India Leveraging Place Branding for Growth

Do you know what the IBEF is? This public – private partnership is a strong move by India to become even more competitive in the global economy. The India Brand Equity Foundation’s “primary objective is to build positive economic perceptions of India globally. It aims to effectively present the India business perspective and leverage business partnerships in a globalising market-place.”

In my opinion, India “gets it” and the IBEF work provides a great opportunity to learn about reapplication of product and corporate branding principles to market place.

The IBEF understands that creating a heart and mind opening India experience is key to success. They have created a CD entitled Experience India that provides a virtual trial experience for potential capital investors. IBEF has created a business focused magazine entitled India Now to provide insight into what it would be like to operate a business in India.

IBEF has also done an excellent job in visual branding. They have created a master logo for their initiative and a cascading visual branding system to leverage the logo for industry promotion.

The material is available in multiple languages to make it easy for potential investors to learn about why India is a smart choice for their business operation.

This is one example of how the competition is raising the bar on capital attraction. The challenge of strengthening Brand America will become increasingly more difficult as the competition improves their understanding and effective application of place branding.

Kudos to the IBEF for an impressive and well conceived program. And a thank you to the IBEF for a healthy reminder on the importance of investing in creating even stronger U.S. state and city brands as a way to become more competitive for global foreign direct investment inflow and to strengthen Brand America.

The IBEF case study has all the signs of becoming a best in class initiative we as a place branding community can and will continue to learn from.

What do you find impressive about the IBEF branding program? I look forward to your comments.

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Category Place Brand Building

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