THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE INDIA

15/9/2011

We all love ‘Anna’! He seems to have united India and its youth. But is India really one, especially when it comes to business? This is one country where all the laws of marketing will fail, because it’s so diverse. If you have just one theory, then it will not take you anywhere. India changes every 200 km. Yes, a few basics remain the same across India, but a lot changes too. For starters, language changes (we have 192 official languages and dialects), culture changes, traditions and festivals change, food habits change. If this is not enough, think about it – even the geography and political views change. Yes, it is vast, but it is not an easy market. Only the hardy marketers will be able to survive and thrive here.

THOSE WHO MISUNDERSTOOD INDIA

A lot of multinationals have come into India but failed – not because their products were not good, but because they failed to understand India’s culture. Globalisation has been the new trend, but ‘standardisation’ will not work always. As a marketer, you need to be sensitive to each culture’s identities and its unique regional preferences and customise your product offerings.

Our local markets are not barren as many multinationals thought. There are very strong players in almost every local market. Take the case of Kellogg’s. Apart from the taste not really matching the Indian palette (we like to put warm milk with sugar in our cereals, unlike the west that has it with cold milk), it under estimated the presence of local competitors like Mohun cornflakes (priced lesser than Kellogg’s) and Champion (whose price is almost half as that of Kellogg’s). Retail chains may never be able to understand the bonhomie that people share with their local kirana shops or the Mom & Pop stores as they are popularly called in the West. They share a bond and enjoy a mutual level of trust (giving things even on credit to their favorite customers) that big retail chains will never be able to enjoy. CavinKare challenged the multinationals in various segments. Earlier, it was Clinic shampoo and Fair & Lovely fairness cream (both from HUL) that were touted as the only good options. But homegrown brands like CavinKare are giving them a tough fight. CavinKare used sachets to sell its shampoos. It understood that the consumer was not willing to buy a whole bottle. But a small sachet was a luxury she could indulge in. [Today, 40% of the shampoo market consists of sachet buyers.] It used India’s weakness for ayurvedic products and ensured that its fairness cream Fairever – with saffron and milk – promised not just fairness but also good skin, and quickly cornered a significant chunk of the market share from the giant HUL and its brand Fair & Lovely. So strong has been this positioning that it made Fair & Lovely change its positioning from “badle aap, badle zindagi” to “gorepan se kahi zyaada, saaf gorapan”, meaning “not just fairness but a clear skin too”. CavinKare understood the Indian consumer and her changing needs, and this homegrown brand has become a formidable competitor today.

Going the ayurveda way, Emami too has managed to keep the biggies out of the way with unique Indian brands like Boroplus, Navratan oil and Fair & Handsome cream, that command a significant market share today. Marico’s Parachute oil is way ahead of HUL’s Nihaar. Agreed. Products like hair oil are distinctly Indian and MNCs may not have an edge here, but even when it comes to products like toothpaste and hair color, our Indian brands are doing a pretty good job! Dabur toothpaste is giving Colgate and HUL a tough fight. In the hair color sector, Godrej still has the largest market share (more than 30%),with L’Oreal coming a distant second (a market share of 19%).

Just because a brand has a foreign tag is no guarantee that it will be perceived as superior. It needs to match the local sensibilities too. KFC entered India with its American menu of chicken wings and wraps in Bangalore. The Indian consumer did not identify with it and it had to pack its bags and leave. In 2004 when it did come back it had a vegetarian menu, rice meals and Indianised chicken recipes. It survived. Read More....

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49 Comments

jiya link

14/9/2011 10:12:31 pm

Broadly speaking, although India enjoys commercial ties with Israel, especially in the fields of defence and counter-terrorism, it essentially views itself as a regional power. And the region it wants to influence is dominated by Muslims—from Egypt to Iran. In addition, India’s ruling Congress Party and the External Affairs Ministry are also exceedingly sensitive to what they consider to be the feelings of India’s own 150-million-strong Muslim population.

ranbir link

14/9/2011 10:12:36 pm

There is no place like home Mags. I have been to London, New York, Paris, Greece, Spain, France and Malta but there is no place like my own bed. I love my own bed and would not swap home for all the tea in china.

