Ravan had ten heads.
Learned. Powerful. Rich. A Shiv bhakt.
And still lost.
Every Dussehra we burn him. And the next morning we go back to being him.
The lens here is the Bharat Quotient: DNA, Product, Story and Global. Read each head, be honest, and press Burn this head on the ones your brand has already let go. Watch the effigy above.
We usually talk about Bharat Quotient as a passport: the thing that takes Indian brands to the world. Over 25 years of boardrooms, trade-fair stalls and agency briefs, I've started to think that's only half the story.
Most Brands of Bharat lose their BQ long before they reach an airport. They lose it at home. In the boardroom, in the agency brief, in the discount calendar, in the quiet belief that "foreign" means "better".
So BQ is not something you add for export. It has to become the key driver of the brand, here first. Then it travels.
Ten heads. Five to burn at home. Five at the border. Not things to tick off. Things to discover, because Ravan never thinks he is Ravan.
At home. Making BQ the driver in Bharat
Head 1 · At homeThe Colonial Hangover
What it looks likeImported means premium. English means smart. The ad must look like it was shot in Europe. The pack has a French-sounding name and a "since 1985" in serif font. Even the founder's own family buys the foreign brand.
Discover itIn your own brand team, when someone says "make it look premium", what picture comes to their mind? Milan or Mysuru?
Let it goPremium is not foreign. Premium is care, craft and confidence. Kanjeevaram is premium. Pashmina is premium. Start believing it in your own boardroom first.
Who already burned itSugar Cosmetics made Indian skin tone the standard, not the compromise. And the warning sits on one street in Kolkata: a sixty-year-old Bengali family business that, when it wanted to go premium, named the label British Walkers.
Head 2 · At homeThe India-Only Lens (forgetting Bharat)
What it looks likeBuilt for metro India: English, apps, malls, a South Bombay idea of the customer. Meanwhile, Bharat's real growth sits in Indore, Siliguri and Coimbatore, speaking twenty languages.
Discover itIf your brand spoke only Hindi, Tamil or Bengali for one month, would it have anything to say?
Let it goBharat is not a "tier-2 market" to be conquered later. It is where your DNA lives. Brands that grew from Bharat outward kept a strength that metro-first brands keep trying to buy.
Who already burned itSixty percent of Sugar's revenue comes from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Balaji Wafers built from Rajkot, not a Mumbai marketing floor. DeHaat chose Patna over Bengaluru for its headquarters. Geography is a brand decision.
Head 3 · At homeThe Festival-Costume Bharat
What it looks likeBharat shows up in your brand for ten days a year. A diya in the Diwali ad, a kurta at Navratri, a rangoli banner. Then it's back to business as usual, which looks like any global brand.
Discover itStrip out the festival campaigns. Is there anything Bharatiya left in your product, service or story?
Let it goBQ is not a costume. It has to be in how the product is made, served, priced and told, all year. Culture as DNA, not as decoration.
Who already burned itThe Amul girl has been talking to India since 1966, about cricket, politics and potholes, 365 days a year. Her wit is Indian every single day, not only on the festival calendar. Yes, I see the irony of writing this on the eve of Dussehra. That's the point.
Head 4 · At homeThe Discount Addiction
What it looks likeSale, sale, sale. Every month has an excuse. The customer learns to wait. The brand learns to bleed. Nobody remembers why you exist, only what you cost.
Discover itIf you stopped discounting for 90 days, would your customers stay for the brand, or leave for the next offer?
Let it goValue is Bharat's strength. Affordability is part of BQ. But value comes from smart design and fair margins, not from training customers to never pay full price.
Who already burned itSreeleathers runs no discount schemes, no celebrity faces, no mall stores, and every Puja the queue outside its Lindsay Street store goes past bigger brands. Parle-G never needed a sale. It just stayed at a price families could trust, for 85 years.
Head 5 · At homeThe Me-Too and the Jugaad Ceiling
What it looks likeWatch the category leader, copy the launch, undercut by ten rupees. Quality that changes batch to batch. A brand that is really the owner's instinct with no system behind it.
Discover itName one thing your brand does that no other brand in your category, Indian or foreign, can claim. If it takes more than ten seconds, that's the head.
Let it goKeep jugaad's frugal mind, add process. Stop copying and start owning something that comes from Bharat's DNA. Consistency is respect for the customer, and that is very Bharat.
Who already burned itMinimalist owned one thing nobody else would do, ingredient percentages on the label, and was bought for ₹2,955 crore four years later. Ather spent twelve years refusing to cut a corner. Frugal is fine. Sloppy is not.
At the border. Taking BQ global, intact
On Vijayadashami, kings crossed the borders of their kingdom: Seemollanghan. For a brand, that crossing only counts if it carries its Bharat with it.
Head 6 · At the borderThe Disguise and the Dilution
What it looks likeFor abroad, change the name, drop the Hindi, cut the spice, remove the ritual. You arrive global, and your DNA stays home. What's left is an average product among a thousand average products.
Discover itCover the logo. Could this belong to a brand from any country? List every overseas change you made: which made it easier to use, and which made it less you?
Let it goToyota never pretended to be American. Adapt the format, never the soul. Remove the friction, keep the flavour.
Who already burned itHaldiram's bhujia stayed thin, the recipe stayed Rajasthan, and it still made it to Tesco. Sabyasachi showed Benarasi brocade in Paris exactly as it is, unadapted. The world didn't need it diluted. It needed it confident.
