Re-packaging India: is corporate identity enough?

Recently, Jet Airways, Godrej, Shoppers Stop, Deccan, Ceat, Canara Bank and Air India have all been re-branded, and are currently running advertising campaigns to tell Indians how interesting and important this is. Some companies, like Jet Airways and Shoppers Stop, are very young and others, like Air India and Canara Bank, are heritage brands. A new corporate identity and mass advertising are bold steps. We should applaud them for taking these steps. Change is welcome: it can help create employee pride and a real buzz in the market. It can also signal that these brands want to be a part of New India. So far so good. Good looks and advertising are the easy bits. The snag is that the buzz will not last for too long if the reality does not change for staff and consumers. And frankly, who needs another logo in an overcrowded market?

India’s great opportunity is to build service businesses. China will naturally be big in products: India can be great in services. But a common mistake both in India and in the west is to treat a service brand as it was a consumer product. It is one thing to repackage Sunsilk shampoo; it is another thing to brand a service. The key for any service brand to succeed is delivery. This takes time. So the opportunity for these leaders is to take the lead, to invest and to create India’s first globally successful service brand – in proposition and delivery, not just looks.

This change will truly move the leaders from representing Old India to New India – a New India where the customer comes first and no longer says in frustration, ‘This only happens in India!’ Where people start talking and saying, ‘You should try them. They’re great’. And where employees say, ‘I want to work there’. This change will not come from copying ideas from the west. Instead, India’s service companies should build on their philosophy and vision to create something that works specifically for the Indian market, and that can then resonate beyond India. Currently there is no Indian brand listed in any of the various global brand rankings. As an Indian, I would like to see a great Indian service brand listed within the top 500. That’s India’s great opportunity in the world.

29 May 2008, posted by Zia Patel