randeep link

14/9/2011 10:13:48 pm

i am definitely a wanderer. I hate staying in one place, i would be happiest if i was always on the move. Always looking forward to the next adventure

arati link

14/9/2011 10:13:51 pm

We all love ‘Anna’! He seems to have united India and its youth. But is India really one, especially when it comes to business......

ravan link

14/9/2011 10:15:08 pm

there is no place like home but right now im a wanderer, im having two hip surgeries this summer so i wandered first to the hospital, then to rehab and then i'll be wandering back home again and a couple of wks later i'll be repeating this cycle. so im wandering now but only cause i have to

sahab singh link

14/9/2011 10:15:30 pm

Rajita Chaudhuri It used India’s weakness for ayurvedic products and ensured that its fairness cream Fairever – with saffron and milk – promised not just fairness but also good skin, and quickly cornered a significant chunk of the market share from the giant HUL and its brand Fair & Lovely.

piya link

14/9/2011 10:17:51 pm

It should be noted that, in some countries, income is quite unevenly distributed so that these average measures may not be very meaningful. In Brazil, for example, there is a very large underclass making significantly less than the national average, and thus, the national figure is not a good indicator of the purchase power of the mass market. Similarly, great regional differences exist within some countries—income is much higher in northern Germany than it is in the former East Germany, and income in southern Italy is much lower than in northern Italy.

rajiv link

14/9/2011 10:18:12 pm

When you have a place to go at the end of the day - that's HOME; when you have people to love - that's FAMILY; When you have BOTH - that's a BLESSING! And i am glad and lucky that i have both. Nothing better than having the kind of family i have. They are everything to me and i thank God for the blessings he has given to me.

suri link

14/9/2011 10:18:33 pm

NRIs look forward to new business opportunities in a globalized India. English-language (or even local language) media outlets who expect globalization to increase advertizing revenues have also been eager supporters of globalization. (A recent Economic Times survey of the nation's top CEO's indicated that most major India businesses anticipated considerably higher allocations for marketing and advertizing campaigns in order to survive in the globalized Indian economy. Some estimate that the advertizing industry has been one of the fastest growing industries in India - growing as much as 25-30% in some years.)

Another outcome of globalization has been a huge increase in salaries of senior managers, accountants, lawyers and public-relations personnel working for MNCs or their local competitors. For the IT-literate, job opportunities have been plentiful, and there are also opportunities to live and earn abroad. For the English-speaking upper middle-class, this has come as a boon. With greater access to disposable income, the seduction of consumerism becomes hard to resist, and the demand for unrestricted globalization inevitably follows the attraction for new and ever more advanced consumer goods. This new and more prosperous class of Indian consumers associates India's progress with the availability of the latest automobile models and consumer goods. The local availability of imported European cosmetics and fashions, imported drinks and confectioneries - these have all become important to those who have sufficient disposable income to purchase such items.

Chand Singh link

14/9/2011 10:18:40 pm

I think people don’t realize or want to acknowledge that “business is business” no matter what type of company you are running. Yoga now is big business, but back in 2001 I received a lot of flak from the yoga community about running YAS Fitness Centers like it was a business.

nandani kapoor link

14/9/2011 10:18:59 pm

am absolutely agreed with this article, and it is the funda which eveywhere exist.
Even if indian company want to shift Foreign like USA,etc...then it must have to match the requirement of the foreign people then only it can be able to survive....

shama link

14/9/2011 10:21:56 pm

here are a number of reasons why the multinational companies are coming down to India. India has got a huge market. It has also got one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Besides, the policy of the government towards FDI has also played a major role in attracting the multinational companies in India.

For quite a long time, India had a restrictive policy in terms of foreign direct investment. As a result, there was lesser number of companies that showed interest in investing in Indian market. However, the scenario changed during the financial liberalization of the country, especially after 1991. Government, nowadays, makes continuous efforts to attract foreign investments by relaxing many of its policies. As a result, a number of multinational companies have shown interest in Indian market.

atual kumar link

14/9/2011 10:24:45 pm

She is also a regular and well acclaimed columnist of 4P’s Business and Marketing magazine.

mayank link

14/9/2011 10:25:36 pm

India has undergone a paradigm shift owing to its competitive stand in the world. The Indian economy is on a robust growth trajectory and boasts of a stable annual growth rate, rising foreign exchange reserves and booming capital markets among others.

