India has potential to create luxury brands, says Ogilvy UK Vice-chairman

Citing the examples of famous US brands, Sutherland said they started to be regional and expanded national distribution and later went global after attaining a scale.A lot of the United States was like that.

India has a huge potential to create national luxury brands that may also go global, said Ogilvy UK Vice-Chairman Rory Sutherland. Citing the examples of famous US brands, Sutherland said they started to be regional and expanded national distribution and later went global after attaining a scale.

''A lot of the United States was like that. I mean, historically, Pepsi was northern, and Yankee and Coke from Atlanta were southern.

''Now, nobody thinks of it like that anymore. But, actually, that is how most of these brands started. They started regional and then with national distribution and national media, there was a kind of fight to be the top dog,'' he said. Sutherland was in conversation with Ogilvy Group Global Chief Creative Officer and Ogilvy India Executive Chairman, Piyush Pandey, at the Amazon Smbhav event.

Both were discussing creating global brands for the next generation of customers.

''There was a kind of winner-takes-all effect. And, I think that is going to play out for what are now regional brands in India and it is not a bad principle to try and be national before you go global,'' he added.

He further said, ''I think India has huge potential to create national luxury brands, which I think is interesting because those are hugely high margin.'' The existence of an e-commerce platform is also really important, which sells local crafts.

''I was looking at the blue and white pottery available on Amazon the other day. I can see a pretty massive market for that in the UK, once people just become more confident in ordering from overseas.

While Piyush Panday said India has a ''huge advantage'' to excel in the service industry.

''The world is talking about the difference between China and India and that there is a lot of mental power. Therefore, there is a great ability for us to excel in the services industry.

''You can rock the world from here if you build a brand. Otherwise, there will be many others who will be doing the same thing,'' Pandey added.

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