Best Marketing Practice : The Death of a Salesman

"Sir, I don't want to be in sales " :- This is a common statement made by most of the MBA students during the placement season. Sales Jobs are counted as the last desperate option by most of the management students. Recession or not, Sales Jobs were never in vogue.

That is one side of the story.

Yesterday I went to a new generation bank. Suddenly I was surrounded by a couple of staffs asking me whether I would be interested in starting an SIP. I said I need time to think about it but the staffs keep on pressurizing even stooping down to plain begging.

Sales Function is now passing through one of the worst phase since its evolution. Marketers are responsible for this downfall of one of the most critical functions of a company. Sales is the point where the company meets its customers. It is the ultimate moment of truth for any firm. But it is sad that this function has stooped down to a point of no return.

In office and public forums, complaints are galore about the high pressure selling tactics unprofessionally implemented by firms. Call center executives calling up prospects and just blurting out their sales talks without even seeking permission. Insurance Executives trying to sell products that consumer doesn't need. All these have created so much irritation among consumers that it is now difficult for a sales person to get even an appointment.

Consumers have become more offensive than defensive . Historically consumers hate being sold . Now they have taken up arms against the salesperson's high pressure sales appoach.

It is a truth that organizations cannot survive without Selling Function. It is also true that sometimes consumers have to be persuaded to buy products. Sales Managers have to realize that things are getting out of their hands.

It is time to go back to the basics.

Have you ever met a sales guy who have asked relevant questions before making his sales presentation ?
Have you ever met a sales person who refused to sell a product because he thinks it will not match your requirement ?

Have you ever met a sales person who suggest competitor's product because it suits you better ?

Have you ever sat through a sales talk and actually liked the talk?

These situations have become rare. Because firms doesn't have a plan for the customers. Sales professionals are too much bothered about numbers that they don't spent a time thinking about their customers. Understanding consumers is the last thing in the mind of the salespeople.
Just by changing the designation to Relationship Manager will not create relationships. It needs to be ingrained in the sales person's attitude and approach.

It all boils down to developing an ethical sales culture in organizations. It takes lot of courage to resist selling wrong products to wrong consumers. It takes lot of pain to think long term and suffer short term loss of sales. It takes lot of investment to create a customer and retain him compared to selling and forgetting .

The era of foot-in-the- door sales approach is over. Consumers have more information than the sales professionals. They are acutely aware of the positives and negatives of offers. Hence it is time we move to the real spirit of sales.

Let marketers take a vow not to mis-sell. Let us try understand the consumer and then offer solutions. Let the sales persons be given the courage of losing a sale and gaining a consumer. Let us view consumers as humans than sales figures.Let us first take permission and then sell.
Let the sales professional be evaluated on qualitative terms more than plain figures. Let the organizations have the courage to think beyong quarterly sales figures.

The ultimate success of sales function is where consumers call up the company to fix appoinment with the sales professionals. Can you ever dream of such a situation ?

Let us try to sell well and sell good.

Brand Update : Coca Cola

Coca Cola has launched their new campaign in India recently. The new campaign features the brand ambassador Gautam Gambhir and comes with a new positioning.

Watch the new TVC here : Coca Cola

The new campaign is a part of the global communication campaign initiated by Coca Cola known as Open Happiness.The Open Happiness campaign is an extension of the Coke Side of Life campaign of last year. Open Happiness campaign is based on the notion that Coke brings happiness to life. The brand tries to communicate the idea of " Enjoying life's simple pleasures".

In the press release, Coke says that " Central to Open Happiness is the notion of enjoying an ice cold coke and taking a small break from the day to connect with others ".
See the press release here : Open Happiness Campaign

The big idea behind this platform is that Coca Cola offers fun and refreshment whenever you need it.

India is also a market where the company has extended the Open Happiness Communication platform.The latest campaign is the first one on this positioning platform.

And a totally disappointing one. The agency has done total injustice to the wonderful idea that Open Happiness envisages.

Instead of connecting Coke with Happiness , the new ad puts Coke in a dangerous position. The central theme of the new ad is that " Coke ke sath Dost free " means " A friend free with Coke ".

The ad shows Gautam helping out the owner of an deserted store by putting a display that " You get a friend free with Coke " and people starts showing up because of the free offer !!!!

I am not being cynical or critical but here are my concerns about the current theme.

