Sure : No Sweat

Brand : Sure

Company : HUL

Brand Analysis Count : #456

HUL has launched a new brand in the Indian market - Sure . Sure is an antiperspirant brand from Unilever's global product portfolio. The brand is claiming to be the largest selling antiperspirant brand in the world. Sure is sold extensively in UK and Europe.

Sure is an interesting brand for a variety of reasons. The launch of Sure brand marks another era in the deodorant market in India. The deo market is divided into categories like Body Spray, Deo with germ fighting properties and Antiperspirants. The Rs 700 crore Indian deo market is dominated by the body spray categories. The launch of a global brand like Sure is going to develop the antiperspirant market in India.

For the promotion of Sure, HUL has roped in the actress Asin. The brand is currently running the launch campaign across South India featuring the celebrity.

Watch the launch ad here : Sure

Since the antiperspirant category is new to the Indian market, the brand has tried to educate the customer about the product category in the launch phase. The launch ad essentially talks about what the product is and the comparison between ordinary deo spray and antiperspirant.

Another interesting aspect of Sure brand launch is the question mark over the fate of Rexona. The fact is that Sure is Rexona !!!

While Sure is marketed across England and Europe, the same product is marketed as Rexona in other global markets including India. There are rumors that with the launch of Sure in India, HUL may kill Rexona deo brand in near future.

According to newspaper reports , Rexona which created the deo market in India is now a marginal player in the market with hardly 5% share. HUL virtually messed up the Rexona brand (soap) with lot of experiments like migrating to Hamam. Even in the deo category, Rexona was virtually neglected in terms of promotional spend.

Sure is marketed with the same tagline and brand elements as Rexona. Both Rexona and Sure carries the same logo - the Tick mark and the same tagline " It won't Let You Down". Sure is also using the slogan " No Sweat " in the launch campaign to reinforce the product benefit.

It is unlikely event where you see two different brands using the same logo and tagline. It does not make any marketing sense unless there is an underlying thought of migrating one brand to another. It can be assumed that Sure will launch its full range of deos and Rexona will be slowly taken off the shelves.

The deo market is witnessing intense competition these days with n number of launches happening. The trend these days seems that get a good fragrance, outsource production and do high profile marketing.

Even the antiperspirant market has seen new launches with Garnier launching its product in the category recently. By launching Sure , HUL is making sure that it does not leave any part of the category to the competitors.

Brand Update : Vivel Extending to Fairness Cream

ITC's soap brand Vivel has launched its fairness cream extension in the Indian market. The brand has been launched in Kerala and is expected to offer stiff competition to the market leader Fair & Lovely.

Vivel's fairness variant is branded as Vivel Active Fair and comes in three SKUs - the 50 gm pack is launched at a price of Rs 70, 25 gm at Rs 38 and 9 gm sachet at Rs 5. The brand is running its launch

campaign with big splash in major newspapers . Vivel Active Fair is banking on its ingredients like vitamins, minerals and moisturizers along with SPF 15 sun protection rating.

In a direct challenge to Fair & Lovely, Vivel is selling its sachet at Rs 5 ( introductory offer) compared to FAL's Rs 7. Indian personal care market is driven by sachets and the Rs 5 price point will help Vivel to achieve the important customer trials. Rs 5 price point is also beneficial

to both customers and retailers because of the coinage factor. This pricing may force HUL to lower the price of FAL's sachet.The Indian Fairness Cream market is worth around Rs 1700 and growing at 15% .

ITC is making lot of headway in its personal care business. The brands like Fiama and Vivel has successfully made their mark in terms of brand visibility. Although the company may not be making money in the personal care business because of the heavy promotional investments, these brands have built a strong foundation that can fuel further growth.It is common for brands in the personal care business to go for brand extensions. Vivel is trying to transform itself to a personal care brand rather than just a soap brand.

It is interesting to see that the brand refrained from using celebrity to endorse the fairness cream. I wonder why ?

Related Brand

Vivel

Marketing Strategy : Customer Service Starts From The Top

Customer Service Starts From The Top

Originally published here in Adclubbombay.com

The $847 million deal between Amazon and Zappos.com was making lot of waves among academicians and practitioners across the globe. The discussions were not about the valuations or the deal but about the unique customer service culture of Zappos.com.

Zappos.com is an online retailer of fashion accessories predominantly shoes. The retailer is famous for its focus on customers. The key factor behind the stupendous success of Zappos.com is their customer service culture. The company is passionate about their customers and the culture of putting customer first runs through the entire company. The entire business model of this company is centred on customers and the CEO is the driving force behind this customer oriented culture. The company has a warehouse that is open 24X7 so a customer who orders at 11 PM gets a next day delivery. The company also has a 365 day return policy where a customer, if he is not satisfied, can return the product with in 365 days of purchase and get a refund.

