McCain : Fresh Banega , Baat Banegi

Corporate Brand : McCain
Company : McCain Foods India Ltd

Brand Analysis Count : # 495

McCain is one of the World's largest frozen foods manufacturers. This Canadian giant is known for its potato based frozen foods. McCain is a leading supplier of potato based items like French fries to leading quick service restaurants like McDonald. This giant has big plans for India.

McCain came to India in 1998. The brand primarily set up shop in India to cater to the  requirement of its major customer- McDonald's. The company started with the import of potato based products later commissioned its first production plant in India in 2007.

Frozen foods is a category in nascent stage in India.The category is now worth Rs 1000 crore including B2B segment. Bulk of this business is contributed by B2B segment which consists of restaurants and fast food joints. Slowly the B2C category is growing and McCain is making all out efforts to tap this segment.

Frozen foods has low penetration due to many reasons. Firstly the consumers are not open to the idea of frozen foods yet. Another major impediment to the growth of this category is the distribution inefficiencies. The lack of freezer space at retailers, supply chain issues , retailer reluctance to stock this product category has created huge issues for marketers trying to create this category. How ever things have changed. Consumers have started to use frozen foods and the presence of large retailers gave the much required supply chain support to this category.

Although McCain started selling its branded products in India since 1998, the effort was largely restricted to BTL activities. The brands like Smiles existed in the market for long but there was not much promotions for the brands. 

It was in 2011 that McCain launched its first TVC in India. 

Watch the TVC here : McCain 

The first commercial set in a typical modern Indian household is aimed at introducing the brand to Indian consumers . The brand did certain research on Indian consumer's mindset regarding  frozen foods found that consumers doubted the freshness of such frozen foods ( common sense !). Frozen foods were often viewed by consumers as 'Old ' stale foods. The brand also found that this impression changed after they tried out these products. So the challenge was to convince the non-users about "freshness " of frozen foods. 

It is a Herculean task for marketers to convince customers that Frozen foods are Fresh.The first ad successfully managed the difficult task of connecting the two attributes which are poles apart - Frozen & Fresh in a very subtle but effective manner. The ad makers used a story telling approach and by including the entire family unit in the ad addressed the concerns of all stakeholders of the family. 

The brand has the tagline " Fresh Banega , Baat Banegi " which emphasis on the freshness aspect. 

Although McCain's competency is in potato based products, the brand has tried to cater to the local tastes of Indian consumers. Its product range includes Indian dishes like Aaloo Tikka etc.The brand surprised the Indian market by introducing Frozen Idli which can be cooked within 3 minutes. The product is still in the market testing phase. The company has now focused on the snack food market and once the consumers are opened to this idea of frozen foods, more products like frozen meals will follow.

One of the best practice of McCain is its keen understanding of Indian consumers. The brand spent lot of time in understanding the market before entering the consumer segment. It strengthened its distribution and ensured retailer support before launching its promotions. The brand also took care of pricing to ensure that the value conscious Indian consumers are not scared away by the high prices. Usually frozen foods are expensive but McCain launched packs at price points like Rs 25 which entices consumers to try it out. Also the firm introduced its products in smaller packs because Indian refrigerators are usually small or have small freezers. The products like Smiles attract young consumers because of the form factor. So on many fronts McCain has put in lot of thoughts and innovation which will yield positive results.

The Frozen Foods category is now having lot of players including Godrej . The changing lifestyle has further strengthen the potential of frozen foods in the Indian market. It will be interesting to see how these players shape this market.

Best Marketing Practice : ZOOZOO

One of the best campaigns I have seen so far is the Vodafone's ZooZoo campaign. Never in the history of Indian advertising we witnessed a campaign that generated so much interest and curiosity among all the segments of the society be it young or old.

So much has been written about ZooZoo in various media. Hence I am not going to repeat it all over.

Read a wonderful analysis in afaqs here : Afaqs on ZooZoo

Another nice one in Businessline : Business Line on ZooZoo

Rajesh of Blogworks on ZooZoo : Here

Some ZooZoo ads here : ZooZoo collection

I never expected Vodafone to be a creative volcano.When Hutch became Vodafone, I was little sceptic whether the creative spark of Hutch will be carried forward by Vodafone. The news of the famous Pug being discarded deepened my scepticism.

But the brand just beat all those cynicism . The Happy to Help campaign and the VAS campaign all proved that this is a brand that will do anything to be creative.

ZooZoo was created to promote the value added services ( VAS) of Vodafone. Vodafone was trying hard to capture the VAS Space because it is a potential cash cow for cellular companies.
Vodafone also wanted to make the most of the IPL season 2. Although IPL is a crowd puller, it is also a marketer's nightmare because of the clutter. IPL attracts all the deep pocket advertisers and to standout, one needs to think out of the box.

Thus ZooZoo was born. ZooZoo is a semi alien semi-human character living in an earth-like place ( lot of which is left to the viewer's imagination).These are very very simpe biengs who are very expressive. They laugh aloud , cry loud and have a child like simplicity around them. I think many of us wanted to be such an expressive being which makes ZooZoo very personal .

The success of ZooZoo is the success of minimalism and simplicity. Although the production process of ZooZoo ads are not simple, as a consumer I was attracted to the simplicity of the concept and the execution. ZooZoo also highlights the power of storytelling. Each ads tells a very simple story. Afterall brands are made through story telling.

