Tuesday, May 01, 2012
The Facebook Farmer and Rural Twitter
The Facebook Farmer
By Harish Bijoor
Q: Do you see social networking sites
spreading their applications and wings? If so, where is the opportunity?
-P Malik Krishna, New Delhi
A: Malik, social networking sites hold immense potential for a range of applications. These applications need not necessarily be for urban educated folk alone. The opportunity is ripe for the rural farmer as well.
Take the large agrarian community in India. Most live distanced from
physical market places. Facebook or Twitter or for that matter any other robust
social networking format that attracts eye-balls and visits that are robust (we
are told FB has 423 million daily visitors and users) can help bridge the gap
between the physical and the virtual. Staying far away from physical markets
can no longer be a disadvantage. In many ways, geography is history. If a
farmer is on FB, he can experience real-time prices, a real-time feel of the
market, and indeed a real-time interface with buyers and sellers alike. To that
extent, buying and selling and information facilitation is just but one of the many
applications that can be farmer-friendly.
On the other hand, for the Corporate, the social networking site does away with the one big issue most corporate organizations grapple with: access to market. Access to market today is defined not by physical product presence in the market, as much as the access to information about the product. Imagine a fertilizer or a seeds company that can network with the farmer online, offer prices on quantities, offer consulting and counseling services, and then finally sell. All this is today possible, thanks to the social networking site.
In the old days, a corporate entity would define for itself the urban market space as the space it could manage to cater to, due to distance. Today, every corporate can have an e-presence and an e-commerce and e-consulting and e-counseling plan in place. This means that no corporate is too far away or too close to the market. In many ways, the social networking site re-invents the model of Pure competition, where no player is too far or too close from the market. The potential is therefore pregnant.
Farmers can use these sites in several steps. Step one would be to garner information. This can relate to weather, cropping patterns, crop-volume-estimation across growing areas, rainfall patterns and more. In addition, farmers can network with brethren-farmers across the world and utilize the power of peer group influence in terms of buying and selling. Add to it the possibility of a more knowledge-enriched farmer, and you have the potential of a shift of power back to the farmer, from the current days where the power and margin largely rests with the middle-man. In many ways social networking sites can help dis-intermediate the market and help the farmer retain larger margins.
Q: Premium and luxury brands do not
advertise on radio as a medium. Why?
-Shephali B Raghavachar, Hyderabad
A: Shephali, yes, premium advertisers think radio as a non-premium medium. There is just too much of it, and there is ample research available that tells you that the premium-category shopper does not depend on awareness scores for luxury brands from radio. In fact radio tends to negate effort for luxury brands as of now. Proves counter-productive to effort. Radio is much too mass for luxury brands.
Premium luxury brands will still depend on niche mediums. Niche mediums such as niche print for instance. Airline in-flight magazines work beautifully here. Even for the small town traveler. In fact he carries away these in-flight magazines and salivates and shops. Works better than radio for sure.
Q: How big is the e-retail industry
today and how does its future potential look?
-Nalin Vaidyanathan, Chennai
A:
Nalin, e-retail is today growing differentially across categories. Since the
base is small, in some categories you witness a 600% growth and in some a 220
per cent growth. Today, we have 143 million Indians on the Web. Of these, we
have 49 million people who are the prime audience for e-retail mechanisms as of
now. My prognosis is that we will have 320 million Internet users by December
2014. As this happens, expect e-retail to boom.
Harish
Bijoor is a business strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.
Email: harishbijoor@hotmail.com
Labels: ADVERTISING, branding, Brands, City brands, Digital Marketing, Facebook, Rural brands, Twitter
Friday, February 03, 2012
Pop-up Stores and More!
Heroes without Honda
By Harish Bijoor
Q: What is a pop-up store? And why the buzz about them?
-Kruthika Krishna, Vijayawada
A: Kruthika, a pop-up store is a store that pops up all of a sudden, fulfills its short-term purpose of creating awareness for the brand it represents, and then pops out of your life as quickly as it came as well.
