Marketing & Research Info

Eating out in India

2012-01-19T18:56:00.001-08:00

The Indian food retail industry is close to Rs.4.5 lakh crore, but only 2% of it constitutes organised sector. In such a scenario, it is tough to focus on value, and this means recently most of the organised fast food chains are focusing on volumes for growth.

The focus has moved from a menu with limited variety and expensive options to one with a wider variety on the menu and prices even as low as Rs.25/-. This is for those chains which are set at targeting youth - the college goers whose one time canteen meal would be limited to ~Rs.25/-.

Chains like KFC are infact also likely to position themselves as breakfast and after-dinner joints and not just meal hang-outs and is also considering home delivery. A move towards healthier grilled options and not just the deep fried hi-cal version of the chicken are also on the cards. All these will hopefully help them achieve their target of 500 stores across 50 Indian cities (right now the count is 150). Yet another challenge that these chains pose is that of retaining constant prices across stores/ cities when the input costs especially real estate widely vary.

Some of the competitors for KFC viz MCD, south african Nando and more local ones like Bangs, Hot Chix, Chic punch, BFC are eating into its share.

Meanwhile MCD which currently owns 240 stores, is shifting focus from children (through it's Ronald McDonald) to adults. It plans on moving from vibrant red and yellow as brand colours to the more muted ones which are likely to appeal to adults. Its offerings have evolved from the more kiddie friendly burgers and fries to include Mc. Spicy (Veg and Chicken variants). Mc.Flurry - a dessert filling enough to tide you between meals appeals to the adult palate with combination of textures - creamy(ice cream), chunky (chocolate bits), grainy (oreo) and serves as a meal by itself. Right now only prototypes in Delhi and Mumbai are experimenting with the new outlet colours, changed logo. And it is likely to go viral in the next 4 yrs.

Some quick facts about MCD :

MCD opens a new outlet every 4 hours
Serves over 46 million customers each day (0.5 mn just in India)
It has sold well over 100 million burgers till date
Ronald McD has different names based on the country - Uncle McD in Singapore, Donald McD in Japan (which has 3000 stores!!! - the largest market for MCD after US)
US is the largest market with 14000+ stores
In some places the items on the menu vary based on tastes and demand eg - rice burgers in Hongkong, Spaghetti in Philippines, Beers in Germany & Spain

Skeptics are not sure moving from a position of a store that appeals to kids to that for adults, will continue to enjoy strong franchise among kids. Hopefully it won't alienate them :)

Design Studios

2011-04-06T04:12:00.000-07:00

Constantly innovating...

Brands viz Lenovo, Renault, Google, Yum restaurants all have an innovation centre. No age barriers - all you need is to be able to think out of the box, get creative....constantly. This is what helps companies invent, innovate and engage customers. Gone are the days when the RnD folks in their glass cabins hardly interacted with the customer. A recent instance I can recall, is when a company selling hair oils and shampoos decided to home visit the consumer and was aghast to see that there were some who put shampoo on their hair few hours before actually washing it off. This one would never know had one not entered the household and done a customer contact.

Huge monies are spent on innovation rooms/ design studios - to make them inspiring....a green patch (to soothe the senses), ample pure air, lots of space, the evils viz coffee/ tea, may be an area to stimulate thought for the smokers. Every company has studios across the world, primarily because the same design may not work across the world. There is an element of customization; which is important and that local flavour gets added on when the studio is local to the selected market.

What is new today, is forgotten tomorrow. Life is truly fast paced

Dating and mating

2011-04-06T04:05:00.000-07:00

'Dating and then mating' - this is not about us humans, but about brands.

There used to be a time when there were brand loyalties, but a recent survey which conducted bathroom audits, proves otherwise. There were multitude of shower gels, toothpaste and soap brands found in two bathrooms which housed 3 ppl - pa, ma and a 10 yr old.

What this goes to show is that no longer is it true that 70% shop out of habit. Infact, what is now going to help the brand is whether it is present in the line of sight (say, at supermarkets), how well it is dressed up(packaged) vs its competitor, what zumba zumba (*remember the Reliance comm gym ad*) does it offer.