Every company understands the need for customer service. But it is interesting to see that the understanding seldom translates into actual practice. One of the primary reasons for the huge disparity between understanding and execution of customer service initiative is the lack of customer service culture.

Top Management Involvement

The quality of customer service is directly proportional to the involvement of senior leaders of the company. Although the actual execution of service is done at the lower levels of management strata, unless the senior leaders are held responsible for customer satisfaction, the process will not excel. But for that, customer service should be given its legitimate position in the management functions. In service firms it is natural that customer service is given its due importance. But in other companies there is no reference to customer service as a function.

When senior managers become involved in managing customer service and satisfaction, the function gets recognized in the organization. Priorities change and service does not become an irritant but a priority. Firms like Zappos.com,Ritz Carlton, Mitchells and Marriott thrive because of the intense involvement of top leadership in monitoring customer service. In firms like Zappos and Marriott, the CEOs take personal interest in customer service initiatives.

Employee Motivation

Although it may seem very basic to state that employee motivation is critical to any customer service initiative, many firms fail to practice this obvious dictum. Since the frontline employees are the implementers of customer service, it is absolutely essential that they are given the necessary authority and responsibility to handle any request from the customers. This perhaps will the main reason why consumers do not appreciate being serviced by call centre executives. These outsourced firms usually do not have any authority to solve the issues of customers.

In the famous book “The Last Lecture “author Late Mr. Randy Pausch writes about a memorable incident of a $ 100,000 salt and pepper shaker. The author during his childhood days was taken to Disney Land by his parents. Randy and his sister bought a souvenir salt and pepper shaker for their parents. But immediately after they purchased the shaker, it fell and broke. Randy and his sister were terribly upset because they had spent their entire pocket money on that gift. Then a fellow guest suggested the crying Randy that they tell the store what happened.

Randy and his sister approached the store and was surprised when the store staff replaced the shakers for free and even apologized for not packing it correctly. The author then mentions that his family later went on to give more than $100,000 worth of business to Disney Land. The salt and pepper shaker was not worth more than $10 but the small gesture by the Disney Staff created goodwill that is worth millions.

Such customer service excellence will not happen unless the employees are intrinsically motivated. The motivation comes from the responsibility and the freedom that comes with the job. It is in this context that organisational culture becomes critical. While processes can make customer service error free, spontaneity can come only from individuals. Organizations should strive to bring that spontaneity into the customer service.

Another story about customer service spontaneity -

Bill Marriott , the Chairman and CEO of Marriott International, in his blog once narrated a story about an Associate who gave his pants to one of the guests . The guest who came for a business meeting found that he accidently packed his wife’s slacks instead of his own. He realized this only minutes before the meeting began. The chances of going to a store to buy one and making it to the meeting on time were minimal. One of the Marriott Associates noticed that he happened to be of the same size as the guest and offered him the pair of pants he was wearing. The pants were of perfect fit and the guest went to the meeting on time. The Associate managed with his extra casual pants till the grateful guest returned.

(source : http://www.blogs.marriott.com/search/default.asp?item=2358646).

It is not that companies today are not aware of these basics but the fact is that in pursuit of high growth, often these fundas take the backseat.

Brand Update : Sugar Free Natura - Expanding Brand Usage

Sugar Free Natura , the sugar substitute brand from Zydus has been slowly and consistently expanding the scope of the brand. In marketing theory , different ways to grow a brand is to expand the usage situations and finding new uses for the brand and through new variants. Sugar Free has been trying exactly that.

Sugar Free launched itself as a sugar substitute for beverages. So instead of using sugar in beverages like tea, coffee, cool drinks etc, the brand tried to position itself as a healthy sugar substitute.

Rather than specifically focusing on diabetic patients ( who obviously needs such a product), Sugar Free concentrated on a larger consumer base by positioning itself as healthy alternative to sugar.

But the brand realized that focusing just on beverages severely limits the usage of the product. Hence the brand launched a campaign expanding the usage of the brand by telling the consumers to use Sugar Free not only for beverages but also for all other delicacies which require sugar like home made sweets. The brand also roped in the popular Chef Sanjeev Kapoor as the brand ambassador.

The brand has now moved into the next level of value addition by launching flavor sachets for tea. The new product is Sugar Free sachets which contains flavors like Ginger, Lime along with the sugar substitute. The new variant gives another reason to buy the brand.

Sugar Free is a brand that has realized the potential for a healthy alternative to sugar. India has an exploding diabetic population and such a product hold tremendous scope in future. The only factor that limits the growth of Sugar Free is the higher price. The price severely limits the repeat purchase and regular use of this product. The category will grow only if the brand is able to break the price barrier.

