Scope of Marketing Indian products abroad (IM 25 Aug 2020)

Scope of Marketing Indian products abroad

The potential for international marketing is enormous for Indian firms. The fast expansion of the international business, as indicated by the current statistics available from appropriate sources is an indication of this. The scope of international business for developing countries is amply demonstrated by the rapid strides made by several developing countries like South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and People’s of Republic of China. India’s performance, in comparison with these countries has been very poor. Developing countries like South Korea with very good economic performance has such well known multinationals like Hyundai, Daewoo, Samsung, LG, which are making inroads into India whereas India with its massive size and diverse resource base and which has a longer history of industrialization can hardly boast anything of that sort.

The rapid strides made by several other developing countries in the international market, and trends of the growing economic power of the developing countries described earlier are indication of the enormous global business opportunities which Indian firms could exploit.

A look at some of the successful Indian example, covering products ranging from bullock cart technology to high-tech would indicate the strategies Indian firms may employ to seize the various opportunities.

Product modification to suit the requirements of the foreign markets will enable international marketing of many products by Indian firms. Examples include TI cycles. Hero cycles, TTK pressure cookers etc.

Another international marketing opportunity which a number of Indian firms may avail of is the one provided by the vocation of certain industries / segments of the market in the developed countries by the large players as they become unattractive for them. For example, several dominant firms have vacated the ply tire segment in the developed markets as this segment has shrunk due to the popularity of radial tires. Similarly developed country firms have given up several chemical products due to various reasons.

There are enormous international marketing opportunities for developing products that suit the specific markets. The Balsara, for example, developed a herbal toothpaste, brand named Auromere to take advantage of the growing preference for nature based products in the USA. Balsara has R&D scored a unique advantage when Auromere was developed as saccharine free toothpaste. The company expanded its market by introducing other variants of mint and menthol. These were taboo for users of homeopathic medicine and therefore it introduced a toothpaste free of such mints. Other variation include Auromere Fresh Mint for the young and Auromere Cina Mint, containing a combination of cinnamon and peppermint.

Indian firms with products of acceptable quality may explore the foreign markets. The Pricol, supplier of dashboard instruments to Maruti, thus entered the US market in a small way and today it is an international player. The Sundaram Fastners, which was adjudged as one of the 20 best Asian companies, is a highly reputed global supplier of automobile parts like radiator caps to dominant players like General Motors. There is enormous opportunity to take advantage of the growing global sourcing. The growing foreign investment in India and development of quality consciousness in Indian firms will encourage the growth of an ancillary sector of quality products and thus enlarge the Indian base for global sourcing.

Firms which are suppliers to foreign firms or whose products are sold under foreign brand names may explore the possibility of selling their own products under their own brand names.

There are a number of products in which the developing countries have advantage like textiles, leather, gems, and jewelry, seafood etc. Although these are among India’s important export items, the nation has not been very successful, when compared with several other developing countries, in exploiting these opportunities.

Many products, which become off patent, provide international marketing opportunities for firms of developing countries like India because of the low cost advantage. A number of them pose technical challenges. The Technocrat Industries, an Indian firm set up in 1972 by two fresh graduates from IIT, succeeded in mastering the technology of drum closures, precision products used to seal drums in which oil and chemicals are stored, competed with the MNC in the Indian market and entered foreign markets . Several Indian pharmaceutical firms are globalizing using generics and bulk drugs as their mainstay.

India is an important exporter of many products like spices and seafood. They are, however, mostly commodity exports. A lot of potential exists for developing their value added exports. There is also considerable scope for quality improvement, product development and value addition in respect of several other categories like leather, textiles, etc.

The top 20 Indian companies in the World

1) Peter England

Believe it or not, Peter England is a Top Indian Brand. Owned by the Madura Fashion and Lifestyle, a division of the Aditya Birla Group, the brand has its presence in more than 300 cities around the globe.

Peter England is one of the largest brands in the menswear category in the country with a consignment movement of more than 5 million garments a year.

The brand is popularly known for its premium range of shirts and formals.

