“Marketing the Unknown India”

India is one of the fastest growing economies in world, world’s third biggest economy (PPP) and the land of second highest population in the world. All these jewels makes ‘Indian crown’ a desire for every multinational company. According to a study by the Indian government, there were 3245 foreign companies operating in the country by June, 2014.

Every year, many new foreign companies enter the country and raise a war against pre-established multinational and national companies. As a result, Indian companies are losing their grounds, despite having the capability and potential products & services, they are unable to compete with worldwide famous brands & mammoth sized companies, and are nowhere to be seen on international grounds.

Recent list of Fortune 500 companies showed that only eight Indian companies were able to make their mark on the list and only 54 Indian companies were able to make up to the list of ‘The world’s biggest public companies’, by Forbes 'Global 2000'.

The question which now arise is “what is the reason for this adverse situation of Indian brands and companies” and the answer is hidden in only one word, “Marketing”.

Indian brands and companies are unknown to people in other countries and also in India and therefore people prefer to spend their valuable money on ‘global brands’ from the houses of multinational companies and not on ‘national brands’ from Indian companies. According to ‘The world’s most valued brands’,study by Forbes, and ‘Best Global brands’, study by Interbrand, not a single Indian brand was able to make to both lists ever in history of these studies.

In today’s ‘brand fanatic’ world, companies cannot survive the competition without placing their brands higher in minds of both customer & consumer, than their competing brands. ‘Top of the memory’ recall for a brand should be highest, then only people will consider a brand an option for purchase. But very few Indian companies have been able to create this successfully, among which ‘Madura Fashion and lifestyle’ is the best example.

Brands not only help companies to grow, but known brands create a brand image of the country they belong to and in turn they & new brands take leverage of the established brand image of their origin country. This is a continuous cycle of Brands and their country of origin.

If we take name of America, a flood of brands comes into our mind, and names of Apple, Google, Facebook, Walmart, Amazon leads to name of America. Indian brands are unknown to world and as a result India as a brand is not established in minds of people across globe, which again leads to a pull down effect on Indian brands and products and services offered by them. This chain has to be broken by ‘Marketing’.

Indian companies need to change their marketing strategies to achieve a high position in their target customer’s mind, which can allow them compete with global brands, then only it is possible to transform country from ‘unknown India’ to ‘known India’ and finally to ‘famous India’.