Ever wondered how exactly Cause Marketing works? It always intrigued me and sometimes interested me. Well ok, it does speak about a brand rallying behind an apparently noble cause, about an ostentatious association with some non profit/not for profit/not so non profit organizations to give them a better muscle to drive their endeavors etc. But if I were to apply some rational analysis to dissect how it makes business sense, the over all picture never always looked robust to me. It looked short lived and more as a tactic rather than as a long term association with a cause that translated to long term business results. Yes, I do know that there are certain brands that are known for their long term commitment and support to some noble causes. But again, as I said, it eludes me as to how they translate to a sustainable competitive advantage to the brands in the long term.

But now I guess I am beginning to connect the dots. I agree what I have discovered might not hold good in all cases. But in most cases, it does speak of a sound business case (if executed well). I agree that it is not a radically new thing that I am speaking about here. In fact it could just be a formalized way of  approaching a branding challenge that we have known intuitively all along. Let me explain.

Let’s speak about the Super Premium ice – cream category.  This is a category where people are literally flooded with options – Ben & Jerry’s, Haagen-Dazs, Sheer Bliss, Dreamery, Godiva, Pink Berry, Marble Slab Creamery, Dippin’ Dots and the list goes on. For a brand that is well entrenched and wants to gain share from competition, what does it need to do? Well, that’s what Haagen-Daz’s faced towards late 2007. So what did it do and why did it do?

What did it do?

Simple. It invented a cause. Yes! it almost did. Ever heard about Haagen-Daz’s Vanilla Honey Bee flavor? Well, it’s a fancy name for a flavor that has some droppings of honey on it. Yeah, but why that name? This was a new flavor launched in February 2008, that was created expressly to support actions to arrest and reverse the sudden decline of the honeybee population, which, because of pollination for flowering plants, is a direct risk to the production of all food brands. (Source: Bob Gilbreath).

The deal is simple. It donated a portion of its sales from all honey flavored ice creams to a research. So, it developed a website that increased the awareness about the issue in a way that gave exposure to the brand – and thereby brought forth a very humane element out of a super premium ice cream brand. Besides many other executions to communicate its affiliation to this cause, it came up with a first of its kind magazine ad – a plantable magazine insert. That’s right – an ad that can be planted! Check this out: (source of image)

Results

• Haagen-Dazs fulfilled its full-year PR goal of 125 million media impressions in just the first two weeks!
• Brand advocacy for Haagen-Dazs among consumers reached 69 % (the highest among 19 brands tracked)
• Unaided brand awareness grew from 29 to 36 %
• And over all sales increased by 16 % for the brand in 2008

(Source of results: Bob Gilbreath)

The first 3 outcomes are understandable and expected, given the way in which it went about making some noise worthy sound bytes in the media space – metrics like brand advocacy, unaided brand awareness for a period of time can be driven by pulling the right emotional triggers in the consumers’ minds. But sales? How can it really impact sales? I mean businesses and brands do not sail on the crest and troughs of some short lived whims and emotions of the consumers right? That could be suicidal. One moment you can see a spike in all brand metrics and the other you are no where.

So the question is – How exactly did Haagen-Dazs’s cause marketing strategy work in order to result in an over all sales increase of 16% for the brand and a commensurate gain of share in 2008?

It was literally a ‘Eureka’ moment for me when I could connect the dots (all by myself) and arrive at the right way of articulating it. I learnt many things on the way. Would share my learnings with you – very soon. In the meanwhile, any thoughts how it has resulted in actually increasing its sales by 16%? (That too in a category like Super Premium ice-creams, in which consumers have a very strong inertia to switch).

Do post your comments. Let’s explore.

Let’s speak about getting an advantage in the mating game with stunning beauties. Let’s speak about having some of the hottest babes on our bikes. Let’s speak about your wildest fantasies coming true. Now before you start getting ideas let me clarify that we are talking about Deodorants and their Brand Positioning in India.

For an average Indian consumer, a deo – no matter which brand, has unfortunately come to signify just one thing – an imagery of a man’s wildest dreams coming true (except may be a very few brands). This is because this unique and original positioning that was tried and tested and owned by a very popular brand has been twisted and tamed by almost every new kid on the block. This has resulted in this iconic positioning becoming a mere symbolism being tried to be spoon fed to you (instead of getting it evoked in you) by literally every other deo brand in the market place for men. Some of the me too brands that have adopted the same positioning in India: Denver, Setwet, Wildstone, White Ice and still counting.

That’s when brand differentiation fades away with people ceasing to ascribe superiority to any particular brand over the others. No brand would then be capable of charging a price premium – as a consumer’s basis for making a choice becomes price and perceived superiority of one fragrance over the other which are all evident and functional attributes. This topples the very purpose of a brand over it’s head. Why? Because the grounds of differentiation are not based on any belief, expectation, story, imagery, perception of any intangible attributes or relationship (with the brand and even oneself).

That is when you are conversing with the consumer NOT as a brand but as a product – stripped off all its personality and character that are supposed to help you charge a premium in the market place. In spite of that, we see the very same brands doing the very same thing, perpetuating the inevitability of the same vicious circle. Prices go down, margins get squeezed thereby, profits get thinned and subsequent investments on branding get cut slowly but steadily. That’s when the brands start to get milked instead of being developed.

