Marketing Strategy : How to Create Brand Experience

Creating Brand Experience

Originally Published here in Adclubbombay

We are living in an experiential society. The consumers are moving towards selecting products based on experiential factors and marketers have the opportunity to sell products at a premium if the product is able to deliver the right kind of experience.

Bernd Schmitt in his book Customer Experience Management: A revolutionary Approach to Connecting with Your Customers; has defined customer experience management as the process of strategically managing a customer’s entire experience with a product or a company. Experiential marketing aims to engage the consumers so that he gets a complete experience of the product or service. Rather than depending on features, brands are looking at ways to deliver a holistic experience to the consumer.

There are many factors that drive this experience economy. Consumers are now armed with lot of information. This information has made many a differentiation irrelevant. Hence more than the product’s features, consumers tend to evaluate products based on their experience with the product and the company.

Marketers earlier had tried to create brand experience through standalone promotional activities. These activities were short-term and were intended to give a peek into the brand’s projected experience. But the situation now demands that the brand deliver its experience every time the consumer makes a contact with the brand or the company.

In this period where product feature based differentiation is hard to sustain, marketers must create a brand experience which can act as a sustainable differentiation platform.

Understand consumer’s world.

The first task for the marketer is to thoroughly understand the consumer’s world. Consumers live their experience from their own world. Hence when the marketers try to create brand experiences it should resonate with the consumer’s own world.

Brands which target children practice this principle very effectively. Take the example of Cadbury’s Diary Milk Wowie. The brand takes the kids through a chocolate world where the hero Mickey Mouse helps the kids to enjoy the chocolate world and protect them from harm. This fantasy world appeals to the kids intensely and the level of involvement of kids in this campaign is very high.

Be Relevant

Another critical factor for creating effective brand experience is the relevancy of the experience. For creating relevant brand experiences, marketers must get inside the life of a customer. In the highly insightful book “The Game Changer” P&G CEO: A G Lafley describes the importance of understanding the life of the consumers. P&G made it compulsory for its marketing team to involve deep into their consumers life so that they could come out with products that made their life easier.

Credible

The brand experiences that marketers create should be authentic and credible. Fantasy works best for children but for adults, the experience must be based on realism. The promise has to be delivered. This calls for the organization to be highly customer centric.

Kingfisher Airlines created a very meaningful credible experience by making the most of customer touch points. The ushers who helps the traveller at the entrance of the airport to the cabin services and food served created a new brand experience for the travellers.

Memorable

Consumers should cherish the experiences created by the brand in their memories. The experience should appeal both to the rational and emotional mind of the consumer. Catering to the emotional self of the consumer will help the brand to build attachment with the consumer. Appealing to the rational self will enhance the credibility.

Asian Paints in its clutter breaking campaign “ Har Rang Kuch Kahta Hain “achieved both these objectives. The campaign touched the emotional chord with the consumers and also appealed to the rational mind of the consumers. The brand made the experience more rational by launching sample packs where the consumers can paint a portion of the wall to see how the colour will actually look like.

Involve

It is absolutely important for a brand to involve the consumers in any brand related activity if it wants to create a complete experience. The popularity of internet has opened many opportunities for the brand to involve the consumers. The brand can motivate consumers to sign up in an online community, visit the website or play games, share experience etc.

Brands can create involvement offline too. Kinder Joy has a unique method of creating a brand experience by bundling its chocolate with a surprise gift. Kids eat the chocolate and play with the toy and it created a unique brand experience for them which compel them to buy more.

Brands can create involvement by devising interesting brand rituals. Kitkat smartly taught its consumers a unique ritual of eating KitKat. Consumers willingly adopted this brand ritual making the experience of eating Kitkat unique. Brands can extend the involvement with the consumers by introducing memorabilia and collectables which will further enhance the brand experience.

Marketing Strategy : The Art of Story Telling

The Art of Story Telling

Originally published here at Adclubbombay.com

Branding is the art of story telling. Successful brands are those who tell stories that catch the imagination of the consumers. More compelling the story is- the more customers will love the brand.

Lux for the past 75 years has been telling the story of Bollywood beauties. Dettol has been telling stories of fighting germs and Johnson & Johnson continue telling stories about the love between mother and child.

Story telling is a difficult task and that explain the reason why many brands fail to succeed in the market. Story telling is different from advertising. Advertising helps communicate the stories to the audience but brands have to first build a compelling story.

Take the case of Santoor. This is one of the first brands to tell a story of a beautiful mother mistakenly identified as a young girl because of her younger looking skin. The theme has been consistently reinforced by the brand through various advertisements. The story was compelling, realistic and easy to understand.

Brand stories are not a standalone complete story. The brand story does not have an ending. It is evolving and continuing.

Theme

Stories should have a compelling theme. In order for the story to be compelling, then the theme should be powerful and relevant to the consumers. In the case of Santoor, the story theme was based on the consumer insight that beauty is often associated with younger looking skin. The entire brand story was based on this premise. Axe deo brand has been telling stories of how women chase men who are using Axe. Men like the theme of getting chased by women. Axe was told a compelling story of how ordinary men got chased by beautiful women.

Relevant

Stories should be relevant to the audience (consumers). Marketing Guru Seth Godin in his book “All Marketers are Liars “, talks about the importance of understanding consumer’s world view. He argues that only those stories will be successful which are relevant to the consumers’ world view.

Brands must know their audience before telling stories. They have to understand the audience’s world view in order to create a relevant theme. It is one reason behind the huge success of “slice of life “commercials. Consumers are able to instantly link to the theme because it is something that they can relate to.

Consistent

Brand stories are continuous. Hence the stories need to be consistent with the same set of characters reinforcing the basic theme. Brand stories can be imagined as a large collection of highly related stories woven with a common thread. Hence it is important for the story teller to have the bigger picture while telling their stories. When the stories deviate from the common thread, consumers get disconnected.

Onida was telling a compelling story of envy with the central character of devil. The story was liked by the consumer and a brand was built. But later the brand deviated from the theme, characters were changed, devil was taken off and soon consumers felt disconnected with the stories.

Often we see brand stories change for no reason. When advertising agencies change, brand stories also change. Once the common thread is lost, consumers tend to forget the story.

