Brand consultancy Interbrand recently completed five years in India. Ashish Mishra, Managing Director, Interbrand India tells us about the organization’s journey so far, and the roadmap ahead
THE JOURNEY SO FAR: We started with a 5-member team and just one client. That was when the concept of VUCA began to manifest itself. All the businesses affected by VUCA had to undergo transformation to catch up with the new world and we thought we had the opportunity to create something deeper and wider. We started out with demonstration on how master brands needed to be built. We quickly moved to something that became an illustration of how global brand aspirations need to be pursued from an Indian subcontinent. Mahindra was the first serious brand to state its aspiration. That has been followed by brands Godrej, Reliance Jio, Britannia and Infosys, among others.
WHY INDIAN BRANDS AREN’T ON GLOBAL 100 MOST VALUABLE BRAND LIST: It’s largely the attitude where brands in the Indian market and the subcontinent are seen as an overhead and not integral to business, which is why when they build businesses, they do not really factor in the scheme of things. There hasn’t really been a demonstration of success of business growth driven by brands, which is what we want to do through the five iconic moves that we’ve done over the five years. We hope to demonstrate to the larger audience that brands can actually drive business in many ways and are the only sustainable asset that businesses have because everything else is replicable. The more businesses understand this, the closer we will get to having a global brand from India.
THE JOURNEY SO FAR: We started with a 5-member team and just one client. That was when the concept of VUCA began to manifest itself. All the businesses affected by VUCA had to undergo transformation to catch up with the new world and we thought we had the opportunity to create something deeper and wider. We started out with demonstration on how master brands needed to be built. We quickly moved to something that became an illustration of how global brand aspirations need to be pursued from an Indian subcontinent. Mahindra was the first serious brand to state its aspiration. That has been followed by brands Godrej, Reliance Jio, Britannia and Infosys, among others.
WHY INDIAN BRANDS AREN’T ON GLOBAL 100 MOST VALUABLE BRAND LIST: It’s largely the attitude where brands in the Indian market and the subcontinent are seen as an overhead and not integral to business, which is why when they build businesses, they do not really factor in the scheme of things. There hasn’t really been a demonstration of success of business growth driven by brands, which is what we want to do through the five iconic moves that we’ve done over the five years. We hope to demonstrate to the larger audience that brands can actually drive business in many ways and are the only sustainable asset that businesses have because everything else is replicable. The more businesses understand this, the closer we will get to having a global brand from India.