The buzz is all about he fact that Pop-up stores work in the current clutter-market situation one witnesses. These pop-up stores are amoebic and have the ability to pop up and close down at will for short durations. In these short-durations they have a huge degree of quick viewership in terms of new eyeballs. They help in building a quick awareness on a new product and then they vanish. They move on to capture more eyeballs elsewhere. These in many ways are Caravan-stores that cover a large area in a shorter time.
These stores come up from nowhere and vanish fast. Permanent stores actually get boring as they become part of the mall they are located in and become part of the furniture around. Pop-up stores add zing to such a dead and static retail environment.
These stores work beautifully for a category that has a new product, a new piece of technology, or even a new model to showcase and demonstrate.
The joy of such stores is that it may not be restricted to a mall. Even a large Mom and Pop store ('kirana' store) can accommodate a pop-up store counter. In many ways, at the Mom and Pop stores, this is nothing too different from the space they used to let out on a weekly basis to products and services that wanted to demonstrate the product to new customers in the old days.
Q: What’s the status of the Direct Selling industry in India? We do see small little noises being made time and again, but nothing big at all.
-Som Mullick, Kolkata
A: Som, the noises are small, but the Direct Selling industry is fast emerging to be the choice-industry of the small town. Small-town markets are growing in terms of the aspiration to eat more brands and buy more brands. However, there is a loophole in terms of availability and the supply-chain that caters to the small town. Direct selling therefore becomes the one single answer.
Direct selling will grow exponentially in the small towns, just as it will shrink exponentially in the big 8 Metros. The industry is slated to grow briskly in two terrains: health and wellness and so also in the terrain of cosmetic care where the range available in small towns is not so vast as in the big cities. The Direct selling business offers dis-intermediation in the selling chain and offers the best of International products at the doorstep of the Indian in the small town.
As affordability, the yen to want to possess and use, and more importantly the craving increases for such products in small towns, the first answer will be offered by the Direct Selling industry. Bottlenecks however remain.
The biggest bottleneck is the non-use of credit cards in purchase, and the return-factor on the Cash-on-delivery scene in India. Returns of cash on delivery packages range at 30% levels as of today. And that is a disaster.
Q: Hero splits from Honda. What’s the impact “break ke baad”?
-Rohini Chadda, New Delhi
A: Rohini, a break is a break. From the consumer point of view, it is a break-up of a brand.
In many ways consumers equate the brand and its delivery capability to the fact that two mighty corporate organizations have gotten together to get a powerful motorcycle brand going. The user of this product still does believe that technology that comes in from outside India is superior to technology that is available in India. This rather strong viewpoint helps brands such as Hero Honda as the Japanese connection is its one big draw. There are really two bits of equity at play in this brand. The first is that of the Honda equity in terms of technology and durability on offer. The second piece of equity is the Hero equity. This is all about a local player who has a face that is Indian and a face that is recognized to be one that has wide reach and has the capability of offering good after-sales service.
The sum equity of the Hero Honda brand is therefore an amalgam of the Honda technology and durability marrying the domestic service and sales capability of Hero.
Just plain old Hero is really nothing but a bicycle maker of repute. Therefore the future option with Hero would be one where just plain Hero is just not enough. My view. So take that with a pinch of salt.
Q: I want to brand an educational institution of repute. How do I go about it? What do I avoid?
-Saleem A Kishti, Mumbai
A: Saleem-ji, education is a credible output. It is an inner-sanctum subject, very close to religion.
I have a theory that there are outer-sanctum products and Inner sanctum products. Outer sanctum products are things like food, clothing, shelter, accessories, telecom, etc.
Inner sanctum products are Medicare and education, to name just two.
The innermost sanctum product is religion.
One must take greater and greater care as one steps into more and more inner sanctum subjects. Branding needs to be sensitive, relevant, original and innovative. You can't brand it like you would brand toothpaste.
Some management Institutes however have tried to do that...much to the peril of their credibility ratings! And they have started looking like plain old toothpaste as well!