2) Cafe Coffee Day

Marketing itself as the favorite hangout spot to host casual meetings and hearty talks, the company Coffee Day Global Limited finds its base in the town of Chikmagalur, Karnataka. They grow their own coffee on a 12,000-acre estate and are the largest exporter of Arabica beans in Asia.

There are more than 1530 cafe outlets in India alone and the chain has now expanded internationally to countries like Austria, Malaysia, Egypt, Czech Republic, etc.

3) Tata Group

Tata is one of the most well known Indian brands in the world. The brand finds its presence in multiple industries including chemicals, consumer products, energy, engineering, IT Systems, Services like TIS, telecommunications and consultancy, steel industry, etc.

Tata has a stronghold in the minds of the Indian consumers and is also recognized globally now as a familiar brand. It finds its offices in more than 80 countries around the world.

Holding the tag as India’s largest conglomerate, the Tata Group saw a revenue of $103.51 Billion is the financial year of 2015-16. It also has an army of 660,000 total employees on their payroll.

4) State Bank of India

SBI is the largest and the most popular Indian Bank in the world. The government-owned bank has more than 14,000 branches and 191 foreign offices in around 36 countries. If that is not impressive enough, consider this – the total valuation of their assets stand at INR 20,480 trillion or $300 billion!

As of 2016, SBI finds its place in the list of Fortune 500 Global companies at the 232nd position.

5) Titan

Titan Company manufactures roughly 15 million watches per annum for a userbase of over 100 million customers around the world. There are 4 brands existing under the purview of the company, namely Titan, Fastrack, Sonata, and Xylys. There are also dozens of sub-brands under each main brand.

Titan boasts a 60% domestic market share and is present in around 32 countries, mainly in the regions of Middle-East, Asia Pacific, and Africa. Moreover, the total brand value of the Titan Group stands at more than $15 billion

6) Bira91

Talk about a brand getting viral offline through word of mouth (#recursion). This is the story of a new beloved beer in town – Bira91. Launched in 2015 and already finding its presence throughout the Indian and US markets, Bira has disrupted the casual beer market.

7) Old Monk

Old Monk Rum or OMR is 60-year-old Indian dark rum brand. The most interesting aspect of the brand is that their expenditure on marketing over the decades amount to negligible sums. It mainly depends on word of mouth advertising for its success around the world which in itself speaks about the tremendous user base of the brand.

8) Bharti Airtel

Airtel is the most marketed Indian telecom service. The largest telecom in India as well as the third largest in the world.

Airtel is based out of New Delhi and runs in 18 countries around the world, mainly spanning the continents of Africa and Asia.

9) Jaguar

Jaguar owned by none other than the Tata.

10) Jet Airways

Jet Airways has various offices around the world in over 76 countries and operates flights to 47 destinations within India as well as 21 international destinations around the globe.

11) Zomato

Zomato is a popular Indian food startup which was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Gurugram, Haryana. It has now gradually expanded to 23 different countries with more than a million restaurants listed on the platform.

12) InMobi

InMobi is a startup giving competitions to the likes of Google and Apple.

It has expanded quite well with 17 offices around the world and boasts of 750 million users around 160 countries.

13) Magzter

Magzter provides users with online magazines. The platform currently boasts of more than 11 million users in more than 150 countries.

14) Indian Oil Corporation Limited

Indian Oil is the top petroleum trading company in the Asia-Pacific region.

15) Royal Enfield

Enfield is a well recognized global brand and has reserved a respectable place in the cruiser motorbikes category. It is the oldest bike making company in the whole world.

16) Freshdesk Inc

Freshdesk Inc provides cloud-based support to the customers of their clients. More than 80,000 global businesses today are using the services of Freshdesk to achieve better customer support systems.

17) Louis Philippe

Louis Philippe is Indian and international brand caters to a bunch of different age groups and both genders.

18) Micromax

Micromax is known throughout the world for their Canvas series.

19) Godrej Group

Godrej Group has offices in more than 40 countries around the world and also exports to around 60 overseas nations. E.g. Europe, US, Middle East, Africa and Asia.

20) Lakme Cosmetics

Lakme finds its presence in the markets of more than 70 countries with a product line of about 300 diverse products.