Related Brand

Sugar Free

Brand Update : Vanish Gets a Brand Ambassador

Vanish, the stain remover product from Reckitt has found a celebrity endorser in the actress Sridevi. The brand is now running a campaign featuring the celebrity.

Watch the ad here : Vanish

The new ad shows a move by the brand away from the previous campaign formats. The brand has been consistently using the global communication format till now. The brand has thought of using celebrity to penetrate more into the market. The choice of a " retired" actress like Sridevi is intriguing.

What will be the benefits that the brand expects out of this new strategy of celebrity endorsement. The first benefit is obviously more acceptance for the product in the consumer's mind ( hopefully) aided by the brand equity of celebrity. More brand familiarity. Use of celebrity in POP materials will have lot of impact on the purchases. Boosting the brand acceptance in semi urban markets.

The new campaign has discarded most of the brand elements especially the pink T shirt clad girls who were an integral part of the earlier campaigns. I feel that it was a mistake to remove that important component from the new ad.

Related Brand

Vanish

Marketing Strategy : Four Pillars Of Customer Focus

The Four Pillars of Customer Focus

Originally Published Here at Adclubbombay.com

Customer focus is one of the most used jargons in the marketing lexicon. Despite being accepted as an important strategy, many firms have not yet been capable of delivering exceptional customer service and focus in their operations.

Customer focus is a choice and the choice has to be made at the highest management level. Being customer focused is an expensive proposition. It is resource intensive and needs hands-on management from senior leadership of the company. More than money, customer focused strategy depend on human resource. The investment needed for maintaining customer focus is the time and dedication of all management levels towards the goal of service excellence. Most of the firms which aspire to be customer focused fail because of the lack of involvement of top management in customer-related activities.

Most companies invest their resources in creating processes and automating customer touch points. After this investment, the management leaves the customer management to these insensitive machines and algorithms. The entire process will be a waste unless there is a human element in it.

For any organisation who aspire to be customer-centric should start by building a strong foundation .Without a strong foundation, customer centric activities will lack in their effectiveness.

Customer knowledge, Culture, Human Resources and Conflict resolution are the four pillars of a customer focused organisational strategy.

Customer Knowledge

Customer profiling is the first step towards building customer focus. This is one of the most difficult phases in the quest towards customer focus. The depth of customer focus in a company is directly proportional to the depth of the customer information collected. The effectiveness of all customer-related promotions will depend on the extent to which the collected information is being used at the customer touch points.

For example in a business to business environment, firms are sitting on a huge pile of customer information. The information from the past interactions with the customer, the information from the past sales data are all available with the company. How well this information is available to the sales force will determine the effectiveness of any customer related campaign run by the company. While most firms collect customer information, this information are seldom updated or distributed to the concerned personnel.

Another important task for the managers is to identify the customer group that the organisation should focus on. It is near impossible for organisations to satisfy every customer. Some customers may be unprofitable for the company to serve. The management should be able to take informed decision on the customer groups which it will have to focus on. Once these groups are identified, firms must orient its organisation to deliver exceptional service to these customers.

Customer-Centric Organisational Culture

The second most important pillar of customer focused organisational strategy is the culture. Customer-centric organisational culture is where the entire organization is tuned to deliver exceptional service to the customer. Customers become the centre around which the organization is built.

The Chief Executive becomes the Chief Customer Officer. Every process and actions of the firm is prepared with customer in mind. Although this proposition may sound theoretical, companies like Marriott, P&G and FedEx have built their business around a customer focused strategy.

Human Resource

People form the third pillar of a customer focused organisation. The employees are the vital interface between the customer and the company. Customer focused organisations invest huge resources in developing a team of highly trained customer- care executives.

It is critical for organisation to understand the importance of front-line employees who deal directly with the customers. These employees represent the face of the organisation. There has to be clear role clarity for employees who interact with the customers. Customers always prefer a single contact point with the selling organisations. Customer focused organisations thrive because their entire organisation is created to optimize customer touch points. The customer –care executives are given enough authority and responsibilities to deal with customer requirements. Cases which are beyond their authority are escalated to higher levels.

Conflict Resolution.

Handling customer conflicts is the litmus test of the effectiveness of any customer-centric organisation. When there are no conflicts or complaints, customer management is not a daunting task.

The real depth of customer focus is revealed when there is a complaint or a conflict. As customers, we all have faced situations where our complaints go unresolved. A recent survey conducted on mobile phone users revealed that unresolved complaint was one of the major reasons for customer churning in Post-paid customer segment.