It is also important to be fresh while consistent. Adults are easy bored by repetition. So brand managers should ensure that there is freshness in the stories that is being told. These stories should evolve from the big picture. Airtel is a classic case where the brand is able to create freshness with consistency. The brand’s core theme of Expressing Oneself is being reinforced through ads which are fresh and attractive.

Connect with the consumers

Successful stories are those which become close to the consumers. The audience should involve with the stories and should own up the theme. Successful movies are those where the audience become a part of the story. They cry and laugh with the characters and are a part of them during the movies. Successful brands are those where the consumers become the part of the story. The more involvement the consumers are, the more iconic the brand becomes. Apple and Harley Davidson are brands which told compelling stories. These brands became iconic because consumers became the part of the story theme.

Brands are trying to tell stories through different media and platforms. The powerful stories are usually told by consumers to consumers. It is very difficult to make a consumer tell a brand story to another. The story should be simple, uncomplicated and personal.

It is a True Story

Brand stories are true stories and it is not fictional. Consumers understand brand stories through experience. He uses all the sense to understand the stories told by the brand. Marketers often think that consumers will buy the story told through advertisements. Hence the focus was more on building a fantasy which is far from reality. What is often forgotten is that the consumers tend to validate the story through experience. If there is a mismatch between the story and the experience, the brand will not be trusted again.

Marketing Strategy : The Logic of Brand Extensions

The Logic of Brand Extensions

Originally Published Here at Adclubbombay.com

Brand extension is a strategy where the company uses an existing brand name to launch products in the existing or new category. This brand extension strategy is often the most used growth strategy for brands by marketers. The popularity of this strategy has given rise to a host of discussion among the academic and professional community about the efficacy of brand extensions.

Why Marketers go after brand extensions?

Exploiting existing brand’s equity

Brand extensions often are perceived to be a less risky strategy for launching new products. The logic behind using the existing brand name for new products is to exploit the brand equity of the existing brand. Recently Sundrop which is a famous sunflower oil brand launched Sundrop Peanut Butter. The use of the prominent brand in the new product is expected to trigger trial usage by the consumers of the parent brand.

Costs of launching brand extensions are low

Compared to launching new brands, brand extensions are perceived to be less costly to launch. The reason is that both the channel members and the consumers are familiar with the brand. Hence the extensions are tapping on the existing awareness of the brand. The marketers can thus use their budget to increase the trial usage rather than spend money on creating brand awareness. In one way using existing brand names helps marketers to skip one step in their brand building process.

Experiment

Brand extensions also prompt marketers to explore new categories for the brand. Since the cost of launching brand extensions are lower compared to a new one motivate the marketers to leverage the existing brand’s equity into new categories.

Expand

Brand extensions also expand the scope of the brand. Ponds, which started off as a cold cream, is now an umbrella brand that endorses a wide range of beauty products. Dettol which is a highly successful antiseptic lotion brand has now a basket of products ranging from soaps to plasters. The brand extensions increase the scope and turnover of the brand and thus give more revenue to the firm.

Brand Extensions have its own set of negatives. Brand extensions are based on some assumptions which if gone wrong can affect the parent brand’s equity.

One assumption in brand extension is that consumers like the brand hence will like all the products endorsed by the brand irrespective of the categories. The second assumption is that the parent brand’s equity can be leveraged across various categories. Hence brand extensions will have similar positive equity as the original brand.

Critics argue that brand extensions will dilute the original brand’s equity. Sometimes there is a proliferation of extensions that dilute the parent brand’s positioning. So when a soap brand extends itself into shampoo, the core identity of the brand as soap is now irrelevant. If not clearly defined, the parent brand may lose its product associations in the consumer’s mind.

Another danger in brand extensions is the positioning confusion. For brands which are extending to related-categories are better off in positioning because the brand can continue with the same positioning when extending to related categories. But when the brand is moving to unrelated categories, the same positioning may not work in the new category. A change in the positioning for brand extensions will have adverse impact on the original brand’s position.

However, brand extension is an invaluable strategic tool for marketers looking for expanding the scope of the brand. Marketers have to get their basics right before embarking on the extension strategy.

To Extend or Not to Extend

This may sound too basic a question but every marketer should ask this question about the brand.

“Whether this brand should be extended in future?”

The future of the brand lies in this question. For a new brand, the decision to extend or not to extend in future will have its implication in the selection of brand name and positioning. A brand name which is highly associated with a product feature or category will have limited scope for future extensions. The positioning strategy will also have to be crafted in a manner which will facilitate future brand extensions. For an existing brand, this question will bring about a need for a change in the current positioning strategy.

Have a Vision

The most important task for a marketer looking for brand extension is to have a vision for the brand. Brand extensions as a short-term marketing strategy will be damaging for the parent brand. The development of a long term vision starts with the critical questions as to whether the brand should be extended or not. Once the marketer has decided on the extension, he has to chart a growth path for the brand. The vision involves deciding whether the parent brand should be used as an umbrella brand or as an endorser. Should the brand be used for unrelated extensions or limited to a category?

The careful planning of the brand’s future will eliminate lot of confusion in terms of positioning, category decisions etc.

Line Logic

Marketers should be clear about the impact of a line or brand extension on the product line of the company. Authors John Quelch and David Kenny in an Harvard Business Review article – Extend Profits Not Product-lines suggest that the company sales officers should take a line logic test where they should be able to explain in one sentence, the strategic role played by each SKU (stock keeping units) in the product line .The consumer should also be able to understand the how these extensions fits his/her needs.

Focus

The biggest threat of brand extension is the possible loss of focus on the parent brand because of extensions. Brand Extensions are opportunities for growth. While extending, marketers should not forget that the extensions are based on the equity of the original brand. Any change in the marketing mix strategy of the extensions will have an effect on the parent brand. This strong relationship between the extensions and parent brand should be taken into consideration during every brand promotions.

Lost Opportunity

Every brand extension is lost opportunity to build a new brand. While extensions take away lot of pressure from the marketers, one should have a clear understanding about the potential loss of an opportunity to build a new brand.

Marketing Strategy : After Marketing

What Will You Do After Marketing

Originally published here at adclubbombay.com

Marketing in conventional sense has been defined as the process where organizations and individuals satisfy their needs and wants by creating and exchanging offerings of value. After -Marketing is a term that denotes the activities that a firm undertakes after the sale is completed.

