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<font color="#FF3333"><b>AdAsia 2003:</b></font> Brand India will succeed: Mukesh Ambani

Alokananda Chakraborty & agencyfaqs!

13 Nov 2003 05:30 IST

New Update

At the Chairman’s Round Table Conference, Mukesh Ambani and Kumar Mangalam Birla spoke about the need to package India as the Asian superbrand

The second session in the morning of Day Two of the AdAsia 2003 congress had a very animated Mukesh Ambani, CMD, Reliance Industries, and Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman, Aditya Birla Group, setting the agenda for "Building the India brand". Moderated by Ian Batey, founder of Batey Advertising and author of Asian Branding, the session delved on the need to package India as the Asian superbrand, the factors going in India's favour, where to initiate this process of brand building and how to take it forward.

Birla began by "setting the brief". He said, "Very little effort has gone into marketing the country. While we have good examples of states marketing themselves, it has not taken a national dimension. There is a general tendency to focus on the negatives and ignore our success."

Enumerating the marketing objectives, he said, India has to be among the top 10 brands in the world by 2010. This should translate into India being the No 1 destination of choice for tourism, manufacturing, IT and education. Given this objective, the communication task for India is to clearly establish India as a global brand. "In doing so, we need to clearly define the brand values for India as we know it today. These values have to encompass a larger space than what it stands for today." Birla cited the example of Japan, which has clearly established its brand values. "These values now have become an integral part of any product that come from Japan," he added.

Birla also said that the greatest barrier in the way to building the India brand "is from within". "While the world has started taking notice of the Indian, back home we are still not proud of our achievements. There is a lack of faith in our own capabilities. Also missing is a sense of pride and self worth," he pointed out.

But the scenario is not all gloomy. As Birla summed up, "The Indian mind today is the greatest recognised asset of the country. We need to use the Indian intellectual capital as a great platform to start the process of building brand India."

Mukesh Ambani was next to come on stage. He gave a very inspiring speech highlighting the many things that go in India's favour and showcasing the little success stories being written across the country. "Individuals and families in affluent societies are facing deep crisis. It manifests as internal turmoil caused by stresses in the midst of material prosperity. Men and women in growing numbers are seeking solace in spirituality. India, with its rich spiritual heritage is increasingly finding favour with them. In the New World, building brand India is an imperative we cannot afford to ignore. Brand India will succeed because nothing can stop a billion people, 60 per cent of them young, talented and hardworking, from winning their rightful place on this planet," he said amid a round of applause.

Brand India, in Ambani's vision, would be:

.A nation of young people;

.A reservoir of food for the world;

.A sea of scientific and technological talent;

.An ocean of professional resources;

.A society that harnesses technology to transform the quality of life;

.A country that has banished unemployment;

.A people who have brought about a fusion of material prosperity, social harmony and individual happiness;

.A leader in the knowledge age.

"In brief, a twenty first century miracle and a replicable model for all democratic, modern and plural societies," Ambani put it succinctly.

Summing up the one-and-a-half hour discussion, Ian Batey picked up a handful of brands and companies from India that had the capability to become global forces. Among them were Infosys, Wipro, TCS and Sankhya in the information technology arena, ITC in FMCGs, Ranbaxy in pharma, Reliance and Aditya Birla Group in bio-technology, Old Monk in rums, Raymond in textiles, Nutrine in confectionery products, among others.