Shushant Kumar link

14/9/2011 10:26:22 pm

How a guy can say those words about INDIA…the guy commented on the top is truly a racist…I am an American and visited India several time…I had never find such thing anywhere in India…
I am truly amazed with the culture…diversity and the people they are really helping…I never had a feeling that I am visiting some new place during my visit…the hospitality i got in India…truly admirable.......

Kishore kumar link

14/9/2011 10:28:33 pm

I stayed at a wonderful coffee plantation just 2 hours outside of Rio de Janeiro called Fazenda Vista Alegra.

sasi ahuja link

14/9/2011 10:29:14 pm

yeah that's called UNITY IN DIVERSITY...
different taste, different religion, etc...but survive together...Great India RockZ.....

kaya link

15/9/2011 10:26:24 pm

Multinational corporations because of their enormous size, enjoy massive economic and political power which enables them to dictate terms to the under-developed countries. They are able to manipulate prices and profits and restrict the entry of potential competitors through their dominant influences over new technology, special skills, ability to spend enormous fund on advertising etc.

Neha link

15/9/2011 10:26:57 pm

yup!!india has different vareity of taste..its becomes difficult for business to match each section of society

Prem singh link

15/9/2011 10:27:03 pm

India has over 96 national parks and hundreds of wildlife sanctuaries spread across the whole country. My pick for the best place to encounter a wild animal especially the sought after Royal Bengal Tiger is the Jim Corbett National Park, Uttaranchal.

kimaya link

15/9/2011 10:28:44 pm

In India, the New Year arrives with the onset of the Festival of Lights, known as Deepawali or Diwali. It marks the beginning of the Hindu New Year. This festival is celebrated with a great zeal, enthusiasm and joy throughout the country. Diwali signifies the victory of good over evil, in Hindu religion. It is celebrated in different ways in different regions of India and is the biggest Hindu festival in the country.

hema link

15/9/2011 10:28:54 pm

it has one benefit also....that we can taste different variety of foods from different places in our country

ranjit link

15/9/2011 10:29:24 pm

At the center of the earth there is no net gravitational force between it and the remainder of the earth..........however, gravitational forces between it and other celestial masses do exist.

baljit singh link

15/9/2011 10:29:47 pm

Reema rawat link

15/9/2011 10:29:50 pm

No surface car parks. All resident car parks are 100% underground. This leaves the surface free from all traffic and noise, making it a more hospitable place for the young children and the elderly

arup link

15/9/2011 10:30:12 pm

There is a lot of complications in this North/South divide. So an average Indians just prefers to be in that part of India where he is born.

sagar kumar link

15/9/2011 10:30:38 pm

India, the country of mysterious paradoxes; the land where civilizations and times intermix, a mysterious place which attracts people from all over the world. In today’s showcase we are presenting a little showcase of this astonishing contrast between wealth and misery, contemporary technologies and ancient historical monuments, plenty of languages, cultures and traditions.

randhir link

15/9/2011 10:31:20 pm

sawan link

15/9/2011 10:31:37 pm

Such consequences do not concern the Murdochs, because the capitalist system we have in place first and foremost encourages "transnationalisation" – a euphemism for the economically motivated phenomenon of corporate globalisation. The consequences then become sundry and incidental to the process.

Ramkishor Sharma link

15/9/2011 10:32:25 pm

This articles vary interesting about Indian culture & its business market. Indian have a unique tradition & people their language, difference of all activities area wise.

rinku link

17/9/2011 08:10:40 am

There are a number of reasons why the multinational companies are coming down to India. India has got a huge market. It has also got one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Besides, the policy of the government towards FDI has also played a major role in attracting the multinational companies in India.

amit kumar link

17/9/2011 08:23:31 am

At the same time, these very same companies are clamoring for a so-called “tax holiday” that would allow them to repatriate overseas profits at a discounted rate.

vishal link

17/9/2011 08:25:14 am

great benefits, a lot of company resources, management treats you like you are on the same level, overtime availability is a bonus

Vinod link

17/9/2011 08:28:12 am

Skeptics turn up their noses at many emerging market ideas. But those advances result in better products, services and processes.