Q: When does mystery marketing work? When do teaser campaigns deliver? Any touchstone issues?
-Preiti Mullick, Raipur
A: Preiti, mystery marketing works in advertising environments where there is too much of clutter in terms of overt branding.
Therefore, the first ad that does not use its brand name, but leaves back small little clues of what it could be, and finally reveals it all, works.
Once a few have done this, the aura of such advertising and marketing ceases as well.
The point is simple, in a market when everyone is shouting the loudest, the one who is whispering the least is heard the most. Most mystery marketing campaigns aim for this.
The core big idea of such advertising is to tell it all later. Reveal the brand the last, rather than in the first few seconds, as most brands do.
Harish Bijoor is a business strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.
Email: harishbijoor@hotmail.com
By Harish Bijoor
Q: What is a pop-up store? And why the buzz about them?
-Kruthika Krishna, Vijayawada
A: Kruthika, a pop-up store is a store that pops up all of a sudden, fulfills its short-term purpose of creating awareness for the brand it represents, and then pops out of your life as quickly as it came as well.
The buzz is all about he fact that Pop-up stores work in the current clutter-market situation one witnesses. These pop-up stores are amoebic and have the ability to pop up and close down at will for short durations. In these short-durations they have a huge degree of quick viewership in terms of new eyeballs. They help in building a quick awareness on a new product and then they vanish. They move on to capture more eyeballs elsewhere. These in many ways are Caravan-stores that cover a large area in a shorter time.
These stores come up from nowhere and vanish fast. Permanent stores actually get boring as they become part of the mall they are located in and become part of the furniture around. Pop-up stores add zing to such a dead and static retail environment.
These stores work beautifully for a category that has a new product, a new piece of technology, or even a new model to showcase and demonstrate.
The joy of such stores is that it may not be restricted to a mall. Even a large Mom and Pop store ('kirana' store) can accommodate a pop-up store counter. In many ways, at the Mom and Pop stores, this is nothing too different from the space they used to let out on a weekly basis to products and services that wanted to demonstrate the product to new customers in the old days.
Q: What’s the status of the Direct Selling industry in India? We do see small little noises being made time and again, but nothing big at all.
-Som Mullick, Kolkata
A: Som, the noises are small, but the Direct Selling industry is fast emerging to be the choice-industry of the small town. Small-town markets are growing in terms of the aspiration to eat more brands and buy more brands. However, there is a loophole in terms of availability and the supply-chain that caters to the small town. Direct selling therefore becomes the one single answer.
Direct selling will grow exponentially in the small towns, just as it will shrink exponentially in the big 8 Metros. The industry is slated to grow briskly in two terrains: health and wellness and so also in the terrain of cosmetic care where the range available in small towns is not so vast as in the big cities. The Direct selling business offers dis-intermediation in the selling chain and offers the best of International products at the doorstep of the Indian in the small town.
As affordability, the yen to want to possess and use, and more importantly the craving increases for such products in small towns, the first answer will be offered by the Direct Selling industry. Bottlenecks however remain.
The biggest bottleneck is the non-use of credit cards in purchase, and the return-factor on the Cash-on-delivery scene in India. Returns of cash on delivery packages range at 30% levels as of today. And that is a disaster.
Q: Hero splits from Honda. What’s the impact “break ke baad”?
-Rohini Chadda, New Delhi
A: Rohini, a break is a break. From the consumer point of view, it is a break-up of a brand.
In many ways consumers equate the brand and its delivery capability to the fact that two mighty corporate organizations have gotten together to get a powerful motorcycle brand going. The user of this product still does believe that technology that comes in from outside India is superior to technology that is available in India. This rather strong viewpoint helps brands such as Hero Honda as the Japanese connection is its one big draw. There are really two bits of equity at play in this brand. The first is that of the Honda equity in terms of technology and durability on offer. The second piece of equity is the Hero equity. This is all about a local player who has a face that is Indian and a face that is recognized to be one that has wide reach and has the capability of offering good after-sales service.
