My Experiments with Made-in-India Brands!

I remember the day when I had to buy my first motorbike. I was on my first job, in Chhattisgarh, and I went on a search to find a bike in the market. I wanted to buy an Indian brand only. I won’t even take a Hero Honda because Honda for me was Japanese, even though my father and all my friends recommended me to buy one from the HH brand. Ultimately I chose to buy a Bajaj bike; because it was an Indian Brand. The Bajaj bike was not so great in looks, but it gave me good mileage. Next, when my father had to buy a car, we children did an analysis comparing all the cars in the market. I was biased in favour of an Indian brand, but didn’t want to show my biasness so early. Ultimately we found that a Mahindra car scored over all others in the segment, on most parameters. Today, father is very happy with the selection. I am sure if we had found some other foreign brand as the best suited, somehow I would have persuaded everyone to buy at least a Maruti, if not a Tata or Mahindra. My love for Indian brands often made me buy a Tata product or an Airtel or a Dabar product. I would choose a VIP baggage or a Westside cloth, because these are Indian. I tried to stay on Rediff, because it was Indian. I even tried hard to retain my India.com email ID, for a long time. I bought a Moser Baer CD even if it was 2 rupees costlier than the Chinese brand. Even at times I have preferred to buy a medicine with an Indian brand, when I had a choice.

I accept that it is not always possible to find an Indian brand without compromising on the best quality or service. For example, I have longed to have a great Indian cola; and a best quality toothpaste with an Indian brand. My favourite ones for these products, be it ThumsUp/Coke, Pepsi, Pepsodent or Colgate, all are foreign brands. I would also love to buy an Indian Digital Camera. In such situations I have to make a trade-off. How much am I ready to sacrifice on service or quality, when it comes to choose the second rank Indian brand Vs best-in-class foreign brand. I accept that many a time I choose to buy a foreign brand when I am not happy with the competing Indian brand. I think there is no point in promoting bad quality products just because they are local. Now do you think my experiments make sense?

We are in a world which is increasingly becoming global. Our Indian companies and brands are doing great business in the US and in Europe. At the same time there are foreign brands making money in India. What is wrong with the later? I think there is nothing wrong. There would always be customers who would choose to buy a foreign brand simply because they are foreign (this attitude has come from the colonial era and then the decades when owning an ‘imported’ product was a social status). So if there are some people who buy local brands just because those are local, it only balances the power! At the same time, it does make an economic sense also. Do you feel something is wrong if India buys from China; China buys from Japan, the Japanese buy from the US, the US buys from Taiwan, while Taiwan buys from India? It would lead to a very inefficient global-economy! Even the proponents of globalisation have now woken up to the fact that it makes a lot of sense to manufacture and consume locally. Often we have woken up with a shock, like after Japan’s nuclear disaster disrupted global supply chains or after tainted elements were discovered in Chinese food products. This is not the best way to realise facts; and the lessons learnt in such haste are not even permanent. After the disaster gets over, people may start going the same old way; until once again the same disaster repeats. As much as possible, manufacturing makes sense locally. But there are things which are best managed globally for the benefit of all – like information and capital flow. And to some extent, free movement of skilled manpower. But for products and raw materials – a long supply chain always has higher risks and is inefficient.

The path that I have chosen is not so easy. We can’t always have everything locally made. Yesterday when I was buying Oats at a D-Mart store, I found two brands. I saw one was from Saffola – a Marico brand. Marico, from Harsh Mariwala and company. I bought it thinking that it was an Indian brand. But when I brought it home and looked at the package, it said, “Origin: Australia”. It was only packaged and sold by Marico. I found that India doesn’t stand anywhere in the top-10 oats producers. But I felt let-down, not finding a made-in-India product. I am also waiting for a great Indian brand in a lot of other segments. For example, I have always bought a Shoe with a foreign brand; have never found an Indian brand appealing enough. But when it comes to floaters (footwear), I have found a Khadim or a local product very good. I think this was the historical situation – Indian brands would make good regular products with less sophistication, but won’t be able to design higher up. The situation has changed in a lot of areas, but not in all. For example, I was tempted to buy a Wipro laptop. But how could I ever do that, leaving HP or Dell? I would long for that day when I would choose to buy a laptop with an Indian brand.

If we are rational, we shall face a dilemma: which one to choose: African brand but Made-in-India, or Indian brand but made-in-Africa? Tough call? I shall choose the later. Why? Because, the first choice: African brand but made-in-India would have destroyed (outmatched, taken market-share from, or reduced profitability of, by price war / scale of ops) many other indigenous Indian brands! While the later – Indian brand made in Africa would make the Group a bigger one, which may decide to make many new products too! If I sum this up in a matrix, here is what I think should be like:

Going one step further, we can even develop an index (may be, called Swadeshi-Index). A lot of Indian companies (e.g. ICICI, HDFC) have a high foreign stake-holding. These need to be differentiated from totally ‘Indian’ enterprises. Anyways, back to the main issue.

Does my preference for Indian brands make me a local-citizen, as compared to the global one? Does it make me a kind of a chauvinist guy? I don’t care, until I am buying an Indian brand which is also best in the segment. And when there is a tie – two products as good as each other – I shall buy the Indian one. Now, can we qualify this practice with a tag “patriotic”? I don’t care for tags or qualifications, until somehow my money is going to help my country more than any other. Do I recommend this practice to all? Do it if you are convinced that it is the best way. Otherwise do give it a thought.

My experiments with buying “Made in India” brands might have occasionally given me second-best products and services, but it has always given me the best possible feeling. Today, money can’t buy all the happiness. But one of that happiness is the happiness that comes with a feeling that somehow our money is helping our motherland. What can be a greater feeling?

I love my India, and I support my Indian brands.

- Rahul