Customers now shop for similar rather than the same brand- either would do- a vaseline or a nivea, a Pantene or a L'Oreal or a Dove, a lifebuoy or a Santoor white, a pepsodent or a colgate.....so brands now need to build their muscles----so is it going to be a 6 or 8 pack for yours ?

Advertising and labeling

2011-03-08T22:06:00.000-08:00

Advertising to children has always irked me. Pester power no doubt, but why at the cost of such innocent lives?! We are only helping shrink their childhood further - as if we did not do enough already.

Recently I read about some initiatives by Kraft foods, where they consciously refrain from advertising to below six year olds and to the older bunch six through eleven, they only use what may be referred as 'benefit for you' products which abide by the stringent norms laid by the food authorities. These are products that pass stringent nutrition norms. Isn't that a good initiative!

Another process they follow is a specification of 8 key ingredients in all products on the label - energy (calories), protein, total carbohydrates, sugars, fat, saturated fat, dietary fiber and sodium. They use front-of-pack labeling that delivers meaningful information at a glance and fits local needs.

Jobs-to-be-done marketing

2011-02-21T01:42:00.000-08:00

I read this article recently and loved the idea of a 'jobs-to-be-done' marketing.

Apparently ~30,000 new consumer products are launched each year. Of these 95% fail to make a mark. Problem ? They all create products slot them into a product category or by a consumer demographic. Not every product works that way. Infact most don't.

A case in point. A company launched a milk shake targeted at a specific demographic. Post launch they conducted a survey to list out the characteristics of an ideal milkshake - thick, thin, chunky, smooth, fruity, chocalatey etc. It was found that most consumers picked up the milkshake because they all had a long boring commute between home and work and had to keep themselves busy, also make the commute more interesting.

Now that the Company realized the job to be done, it was easier to respond by creating a morning milkshake which was thicker and had more chunks of fruit - this lasted through the commute and also made it more interesting.

That's how the 'jobs-to-be-done' mechanism works.

Some indigenous examples I could think of :

Daag achey hain campaign- by Surf Excel
Learn English campaign- by Tata Sky
Maggi moving from just be instant noodles to noodles which are also nutritious (vegetables and atta)

The Indian Retail Story

2011-02-08T03:07:00.001-08:00

Organized retail India is ~7% of the total retail industry. This includes food, beverages, clothing, personal care, electronics, food services, furn
iture, furnishings, health, sports goods, books, music and other typical departmental store items.

It seems like a growing retail story is having its share of hiccups in the form of :

Finding. training and retaining talent
Legal and bureaucratic hurdles
Developing and leveraging the right know-how
Using collaborations to scale up and for investment in back-end

How will overcoming these hurdles help :

it will benefit the key stakeholders : producers, employees, consumers
Producers : the farmers will receive higher margins than they do now, owing to many intermediaries between them and the consumer. A likely increase of 10-30% in their incomes
Employees : by improving their economic, social and financial status.
Consumers : who get to save ~5-10% on their monthly expenses through access to better deals, wider variety and better quality

The Indian retail story can have a happy end only through Global Integration and Financial Inclusion. Inclusion the true sense would be mean 'Economic inclusion' - through higher wages, 'social inclusion' - through acceptance in society - a nondiscriminatory attitude and 'financial inclusion'- through better access to financial channels It has always been believed that the growth in services sector (more specifically IT, BPO) is giving the country that much needed boost to help improve its GDP ; really ?

May not be. There is a mismatch in the demand and supply of labour. While most available labour is educated upto Class XI or below ; the need in the BPO / IT sector is for the XII+ educated individuals. So what 'demographic dividend' are we talking about.
If indeed we need to club this divide, it is the consistent growth in the retail sector that will help bridge this gap. This is the sector which looks for employees with less than XII class education. They are trained and even get high growth in their incomes and better social status.

So, why not lobby hard for the India Retail Story to lead the India Economic Growth Story and root for Inclusive Growth!

