The Marketing tool kit: 2000-2010
The decade was exciting and challenging. The changes it saw in terms of good times and recession times, it required different strategies to survive. Internet and mobility seeped across the globe, changing not just how people communicated but also increased exposure and knowledge. It was a significant decade and this makes it important to study how marketers managed their brands and businesses. What tool kit did marketers use to stay ahead?
Some of my observations on the most often tools that every marketer used as a mantra to succeed in an ever changing and competitive environment are:
1. Buying assets versus buying experience
In the past decade some categories have moved from being an asset purchase to being an ‘experience’ purchase. These are high-value categories, starting from a pressure cooker to a watch to a phone and all the way up to jewellery and cars. On a relative level consumers buying these products have started looking at them through the lens of experience and not so much through the asset lens, as they did previously. There is a market who buys for the pleasure of consumption, not so much for what it will fetch when one wants to sell it. This creates a market for ‘used’ products down the population strata. It is an interesting phenomenon and goes hand in hand with consumerism and rise of consumer finance in India. Marketers partly led this movement and partly followed it with innovation and new positioning platforms.
Implications: The approach to product design and innovation will see a change due to this. It will need to appease the variety- and experience-seeking consumer, and not so much the conventional need for durability and resale value. An innovation pipeline is what companies will need to build to ensure that they have a new offering every once in a while.
2. The big ‘small town’ Indian
‘Small-town’ India has come into its own. The pride and sense of achievement is apparent in almost all communication depicting small-town Indians. The days when the small-town guy or girl wanted to copy urban counterpart seem to be over. While there are still some who aspire to migrate to bigger cities and make money, a large number has found opportunity at home, made it good and is now happy to flaunt. Two reasons for this could be media and economic development. Most small-town consumers watch and are influenced by the same media as their urban counterparts, mobility has transformed their lives greatly in terms of giving them business opportunities, and in some cases government subsidies for ancillary industries and service sector development have provided opportunities to small entrepreneurs. Commercials showing urban youth being teased or a country cousin teaching a trick or two on his new mobile say something about India today.
Implications: Demographically, small- town India is a huge opportunity, and understanding this consumer as an individual in his or her own right and not just a wannabe urban consumer is important. Marketers will need to design strategies for this market and not make do with tweaking urban strategies.
3. The changing face of the Indian woman
The portrayal of the Indian woman has changed in the last decade. The emergence of a multi-tasking, educated super-homemaker, who puts her family on the path of progress, is quite a distance from the subservient housewife of earlier years. Women were depicted in one of the roles they play - a mother, a wife, a sister, a daughter/daughter-in-law. Now, on some occasions, she is being depicted as an individual. There is an acknowledgement of her own needs being as important as her family and social obligations. Rising age of marriage, education and rise in employment opportunities are helping. Being financially independent is not looked down upon; on the contrary, it’s almost as if there is pressure among women to prove their worth beyond the home and the hearth. Of course, this doesn’t absolve her of the responsibility of home and family, so she has expanded her time and her ability to do more things. Marketers are using this change to offer her products that make it possible for her to do so.
Implications: Talking to the head and the heart of a ‘not so easy to please’ female consumer will be a challenge but well worth the effort considering the rising expenditure of women. More products designed for women and more offerings that try to convince women is what one sees happening.
4. Simplify the complex and mystify the familiar
Everyday products like detergent powders, soaps and shampoos, toothpaste, biscuits, gram flour, even chips have touted a scientific product story. There were complex proteins, vitamin groups, special processes, hero ingredients; these were attempts to project a science-based, high-tech and cutting-edge image. Interestingly, companies that focus on technology-based products or ‘industrial products’ - such as bio fuel, energy or even gadgets and information technology - focused on the human aspects and the quality-of-life difference. The communication tone of voice was humane and simple. Some examples include Finolex cables, which used a mother and son bonding moment, Siemens took on a plank which was about ‘responsibility for our children’s world’ instead of cutting edge technology which it uses, Intel which is a new age technology company uses its people as the core of their communication and not complicated technology solutions as its positioning.
Implications: Marketers focused on exalting the status of over-familiar things and bringing large industrial, finance, technology kind of normally unfamiliar products closer to consumers through simple emotional messages. This will mean a lot of ‘expert’ panels for everyday products and lot of ‘consumer’ insight mining to understand how technology is applied in everyday life.
5. Give me a reason to believe
As marketers across categories embarked on a scientific overdrive in their products, consumers were bound to react with a degree of skepticism. To make their case stronger, most marketers rushed to find endorsements through independent authorities, through experts and through experiments - anything that would give consumers a reason to believe the claims. They sought, for example, the Indian Medical Association’s endorsement for a floor cleaner, or a particular hair expert’s backing for haircare products, or a dietician’s for health supplements. They also sought celebrity endorsements for anything and everything; brand and celebrity fit notwithstanding. Some Brnads used sportsperson endorsement and expert likes dieticians , doctors etc to build credibility. Some brands aired experiments conducted in a lab to prove their point. Yet some others took a less scientific stance. There was also some focus on natural, herbal ingredients, and many marketers either borrowed from ayurveda (traditional medicine) or international-sounding plants or herbs such as Jojoba.
Marketers spent a lot of energy and effort in proving their claims. Terms like ‘now proven’, clinically proven, first time, more than, better than was heard often.
Implications: Marketers will need skill sets that understand how to leverage Tie ups with labs, academecia, how to leverage consumer tests and experiments etc. The R&D function will come to the forefront and not remain a back office function.