Usually after-marketing activities are broadly understood as after-sales service. After-Marketing is more than the service support that is given after-sales. In the case of a product that needs service support like automobiles or in the business marketing, after sales service is a relevant and forms a major component of After-Marketing.

But in the case of a product like soap, there is no scope for after-sales service but there is a scope for after-marketing activities. While traditional marketing emphasis on activities till the sale is done, after-marketing strategies starts after the sales are made. These activities will take the simple transaction of buying and selling to the next level of relationship marketing. A relationship between the buyer and seller will depend a lot on what the seller does after the order is signed.

While After-Sales Service activities are applicable to products and services that require service support, After-Marketing is applicable for all products and services.

Define the After-Marketing Activities

The first step in After-Marketing is the recognition of the fact that sale is not the end of the relationship but a beginning of a relationship. And relationship is more than repeat purchases. In the case of business to business relationship, the after-marketing activities are marked by continuous follow-up by the sales department. In the case of a consumer product which requires service support like a TV or an automobile, the after-marketing activities include the product service support given by the company. In these cases, after –marketing activities are clearly defined and obvious.

For a product like soap or a shampoo, there is no scope for after-sales support. Hence the marketer has to define the concept of after-marketing. This includes what the brand should do after the selling is done and also what it expects the consumer to do after he has bought the product.

Sunsilk expects its consumers to visit their website and participate in discussions and exchange their ideas with the company. The brand has a clear understanding about what it expects the consumers to do after they have used /interacted with the brand. Sunsilk through its website also offers much information to the consumers about hair-care and solving hair-related problems. Thus there is a continuous connection with consumers over and above the transaction of buying a shampoo. This is a planned process that includes investment of resources on the part of the brand to connect with the consumers.

Take Initiative to Connect

After-Marketing activities can be of two types – Active and Passive. Active after-marketing involves reaching out to the consumers and encouraging consumers to interact with the company. Fastrack brand has a presence across various social marketing sites like Twitter through which the brand tries to connect with its existing and potential consumers.

Recently Dettol ran a high profile advertising campaign asking their existing consumers to narrate the various purposes for which they use Dettol. Consumers use Dettol for disinfecting floor, wash the wounds, disinfect the diapers, use it during bathing etc. These insights helped Dettol to run a campaign highlighting the multiple uses of Dettol.

Passive activities are where the brand expects consumers to initiate a connection. Having a toll free number printed on the back of the pack is a passive after-marketing activity while running a contest for consumers to call the company and suggest ideas is an active effort.

After-marketing activities also is aimed at providing a complete experience to the consumers about the product. The success of a product lies in how well the consumer is able to derive maximum from the product. So the marketer should ensure that the consumer use the product completely and thus gains maximum utility from the product.

Take the example of a mobile phone. Now mobile phones are loaded with applications and features and it is often found that consumer seldom uses the many applications in their phones. Unless the consumer fully uses the features, a complete product experience cannot be guaranteed. After-Marketing activities can be planned to equip the consumer to fully use their product. Easy to read manuals, education of consumers by the sales people on the features, web based support etc can be initiated so that the consumer gains the maximum usage from the product.

After –Marketing is not trying to sell more. The frequent SMS’ that is sent to the subscribers by the cellular service providers announcing various offers and schemes often creates irritation because the intention is to sell more. The timely delivery of bills, reminders,acknowledgement of payment received act as good after-marketing activities because the intention is to help the consumer.

Create Loyalty by Sharing

Consumers want solutions not products and marketers have to rise above the products to solve the consumer’s problems. A soap marketer can be a solution provider for hygiene /skin care related problems by sharing information about hygiene and skin care. A toothpaste marketer can be a solution provider of dental related issues and problems through information sharing. Colgate through its website is offering lot of information about dental care and dental hygiene.

In this era where competitors can copy every possible product/service features, after-marketing activities provide an opportunity to create a meaningful differentiation for the marketers. Although these activities require investment of resources , in the long term ,after-marketing activities will define the extent of consumer loyalty commanded by the brand.

Marketing Strategy : Going Back to Basics

Going Back to Basics

Originally Published here in Adclubbombay.com

In the 1973 classic text, “Management: Tasks, Responsibilities & Practices”, Peter Drucker asks firms to answer five very pertinent questions.

What is our business?

Who is our customer?

What is of value to the customer?

What will our business be?

What should our business be?

Even after 36 years, these simple questions are of profound importance to marketers who are facing one of the toughest times since Great Depression. These questions are more relevant today than ever before. During the period of exuberance, firms tend to forget to answer these key questions and land up in a trouble of their own making. Firms forget value, customers and commonsense when faced with unprecedented growth. This over confidence resulted in inflated prices, aggressive expansions and unrelated diversifications. It is time for marketers to revisit these basics and set their focus on consumer.

Defining the business

One of the fundamental questions that marketers should ask themselves is to clearly define the business. While defining the business, one has to be careful about setting the scope of the business. Too narrow a scope can severely limit the growth of the business. Too broad a definition can cause confusion.

If a marketer narrowly limits the definition of his business by focusing on the product, he will find himself in a state of marketing myopia – a term popularised by Harvard Professor Theodore Levitt. A myopic organization defines its business narrowly which blurs the organizations ability to spot competition from other categories. Further, myopia limits the marketer’s ability to change itself according to changing consumer preferences.

When a marketer becomes too focused on his product, he fails to understand the competition from different types of products satisfying the same consumer need. Although this may sound very simple and obvious, many large organizations and brands have suffered out of this myopia. For example, Scooters which once ruled the Indian market suffered near –death stage due to competition from a different product category of motorcycles. IPod has now occupied the position once owned by Walkman. Ujala redefined the cloth whitener category with a different product form.

The key to a proper business definition is to take the focus away from product and focus on consumer. Marketers must define the business around the customer. The focus should be on the customer rather than the product. Once the organisation redefines itself making the customer as its centre, a world of opportunities will be thrown open.

Too broad a definition blurs the focus of the firm. It is where the firm must be able to understand the consumer it serves. Apple Computers were able to leap forward with its products like Iphone and IPod because it understood the consumers and never restricted itself to be a computer manufacturer.

Understanding the Consumer.