Another factor that aided the success of ZooZoo is the scale of the campaign.Reports suggest that there are around 25 different ads of ZooZoo to be aired during this IPL season. This unprecedented scale has kept the curiosity high among the viewers. It has infact dwarfed all the other advertisers in this season.
There is lot of risk being taken behind this campaign. The Vodafone managers who okayed this campaign may have risked their jobs to bring out such a massive campaign. The agency also risked their credibility. One should appreciate the creative talent of O&M and Nirvana Films who proved that Indian Advertising has come of age.

Vodafone has taken ZooZoo beyond advertising. The fanclub in the facebook page of ZooZoo has already touched 70,000 and counting. The brand has comeout with an interactive quiz that shows the type of ZooZoo you are : here
There are also mobile downloads of wallpaper, screensaver etc.

All these has transformed into a great viral movement. There are already a plethora of mail forwards and blogposts celebrating ZooZoo.

ZooZoo is a great marketing story. Vodafone has benefitted immensely by this campaign. It caught the attention and fancy of the consumers, aroused curiosity, told stories and made people retell the story.

Marketing Guru Seth Godin always emphasised that Brands should be Remarkable. He defined remarkable as " Worthy of Making a Remark about "

The ZooZoo is a classic example of being Remarkable...

As I See It : Creativity Vs Extravaganza

Frankly I was shocked to see today's ( 30/04/09) Hindu Business Line. The front cover page was just a blank white sheet with the Business Line Masthead. A closer look reveals a two figures at the middle of the sheet with a "turn overleaf " message below.

In the middle it was written 2009 crore (2007-08) --- 3007 crore (2008-09)netprofit

Turning overleaf revealed that the ad was for Bank of India which announced its annual results. The results' details were published in the full innercover page advertisement.

The result is pretty impressive - a net profit growth of 50%.
But the Ad is not ....

White spaces are good... but too much white space shows that there is a hole in the pocket.

This is a time where every penny is precious. Whether it is a bank which is making huge profits or a business which is trying hard to survive. Here we see a full page wasted just like that with no purpose whatsoever.

There is no big idea . Remember it is not a brand building ad. It is an ordinary process for publishing annual results. That is why such a spending is nothing but a sheer waste of valuable marketing money.

There are many ways of telling the public about this stellar results. Let the top management visit all channels and give interviews, let the PR department make this result come in the front page of all newspapers. That is how such results should be marketed not by blasting money publishing white spaces in the front cover.

I had worked in media and I know how much such an ad costs. Definitely this is not the time for such lavishness. Every Paise counts.

John Wanamaker once said "Half the money I spend on Advertising is wasted;the trouble is I don't know which half ".

As I See It : The Death of HR Function

Human Resources Development ( HR) was a glamorous function. A much sought after specialization in business schools (especially by girls) HR came into limelight with the Software Industry boom in India.

The HR function broke away from the Personnel and Industrial Relations Department ( P&IR) which was later relegated to dealing with Unions and Payrolls. HR became the focal point in organizations and took over the glamorous functions like recruitment,selection and training.

The software boom resulted in a huge demand for talent. Firms began to scout for the scarce talent and retaining talent became the major worry for the top management. Suddenly ,from a mere Staff Function, HR became a strategic function.

Management Gurus began to praise the importance of HR in a firms' strategy. HR professionals were touted to play a major role in the board. When Mohandas Pai of Infosys voluntarily remitted his CFO position to take up the role of Director - HR, everyone thought that HR has come off age.

Since money was not an issue, training was on overdrive. HR made training mandatory for all officials including Chairman and Managing Directors. Even thoughts about corporate universities began to shape up.

Stories began to spread about the lavish perks and mouth-watering work environments. Companies began to compete to build smartest workplaces.Employees were considered vital resources. Firms began to inventory human resources fearing that competitors will grab them. Sometimes employees in the bench exceeded those who are doing real work.

The traditional sector like manufacturing , FMCG and durables also faced issue of retaining talent because talent was moving towards sunrise industries that offered better packages.

Employees tried to take advantage of the talent crunch by transforming themselves into Job Hoppers.Commitment was out of fashion , No Shows became the order of the day.


Then......

Recession struck... Markets tumbled, customers stopped buying , panic spread and the dreaded word - Cost Cutting became the Manthra.

Suddenly there was a change in the HR lexicon.

Resource became Expense.
Human Resource became Human Cost - the focal point of Cost Cutting.

Talent Retention became Talent Rationalization.

Sitting on Bench Became Sitting Ducks

Training became a discretionary Expense.

HR became a dreaded function relegated to the difficult task of retrenching people and identifying weeds.

Now no one is talking about talents retention, training ,development.


It is sad that only very few organizations identified and understood the true nature of HR. They are still hiring, retaining and training their employees . For others , HR was just a fashion.

The problem was in numbers. Just like filling sales targets, HR began to fill in the numbers. Blinded by the growth, the Qualitative factors never made sense. The current scenario proves that the HR forecasting models needs to be redefined.

I still don't understand why a person should be recruited if they have no job to do ?

If training is considered to be the key to organizational development, why is that it is cut ?

If HR's job is to recruit the right person for the right job, why are people leaving just for a higher salary ?