In my little understanding about the Indian youth psyche , the new generation youngsters spent lot of time hanging out with their friends. The new gen likes to have lot of friends and is also influenced heavily by their peers.

And having no friends is UNCOOL. Here Coke is somehow telling the consumers that the users of Coke are those who are in desperate need of friends . And the concept of " Free Dost with Coke" is discounting the value of both Friends and Coke. Why should you give something free ( even symbolic) with Coke. And will you accept a " Free " friend ? And the characters depicted in the ads look like lonely desperate guys searching for friends which is also UNCOOL as far as the younger generation is concerned.

The Indian version of Open Happiness platform has failed to understand the essence of this positioning and miserably failed to connect the concept of happiness and Coke.

Nilkamal Plastics : Creating Value Through Convenience

Corporate Brand : Nilkamal
Agency : Triton

Brand Analysis Count : 385

Nilkamal is a company that successfully branded a commodity. Nilkamal is the market leader in the plastic molded furniture segment in India. The brand has a long history dating back to 1934. The company was founded by Mr Vrajlal Parekh. Mr Vrajlal Parekh started manufacturing metal buttons from his small factory. In 1950, he started producing plastic products and the company was called Standard Plastics. Nilkamal Plastics was born in 1956 and became and independent company in 1981.

The Indian home furniture market is huge with a market size of around Rs 14000 crores. Majority of the market is in the unorganized sector. Nilkamal operates in the moulded furniture market which is around Rs 950 crores. According to reports , 40% of which is in the unorganized sector.
Nilkamal is known for its plastic chairs . But the company is also a major player in manufacturing crates which are used for commercial purposes.

Nilkamal is a brand that popularised the use of plastic chairs at homes . Earlier households used to purchase only wooden /steel furnitures. But Nilkamal was able to break that mindset . Nilkamal did this by creating good designs and also taking care of the quality factor.

Households earlier was averse to plastic chairs because it looked ugly and was not perceived to be strong. Nilkamal changed that perception by introducing well designed chairs .This was backed by heavy promotions using various media.

In a market which was dominated by unorganized players, the brand building gave Nilkamal more mileage and also premium prices.The success of Nilkamal prompted many players to enter the segment. Since the designs could be easily copied, it was difficult for Nilkamal to sustain the growth momentum. Nilkamal is the market leader in the segment with a share of over 37%.But the market for moulded furnitures has become stagnant.


In 2005, the brand moved from molded furniture to home solutions. The brand introduced knocked down furniture and also sofa sets , dining tables ,baby chairs which became popular. The brand was slowly moving towards becoming a lifestyle furniture player.

The company also introduced a new range of office furniture brand Novella. During this time, the brand ventured into retail business by launching large retail format under the brand name @home. These retail outlets showcased the new range of home solutions from the company.

Recently the brand also launched a range of plastic Cupboards and cabinets branded as Freedom.
Nikamal is a brand that is heavily associated with plastic furniture. The brand has a high credibility among the consumers. The major problem faced by the brand is that plastic is associated with cheap furniture and this has prevented the penetration of this product category into high -margin household furniture segment.

But I think there is a huge potential for Nilkamal in developing itself to a highly creative furniture company. As a consumer, I have often found branded furniture to be terribly overpriced for the quality it delivers.Branded wooden furniture are out of reach for many middle class customers. Plastic furnitures lack the glamour and home makers tried to avoid these products. Hence there is a huge potential for affordable designer furniture. Currently this market is being captured by cheap imports from China. There is a flood of imported furniture which looks good and priced affordably.

Nilkamal have the brand equity to tap this potential. Although it is heavily associated with plastics, it could leverage that equity in creating an affordable range of home solutions to the Indian middle class.

Brand Update : Horlicks NutriBar

Horlicks has launched a new product - Horlicks Nutribar. The Horlicks brand has gone in for a category extension with this launch. The earlier category extension for Horlicks was into buscuits.
Nutribar is a cereal bar which contains cereals and multi-grains.Nutribar does not belong to the confectionery segment ( chocolates) but belong to an emerging category called functional foods.

Functional foods are those health foods like energy drinks ,cereals and cereal bars which contains health promoting ingredients. These products are also known as nutriceauticals.
The market for functional foods in India is estimated to be around Rs 1700 crores and is growing very fast.

