By Malini Goyal
FutureBrands, a global brand consultancy, puts out an annual ‘Country Brand Index’ in which it measures the strength of a country brand on various parameters, from awareness to familiarity. The firm also looks at what differentiates a country brand on five key dimensions: value system, quality of life, good for business, heritage and culture, and tourism.
The 2012 index – Future Brand’s eighth – had Switzerland, Canada, Japan, Sweden and New Zealand as the top 5. India didn’t figure in the list of 25. That may not surprise as most of the countries on that list are developed markets (countries like the UAE and Costa Rica that come in at the tail end are the few exceptions).
The five key FutureBrands benchmarks may explain why India doesn’t figure in the top 25. For instance, quality of life in most metros still has plenty of room for improvement; and doing business isn’t exactly easy.
The main reason, though, why India as a brand doesn’t score well is that it means too many diverse things to too many people – from Bollywood to Gandhi, from the Taj Mahal to cricket. Or to put it another way: Indians just can’t seem to pin down one defining attribute – or a set of common attributes – for Brand India.
That’s what a recently-released domestic study amongst young corporate executives throws up. “India is a country of contradictions – a land of opportunities and also a land of hardships,” says Tara Singh Vachani, 26, daughter of entrepreneur Analjit Singh and CEO of Antara Senior Living. In a similar vein, internet entrepreneur Alok Kejriwal, 44, dubs India as “divine chaos.
It’s a car that’s being driven in water. Or, to put it spiritually, India is the soul whose body has gone missing.” And Mittu Chandilya, 33, head, AirAsia India reckons India is a socially diverse country that is trying to construct its future by carefully balancing its past and present.
Clearly, for most of these high-flying young Indians, brand India is a complex entity with surprises and contradictions built in. The breadth of answers from those surveyed – the sample comprised those in the 26-35 year age band – was, well, breathtaking.
For instance, to the question ‘What defines Brand India’, the most popular answer (64.3% of those surveyed) was Bollywood; the second most common answer hit the other end of the spectrum – Mahatma Gandhi (57%). The next two most popular answers too were as diverse as they come – the Taj Mahal and cricket.
And what is it that makes Indians proud in the global context: while 84% reckoned the opening up of the economy made their hearts swell with pride, almost half of the sample felt that Bollywood’s high-jinks on the international stage made them feel good about themselves.
In the similar vein of contradictions, some Indians prefer to see the glass half full – around 60% feel ‘incredible’ is the apt adjective to describe India – although more than half thought ‘corrupt’ was a far better prefix.
And all of 83% feel India’s economic growth story has taken a beating. The culprits aren’t unpredictable: corruption, political leadership, policy paralysis and red-tapism.
A Reflected Idea of India
What do these results reveal about young Indians’ view of the country? “It is a very shallow view of India. My sense is if you did this survey among foreigners anywhere in the world, the response would not have been very different,” says Santosh Desai, CEO of FutureBrands.
It is one thing for the world to see Bollywood as defining India. It is another that even Indians living in India, who experience all its highs and lows every day, too see it that way.
“Their idea of brand India is an imagined one. It is not based on their experienced realities of India,” adds Mr Desai. Mr Kejriwal agrees.
He feels if true this is a deceptive view that Indians have. Half of the respondents are from the North. And yet they aren’t talking about real issues like respect for women and how to drive changes.
“Around 60% of them are saying an emphasis on inclusive growth will help drive change. What do people in that age group know and what do they care about inclusive growth,” asks Mr Kejriwal.
In contrast, the real issues that Indians face on a daily basis are conspicuous by their absence in the survey. What about education and everything around it? Shouldn’t a young country like India with such a messy education system be worried about it and aspire to fix it, asks Mr Kejriwal.
“There is an inflated sense of self that you get all through the results. I think these respondents are just ticking the right boxes – things that make them feel nice.”
- Partha Sinha
Partha Sinha, director, South Asia, Publicis, an advertising agency, is also critical: “Theirs is a view divorced from Indian realities. They are simply playing back popular imageries – from Incredible India to corruption.”
There are reasons why young corporate executives see India that way. One, many of them tend to live in their own urban bubbles. And the only way they experience the other India is through Bollywood and cricket.
Two, many Indians are still struggling with the idea of India. While the civilizational and historical view of India for them is rich and deep, they are still grappling with what benchmarks to use to construct the idea of 21st century contemporary India.
“Indians are still settling down with relatively new ideas of democracy, liberalization, market-dictated policies. Power structures have changed. Old rules are no longer relevant. We still do not know how to judge things in the new context,” says Mr Desai. As a result, Indians form an escapist view that is at once glossy, seductive and often are imageries that the world is putting out – be it corruption or Bollywood or cricket or Gandhi.
Source:The Economic Times
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