Will Asia follow in American footsteps?

MUMBAI: It is well-known that Americana rules the waves as far as global brands go. Coca-Cola, Marlboro, Pepsi, Microsoft … are just Yankee doodle dandy. But given that Asia/India could be the next cradle of global brands, will our multi-polar journey take cues from the great American journey?

Our trajectory will not be different from that of the US, say some. “Traffic builds brands,” says R. Gopalakrishnan, executive director, Tata Sons. American brands became global due to the many overseas people that visited America, and bought say a Tiffany’s in New York as style statement. India welcomes about 5 million overseas visitors a year and they meet or experience our many brands here, as well as India the brand.

Our brands-Tata, Infosys etc—will get global based on this traffic, he reckons. “There will be a sharp inflexion in the global recognition of these brands, by geometrical rather than arithmetic progression.”

We’ll have to get more personal. The corollary is that we can’t adopt a cookie-cutter route to going global. Explains Harish Bijoor, CEO, HBC: American dominance in the realm of branding took the clonal path. Branding from the American perspective was a static entity that moved millions. The brand had to be consistent, factory-produced, consistency-led and literally the output of a conveyor belt. This massified approach will not help the Asian brand in the future. The Asian (and Indian) brand will need to follow unique ways of reaching out to the market. It will need to be that much more customised, personal and in-touch with the myriad and changing needs of the consumer at large.

Writes branding guru Martin Roll: To create Asian iconic brands, Asian business leaders will have to become trend-setters and capture the spirit of their brands, yet they also need to lead the way by creating the spirit. Therefore, they cannot any longer copy what Western brands have created — they are forced to move up the R&D value chain and develop and own Intellectual Property and trademarks. A strong brand needs to have irresistible emotional connections with its consumer base.
Country of Origin or Country Netural?

Some marketing high priests swear that a `real’ global brand should not have strong association with its country of origin, that they should be `country netural’. The other side, however, aver that country-of-origin approach has given a fillip to American and European brands, though should be tread with wisdom in India’s case.
American brands gained global steam through their historical routes and the positive values associated with their country brand.

Charts Anand Halve, co-founder, chlorophyll: A large number of American brands went around the world, following in the footsteps of armies after World War II. To Japan (with MacArthur). To the Philippines. To Germany and the rest of Europe. And so, the popularity of Coca-Cola, Hershey, Lucky Strike cigarettes. James Dean. Marilyn Monroe.

And of course “The American Way” became the world’s aspirational magnet. Remember, while we keep talking about the “global” village, we really mean the “American village”. Young people want to wear Levi’s jeans, not kimonos. They put up posters of Pamela Anderson, not some Taiwanese singer.

Remember too, that even in an internet-ted world, brands are seen as having a ‘home country’. Coca Cola is American. Sony is Japanese. Mercedes is German. And the success of most international brands, follows from the associations with their home country. Germany is associated with precision engineering, so is Mercedes. America is youthful, so is Pepsi. France is sophisticated, so are French wines and perfumes, says Halve.

There’s a learning here. “For India to create global brands, one of the approaches would be to build on what the country name means. At the moment it is not clear what this is. And where the associations exist, the infrastructure keeps us from exploiting them. Look at the poor share of India in the ‘spiritual brands’ space. Or, in the ‘natural beauty brands’ space. In spite of great ‘products’ our share of the tourism market is pathetic,’’ he adds.

“Further, I suspect many brands are so desperate to become ‘international’, they are killing their heritage appeal. If Kerala beaches became clones of French beaches, why would a European come here?’’

We are now beginning to acquire some new associations, such as ‘IT skills’. We can build on these...and indeed TCS, Wipro and Infosys are beginning to make small steps in becoming international brands...though so far, they are still known mainly within the segment of techies (unlike say, IBM which is known even to the lay public). Some names that have that `I can do it’ confidence to take their brands outside are Kingfisher and Oberoi hotels, he says.