Consuming Middle India

2011-02-04T23:25:00.000-08:00

Recent past has seen a drop in exports in teas, coffees, spices, fruits viz pomegranates. Interesting ? Thanks to the increasing incomes of the middle class, there is higher consciousness about 'what they consume'. The richer crust of middle India finds brands with the export quality sticker more suited for consumption be it - green tea, pepper, coffee from the finest beans , milk and dairy products etc.. The exporters of these items find it more lucrative to sell to Indians who are willing to pay more than the foreign counterpart. An indicator for increased consumption is the price increase for milk is ~20% while the demand has increased by ~7%. The perception is that 'higher price' = 'better quality'

Infact there is also growing demand for fruits like pomegranates owing to their medicinal properties and 'general goodness' to health. The middle class Indian does not mind paying over Rs.200/- for a kilo of pomegranate.

Is that a good or bad sign, I wonder. Isn't this going to affect food inflation?! Any thoughts ?

Naked Communications

2008-03-14T04:15:00.000-07:00

Hey I bet I will get many more page views with this title for a post. However that is not exactly why I chose this title.
I recently read about this agency- Naked Communications which is headquartered in some place outside of Asia. As they state - "we don't pitch for clients and nor do we buy media". Well then what do they do?
They believe in simply understanding the clients problems and providing them solutions. Err! so what do agencies do...that's exactly what. Pitching for accounts and buying media is one way of providing solutions. Is it not?
Anyways Naked Communications considers setting shop in Mumbai shortly - so any of you waiting to providing solutions to client problems are free to apply. As for the rest what the hell have you been doing taking a brief from the client?!
Well sarcasm aside; a few examples of their work that they provided in the article -

The Nike ad - run run....where the ad incites the onlooker to run (across London)
Dulux paint ad - where they moved the positioning of the Company from a paint manufacturer to a "Colour Chemist". They apparently found that 70% of those who get their homes painted, repaint some bit of it within the next month simply because they were not quite happy with the shade compatibility with the decor. After Naked suggested, the client got themselves a website which helps the customer to upload the pictures of their home and experiment with different shades online. I liked the idea.
Nokia Nseries - Naked made Nokia place the phones in specialist music stores since they are marketing the product as meant for the music lover (why a mobile phone if you love music, is an ipod not good enough!)

The one thing that the article mentioned which I couldn't but agree. "We don't believe in targeting customers".....targeting is not something a customer would like done to him.

And lastly - 360 deg advertising (which is definitely the buzz word today) is not something Naked believes. How would you like to be hounded all the while by a brand? I couldn't agree more.

Probiotic

2008-02-27T21:19:00.000-08:00

Oflate there has been a flurry of articles and advertisements promoting probiotic products.
Probiotic yoghurt, ice cream....to list a few

Probiotic - primarily refers to products enriched with "friendly" (say useful) bacteria.

A recent article which got me thinking about this entire probiotic bizness :
"probiotic - harmful to the pancreas"
Explantion : usually the bacteria start acting on the food after it has already passed through the pancreas and into the intestine. However if these bacteria are already present in the food then they would act first on the pancreas itself leading to ulceration.

Do we really need probiotic products. Why cant we have simple, clean, fresh food and hope it goes down well with the system.

Nielsen and web tracking

2008-02-27T21:12:00.000-08:00

Lately the popular auditing and tracking company ACN tried requesting their Television tracking households to allow them to track their cell phone usage and web usage. As anticipated a large proportion of the households refused. So now they have made it optional.

Although the Television track run by ACN is more popular and more reputed than those run by other (smaller, local companies) consumers would not want "so much nosiness" in their affairs.
Imagine feeling like Truman in the Truman show when he discovers he is "a soap character"

Also lately they had to close down another of their projects - Project Apollo which was tracking Radio listening habits thereby ending their alliance with a company whose forte was Radio tracks.

