Global Branding: What makes brand truly global Aishwarya Natarajan, Post-Graduate Programme in Management Amity Business School, Noida

Developing a global brand largely depends on the brand's ability to explore fresh avenues and sustain its competitive advantages in terms of economies of scale and productivity. A global brand is one that is perceived to reflect the same set of values around the world and removes national barriers and linguistic blocks while being marketed internationally. The basics of brand building apply to global branding strategy also. For a brand to become successful, a genuine demand or a psychological need must exist in the target market. Today, when we look at the global market, we need to realize that at the most basic level all human beings share common physiological and safety needs as explained by Abraham Maslow in his `hierarchy of needs'. What separates one customer in one part of the world from another somewhere else are the complex social, cultural and esteem needs each of them has, depending upon the stage at which the civilization/ nation is in the process of development. And despite centuries of technological development, these needs have remained as crucial as ever.

The real challenges come when marketers have to make the consumer aware about the product/service offered using a distinctive pattern, perhaps with a name, logo or color, so that the strategy enables the customer to correctly identify and choose the brand from a cluttered basket. The brand's strength is not confined to the degree of recognition and the quality of the product offering. Strong global brands cater to strong emotional needs. A brand such as Nike urges us to believe in our limitlessness, while one such as Rin speaks about destroying dirt, which is portrayed as a threat that disrupts the neat orderly world that we live in.

A strong global brand while addressing a fundamental human motivation is driven by a distinctive brand idea, with the product being seen as an expression of that brand idea. The product merely translates that idea into a tangible form, with features and styles, which is delivered to the consumer. For example, the brand idea associated with Dettol is the complete protection it provides users from dirt and infection. The company has adopted this idea across the globe irrespective of the cultural domain it targets.

These brands send market signals consistent with the idea they stand for. Starting from the tangible attribution of the brand through the product to the integrated marketing communication, the brand consistently sends the same signal in every market. The more consistent this marketing signal, the clearer the brand image across the country for global brands. Research suggests that strong brands are built over time. Trust in a brand gets built over a large number of interactions across a range of situations. Hence a strong global brand is like a network of complex psychological and market structural issues that include situations, associations, behaviors, feelings and symbols held together by a strong and powerful central idea.
A successful marketing strategy has two options in creating a market presence. It can kill competition by constant communication and advertising or use communication to make customers experience the brand and discriminate in its favor.

A strong global brand creates associations in the consumers' mind which guides them to attach distinct functional and emotional benefits and appropriate meanings and beliefs to the brand. Brand communication should also communicate and connect to people. The links between Britannia and health are felt allover the world. This connectivity is the rational justification for people to overcome the extra spending required to acquire the brand. Successful brands live beyond generations due to this ability to connect. It is also not just a question of satisfying customers of different countries with varied cultural backgrounds, but also one of connecting with new generations of consumers with new sets of values, hopes and ambitions.
Every organization must address two issues before considering global branding. They include the relative strength of globalization pressure in that particular industry and the degree to which the company has internationally transferable assets. If globalization pressures are weak and the company's assets - including the brand - are not transferable, then the company need not go in for a global brand. It should concentrate on creating a higher brand value in the domestic market. If globalization pressures are weak and the company has transferable assets, then it should look at extending these to a similar market using a global brand.

A strong brand proposition in the home market can be used as a platform for building brands in selective markets that are similar to the home market in terms of consumer preference, geographic proximity, cultural similarity or even government regulation. Bajaj Auto's extension to the South Asian market for its three-wheelers is an example of brand success in an analogous market. By this the company can reap added revenue and scale economies with valuable international marketing experience. The success of Indian films with a typical emotional branding is another example of brand success.

Companies can look for countries with a common cultural and linguistic heritage. The success of Ramanand Sagar's serial Ramayana in the Asian market is another example. The story of Asian Paints in the Indian market has made it to go in for global branding in countries such as Nepal, Fiji and Korea with its typical low cost formulations and service delivery propositions to support the brand name `Asian Paints'.

For having a global brand one has to take into consideration a different set of opportunities and constraints. The low cost of wages and proximity to raw materials also gives domestic companies a competitive advantage to go global. The success stories of Infosys and Wipro as brands in the global market are examples of global branding successes in the hi-tech industry. However, there are many complex factors that can affect a global marketing strategy. These include the nature of the product (for example, consumer durable products being more suited to standardization than non-durables), features of a particular market and even organizational history.

For a brand to be successful globally, it has to click across the vertical class of generations and horizontal mass of global markets. In a global economy, organizations must reach customers in markets far from their home base. Strong brands act as ambassadors when companies enter new markets or offer new products.