When organizations grow in breakneck speed, opening offices at every district and recruiting people enmasse, is it the responsibility of HR to remind the company to go slow ?


The current scenario is a painful lesson for the HR Function and it is a time to redefine the role of HR in organization. The principal role of HR should be to imbibe a culture in an organization that naturally attracts and retain the best talent irrespective of good times and bad times.

Otherwise HR will only be a king of good times.

End Note : I am not a HR professional or an expert in this function , hence I may be wrong in some of the observations. Please give your views as comments.

Marketing In Recession : Hope is the Key

Everyone is feeling the pinch of the economic slowdown. Recession and Cost Cutting is the most used terms across offices. Consumer confidence is at the lowest. It is not that consumers (both business and consumers) does not have the need or the money to purchase, the real fact is that they are afraid to splurge.

As a consumer,I have needs and aspirations. I also have some disposable income to purchase but I am not buying because I am afraid of what is in store for me in future.
Many business customers are postponing purchase because they are facing an uncertain future. We are in a vicious cycle which ought to be broken.

Today is Akshaya Thritiya. This is an auspicious day to purchase gold. The story is that if you purchase gold today, it will bring you wealth and happiness in future. Gold Merchants were making a huge marketing push for this day. For the past two weeks, Jewelers across South India were advertising like hell trying to promote gold purchases on this day. And as expected, most jewelers in my state is witnessing brisk sales.

That is the power of Hope.
The success of Barack Obama was an important lesson for all marketers. Hope sells in Recession.

We humans have a innate love of life. We cling to life. Other animals don't cling to life as we do. They don't worry about death as much as we do. We have a built-in -system of Hoping . This trait has been helping us to counter serious dangers to our existence.

Hope is something that help us to slog.

So if you want to your consumers to buy your products, give them hope. Give them a hope that your product will make their life/business easier. Give them hope that you will be with them riding the storm. Give them hope for a better future or else atleast make them feel good.

Hope and greed are different. Hope is realistic while greed is a fantasy. Obama was communicating realistic hope and that was why people believed him.

People are buying gold on Akshaya Thritihiya not because of the flashy advertisements but they have hope .

Related Post
Marketing in Recession

Consumer Insight : Please Play it Straight

Today, I got an email from an Indian e-retailer announcing a 50% value-back offer on purchase of any product from their website in the month of February. Greedy as Iam, I decided to check out the website which is owned by a premier media company.

As usual, all these offers comes with the ubiquitous term " Conditions Apply". Of course the company is definitely offering a 50% value back offer but as a consumer, it pays to know a little math.

Here is how the offer works.

When you buy a product from the website, the value-back offer is not given to the customer in cash but by Gift Certificates. The gift certificates are of value Rs 500, Rs 200 and Rs 100.

Ok so far so good.

Here comes the catch..

These gift certificates carry a minimum order value....

That means , a customer has to purchase ( again) a product of a minimum order value inorder to redeem this certificate.

For redeeming Rs 500 gift certificate, you have to make an additional purchase of Rs 2500.
For Rs 200, the additional purchase requirement is Rs 1000 etc.
And these certificates are valid only till March.

Further , you cannot club two gift certificates together.

If I purchase a product worth Rs 10,000,I would have got coupons worth Rs 5000. But if I wanted to redeem those coupons, I must purchase products worth Rs 25000 in the next month.

Frankly speaking, these sales promotions may do more harm to the marketer because there will be customers who may fall into this trap and then repent having given into the greed.Those customers may never come back to the website for purchase.

Is it beneficial to the company ?

In one way, such " Big " offers will prompt many consumers to visit the website. So the site benefits from the traffic generated by such offers. There are also chances that these consumers get attracted by either the price or merchandise and thus becoming a regular user.

In my personal opinion, these offers is akin to exploiting the greed of consumer. It pays more to be playing straight to the consumer. Give a straight discount or a plain cash-back offer rather than offers which puts the consumer into a trap . Make him feel happy about a bargain purchase.If he gets a bargain, he will come back for sure when ever he has money.

In this period, where consumers are wary about making big ticket purchases , these offers lure them into parting with their valuable cash. But if they feel that they got a raw-deal, the consequences will be terrible for the marketer's long term brand equity.

The primary aim of a marketer is to create a customer NOT making a sale.

Best Marketing Practice : Creating Consumer Centric Innovations

Read my article on consumer centric innovations in Adclub bombay Website : Creating consumer centric innovations

Best Marketing Practice : Building a Brand Tribe

Read my article on building brand communities in the Ad Club Bombay website : Building brand tribes

Consumer Insight : Insurance is a Subject Matter of Solicitation

If you have seen any advertisement of Insurance products, you may not have missed this disclaimer " Insurance is a subject matter of solicitation ".

As a consumer , this disclaimer/warning is of utmost importance but often ignored.

What is the meaning of the clause " Insurance is a subject matter of solicitation".

The dictionary meaning of solicitation is " Ask For". Hence insurance is a subject that should be asked for . It means that customers have to talk to an adviser who will suggest the right product for your needs. Insurance should not be SOLD but Solicited......

Sounds out of the world isn't it ?

How many of us have asked for Insurance ?

In India, insurance is sold not solicited. Hence this dictum seem totally meaningless OR is it ?