Scientology

2008-02-23T00:33:00.000-08:00

I pulled up this topic for a post on this blog since I consider Scientology a concept which is getting it's fair share of marketing!
Earlier I had read about it only in the context of Tom Cruise and his baby, how his beliefs in scientology are going to determine the manner in which his baby would be delivered. Also John Travolta (the Grease dude), and his family are followers of Scientology.
As I understand Scientology has its principles (somewhere) in Christianity. There are scientology centres across the world. The one in India is in Delhi and apparently has ~40000 followers. Interesting!
Now what is Scientology? a means of understanding "the spirit" (sorry! not the bottled variety:) ; in context to life, universe and everything around. The spirit is referred to as the "Thetan". There are auditors who audit your brain waves and help you to sort out your thoughts, feelings and understand yourself better. The course cost runs to millions of rupees. Whoever said celebrities support affordable causes?!
Mere mortals like you and me are termed "Pre-clear" ( I decode that as someone who has not been audited and is thereby not quite clear about their thoughts etc...).
To become an auditor one needs to spend a few millions (again!) for getting trained. For those interested, there is shortly a centre coming up in Mumbai.
Thanks to brand ambassadors like Cruise and Travolta - scientology is catching up.
To the "pre-clear" - if you can't afford to get yourself audited.....then "don't worry be happy".... :)....things will get clearer (if not today, then SOMEDAY)

Water, water everywhere.....it costs a lot to drink!

2008-02-23T00:08:00.000-08:00

I never thought that drinking water can be more expensive than an Evian, San Pellegrino or a Perrier. But I was proved wrong when I read about Byde's brand of mineral water, very rightly called, Bling H2O.
Bling H2O - the name made me wonder if it contained bling - gold and platinum deposits or some such thing. Well, no such luck. It is simply mineral water which follows a very rigorous purification process (source Tennesee waters) and is sold in a swarovski crystals encrusted bottle. It costs close to USD 42 for a 750 ml bottle. Hmm...and when I just about got down to accepting this reality, someone mentioned that there is yet another brand which costs close to USD 450 for a case. It is most rightly called the Charity water as the proceeds from it's sale go to funding drinking water projects in Africa.
And while there are pockets all across the world where not a drop of water is available, where humans, animals and plants perish for want of a drop....there lies a part of the world who picks up one for the Bling effect!
Cest la vie!

Nintendo - ingenious marketing

2007-10-23T03:25:00.000-07:00

I have seen and read about marketing at its best. Now here's another example that goes to prove that there is no end to marketing a product. I have heard of medication and emotional support that goes to prevent ills of aging like dementia, alzheimer's; but only today did I read of games which serve a similar purpose.
Nintendo and some other video game companies have launched what they call "Brain games". These are targeted at grandpas and grandmas. They claim to cover a range of games that keep one mentally active and thereby reverse aging.
I read on to find out what games these are - some which found mentions in the article were mathematical, music, spelling /word associations. These games they claim help the brain to remain active and thereby prevent the aging diseases like dementia, memory loss from rendering an active human disabled, simply because of age.
That definitely required some ingenious thinking!!!

In the run for customers....

2007-10-10T22:36:00.000-07:00

Just over a year ago, HT and DNA entered Mumbai. What they needed was readership, and mostly a big share from the then market leader TOI.
So what do they do ? They send sales persons door to door with highly discounted subsription rates valid for 2 years. Pay amount "x" and get a coupon booklet for a year; with a promise that as soon as the year is over they will send their sales person again with coupons for the next year. The amount had to be paid upfront for the entire period of 2 yrs. When the newspaper vendor came in the next morning, all one needed to do is tell him that one is now subscribing to HT/ DNA and give him the coupon for the current month.
Now, not everyone can keep promises and we all know that...don't we?! So while DNA stuck to their word and promptly sent a reminder and a sales person at the end of the year, HT slipped up. Our coupons from HT are now 3 months overdue. HT staff / customer contact are neither contactable, nor responsive. They have not sent any reminders or sales people to our doorsteps to provide us the balance coupons.
So although the content of HT seemed quite impressive at first, the customer experience has been bad enough for us to spread negative word of mouth and also not renew the subscription any more even if given an opportunity and heavy discounts.
Is anyone listening?!

