The market doesn’t recognise or support jingoism.
There is a strong sentiment in the country to support local products over imported ones, particularly those imported from China. Keeping all the political considerations aside, this is a good cause to get behind. But it shouldn’t surface-level commitment. It needs the strong backing of the establishment, the government and bureaucracy, financially and policy-wise.
In a globalized world with complex supply chains that cross many boundaries before resulting in the final product, such a move should not come at the expense of collaborations. Vocal for local should not be a slippery slope towards isolation. Nor should it come at the cost of the consumer – a lack of choice or promotion of mediocre products and companies as alternatives.
How do we balance the need for encouraging local businesses while also promoting high standards of design, manufacturing and business values?
One way to identify companies like that is to focus on those that have a unique and strong point of view. Companies like this tend to believe strongly in how a product or service should be created or delivered. Often this is one of their stronger differentiating factors.. Such companies build what we call Brands. A company associated with a strong and singular message.
Brands matter. And it’s hard to build them, but once you do they last long.
Examples of Indian brands:
Royal Enfield has a cult-like following and continues to dominate the segment based on a strong story. A British legacy but now a completely Indian brand, that rides more on emotion than innovation.
TATA is another brand built over decades that Indians trust and respect. Corporate values and ethics are what differentiate this conglomerate from others.
Indigo Airlines has succeeded where most of the others have struggled or failed. In doing so, they’ve also built a strong brand, a brand focused on efficiency, a concept still rare in the Indian business world.
IT services led TCS and Infosys put the entire industry on the world map. Many others have benefitted from this as India is seen as a reliable IT service provider for global corporations.
On the other hand, India is not known for its manufacturing or engineering capabilities. Can we build a brand around ingenuity, low-cost innovation and craft? Germany is associated with incredible precision engineering skills and China for its scale of manufacturing. If we are going to promote the Indian manufacturing sector and want the world to notice, we need to create a unique space to differentiate ourselves. You can’t compete with Germany or China on qualities they own and are associated with.
Crafted in India vs Make in India
We need to encourage Indian brands, particularly the young ones. But support them for the right reasons – great products and good business ethics.
India has been historically known for its handicrafts and other traditional craftwork. Can we build on that legacy and carry that over to large scale manufacturing? Crafted in India vs Make in India could be a better way to market our capabilities.
Of course, a brand needs to be built on substance. If we are encouraging Indian brands, then let’s set a higher bar for us to aim for, and not settle for mediocrity.
The first wave of the IT revolution in India was led by services companies with cost as their biggest differentiating factor. The second wave led by the likes of Flipkart rode the wave of new internet consumers, but essentially copying a tried and tested business model. The third wave of companies we’re currently witnessing is SaaS companies, the likes of Freshworks and Zoho, which are building products for the world out of India.
The success of every wave is built on the lessons learned from those who paved the way in the previous generations. So what can the current generation of manufacturing companies and the ones we hope to encourage in the future learn from the previous generations?
A community can build a brand today.
In today’s age, it only takes a few hundred passionate customers to kickstart a successful business.
A 1000 loyal fans can make a small business successful. Scale that to 100,000 dedicated brand lovers and the network effect takes over leading to massive growth. Supporting Indian brands by buying from them and advocating for them can contribute to building new and successful businesses.
Indianness should not be the only reason you buy from a company though. How do they treat their employees, for example, do they go above and beyond to make customers happy and are their products truly world-class?
Put your money where your mouth is?
Can you invest 10L+ in an Indian brand when there are international competitors?
I bought a TATA Nexon after plenty of research which included popular foreign competitors. A ‘value for money’ product from a company making a genuine effort to rebuild its image and of course backed by a strong legacy brand. I will probably do a review of the car in a future post, but I’ve noticed something peculiar while following the Nexon brand pre and post-purchase.
If you look up online forums and YouTube review/comments of the car, it is overwhelmingly positive. And yet, it is the 3rd of 4th best in the segment in terms of sales. Here are the latest sales numbers of the Indian auto industry.
What this tells me is that there is still a wide gap between feeling proud of an Indian brand and actually spending money on one. Let’s hope that changes going forward.
This blog post is a part #100DaysOfWriting challenge.