Customer focused organisations have a robust complaint handling mechanism backed by strong process and also sufficient budgets. These organisations have a system where complaints or conflicts are addressed within a stipulated time frame. The unresolved complaints are escalated to higher levels of management and necessary actions are taken at each levels of management for proper remedial actions.

Titan Zoop : Be Cool

Brand : Zoop

Company : Titan Industries

Ad Agency : Ogilvy

Brand Analysis Count # 455

Titan has re-entered the kids' watches category with a new brand Zoop. Titan has been launching a series of watch brands in recent years. According to a newspaper report, the company is transforming itself into a house of brands with a number of brands catering to various segments. The company had recently launched brands like Xylus, Obaku, Zoop etc all endorsed by the corporate brand Titan.

Zoop is a brand targeting the kids aged 5-12. Through Zoop, Titan is filling a gap in their brand portfolio. Kid's watch segment although a high potential market is dominated by unorganized players.

In 1998-99, Titan tried to tap the market with a brand Dash. But the brand failed to catch the fancy of the market at that point of time. Analysts says that Dash was too early for the Indian consumers. During that time, parents were not that interested in spending on kid's accessories like Watches.

Now the company feels that the market is ripe for a brand like Zoop. Zoop is being positioned as a cool , must-have accessory for kids. The brand is running a launch campaign in most of the channels.

Watch the ad here : Zoop

Zoop is endorsed by brand Titan. The brand has the tagline - Be Cool ; which will be well liked by the target customers.

While researching on the brand, I found a couple of articles which mentioned that Zoop's positioning itself as "Be a Star ". The brand wanted to talk directly to the kid and acknowledges the star in him. But from the launch ad, it seems that the brand is focusing on " coolness " quotient rather than the " stardom". Hence the brand has focused on bringing in new funky designs in its range.

Zoop will be definitely a brand to watch out for . The brand has the equity of Titan and the pricing is exceptionally good. Zoop is priced between Rs 350-Rs 900. And it makes a perfect gift to kids too.

Zoop faces competition from the host of unorganized players in the market along with cheap Chinese imports. For Zoop, budget competition will also be something to be concerned about. Budget competition is the competition for the money . Budget competition for Zoop will be those kid's products across various categories that falls in the price band of Rs 350- Rs 1000. That include toys, clothes, video games, etc. If you look at the launch campaign of Zoop , the brand subtly addresses that competition by pointing at the ' need ' for a watch.

Although there are many positive things going for the brand, it is not easy to catch the attention of this segment. The kids get bored with products/brands easily. Functionality may not be on the priority list of this segment of customers. It may not be realistic for Titan to assume that kids will pester their parents to buy more than one watch to quench the style thirst of kids. So the task is to get more and more kids to purchase the brand and be happy about it. So constant campaign innovation will be the key to brand success.

Zoop has rightly positioned itself on the style factor and I am sure many young customers will fall for it.

Marketing Strategy : How to Engage Customers to Create Brand Equity

Engage Customers to Create Brand Equity

Originally Published here at adclubbombay.com

Engagement means creating involvement. Customer engagement means the effort taken by the brand to develop an involvement between customers and the brand beyond regular purchase and use.

Traditional marketing practices seldom encourage active involvement of customers. The marketers often are satisfied with the regular purchase of the product by the customers and the level of engagement with the customers is limited to handling queries, handling complaints and loyalty programs.

The new economy has necessitated marketers to think beyond the typical purchase/sales orientation to a more pro-active customer engagement orientation. The web 2.0 and the rising popularity of social media have created a new cost effective platform for marketers to build and maintain customer engagement programs.

Take the example of ZooZoo- the characters created by Vodafone to promote its Value Added Services. With in a short span of time, ZooZoo was all over the social media and the Facebook fan count reached 2, 75000 at the time this article is being written. Using ZooZoo, Vodafone has created a new way of connecting and engaging with the target audience.

Create a culture of engagement.

It is not easy to create effective customer engagement. The first and foremost requirement for effective customer engagement is to orient the company culture towards a customer orientation. Customers can be demanding and more so when the company takes an initiative to reach out. Hence marketers should venture into creating active engagement only after the entire firm develops an orientation towards customers.

Make it easier for customers to connect.

An important requisite for active customer engagement is to make the process easier for consumers to reach the company. Active consumer engagement cannot work effectively in an outsourced environment. Hence the marketing department should be able to create and sustain a robust mechanism to respond to the consumers.

The web has made it easier for marketers to keep tab on consumers’ demands. But in a country like India, one should account for millions of consumers who cannot access such a channel. While creating such engagement channels, the brand has to create a robust process to ensure that it responds to the consumer immediately. An unanswered query or a complaint can create negativity and can be detrimental to the brand’s equity.

