ITV

Tag: Brand Summit 2005

  • Brand Darwinism in a changing landscape: Brand Summit 2005

    CHENNAI: Day one of the third edition of the Brand Summit spearheaded by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), kick started today in Chennai at the Taj Coromandel addressing brands which go beyond business platforms and have become symbols of our times.
     
     
    The theme of the convention focuse around the fact that, with a plethora of products filling the markets, addressing the consumer has become all that more challenging. The Summit aims at analyzing learnings on enhancing the consumer connect from a communication viewpoint, as well as providing a more integrated perspective of the industry. There seem to be a consensus about the fact that the environment is fast changing and the consumer is not averse to this change. Henceforth, redefining the whole concept of brand building has become paramount.

    Experts at the Summit believe that the focus of the brands across the categories has to be on understanding these far reaching changes which incorporates the transforming perspectives of the new age consumer. Vivaldi partners CEO Dr Erich Joachimsthalar pointed out that now its no more dealing with a ‘brand image’ but rather its more to do with ‘brand identity’, not an individual brand but the entire portfolio, not just advertising but brand building. He underlined his observation while citing the example that Nike’s best kept secret was that they became a billion dollar brand without spending a dollar on advertising. Talking about Harley Davidson Joachimsthalar said that although not so strong on quality, the bike built its brand on the attitude and personality it produced for itself.

     
     
    Joachimsthalar also remarked that India today commands the second largest number of brands in the world. However, non branded products contribute a majority of the volume sales and there seems to be a never ending battle between the multinationals and their domestic counterparts.
    He questioned that how a brand can fit into a consumer’s life and become relevant? The fight has to move beyond just the attribute fight but has to be focussed on gaining a larger share of the consumers day to day life.

    In this context Joachimsthalar proposed three key points:

    1) Understanding the customers in context
    2) Interesecting customers in their day to day activities
    3) Developing strategies to capture more share in the TG’s life

     
     
    Talking about the social economic changes, John Hariss director, London School of Economics took a critical stance of the blurring of geographies. He said that although globalization provided greater inter-connectivity between markets, it has also brought out to the surface the awareness and heightened the local identity. Globalisation, he stated, also brings with it the eruption of ethnic political conflict due to various factor. An instance Hariss cited was of the job cuts due to restructuring of different MNC’s and the angst within people driving them towards the rightist political parties. He candidly maintained that synergy between productive employment, intensive growth with a balanced approach towards globalization is where the current challenge lies.

    Phiroz Vandrewala, executive vice president, Tata Consultancy Services stressed on technology and its ability to connect. ” The ability to connect with a consumer is unsustainable without technology,” he said. Retorting to Hariss’s comments Vandrewala said, “Yesterdays actors of globalization today adorn the masks of victims.” Agreeing to the fact that today’s challenges are tough, Vandrewala stressed on the fact that companies need to get back into the proactive mode instead of being reactive and responsive to competition.

    Moving on to the changing consumer, which seems to be the favorite subject at most seminars these days, McCann president Santosh Desai talked about the underlying changes that have actually contributed in the making of the new age consumer. The new age consumer looks at life as a product and not a condition. Consumers today are looking at instant gratification. There is an immense need to be accepted at the global scale. Yet there is an equal stress on the need to sustain individual and ethnic identities. Money is being looked as a source of energy and not a static concept.

    Strategic management consultant Rama Bijapurkar stressed on how the consumer has become his or her fickle self. She pointed out that the fickle behaviour of the consumer has been a result of marketers themselves. Loyalty shifts take place as value equations change and value equations change all the time due to over increasing entrants and pressures. The point Bijapurkar impressed upon was to identify who is making the consumer fickle?

    Moving onto building enduring brands, Bijarpurkar remarked about companies not exploring all sources of advantage creation leading to a delivery with communication gaps. This she said leads a consumer to exerscise a brand shift.

    Josy Paul head RMG David talked about insights in action and pondered that it was all about observation and being an eye witness to life. Madhukar Sabnavis, country manager planning O&M further commented on insight building by citing the Cadbury example. The insight being ‘there is a child in each one of us’. Cadbury is a childhood one never grows out of. He said using the same insight, different cuts have been used to drive home the same message. ” Zoom in, Zoom out,” he said of the consumers psyche.

    The panel discussion saw ICICI’s Lalita Gupte, joint managing director talk about ICICI and its success story on being a solid brand in the retail market. Hi Design’s president Dalip Kapur talked about how a niche product like Hi Design managed to cut geographical barriers by solely relying on the exclusiveness and the quality of the product.

    A glittering awards ceremony ‘The Brand Finale’ concluded the first day of the third CII Brand Summit. Nokia was announced as the CII Brand of the Year. Other finalist were Titan, Eveready, Dabur, Indane, Fair & Lovely, Lux, Ponds and Rin.

  • Apply to change; evolve to grow: Brand Summit 2005

    CHENNAI: The second day at the brand summit infused a lot of inspirational thought, discussion and provocation with speakers across genres addressing the age old yet absolutely paramount subject of branding in the new era and expectation setting with the target group.
    A day of branding all the way. From the branding of a state to hardware, to beauty products to rural branding to the more macro ‘Brand India’ the summit covered it all.

