So they are able to offer a more compelling proposition overall than many B2B companies based in high wage countries.

Image via © Wipro

A B2B case study is IT consultancy Wipro. They are proudly Indian but the brand’s success in conquering export markets only leans on the Indian connection when relevant, for example, many western customers perceive India to produce outstanding quality IT engineers. In other facets of brand communication, Wipro doesn’t make a big thing about being Indian.

If you’d like to discover more about building and maintaining a thriving, high performing, highly profitable standout brand, then get in touch because we’d love to help you make your brand into a profit powerhouse.

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Lorraine Carter is a branding expert and international speaker delivering talks that inspire and motivate along with masterclasses and workshops that inform and support transformational outcomes fast, and consultancy expertise that solves problems — using agile branding strategy underpinned by professional big-brand know-how — so you can outshine, outperform and leave your competitors way behind.

She enables you to differentiate, achieve higher revenue, expand your market share, build IP brand asset value — make the complex easy as ABC so you can Transform Your Brand & Increase Your Sales — Be The One, the brand that’s most credible, trusted and commanding a premium so you’re highly profitable and leaving your competitors way behind.

Ask about the Persona Branding Strategy Mastermind Programme — live, interactively, face-to-face online. 

5. India’s Diversity is a Competitive Advantage for Indian Brands on the Global Stage

Some brands, especially B2B brands, are more attractive if they can demonstrate their global reach. For example, clients may prefer a single global partner than lots of local suppliers. 

That can be difficult for brands to demonstrate if they come from homogenous markets. India is a hugely complex and varied market, so any Indian brand which is at the stage of exporting already has an understanding of how to manage a marketplace with multiple requirements at the same time. 

This is a competitive advantage for Indian brands, not only over many western brands but also over those for more homogenized developing markets such as China. Indian brands have a deep grasp of cultural, social and geographical nuance, which global brands need to succeed.

Related: Profit from The Top 5 Trends of Leading Brands in China Before They Hit Your Market

A case study is Infosys. Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting enabling clients in 45 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With over 3 decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises they are a very successful Indian brand with a global footprint.  

Image via © Infosys

The brand doesn’t talk much about its Indian heritage overseas, but equally it doesn’t downplay it. Instead, it uses it as an asset by building a brand story about global connectivity based on deep-rooted market understanding. 

Related: How to Build a Premium Tech Brand so You’re Not Just Competing on Features, Benefits and Price Discounts

Final Thoughts

In recent years, Indian brands have increasingly stepped up to the challenge of winning in the global market. Based on their approach, and the principles of effective brand strategy more generally, a few simple steps can improve the chance your Indian brand can succeed overseas —or any other brand stepping out of its home market for that matter. 

From understanding your target purchaser personas to evaluating how your brand is positioned relative to geographically relevant competitors, these principles apply in every market. 

But on top of that, there are strengths in Indian brands that can offer them an edge internationally. It’s time to think about how your Indian brand can step up to succeed outside India.

Related: 6 Brand Culture Do’s and Don’ts for Attracting and Retaining Your Ideal Customers and Top Talent

Questions to Consider

1. Have you identified your target purchaser personas?
2. How do you match your brand offering to user needs and wants at the moment?
3. What would you need to consider before deciding whether your brand is ready to compete internationally?
4. What is your brand story and does it resonate appropriately with your global target audience outside your national market?
5. How can being Indian be a competitive advantage for your brand? Do you know how to leverage those advantages in the relevant geographies and target audience of your export markets?
6. Could you use a brand audit to help you succeed in the export market?