Marketing To Indian Youth : Youth Demographics

This is the demographics of Indian youth as per the census 2001.
According to news reports, the Youth Population to the total population is 41.05% as per the census 2001.

Many interesting statistics regarding Youth demographics are available in the website : Youthportal.gov.in

Brand Update : Bru

Bru has recently launched a new television campaign in line with its positioning of " Happiness Begins with Bru".

Watch the commercial here : Bru

This is one of the best commercial I have seen in recent times. Why I liked this TVC is the touching slice of life theme which is derived from careful consumer observation.

The new commercial projects Bru as the " Mood Maker ". The brand has the tagline " A little Bru makes your mood brighter ".

The ad shows the tired homemaker giving the Bru Coffee to her husband ( as usual the relaxed laid back one) and after taking a sip, the hubby was lifted to such a blissful mood that he slowly massages his tired wife's feet.

In my own experience, I think that men usually are less empathetic to homemaker's problems. While I expect everything to be perfectly done by my wife, often I forget the fact that she is also very much tired as I am. And men's love towards their betterhalf is always governed by his moods.

So the sudden empathetic reaction by the husband in the commercial effectively captures the goodness of Bru and it is right on target. It is also a break from the usual stereotypes of homemakers and strongly connects with the new generation women.

Kudos to the marketing team.

Related Brand
Bru

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