Effect on Brand Equity

2007-09-27T04:20:00.000-07:00

I often wonder if a brand has presence in the top end (premium segment) and bottom end (popular segment), does that add or take away from brand equity. Well, what I am saying is that does it make the brand more desirable to the popular segment consumer who associates the brand with premiumness or does it alienate a premium end consumer owing to its popularity at the bottom end?!

Any answers?

Recently I read two articles, examples that can be stated to prove that either of the points above is true.

The first one is on Peter England brand of apparel (under AVBirla flagship). PE has launched the Peter England Elite brand of apparel. While Peter England is targeted at t he popular segment (Rs.300-500/-), Elite, would be targeted at the more premium consumer (upto ~Rs.1200/-). The Madura Group definitely are of the opinion that the Peter England consumer, on getting prosperous, will hopefully upgrade to the Elite brand

On the other hand, Oberoi splits from its venture with Hilton hotels. Why ? The reason quoted is that Hilton has recently signed a JV with DLF which will help it launch mid-range hotels viz Garden Inn. This in the opinion of the Oberois will dilute the equity that Hilton Trident Hotel now holds among its super premium Business Class consumers.

Both these arguments seem right as far as current consumers of the brand are concerned. While PE may not lose its current consumers to other premium labels, Hilton will not alienate its current class of customers.

Any thoughts?

Fizz - going, going, gone

2007-08-12T23:36:00.000-07:00

Coke and Pepsi have always been leaders in the fizzi cola market. Targeting the youth - promoting their brands as cool, trendy, meant for the youth. Although targeted at the same segment their positioning varies - Pepsi uses the youth's passion for cricket while Coke uses the passion for celebrities and bollywood.
Me wonders...

how long would any youngster drink a fizzi cola simply because their favorite cricketer or star endorses it ?
aren't they exposed to articles (reams and reams of paper) telling exactly how much pesticide is permitted and how much used!
aren't they getting health conscious and preferring fruit juices and gatorades to fizzi colas
is the novelty associated with colas still there?...if yes, will it continue to last ?

As for me, I might sip a cola once in a blue moon when I feel like "having a cola" - not because I am madly thirsty or because anyone I know endorses it, but simply because "my tastebuds demand it".....and interestingly it has been really long since I actually felt like having one.

The Taste of India

2007-06-20T04:09:00.000-07:00

Lately I was reading about Amul, the cooperative brand that has made it really big in the last few years. It's future plans look promising with entry into categories viz low cal (sugar free) chocolates for the diabetics (who form 1% of the Indian population). Recently they have also launched Stamina - a milk drink with added vitamin C aimed at the physically active/ those inclined towards sports. It competes closely with Gatorade, Red Bull which although energy drinks are not milk based. It remains to be seen how Stamina performs in the market. Even their cold coffee and cold chocolate shake have caught on quite well among the youngsters.

Additionally their probiotic - sugar free ice cream has also been in the market for a few months. Although in this segment it competes with MD,KW, BR, Natural's, my personal opinion is that they are a winning brand. They win "hands down" on quality. Their promise of "real milk....real ice cream" actually translates to better VFM for the customer. They hold ~35% of the ice cream market.
I speak this not as a researcher or a reader but as an ice cream consumer. Having researched brands like KW in the past, I have always been the first to check out an ice cream variant when it is launched. Nothing or no one can beat Amul ice cream for the quality they offer at the price. I myself like BR too but the price is too steep. Amul infact offers a range of variants - their Take home packs have interesting flavours like litchi, spanish balls, fruit bonanza to name a few.

In addition to these categories, they are also present in the dairy products lines - milk, butter, ghee, milk based desserts viz gulab jamun, chocolate. Am sure Mr.Vyas and his team's drive for excellence will ensure that Amul garners more share in the Indian market.

Whoa Amul - truly the Taste of India.

Who is the bigger brand?

