With our PM urging all fellow citizens to "be vocal for local" has created a spark in the country. He encouraged domestic production and urged everyone to consume local goods more. Very quickly, many local and global brands started rolling out creative ads to stand out and gain some emotional quotient. 

Before deep diving, we should define what does a local or global brand mean. Let's take Bata, a household name in the footwear market. But surprisingly, it was founded in the Czech Republic and is headquartered in Switzerland. Yet, it's subsidiary Bata India was incorporated in 1931 in Calcutta and is in fact listed in NSE. Also, all the shoes are locally manufactured here. On the other hand, if we speak about Paragon, another leading footwear manufacturer, it started out from Kerala and then dominated the Indian sub-continent. It also outsourced productions to various parts of the country. So, now the question comes, how would you categorize both the brands. There are various other brands, for example, HUL which boasts of global DNA but is a complete local. 

During the ongoing lockdown, we are witnessing that this period has turned out a boon for local brands, given the non-availability of big brand products in many areas. After a surge in market demand for items like sanitizers, hand wash, masks, food items, many local brands were quick to act for gaining their new customers. With the advantage of local production, getting permissions from local bodies and having a shorter transportation cycle has made their supply chain good enough to make the products available to the general mass. Secondly, customers during these hard times are now flexible in their choices as they can't comprise on essential items. Also, retailers can ask for a good percent share from local brands, which they couldn't do before, as global brands have their loyal customer base which they have accumulated over a period of time.

Off late with the rise and growth of swadeshi brands like Patanjali, riding on better town and rural demand which scared many big FMCG companies, the purchase was driven by low prices and emotions at large. But will this pattern continue across all industry verticals? Or would a customer take a rational decision based on value proposition? Experts feel the behavioural change for going vocal for local may not change much. When we all are highly concerned about health and safety, consumers will not prefer less trusted brands, rather they would become more rational in making choices.

The PM's message was not to boycott global brands, rather trying to shift our country's service-based economy to a manufacturing one, and not heavily rely on imports. Going forward, every local and global brand has equal opportunity to make the most out of this situation be it be improving the supply chain efficiency, increasing the local manufacturing and communicating the right message to the audience about what their brand stands for. Ultimately, the product/services will always remain the king.

P.S - During this lockdown, since some top brand products were not available, here is the list of alternatives that I tried :

1. AMUL - Milky Mist
2. Kissan Jam - Mapro
4. Uncle Chips - Balaji Wafers