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Wanted: CEOs from India

: Is presenting the brand just about an identity and how the identity is communicated? In his book Experiential Marketing, the author Bernd Schmitt explains the need for all brands, FMCG, consumer durables and service, to envelope the consumer. With increasing trends towards commoditisation, nanosecond reverse engineering, brands have to derive ways of connecting with consumers in many different ways.

Take one of the oldest success stories in India, that of Usha Sewing Machines. In order to get more and more Indian housewives to learn the art of sewing and stitching, this company went about creating a chain of Usha Sewing Schools. The ladies learnt how to use the sewing machine, went out, and bought one to do simple household sewing and stitching.

The story goes that when Hindustan Lever was launching the Dalda brand of vegetable shortening, or vanaspati, they hired a number of vans to do demonstration cooking at busy market areas all over India. Indian housewives were convinced to taste the delicious puris and bhajiyas cooked in Hindustan Lever’s Dalda. This doing-in-front-of-your-eyes way of selling, slowly got the vanaspati habit into Indian kitchen.

Yet another example was the way Johnson & Johnson got the sanitary napkin habit into Indian homes. The task was done not through mass media advertising alone. And just imagine how could they have shown the use of a sanitary napkin on television (products of this nature are not permitted to be advertised on TV in many countries; Doordarshan, the Government owned TV channel, had at one time restricted TV advertising of sanitary napkins to the post 9 pm slot). The company hired thousands of women—sales promoters—to go door to door, explaining the product in the living rooms of the consumers’ houses. They showed them the product, gave samples, and a discount coupon to be redeemed at the local chemist outlet. The sales promotion call had to be made when the woman was alone at home, a window of 11 am to 3 pm. But this method of missionary selling got the product category going even in conservative Indian households, where women during their monthly periods are expected to stay out of the home.

The above three examples of experiential marketing were efforts undertaken by pioneering companies to sell a new product, a new service. Such efforts will be called for to introduce new ideas, like hair colours or DVDs. The popularity of home PCs were driven by growth in cyber cafes. Home hair colouring has been driven by beauty parlour hair colouring, and so on. But do established, old products and brands need experiential branding efforts? Do such efforts have a measurable return on investment?

Among the most successful such effort in Europe have been the Nestle Nursing Centres. The European food major, Nestle, has a big stake in infant nutrition. They have sponsored the Nestle Nursing Centres all over France’s arterial highways. These centres provide basic, clean facilities for mothers to take care of their infants, to change their nappies, feed them, etc. What world be the measurable ROI for such an effort? What would be the qualitative pay back of these centres? What thoughts should cross through the mothers (some not using Nestle products) when they use these centres?

Another way of creating an experiential branding appeal is through building user groups. One of the most successful such efforts is the HOG or Harley’s Owner’s Group, all owners of Harley Davidson motor cycles. HOG which had a rather modest start, with only a dozen owners attending the first HOG meet is today a roaring success. Thousands of Harley owners drive hundreds of miles to attend the HOG Meets. In India, Tata Motors has meticulously built the Indica Club consisting of Indica owners. They are invited for special musical programmes, film shows, etc. Just imagine Bangalore’s Palace Grounds or Mumbai’s NSE parking lot filled with a thousand Indicas. What thoughts would go through an Indica owner’s mind? How proud would they feel? How strong would their conviction be that they drive the best car money can buy?

Brand service is an internal commitment that the company makes that gets manifested as an external service. Disney stands for fun, family entertainment. This is an internal commitment. The outside world sees Disney as fun. Brand service has many critical differences across products and services. Some brands, like service brands, are nothing but service.

Jet Airways, Taj Hotels, Reliance India mobile are all services. The company cannot succeed with just the best technology or the best infrastructure, unless the service, provided by their employees are of a particular standard. Consumer durable brands like Indica, LG, Whirlpool, LML need service to ensure that their customers get all their problems handled with a phone call. Here, the service is about pre-sales, sales, and post-sales service.

Consumer product brands like Amul, Lux, Iodex do not provide service assurance to their consumers, except for an offer of handling complaints. Hence these brands have no other touch point except when they are picked up and taken home. These brands can use experiential marketing to create a number of new touch points for their consumers. A few brands are looking at and utilising emerging opportunities in the new consumerist Indian marketplace.

Act II popcorn from Agro-tech foods has its presence in many leading cinema halls in the south. The Act II branded popcorn machine makes fresh popcorn for film buffs. an opportunity to bond with thousands of consumers everyday, outside home. Hindustan Lever is pushing ahead with its vending machines dispensing Taj Mahal Tea, Bru Coffee, and now Knorr Soups. Placed at strategic locations like shopping malls, airports, railway stations, the brands bond with consumers when they are on the move.

The Malayala manorama group has set up vending machines to dispense their English magazine The Week and other publications at departure lounges in Indian airports. The brand gets an exclusive display opportunity and through association with air travel and the brand image gets an upward push.

There are many such opportunities for consumer product brands to connect with their consumers. Given the high cost of vending machines, chances are that each of these operations are justified not on sales return basis but on an ‘image boost’ basis. In addition to giving a consumer a brand experience in high traffic locations, brands can attempt to impart education and information by going through the specialist route.

Lakme has rolled out a series of ‘Lakme’ branded beauty parlours which offer a high level of service.

Ponds created a touch screen kiosk set up at departmental store beauty sections. These help consumers choose the kind of make up that best suits their skin colour, bone structure, and facial features.

Dental care brands like Colgate and Pepsodent sponsor dental check-ups in schools across the country. They also have an elaborate programme in place to communicate to dentists and are often seen displayed in dentist’s waiting chambers.

Brand building communication has to look beyond just brand communication and advertising to see how consumers can be given a ‘brand experience’. An Act II consumer, after seeing a block buster movie munching through a pack of Act II popcorn is going to carry that habit whenever he sees a blockbuster movie on his TV!

—Reprinted with permission from Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company

Book: Building Brand Value

Author: MG Parameswaran