A Paradigm Shift In The Brand Strategy For The Indian Market
A successful brand strategy for the Indian market will be possible only when Indian organizations understand the evolving needs of their customers, and then satisfy them. The challenges will be adopting the new brand as the organizations’ culture, and changing the attitudes of the employees to delivering quality experience. Employees must be trained in order to ascertain a differentiation in the delivered experience. This will ensure the Indian brand is successful and sustainable profitability is achieved.
Following the opening up of India’s economy in the recent years, Indian brands have acquired a level playing field to compete with foreign brands. Today, India has emerged as one of the world’s fastest developing free market democracies. However, competing with global brands that already have a consistent performance and strong presence in the customers’ minds has become a major challenge for the Indian brands. The only way to face up to this challenge is through an entire makeover of the brand strategy for the Indian market.
The traditional market communication, branding and advertising strategies are not sufficient in meeting the challenge of the global brands. Indian companies must work on meeting their brands commitment to their clientele. Novel experiences and intrinsic values are at the core of successful branding. A positive response to the challenge will be enabled by a better brand strategy for the Indian market.
A successful brand strategy is based on five major frameworks, namely: experiential marketing, novel brand strategies, challenges faced, consumer feedback and effective branding. With the advent of the internet, the process of product information acquisition by customers has accelerated. Brand details such as quality and the production process contribute to the customer’s understanding of the brand’s value.
This improved process has resulted in a marketing paradigm shift. Transparency and accountancy must be incorporated in the Indian companies system. Experience is now on greater demand than the products and services, and companies must begin to involve their customers in the production process in order to deliver value.
The Indian companies that are bent on realizing a new brand strategy for the Indian market should apply this concept in the value chain of their organizations. This synergy enhances the customers’ experiences, consequently substantially increasing sales and developing greater customer loyalty. It is the essence of experimental marketing.
In order to carry out effective branding, Indian companies must encompass four dimensions in the framework. The satisfaction these brands bring will lead to the consumers identifying with these dimensions.
a.) Functional dimension demands that any product or service in the Indian market must have ease of use for even the simplest of consumers. b.) Social dimension involves a brand’s ability to create a sense of belonging or group identification in the consumers mind. c.) Spiritual dimension involves making the consumers perceive a local or global responsibility towards the brand. d.) Mental dimension involves the capacity to support the mentality of the individual customer with regard to the beneficial use of a product or service.
The novel brand strategies for the Indian market aim at ensuring customer participation, and are based on branding and communication. Consumer perception must be considered as consumers own the brand. They must also believe they are receiving the best product services. This dislodges their skepticism and even turns them into brand ambassadors as they market the brand to other consumers. Inspired by the culture and values of the Indian people, Indian companies must conduct buzz marketing. They raise brand awareness without creating a negative branding effect. Religious branding should also be done. This incorporates the religious values and beliefs of the Indian consumers.
Author Bio:
Sumit Srivastava is a Business Strategy Consultant which is involved in designing breakthrough marketing and business intelligence solutionsderived from a blend of powerful fusion of knowledge and imagination. He occasionally writes articles in niche marketing segments, brand strategy and consumer insights.