What Does It Take to Build a Successful Brand in India?

Learn the key steps to build a strong brand in India’s competitive market. Discover how brand stories drive growth, loyalty, and recognition, with insights from successful Indian D2C brands.

Brands aren’t built overnight—or even in just a few years. Think about the most enduring brands you know, like Coca-Cola and Pepsi. These giants have spent decades ingraining themselves in the public consciousness, creating legacies that stand the test of time.

However, the era in which brands like Pepsi and Coke grew was very different. They relied heavily on traditional media—newspapers, radio, and television—to establish their presence. Today, the landscape has shifted dramatically, with social media becoming the primary battleground for standing out.

This shift places immense pressure on early-stage companies, especially those that haven’t even launched their products yet. These days, businesses must start shaping their brand identity from the very beginning of their journey. For brands in India, this journey is even more complex, as they must navigate unique market dynamics, cultural diversity, and evolving consumer behaviors to carve out their space in a competitive marketplace.

There’s no doubt that India is a competitive marketplace now. Take just the D2C (direct-to-consumer) slice of the Indian ecosystem for example. In the last five years, this segment has seen significant growth with estimates indicating that there are now over 900 D2C brands operating across various sectors such as fashion, grocery, healthcare, and cosmetics.

With the Indian ecosystem worth about $350 million today and has held its own as the third largest startup ecosystem in the world. Given the hypercompetitive phase the Indian startup ecosystem is in, it’s important to understand what is needed to build the brands we see today.

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Defining a brand story

To put it simply, a brand story must evoke a sense of emotion or recall the moment you see it. It should also have the dual purpose of connecting emotionally with its audience and going beyond slogans or advertising. Like for instance, the brand Surreal. Surreal’s been able to generate success through social media… they have been able to crack a section of the audience that they haven’t been able to crack through their marketing.

Thought provocation is the epicentre of what Surreal does as a brand, according to its founder Kit Gammel. “Surprise is about 90 per cent of our marketing,” he said. Gammel flipped Surreal’s narrative to be more crude and honest as compared to the positioning of other cereal brands in the market that have more light, uplifting, positioning which helped it stand out as a brand in the crowded cereal market. Surreal has also done several strategic partnerships like with Gymshark—which allowed both brands to position themselves strongly in their respective markets.

It also made cereal an attractive proposition for adults, thus giving it an edge and a solid brand story. Arjun Singh the founder of Gully Labs, for instance, cites the lack of a communicative brand in India as one of his key drivers for starting Gully Labs, a premium sneaker brand based in New Delhi.

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With his own brand he says, he attempts to move away from the commodity-based approach to retail to being focused on every little detail—from the details mentioned on the website, to how the buying process is.“Our product, design, placement, and communication all aim to convey a narrative,” Arjun notes, emphasizing that he continues to engage with consumers who inquire about purchasing his products, highlighting that his brands offer customers a premium experience.

How can brand stories drive growth

Perhaps the strongest metric that a good brand story can drive is loyalty and recognition. For instance, Mobile Premier League’s IPL campaigns in 2021, allowed itself to be positioned as a premium spot for real-money gaming in the country. Logan Paul and KSI, two YouTubers who are the face behind Prime Energy, for instance, are a great example of how a strong brand story can drive growth.

As staple faces across many people’s YouTube channels, each of them leveraged the authenticity that they built on their channel to drive consumers to their suite of products from food to beverages. Being spread across these different product types allows them to further generate visibility for their YouTube channel. The duo had been able to catapult Prime to great heights—with the drink beating out Gatorade for the first time at Walmart in sales.

Content to commerce strategies that are used by brands like the ones kicked off by Logan Paul and KSI are increasingly becoming the norm. Particularly for Indian brands, as the country looks to target the next wave of consumers getting onto the internet—around 918 million—to be exact.

For Indian brands, this model presents a significant opportunity to tap into the rapidly expanding internet user base, positioning themselves to capture the attention and loyalty of millions in the digital-first economy.

This aside, if you’re just starting out and looking to put in place your brand story, here’s a quick checklist you can consider as well as some brands you can look to for inspiration:

• Think about your purpose very closely- Like for instance, Surreal Surreal wanted to create a cereal that resonates with adults who have outgrown traditional sugary cereals but still crave the flavours and fun of their childhood favourites.
• What you’re going to do to propagate your purpose- For instance, in the case of Prime Energy Logan Paul and KSI have leverage their YouTube content and fanbase to sell their drinks.
• Conduct a quick competition analysis-
• Invest in good resources to build out your vision and brand