Nutribar is being launched now as an extension of Horlicks. I am considering this product as a category extension because this brand is heavily supported and endorsed by Horlicks brand. So Horlicks has become the endorser brand for Nutribar. This is essential because the product is trying to create a new category.

Once the Nutribar brand becomes popular, the company may make it an individual brand without being endorsed by Horlicks. Now NutriBar is the primary brand and Horlicks is the endorser brand.

Nutribar is being positioned as a healthy solution to hunger. The brand is targeting the health conscious young generation. Reports suggest that this is a product specifically made for Indian market.

The brand is currently running a television commercial : Watch it here
Nutribar contains wheat, rice, oats and honey . The brand is claiming to have 11 nutrients and offers a convenient healthy snack.
Globally , functional foods have become a high growth market because of the health and convenience factors. India too has seen following such a trend.
It is interesting to see how Nutribar will be able to create and rule this category. It all depends on the support and investment that the company puts in behind this brand.

Related Brand

Horlicks

Tata Xenon XT : Fits No Label

Brand : Xenon XT
Company : Tata Motors
Agency : O&M

Brand Analysis Count : 384

While the debate is still raging over whether recession is the best time to launch new products, Tata Motors have launched a brand new vehicle Tata Xenon XT. What is interesting is that Xenon is not only a new product but it is trying to create a new segment as well.

Tata Xenon XT is a Lifestyle Pickup Truck. For Indians , the concept of a lifestyle pickup truck is entirely new. Pickup trucks are heavily associated with cargo. According to livemint website, in 2007-08 around 1,25,000 pickup trucks were sold.

The concept of lifestyle pickup trucks is directly imported from the western market. I have seen in Hollywood movies where families driving around in pickup trucks ( remember movie Twister ?) especially when they have a farm or when they love offroading.

It is not the first time that Tata Motors is experimenting with the concept of lifestyle pickup trucks. In 2005, the company had launched the same kind of product Tata TL 4x4. But the product bombed owing to the steep pricing of around 10 lakhs.

The current Xenon was debuted in the Bologna Motorshow in 2006. The brand shares the same platform as the Sumo Grande. Before being launched in India, Tata Motors has been selling this vehicle in Thailand, Saudi,Algeria, Italy etc.

The critical marketing issues with Xenon XT are two ? Need and Positioning.

The first issue is whether there is a need for such a product in the Indian market. The brand is aiming at those customers who love offroading and are in need of a pickup vehicle. The rich farmers of Punjab and those guys who love hunting and adventure are the potential customers for this product. The hardworking, fun loving entrepreneurs who love to sweat and enjoy the wild fits the label for this product.

How ever the question still lingers whether the product is ahead of its time ? Are the Indian consumers ready for a cross-over product like Xenon. The pricing of the product is also steep at Rs 7 - 10 lakhs where it will be competing with its brother Tata Safari and the highly successful Scorpio.

The second issue is the positioning.

Indian consumers has never seen a product like this. Hence the task of establishing the points of parity is crucial. One of the steps in establishing POP for an entirely new product is to establish the category membership . Since the consumers have not seen such a product before, the brand should first establish a reference point for the consumers. It has to tell the consumer that the product belongs to a certain category.

This is where Xenon has a challenge. Tata Motors in their press release itself have mentioned that creating a reference point for Xenon is the major challenge. I would say that the success of Xenon will depend largely on establishing the right category membership.

For a product that tries to create a new category, the marketers try to establish the category membership first and then try to do a break-away positioning from its root category. If the category membership is wrong, then the break away strategy will never work.
A classic case of break away positioning is seen in the Swatch brand. The brand wanted to create a new category watches. So Swatch first established its membership in the fashion accessory category and not in the watch category. Then it created the break away positioning as a " watch accessory".

What the advertising agency has done for Xenon is one of the most risky strategy in establishing a new category. It has not tried to establish the category membership. Instead of establishing membership in a category ( SUV or Pickup truck), the brand has left it to the consumers to decide the category to which Xenon belongs.

In the first print ad for this brand, Xenon has adopted the tagline - "Fits No Label ". That means that neither the agency nor the company is sure about the category membership and it is leaving this responsibility to the consumers.

