Global brands must be market-sensitive

It's not every day that global brands muff things up. But on February 5, Pakistani operations of Hyundai, Kia, KFC and Pizza Hut jumped on the usual brand-wagon of commemorating special days on the calendar. Except they hashtagged Kashmir Solidarity Day, a national holiday on which Pakistan shows its 'support' for Kashmiris, including separatists, in India. You don't have to be Sun Tzu to know that for business that operates in multiple markets, especially in countries hostile to each other, this is throwing a grenade into your own compound.

In this day and age, when consumers in one corner of the world rightly reject items produced in another part of the world if they are products of child labour or animal cruelty, for a global carmaker or fast food company to be seen endorsing a 'cause' that challenges the sovereignty of another country is brainless. While the companies have been scrambling to apologise and explain to appalled Indian consumers that the social media posts were the 'unauthorised' doings of their local Pakistani partners, such buck-passing won't cut much ice in the porous world of international brand consumption. The Indian operations of the erring companies have apologised, and as rightly mentioned by commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal in Parliament on Tuesday, they have to be 'more forceful in their equivocal apology'.

It is highly unlikely that Hyundai or KFC has any stake in, or harbours any opinion on, India-Pakistan relations beyond their ability to sell cars and meals in both countries. But brands thrive by consumer perception; they are damaged by consumer perception. For the sake of their own businesses, they need to be more sensitive to popular sensibilities of their operating markets.