Indian Branding

The day began early – at about 12:45 AM to be exact. Harvey called and said he had been advised by his doctor to go to an ER as there were reddish streaks extending from the injury on his hands. We found out that there is a hospital just across the street from our hotel and we walked over there. The doctor didn’t seem to alarmed and since there was no burning or itching, suggested it was just an allergy. She gave him a shot of “Avil.” When I got back to the room at about 2 AM, I decided to us the Slingbox to watch a few minutes of the Colts-Chargers game. I watched for about 30 minutes before deciding to go to bed.

The presentation this morning was from Prof. Balakrishnan, who provided us with Indian perspectives on branding. The view of branding here, interestingly, seems quite different from the American view of the role of branding. According to Prof. Balakrishnan, the goal of branding is to increase perceived risk of alternatives. While marketing tries to “disorient the consumer,” branding has to “re-orient the consumer towards the target brand.” This view, of course, is far removed from the view of marketing and branding espoused in the US. The Professor did start his lecture with a disclaimer that this was all his personal view and that many of us may violently disagree with this perspective.

While I don’t violently disagree, I think the difference in perspectives comes from the current state of maturity in branding I India. The lecture seemed to focus on the importance of brands in differentiating the product from unbranded commodities. In the US, branding plays a critical role in differentiating one brand from another. How you view the role of branding would differ depending on whether you see the brand as competing against unbranded alternatives or other established brands. Even his lecture focused on examples that seemed to suggest the former. How do you get people to buy “Annapurna brand atta” as opposed to buying the wheat and sending it to a flour mill for grinding? I found it quite interesting.

Soon after class, we were thrust into a surprise “media session.” There were several representatives from the local media on hand and we answered their questions, some of which were quite good. This was a long and unexpected session and several of us had a chance to get up there and speak with the reporters.