| | DECEMBER 20209to Indian brands to compete and build a profitable business in the domestic market. Also, the fact that there is a favorable annual wage increase differential of 5 to 10 percent and depreciation of Indian Rupee against Chinese Renminbi, are additional tailwinds supporting domestic brands, if only the domestic brands get their strategy of local manufacturing right rather than relying largely on imports from China as at present.Need for Sharper Focus on Positioning: The Indian market is large, offering significant business at all price points (mass segment at lower prices; fashion segment at mid- prices and prestige seg-ment at higher prices). To be successful, each Indi-an Brand has to decide on which consumer segment that they will compete and excel in. Unfortunately, most Brands are undifferentiated from one anoth-er and target a broad swathe of consumers, thereby projecting a diffused positioning with unclear brand values on offer. Even their TV commercials and oth-er communications look similar with endorsement from Bollywood celebrities, that are undistinguish-able from one another. Enough attention has not been paid to understand each Brand's actual custom-ers and what distinct Brand values do they seek from each Brand. All attempts to garner more sales are through offer of bigger discounts or other consumer promotions, rather than focusing on communicating the distinct Brand Values that each brand is trying to offer. The category is under-penetrated and there is a large market for all Brands, if only they focus on their uniqueness, instead of competing with one another on price.Exports Opportunities: Indian Brands need to compete in a narrow segment, based on their po-sitioning and brand values. They need to invest in studying the local trends and consumer behavior in each market that they wish to enter. Launching in foreign markets is complex and expensive and it may be advisable to go with a local partner with distribu-tion/retailing capabilities. While Digital marketing has reduced the threshold for marketing investments in new geographies, a minimum amount needs to be set aside for building the Brand in foreign markets. Focusing on countries with large Indian ex-patriates population (like in Gulf countries) is the first step in identifying potential markets. Africa; Latin America; USA; Eastern Europe and ASEAN countries are oth-er potentially lucrative markets for Indian brands. Breaking open Western Europe and other developed countries would be difficult in the first 5 to 10 years of international operations, as understanding the dis-tinct customer desires and being able to deliver on those would be a difficult task in the initial stages.Support required: The government can support exports positively by initiating the much-needed re-forms. The key areas where reforms are needed are in Labour Laws and providing access to credit at com-petitive rates. Simplification of the tax laws so as to make it unambiguous will go a long way in making it easier to do business in India and abroad. Gaps in Design; Material and Manufacturing ecosystems are areas where Private sector will get involved once they see the opportunities growing by leaps and bounds. The Future: Chinaused low-end manufacturing to pull millions out of poverty in the last 3 decades. In-dia with its demographic dividend, can repeat the mir-acle growth of over 10 percent CAGR over the next 3 decades, if only more Indian companies believe that they can effectively compete and win against China in the Indian and overseas markets. Global presence is needed for the required scale of operations and protecting the domestic market share, by taking the fight to global markets. The time has come to see In-dia as the next and better Global Manufacturing cap-ital than China has been so far. Auto components; IT and Chemicals and Pharmaceutical industries have demonstrated such a possibility. Fashion businesses are next in line to put India on the Global Manufac-turing and Marketing map. THE INDIAN MARKET IS LARGE, OFFERING SIGNIFICANT BUSINESS AT ALL PRICE POINTS (MASS SEGMENT AT LOWER PRICES; FASHION SEGMENT AT MID- PRICES AND PRESTIGE SEGMENT AT HIGHER PRICES)
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