If you read the terms and conditions put forth by Insurance companies, one will find relevance to this dictum.

The above dictum have relevance to consumers because it puts the responsibility for selecting the right product on the consumers than on the company. The website of a leading insurer states " Customer's participation in the insurance products are purely on a voluntary basis ".

As a consumer, the responsibility lies in
Understanding one's insurance needs .
Planning
Meet with a trained financial adviser.
Selecting the right product
Signing the contract.

But we know that most of the consumers are not aware about either their needs or the various options available before them. Hence the consumers have to obtain the help from a trained insurance advisor who will " advise " the customers and then help them to select the right product .

In practice, we find that none of the above applies. Insurance advisers take up the role of pure selling machines trying to " close" the sale rather than " advice " the customers. Companies put pressure on their agents to achieve targets often forgoing the basic dictum that drive this business.
While in the developed markets like USA , the actions of financial planners are highly regulated, here the onus is on the customers . CAVAET EMPTOR.... Buyers beware....

Most of the insurance firms also does not practice the dictum iof solicitation in its pure essence. If you have listened to any of the recent " sales talk" of advisers, they pitch the ULIP plans irrespective of whether you like investing in stock market or not.

There is no analysis of one's financial position or insurance needs. ( There are professional financial /insurance advisers who do all the right things but many doesn't) .

It is because of this non-professional selling approach that makes customers run away from an important product like insurance.

If insurance firms practiced what they preached, then insurance would have gained a much higher value as a product. And insurance sales persons would be regarded as a friend rather than a nightmare.

99% of my MBA students hate to get into a job in an insurance company. Much of this hatred happened because we forgot that we should sell the right kind of product to the right kind of consumers. As a customer I believe that insurance is one of the most important products which helps a consumer to be secure. But alas.....

In my experience as a prospective customer, I met only one advisor who professionally and systematically explored my insurance needs. Rest of all were trying to " sell " me insurance.

The million dollar question for an Insurance salesperson is

Will you walk away from a consumer for whom you do not have a right product ? Will you recommend your competitor's product to him if it fits his need ?

Its time for the insurance companies to Walk the Talk.... It is tough... your quarterly results will show negligible growth. But consumers will love you for it.....

Insurance is a subject matter of solicitation.

Best Marketing Practice : Be Proactive to Rumours

Yesterday my wife told me about an internal mail she received at her office. It said that Kurkure contains plastic which makes it more crispier than other snack foods . Further Appyfizz contains cancerous substances and if you take Mentos and Pepsi together, you will die.....
So no Kurkure and Appyfizz for our child from now on.

I tried to show my " Professorial " knowledge by telling her that these are baseless rumors and all these products are safe. But she rubbished it aside saying that the mail come from a very trusted friend of her.......

I was little upset by her comments, not that she doesn't trust me but by the fact that such emails and rumors can create lot of issues for the brand. A call to one of my friend in advertising confirmed that these rumors were running around for more than three years.

Although internet offers lot of opportunities for brand promotion, the biggest threat comes in the way of such rumors.
There are two typical responses to such a kind of malicious rumor. Do nothing hoping for this rumor to die a natural death or be proactive and do something about such rumors.

Marketers should take proactive steps in countering such malicious rumors that can later snowball into a viral negative campaign.

When I did a small google search on Kurkure, I was surprised by the results. The first result that came was a Kurkure blog which negated the rumors. More than that there was a paid link to the FAQ site of Kurkure which clarified further than the rumor was baseless.

That is a proactive approach to handling such rumors by Kurkure.

Marketers cannot stop anyone from making such malicious rumors. But they can effectively negate such rumors by acting on it.

Have a website : Its important for brands to have a place for them in the virtual world. Since internet is a media one cannot ignore, it becomes important for the brand to have a site.
Scan the net for such rumors : Marketers should need to scan the negative news that spread across the internet. This should be done on a regular basis.

Negate the rumor using Search engine optimization : The brand should negate the rumor immediately with out waiting for it to spread. Most of the Search Engine Optimizers will help the company to keep their information on top of the search engine listing. My logic is that when a netizen gets a rumor email, he will search for further clarification. If the company is not providing such a clarification then he will take decision based on the judgement. I am sure that those people who forward such malicious email believe that it is true . Otherwise he will not forward it and risk his credibility.

Use Public Relations : The best tool to handle such events is to use the PR department. Use all mass media to convince the customers that the product is safe. Have a permanent link in your website to offer clarification about such reported rumors. If the rumor has snowballed into a big crisis, have your senior executives issue statement clarifying the issue. It it is health related, have doctors endorse your product's safety standards.

Open a channel for customers to contact you : The channel can be either an email or a phone number where the customers can clarify any doubts about the brand.

I know it will be difficult for a brand to react to each and every rumor that does the round. But the effort is well worth it.

Marketing in Recession

In my earlier post , I had pointed out some strategies for marketers to counter the recession. I think that Indian firms have realized that there is going to be a significant slowdown in the coming quarter.

Auto companies have taken a proactive step by reducing the prices. Most of the auto giants like Maruthi, Hyundai, Tata etc have reduced their prices by a significant amount. This move was further aided by the Central Government reducing the excise duty. These companies hope that the price reduction may boost sales.

