Zee Melt 2016: Why world's top brands are not from India

Ashish Mishra, Managing Director, Interbrand India, demystifies why Indian brands can't make it to the top and what can be done to rectify it

Roshni Nair | Delhi | August 29, 2016

Ashish Mishra

Best Global Brands by Interband, a league table of 100 most valuable brands, is ranked among the top three ranking properties. When Interbrand started ranking the best Indian brands, the question wasn't about the ranking but about how Indian brands stood in the global scenario. The scenario couldn't have been bleaker. While around 57 brands in their Best Global Brands list were from America, there were zero brands from India. The rest of Asia did not fare much better either with the exception of Japan and Korea.

So why are Indian brands nowhere among the top?

“Asian markets look at businesses as deals or transactions. Brands as considered to be extras and slotted in peripheral areas like publicity and corporate communications. Brands should lead businesses but businesses lead brands in our markets. That is the paradigm shift we should work towards,” said Mishra.

Speaking about the evolution of brands, Mishra talked about how brands began as a mark of identity. Known as the 'age of identity', they moved on to the age of value. From the 'age of value', they progressed to the 'age of experience' and now finally arrived at the 'age of you'.

“Individuals with high cognisance are using brands to design life experiences. They are making the choices, they are in the commanding position,” Mishra said explaining the 'age of you'.

Mishra explained how brands have to keep up with the exponential pace of change that one is seeing today to stay relevant.

Shedding light on the need to get human when it gets to brands, Mishra said, “What motivates humans is a sense of purpose and therefore increasingly in various walks of life and various markets we are witnessing a surge of purpose centricity. It is not about CSR or causes, it is about having a purpose. Humans are emotional beings and to connect with them we need to be purpose-driven. Purpose doesn't just create customer satisfaction it creates a change in the world. Today people talk about things that make a difference to the world. Therefore, today if brands want to be talked about then they have to align themselves to things that are impacting the world.”

Mishra believes that brands today cannot be built through the conventional means of promotion like advertising. Quoting the famous dialogue from Om Shanti Om, “Agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaho, toh puri kainaat usse tumse milane ki koshish mein lag jaati hai” (the world would conspire to make it happen for you), Mishra reiterated the power of purpose and stated that that was what brands should leverage.

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