The sum equity of the Hero Honda brand is therefore an amalgam of the Honda technology and durability marrying the domestic service and sales capability of Hero.
Just plain old Hero is really nothing but a bicycle maker of repute. Therefore the future option with Hero would be one where just plain Hero is just not enough. My view. So take that with a pinch of salt.
Q: I want to brand an educational institution of repute. How do I go about it? What do I avoid?
-Saleem A Kishti, Mumbai
A: Saleem-ji, education is a credible output. It is an inner-sanctum subject, very close to religion.
I have a theory that there are outer-sanctum products and Inner sanctum products. Outer sanctum products are things like food, clothing, shelter, accessories, telecom, etc.
Inner sanctum products are Medicare and education, to name just two.
The innermost sanctum product is religion.
One must take greater and greater care as one steps into more and more inner sanctum subjects. Branding needs to be sensitive, relevant, original and innovative. You can't brand it like you would brand toothpaste.
Some management Institutes however have tried to do that...much to the peril of their credibility ratings! And they have started looking like plain old toothpaste as well!
Q: When does mystery marketing work? When do teaser campaigns deliver? Any touchstone issues?
-Preiti Mullick, Raipur
A: Preiti, mystery marketing works in advertising environments where there is too much of clutter in terms of overt branding.
Therefore, the first ad that does not use its brand name, but leaves back small little clues of what it could be, and finally reveals it all, works.
Once a few have done this, the aura of such advertising and marketing ceases as well.
The point is simple, in a market when everyone is shouting the loudest, the one who is whispering the least is heard the most. Most mystery marketing campaigns aim for this.
The core big idea of such advertising is to tell it all later. Reveal the brand the last, rather than in the first few seconds, as most brands do.
Harish Bijoor is a business strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.
Email: harishbijoor@hotmail.com
Labels: Brands, Digital Marketing, Hero-Honda, India, Indian retail
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
What's ahead in Marketing 2010
‘Satyamave Jayate’
By Harish Bijoor
Q: As 2010 emerges, I thought it pertinent to ask you to paint the way ahead. What are the various business routes to market that are going to make it big in the future?
-Jayanthi Arya, Mumbai
A: Jayanthi, the years ahead in this decade are going to be very different in the kind of business routes to market that are going to be appreciated. Routes to market that embrace the long-term good of the people at large will be a big hit. Inclusive practices instead of the exclusive ones business-folk have followed in the last 65 years will work better.
Here are a few routes to market that will find appreciation:
1. The Birla practice of schools that take care of both the rich and poor alike.
2. The green car movement and the green-vehicle movement at large that does not pollute, de-grade and destroy.
3. Practices that replace valuable resources all the time. Green paper for instance, that is made not out of trees, but something else altogether.
4. Practices that afford the good of life to all and democratize marketing allure. E.g. The Tata Nano.
5. Advertising practices that embrace common causes: Tata Tea's "Jaago Re" for instance
6. The health-food movement, which is a practice on its own. This discourages many a commercial category being used as much as it is being done today. Such as oils, sugars, etc.
7. The clean-air practice that envisages moves in the realm of anti-pollution across air, water, sound, etc.
8. Practices that reap and harvest labor such as the Govt. Of India's NREGA scheme.
9. Clean corporate governance practices that discourage company promoters from going berserk a la Satyam Computers.
10. The practice of integrity back in branding, advertising, marketing, and indeed in every realm of business. A seamless adoption of ‘Satyamave Jayate’ by businesses!
Q: Is there a scope to look at Brand Planning from the “zero-base” perspective
and let the customers "proactively" discover the brand by
initiating some questions about the brand?
-Neha Arya, Indore.
A: Neha, brand planning as an exercise that can look at many creative and innovative formats. The formats can get as exciting as the brand manger and brand planner is.
Zero-base brand planning is a good and positive approach for the future and the present in many brand contexts. Some categories are ripe for it and others are not.
Within the Indian context, brands, which are in the luxury category, are totally ripe for this approach. Designer garments, footwear, diamond-jewelry, premium cars, premium-leather goods and many such adjunct categories.
