Even before Goldman Sachs coined the term BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), India has been important to the global business community, and not just for those interested in outsourcing back-office functions. On May 21, 2007, the Center on Global Brand Leadership welcomed Arvind Sharma, chairman and CEO of Leo Burnett India; Harjiv Singh, cofounder and CEO of Gutenberg Communications; Hitendra Wadhwa, associate professor of professional practice in the Marketing Division at Columbia Business School; and Debera Johnson, associate professor of industrial design at the Pratt Institute to discuss the challenges of consumer branding in India. Host David Rogers, director of the Center on Global Brand Leadership, and moderator Christopher Leichty, president of the Center for Cross-Cultural Design at the American Institute for Graphic Arts, guided a discussion focusing on the challenges of marketing to a diverse group of Indian consumers who span the rural poor of Punjab to the nouveau riche of Mumbai.

As India's economic development continues and consumers become more affluent, multinational firms have expanded their efforts to introduce global product lines into the Indian market in an increasingly Western manner. How will the Indian consumer react to this phenomenon? The symposium's speakers shared many similar views in attempting to answer this question and, in doing so, presented the myriad challenges firms face in trying to develop strategies to win market share in India's complex and sophisticated market.