8 - Brand India and East Asia

Summary

The surging Indian economy has sustained growth of 6 to 8 per cent over the last few years and all things Indian seems to be in current vogue. Is India finally shaking the perception of a developing country that is more famous for social inequality and religious strife rather than fashion apparel and “Bollywood” films? Is India's image undergoing a rebranding process into something more positive and dynamic as what has happened to China? Given the myriad of images and complexities of Indian society, could India be marketed as a single brand by the government? What are the precedents if any, for a country to be labelled as a brand? Some time back, David Ogilvy, one of the founders of famed advertising firm Ogilvy and Mather (O&M) managed to portray Puerto Rico as a “tropical paradise”. In the tourism industry, Singapore managed to market a “Surprising Singapore” campaign but these two initiatives were conducted on small nations. According to Ian Batey, in the 1970s, Singapore managed to brand itself as “the most surprising tropical island on earth”, leveraging on its multi-racial character. Academics like Michel Girard and Wally Olins had opposed the branding of states because to them, a country has its own peculiar nature and substance other than those of a corporation.

Arguably there is a link between successful global brands and the place where they originate. Simon Anholt has argued that the place of origin or country the brand is from has a certain image and the product identifies strongly with that image. Similar to manufacturer's brands, a place brand evokes certain values and emotional constructs in the consumers’ minds about the likely values of any product originating from that country. Country names could amount to brand names and assist consumers in the evaluation of products before making their purchase decisions. According to Kotler and Gertner, they are responsible for associations that may add and to or subtract from the perceived value of a product. Country images are commonly used as shortcuts for information processing and consumer decisions. A country brand could also provide an umbrella brand over all products which may promote sub-brands in the marketplace. Martin Roll argued that country branding could be divided into three main categories. They are: export branding, generic country branding8 and internal branding.