Here, consumers are reasonably tired of being told things top-down. It has gone on for far too long in their lives. These consumers also believe that they are advanced versions of the just-new consumer. They are Version 6.5 in a consumer market that is still in Version 2.1.
Zero-base is a good approach as it allows brand-consumers, potential and existing, to discover different facets of the brand in their own contexts and formats. It allows consumers to discover brand s in their own time as per their social, economic, cultural, religious and political up bringing as base context.
It is important to understand here that consumers are becoming more and more a-clonal in the luxury segment. There is a yen for differentiation and this is shown in the rebel statement of consumers in this category to avoid the famous brand names that everyone wears and franchises. Such consumers enjoy the power of zero-base branding as it provides a format for a self-discovery of a brand, basis some small bits of engineered but random-looking brand stimuli.
As the future unfolds, and as consumers climb from Version 2.1 to Version 6.5 in every category, zero-base branding will gain ground.
Q: In 1999 there was this craze about using the word millennium in every
ad that got released. And sure it was a very big hit with people too, especially in the run up to the world cup that year. But now we see the craze for the letter 'i'. Ipod, Iphone i10 and i20 etc etc. Is this a fad?
Is it necessary to ape something, which sells in order to sell?
-Arun Nair, Chennai.
A: Arun, you have got the trend right. Marketers typically look at the biggest hit all around their lives, and then ape the brand-format, sometimes in the brand name, sometimes in the choice of color and sometimes dangerously in the choice of core brand propositions even.
The I-fad is the current rage around for sure. ‘I” is really very me-centric. It is also about the digital world all around us, as typified by the Internet. In India, you could even obliquely claim that it is all about India.
The one brand that gains the most from this rather free-use of the buzz-letter is the brand that started it all. Therefore the brand does not complain at all. In many ways, every “I”-brand benefits the I-Pod.
What next then? I do believe it is about “You”! It is about brand co-creation. You doing it all. Yahoo! Has used it, as has Lays and as has Dell for a long, long time now.
Expect more of “u” brand ahead then.
The author is a brand-strategy specialist & CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.
Email: ceo@harishbijoorconsults.com
By Harish Bijoor
Q: As 2010 emerges, I thought it pertinent to ask you to paint the way ahead. What are the various business routes to market that are going to make it big in the future?
-Jayanthi Arya, Mumbai
A: Jayanthi, the years ahead in this decade are going to be very different in the kind of business routes to market that are going to be appreciated. Routes to market that embrace the long-term good of the people at large will be a big hit. Inclusive practices instead of the exclusive ones business-folk have followed in the last 65 years will work better.
Here are a few routes to market that will find appreciation:
1. The Birla practice of schools that take care of both the rich and poor alike.
2. The green car movement and the green-vehicle movement at large that does not pollute, de-grade and destroy.
3. Practices that replace valuable resources all the time. Green paper for instance, that is made not out of trees, but something else altogether.
4. Practices that afford the good of life to all and democratize marketing allure. E.g. The Tata Nano.
5. Advertising practices that embrace common causes: Tata Tea's "Jaago Re" for instance
6. The health-food movement, which is a practice on its own. This discourages many a commercial category being used as much as it is being done today. Such as oils, sugars, etc.
7. The clean-air practice that envisages moves in the realm of anti-pollution across air, water, sound, etc.
8. Practices that reap and harvest labor such as the Govt. Of India's NREGA scheme.
9. Clean corporate governance practices that discourage company promoters from going berserk a la Satyam Computers.
10. The practice of integrity back in branding, advertising, marketing, and indeed in every realm of business. A seamless adoption of ‘Satyamave Jayate’ by businesses!
Q: Is there a scope to look at Brand Planning from the “zero-base” perspective
and let the customers "proactively" discover the brand by
initiating some questions about the brand?
-Neha Arya, Indore.
A: Neha, brand planning as an exercise that can look at many creative and innovative formats. The formats can get as exciting as the brand manger and brand planner is.