But there is a limit to what a marketer can do inorder to tackle the slowdown. The marketer have limited option of reducing prices , increasing promotions etc . But these actions will not be sufficient to tackle the systemic issues that created this meltdown.

I am not an economist and hence I may not be able to give a detailed economic view of the current crisis. For that you may check out Harvard University Professor Greg Mankiw 's blog ( warning : its full of economics ) or IIM A Professor Jayanth Varma's blog ( warning : its full of finance ).

I am presenting my view about the larger issues that both the industry and the policy makers should be addressing. I am talking not as a marketing academic but as a middleclass consumer.

The current crisis that we face in India is different from that of USA. We currently do not have the sub-prime crisis . Although there is a real estate bubble, our banking system is sufficiently protected ( I hope so !) . But we face the ripple effect from the global crisis.

Indian Government has been proactive in its steps to ensure liquidity and providing confidence to the consumers and industries. To that extent, things are moving in the right direction.

I think that we have failed to understand the real issue behind this slowdown. The real problem is the slowing down of consumer demand and not the liquidity. Many marketers are pressuring governments to allow liberal credit to the consumers. That means banks will be offering easy credit to consumers which will then boost demand.

It will be suicidal to boost demand using cheap credit. The US market suffered because most of the growth was based on cheap credit.

I think that the consumer demand is going to go down more rapidly in 2009, because of the negative news spreading ( that includes this post also). If you examine the reason behind the eroding consumer confidence , there is only one - Job security.

When people lose jobs, they stop spending ( common sense). When the news of lay offs spreads, everyone stops spending and starts saving. The more the job losses, the more the fall in demand.When demand drops, companies cut jobs.....This is a vicious cycle

So when firms cut jobs, they are contributing to the bigger mess. This problem has a bigger magnitude in Indian context. Unlike USA, we don't have social security and most of the companies also doesn't provide one.

When Barack Obama talked about protecting US jobs and creating new jobs, I think he is moving in the right direction to tackle the fundamental issues.In India also , Prime Minister had made an appeal to corporates not to cut jobs ( there are political reasons for that since elections are around the corner).

It is time for the government to think about a broader social security plan in India. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is one of such initiative but not enough. I am not sure whether government is in a position to create a social security system , but some thinking has to be done in this direction.

Instead of social security , India have a provident fund system which has been made mandatory by law to certain class of employees. When economy was in a boisterous mood, we do not think about any of these things. Concepts like long-term growth, life long employment, loyalty all became old fashioned. I think this is the time where we have to revisit those old values.

Consumers tend to spend lavishly when he feels secure. Jobs offer him security. India saw a consumer boom when there was plenty of jobs. When the jobs started losing, demand also came down.

Any move to ensure easy credit without creating stable jobs will have serious repercussions. It would take an effort from both the employees and owners to start building a new culture .

I don't know whether this post make any economic sense ?... What do you think ?


Related Post

Marketing During Recession

Best Marketing Practice : Living the Story

Every brand has a story and the success of the brand depends on how well they tell the story to the consumers.
After a near -death experience in the Indian market, Yamaha have slowly started telling a compulsive story. In my last update on Yamaha, I had blogged about their new launch Yamaha YZF R15. Priced at Rs 1,25000, the brand has already made a strong start.

R 15 is positioned as the urban racing machine. The brand boasts about its racing instinct and most of the auto reviews have written positive words for this machine.

Last day I was watching the Auto Car show in UTV i and happen to see the report on the racing championship for R 15 owners held in October 2008. The first racing event was held in September.
I consider this event as one of the best marketing practice where a brand truly living the dreams it has painted for its customers.

The racing event promoted by Yamaha was not for the racing professionals but for the ordinary owners or R 15. But the entire racing was done on the professional race track. So many guys were able to realize their dream of participating in an actual race using their bike.

Its not the first time that a bike brand associating itself with racing . TVS Apache RTR was positioned along the racing platform. Even the market leader in performance bike - Pulsar also was associated with racing attributes.

But R 15 has gone the extra mile by making racing real by launching such an event. I bet that many of those R 15 owners who participated in the race was seeing the racing track for the first time. They also got the chance to burn the rubber and live their dream - thanks to the brand.
This event is also an outcome of the clear understanding of the consumers who buy such a bike.

Those who can shell out Rs 1 lakh for a bike will definitely a bike enthusiast who wanted to burn the rubber and make a statement. These customers will also be the key opinion leaders among their community be it students or professionals. So a racing event will be the best possible way to make them feel good about their purchase.

The customers of R 15 can participate the event by paying a nominal amount of Rs 500. According to the report , the company will handle the transportation of the bike to the racing venue. The riders are given enough training before letting them loose on the race track.

The brand is going to have lot of advantages by organizing such an event. First is the reinforcement of the brand's positioning of a sports bike. The event also will make the opinion leaders to hook on to their brand. Those who have participated this even will cherish those moments and will have generated lot of positive word of mouth . It also will strengthen the case of pricing the brand at Rs 1.25 lakh .

Another interesting factor is that this event is not for potential customers but existing customers. So this case is an example of a successful "After Marketing' . 'After Marketing ' is a jargon that is used for all marketing activities that are done after the sale is over.

Related Brand

Yamaha

Consumer Insight : The end of air travel as I see it !

