How global businesses can enter and establish themselves in Indian markets: Decoding the 9 Steps India Market Entry Strategy

India has an international business-friendly investment policy, with 100% FDI in a host of sectors such as healthcare, pharma, textile, education, single brand retail trade, infrastructure, and much more. Even sectors such as defence and aerospace which were mostly state-controlled till recently have been opened systematically. FDI up to 74% has been allowed in the category, as India is vying to become one of the major defence producers in the world.

Add to that the multiple routes for mergers and acquisitions (M&As) between Indian and foreign entities, and we have a recipe ready to attract FDI and international M&As in the country. Besides, India features strongly on the radar of individual businesses, traders, start-ups, etc. as well. Most trade promotion agencies continue to scout opportunities in the Indian market stemming from its strong growth potential, attractive demographic dividend, and large market size.

India’s attractiveness as a sought-after investment destination also necessitates the need for a comprehensive India market entry strategy for businesses to successfully enter, grow, and scale-up in the Indian market.

We look at a robust 9-step proprietary strategy by The India Watch to enable global enterprises to enter the Indian market and establish operations over here in an efficient and effective manner. Also, as we will discuss later in greater detail, India market entry services, exclusively tailor-made for your business, can play a big role to this effect.

Market Insights

The very Indian market that your business strives to enter has its own set of characteristics, guidelines, practices, and more. Your market could be segmented in terms of geography, consumer profiling, demographics, psychographics, as well as the needs, wants, preferences, purchase habits, purchase behaviour, aspirations, and desires of the target audiences. Markets have ample opportunities for both competition and collaboration, and you can choose to disrupt your target market through the power of data-driven insights about your market. A professional India market entry consultancy company possesses the requisite expertise to help your business to this effect.

Any business needs to gather all relevant insights about the foreign market they wish to enter. Doing so would make all their decisions and moves well-informed. The nature of such insights is versatile and eclectic to say the least. Deriving such valuable insights about your market beforehand helps you know your target audience better, and would need the help of professionals such as business analyst, research analyst, market research expert, and more in order to understand your new market in a holistic, 360-degree, and end-to-end manner. And, you would certainly do well to avail focused market entry services in India to this effect.

Opportunity Scanning

There is a concrete, specific, tangible reason or opportunity that has attracted you all the way to India to increase the span of your business wings. Examples of such opportunities can be a latent / unfulfilled demand for your product or service in India, price differentiation that your product might be enjoying as compared to your local competitors, and also that you might already be an established Indian brand in some other industry or vertical.

Even the government may invite you to expand your operations to India, and any business conglomerate based in the country too can invite you to join hands under a particular partnership model. You stand to gain competitive advantage on account of one or more of economies of scale, first mover advantage, innovation advantage, cost leadership, niche segment tapping etc. A market entry services consultancy would make your transition from local land to an inclusive of foreign area seamless and smooth enough.

Consumer Surveys

Surveys can be administered online, over the phone, a face-to-face conversation, or a mix of more than one of these. Your questionnaire needs to be designed and administered in a completely objective manner in order to fetch genuine responses and an authentic voice of the consumer. Again, needless to say, experienced India market entry consultants can facilitate your overall India entry as well as carry out consumer surveys for your business in both an exclusive and exhaustive manner. Just to add, in case you are able to conduct consumer surveys in a scientific and unbiased manner, over half of your business battle / struggle is won there and then.

Feasibility Study

It’s always better to test your business (and its model) before deploying in a new market through a pilot project and/or testing your product and brand prototype. Again, you would need to avail specialized India market entry services to surpass the various barriers to entry that any new market may pose. By partnering with one such firm, you get the space to focus on your core business strategy and its execution, while your local expert partner irons out a way for you to enter and establish without losing much of time, money, effort, and resources. A feasibility study refers to the probability of the typical market consumer giving a thumbs up to your product and brand along with the intent to purchase and use it. Needless to say, mutual relationships blossoms and develops thereafter.

Company Formation Support

A credible and reliable market entry services company would render you setting up your business from scratch in the new marketplace in addition to clearing barriers to entry for your business. In a new market, your organization should be a balanced mix of local as well as foreign talent along with a capability and a resource mix of the old and the new. It takes quite a bit of time for your Indian arm to set-up and start delivering in a 100% manner. A good market entry Services Company reduces the turnaround time (TAT) associated with company formation, and makes the expansion and the transition as smooth as it can possibly get.

Distributor Identification

Just the way an electric iron helps you remove the creases and the wrinkles off your clothes, reliable market entry services in India eliminates your roadblocks and bottle-necks in a step-wise and steady manner. In case you choose to land, start, and build on your own, you run the risk of failure which could even lead to you withdrawing back your business altogether from the market. The identification of the right distributor for your product as well as the various associated online and offline channels is just one of the ways in which your market entry partner facilitates speedy expansion and transition.

Financial Planning

The right India market entry services consultancy partners with your business and the front line leaders therein to plan out your entry, set-up and growth prospects in conjunction with the physical set-up counterpart. Even a car takes 4 gear moves / steps to accelerate from zero to the desired speed as well as the rate of its increase. Likewise, the right entry partner prepares a transition blueprint in good detail, and handholds your leaders and employees to walk the way forward together, courtesy its experience as well as the local know-how. The right partner would also understand how important pro-active financial planning is for your business. Business has capital and revenue goals also associated with it, after all, and every professional employee, team and leader would have non-negotiable targets to that effect.

Growth Planning

Your India market entry consultants understand your business growth targets, projections, and associated expectations. They would earnestly join hands with you in becoming end-to-end market entry companions for your business. Our work starts right at the moment you seek professional help from us, and goes on unabated till the day you declare yourself to be an independently-functioning business entity that can thrive against all odds, irrespective of the prevalent situation locally and globally. And, growth planning is an advanced stage of your market entry that lets you sustain in the long-term once you’ve settled down and stabilized.

Media and Communication

Our India entry market services begin with market insights and research and end with making your business visible and brandable to your target audience. This final stage of concluding your market entry Is called media and communication, wherein you have done all the ground work required to let your business sustain and thrive on its own; however, resort to making your business more visible in the media, marketing channels, and elsewhere, so that your endeavour can reach (and even increase) its true potential.

All in all, all the stages are equally important to be followed by any business in its endeavour to enter and establish itself in a new market with the professional support of reliable market entry services consultancy. India is in a phase of economic advancement wherein almost no global business can afford to leave its precious markets untouched. The common consumer of India is fairly open to exploring innovative products, new services, creative brands, and much more.

How The India Watch can help in Your India Market Entry

The India Watch offers dedicated India Market Entry services to help international businesses set up and grow fast in the Indian market. It works with international businesses, larger enterprises, fair-sized enterprises, SMBs, traders & suppliers, PE players, and start-ups to facilitate their smooth entrance into the Indian market. The India Watch also works with international trade consuls, trade promotion agencies, and embassies to help their member businesses chalk out their India market entry strategy. The India Watch’s India market entry services are tailor-made as per the client’s budget, timeline and overall business objectives.

For any further business queries, feel free to drop us a mail at info@theindiawatch.com