For India Inc., wooing Indian customers online is the top priority. They see the current opportunities and potential rewards of reaching out to India’s online population. According to recent statistics released by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the online ad market has been expanding at a stellar pace; it has registered a more than a 400 percent increase, starting from around INR 0.58 billion in 2004 to its estimated size of INR 2.8 billion in 2007–2008. Describing the urban Indian customer as being hooked on the net is an understatement.

Technology is empowering individuals and consumers are developing a renewed sense of agency through online communities and social networking. Understandably, Indian companies are reinvigorating their online marketing strategies. From internet marketing to online promotion, the medium has become the ideal platform for building brands as well as sustaining corporate reputations. At a recent conference on Digital Marketing held in India, Vikram Sakhuja, Chief Operating Officer, Group M, South Asia, said, “The Big Switch has happened. We are moving from the age of interruption to the age of engagement.” There is an increasing movement towards a more engaged culture, which has been inspired by the Internet. Customers are no longer passively consuming content. They are now initiating dialogues and proactively providing feedback, which has the potential to make or break brands and corporate reputations.

A lot of Indian enterprises are focusing on digital marketing to consolidate their online presence and by extension ensure that their brands don’t miss out on the wealth of opportunity provided by online media. Taking the particular example of ICICI bank, the organization has been leveraging the medium both to acquire customers as well as to build its corporate brand. In 2000, only 2 percent of its transactions took place on the Internet. Through the years, despite the rapid growth in the bank’s transactions (which has easily increased fivefold), today 18 percent of its transactions are taking place online.

Tina Singh, Head of Corporate Brand, ICICI Bank, observes, “Branding becomes a by-product of acquiring customers.” This approach is an interesting contrast to Sunsilk’s www.sunsilkgangofgirls.com initiative, which was started to build the brand as opposed to driving sales directly. The website was launched with the idea of creating an everlasting relationship with young girls by building the largest community of girls online. The website has been a huge success, with over 200 million hits, and has transformed the brand’s image. Sunsilk shampoo was perceived to be a brand that catered to housewives and older working women, not a brand for the young, fun-loving, and stylish.

Sharat Jain, CEO, Dentsu Media Pallette, says, “To build a brand, we have to move from advertising to content.” He highlights the convergence of media, more appropriately called “Media Meshing,” where one form of media complements and drives the other. The Internet success stories of brands from India reinforce the wisdom of Jain’s “content” strategy, whereby he prioritizes advertising over content. Sunsilkgangofgirls.com was actively promoted through advertisements both on the radio as well as television with the now famous punchline “Girls just wanna have fun!” Media meshing becomes particularly interesting because consumers today believe in processing content themselves. The Internet has provided them with the tools to validate company messages and claims before making a purchase decision.

The Internet has also brought about the compelling phenomenon of online communities in Indian business and culture. These communities are helping to close the gap between simply advertising products and selling products. They offer companies the advantages of valuable consumer insights and the opportunity to transform that information into business knowledge. Word of mouth has become a powerful channel not only for sales, but equally for brand building in the marketplace.

The youth of 21^st century urban India exemplify the growing significance of the Internet and social networking in the lives of individuals. HP’s latest punchline, “The computer is personal again,” resonates with a whole generation of people from the Indian metropolis. As this generation navigates away from the old world modes of socializing at family get-togethers and social functions, they are using newer forms of communication and networking, like the Orkuts and the Hi 5s of this world. As individual lifestyles adopt a world of 9–12 hour working days, the traditional chat at office coolers has changed to “hanging out” on Orkut during that much-deserved break during work. Socializing with one’s peer group or other interest groups online has become more the norm than an exception. So while more personal and traditional ways of socializing and sharing opinions at family gatherings and social functions exist in the lesser developed semi-urban towns, the online identity of individuals is becoming increasingly critical in the lives of Indians in urban areas. This change has fuelled the need for Indians to share insights and opinions online as they derive a sense of empowerment through expression, whether done casually by leaving comments on opinion boards, via Orkut communities, or pursued in a structured manner by taking up venues such as blogging and podcasting.

According to a recent survey conducted by the Internet and Mobile Association of India, 93 percent of respondents expressed a willingness to recommend a product or service to other users online. These figures reflect a fascinating aspect of consumer behavior. Net-savvy consumers in India consist of proactive researchers who can make potent brand ambassadors. Average consumers have become agents as well as activists. Companies in India are changing their attitudes upon realizing that brand building is not simply a by-product of online sales. Indian companies need to have a more sophisticated understanding and evolved approach to the online medium. A mere online presence is not enough in the Internet world. If Indian companies truly desire to establish a strong brand, they need to capitalize on media meshing and other modern brand building strategies, as the “gang of girls” initiative proved.

A profound consequence of this development has been the sweeping reprioritizing that the old guards in Indian marketing has been forced to bring about in their methodology. Customer feedback that was once confined to archaic paper-based questionnaires managed by agencies hired by corporations has given way to a much more dynamic and liberated ecosystem. The end users, thanks to the online platforms, now have the freedom to recommend or criticize products/services/brands at their own time and convenience. And this growing voice being exercised by consumers is changing not only how business is practiced in India, but culture as well.