Brands that are "So Indian"

I have never found out the root of this fallacy. But for a long time (until during my college life) , I thought that these brands were Indian. I had grown up with them , lived with them and they were so inherently part of my life that I presumed they were Indian.

1. Hindustan Lever Ltd : Their brands are there everywhere . For as long as we knew we had used Hamam ( Earlier a TOMCO product later HLL bought it) , Rin,Surf,Bru ( Plus add a lot more...) .Btw, Unilever set up its first Indian subsidiary in 1931 and HLL was formed by merger of 3 subsidiaries in 1956.

2. Bata : Shoes meant Bata . Period. The fact that Bata started in Czechslovakia almost a century ago was news to me :-)

3. HMV : My world of Rafi,Kishore,Mukesh,Lata,Asha centered on my huge collection of HMV Cassettes. In fact , I thought HMV stood for " Hindustan Music Video" until I discovered the EMI Connection and " His Master's Voice" . Though the Indian subsidiary was later bought over by RPG group (in 1985) , the golden age of Hindi film music (50's to 70's ) was courtesy it beng EMI,UK subsidiary.

4. Colgate : I have been a staunch loyalist and should qualify for some air miles awards or something :-) Colgate India was incorporated in 1937 .

All these firms were early entrants to India , localized themselves very well , respected the indian consumer and gave them what they wanted and contributed to the society. So its no surprise that they consistently figure in the Annual top 10 Indian brands .

So, is there a lesson here for all those foreign firms wanting to enter India ?