Head 7 · At the borderThe Diaspora Comfort
What it looks likeYou go "global" and land on the ethnic aisle of an Indian store in New Jersey or Dubai. Sales come, pride comes, but the world never met you.
Discover itWhat share of your overseas buyers are not of Indian origin? If you don't know, that's your answer.
Let it goUse the diaspora as the launch pad, not the market. Design the next shelf for the person who has never heard of you.
Who already burned itiD Fresh let the diaspora pull its dosa batter abroad, which is the right launch pad. Vahdam went one step further: 100-plus countries and Oprah's Favourite Things list. That's not the ethnic aisle. That's the world meeting Darjeeling under an Indian name.
Head 8 · At the borderThe Golden Latte Trap: letting someone else brand your DNA
What it looks likeYoga became a global wellness industry, and much of it is branded outside Bharat. Haldi doodh went abroad as the "golden latte". In June 2025 Prada walked toe-ring leather sandals down a Milan runway, and every Indian knew they were Kolhapuris. Our DNA travels. Our brands don't.
Discover itIs someone abroad already selling your category's Indian idea better than you? Search it. It hurts.
Let it goDomino's sells Italian food to the world and stays American. Bharat has to own its own ideas first: the name, the story, the proof. Don't wait for a foreign house to discover you.
Who already burned itVahdam took India's tea out of colonial auction houses and put an Indian brand on the box. We grew it, we ship it, we brand it. (More on this in Tata Bought Tetley. Darjeeling Is Still Waiting.)
Head 9 · At the borderHeritage Without Proof
What it looks like"5000 years of wisdom." Every Indian brand says it. A buyer in Berlin hears marketing, not truth. Ayurveda with no testing, "handmade" with no traceability, "natural" with no certificate.
Discover itCan you prove every claim on your pack to a sceptical foreign regulator? Which line would you quietly delete?
Let it goTurn heritage into evidence: tests, GI tags, artisan names, sourcing maps. A true story still has to be provable. Darjeeling guards its name for a reason.
Who already burned itHimalaya put neem and ashwagandha through clinical trials and now sells in 100-plus countries. Kapiva traces every herb from meadow to bottle. Our grandmother was right. Now show the paper.
Head 10 · At the borderThe Sold Soul and the Arrogance
What it looks likeTwo opposite heads on one neck. One: growth capital or a foreign partner arrives, and slowly the decisions move away from the people who understood the DNA. The name stays Indian, the brand doesn't. Two: "We are the oldest civilisation, the world should come to us." Pride without curiosity.
Discover itWho in your boardroom keeps the brand's Bharat-ness safe? And when a foreign customer says "I don't get it", do you change your story or blame them?
Let it goWrite your BQ down: what never changes, whoever owns the shares. And remember Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. The world is one family, so speak its language without losing yours.
Who already burned itHaldiram's took money from Abu Dhabi and Singapore, and the bhujia didn't change. Capital is not the enemy. Forgetting what you'll never sell is.
The BQ test, at home and abroad
| BQ layer | At home: is BQ driving the brand? | At the border: is BQ intact? |
|---|---|---|
| DNA | Do we believe Bharat-made can be premium? (Head 1) | Will they still know it comes from Bharat? (Heads 6, 10) |
| Product | Is it consistent and truly ours, not a copy? (Head 5) | World-class without diluting what makes it ours? (Head 6) |
| Story | Is Bharat in the brand all year, in every language? (Heads 2, 3) | Can a stranger believe it in one line, with proof? (Head 9) |
| Global | Do customers stay for the brand, not the discount? (Head 4) | Reaching the world, not just Indians abroad, and owning our own ideas? (Heads 7, 8) |
If BQ isn't driving the brand in Bharat, it won't survive the flight. And if it drops at the border, you haven't gone global. You've just gone abroad.
Ravan didn't fall because Ram was stronger. He fell because he couldn't see his own heads.
- Count your heads this week. Put the ten "Discover it" questions to your own team, not your agency. Be honest about how many you're still carrying.
- Burn one at home before you book a stall abroad. The border heads only make sense once BQ is driving the brand in Bharat.
- Write your BQ down. One page: what never changes, whoever owns the shares, whichever market you enter.
Burn five at home. Burn five at the border. What's left is a Brand of Bharat.
Which head is your brand still carrying? And tell me if I've missed an eleventh.
Shubh Vijayadashami. 🏹
— Gaurav
Sources and notes
- Vijayadashami falls on Tuesday, 20 October 2026 (Drik Panchang). Seemollanghan, the crossing of the border, is among the day's traditional rituals.
- Brand examples are drawn from the Brands of Bharat series: Sugar Cosmetics' Tier 2/3 revenue share; Hindustan Unilever's ₹2,955 crore acquisition of Minimalist (2025); Prada's June 2025 toe-ring sandals and its later MoU with LIDCOM and LIDKAR; Sreeleathers' no-discount, no-mall model; Haldiram's investment from Alpha Wave and Temasek; Vahdam on Oprah's Favourite Things; Himalaya's clinically tested formulations.
- "Who already burned it" examples are illustrative, my read of each brand, not audited assessments.
Which heads is your brand carrying?
Score it on DNA, Product, Story and Global in two minutes, then talk to the Soulworks team about building it.
Get your brand's BQ, then let's build itAlso: The Bharat Quotient framework · Tata Bought Tetley. Darjeeling Is Still Waiting. · From UPI to the DigiPay Stack · The Bharat Quotient — India's New Growth Metric