Zero-base brand planning is a good and positive approach for the future and the present in many brand contexts. Some categories are ripe for it and others are not.
Within the Indian context, brands, which are in the luxury category, are totally ripe for this approach. Designer garments, footwear, diamond-jewelry, premium cars, premium-leather goods and many such adjunct categories.
Here, consumers are reasonably tired of being told things top-down. It has gone on for far too long in their lives. These consumers also believe that they are advanced versions of the just-new consumer. They are Version 6.5 in a consumer market that is still in Version 2.1.
Zero-base is a good approach as it allows brand-consumers, potential and existing, to discover different facets of the brand in their own contexts and formats. It allows consumers to discover brand s in their own time as per their social, economic, cultural, religious and political up bringing as base context.
It is important to understand here that consumers are becoming more and more a-clonal in the luxury segment. There is a yen for differentiation and this is shown in the rebel statement of consumers in this category to avoid the famous brand names that everyone wears and franchises. Such consumers enjoy the power of zero-base branding as it provides a format for a self-discovery of a brand, basis some small bits of engineered but random-looking brand stimuli.
As the future unfolds, and as consumers climb from Version 2.1 to Version 6.5 in every category, zero-base branding will gain ground.
Q: In 1999 there was this craze about using the word millennium in every
ad that got released. And sure it was a very big hit with people too, especially in the run up to the world cup that year. But now we see the craze for the letter 'i'. Ipod, Iphone i10 and i20 etc etc. Is this a fad?
Is it necessary to ape something, which sells in order to sell?
-Arun Nair, Chennai.
A: Arun, you have got the trend right. Marketers typically look at the biggest hit all around their lives, and then ape the brand-format, sometimes in the brand name, sometimes in the choice of color and sometimes dangerously in the choice of core brand propositions even.
The I-fad is the current rage around for sure. ‘I” is really very me-centric. It is also about the digital world all around us, as typified by the Internet. In India, you could even obliquely claim that it is all about India.
The one brand that gains the most from this rather free-use of the buzz-letter is the brand that started it all. Therefore the brand does not complain at all. In many ways, every “I”-brand benefits the I-Pod.
What next then? I do believe it is about “You”! It is about brand co-creation. You doing it all. Yahoo! Has used it, as has Lays and as has Dell for a long, long time now.
Expect more of “u” brand ahead then.
The author is a brand-strategy specialist & CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.
Email: ceo@harishbijoorconsults.com
Labels: Brands, Digital Marketing, I-brands, Trend spotting, turth
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Recession-time Marketing
Learning from the Down-turn
By Harish Bijoor
Q: India is just going through an economic down-turn. What are the learnings from this? How do we educate ourselves from this experience?
-Pallav Gopal, Mumbai.
A: Pallav, the economic downturn is really a slow-down. A correction in the earning, stocking, spending and celebrating mindset of the Indian consumer at large.
While at the macro level, our GDP growth rates were at a more sobered down 5.3% overall, this signified a down-fall from the gung-ho years of successive 8.3% growth.
One fine point on this macro number is the fact that rural markets grew faster than urban markets. In the case of several categories such as auto, durables and cosmetic care items, urban markets saw a de-growth at large and rural markets showed growth. At the end of the day, when we aggregate volumes from both, there was some semblance of small growth overall.
In real terms, even though there has been no real recession in macro terms in the country as a whole, in urban markets there has been a real recession, which I call a cautionary recession. This simply means that people had money in hand, but postponed the decision to buy, not knowing how the future would pan out in terms of holding on to jobs, securing increments, securing bonuses, and in many cases even retaining the same salary as last year. Being laid-off was a big worry as well.
In rural markets, growth remained and spending remained at the level it was.
Brands learnt many things from this down-turn. The top 10 learnings from my perspective:
1. It is important to have a strong rural foot-print in the country. It is important not to depend too heavily on the urban sales skew. Rural-sales is a good hedge when the chips are down in urban.
2. Re-define value. Don't get carried away by value that is defined by slick advertising and even slicker retail appeal. Get to the basics and focus on basic brand appeal. Brand appeal needs to go in sync with value-pricing.
