Dentsu and Dream Incubator Launch Solution to Support Market Entry and New Business Development in the Indian Market

Supporting the creation of "preferred" brands and business production in the rapidly growing Indian market

Dentsu Inc. (President & CEO: Takeshi Sano; Head Office: Tokyo; hereinafter "Dentsu") and Dream Incubator Inc. (President & CEO: Takayuki Miyake; Head Office: Tokyo; hereinafter "DI") today announced the launch of Go-to-India Solutions, a growth-oriented consulting solution tailored to the specific needs of the Indian market. This solution combines Dentsu's understanding of Indian society, culture, consumers and extensive local marketing and communications experience, with DI's strengths in business production nurtured through hands-on experience of venture capital (VC) investment in India. Together, the two companies have established an integrated system that provides end-to-end support from strategy proposal and development through to execution. This enables the provision of one-stop support to clients for market entry and new business creation in India.

India, a country with the world's largest population and a young, vibrant consumer base with rapidly changing values, is recognized as a market rich in growth opportunities^*1 and has attracted the attention of Japanese companies as a frontier market. At the same time, traditional business models, products, and services are increasingly losing their competitive edge due to the rapid digitalization of society and the economy. Various aspects of business are also becoming more challenging, such as market entry, supply chain development, response to newly emerging tech companies, and brand establishment. For new entrants, gathering local information and identifying partners is often challenging due to geographic diversity, coupled with language and cultural barriers, making it difficult to identify the most appropriate strategic direction.

To address these challenges, Dentsu India^*2 (a local subsidiary of Dentsu Group Inc.^*3) and DIAI India^*4 (a local subsidiary of DI) have established a proprietary support framework--"Go-to-India Solutions"--that merges the strengths of both companies. A cross-functional team with deep knowledge of the Indian market will work closely with clients to support their business growth. This solution targets companies considering entry into Indian markets in manufacturing, retail, and services, etc., those facing challenges in local establishment or monetization, as well as those seeking to restructure their business from a sustainability-oriented focus.

Since launching operations in India in 2003, dentsu has expanded to 15 locations across the country, with a workforce of approximately 2,200. By combining Dentsu India's long-standing insights into Indian society and consumers with DI's track record in Indian VC investment^*5 and strategic consulting expertise, together the two companies can accurately capture social and economic developments, technological trends, and new consumer habits in India. The solution's unique strength lies in its ability to contribute to clients' brand and business strategies, organizational development (including partnerships), and in both the verification and scaling phases.

Two key features of the solution are detailed below:

Feature 1: In-depth understanding of rapidly changing Indian consumers
To gain a clear picture of the vast Indian market, it is essential to capture every nuance of consumer behavior and advance market understanding based on hypotheses. The solution utilizes proprietary tools to analyze diverse Indian consumers.

• Example tool: Dentsu Future Mandala India Ver.
  Utilizing the Dentsu Future Mandala India Ver.^*6, users can explore future societal and consumer needs and values in India, ideating innovative products, services, and businesses to meet these needs.
  
• Example tool: AI-based Indian market and customer analysis
  Through AI-driven insight extraction, users can rapidly analyze markets and customers.
  -Using keywords related to target products and competitors, users can collect and analyze publicly available information regarding the target demographic from social media and other sources
  -Expanding AI-powered analysis to include related words to extract potential targets
  -Highlighting market characteristics through comparisons with other markets and product categories

Feature 2: Market analysis in India and support for business strategy development and execution
Based on the local insider network cultivated through VC investments, DI conducts trend analysis on social issues and digitalization in India by leveraging individual interviews with potential customers, competitors, and partners, as well as data analytics. From there, regardless of whether it's B2B or B2C, it identifies promising business opportunities suitable for Japanese client companies--and proposes hypotheses for business development, taking into account the company's capabilities, competitive landscape, and key success factors (KSFs). Drawing on an extensive track record of facilitating business and capital partnerships between local companies (including startups) and Japanese firms, as well as policy collaborations, feasible and effective partnering strategies to complement the client's capabilities are proposed. Furthermore, after the strategy is formulated, ongoing support is provided to ensure its execution and realization.

• Example service: Identification of potential business domains for entry and strategy formulation
  This includes conducting market environment analysis, value chain analysis, market potential and competitor analysis. Interviews are conducted with potential customers, competitors, and partners, to perform key success factor (KSF) analysis. Promising business opportunities are identified and evaluated, then translated into actionable plans via business modeling.
  
• Example Tool: Indian market marketing plan development framework
  This framework comprehensively synthesizes and analyzes customer insights, market environments, competition situation, and product and service strengths to clarify the marketing direction suited to specific objectives, articulating structured strategic plans from a medium- to long-term perspective.
  

Since 2024, dentsu has been fully promoting the global expansion of its Business Transformation (BX) services, which support clients' transformation and growth^*7. Based on over a decade of experience and knowledge nurtured and built in Japan, this unique growth-oriented consulting service excels in the three core areas: business transformation, corporate transformation, and sustainability strategy. Seeking to address the various challenges being faced by our clients, dentsu will continue to advance strongly the global expansion of BX to deliver optimal solutions, combining its strengths in creativity, execution, and data and technology with a marketing-oriented perspective.

*1 Population 1,438,070,000; nominal GDP US$3.5676 trillion (Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan; Japanese only at https://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/area/india/data.html).
*2 Dentsu India: https://www.dentsu.com/in/en
*3 Dentsu Group Inc.: https://www.group.dentsu.com/en/
*4 DIAI India: https://www.dreamincubator.com/in/
*5 Three unicorns among 30 portfolio companies.
*6 "Release of 'Dentsu Future Mandala 2025': Predicting 2035 Trends to Inform Future-Oriented Management Strategies" (Press release February 19, 2025; Japanese only). https://www.dentsu.co.jp/news/release/2025/0219-010848.html
*7 "Dentsu Expands Business Transformation (BX) Services Globally to Support Client Transformation" (June 18, 2024). https://www.group.dentsu.com/en/news/release/001227.html