Namaste, Sata Sri Akal, Aadab, Vanakkam, Tashi Delek!

Over five hundred cities, eight thousand towns, 6.5 lakh villages and 1.39 billion people speaking 19500 different dialects! North vs South, East vs West, Metro vs Non-metro- the bifurcations are endless. In such a diverse country, a brand cannot have one single strategy to connect with masses.

The Bharat market, especially the rural region, emerged as the shining knight amid the lockdowns as it drove the consumption and kept the engine of the economy moving. In fact, the rural economy contributes 25-30% to the GDP of India and the rural consumption of FMCG goods expanded 58% Y-o-Y, twice the urban consumption, during the quarter ended September 2021.
With rising income levels, changing lifestyle, habits, taste, increasing literacy level and increasing expectations, there are abundant growth opportunities that are emerging out of the tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

The age-old perception of the Bharat market and consumers driven only by agriculture without much purchasing power is fast diminishing too as big bosses across Seattle, Mountain View and San Francisco are huddling through informal trade channels to establish themselves for the Bharat customers. Local players of the market are taking on the global giants forcing them to think more Bharat centric.

The region is undergoing massive transformation on the back of digital penetration and increasing internet connectivity. It has been often said that the next billion internet users will come from the Bharat market and is beginning to prove right.

While metros will remain a staple for brands, increasing a rural footprint will be critical for volumes in the long run. And after waking up to Bharat reality, brands and marketers need a proactive approach to capture the rural market.

ET BrandEquity is keen to aid brands and marketers in analysing and strategizing their way forward in the Bharat market. In order to further delve into the subject, ET BrandEquity is organising the inaugural edition of the Brand Bharat Summit on 27th January 2022, to discuss the opportunities and challenges ahead of brands to cater to the demands of the Bharat audience.

Tune into the Brand Bharat Summit as leaders from regional and national brands will be under one roof to share their tried and tested winning strategies for the Bharat marketplace.

The event will begin with a stellar keynote address by Suresh Narayan, Chairman and Managing Director, Nestle who will talk about how brands and businesses can decode the opportunities that the digital Bharat offers. The summit will also have keynotes from other notable thought leaders like Acharya Balkrishna, MD, Patanjali; Chandubhai Virani, Founder and MD, Balaji Wafers, Amit Kumat, CEO and MD, Prataap Snacks and CS Ghosh, MD & CEO, Bandhan Bank.

The summit will witness multiple sessions including keynotes, panel discussions, fireside chats and standalone sessions covering multiple facets of unlocking the Bharat potential such as mapping consumer journey, devising region specific content marketing strategies, many Bharats within one Bharat, fighting global players while being local player and many other subjects.

Here’s a sneak peek into some of the sessions:

1. Catering to the Bharat Narrative

How businesses are creating their local market narratives and strategising their go-to-market content strategy building on the larger perspective of the Bharat Audience.

2. Unbundling the new Bharat with Data and Digital

Digital penetration is fast growing in the non-metro region on the back of increasing connectivity and affordable data rates. Bharat Consumers are increasing sampling and subscribing to new age digital services and products and are keen to seek new experiences. Amid such a transformation, how are brands understanding this set of consumers with the help of data and technology.

3. Vocal for Local – The key to effective content marketing strategy in 2022

In the new Bharat, consumer expectations are rising and brands are aiming to capture different target segments in ways like never before. Changes in purchasing patterns, media consumption, and the ever-evolving mediums, have led homegrown brands to experiment with their marketing strategies and shift the landscape towards being vocal for locals. How can brands create thought leadership and informational content which empowers the audience?

4. Creating the Bharat Metaverse: From Gaming to Currency to entertainment

As per data, India has approximately 440m gamers, 100 million edtech and 20 million crypto users with a sizable number of these consumers hailing from the Bharat market. These categories are fast growing but interestingly they are recording a very strong response from the Bharat region. The consumers here are investing in digital currencies, and ready to subscribe to edtech courses and gaming products. Today, brands across these products are predicting a sizable revenue generation from the Bharat region in the near future.

The event will see a wide variety of speakers from some of the renowned Bharat brands such as Patanjali, Balaji Wafers, Bandhan Bank, Vi-John, Dukes India, Coin DCX, Cremica, Motherdairy, Hamdard, V-Mart, Khadim, Cycle Agarbathi, Dabur, Aakash, Kutchina, Bisleri, Goldiee Masala, Madhav KRG Limited, Snapdeal, Emami, Bisleri, Aakash Education, Meesho, Spice Money, BharatPe, BFIL, Mahindra Finance, WinZo, Tata Communications and many more.

Some of the other key speakers are Namrata A. Chotrani, CEO, Khadim; Arjun Ranga, CEO & Managing Director, Cycle Pure Agarbathi; Sudeep Goenka, Director, Goldiee Group; Manish Bandlish, Managing Director, Mother Dairy; Akshay Bector, Chairman and MD, Cremica; Sudhir Goyal, Managing Director, Madhav KRG Group; Namit Bajoria, Managing Director, Kutchina; Lalit M. Agarwal, Chairman and Managing Director, V-Mart; Krishna Mohan Nyayapati, Director, Emami Agrotech; Anjana Ghosh, Director- Marketing and Business Development, Bisleri; Himanshu Chakrawarti, President, Snapdeal; Arvind Kumar, CEO, Dukes; Rajiv Dubey, Head of Media, Dabur; Dilip Kumar Modi, Founder, Spice Money; Aakash Chaudhry, MD and Co-Promoter, Aakash Institute; Suman Varma, Chief Marketing Officer, Hamdard; Suhail Sameer, CEO, BharatPe; Karan Bedi, CEO, MX Player; Megha Agarwal, Head of Growth, Meesho; Ritesh Chatterjee, Chief Distribution Officer, Bharat Financial Inclusion Limited; Anand Dubey, Head- Marketing, Mahindra Finance; Ramalingam Subramanian, Head of Brand Marketing and Communications, Coin DCX; Saumya Singh Rathore, Co-Founder, Winzo; Dippak Khurana, CEO & Co-Founder, Vserv; Ajit Varghese, Chief Commercial Officer, ShareChat; Beerud Sheth, Co-Founder and CEO, Gupshup; Akshay Mathur, Chief Revenue Officer, Tyroo; Saugata Bagchi, Head- Global Digital and Content Marketing, TATA Communications; Babita Baruah, Regional Client Lead, WPP; Santosh Desai, MD and CEO, Futurebrands Consulting.

This summit will be a great experience for the audiences as well as the industry who stand to interact and learn from some of the respected Bharat Brands.

The first edition of ET BrandEquity Brand Bharat Summit has been very well supported by the industry with Vserv as Presenting Partner, ShareChat as Powered by Partner, GupShup as Gold Partner, MX Player as OTT Partner, and VConfex as Event Tech Partner.

You can register here for the summit.

https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/microsite/bbs?ag=cr3