In the highly insightful book “ What the customer wants you to know “ Dr Ramcharan states an important rule – “ The more you know about your customer, the better you and your company will be at identifying and devising products and services that will help address them “

Marketers should be able to collect all the information about the consumers and their buying behaviours. One of the key strength of Hindustan Unilever Ltd is their enormous knowledge about the Indian consumer psyche. This has enabled them to create new products and new business models which are very much in line with consumer’s needs and wants.

Who buys the product and why he buys the product are the two important questions that a marketer should be able to answer.

Consumers buy solutions and not products. Value has been the keyword for success in Indian market. Products that do not have an intrinsic value will not survive in the market. The crisis that most firms now face is a result of the failure of firms to keep their products with in the value expectation of the consumer. When the consumer confidence dips, he turns to those products that offer value. Even in times of recession, consumer needs are not exhausted. He just postpones the decision to indulge till the confidence is back.

The future of business

Predicting the future of business is often the most difficult tasks for a marketer. And marketers have to make decisions regarding the future course of actions.

To predict and determine the future of a business should be based on the firm understanding of the consumer. According to Peter Drucker, this task of making judgements about future should start with a demographic analysis. Demographic analysis is the study of the population and the trends.

Indian market is also witnessing a demographic shift with the younger consumers now becoming the major consuming segment. Those brands which foresee such a demographic shift would be ready with new products and strategies targeting the young consumers.

This calls for massive investment in developing knowledge about customers and their behaviour. Many Indian advertising agencies have realised this need and created specialized departments and Chief Knowledge Officers who are in charge of creation and dissemination of knowledge.

The market environment is in a state of constant changes. Take the case of media. Five years back, very few predicted the explosion of social media in India. Blogging was unheard and Orkut and Facebook was not in vogue, no one was Twittering. Even now Indian marketers are clueless on how to understand the social media and take advantage of the popularity of orkut and facebook.

This is the right time to go back to basics, redefine the business and make the entire business operations centred on the consumer. There will be pain in the process but it will be worth the effort.

Marketing Strategy : How to Create Consumer Centric Innovations

How to Create Consumer Centric Innovations

Originally Published here at Adclubbombay.com

What can you do with a boring product like a dishwash bar? Can you bring excitement into it? Is it possible to make innovations to a product like dishwash bar? A look at Vim, the market leader in the dishwash bar category, will give valuable insights on making innovations which are meaningful for a consumer. Vim have a plastic coating which prevents the bar from getting soggy because of its constant contact with water. This simple coating gives the product long life and thus adding more value to the product.

Innovation is considered to be a key factor that will ensure the future of a company. Companies like Gillette (now a part of P&G), 3 M, Google, and Apple have their entire organization focused on innovation. Successful firms have developed a culture of innovation which becomes the part of the DNA of the entire organisation.

In future, India is believed to have potential to lead the world in product innovations. The fact that many global IT firms have their product development centres in India is a proof of the growing stature of India as a global innovation hub.

Indian marketers are also not far behind. Indian companies have been able to provide breakthrough marketing practices that acts as a model for emulation for their western counterparts. Notable in these innovations are the e-chaupal (ITC) and Project Shakthi (HUL), GCMMF etc.

Although we have seen a significant rise of product innovations in India, we are yet to create an innovation culture in Organizations. The level of investment in research and development in Indian companies are yet to reach global standards. The fact that we don’t have an Indian equivalent of a 3M or a Google is a reminder of the enormous task before us.

In this era of global competition, marketers cannot afford to be complacent. This is a market where categories are becoming irrelevant. Mobile phones are competing with cameras and computers. Two wheelers are competing with cars and airplanes competing with railways. Marketers cannot afford to be myopic to competition. Now firms have to run faster in order to survive.

When markets become too fluid, organizations should be investing in creating products for the future. Organizations need to understand the changing consumer mindset and also the changes that are happening across various markets.

There are three approaches to innovation. One approach is to strive for a pure innovation which results in an entirely new product. The second approach is to innovate incrementally and continuously. The third approach is to innovate on building efficiency in operations. What HUL did for VIM was an innovation which was an incremental innovation. The company created a new method of tapping rural market through Project Shakthi which was a process innovation.

Innovation doesn’t always means that the company should come out with an entirely new feature or a product. Innovation also can be in the form of imitation. Professor Theodore Levitt calls it Innovative Imitation. Innovative imitation is where the firm tries to bring in innovations that are happening in other industries to their field. Vim recently relaunched itself with anti-bacterial property which was an innovative imitation of its nearest competitor.

Continuous and constant innovation strategy is going to be the key for organisational success in future. But in order to succeed, these innovations should be customer centric.

Innovations should be visible and should be authentic for a consumer. The period where a marketer can get away with “New and Improved “label is over. The challenge for the marketer is to make the process of improving their offerings continuously.

The best way for getting new ideas is from the consumer. A consumer may not be able to give a list of new product ideas. But by observing his life, the marketer can get lot of ideas for improving the product and also new products.

Have a plan for innovation

The first step in creating an innovative culture is to have a plan for innovation. Large or small, firms need to have a plan of innovation. There has to be people who should be responsible for innovation and most importantly there has to be a budget for innovations.

Celebrate Failures

While Google, 3M and Apple are celebrated for their innovations, the long lists of the failures encountered by these companies are often forgotten. Not every new product ideas are well received by consumers. When encountered by failures, firms must not penalise the innovator but should be doing a thorough analysis of reasons for failure.

Make the customer the centre of innovation process

In the highly insightful book “The Game Changer”, the authors Ram Charan and A.G.Lafley describes how P&G made their innovations customer- centric. In the book, the authors narrates an example where the product development team for a new heart-burn medicine created a life sized cardboard cut-out of a consumer which they named Joanne. They put this cut-out in a chair in their conference room. In all the meetings discussing the new product’s launch, there will be the presence of this hypothetical customer. The team used this hypothetical customer to focus their discussions on those ideas that will have a meaningful impact on the consumer.

By looking at how a customer uses the products and how the product impacts his life gives valuable inputs for future innovations.

Brands can innovate in product form by launching the product in new shapes and sizes. The shampoo category witnessed explosive growth after the product being introduced in sachets. The simple innovation in packaging made the product category affordable to millions of Indian consumers.