This October 2008, in a move that surprised India Inc , Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines announced an alliance for sharing their resources and network. According to a report in Deccan Herald, the company announced that this alliance will share their resources in seven critical operational areas including routes and even employees but both these airlines will maintain their legal and brand entity.

Jet and Kingfisher controls approximately 60 % market share . While pundits and media glorified the swift move by the mavericks who head these companies, I see the formation of a cartel.

As a consumer I see it as the end of my air travels.

Both the companies cited the sluggish environment as the core reason for this deal. The rising fuel cost, the looming recession is definitely going to take a toll in the industry. It makes terrific sense for two major players to come together and share resources and cut costs. I also think this as a unique event when two competitors come together to face the looming threats.

But cartels are bad. Its very bad for a consumer.

I live in the state of Kerala where every sector is ruled by cartels. Where else do you find the Bus Owners forming a cartel in the name of union, auto drivers/owners forming cartels, Taxi owners forming cartels , Film stars have cartels, Film producers have cartels, Contractors have cartels, hotels have cartels, traders have cartels, jewelers have one and even the scavengers have formed cartels.

And Keralites suffer the highhandedness of these cartels. They hold the un-organized citizens at ransom to meet their demands. So we see buses off the road, traders shutting shop and even movie production getting stopped .

India currently lacks sufficient laws to identify and regulate such cartels. Sadly there is no political will to prepare one.

Coming back to the Jet- Kingfisher alliance.

What is going to be the result of such an alliance ? I foresee a significant drop in the competitiveness of the industry as a whole.

I am not a fan of Air Deccan but I credit the boom of Indian Airline industry to that brand. And the death of Air Deccan is going to be detrimental to the growth of this industry.( my personal opinion ).

I am not an expert in this domain but as a consumer I will try to defend my point. Please feel free to comment your thoughts.

I am not a frequent traveler ( not even a regular one ). My first flight where I paid from my pocket was with Air Deccan. Why I chose to fly was that it was affordable ( not cheaper).

There are three main customers for Airlines -

The rich travelers : These customers have the income to afford the travel. They either pay from their pocket or their business foot the bill. So whether there is a slowdown or not these guys will fly.
The Executives : These customers fly frequently but the bill is paid by the company. I feel this segment of consumers form a large chunk of air-travelers. When the economy slows down these class will travel less depending on the austerity measures of their organisations.

The ordinary ones : Well, I belong to this class. I would love to fly if its affordable. This category of customers may not travel regularly.

Air Deccan targeted the ordinary ones and that too successfully. But there was an interesting bonus to that strategy. Lot of corporates began to enable their executives to travel by air . The ceiling of air travel for executives have come down since the airline rates became affordable.

There was a time where an executive who earlier had only the eligibility to travel by First Class train was given the sanction to fly since the rate differential was negligible.

This saw a spurt in airline passengers. Both regular and first- time fliers. Those who have never flied before started looking for better rates.

And look at the way the infrastructure reacted to this new boom. New airports began to come up, jobs in the sector boomed and lot of new business catering to this sector began to evolve.

I agree that much of this boom can the attributable to the economic prosperity that we say in the recent past but the low cost airlines contributed significantly .

Now what is the scenario ?

With virtually no low-cost airlines , the entire industry is in turmoil. Companies have cut the eligibility for air travel why because it is now not affordable. So less number of regular fliers. Airports which came up anticipating large number of consumers see very few and they began to hike the airport charges which again is going to put off many fliers.

And the formation of Jet- Kingfisher is only going to make things tougher. This alliance is going to be a major entry barrier for any new player. And using the commanding postion, these two can silence the current competitors.

Rates will be high, service will be bad and ordinary people will travel by train...

Related Brand
Air Deccan

Consumer Insight # 6 : Do You Have a Plan B

Last weekend I took my family to a pilgrimage to the famous temple of Guruvayur . I booked the rooms at a decent hotel and was glad that we got rooms during the rush season. We landed at the hotel and greeted by the service staff and all went well in the beginning.

But in the evening the lift ( elevator) of the hotel stopped functioning. We reached the hotel after the tiring visit to the temple only to find that the elevator will not be functional for atleast one hour ( that's what the service staff told us). Our room were at the 4 th floor . I sat there looking perplexed since my old parents and my 4 year old child were to climb all the four floors.

There were also another family at the lobby looking equally worried since they had booked rooms for relatives who were to arrive at the hotel to attend their daughter's wedding . They looked hapless having to ask their guests to climb the stairs to the 4 th and 5 th floors.

The hotel staffs were looking equally helpless and the only action they performed was to ask their guests to climb the stairs.

At the end, we had to climb the stairs and hit the bed with all the exhaustion . We hoped that next day things will be taken care of. But in the morning , I found that still the elevator is not functioning. To much of the dismay, the room service told us that breakfast will be served only at the restaurant in the ground-floor.

This really blew my temper and I had to release all my anger on the reception staff. Then to my surprise, they offered us the Service Lift !!!! Infact the hotel had another lift that is used by the housecleaning department ( commonly known as service lift ) which was working.

They could have offered this to the customers immediately when the main lift stopped working. It could have made all the guests happy but the hotel failed to use it.

The issue here is two fold . The hotel did not have a plan B. They had one elevator and there are always a chance that these kind of problems can arise at any point of time. So in the service delivery process, the management had to forsee these kind of exigencies. If there was a plan B, then the service lift could have been made available on the spot.

