Avantgarde launches India operations on Tuesday

Avantgarde, the experiential marketing company based in Munich, Germany is completing their BRIC strategy by entering into the Indian market. It will be their 12th international office. The EUR 88 million company, which was founded in 1985 has appointed Isabelle-Jasmin Roth, 27, as the Managing Director of Avantgarde India. Avantgarde globally has clients including Audi , BMW, Nike, Nokia, O2, Porsche, Puma, Sony, Vodafone, Volkswagen, Wrigley.  BT's Dearton Thomas Hector caught up with her over a cup of Cafe Latte. Edited excerpts:

Q. Tell us about your plans for India.
A. We are trying to scout local trends, locations. We will be helping companies to position themselves. In India, where you have an average age of people younger than 25, they will be the target customers for many companies in the next ten years when they have purchasing power of their own to buy their own cars, etc. Lot of international companies don't know approach them. Our mission is to create fans for brands.

Q. Why did you choose India as the last among the BRIC (Brazil, India, Russia, China) nations in which to set up an office?
A. That's interesting. We didn't choose it as the last. It was a difficult to open an office here. The first BRIC market to open was China seven years ago. Then Russia came up and Brazil came up and in India, we were trying to open an office for a year now. I have been living in India for the last, almost four years. But when you are a foreigner and you want to do business, it is difficult. The market is unique and different from any other BRIC market. Indian consumers are price conscious and quality conscious. So, it is difficult for a foreign company to develop a business model for that.

Q. Are you in talks with new clients?
A. The good thing is Avantgarde is such a strong and solid brand name and a lot of clients know us already. So, I don't think it will be too difficult to get in to the pitches soon. Because many key companies like Audi, Mercedes, BMW are already working with us in other markets and they were actually waiting for us to come.

Q. What do you think about the competition?
A. A few international companies have already tied up with the event management companies like Wizcraft, Showbiz, which is fine. But most of the Indian companies don't have a strategic focus like Avantgarde has. Our value addition is in the content and development of the concepts and high class execution which would be stress free for the clients. Obviously we are more expensive and let's see how it works.

Q. What kind of investments have you made in India already?
A. We have kept investments very low to cut costs. The main investments are for the office infrastructure and the rest we do with our laptops and brains.