Products also innovates itself by making it easier for consumers to use the product. For example TVS recently provided balancing side-tyres to its Scooty which enables the users (Girls) to learn to ride scooter on their own.

Brands can innovate by making it easier for consumers to store the product .Bru recently added a flavour lock ( plastic clip) which kept the coffee powder fresh and eliminated the need to transfer it to a container.

Products also can innovate by satisfying problems faced by consumers. Asian paints launched samplers which helped the consumer to test the colours before purchasing it. Nightingale popularised un-dated diaries which gave this product an unlimited shelf-life.

Whether big or small, innovations will be successful only if it made some impact on consumer’s life. The most important decision that a marketer should do is to make customer the centre of his innovation strategy.

Brand Update : Rin Vs Tide , The Strategy

According to latest news report, the Calcutta High Court has restrained HUL from airing the controversial campaign against Tide. HUL has been given 72 hours to comply with the order ( Source)

The high decibel comparative ad of Rin generated huge buzz in the market. The direct comparative campaign evoked mixed reaction across the media. That single controversial ad generated crores worth of buzz about the brands in question.

The current high profile aggressive stand of Rin has a background story. There was a proxy war going on between Rin and Tide since December 2009. During December, P&G launched the low priced variant of Tide branded Tide Naturals. Tide Naturals was priced significantly lower to the Rin. Tide Naturals was launched at Rs 50 per Kg , Rs 10 for 200 gms and Rs 20 for400 gms. Rin was priced at Rs 70 per Kg at that time.

The reduced price of the Tide variant was an immediate threat to Rin. Since Tide already has an established brand equity, Rin was bound to face the heat. Although HUL had another low priced brand Wheel priced at Rs 32/Kg, Tide was not in the same category of Wheel.

Rin had to cut the price to resist the market share erosion. As discussed elsewhere in the blog, HUL was facing a steady erosion in the market share in most of the categories. In the detergent category itself, the brand faced a market share fall of 2.5% in December 2009. With P&G starting a price war, HUL had to react and it did by cutting the price of Rin by 30% to Rs 50 per Kg. ( Source ) .

HUL also reacted to the Tide Natural's price war in a ' Guerrilla Marketing ' way. It took P&G to the court regarding the Tide Natural's advertisement. The contention was that Tide Naturals was giving the impression to the consumers that it contained natural ingredients like Sandal. The court ordered P&G to modify the campaign and P&G had to admit that Tide Naturals did not contain any Natural ingredients. ( another example of a brand swaying over to unethical marketing practices).

While P&G opened a war in the price front, HUL retaliated by opening two war fronts. One was the direct comparative ad and other through the court order asking P&G to modify Tide Naturals Ad and to admit that Tide Naturals is not ' Natural'.

I think that it was Rin which won the Round 1 of this war. It generated enough Buzz about the brand with all the media talking about the campaign. Rin was also able to neutralize the aggression of P&G to certain extent.

Tide chose not to respond because further fuel to the fight can highlight the fact that Tide Naturals does not contain any 'Natural Ingredients " which may negatively affect the brand's standing in the consumer's mind. So it is better to play the role of a " poor" victim at this point of time.

P&G can celebrate because of the free advertisement it got for Tide Naturals because of the comparative ad of Rin.

It is interesting to see the academic angle of this concept called Comparative advertising. From my little digging of information, it was evident that the academic research is also clueless about the effectiveness of comparative advertising. There are enough evidence to prove that comparative ads work better than non-comparative ads and vice versa. So academicians are as clueless as the practitioners in this regard.

According to academic literature, Comparative ads are those ads which involves directly or indirectly naming competitors in an ad and comparing one or more attributes in an advertising medium ( Alan T. Shao, Yeqing Bao, and Elizabeth Gray,Comparative Advertising Effectiveness:A Cross-Cultural Study Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, Fall 2004)

There are two broad types of comparative ads. One is the Direct comparative ads which compares the competitor in more than one attribute. The second type is the Indirect comparative ad which projects the brand as the Leading Brand rather than comparing on certain attributes.

In the marketing world ( globally) comparative ads are commonly used across categories. Some of the relevant observations regarding comparative ads are given below.

• Comparative ads are perceived to be beneficial to the consumers since more information is provided to him by the competitors. Comparative ads are encouraged in certain markets like USA by the regulators because it increases transparency and provides more information to consumers.

• The comparative ads generally result in counter arguments which often creates such a noise that it discounts the original argument/information. Consumers tend to discount the claims by both the competing brand because of the arguments.

• Comparative advertising strategy is more effective for smaller brands rather than established large brands. By challenging a larger brand through comparative ad , the small brands tend to derive more acceptance and awareness than the larger brand.

• Comparative ads are found to be more effective for categories where consumers tend to use their analytical mind. Comparative ads tend to fail where consumers use imagery while evaluating the brands. For example, products like automobiles use comparative ads extensively and with effectiveness.
• There are also studies which shows that male consumers are more attracted towards comparative ads compared to female consumers.

Although Indian marketing world have seen lot of comparative ads, the current Rin Vs Tide is a rare case of direct comparative ad where the brand has taken the competitor brand's name and challenging it head on. That is the main reason behind the media noise about the campaign.

P&G India always was a laid back competitor in the FMCG market . Despite having the product portfolio and market strength , it never realized its potential. The company was happy with their minuscule market share in the various categories in the FMCG business . I am not sure whether P&G will react aggressively to the current HUL onslaught and if at all they did ,will it sustain the fight for long.

Related Post

Rin Vs Tide Round 1

Marketing Strategy : Building Brand Tribes

Building Brand Tribes

Originally Published Here at Adclubbombay.com

Tribe (noun): Group of people living together under a chief.

Brand Tribe: Group of Customers living together with a brand.

Renowned marketing guru Seth Godin in his latest book Tribes inspires every individual to become a leader of a tribe. In this must read book, he exhorts that every individual has an opportunity to become a leader and start a movement. Internet has enabled and empowered individuals with the opportunity to connect with millions of people across the world who shares the same vision.

The same opportunity is available to brands. An opportunity to build a tribe – a group of faithful followers who will nurture the brand’s vision and takes the brand to a whole new level of existence.

If we look at the global branding scenario, despite the millions of dollars spent on advertising and brand promotion, only a handful of brands can boast about building a tribe. Harley Davidson, Apple, Linux, Google, to name a few.