Have a vision

Brand managers should have a clear vision about the outcome and purpose of customer engagement. The critical question is “what is the expected outcome of this engagement?”

The outcomes of a customer engagement program need not be based on purchase or sales. There can be qualitative objectives also for such an engagement. How ever brands will reap the benefits of loyalty and repeat purchases from the consumers who are actively engaged with it.

When the consumers are actively engaged with the brand, one need not search too far for new product ideas. Highly involved consumers will be a vital information source for obtaining feedback and product improvement ideas.

Move to a higher ladder.

Once the platform is identified and target audience chosen, the brand should have something to say to the consumer. The brand can engage the customer in many ways. Typically during engagement, brands will assume the role of an expert offering advice to consumers on problems. The task for the marketer is to find the areas in which the brand should engage with its consumers. For example, through Gang of Girls website, Sunsilk is providing tips and advice on hair care which is the subject where the brand is an expert. The advantage of such an engagement is that the brand has more control over the conversation.

While identifying the area of engagement, the brand should be able to ladder up to a more abstract need rather than restricting itself into a category need. This will appeal to a larger audience and thus take the brand’s reach farther. Tata Tea created a highly successful engagement based on the theme “ Jagore “ inspiring many youths to register themselves as voters in the recent general elections. But the challenge for the brand is to take this engagement further since the elections are over.

Another way of engagement is where the brand provides a platform through which the consumers engage with each other. The brand acts as a facilitator rather than the expert. Consumer driven brand communities are the results of such an engagement. These engagements are more powerful than the brand driven engagements because the underlying cause for such engagements arises out of passion rather than profit.

It is all about action

Successful engagement arises out of action. Brands venturing into creating customer engagement must devise ways to create and maintain a higher energy level among the consumers. The engagement plan should have activities, contests, debates, meet ups, webinars, sharing, exchanges, tweets etc to keep up the energy level. This means that there is going to be a substantial investment on the part of the brand to keep the momentum going. The investment is more on the human side rather than monetary investment. Technology has enabled companies to keep these engagement costs minimal. But there has to be a dedicated team who will keep the activity levels high so that there is never a dull moment.

Brand Update : Gems Does a Kinder Joy

Gems recently launched a new variant Gems Surprise. The product is a new pack of Gems that comes with a surprise toy inside. The new variant is in the shape of a ball attractively packaged. Right now Gems Surprise will contain Ben 10 toys. The new variant is priced at Rs 30.

Gems Surprise is inspired ( copy ?) by the Kinder Surprise . Kinder Surprise has met with success in the Indian market. I do not have the figures but as a consumer, I have been a regular buyer of this product so are my friends.
The consumer acceptance of the Kinder Joy may have been the reason for the launch of Gems Surprise.

Kinder Surprise was never a competition for Gems. Kinder Surprise has created different niche where Cadbury does not have a presence. Cadbury does not want any product to rule any part of the chocolate market that easily. Through Gems Surprise, Cadbury is addressing the industry competition.

There is no product in Cadbury's brand portfolio that is similar to Kinder Surprise. Gems was chosen because it is a unique brand with lot of equity among the consumers. The form factor of Gems also made the brand worthy of being a competitor for Kinder Surprise.

Gems Surprise is going to create holes in the Parent's pockets. Gems was always affordable and right product to buy for the Kids. Gems Surprise priced at Rs 30 is an upward stretch for the brand.
The question is whether the consumer will buy Gems for Rs 30 because there is a gift free with it ? For all those customers who has been buying SKUs of Gems for Rs 5 and Rs 10 may find it difficult to justify the purchase of Gem's Surprise at Rs 30.

What I understand is that the product ( chocolate ) will be the same in Gems Surprise. What you pay more is for the toy.In the case of Kinder Surprise, consumers did not have a benchmark about the price so Rs 30 for Kinder Joy was accepted by the consumer.

Gems will definitely get lot of consumer trials and purchases .Whether the purchases will be sustainable will depend a lot on the variety of the gifts that is inside the pack. Kinder Surprise is the master in this game. Will Gems beat the master will be a fun ( expensive though) to watch.

Related Brand
Kinder Surprise

Market Statistics : FMCG Market Shares

Today's ( 26/05/10) Economic Times carries interesting market share figurers of FMCG players across various categories in the Indian market. Thought of sharing.

