Know-How Exchange : Copywriting

Bollywood

Have you seen Lancome's new fall collection? Its based on what they call the colors of India. https://www.lancome-usa.com/whatsnew/

So far not much...
I only know that the little contact the average American has with India is through call centers...
All the customer service of some of our worst airlines are based in India, some of our banks have it there, some of our computer brands have it there (Dell)
Other than that we are in touch only with Indian food, and maybe some exotic travel stories.
India has no significant brand image in the U.S.

Ilan is right on. In the US most of our experience is through calling support or customer service. Many US comapnies have this based in India now. Unfortunately, this does not bring up great images for most. People who are calling are already frustrated and are not very tolerant of some of the language differences, therefore not creating a pleasant experience and thus a positive memory.

Hope this info helps,
Mike

I disagree with Ilan. I think that India has a brand image -- it may not be consistently desirable, but I think it's there nonetheless. Here are concepts/things that come to my mind:

- Tech support, call centers, outsourcing
- Big cities and totally rural areas
- Hinduism, the caste system
- Lack of women's rights
- Sensual experiences: there are strong smells, colors and tastes that come to mind when I think of India. Like the smell of curry, colors of golden yellow and deep indigo and bright pink, the sound of the sitar and cymbals
- Bollywood
- Emerging travel destination, especially for foodies and adventure travelers
- Poverty
- Emerging industries like telecom, autos, film

Hope that helps.

From a global economic power brand positioning POV, it seems India (the brand) is ahead of China (the brand) because many speak English and the culture appears to be more entrepreneurial.

maybe it's not "brand India" ... rather it's "brand New India".

To me, "Brand India" is that of one of the world's largest democracies (of not the largest), a rich culture, and a rising economic and political power.

It has its flaws, like every country, and should work to improve.

But if you are seeking to build brand India the largest democracy, rich culture, and rising economic and political power already have some traction among those of us who follow international things. For example, I read The Economist. They give pretty straight forward assessments of things.