The situation is dismal in the Indian brand word. How many of Indian brands command a faithful following of customers. How many Indian brands have been able to generate the enthusiasm displayed by an Apple customer? Hardly any …

Compared to other markets, we don’t see any big queues in front of shops for getting the product during brand launches, no euphoria during customer meets and virtually no consumer evangelists spending his energy on his favourite brands.

Indian marketers are to blame for this scenario. Why Indian consumers are not emotionally attached to brands is because Indian brands always preferred to keep themselves away from the consumers. By and large, Indian brands preferred not to interact directly with the consumers. Except for some half-hearted efforts, largely there is no emotional chord developed between consumers and brands.

Developing a brand community needs a dedicated whole hearted effort from the brand to reach out to the consumers. Building brand communities means that consumers are emotionally attached towards the brand.

Brand User ----------> Brand Loyalist--------> Brand Advocate ------> Brand Evangelist

From an ordinary user of the product, the brand should be able to inspire the consumer to become an evangelist for the brand. While a brand advocate will recommend the brand to his friends, an evangelist will put his energy, time and reputation to promote the brand.

Professor Kevin Lane Keller uses the term Brand Resonance to explain this phenomenon. A brand is said to achieve resonance when the customers feel that they are in-sync with the brand. The customer willingly spent his time and energy to collect and share information about the brand. The highest level of brand resonance is where the consumers actively engage in activities beyond buying and using the product.

Not every brand may be able to achieve a resonance with consumers but all brands have the opportunity to build a community. Building a community around the brand is the first step towards building resonance. In India, Sunsilk successfully created a community around it using the website Sunsilk Gang of Girls.

Youth brands like Fastrack have been using the social networking sites to promote a meaningful interaction with the consumers.

One of the most successful brand communities ever created in marketing history is the Harley Owner’s Group (HOG) which was formed in 1983. HOG is a company sponsored community with over a million active members now has become the biggest strength of this brand.

The benefits of such a community are far fetched. Research has proved that while loyal customers buy more of the brand and members of brand communities not only buys more but also encourages others to become the brand followers.

Brand communities are also a valuable source of information for marketers. The members willingly share their experiences of using the product and can suggest valuable modification to the product. Communities are sounding board for suggestions and issues faced by the consumers.

Communities also can be a vital resource to tap for potential new product ideas. These are the consumers who would like the brand to play an important role in their lives. Hence they will be able to give you a lot of ideas which can later be used to develop new products.

Researches have proved that members of brand community members adopt new products from the brand faster than ordinary consumers. Apple consumer evangelists are in the forefront in adopting and later promoting the new products like IPod and IPhone. This offers a tremendous advantage for the company because there exist an enthusiastic Tribe willing to grab and use any new product from the company.

Building a brand community is never an easy task. This requires lot of investment and initiative from the company to build and sustain a community.

Understand the Consumer

Before building brand communities, a very thorough understanding of consumer is necessary. This deep understanding will be critical in designing the community, the theme, the mission and the critical events that will take the communities forward.

Invest and involve

More than the financial investment, brand marketers should be able to own up the responsibilities of nurturing the brand community. This is too important an activity to be outsourced. In the case of Harley Owner’s Group, there is a separate division in the company that has the responsibility of nurturing the community. Harley Davidson also ensures that the Senior Executives of the company participates in the community activities. It is important for the marketers to understand the role the company has to play in communities.

Successful communities are those which are driven by the members. Marketers have to play the role of facilitators and catalysts to ensure that the community is sustained and is moving in the right direction.

Build Relationship

Brand communities are not only about building relationship between the brand and the consumers. A brand community becomes successful only if there is a scope of developing a relationship between consumers. Most brand sponsored communities revolve around sharing information between consumer and the brand.

Hence there has to be an opportunity between consumers to meet, share ideas and build a bond between themselves. This will be the most difficult part for the brands taking up a community building activity. So the marketers have to device ways to promote kinship among members. Events, brand rituals, memorabilia, collectibles, blogs, forums, partying are ways to enhance the bonding between the community members.

Build a Story

Every community has a story. It is the story that will inspire consumers to join the community. The powerful the story is, the more powerful will be the bonding between the community members. Hence the marketers should be able to go deep into their target segment to craft the story that they will be passionate about. Harley Owner’s Group website reveals the story behind the group; the group wants the Harley Davidson Dream - a way of life.

Building Community is like building the family; the brand should take the leader’s responsibility in bringing the family closer and the members should be given the opportunity to develop a bond with each other to sustain the community.

Marketing Strategy : For God's Sake, Sell Ethically

Business to consumer selling in India is at cross roads. If the sales professionals and leaders ,who engage in the business to consumer sales, does not change their approach to selling they would be killing one of the most powerful promotional tool.

Last week, my colleague went to take a fixed deposit from India's second largest private sector bank. He talked with the customer service personnel about the deposit, gave the cheque and signed the forms that the personnel asked him to sign. After one week, he received the premium receipt of an Insurance Policy ( from the Bank's Insurance Arm) instead of the FD receipt. Enraged, my friend went to the bank manager and complained about this mis-selling.The event had a happy ending with the bank apologizing for the "error" and assuring that the money will be recovered and put in the FD.

Caveat Emptor or Buyer Beware .

But this is 21st century... it should be Sellers Beware.

It is true that my colleague should have filled up the form himself, made proper checks and ensured that he is sold the right product. But he trusted his bank of 10 years. He trusted that the bankers would do what he had instructed them to do. Every one of us do that.

This scenario is repeated again and again in many banks these days. This over zeal on selling to everyone without understanding customer needs is going to have a very negative effect on the sales profession as such.

10 years back, there was a similar wave of high pressure selling which ranged from vacuum cleaners to books. These poor sales guys roamed around cold calling on customers which prompted very defensive reaction from the customers. Many housing colonies, flats and townships began to impose restrictions on these visiting salesmen and customers began treating these sales guys rudely. The day of foot- in- the- door approach is over.

The same wave is now seen driven by the financial institutions trying to sell anything from mutual funds to insurance products. There is no doubt that these products demand a direct selling approach. But not in the way sales is being done now.

Why direct selling ?

