Every country needs a specific approach for marketing. While an average Indian certainly is not that easy to pin down on and analyse, it is not that difficult either if you had certain things in mind. Look at a few ways to market effectively in India.

1. You won’t find many Indians Online Just as Yet : It is true that The Internet probably makes the media world flat and the world flat too, if I can go that far. Indians aren’t still very net-savvy. Everything here grows in sizes that are quite shocking to fathom, but it is still miniscule to talk about the real pow-wow Internet is yet to deliver. Online marketing will certainly take an important chunk of your marketing rupee, but then, you will have to take a call on distribution of the same among different channels. Plonking everything online is still not a bright idea.
2. Free demos and Free Samples work wonders : Indians are quite a choosy lot and are also kinesthetic in nature. They need to touch and feel everything. They, like everyone else, love anything FREE. You must capitalize on this. If you provide a service, arrange for a free demo and if you sell products, think of ways to deliver samples to your prospective customers.
3. High-growth + high-competition = paranoia : The rate at which India is growing, last heard at 9.1 % ( considering half yearly results of 2006-07 ) The growth, needless to say, is scorching hot and hence would surely see an increase in your competition. So your marketing campaigns should out-beat that competiton. The key to do that is Paranoia. Being scared but making decisions prudently is the name of the game.
4. Show, explain, tell and Sell : That’s the way it is here. Most of the things sold here need to be explained first. Services have to be demonstrated, free samples need to be given away, clothes have to be touched and worn, everything else that finds its way home has to be certified and anything new needs to be explained - does your marketing campaign reflect this?
5. Think about them, not you : The fallacy in many a new Indian business entrepreneurs - Thinking about the whole of the marketing campaign keeping YOURSELF in mind, rather than the end user/client/customer. If you started a spoken english institute and wanted to place an ad on the local paper, you would not be putting the ad on The Hindu but on Eenadu or other local news paper. Simply because you think it is cool to read The Hindu doesn’t mean that your so called prospective spoke english students will do too !

Happy Marketing !

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