Global Marketing Insights from TGI
Brand Building in the BRICs
Market understanding and strategic development for international brands

PREFACE

The BRICs markets - Brazil, Russia, India and China - are under increasing focus. As well as being seen as future cornerstones of the world economy, they are significant markets today in their own right. International brand owners cannot afford to ignore them.

This booklet uses research-based evidence to provide guidance for marketers. It examines the similarities and differences between the BRICs, and suggests strategies for building successful brands in these huge and dynamic markets.

The information used comes from the TGI network of worldwide marketing research studies. These provide valuable insight into behavior and attitudes in relation to a wide range of consumer sectors. More details are given at the back of this booklet.

INTRODUCTION

Great size, great potential

Brazil, Russia, India and China - the BRICs economies - are united by their size and their potential. Overall their populations represent 42% of the people of the world, and although GDP levels are relatively low (being 17% of the world between them) with growth rates currently three or four times those of the western economies, the numbers entering the market for branded consumer goods will continue to increase rapidly.

The BRICs are becoming ever-larger forces in the world economy. If current growth rates continue, by 2025 they could account for over half the size of the G7. Of the current seven largest world economies, only the US may be among the seven largest in 2050. All four of the BRICs are likely to be represented.

For manufacturers and service providers these are the factors that make them exciting markets - or potential markets - but the associated risks are great. The cost of failure could be high… but so could the cost of not investing.

Yet these four markets are very different from each other, and from developed western markets, in their historical, economic and ethnic backgrounds. Brand owners wishing to develop in the BRICs will have to devise product and marketing strategies to cover countries with diverse culture and value sets.

What future for global brands?

To develop further in the BRICs, brand owners need to understand how well accepted are the western values that have underpinned the globalization trend to date. Are the BRICs likely to come to accommodate global value 'norms'? Or will they move in different ways, making it difficult for brands that wish to globalize?

Several brand owners have experienced success in the BRICs. We identify some of these in this booklet, and examine two types of approach that can be fruitful.

Our information sources

This booklet draws upon analysis and interpretation of the TGI (Target Group Index) consumer research studies in the four BRICs markets. These are part of the worldwide network of TGI surveys, which are available to clients in over 60 markets. The possibilities for analysis are extensive, because these are large-sample surveys, covering a wide range of marketing, attitude and media information.

Our consumer focus

Our focus is on the mainstream consumer market. For the comparative examinations in the first part of this booklet, we have defined this as adults aged 20-54 who live in the two or three largest city regions in each BRICs country. This is a key broad target: people of working age who are most likely to be in the market for branded goods and services. The cities in which they live are 'leading the charge' towards consumerism. They offer the largest distribution networks and the greatest numbers of potential brand purchasers, and their inhabitants are at the forefront of their countries' social and economic development.

For Brazil these city regions are Sao Paulo and Rio. For Russia they are the northwestern region, which includes St. Petersburg, and the central region, which includes Moscow. For India they are Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata. For China they are Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

For some of these analyses we also make comparisons with longer-developed markets: the US and the four Western European countries of France, Germany, Spain and Britain (summarized together as 'TGI Europa'). Here we have taken the entire 20-54 year-old group as being the best comparative representation of the consumer population.

The later sections of this booklet focus on the entire TGI-measured populations of the BRICs markets.


To read more, download Brand Building in the BRICs (pdf, 2.6 mb)