The major purpose of direct selling is that the company is able to convince the customers directly through identification of needs and matching the right kind of products to the identified needs. During the interaction, the sales person needs to identify the needs of the customer, present his product, handle the customer queries and close the sale. How many sales guys we meet ever ask any relevant questions ?

The brunt of the lack of professionalism and empathy displayed by some sections of sales force is faced by the entire sales community. Getting customer appointments has become difficult than ever before. Consumers' trust on sales persons has come down drastically. Objections and rude behavior has increased considerably.

Another trend is to take students as project trainees to sell insurance. These students are absorbed as summer project trainees for three or four months and given the target of selling insurance policies. Neither these poor lads are given product training nor any sales training. These lads end up selling insurance policies to their uncles and aunts and ultimately hating a sales career.

Take the case of banks selling financial products other than banking products. The purpose is to gain the commission from the sales and taking advantage of the captive prospective clients. But the main objective of the bank is to provide banking solutions . Now most private banks has become selling shops. Targets are given to every staff for both insurance and banking products. These staffs are neither trained in those products nor in selling techniques. Recently I had an argument with a banker who proclaimed that ULIPs are always better than Mutual Funds and FDs and called me a fool for choosing a FD ( I answered back with a four letter expletive). If banks try to convert FD to ULIP, it is actually harming the bank rather than helping it.

It is time that these B2C businesses restructure their selling strategies. This may require a culture change also. Focus on high speed growth and short term results will not aid in quality selling. Firms should focus more on quality of sales rather than quantity of sales . The trend to maximize sales numbers rather than on the quality or customer satisfaction should stop. Sales Professionals should focus on long-term customer relationship or atleast match the products with the customer needs.

Selling is a specialized function. It is an important moment of truth for customers. The way a sales person behaves have a great impact on the company image. Not every one in the organization should do sales. These people has to be trained in selling skills and given adequate product knowledge before asking to meet the prospect. But what is happening right now ? In pursuit of blind growth, targets are given to every employee. Then there is this sales jamboree. Running after prospects and suspects, madly trying to force down products .

The outcome is that consumers will become more defensive to sales people. Calls will not be entertained and appointments will not be given to sales force. Sales Professionals may have to work harder even to get an entry. Why mess up a good profession for myopic growth ????

I may sound utopian, but I think it is time that Sales leaders should think hard about their current sales practices. Targets have to be there, pressure needs to be there but selling right product to the right customer should be the priority.

Sell but please sell ethically..

from

an Ex-Sales Guy.

Marketing Strategy : Branding With A Cause

Branding With a Cause

Originally Published here in Adclubbombay.com

Last year, Colgate celebrated October as Oral Health Month. During the month, the company conducted free dental camps across the country in association with Indian Dental Association (IDA). Besides these camps, Colgate conducts regular Oral Hygiene awareness campaigns and oral health educational programs across India. These programs are conducted with the aim of achieving Colgate’s mission of Zero Tooth Decay in the country .

In December 2008, Nokia announced a unique initiative in India called the Take-Back Recycle initiative. Under this campaign, the brand intends to take back used/ damaged mobiles and accessories for recycling purpose. According to the company, consumers are not aware about the possibility of recycling such unused gadgets. These gadgets can create a huge environmental hazard in near future. Nokia, as a market leader is taking the initiative in creating awareness as well as create a green logistics framework to recycle this potential wastes.

There is no doubt that the primary objective of a brand is to make money for its owners. But there are brands which try to see higher level objectives for themselves. Broadly termed as Cause Branding or Cause Related marketing, these initiatives have long term impacts on brands which may not be visible in quantitative terms. Hence for those managers who view their brands’ performance on a quarterly basis will not find this strategy attractive.

Academic research has established that consumers may develop a unique positive association with companies that take efforts which are beyond economic transactions. Our very own Tata brand is proof of such a positive association. Tata brand is built not based on their products but based on their commitment to social responsibilities.

The question for marketers is whether to spend their precious resources on a non-profit cause which may not have a direct impact on profit or sales. In this era where brands are expected to be built in 3 months, this commitment may seem to be extravagant. But it is often forgotten that brands are seldom built over quarterly sales figures. It is built on the mind of the consumers. And consumers love brands which makes a difference to their lives.

Companies are often confused over the extent to which they should involve in cause related marketing. This has resulted in an unfocused erratic approach towards such initiatives. The short –term initiatives often referred to as Cause Marketing and high involvement activities where the firm or brand is highly involved is referred to as Cause Branding.

Cause Branding as a Strategy

There are two approaches to cause- related marketing .Firms can look at a short term association with a cause with minimum involvement. This can be in the form of a donation to a charity work.

HUL conducted such a short-term campaign for its Surf brand ( known as 10/10 contest ) where for a sale of every 1 kg pack, a fixed amount was donated to certain NGOs operating in the area of child-education for the deprived section of the society. These initiatives may give some positive responses to the brand for a short term.

Another approach is to take cause marketing as a long term brand building strategy. Global cosmetic major Avon has been associating with Breast Cancer Awareness programs since 1993. The brand has raised and contributed $500 millions in support for this cause. In India , HUL supports a long – term cause-branding initiative for its Lifebuoy brand ( Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetana) with the objective of spreading the awareness of importance of washing the hands with soap in rural India.

There is a big difference between these two approaches. Brands have a personality; brand is like a living being with a character and personality. The fact is that consumers are looking at a brand in its entirety – as a whole person. Hence it is important for marketers to take a long term view of Cause Related Marketing initiatives. This calls for a dedicated set of resources both money and men for such a venture.

Identifying a Cause

The success of a cause branding initiative depends heavily on the selection of the cause. An arbitrary one-time charity work is not going to give any positive impact on brand in the long term. Hence the selection of the cause will have to be done in the same seriousness as the selection of the positioning strategy.

The cause selected should appeal to the consumers of the brand and the cause should be relevant to the consumers. In the case of Colgate, oral hygiene and health is a cause that is highly relevant and connected to the brand. Hence such causes have more impact on building the brand’s image.

The cause selected should also make a difference in the society. In the long term, the initiative should be able to produce impactful results for the society.

