I recently bought some picture books for my daughter that were re-published by a local publisher under license from foreign publisher. The “foods we eat” page had pictures of foods that are rarely (if ever) eaten in India. There were a few other pages where there was a big cultural mismatch and I had to buy another picture book. If the publisher had localized a few pages in the book for the Indian audience, the book would have been much more useful.

Another example: The Thali is an Indian meal with bowls containing different dishes. The Thali is pretty ubiquitous in Indian restaurants but it is localized for different geographies and locations within India. There is the North Indian Thali (more emphasis on bread and north India vegetables), the South Indian Thali (mostly rice items). There are region specific Thalis such as the Maharashtrian Thali and the Gujarati Thali. When MNC food chains started making their appearance in India about 15 years back, I noticed people coming in, asking for a Thali and leaving when told that the restaurant did not have a Thali. A repackaging of the food offerings as a Thali might have helped.

A final example: When we bought a double-door refrigerator a few years ago , the ratio of the freezer compartment to the main compartment was the most important factor in the selection. We wanted a smaller freezer as we are vegetarians and had less use for a large freezer. Only one international company had a model with a ratio close to what we wanted, so the choice was automatic.

A few years back, the gap between locally produced products and imported products in the Indian market was quite large. This gap is narrowing quite rapidly and in some sectors, the Indian products are as good as or even better than those produced in other countries. In this competitive scenario, companies that go the extra mile to introduce features that are useful in the local context or repackage their content to fit local expectations will have an edge.