Management guru Kapferer. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

What Samsung did for Korea, Indian corporations will have to do to establish the country’s brand in the globally-competitive marketplace. That’s the recipe from Jean Noel Kapferer, professor of marketing at HEC Graduate School of Management, Paris.

The expert in brand management is in the city as the keynote speaker in the two-day brand conclave organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

“The brand Samsung has changed the way people used to think about Korea. In the case of India, you cannot have a marketing department and so, for a stronger Indian brand, the corporations, the people involved in cinema and arts and professionals, will have to play a bigger role,” said Kapferer, author of best-sellers like Strategic Brand Management.

According to Kapferer, who extends consultancy to companies like Mercedes Benz, BMW, L’Oreal, and Dow Chemical, the Indian corporations should face more competition and the local brands need to challenge the global players.

But for doing that, the country must communicate to the world beyond the low-cost advantage that it provides, he added.

Pointing out that the biggest competitor for India in the global scale would be China — due to the similarities in population, history and recent track record in growth — the management guru said: “Today, India is competing globally and it has to manage its global image.”

From sovereign countries to low-cost manufacturers and political parties to sports teams — everyone is interested in branding, said Kapferer, during the inaugural session of the two-day meet. To be attended by over 300 delegates, the meet is one of the biggest organised by the apex body in this part of the country.

“There are millions of products in the market, which is full of noise. Under a situation like this, where the consumer is not aware of which of these is good, branding plays an important role,” said B. Muthuraman, chairman, CII eastern region.

The challenge, Kapferer mentioned, was in creating uniqueness, not only in product and services, but also adding the intangible — that is, difficult to copy — to the brand to gain leverage over others and harvest the profits.

“Being a brand is a challenge, as one has to prove every day that whatever is said about the brand is true and one has to invest in the brand before expecting the benefits from it,” he summed up.