2007-05-30T22:45:00.000-07:00

Am sure this question is haunting most of our minds. All of us who have been closely tracking the Escorts -Dr Trehan fall out are keen to know - is it the Singh's Escorts Hospital or is it Dr Trehan - the man behind the success of the hospital who is the bigger pull for the consumers (the patients). It is believed that he is likely to pull along with him a team of 70 out of the 200 doctors at Escorts to Apollo. This waits to be seen.

It could be argued that - it is Dr. Trehan, the bigger brand. For consumers (patients) who have interacted with him/ been treated by him, he symbolises "customer service" or the "product" offered by Escorts. So Escorts is only a channel and not the actual service/ product.
While on the other hand it could be argued that - it is Escorts - its facilities, infrastructure, and all staff that symbolises "customer service" and Dr. Trehan is only a component delivering that promised service.

I ask myself - is it the Dr. or the hospital that is the bigger brand, and I would think it is the Dr. He is the "brand"

Best Buy and Walmarts of the world

2007-05-30T22:34:00.000-07:00

Despite several attempts by the Biyanis and Ambanis of the retail world to disallow big International retailers from entering the country in a big way, players like Best Buy and Walmart are still going strong in their attempts to enter the Indian market.
Although FDI is not allowed in Retail, certain loop holes have been explored by these companies and they are now considering operating in the Cash and Carry Space (ala Metro) or the Croma system (the Tata - Wellworth tie up) which allows Croma to operate with Tata as the Indian partner.
While Croma has comfortably settled in its venture with the Tatas, Best Buy is exploring a tie up with Vivek, a consumer electronic chain that operates in multiple Indian cities.
Watch out!!!

Changing face of the MR industry

2007-05-30T22:20:00.000-07:00

The news snippet read : "Hansa Research buys Oregon based US market research Co. GCR."
That, I thought sounded quite reassuring; an Indian firm buying a Global one. So far the research space in India has been dominated largely by MNCs like ACN, TNS, Kantar (IMRB/MB). It would interesting to see the reversal of trends.
The acquisition is understood to give Hansa a toe-hold into technology research and an entry into the US market research sector (total turnover stands at USD 7.72 bn) which is believed to be 70 times larger than that of the Indian counterpart(turnover stands at a mere USD 102 mn)
GCR customer base consists largely of companies in the tecnology and IT space, and includes MS,AMD, HP.
I say reassuring because inspite of having a good talent base in the Indian market research sector, the Indian agencies have been restricted to working as KPOs for international offices of Multinationals. This acquisition should probably see some action where talent gets adequately utilised rather than being a mere back stage operation.

Time Crunch

2007-05-01T04:44:00.000-07:00

Has there ever been an instance in the recent past, when you had 'time at hand' and no tasks to be accomplished? I would be surprised if you said yes.
I remember, even until my b-school days I used to wait minutes at length to get that bus to class or to the place where we had some assignments to be done. Money was at a premium and no one cared much about time. Although time was important, its importance paled against money.
Today times have reversed - I would much rather spend that additional penny on fuel rather than waste time waiting. Earlier mom often wondered why I waste money on cabs....but today she understands that "Time is scarce".
It was not long back that I wrote a proposal for instant foods - understanding habits and attitudes of housewives towards the same. The key findings of the report were - the housewife thought that she did not want to seem uncaring and lazy by opting for instant foods, when she could go through the painstaking rigmarole to create the dish from scratch, "the maa key haathon ka khana" which the family appreciated.
Haven't times changed? Today she would consider herself smarter if she spent lesser time in the kitchen and more making money or even spending some quality time with her family. Time - such a rare commodity these days!
The products in the market all emphasise on how you could save time using them. A mobile phone with features such as push mail, voice mail, blue tooth, makes it possible to be accessible round the clock. Absolutely no question of 'wasting time'. Even while travelling people are busy at work.....punching away at their lappie buttons or following up over their cellular phones.
Earlier commute meant "peace between appointments". Today it only means "work while you are on the move".
This is great for India Inc which is growing at a formidable rate. But what about us......are we robots?....dont we need time to simply relax?
I wonder!