Secondly the front office staff was not given enough empowerment to act during such kind of issues. The service script should be prepared in such a manner that the staff could make such kind of decisions to help the customers.

As of now, the hotels in Guruvayur can afford to make such kind of poor customer service since the demand far exceeds the supply . But tide always turns.

Consumer Insight # 5 : You are just a Number

I just had a enlightening conversation with a Vodafone Customer " care " center. The unsolicited call came and poor me attended. It went on like this

Lady : Sir, This is from Vodafone customer care center

me : yes

Lady : Sir We wanted to check whether you have activated our GPRS services.

Me : I have activated the GPRS services

Lady : Sir Do you know that you can download pictures and wallpapers from Vodafone website

me : See I don't use this service

Lady : Ok Sir.... What is your name ?

me ( Stunned ) : What ?

Lady : What is your name sir ?

me : You called me and you " should " be knowing my name !!!!!!

Lady : No sir, we only have your number.. Please give your name so that I can enter your name in the system.



I sat there wondering what is happening to marketing.

A company calling a customer and telling him that ultimate truth

Dear Customer .. You Are Just a Number.

Consumer Insight # 4 : Fish Rots From The Tail

There is a book titled " Fish Rots from the Head ", written by Bob Garratt, talks about the role of Board of Directors and the crisis in the boardroom. As the title of the book indicates, Bob feels that the decay of the company often starts with the passive attitude of the Board of Directors.


But I have a different opinion.

Yesterday I went to my bank which is India's largest private sector bank. I have limited my visits to the bank owing to the horrendous customer experience and has been relying on the passive but decent ATMs.

I have been banking with this bank for last five years and I must say that none of the officials including the Branch manager whom I have interacted during the opening of account works here now. It seems that people here changes every week.

I would say that its a clear sign of decay and decay starts with the tail . If Board of Directors are Head, then the front office ( customer service) will be the tail isn't it ?

In a classic article titled " Best Face Forward " in HBR December 2004, the authors Rayport & Jawroski clearly states that in this competitive world, customer service or rather customer experience is the only available competitive advantage.

But we can see that many companies turning a blind spot when it comes to customer service. Your company loses its competitive advantage the moment you outsource customer service. Firms spent lot of money bringing the customer to the company. But when the customer reaches out to the company, it gives a raw deal.

Why do companies do this kind of basic business stupidity ? There is only one reason - cost.

Customer service is a costly business. Its costly because it involves people. And most businesses look at human resource as a cost center . So for a business , it makes perfect sense to avail cheap labor through outsourcing its customer service. If China offers a cheap customer call center service, I bet most of the Indian companies will outsource from China.

So firms reduce the number of their customer service staffs . The existing staffs are given double workload. Often these guys forget how to smile . These people are under severe emotional labor. They have to give their best face forward irrespective of their emotional situation. These guys/gals may have their personal/professional problems but cannot afford to show it to the consumer. So their stress level will be equal or higher than those in the sales field.

How many companies are sensitive to these issues ? To add to this issue, some firms give sales target to the customer service executives.

But for a customer, what is lost is the experience . In most of the new generation banks , customers are just numbers. In a rush to reduce the human interaction ( which is costly) companies invest in technology believing that technology can replace human interaction.

Its true that when comparing to rude staff, machines are better . But not always.

What the companies need is a judicious mix of people and technology. We are forgetting that we are living in an experiential economy. Customers - whether small or big, are looking for experience especially in the service sector.

When the market is growing, all these customer service issues are set aside . Firms look at break-neck growth . The key focus is customer acquisition. But market does not grow indefinitely. At some point of time, growth will stop and what you have will be the existing customers whom you have forgotten.

When you go back to these customers who was given a raw deal, you get back what you have given them.

Consumer Insight #3 : Value

I was at my doctor's clinic when I noticed a quotation by John Ruskin . I was amused because it was different from the usual quotes displayed in a place like a clinic. You typically expect a health related one. But quite the contrary this quote was on marketing.

John Ruskin was not a marketer. Ruskin ( 1819-1900) was an artist, a writer ,a poet, a social critic and a writer. ( source:Wikipedia). I bet he is a enlightened consumer too.

What Ruskin has written about value is no-brainer.
Its pure commonsense but as a consumer we tend to forget this principle.
The quote goes like this
"

It's unwise to pay to much... But it's worse to pay to little.When you pay to much, you lose a little money... that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do.The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot.... It can't be done.If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run.And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better."

He adds

"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper. And the people who always go for the cheapest are this man's lawful prey."

















Although I am a marketing professor, I am a lousy consumer ( my wife's opinion ! ).

I see my self as a bargain hunter and most of the time I have burned my fingers looking for better bargain ( call it price) .

I blame it on my middleclass mindset for being so called value conscious.

But I think its the case with many customers. We tend to make mistakes by not understanding the true nature of value.


Its often greed that camouflage as value or bargain.

In the highly insightful book " It happened in India " by Kishore Biyani ,he says

" There are a couple of emotions that determine shopping behavior. The fundamental of them are greed, altruism, fear and envy. Greed drives a customer to purchase more than what he or she needs. "

What Ruskin says is perfectly true. Its not possible to less and get more... It does not make business sense. But customers lured by never-heard-before offers fall for it. The need for instant gratification is so huge that customers give in to the temptation.

