The Hindu Business Line : Indian brands, global thrust

As one engaged in fund-raising for a well-known nature conservation NGO, I find that there is severe competition for raising funds from the private sector. Specifically, the competition is mainly from fellow NGOs which predominantly are focused on human-centric issues such as child development, caring for the elderly and cancer patients, which, in a country like ours, naturally take precedence over others when it comes to patronage.

I would appreciate if you could share your thoughts and ideas as to how our NGO could position itself so as to elicit a more positive response from the corporates and others.

K.V. Lakshminarayanan, Chennai

Dear KVL, I do emote with the problem just as you do. India is indeed the land of the LCD (lowest common denominator) issue, when it comes to fund-raising. Our issues in these categories are so large that most other issues get swept under the carpet, however honourable.

It is very important for you to be completely data-based in this exercise of fund-raising. One must remember what happened with tsunami relief. There was so much money out there that one did not know what to do with it, without wastage and sub-optimal utilisation hitting the category.

It is important for you to build a hierarchy of needs across the various causes that dot our land. It is equally important for you to address fund-raising for your specific cause as a very specific campaign that is dealt out 1:1.

I would advise a very quick re-orientation of your target, away from the corporates and focused very clearly on individuals.

I do believe the era of corporate social responsibility is, and should be, on the wane. What will emerge as an exciting alternative is ISR.

Individual Social Responsibility. A situation where the money-empowered individual who sits right atop Maslow's hierarchy of needs in terms of his own economic status, is all ready to self-actualise. It is this individual who is self-actualising who will be the prime donor to your cause.

Identify these specifically, and market to them 1:1. Move away from any focus on the corporate organisation altogether. Focus on the individual. And look at large numbers of these self-actualising individuals. And segment them. You will find a whole host of individuals who emote with the cause at hand.

There is yoga from India and then there is the IIT. What is your take on these global brand concepts from India?

- Shashi Sinha, Kolkata

Shashi, I do believe these are essentially Big Ideas. Big thoughts that emanate from India, traverse the continents all around, and establish themselves as solid brands of the present and the future.

My definition of the brand is a simple one: "The brand is a thought." A thought that lives in people's minds.

Each of these — yoga, the IIT, the IIMs, individual spiritual gurus and their branded outputs, such as transcendental meditation (TM) — are all but thoughts. Potent thoughts that live in people's minds. These thoughts are solid manifestations of people's needs, wants, desires and aspirations.

These are indeed global brand concepts that emanate from India. They take birth here, but quite like yoga, they are far bigger and far more profitable brands out in the West.

Each of these brands has a global momentum of its own, for sure. Take yoga. It is a multi-billion dollar industry. The practitioners of this absolutely large industry are largely not of Indian origin alone.

And then there are thoughts such as the IIT. The BPO is another such thought. Outsourcing. These are powerful brands on their own as well.

The benefit of these brands is that they are created not in the manner that typical brands are created. They are mostly viral brands. They happen through the editorial route, rather than the advertised route. They are content-dependant rather than hype-dependant.

Brands can be created in one of two manners. Top down, or bottom up. Top-down branding is all about creating a brand from scratch with investments in market research, branding and advertising.

And the second way of building brands is bottom-up. This is a process where the utility or the merit of the work of the entity counts a lot. Mahatma Gandhi was built bottom up. Gandhiji did not issue full-page ads in newspapers saying "Gandhi Shining"! Instead, Gandhiji the brand happened by sheer dint of hard work at the ground level. The Dandi Salt March, the non-violence movement, the Khadi movement, et al! Gandhi the brand was built bottom up.

Brands built bottom-up have a longer lifespan than those that depend on the ICU inputs of advertising and continuous doses of marketing insulin.

Brand built bottom-up are popularised by a mass movement of consumer acceptance that does not necessarily depend on advertising. Trust is deeper in these brands than in those brands that are built top-down.

One other aspect of these macro brands is the fact that they are not necessarily brands that enjoy a B2B relationship. These brands are not about B2C relationships as well. They are all about C2C relationships. Consumer-to-consumer relationships that help build long-lasting brand properties.

Can we continue to export agricultural commodities in bulk? Please explain the opportunities that exist for export of branded products.

- Rohit Vadda, Ahmedabad

Rohit, I think we can continue to do bulk exports. But not bulk exports as usual. Instead, branding must get into bulk exports aggressively as well.

Take coffee as an example. The new big market out there in the consuming countries of the world is liquid coffee. The most convenient coffee of them all. A convenient form that beats soluble coffee by a mile in terms of quality and taste.

India has immense opportunity to become a bulk supplier of the liquid form. It is, however, important to do this in a branded bulk format. If we continue to focus on green coffee as we have done over these 100-odd years, and if we keep the blinkers on when it comes to new opportunities, we will be left behind in the race.

It is important to export in bulk forms. The new bulk form of export will, and should, however, be the branded bulk form.

(Harish Bijoor is a business strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. E-mail:askharishbijoor@thehindu.co.in)

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