     
     
    Kick started by Bharat Bhushan principal secretary – tourism, Government of Kerala, the speaker threw light upon enhancing customer connect for profitable business solutions. Talking specifically about the hospitality services category, brands adopt an even more complex avatar in making that connect and creating an enduring bond with the consumer. Experiential marketing he said combined the desire for favourable experiences with the believability of first hand knowledge.
    Referring to Kerala as ‘Gods own country’ Bhushan discussed how the campaign for promoting Kerala as a tourism destination worked wonders in terms of actual results and attributed it to experiential marketing and how it succeeded in establishing a connect with the consumer. “What matters most is how an experience shapes a consumer’s perception of the brand. The brands that succeed on a long-term basis are those able to form strong, differentiating emotional bonds with consumers. Without this bond, a brand’s relevance and connectivity with a consumer is not sustainable.” Kerala if looked at closely was an endeavour to realise the customer experience at every ‘touch point’ and more importantly to create touch points that would ensure sampling the experience.

     
     
    Changing gears, from branding Kerala, the focus moved to consultative selling where Parag Samarth, country manager, Industrial and Distribution Sector, IBM India discussed this evolving concept and how it has helped establish the all important connect with its consumers. Some important points in note were establishing common goals across the company, creating customer value in every interaction, building and leveraging team synergy and thereby improving the win rate whilst shortening the sales cycle.
    The IBM Consultative selling focused on a need based concept where the process puts the customers first, understanding his needs and there on moving to the execution of sales opportunities through customer interactions. The underlying principle being the ability to add value to the customer at every step of the selling process. His closing words being, ” Let’s not think of marketing as a manipulation, but as a process that delivers solutions and not products.”

    Moving on to a more macro topic, ‘Brand India’, the session was hosted by none other than Jairam Ramesh, the economist who defined India in five points:

    1) Multilayered
    2) Evolving
    3) Aggregate brand
    4) Brand in transition
    5) Unique psychology

     
     
    Describing India as an onion he said those marketers who have not understood the fact that India is multilayered have quickly come to grief. He blatantly said that ‘Brand India’ was impossibility and the focus must be on building sub brands and India be a cafeteria of brands. Ramesh explained, “Lets not fall into the same trap as the ‘India Shining’ campaign fell into,” taking a dig at the BJP led campaign. “We are diversity in unity and this fact must be celebrated.”
    Are consumers asking for too much?

    The general consensus on this one was that consumers should be expecting the moon and if they are not then one has a problem. Increased levels of awareness has catalyzed the whole process of consumer expectations. Moving away from FMCG categories Ajit Mantagani president – denim division, Raymond India said, “In our line of business, we have to provoke the consumer to ask for the moon thereby increasing the value associated with our products. Given the existing environment, where a customer has more choice, other products to choose from, it became imperative for companies to develop trust and connect for them to succeed.”

    He pointed out that defining one’s primary consumer was itself a strategic issue, as non FMCG categories do not deal with the end user directly and hence a lot of middlemen also become one’s customers.

    Next was Lowe’s executive creative director R Balakrishnan, who in very simple words said gaining an insight into a customer is nothing but looking inside one’s self. Citing examples of the Balbir Pasha campaign to Vim Bar to Saint Gobain, Balakrishnan said the moment marketers stopped borrowing from consumers and started giving, that’s when we will become a cutting edge community.

    Coming to making a rural connect, Rajesh Gupta VP DCM Sriram said how it was imperative to first have knowledge of the domain. Marker research done by a third party could provide with data but not the desired connect. Most rural consumers may abstain from telling you what they want, so the trick is to sense the needs and translate them into sales. Interpretation being critical.

    Last mile branding in a retail model was covered by Pankaj Mehra, national sales director Loreal. The ultimate expectation has to do with an overall, more holistic assessment of what a brand delivers. This means that brands are expected to become more responsible for what they stand for in terms of their identities and what they provide beyond just the product. Since the way people define value changes with the times, consumers today are more in tune with the overall experience a brand provides versus what a product offers in terms of its attributes and functional benefits. While there are many companies that have already addressed a broader experience with their brands and products, marketers need to look closer at how their brand can enhance the overall experience that consumers will encounter before, during and after consumption of the end product.

    The closing session highlighted the new age consumer and where they were headed. Delivered by Venkat Ramaswamy, professor of marketing at the University of Michigan, focused on the “next” practices of value creation. “Everybody is sensing a very basic and fundamental shift in business,” said Ramaswamy. With increased awareness, consumers today are highly networked with the Internet, mobile phones and the rise of consumer to consumer communication. He reiterated that it was time companies wake up and understand that they can no longer create value for the customer, but need to create value with the customer. Hence there has to be a constant endeavour towards co-creation.

    Overall the day provided insight, raised relevant concerns: some age-old, some emerging one to ensure perspective and progress.

    The discourse delivered some interesting take home value!