I-am associates, a UK based brand experience consultancy, has officially launched in Indian market, in partnership with Percept Limited. They have now set up a studio in Mumbai which would have a team of about 70% locals and 30% of their London and Istanbul staff. They started working on their first Indian client, New India Bank, about two years back. FE BrandWagon?s Payal Khandelwal chats with Jon Blakeney, one of the two partners of i-am associates to understand why they are launching in India at this time, their USP and their partnership with Percept. Edited excerpts:
Why are you launching in India at this point in time?
We consider this a great opportunity specifically in India and also in BRIC ( Brazil, Russia, India and China ) countries generally. We have been in London since 1997. Then we launched in Istanbul in 2008. Our Istanbul office has grown incredibly quickly and is very successful. On the strength of the Istanbul business, we wanted to open another office and so we looked at all BRIC countries where we were currently doing work. And we decided that India is the strongest and the best market for us. Since the last two years we have been working in India on the New India Bank project.
And now we made a conscious decision to come here full time. We have a studio in Lower Parel, Mumbai now with a space for about 40 people. In the next three years, our major strategic goal internationally would be to build the Indian business, to achieve our business target, which are quite ambitious and to create some landmark projects in the key sectors where we operate.
We specialise in fashion, food and drink, real estate and banking. The New India bank case study would hopefully be our landmark project in banking and we are already working on four other projects, which we cannot talk about at this stage.
What makes your agency different?
We did very thorough audits of the competitors in the market before we arrived. The one USP that i-am has is that we are the only agency that offers 360 degree customer experience in design. It is not only about creating the brand and creating the environment but specifically, we also have people in the culture division. So we create the building, create the brand and find and motivate people in creative culture. That is what sets us apart. If you look at the well established agencies here and the new entrants, there are great branding agencies, advertising agencies, great architects, however, there aren’t any companies which have people in culture and that is our USP. We have a complete understanding of the 360 degree experience. In developing markets like India, the typical suppliers are usually either advertising based or architecturally based, we are right in the middle of those two to provide great solutions.
We have competitors in each of the agency in branding area. There is the Interbrand network, a great international brand, there is store design agency like Fitch , architectural firms and ad agencies. We compete with them on the certain parts of our offering. However, certainly there is none who does exactly what we do, so we hope that uniqueness gives us strength.
Why did you choose Percept as your partner?
We had a very good look at the people that we thought might want to partner with when we would launch in India. We were lucky enough to be introduced to Harindra Singh of Percept. We felt that what Percept offers perfectly complements with what we do. They are established in the market, have a perfect network and we will be able to work with many clients that they have. It is a large scale organisation and that allows us to grow much more quickly than what we would have done on our own. We have also noticed that European business that have come to India on their own haven’t really succeeded. So we thought it was essential to have a local partner who understands the culture, has good connections and can help lead us into the market. It is a 50-50 partnership and we are very confident that its a good combination.
How has branding evolved in the Indian market?
Branding as a demand is growing fast in India. Since we first started coming to India, we realised that people’s appetite for brand is increasing year-on-year. It is becoming a phrase that everybody is talking about but still the majority of people mean logo when they say ?branding?. We are on a mission to try and change the perception of what brand means. When we say brand, we mean a way of doing things and delivering a branded experience. So, the initial appetite is there and there are so many sectors in India that we work in are going through real boom period, real estate for example. And that creates demands for all the other sectors that feed off the residential/commercial property market.