Recently on our drive back from lunch with a couple friends we started to talk about emerging markets in particular India and China. We had a diverse and eclectic crowd to carry on a stimulating conversation on perceptions.
Some one started by asking the multicultural folks in the car what was the general opinion of the US in markets like India, China and the East in general. I thought to myself and wondered if I ever thought of that question when I lived in India? No, not really. But that may have been because I was a young student and did not spend much of my time thinking about markets instead in more interesting teenager distractions. I wondered what did my parents think of the USA, given they had traveled all over the world much before I ever got on an airplane? Again I drew a blank, guess we never discussed those kinds of things? I forced my mind to race a couple years into the future immediately after I arrived in the USA… I remember being enamored with shopping, spending making merry. Meanwhile my buddy blurted out ‘The world’s shopping mall’, ‘The world’s spenders and shoppers’… there was a moment of silence in the car while everyone ruminated and assimilated the comment. How true!
I stopped to ask what I thought were obvious answer, what do we think of India? The answer was “The world’s back office”, right on I thought… what do we think of China? “The world’s factory”, came the answer.
Perception is reality, a brand managers once told me…. how interesting!