It takes some patience to buy the best quality product because it costs more. Marketers of low priced products make their kill by instilling fear of a possible price hike among the customers .

We see messages like this all the time...
Limited offers !
Buy before price hike !
Offer to close this sunday !
Buy now or regret later !

Going by my experience the additional money (premium) you pay for getting the best product will compensate by giving you the peace of mind..

The doctor charged me a very heavy consulting fees... but I am not complaining.......

I think I am on my way to become a better consumer.

Consumer Insight #2 : Role of Users

During the monthly shopping for groceries, I noticed that my wife has included Vim bar instead of the Vim dishwash liquid. It was around one year back that we started using the dish wash liquid. And my wife was making positive comments about the utility part of the liquid form .

But strangely she has made a switch this month.The reason was simple : Our new maid servant prefer to use the dishwash soap rather than the liquid. My wife had to oblige.

This throws in a lot of challenges to a marketer. According to the marketing theory , there are different roles that consumer takes in the buying process :
Initiator
Influencer
Decider
Purchaser and
User
Marketing wisdom says that the marketer should first identify the members who play these role, identify the needs of each of these roles and then communicate to each of these roles.

In the above case, it was the maid servant ( user & influencer) who made the homemaker (decider) chose the product form. Dishwash market is worth Rs 600 crore and its crucial for a marketer to understand the dynamics of this market especially in the consumer buying behavior context.

So what does it mean to the marketer of a liquid dishwash product. From my understanding of this product form, liquid dishwash liquid is targeting the middle and upper strata of the society. In the urban markets , there is a chance that the households get the help of the maid servant.

In these homes, homemakers oblige to the demands of the maid servant because they want to get things done. More over there is a perception that maid servants will waste the dishwash liquid. As far as the maid servant is concerned, they are famliar with the dishwash cake and does not want to change.

It is a difficult take for the marketers to influence the influencers/users. Brand managers first has to decide whether it makes sense to target these influencers. Second is to try and communicate with these influencers.
A classic case of such strategy is that of Scotch Brite which tried to reach these housemaids by organizing events and training programs. But does it make economic sense to organize such events on a national scale ?

This type of situations warrant different strategies for these different consumer roles. Marketers of paints, automobile batteries, tires , sanitary wares handle these influencers by having campaigns specifically targeting these members. For example , paint marketers organize special events and sales promotion activities for the painters and architects. Automobile marketers also try to influence the workshops to support their brands.


Dishwash liquids have then a difficult task ahead .
First it has to convince the homemaker that liquid form is better than the cake form. Second it has to influence the housemaids to use this product and not to reject it. Proper use of liquid diswash is essential to maintain the value proposition. Liquid dishwash products are concentrates and if the maid uses more liquid, then the product will no longer be economically viable for the homemaker.

Consumer Insight #1 : What are your customer's expectations ?

I just put down my telephone after some heated exchange with my traveling agent. The reason as always about refunds. I canceled my air tickets a couple of weeks back and after a dozen phone calls I still wonder about the possibility of getting my refunds in the near future .

Much has been written on customer service . Researches, articles, books and what not. But still we see the same pathetic management of customer service.

Last week, while visiting my new generation bank which boasts about being the most tech- advanced bank, I had to wait for 45 minutes for getting a Demand Draft. That too in a bank which have an automated queue handling system. The manager was helpless and surprisingly the bank does not have a formal complaint's handling mechanism. I was amused to see that the link for registering complaints in the bank's website does not work !!!!! Hum Haina ???

So is it about meeting expectations or managing expectations ?

Today's Economic Times ' Brand equity has a great piece written by Ms Janelle Barlow titled " Take your customer's complaints seriously ". She is the author of a very relevant book " Complaint is a gift ".

Read the article here : Take your customer complaints seriously

I strongly believe that a firm's customer service quality will reveal only when there is a complaint.How a company handles the complaint is the true determinant of its customer service quality.

Coming back to my experience with my traveling agent, I had certain expectations regarding the service to be provided by the agent. The service provider was not able to understand those expectations. The company may have systems and processes which can delay the refund, but as a consumer, I am totally unaware of what happens inside the company.

The entire issue would not have happened if the service provider gave me the information about possible delay at the point of cancellation. But that did not happen. So marketers should learn to be truthful to the customers while setting expectations.

Its common sense that no marketer can satisfy all the expectations of the customers. But what he can do is to try and manage those expectations.

In the case of the bank , it had built a series of expectation in the consumers through high profile celebrity endorsements and ads. Then at the consumer touch-points it fails miserably . For example the 'service request receipt ' generated by the machine sets the expectation by giving the time taken to attend my request. The time given to me was 90 seconds. Then everything went offtrack .
Marketers often fail to practice the wisdom of Understate and Overdeliver. Most of the time you bring in the customer promising him many things that you are not able to deliver.

Seth Godin has written a good post here : Seth on customer expectations

For the consumer : Never pay for your service in advance. If I hadn't paid my tour operator in advance, things could have been much different. He would have made calls to me and I would have been the king. So if there is an option for taking the service on credit, do it. Because marketers have a bad habit of forgetting their customers after being fully paid.

Please share your views and experiences on the customer service you have encountered.