Hindustan Unilever Ltd

April 2009( %) April 2010 ( %)

Soaps 47 43.8

Detergents 37.4 36.8

Shampoo 45.3 46.9

Toothpaste 27.9 25.7

Skincare 46.5 45.4

Tea 22.4 21

Proctor & Gamble

April 2009( %) April 2010 ( %)

Detergents 13.9 14.6

Shampoo 24.1 22.6

Godrej Consumer Products

April 2009( %) April 2010 ( %)

Soaps 9.8 10.5

Dabur

April 2009( %) April 2010 ( %)

Toothpaste 9.6 10.6

Shampoo 6.1 5.5

Chawanprash 59.6 60.9

Nestle

April 2009( %) April 2010 ( %)

Coffee 41.1 41.8

Chocolates 25.2 25.2

Noodles 63.1 62.2

Colgate

April 2009( %) April 2010 ( %)

Toothpaste 49.8 51.2

Toothpowder 43.6 43.5

Tata Tea

April 2009( %) April 2010 ( %)

Tea 21.7 20.2

Tata Tion : Why Let Go

Brand : Tata Tion
Company : Tata Tea

Brand Analysis Count # 454

Tata Tion is Tata Tea's foray into the non-carbonated beverages market. Tion which was soft launched in 2009 has been launched nationally. The brand was initially launched in TamilNadu and has been in the market for more than a year.

Tion is a fruit based drink which has extracts of tea, ginseng and fruit. The brand is a challenger in the Rs 2500 crore non-carbonated beverage market in India.

Tion is positioned as an energy drink . The brand although fruit flavored is positioned as a tea-based cool drink. The major differentiators for Tion are its ingredients. The brand has tea extracts and Ginseng which makes the brand stand out from the rest. The presence of these ingredient also makes this brand look more healthy compared to other drinks.

Tion has the tagline : Why Let Go. The launch campaign is does not have much to talk about.The brand is essentially giving a message that it has so much in it that you cannot let it go.

Consumers have different take on the taste of Tion. The taste may not be universally appealing and that can restrict this brand to a niche. Tion will appeal to those consumers who are looking for a healthy cool drink and something different from the fruit juices. Compared to the existing fruit drinks, Tion gives certain kind of refreshment thanks to its ingredients.

Tion was initially launched in 400 ml packs priced at Rs 22. But now the brand is available at 200 ml packs priced at Rs 13. The packing is novel and can generate lot of trials.
But the 200ml drink seems to be too little to quench thirst and can create a perception of too little for that price. That was the typical reaction of a consumer after having the drink on a hot day.
Tion is a different product from the rest and along with the endorsement of Tata, the brand can get lot of trials. In the city where I live, Tatas have managed to make the brand available at key locations. The proposed JV with Pepsi will also help the brand get into more store shelves.

The challenge for Tion is to convince the customers to regularly consume the brand. The brand is banking on its ingredients to convince the consumers to patronize it. I feel rather than the ingredients, the brand will hold the key. With the kind of communication strategy, Tion may not be able to build a strong equity. It may need a heavy dose of celebrities especially those in the athletics/sports which can reinforce the message of a healthy energy drink. With global brands like Gatorade, Burn etc upping their ante, Tion should invest more on the brand rather than banking on its ingredients.

Marketing Strategy :Do You Know Your Customers ?

What Marketers Should Know About Customers

Originally published here in Adclubbombay.com

The dictum “Understand your consumers “has often become a cliché. It is not a new idea but it is the most forgotten idea. When sales are growing at tremendous pace and when the production is struggling to meet the demand from the market, consumer is pushed to the backyard. During periods of economic boom companies focus is on expansion, diversification, new offices, mergers and acquisitions. But then suddenly out of the blue, everything comes to a grinding halt. Growth stopped, inventory piled up and consumers stopped crowding the stores. Now is the time to bring back the consumer to the centre of your business strategy.

It is said that the seeds of disaster is sowed during the time of growth and optimism. Take the case of realty sector. This is the sector which was most affected by the current slowdown. When the industry was growing at a scorching pace, every one forgot the consumer. Prices were skyrocketing not because of real consumer demand but because of speculation. Many players cared little to understand whether the consumer is actually buying or is it a mere speculation that is driving the price. When the realisation came that real consumers are not buying, everything came to a standstill.

This current slowdown in the economy is a lesson for all marketers to go back to common sense. The common sense that consumer is the centre of business. The purpose of business is to create consumers. And to do that one should know the consumers.

Who is your customer?

Although this question sounds too basic and simplistic, it is surprising to know that many businesses do not have a basic definition of their customers. The era of mass marketing where the marketer treats the entire market as a homogeneous group is over. The market has moved drastically into different segments.

Consumer’s knowledge about offerings has also changed. This new set of empowered knowledgeable consumer has warranted that companies be more empathetic to the needs and wants of the consumers.

Marketers should have a thorough understanding about the consumer. The first step is to clearly define the consumer. The definition of consumer should be exhaustive and not be limited to a mere demographic picture. The mental, physical, emotional and social dimension of the consumer should be clearly stated by the marketer.