Involve

Most of the cause- branding initiatives are done in partnership with NGOs who operate in that domain. It is important to partner with the right organisation for the implementation of the initiative. But often firms outsource the entire work to the NGOs thus effectively distancing themselves from the cause. It is important for a brand to fully involve in the cause. This could be done by encouraging the employees to offer their expertise or by creating a dedicated team of company professionals to monitor the implementation of these initiatives.

Communicate

It is important for the brand to communicate this initiative through all possible avenues. Colgate runs a series of media campaigns for its Free Dental Camps and is supported by an exhaustive web-based informative page in their website. The Cause-Branding also gives the brand opportunity to experiment with a wide range of media vehicles to promote both the brand and the cause.

Walk the Talk

In this information intensive era, it is important for the brand to be truthful in its intensions while championing for a cause. Cause-Branding is a double-edged weapon. Consumers will evaluate such initiatives thread-bare to see whether the brand is taking them for a ride.

Hence consider cause-branding as an option only if the brand can sustain it till the cause is achieved. A half-hearted cause branding initiative will damage the brand‘s prestige. It is also imperative for the brand to convince the customer that these initiatives are not done for selfish motives alone.

This could be done only if the firm involves itself into the cause rather than just sponsoring it.

Marketing Strategy : The Art of Brand Laddering

The Art of Brand Laddering

This article was Originally Published Here at Adclubbombay.com

Raymond makes you a Complete Man, Bournvita makes you Confident, Fiama Di Wills makes you Beautiful Today, Tomorrow, Nike asks you to Just Do It and Eating Parle-G makes you a Genius!!!

Welcome to the world of brand laddering. …

Brand laddering off late is the most sought after strategy in the Indian marketing space. Brand laddering involves positioning of a brand from common product attributes to more abstract values or concepts. Its moving from a focus from product attributes to brand benefits.

One of the Indian brands which have successfully undertook brand laddering is Raymond. Raymond’s is now positioned on a more abstract benefit ( Complete Man) rather than the product /functional attributes of clothing like fashion, texture, quality etc.

From product attributes to higher values involves a series of stages. Marketers have to be careful while trying to position their brands on higher abstract concepts.

The first stage of laddering is establishing the brand’s association with product attributes. Attributes are the physical properties of the product that in turn will deliver the desired benefits to the consumer.

When a brand is launched, the focus of the marketer will be to establish the product attributes. The task is to establish category membership and also to achieve parity with competitors on functional performance.

For example, textile brands will be trying to convince the customer about their product properties like texture, colours, quality etc. For a TV marketer, the focus will be on features like clarity, sound quality, technology etc. For example Sony Bravia is now focusing on its 2 million Bravia Pixels for establishing itself as a leader in the emerging LCD TV market. Automotive marketers concentrate on the product features and attributes while launching its brands into the market.

Once these attributes are firmly established in the mind of the consumer, the brand moves into the next step in the laddering process .This stage involves positioning the brand on product benefits. Here the brand moves from a functional focus to the benefit focus. Maggi Noodles had built its brand based on its product qualities like “easy to cook “and taste. Later the brand repositioned itself on the health platform.The latest tagline of Maggi – Taste Bhi, Health Bhi, takes the brand from attributes focus to benefit positioning.

The most critical stage of laddering process is to associate the brand to abstract benefits. Abstract benefits are conceptual benefits which focus on a deeper need of consumers much above the product benefits. Often these abstract benefits are aspirational in nature.

Brands over a period of time try to move from a basic benefit based positioning to a more abstract benefit. While comfort is a benefit, being a complete man is an abstract benefit. Airtel is about Expressing Yourself. This is an abstract benefit that the cellular service provider tries to position itself on. Fair & Lovely when launched concentrated on its functional benefit of “fairness” during its initial stage of brand building. Over a period of time, the brand has laddered up to the abstract concept of confidence and women empowerment.

Abstract benefits helps increase the aspirational value to the brand. It also helps the brand to extend itself into related categories since its positioning is no more conceptual and not limited by any functional attributes of a product.

The final stage in the laddering process is where the brand becomes synonymous with the abstract benefit. This is a level where the brand personifies abstract benefit. Johnson & Johnson is synonymous with mother – child relationship. Over these years, the brand has established itself by positioning on this abstract concept. In theory, this is referred to as Brand Essence.

Brand laddering helps a marketer in many ways. The most important benefit is that abstract attributes gives more flexibility to the brand. It takes the brand away from the most basic attributes so that marketers can experiment with various communication themes. Abstract benefits also give the brand to be more creative in its campaigns. Raymond’s was able to create highly popular campaigns because it focuses on an aspirational benefit of “Completeness”. Raymond’s can create new stories about a complete man which would not have been possible of a brand focusing on functional attributes.

The fundamental objective of brand laddering is to create icons. Iconic brands are that which truly represents or personifies aspirational values. Nike personifies authentic athleticism and Harley Davidson is synonymous with masculinity, free spirit and rebelliousness.

Although laddering is a sexy marketing strategy, it requires certain preparation for successful execution. The laddering will be successful only if the brand is able to establish its association with functional attributes. If a brand tries to ladder up without establishing its functional expertise, consumers may not believe in the brand’s claim. . The highly acclaimed “ Dirt is Good “ campaign of Surf is a successful brand laddering exercise because it was done after establishing its functional expertise. The brand should first establish its Points of Parity (POP) with its competitors in terms of performance. Only then, the laddering will be accepted by the consumers.

Another important condition is the abstract attribute should be relevant to the brand. For example, Nike and Athletics performance go hand in hand. Bournvita and confidence have obvious connection. Dove and Beauty are connected with each other.

Before venturing into a laddering exercise, the marketer has to decide on the brand essence. The abstract benefit should be carefully chosen because there is going to be a long term association often a permanent one.

Usually laddering is done on a benefit derived out if the core brand mantra. Brand mantra is the core DNA of the brand. It is what the brand stands for. And like DNA, brand’s mantra also remains constant. Choosing the right Brand Mantra enables the brand to ladder up effectively.

Even after a successful laddering exercise, a brand should not leave its focus on functional attributes. Sometimes, the brand should do a laddering down exercise to reinforce its association with functional attributes. This could be done by parallel campaigns focusing on functional attributes. This laddering down should be done if there is a change in consumer’s perception or if the competitors launch an innovative feature. In such a scenario, the brand should reinforce its functional expertise to the consumers.