One of my first impressions was the very obvious presence of all the major global brands. HSBC advertising met us in the airport, and as we travelled around the city we saw plenty of ads from tech companies such as LG and HP, and FMCG brands such as Pantene.  Of course in a nation that still very much trusts advertising over word of mouth, the presence of so much advertising was to be expected.

In the supermarket alongside more traditional foods, all the same household names could be found, Cadbury, Red Bull and L’Oreal to name just a few, although with some interesting flavour variants (e.g. Mango coated Cornflakes).

 

In some of the shiny new malls popping up in the Gurgaon business district, we found Baskin Robbins ice cream vendors, Reebok stores, and Italian restaurants. We had a beer in an ultra modern microbrewery bar, and dinner in a Chinese restaurant, and could easily have thought we were in any city around the world, then stepped out into the dust, the bustle of rickshaw drivers, people milling around and chatting on the roadside, and mass construction going on all around the city as it prepares in earnest for the Commonwealth Games later this year.

 

There are, however, things that serve as a reminder that only a small proportion of Indian consumers visit these places and that many are still very much on their way up: security gates and bag searches on the way in to, and out of, all the modern malls; and billboard adverts for a recruitment company with the slogan “All I want is everything”.  

 

There are also hints that gender roles are more traditional – one billboard read “The economy is recovering, time to buy your wife that big fridge”!

 

All this quite basic advertising left me wondering at what point the more subtle advertising messages that dominate the West will start appearing in India, and the potential for events based and experiential marketing to capitalise on such a vast and rapidly developing population?