History has shown us that leaving this task to consumer is dangerous. In branding text books, you can find the classic case of Motorola Envoy which failed because it did not defined its competitive frame of reference. Envoy was the first personal digital assistant (PDA) product that the consumers have seen. Envoy did not have all the functionality of a laptop but had more functions than an organizer,. But the brand never bothered to establish a category membership.
The brand never defined itself and consumers could not understand the exact category that the product belonged to. Consumers was confused and the product failed. While the competitor Palm Pilot which established itself in the Electronic Organizer category acheived considerable success. ( reference : Strategic Brand Management by Keller).

When we leave this task of reference point to the consumer, the consumer is free to put this product in any of the category. By the look of the vehicle, there are chances that consumers will put Xenon as a pickup truck. If they do so, then Xenon will face the issue that Tata TL faced-Consumers unwilling to pay Rs 9 Lakhs for a pickup.

I think that in the current scenario, Xenon should not associate itself with the truck category. It should have the membership in the offroader /SUV category because trucks never are associated with luxury and comfort in India. I would love this vehicle to fill the gap that Maruti Gypsy left. So Xenon should be a Luxury Jeep and not a truck.

Xenon have the biggest USP of being heavily customisable . The consumer have the option of a large number of accessories like bed-liner,canopy, boot lid etc. It is powered by Dicor engine and comes with SUV accessories.

Tata Motors have in a way messed up its positioning for Xenon during the launch itself . All the news about Xenon has already labeled it as a pickup truck. It has to be seen whether Indian consumers will accept the concept of a luxury pickup truck.

Shilpa Bindi : Shilpa Char Chand Lagaye

Brand : Shilpa
Company : Paramount Cosmetics Ltd


Brand Analysis Count : 383

Bindi is a product that is very much linked to India's culture. The dot that Indian women adores on her forehead has been a distinct symbol of our tradition and culture . Although there are no historical references to the origin of bindi, some historians trace the origin of the product back to 4th century.

For all these years, this small dot has become an integral part of the facial make-up of Indian women. Bindi was earlier popular in the form of powder ( Kumkum) and liquid. Later came the era of sticker bindi. Both Kumkum and Liquid bindi's are messy and thus created a need for Bindi which is more user-friendly.

Sticker Bindis became popular because it was less messy and easy to use. Shilpa is the major brand in this category.
Shilpa is a brand owned by Gujarat based Paramount cosmetics which also own the brands like Shringar and Tips & Toes.

Over these years, bindi category also has changed drastically. While the sticker bindi was intended to replace the ubiquitous red liquid kumkum, slowly this product was also subjected to experiments.
From the plain bindi, the product began to take various size and shapes. The market has also moved towards different segments like designer bindi, bindi with swarovski crystals and so on.
The cost of this product have also changed with times. Now these products cost anywhere between Rs 5 to Rs 2000. There are designer bindi which costs even more.

The bindi market is dominated by unorganised sector. If you visit a fancy store, you will see a huge display of these bindis and ladies just swift through these for their favorite designs. The consumer looks primarily for the design while buying these products.

It is in this context that Shilpa brand assumes significance. Shilpa is a predominantly a plain-bindi brand. In my knowledge, the brand has not ventured into designer category. But this brand still commands immense brand equity among the consumers. The brand has high recall and there are loyal customers for the brand.

Consumers of this category buys both design and plain bindis. For frequent and daily use , consumers prefer branded well known plain bindis while on social occasions, they go in for the design bindis. I wonder why this brand has not moved aggressively into designer premium bindis. It had the brand equity to leverage and the move towards premium designer bindi will only increase the brand's visibility and equity.

One reason for the success of Shilpa brand is the trust factor . Ladies fear that constant use of sticker bindi can cause skin problems . Hence they prefer branded bindis for daily use.
Shilpa although is catering to a small market size had invested in building the brand. There were lot of ads for this brand.

Watch one of the ads here : Shilpa

There were two factors that made this brand sticky in the mind of the consumer. The main factor is the jingle. Shilpa had the famous jingle " Shilpa Char Chand Lagaye" which is still remembered by the consumer. Second factor is the packaging. The pack created a solid identity for the brand.
Since plain bindi purchase is a low involvement purchase, consumers were loyal to this brand since it was safe and easy for them.
But the brand faces the issue of competition from the unorganised segment .

Another significant threat for Shilpa is the changing consumer behavior. The demographic shift in the Indian consumers are a source of worry for traditional products like Bindi and Kumkum.
Whether the new hip-hop generation will continue using this product is a matter of concern.