What does the consumer need?

Once the customer definition is clear, the next task is to map the needs of the consumer. This is not a static process because consumer needs and priorities keep changing. Hence there has to be a continuous mechanism through which these changes are absorbed into the learning systems of the company. In an advertising agency perspective, increasingly companies are cutting their media expenses. That does not mean that the need for promotions has died. When advertisers look for new cheaper methods for promotions, agencies should be in a position to help them. This can happen only if the agencies have a better understanding of the consumer’s changing needs.

Understand Customer’s customer

In the remarkable book “What the customer wants you to know “, management guru Ram Charan says “The most important thing to understand about your customer is her customers”.

The customer’s customer principle has wide application in business marketing. For an advertising agency, the customer’s customer is the consumer. For a business firm, it will be the customer of the client. If a marketer wants to clearly understand the customer needs, he has to first identify the customer’s customer and customer’s competitor. While many consumer firms clearly map their customers and competitors, business markets fail to understand the significance of this understanding. Because if the customer’s customer stops buying products, then your customer will stop buying from you.

From market driven to market-driving

Consumers will not be able to tell you exactly what they want. But a deep understanding about their life and their behaviour will give valuable inputs about new product ideas. Market –driving strategy is the strategy where the company shapes the consumer needs and wants through break through products and technologies. Hence it is important for marketers to go beyond what the consumer is saying.

Market Driven strategies are the conventional reactive strategies. Companies react to the changing marketing conditions using various marketing mix elements. The focus is on satisfying the obvious stated needs of the consumers. Market Driving strategies are aimed at creating original products and shaping consumer needs. The needs may be hidden and marketers should have the guts to tap those hidden needs.

Steve Jobs is quoted to have said that he does not believe in market research. He famously said that “We just want to make great products “. Here the focus is more on shaping the consumer needs and wants rather than reacting to existing needs. In a market driving strategy, the focus is to create new customers rather than satisfying existing customers. But for that one has to understand the hidden and latent needs of the consumers.

Constant consumer conversation and engagement will help marketers to understand those needs and find means to satisfy those needs profitably.

Brand Update : Tata Indica Brand Portfolio

Indica is a brand that is an epitome of persistence. Tata Motors through Indica has demonstrated how to manage product lifecycle effectively. The brand which was launched in 1998 has passed through many hurdles. The brand successfully transcended the initial flaws, bad customer /expert reviews and brickbats to become one of the largest selling cars in the Indian auto industry.

The brand survived and thrived because of the constant focus of Tata Motors to improve the product continuously. More than the product innovation, it was the value proposition that forced customers to choose Indica despite all those nagging troubles. You can see lot of Indica customers cribbing about the bad service and constant trip to the service centers but sticking to the brand because of the value proposition. You cannot get a diesel car with that much space at the price at which Indica is selling ( so far).

Tata Motors has been continuously tweaking the brand over these years sometimes making quantum leap in the quality and refinement of the product. A snapshot of the brand's evolution is given below

1998 - Indica announced
2001 - Indica V2
2004 - Rejuvenated Indica V2
2005- Indica V2 Turbo Diesel
2006- Indica Xeta
2008 - Indica Vista

The brand made a quantum leap in 2008 with the launch of Indica Vista. The entire brand personality changed with the launch of Vista. The product's looks and feel had changed completely and it was a rebirth for Indica.
The changes in the product was not limited to exteriors. Indica began sporting different types of engines from Fiat which gave a new perception of quality to the brand.

At the pricing also, Tata Motors consciously raised the Vista brand to a higher level . The Vista is pricier than the original V2 thus reducing the attractiveness of the brand to the Taxi segment. At a price range of Rs 4 - Rs 5 Lakh, Indica Vista is not a cheap diesel car. It was an upward stretch by the brand.

The Indica Brand portfolio is given below.

















The Indica brand portfolio consists now of three sub-brands V2, Vista and Xeta.

V2 is the most economical of the lot and is the original Indica. This product is retained because there is still huge demand for V2 at that price point. Within the V2 range, there are three variants which includes the Indicab which is for the Taxi segment. Price of this sub-brand ranges from Rs 3,50,000 - Rs 3,95,000

Next sub-brand is the Vista. Vista is the new generation Indica and Tata Motors would like this brand to take over the leadership position from V2 in future. The brand is targeting the discerning Indian consumer with its value proposition and good looks.Vista has lot of variants satisfying the various needs of the customer. The Indica Vista Aura is the premium range that sports many goodies that premium brands claim like ABS, Airbags etc. Vista also comes in Petrol version sporting the Saphire engine. Prices range from Rs 3,90,000 - Rs 4,90,000 ( apprx). Within the Vista range, customers are given lot of engine option including engines from Fiat.