6. Health, no matter who and no matter what
It’s barely an exaggeration to say that every alternate advertisement spoke about health in some way or the other. From instant, ready to cook, open and eat finger foods like chips and biscuits to tea and beverages, every food product talked about a functional benefit for health. Many food and beverage brands decided to be ‘good for you’, and all had an ingredient story to back it. The promises started at a base level of ‘keeping out harmful things’ to adding vitamins, minerals and general good-for-you ingredients, to adding specialized ingredients that had a specific benefit such as improving brain function, reducing cholesterol or increasing calcium etc. The concept of good health has seen a shift from good health meaning ‘not falling ill’ to being well maintained, to ‘go out and get what life has to offer’. Most communication depicted health as a means to win and achieve in life versus just wellbeing.
Implications: A lot of investment on R&D and innovation by companies to ensure they could create product stories.
7. Rituals
Per capita consumption of Indian consumers is low for most categories. A lot of marketers created rituals to help consumers decide when and how to bring the product into their lives. There were product offerings that nudged consumers to eat/drink/use products at a certain time and/or occasion. For example, Mars positioned itself around ‘4 o’clock hunger’, Knorr targeted ‘7 o’clock hunger’. Some quick-fix face washes/ face packs were launched to brighten oneself up before a party/date. Hair oil brand Parachute encouraged oiling every time you shampoo (oiling hair is a traditional ritual and was declining as consumers bought better-quality shampoos and had busier lives). Then there were rituals around ‘how to’ - there were rituals to eat chocolate snacks like Munch Pop from Nestle, as well as rituals for tea making and drinking.
Implications: As new products are offered to Indian consumers, it will be important to find a place, occasion, time, or a compelling reason to ‘fit’ the product offering in their everyday lives. After all, every new offering means substitution of an old habit or creation of a new one.
8. Innovative use of media
Proliferation and democratization of Indian media due to technology has brought many changes in the way marketers use it. Emerging strategies include: branded content (shows such as MTV Roadies or Amul Master Chef); movie placements for brands, and in some cases movies made for a brand; on-ground events in malls and coffee shops to reach youth, social networking to engage the young into conversations since they are spending less time with conventional media; innovative outdoor activity; and sampling through the print medium. However, internet advertising is only just beginning to develop beyond websites, banners and promotions. Many brands used an idea to engage consumers and took the idea across touch points and media. Brands took their brand idea from the TV commercial through to packaging, to live events. An example is Kurkure, a snack which used the idea of the ‘Kurkure family’ and took it from a recipe shared on TV, to a competition (the winning family appeared on the pack) to live demos in malls.
Implications: Segmented use of media is happening but will become a lot more sophisticated in the future. Media will be as important as content and in some cases media will dictate content .
9. Brand rejuvenation
Another observation concerns relaunches and rejuvenation of brands. Many large brands which have been market leaders have sought to upgrade their brand. Corporate brands like Godrej, TATA, and ULL all re-energized their corporate logos, and their corporate vision statements. Consumer-facing brands like Shoppers Stop, Horlicks, Slice, Bajaj, Star Plus and most recently Airtel introduced a new look and a new positioning. Some rejuvenation reflected the need to stay relevant, some was due to expansion and extensions which made it imperative for brands to reposition themselves. But many large local players also updated their look, promise and context to remain relevant in a competitive context – for example, Iodex pain rub, Zandu balm, Rajnigandha paan masala, to name a few. And the most interesting relaunch was that of the Indian Post and Telegraph department controlled by the government of India. In an attempt to be relevant in the times of email and mobility, the Indian post rejuvenated itself with a new positioning of ‘giving wings to your dreams’ a new LOGO, refurbishing of the post offices and ensuring presence on the web. The effort was to bringing the 154-year old government run ‘Indian Post’ in the league to compete with companies that carry the ‘modern’ tag.
Implications: Product lifecycles will get shorter and marketers will feel the pressure to innovate often. Marketers will need to work at reinventing and repositioning their Brands to an ever changing consumer who gets bored easily and demands newness all the time.
10. Organized retail
The emergence of organized retail will not just change how consumers buy; it also has an impact on how marketers sell. The grocers, mom-and-pop stores, small paan and cigarette shops still dominate, but there is a growing number of organized retail chains and malls. Interestingly, new retail channels like coffee shops, mobile and technology retail chains, and beauty parlour chains will offer interesting touch points to marketers.
Implications: The retail landscape and how it shapes up will make a significant impact on marketing activity in the next decade. Marketers will need to have different channel strategies for the multiple channels that will co-exist for some time.
11. More for less
The second half of the period mentioned saw recession and slow down. The biggest financial fiasco put pressure on consumer's resources and a lack of trust towards organizations. Marketers used promotions, cash discounts and bundled offers to give consumers more for less in the hope of wooing them. The best of Brands offered promotions, the idea was not so much to discount but more to add 'value' derived from the transaction.
Implications: Caution needs to be exercised to protect Brand equity which could get affected by too many promotions. Marketers will need to manage both short term and long term while ensuring strategic relevance in all brand promotions.
12. 'Satchet'isation
Everything, almost everything was available in small pack sizes. This was for reasons such as increase penetration, induce trails for newer categories, and in some cases reduce one time outlay of money.
Implications: Markets will expand as small packs help brands to penetrate deeper. Channel strategy that helps keep the small packs as trial packs or top up packs will be needed lest they push consumer’s to down trade from current usage.
It was a challenging decade for marketers, one that saw rapid changes in the socio political environment, intense competition and economic pressure and it offered huge challenges and great learning for most. Of course when one talks about India, for all that I have said the opposite is equally true. It is many countries within one country, making it a challenge to generalize anything but these are observations which have the potential to seep into various categories and various businesses, and they should be read in that spirit.