Developing talent

2007-01-19T09:20:00.000-08:00

Nurturing and developing talent in the current economic scenario is key to a progressive future for India. Chief of Hewitt mentions : India's cost advantage is sustainable for atleast 45 yrs from now, provided there is continued training and development of talent.

The world is getting flatter and economies - specially the west, more agnostic. Let me explain - earlier India was a favourite with the USSR (when it still existed). There are no favorites anymore. Those offering the best deal bag it! If tomorrow Philippines or Vietnam was to provide the same cost advantage with on par or better talent, the economies wouldn't take time to shift there. What happened to Porter and "switching costs". Does that concept even exist anymore??

I am still not sure how could we remain competitive by developing talent ?.The current education system is almost punitive to the student class by encouraging and propagating reservation. Reservation to whom ? - the economically backward? no not really, it's the creamy layer amongst backward classes who are not exempt to benefits of reservation.

Both graduates and under graduates, who have some iota of talent are looking at the west for further studies and for better paying jobs. Whose talent do we develop then?

I would think we have a tricky future facing us. Is the economic/ financial boom in the country truly sustainable ? I wonder......

Packaging - English or multi-lingual?

2007-01-04T04:21:00.000-08:00

Heard of 'Creator's bias' ? This is when the creator sees things from his mind's eye, where he believes that everyone around him sees things the way he sees them. Technically it would be defined as the tendency by the class creating a product to imagine that those consuming the product are very similar in orientation to themselves.

So accustomed to seeing the brand on the pack mentioned in English, I always gave this thought a miss. Is it a better idea to have the brand name on the pack, in a multi-lingual country like ours, in English or some other language???

Now let's imagine ; you walk into a store to pick one of your regular brands of toothpaste and other than the familiar red and white pack, the font seems unfamiliar. Not just unfamiliar but just not fit for my consumption. Imagine purchasing a pack of toothpaste which reads "colgate" (in hindi or telugu or even urdu for that matter). Just does not feel like your brand of toothpaste....does it? This is precisely one of the reasons that marketers of fmcg and such use English so profusely on the pack. They feel the same way - people associate English with some degree of premiumness.

Another reason that some leading fmcg companies provide for not having a non English pack is because it can prove to be a logistical nightmare. Just imagine, as a marketer, when you need to spend money not only on printing packs in different regional languages but also ensuring that the right one reaches the right region. One interesting observation by a Strategy officer from an ad firm - "how are multi-language newspapers managing logistics?!" so why is it so difficult for an fmcg marketer. Hmm good question!

The marketers however defend their stand by stating that the brand name in English, over a period of time and exposure, serves more as a mnemonic and what matters at the end is communication, which anyway is executed in various languages - whether it is PoPs, danglers or even inserts or instructions for use.

So what if the brand name on the pack is in English, so long as the brand gets identified, and the English language provides that 'dash of premiumness' to the brand!, marketers are smiling all the way :)

Spruce up Window Display

2006-11-22T02:20:00.000-08:00

When was the last time you actually stopped by a window display to carefully look at trends in fashion, or a new technology gizmo, or even some jewellery designs.

Gone are the days, says Paco Underhill - the retail expert, who specialises in studying shopper behaviour, when passersby took time out to inspect a window display to understand fashion trends and be informed of the new brands on sale.

The reason as he explains is quite interesting. These days owing to high traffic conditions - both human and vehicular, there is always a cluster of people waiting/ moving at traffic signals (and on roads). This cluster is dense in some patches and sparse in others, and moves with a steady momentum. Any member of the cluster who might wish to go the other way or change tracks is likely to end up bumping, brushing past, or getting pushed around. So it is unlikely that people moving in a cluster will stop short in their track to look at a window display unless ofcourse it is eye-catching.

Most displays today, are cluttered. The intent of most shop-owners being to display all brands/ wares in the two by two ft space available. Paco observes that to make display truely eye-catching, one could use it to display social messages, jokes which could have brands as part of the message. A better idea than cluttering the space with merchandise!