Xeta is the petrol variant of Indica V2. I am not sure about the future of Xeta since the petrol segment is heavily competitive and compared to Maruti and Hyundai, Indica Xeta's value proposition is not that attractive as the diesel option. Prices range from Rs 2,72,000- Rs 3,00,000).

The positioning across the brand portfolio remains the same. All the brands focus on the value proposition. But these sub- brands sports different taglines

Indica V2- More car per car
Indica Vista- Changes Everything ( Surprise Yourself is the new tagline)
Indica Xeta - Makes much more car sense.

Vista recently relaunched itself with Drivetech 4 technology and is now sporting a new tagline Surprise Yourself .

Indica in a way is an example of good marketing practice. The brand continues to evolve and is a pleasure to watch.

Peek : Simply Connect

Brand : Peek
Company : Peek Inc ( brought to India by Aircel)

Brand Analysis Count : # 453

Peek is a very very interesting brand. In my analysis of 453 brands, this is one brand which intrigued me the most. My opinion about Peek keeps on changing when more and more information was collected. Regular Marketing Practice readers know that I am highly opinionated when it comes to brands ( often it is the most voiced criticism about this blog) . For this brand , I couldn't make an opinion at all.

Peek is an email only device that was launched in India a few months back by Aircel. Peek is a brand from USA based Peek Inc. The brand has created lot of interest among the media and tech analysts in USA.

Peek is the brain child of Dr.Amol Sarva, a Stanford Phd holder, who was the co-founder of Virgin Mobile. Peek has an interesting story behind it. Amol and his wife were expecting their first child. After long walks to take exercise, Amol's wife came home worrying about the e-mails that were piling up in her inbox. Smartphones were not affordable to her. Hence the idea came to Dr Amol to design a simple solution for those customers who could not afford a Blackberry or smartphone but would like to check email on the go. ( read the story here)

Peek is a mobile like device that can be used for checking email. In the techie lingo, it is called email only client. Although Peek looks like a mobile phone, you cannot make phonecalls from it. The brand is launched in India in association with Aircel which is offering connectivity to Peek. The handset is costing Rs 2999 and Aircel has a tariff plan starting with Rs 299 per month. Peek supports 5 email accounts .

Now comes the most important question. What is the market for Peek ? Who will buy a device that can be used only for checking emails ? Will anyone pay Rs 300 per month for checking emails on a device ?

I still don't have an answer.

Peek is a big break-away product in a market which talks about products that claims to do everything. Smartphones are now increasingly loaded with more and more applications. Even ordinary mobile phones are now loaded with multiple features. Peek is a product that does only one thing. The million dollar question is whether such a device makes sense in the Indian market?

Peek is not competing with Blackberry or Smartphones. This is a device that is targeting a specific set of consumers who like to check emails while on the move/at home. Now who can be such customers ?

a. Those persons who does not have an internet connection at home but gets lot of emails.
b.Those who doesn't want to carry a laptop on the move but need to check mails regularly.
c.People who always travel a lot and could not afford a laptop and data plan .
d. Those people who cannot afford a mobile internet data plan .
e. People who want to check emails but dislikes internet browsing.
f. Those who travel to places where there is no internet connection.
c.Corporates who can give Peek to their executives instead of the expensive Blackberry

Peek makes sense in markets where mobile internet data plans are expensive. In the US, such plans are very expensive and have long term contracts associated with it. Peek does not have such constraints and is not restricted to one service provider. Hence there is a market for such a product in US.Another plus for Peek is the simplicity of usage. The product is simple to use and configuration is very very easy. So for a non-geek, the product is a simple solution.

In India too, mobile internet plans are expensive. Now the tariffs are coming down because of intense competition. It needs to be seen whether the Rs 299/month offers a value proposition to the consumers compared to the mobile internet data plans. As of now, the product is available only with Aircel. Hence the product is virtually locked with one service provider.

Peek is relying heavily on its simplicity . The product does only one thing and tries to does it very well. The brand is relying on the wisdom that there is a segment of consumers who prefer simple solutions to their needs. It is laudable for the brand to resist the temptation to add one more additional feature to Peek.

Peek also makes immense sense to businesses who are looking for a cheap alternative to Blackberry. Peek can be given to the employees and compared to BB, the cost is very very low.

I am still confused about whether the brand will be successful in India . My initial impression was that Peek will be a failure but am not going to predict doom because you never know how consumers will react to such a simple product.

Having said that, Peek opens an opportunity for a device that is purely a social networking client. If there is a product that does emails, facebooking, orkut, twitter and at this price, I would be the first one on the queue to buy.