Peter Williamson, international management professor at Cambridge University, says: “The innovations may be incremental. The effects are not.” Product improvements in emerging markets may not often win Nobel prizes, but they can still change the game.

raja ram duniya link

17/9/2011 08:36:20 am

This is pretty much a right-on observation. But the examples of GM and Coke were illustrations of what not to do; and no real examples were provided of single, bold, company-saving moves. Not to worry, because in the current landscape, which has been changed by "digital," this law is no longer applicable. Given real-time information and analytics, innovations can and should occur more rapidly. Feedback loops are also shorter and faster, which means advertisers get immediate data on whether something is working or not. They don't need to make single, bold moves.

sunny thakur link

17/9/2011 08:38:42 am

Excellent movement for growth. Friendly management and employees. Rewarding work. Definitely a place where you feel that you can stay for a career

Lucky link

17/9/2011 08:40:18 am

The Indian market with its one billion plus population, presents lucrative and diverse opportunities for USA Companies with the right products, services, and commitment. India’s GDP, growing at 8.7%, makes it one of the fastest growing economies in the world and the second fastest in Asia. India has potential for a sustained growth of 8-10% for the next couple of years. Now is the time for U.S. companies to enter the rising Indian market.

rohit link

17/9/2011 08:41:09 am

Speaking as an entrepreneur what was the transition like moving your focus from the business world to your own business and to the yoga community the techniques

rahul kumar link

17/9/2011 08:42:23 am

A great marketing friend of mine used to say 'Just because you buy a telephone, it doesn't mean it is going to ring'. And in the same way, just holding the Vision of what you want your business to eventually look like (and perform like) doesn't mean you are ever going to get any closer to the reality of that happening, unless you put some serious focus, energy and attention into the area of 'getting good at marketing' … After all, how can your telephone ever ring if no-one has your phone number??

suneel link

17/9/2011 08:43:30 am

globalization challenges the progress of developing nations by adversely affecting the life of labors, the nations’ health and economy. Multinational companies’ existence in third world nations has many drawbacks, which are often disregarded by people. As rich nations utilize developing countries resources, the present form of globalization must be changed and developing countries must free themselves from the grasp of multinational companies for real growth.

aadarsh kumar

17/9/2011 08:45:10 am

mniss kumar link

17/9/2011 08:47:26 am

As the trade barriers are reduced, the rich nations dump cheap products into poor countries, and the multinational companies act as catalysts for this process. Conversely, the process of globalization has exploited manufactures in developing countries, and has caused massive disruptions in living conditions.

padam lal punna lal bakshi link

17/9/2011 08:48:49 am

Duh, and not applicable any more. Consumers are too smart, too informed, and too empowered today to believe marketing messages at face value. They know those are hyperbole, hype, and half-truths, and therefore will research products and services themselves and find their own trustworthy sources to vet the details with.

Bala Ji link

17/9/2011 08:49:47 am

A multi-national company is a more accurate way of saying international or global company, because most companies are not truly global as they only do business with certain nations.

ashok kumar link

17/9/2011 08:59:51 am

..Horizontally integrated multinational corporations manage production establishments located in different countries to produce the same or similar products......

bhgvandas link

17/9/2011 09:05:55 am

The number one law of marketing, and it never fails, is to have a good product that consumers want and need. You can have the best marketing campaign known to man and sell any product, but if that product isn’t good, sales will dry up. You can try all the latest marketing techniques like social media and text marketing to create a buzz, but if the product is a dud, word will get out and sales will fall. Some will blame marketing for the fall, but you need to recognize what really is happening.

sumit link

17/9/2011 09:06:01 am

..India’s GDP, growing at 8.7%, makes it one of the fastest growing economies in the world and the second fastest in Asia. India has potential for a sustained growth of 8-10% for the next couple of years.........

Parmod link

17/9/2011 09:09:24 am

India Company is a mercantilist real-time strategy game set at the dawn of the global trade age. As governor of one of the great India companies, you must compete against others for dominance of the lucrative markets of Africa, the Middle East, and especially India.

How to pick up girls link

7/10/2012 08:17:51 pm

Excellent guidelines. Really useful factors .Never had an idea about this, will look for more of such useful articles from your part. Good job...Keep it up

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE INDIA

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