India's soft power as its brand asset

This paper examines the nature of India's 'soft power', arguing that this is a type of national branding, and compares India’s soft power to that of China.

India's soft power as its brand asset

Sangeeta Shrivastava and Pradeep Krishnatray

In its symbolic form, branding is about soft power; the power to evoke, not exert, the ability to attract and persuade. Undeniably, nations exhibit soft power. The USA has McDonald's, Harvard and Hollywood. Each of these symbols speaks of, and for, America. Similarly, France has fashion and cuisine, China has its sport performance and the Arab world has Al Jazeera.

Soft power has its uses. As the creator of the coinage, Harvard professor Joseph Nye, puts it: "A country's soft power rests upon the...

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands