You always hear about “India versus Pakistan” popularly in cricket matches but now it’s India versus its own synonym Bharat. This topic came into light during early 2020, when a plea for renaming India as Bharat was raised. However, according to a Chief Justice of India, Bharat and India are both names given in the Constitution. India is already called ‘Bharat’ in the Constitution”, while the petitioner said that India originates from a Greek word ‘Indica’, which does not closely relate to our country, while Bharat has been registered in the minds of people since ages. The appropriate decision still lies in the hands of the Supreme Court.
Since the digital world rotates around the usage of country terms whether in the form of Domains, Keywords, Content, Promotions, and much more. The question here is “Which Term will help you in your Digital Marketing usage – India or Bharat?”
How will the overall approach of digital marketing and branding shift if Bharat becomes a more prominently used term in our daily lives?
Let’s understand the impact of Bharat on all the key digital marketing elements:
Search Engine Optimization:
SEO is the heart of digital marketing and search terms play a vital role in connecting your audience with your website. The search term ‘Bharat’ will hugely impact the keyword research and selection process of SEO.
For instance, for a Digital Marketing agency, ‘SEO Company India’, ‘Digital Marketing India”, ‘Marketing Services in India’, these keywords have a massive search volume and are highly competitive, so ranking for these terms becomes difficult.
Instead, companies can start integrating terms replacing India with Bharat – ‘SEO Company Bharat‘, ‘Digital Marketing Bharat’ and ‘Marketing Services in Bharat’ into their content, which might not be as competitive at the moment and are easier to rank.
Social Media Management/Optimization:
Social media is all about the creation of eye-catching creatives, concepts and campaigns that directly relate to audiences. Below are a few social media elements that will definitely change:
Hashtags – The most popular hashtags #IncredibleIndia #Indiatourism #Indianarmy #Indiaphotography will have their variations like #Incrediblebharat #Bharattourism #Bharatarmy #bharatphotography.
Creative Campaigns – Social media content creation and images will be more inclined towards presenting traditional elements and might also include taglines and slogans in ‘Hindi’.
Paid Advertising:
Paid Campaigns are focused on a very specific targeting and key terms and factors such as Ad copies, location targeting, keyword bids (CPC), play a very important role in the success of any campaign. The search queries will change to “keyword + Bharat”, the Ad Copy and landing pages will also include Bharat specific keywords. However, there won’t be a high search volume for Bharat related terms initially, but paid marketers can still take advantage of the low bids and CPC.
Let’s take a look at the bigger picture –
How will Bharat impact the Advertisers and Brands.
- Domain Extensions
The standard domain extension for India is .in, however, extension such as .bh or .bt can be introduced as variations.
- Website Names
Popular domains such as Indianrailways.gov.in, economictimes.indiatimes.com might also introduce domains like bharatrails.gov.in, bharatnews.in, etc. Where it is very difficult to acquire Domain names for your websites that contain India, you can easily spot and buy domain names with Bharat and leverage it before your competition does it.
- Re-branding Possibilities
Many popular brands might consider re-branding by giving a twist to their brand logos, brand messages and slogans
For example – ‘Amul- the taste of India’ might tweak their tagline as ‘Amul – the taste of Bharat”. Bank of Baroda – India’s International Bank’ can change to ‘Bank of Baroda – Bharat’s International Bank’.
- New Branding Opportunities
Startups and fresh brands can name their brand including ‘Bharat’ for a national reach. New emerging local brands can leverage their marketing by using Bharat instead of India.
Although this is not official but advertisers digital marketers are definitely gearing up for this potential change which may have a huge impact on their approach, strategy and messaging.
Lastly, we would like to know your feedback on how would you change your branding and marketing strategy if this big change is implemented officially?
Comment and Share your thoughts!