3. Reduce obscene margins that are typically made and taken for granted in categories. Brands must not distance themselves from consumers by building walls of unfair prices. Mass consumer appeal is important. Don't sacrifice width of appeal and use for depth of margins.
4. Being in contact with consumers is important. Marketers need to get off the pedestal of television advertising and walk into markets and feel the alien sweat of the sadly alien consumer.
5. Demand-generation is a task that cannot be forgotten and taken for granted. Even older categories of consumer goods and services need to indulge in demand creation games at the ground level. Demand generation is always fashionable.
6. Dependence on Above the line (ATL) needs to be questioned. There is plenty to be done Below the line (BTL) if markets are to be made.
7. God is in the details of branding. Mass branding does not necessarily work. The answer lies in 1:1 branding formats.
8. Small retail cannot be ignored. It needs to be nurtured if brands have to succeed in India.
9. The point-of-purchase is a point of advertising. A point of branding. A point of selling. A point of consumer activation. A point of market-research. Indeed it is the point of everything!
10. Intermediation in the selling and marketing process needs to be re-visited. Distributors do not do enough in the market. One needs to get into the act as a company on its own as well to stay in touch. To stay relevant, original and innovative. Outsourcing of distribution has gone a bit too far.
Q: Is Digital marketing the next new thing really? Why?
-Sampath KK, Chennai
A: Sampath, I do believe digital is next. Digital is really broad-based. It manifests itself through every electronic medium there is to use. It is all about a nation morphing to be a nation of screen-besotted individuals. And the biggest of them is the smallest screen of them all: the mobile phone.
Even as I write this reply, we have a total telecom connectivity of 490 million phones. Growth per month stands at an average of 14 million phones. This is a dramatic shift in medium-access.
The mobile phone is going to be the biggest digital device there is ever to be. It is ubiquitous in every hand. In some hands there are two. It is on 24 X 7. It is kept closest to the heart and it is a device around which a lot of lives revolve.
Add to this digital device of ubiquity, every screen there is. The laptop, the desktop, the Outdoor LCDs and more. Digital is personal, very intrusive and is visual oriented in its messaging possibility. This is big stuff. A revolution to watch out for.
Q: How do brands work in rural markets? What is the brand rationale at play?
-Shalini Patra, Bhubaneswar
A: Shalini, rural folk are very brand conscious. Rural folk trust brands as friends. Most purchases in their purchase basket tend to be un-branded. But when they actually buy brands, they buy with gusto. The brand is seen as a reliable mate. An entity that promises and delivers. The higher price is considered a safety net that assures longevity and performance.
Brands are trusted friends. Brands in many ways are a guarantee of quality.
Rural folk do not necessarily have "limited " monies in their hands. Rural folk are really folk with a higher disposal income portion in whatever they have in hand. Rural incomes, largely, are crop incomes. These crop incomes are tax free.
A person in Urban India in the salaried class could fork out as much as Rs.22 out of a Rs. 100 income as tax. The rural person has this additional Rs.22 in hand that moves into disposable income. Brands are therefore entities that attract the interest of rural folk.
Harish Bijoor is a business strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.
Email: harishbijoor@hotmail.com
By Harish Bijoor
Q: India is just going through an economic down-turn. What are the learnings from this? How do we educate ourselves from this experience?
-Pallav Gopal, Mumbai.
A: Pallav, the economic downturn is really a slow-down. A correction in the earning, stocking, spending and celebrating mindset of the Indian consumer at large.
While at the macro level, our GDP growth rates were at a more sobered down 5.3% overall, this signified a down-fall from the gung-ho years of successive 8.3% growth.
One fine point on this macro number is the fact that rural markets grew faster than urban markets. In the case of several categories such as auto, durables and cosmetic care items, urban markets saw a de-growth at large and rural markets showed growth. At the end of the day, when we aggregate volumes from both, there was some semblance of small growth overall.
