Your brand has much to gain by turning into a pincushion for some of your consumers’ troubles
Skyrocketing inflation and a plunging Sensex, increasing interest rates and decreasing political stability—all this in just a few months. Unbridled optimism to growing pessimism in about ninety days.
That is the speed with which things can change in the closely linked global economies of today. But what does it mean for the ordinary person? What can brands do during such uncertain times for the “man on the street”?
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Rupin Jayal |
The first answer that comes to mind is the obvious one—be beacons of continuity, stability and what brands were originally meant to be—a bulwark of trust. But that seems to bestow a relatively passive role to brands. In today’s highly competitive world, brands must be seen as active, energetic, continually evolving and creating excitement. This is even more true for a country like ours with a young population and “young” as a relatively free and liberalised market.
So then what is the role that brands can play?
Actually, the most effective role combines the essence of both the apparently opposing positions mentioned above. They need to represent core values that safeguard the interests of those who buy them, while being very active in showing that they are sensitive to the concerns and aspirations of those who choose them and those they seek to attract. This can range from an automobile brand providing discount coupons for fuel, to a media house seeking to address the issue of quality political leadership. Both address areas of deep concern for people, albeit at two different ends of the scale, and in doing so seek to create bonds that are deeper than those forged through transactions and glitzy advertising alone.
And it is not just about discounts and promotions or “offers”. While these can be construed as addressing a key concern, of rising prices (!), they usually are inducements to encourage people to pre-pone purchases or to buy one brand instead of another and imply an almost purely transactional relationship. This is perfectly understandable given the pressures of a highly competitive marketplace and with people increasingly seeking better deals aggressively. However, such promotions tend to merely bribe rather than actually befriend the people they are seeking to attract.
Many companies also have programs that seek to make a meaningful contribution to the society. This “noble cause” based corporate social responsibility is very important, because it allows a larger group of people the benefits of a growing economy. However, this is not the area that is being addressed in this article either.
A sensitive brand still seeks to encourage people to choose it. The brand is not a social cause. The fuel for the brand’s salience continues to be interactions and transactions with people. However, it is the content of these transactions that illustrate the imagination, dynamism and sensitivity of a brand.
The word “sensitivity” means that the brand has a finger on the pulse of the “people”, rather than treating them merely as “consumers”. It recognises that people still have aspirations. It also recognises that people do not cut back just for the sake of it. People in a booming economy, the future promise of which has been widely written about in the most glowing terms, want to continue to enjoy its fruits. So a slowdown is like a hangover after a really great party. And most people do not stop partying just because they tend to suffer from hangovers thereafter. How can brands demonstrate sensitivity during this period of hangover after the great low interest, inflation and high Sensex party of just a few months ago?
What if a brand took on the risk it expects its customers to take? For example in real estate, supposing a brand guaranteed a basic value to the property come what may? A chorus of protest would probably arise quite understandably, because how can anyone predict how much the real estate market will fluctuate? But those kinds of calculations are made every time any real estate brand decides to start a project. So why not use that expertise on behalf of its customers? How about a retail brand that is willing to manage a household’s monthly grocery portfolio in such a way so as to minimise the impact of inflation. Just like managing a financial portfolio it juggles between an “acceptable” basket of brands in various key categories to maximise the buying power of the household’s rupee.
Recently a bank brought out a financial product that enabled investors to gain during this roller coaster period for the Sensex. So whether the Sensex climbed or crashed (within limits) investors would actually gain. The only catch was that only people with fairly sizable financial resources could invest. But could such an instrument be made available to people with more modest financial resources—people who would probably benefit in real terms even more?
How about a medical insurance brand that celebrates “wellness anniversaries”—a free check up at a reputed hospital if the insured individual has a year of good health? This would signal that the brand wished to protect and nurture the good health of its customers and would encourage people to get regular checkups done. Also it would probably graduate from being a “problem solver” brand to a healthful brand—quite an evolution for brands that are usually purchased for defensive, rather than affirmative, reasons.
The essence is to engage people with your brand, but to do so by showing an understanding of their circumstances and the environment around them and thus make a connection that goes beyond just a transaction. This is an extension of “enlightened self-interest” for individuals—“enlightened promotion” for brands. There have been a few excellent examples of this, but brands largely tend to use promotions to “sell” rather than engage.
Perhaps one of the most effective examples of this was when Pepsi converted a standard under the crown cap promotion into “Mera number kab ayega”. It was 2000-01 and India’s “economic miracle” was really beginning to gather momentum. Opportunities were rapidly emerging across a diversity of new industries. Youth aspirations were burgeoning. However, for many, while the destination of their aspiration was clear, the pathway to it was shrouded in uncertainty. Was their education adequate, how could they meet the right people and find the right breaks, how could they differentiate between career pathways and dead-ends? And the most powerfully engaging question truly was “When will my turn come?” So what could have been just another fun and evanescent under the crown promotion, forged a far deeper and more engaging connect with its core audience. The brand was sensitive to its audience’s deeper, more compelling concerns and vividly demonstrated the fact that it understood and thereby strengthened its position as an icon brand for India’s youth.
Today with the environment becoming even more uncertain, and yet aspirations continuing to grow with every success story, with people juggling between apprehension and ambition, brands have a potentially crucial role to play. Here are some suggestions on how you could begin to make your brand more sensitive and reap the ensuing benefits:
- Understand the role the category that your brand operates in, plays in the lives of people for whom it is relevant, both in practical terms as well as in deeper emotional terms as well (ref “What you “sell” may not be what they “buy”” Dare December 2007).
- List the key relevant concerns that your brand’s audience might be facing today—try and go deeper than just (e.g.) “Rising prices”.
- Generate a list of enlightened promotion ideas that could address these concerns that go beyond transactional “bribery” such as discounts and freebies. Just because they are being buffeted by rising prices does not mean that they want to be made to feel “cheap”. Just because they are being buffeted by rising prices does not mean that they have stopped appreciating value over just price.
- Try and create a property rather than just a promotion. This can only happen if you seek to connect with the people you want to appeal to at a deeper level. At a level that says that this is a brand that really understands my needs and concerns and isn’t just trying to make a sale.
- Invest in the communication package with the same intensity and resources as you would for so-called “brand communication.” Give it the respect it deserves, because if done effectively it will probably say more about your brand and engage more deeply with the people you want to connect with, than most brand communication is ever able to do. Most importantly, it will make tangible the core value of your brand, enabling people to actually experience it rather than just be passive observers of it.
Sensitive brands that undertake enlightened promotions will occupy a far more meaningful place in people’s lives rather than just in their shopping baskets. And when the good times return they will be the brands that people will have convictions about, that they will prefer and ultimately consider worth paying more for.
The author is Director-Strategic Planning at M&C Saatchi.
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written by Gucci outlet, July 03, 2010
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