Brand Sluts

2006-10-31T22:50:00.000-08:00

This morning I was reading an article by Marian Salzman, the lady who popularised the term Metrosexual.

The new word doing the rounds - "Brand Sluts". A slut, as we understand, is someone who changes her sexual partners constantly with little "loyalty". A brand slut does something quite similar. (S)He changes brands at quite the same pace as a slut changes partners.

I have often wondered, when people talk brand loyalty, whether it does really exist. This article only made my doubt about its existence even stronger. How could a consumer be Brand Loyal when there is a slew of brands available to him/ her today. There is so much choice in terms of product offering, price and promotions. Why on earth would anyone exercise Brand Loyalty ? While in India there were close to ~15,000 brands in the late 1990s, today there are atleast over 1,00,000 of them.

Infact I remember whilst I worked at one of the firms, Loyalty was defined as willingness to repurchase or use more or recommend strongly a particular brand. Does it really work that way? If I decide to purchase an LG refrigerator primarily because the Company has a promotional offer which will help me exchange my older LG refrigerator for a newer LG one, then is it because I am Brand loyal ? or is it simply because of the promo offer ?

As Jean Noel Kaepferer writes in a Business Journal "Brand Loyalty can no longer exist because the very intrinsic nature of the definition of the term is contradictory to the actual relationship between the producer and consumer. Brand loyalty implies a type of matrimonial relationship based on EXCLUSIVITY and this relationship is impossible because the producer does not reciprocate the relationship" and our society is premised upon fluidity of choices.

People in the pro Brand loyalty camp would argue that it is not JUST the product offering, price, promo offer that matter....it is the experience...with the brand, the people servicing the consumer.

It is easier to believe the first theory than the next. Don't you think ?

Competitive Advantage

2006-09-29T07:45:00.000-07:00

What if your competitive advantage is easily replicated. Does it still remain one?
I read an interesting piece which said that the best competitive advantage lies in providing a unique customer experience. It is so easy to replicate a product, price off, promotional offer with the current technologies....but it is definitely not the same with customer experience.

An interesting example is that of a Harley Davidson. The product can easily be replicated, but what Harley sells is the sheer experience to dress in leather, ride through rough roads and not so frequented areas, with people frightfully looking on and STILL get noticed!

Reaching brands to rural India

2006-09-29T07:19:00.000-07:00

A few days back, a friend mentioned that he would like to help rural India progress. His idea revolved around creating a device which helps the small retailer in rural India to place an order through the device, the order gets financed by a microfinancer who is linked to the device, and executed by the Company whose product he orders. The intent was to ensure credit availability to the small retailer in rural India and reach of brands to the end consumer.

This came back to me today whilst I read an article. Companies are now tapping Fair Price Shops in rural areas to service the end consumer. The intent is to develop these FPS into rural malls. Companies like HLL are also willing to pay higher margins to utilise this network. These swank rural malls would be used to vend not just the usual grocery items but also sim cards and other fmcg products. The minimum requirement from these FPS would be an area of 300-400 sqft.

Quite an idea!.....so instead of tying in with the retailers, how about tying in with the FPS outlets?

Face of the industry

2006-09-26T21:31:00.000-07:00

The Market Research industry is just about Rs.490 cr, with a growth rate of ~30%. Of late a lot of business is being outsourced from overseas. The increased business from overseas can be attributed to a booming Indian economy, looking hard one would see that it is primarily due to India figuring among the "researched countries".

With expanding markets, there is a need to gauge the growing demand and understand sentiments, attitudes of people, thereby India figures as one of the countries which is under the magnifying lens. And also an age old advantage of a growing economy being less expensive than a developed one. With manday rates much lower than that found in most developed countries, most overseas set-ups prefer to use India for key process outsourcing.

High attrition rates, to the tune of ~30%, lend to its similarity to the IT or the ITeS industry. Sadly however, although the attrition rate matches up to these industries, the remuneration does not. And although agencies claim that they are introducing processes to make their companies employee friendly, the pressures to meet the bottomline are far higher than the need to ensure work-life balance.