In real terms, even though there has been no real recession in macro terms in the country as a whole, in urban markets there has been a real recession, which I call a cautionary recession. This simply means that people had money in hand, but postponed the decision to buy, not knowing how the future would pan out in terms of holding on to jobs, securing increments, securing bonuses, and in many cases even retaining the same salary as last year. Being laid-off was a big worry as well.
In rural markets, growth remained and spending remained at the level it was.
Brands learnt many things from this down-turn. The top 10 learnings from my perspective:
1. It is important to have a strong rural foot-print in the country. It is important not to depend too heavily on the urban sales skew. Rural-sales is a good hedge when the chips are down in urban.
2. Re-define value. Don't get carried away by value that is defined by slick advertising and even slicker retail appeal. Get to the basics and focus on basic brand appeal. Brand appeal needs to go in sync with value-pricing.
3. Reduce obscene margins that are typically made and taken for granted in categories. Brands must not distance themselves from consumers by building walls of unfair prices. Mass consumer appeal is important. Don't sacrifice width of appeal and use for depth of margins.
4. Being in contact with consumers is important. Marketers need to get off the pedestal of television advertising and walk into markets and feel the alien sweat of the sadly alien consumer.
5. Demand-generation is a task that cannot be forgotten and taken for granted. Even older categories of consumer goods and services need to indulge in demand creation games at the ground level. Demand generation is always fashionable.
6. Dependence on Above the line (ATL) needs to be questioned. There is plenty to be done Below the line (BTL) if markets are to be made.
7. God is in the details of branding. Mass branding does not necessarily work. The answer lies in 1:1 branding formats.
8. Small retail cannot be ignored. It needs to be nurtured if brands have to succeed in India.
9. The point-of-purchase is a point of advertising. A point of branding. A point of selling. A point of consumer activation. A point of market-research. Indeed it is the point of everything!
10. Intermediation in the selling and marketing process needs to be re-visited. Distributors do not do enough in the market. One needs to get into the act as a company on its own as well to stay in touch. To stay relevant, original and innovative. Outsourcing of distribution has gone a bit too far.
Q: Is Digital marketing the next new thing really? Why?
-Sampath KK, Chennai
A: Sampath, I do believe digital is next. Digital is really broad-based. It manifests itself through every electronic medium there is to use. It is all about a nation morphing to be a nation of screen-besotted individuals. And the biggest of them is the smallest screen of them all: the mobile phone.
Even as I write this reply, we have a total telecom connectivity of 490 million phones. Growth per month stands at an average of 14 million phones. This is a dramatic shift in medium-access.
The mobile phone is going to be the biggest digital device there is ever to be. It is ubiquitous in every hand. In some hands there are two. It is on 24 X 7. It is kept closest to the heart and it is a device around which a lot of lives revolve.
Add to this digital device of ubiquity, every screen there is. The laptop, the desktop, the Outdoor LCDs and more. Digital is personal, very intrusive and is visual oriented in its messaging possibility. This is big stuff. A revolution to watch out for.
Q: How do brands work in rural markets? What is the brand rationale at play?
-Shalini Patra, Bhubaneswar
A: Shalini, rural folk are very brand conscious. Rural folk trust brands as friends. Most purchases in their purchase basket tend to be un-branded. But when they actually buy brands, they buy with gusto. The brand is seen as a reliable mate. An entity that promises and delivers. The higher price is considered a safety net that assures longevity and performance.
Brands are trusted friends. Brands in many ways are a guarantee of quality.
Rural folk do not necessarily have "limited " monies in their hands. Rural folk are really folk with a higher disposal income portion in whatever they have in hand. Rural incomes, largely, are crop incomes. These crop incomes are tax free.
A person in Urban India in the salaried class could fork out as much as Rs.22 out of a Rs. 100 income as tax. The rural person has this additional Rs.22 in hand that moves into disposable income. Brands are therefore entities that attract the interest of rural folk.
Harish Bijoor is a business strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.
Email: harishbijoor@hotmail.com
Labels: Digital Marketing, Recession, Rural brands
