Brand MADE IN INDIA – How Global?

As one drives on I35 in US, it is amazing to see the fleet of cars racing on the streets. Seeing the Toyotas and Hondas, one wonders if we ever will get to see a Maruti or Mahindra on overseas roads alongside the Toyotas?

India remains the favourite hot destination of many foreign brands , be it regular use Colgate toothpaste or the Levi jeans or luxury brands like Gucci or Louis Vuitton. Surprisingly, India has few brands that are recognized abroad. There are some as a result of acquisitions, such as Jaguar, Land Rover or Tetley tea, which are all part of the Tata conglomerate. There are also a few software consulting firms, such as Infosys, recognized worldwide. But, consumer marques from India ring few bells on the global scene.

India is witnessing a burgeoning of startups over the past number of years. There are numerous players like Flipkart, Snapdeal, Zomato, Inmobi which have taken the Indian market by storm. Newcomers in the ebullient startup scene are mostly focused on the 1.3 billion-strong home market.

Amazon enters India; Dilemma for Flipkart & Snapdeal?
Of late, leading eCommerce unicorns Flipkart and Snapdeal are facing significant turmoil. Growth has been elusive. Flipkart is the market leader in India but US-based Amazon is snipping at its heels. According to experts, the recent markdown of Flipkart valuations can be attributed to growing competition from Amazon and Flipkart's inability to reach goals set by investors. Snapdeal’s mounting woes are no less. If struggle with growth was not enough, the company recently ran into trouble with its employees.

This raises a pertinent question as to why most Indian startups set their limits to the domestic market while many US startups develop their products for global markets. What stops Indian startups from going global?

Perception Gap
Foreign brands are successful in India because Indian consumers have an affinity for foreign brands and rate the quality of their products very highly. However, an Indian brand does not get the same resounding welcome in global markets. Hence, Indian companies take the safer option and develop products for Indian markets.

Is this part of the reason why Indian companies have shied away from aggressively pitching in global markets?
Or there are bigger reasons like global marketing expertise and packaging?

Business Strategy
Historically Indians have been quite pessimistic about marketing their offerings to the world from time immemorial - be it ancient products like Ayurveda or Yoga or today’s Flipkart or Snapdeal. This trend continues even in current business ecosystem despite the fact that selling to global market has become easier because of advanced technology.

Product Quality and Innovation
No doubt India has a long way ahead in terms of engineering and innovation. In the battle between the eCommerce giants, Amazon may score over Flipkart and Snapdeal on various factors. It is observed that the user experience with Amazon's app is much better. Innovation crunch is another bottleneck at the Indian startups. The app-only move for Myntra, the fashion subsidiary of Flipkart, also suffered a serious blow. But where Amazon really scores is the perception that it is a global entity having presence in important places in the world.

In spite of issues prevailing in the Indian eco-system, can we not identify any Indian products which are global differentiators with good quality? Do we not have local products and natural resources which are unique and can be global brands for the benefit of the entire world.

Igniting global Indian brand- an absolute necessity?
As foreign brands enter Indian shores in large numbers coupled with the mushrooming of Indian startups , the need for Indian brands to get global becomes even more critical. Not just for expansion, but also for survival in this new age of cut-throat competition and unpredictable volatility. Indian manufacturing business houses are getting conscious about the relevance of global brand India . “If we have to build brand India, India will need to build global brands,” said Anand Mahindra, chairman and managing director of the Mahindra Group, at the CNN Asia Business Forum 2016, in Mumbai on Feb14, as part of the ‘Make in India’ week.

Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman Aditya Birla Group, said that India economically, is in a sweet spot, at this stage, being one of the fastest growing major economies in the world, with strong foreign direct investment .

Birla dismissed concerns over the quality of products that India has been producing. He reiterated that India has a strong track record in manufacturing, whether it is petroleum refineries, textile and cement plants.

Birla also said Indian companies would need to constantly evolve in a rapidly expanding world led by technology. “We (at Aditya Birla Group) are looking at the use of algorithms to optimize manufacturing. Also the use of remote sensing; these are the new skills which corporates and employees will need to adapt.”

Unconventional Futuristic Trends
There are promising Indian stories which have started to unfold now. Mobile ad networks startup InMobi’s is a success story of commitment, passion, of an Indian company that went global at a very fast speed and claimed increasing market share against Google AdMob to become the world’s largest independent mobile ad network. inMobi is a good example of breakthrough startups that are emerging from India for the mobile internet with a global footprint. The company has travelled a unique journey as it adopted a strategy different from most Indian tech companies by growing from east to west. Their geographic expansion included Southeast Asia, South Africa, Australia, Europe, Middle East and Japan. InMobi continued this entrepreneurial spirit by deciding to further grow the business in difficult markets for instance, in China it was difficult for any non-Chinese companies to succeed and InMobi managed to be very successful in this market. InMobi also expanded to the North American market and they now have offices in three major US cities (San Francisco, New York City and Chicago).

InMobi today clocks more than 1 billion monthly active users and gets more than 138 billion monthly ad impressions. The company currently covers 200 countries with more than 2.6 billion app downloads tracked on its platform. It has 17 offices worldwide spread across five continents. It has emerged as one of the world’s largest independent mobile ad networks. Today, the company competes with Google’s AdMob, Apples’ iAd.

Global Appetite
Zomato, the restaurant discovery and food ordering startup is yet another Indian player which is looking for quicker global expansion, by opening subsidiary companies in over a dozen countries even before it launches operations in markets where it aims to gain a head-start. The Gurgaon-based company has opened "on paper" companies in Mexico, Sweden, Germany, Finland and Norway complete with a bank account and other legal requirements, as it hastens global expansion to compete with Germany's Foodpanda which is present across 40 countries. Zomato currently operates in 20 countries including India, Dubai, UAE, UK, Brazil, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Philippines, America, Poland and New Zealand. However, with on paper companies, Zomato's presence has crossed to over 40 countries in the world. Experts are of the view that this strategy is a smart and innovative way to capture markets in a fast growing sector. Zomato is trying to take its local business model worldwide and has potential to become a global brand.

As Indian companies open up to global markets, the dream of Brand India looks promising and all set to become a reality.

If the Italian pizza can make it across the globe, why cannot the Indian dosa become a global brand?