For the consumer, the category smacks of sameness with virtually every brand shouting “me-too” at him. Choosing a brand of deo for oneself – an activity that used to be a little sensuous and a little ostentatious experience has now been reduced to an experience of choosing a piece of scented candle in IKEA. With novelty robbed off and expectations blunted due to an infinite clutter in the ad space, any possible excitement about the category does down. They stick to using the same brands that they have been using and become unwilling to even try another brand. Because, for them every other respectable brand is a dumbed down version of the very same promise in a twisted bottle.

We therefore see that effectively it is a lose-lose situation for everyone in the transaction. Now the question is, as a brand that is serious about its intentions, what can we do to break this vicious circle of ‘commoditising’ the entire category?

I shall post my ideas soon. Feel free to share your view and comments. However, I somehow love this ad and can’t resist posting it here:

Disclaimer: I have no business interests in marketing of deodorants. The ideas expressed are all mine and the post is merely for my ideation purposes.

For those who missed the first part regarding the Best Marketing Touch Points in India, please read here. The question is – in a country like India where the penetration level of Fabric Conditioners is almost insignificant, how do we leverage some of the most suitable touch points so as to interact with the consumers in a meaningful way and thereby drive trial (which is the first requirement if we were to start building a sizable market).

Ok now let’s start from the basics of Segmentation and Targeting for a typical Fabric Conditioner Brand. For a category like Fabric Conditioners that serves a purpose that is not deemed an exact necessity for most of the Indian Population, segmenting the market in terms of affordability and perceived relevance of such a product becomes imperative. Hence let’s use the SEC (Socio Economic Classification) segmentation for the sake of simplicity.

Now, given the price range of the Fabric Conditioner (which is greater than that of an equal quantity of a decent detergent) and its perceived need, we would obviously target the class of consumers who fall under SEC A1, A2 and B1. In very simplistic terms, these class of consumers belong to the Upper Middle Class and the Upper Class of the Indian Market. Let’s see what are their common characteristics that are relevant to us.

There are a minimum of around 14-15 million households of this class in India.  They own washing machines and although washing clothes per se is not a very high involvement process for them, they value fabric care for the longevity of their clothes and linen (as this class of consumers invest on expensive and branded apparels and home linen). In most cases, the homemaker of the household is the decision maker while buying products of this category. While they travel by air, they also take to train and bus travel for short to medium haul destinations (in some cases they take to train travel for long haul destinations too). As they can afford and prefer hassle free travel, they take to AC Bus and AC Train travel whenever they travel by road and rail.

While some of those who travel by the AC class in trains are single travelers who travel on business, a significant chunk of the passengers are families on a vacation visiting their near and dear. For them travel becomes an ‘annual ritual’ and hence they willingly take the pain to travel for over 6-18 hrs on an average by train (any longer, I think chances are that they can prefer a flight over train). In a country like India where we have major festivals, marriages and events throughout the year, we find the AC Compartments of the trains filled to capacity throughout the year. And given this travel time, in most cases these passengers find themselves having a lot of time to kill and hence their span of attention can be quite longer than that when they are at home or work.

Now, hang on. I have just one more thing to bring into picture to build a complete case for one of the best touch points for our Fabric Conditioner. What is the inevitable thing that greets the passengers in an AC Compartment? Something that they make sure is in order as soon as they alight their compartments, something that they are genuinely bothered about, something that they interact with for a decent period of time throughout their journey. We are talking about the bedsheets and the napkin set (commonly called as the bedding set) that is wrapped in a brown piece of paper – neatly washed and pressed and given for the passenger’s use during the journey in a typical AC compartment of the Indian Railways.

During the journey, passengers use the ‘bedding set’ that he/she gets for various purposes – as a bed sheet over the berth, as a blanket for some warmth, as a curtain or may be even as a shawl for some. Their interaction with the set starts right from the stage when they open the paper wrapping in which the set is packed in to the time they leave. Before they open it, chances are that they even notice the printing over the paper wrapping (which normally is blank or in some cases, has the contact details of the ombudsman in case of any complaints over the hygiene of the ‘bedding set’). This is because of the greater attention span that they typically have during the course of the journey as stated above.

So now we have a touch point that works for us just the way we – as marketers of our Fabric Conditioner, want it to be:

• First thing is that this touch point is all about laundry – the bed sheets and the napkin have to be clean and neat. After all we are all about laundry
• Further, any visible improvement in terms of the softness and fragrance of this bedding set is bound to be noticed by the passenger – given the high interaction time with this set
• Things like a comfortable sleep, a cozy bed, a clean piece of napkin, a warm blanket, a fragrant pillow are all deeply appreciated by any Indian passenger – who is used to experiencing many types of inconveniences during his/her journey. Hence this touch point is bound to have a very high impact on our target consumers
• Added to that I would also assume that most of the passengers travelling by this class are educated and hence can read. This means that any message or piece of communication that is placed along with this set is bound to be read or at least noticed, given their very co-operative attention span during the course of the journey. (compare this with the efficacy of a typical magazine ad that we might otherwise use to reach them)
• For most Indians, any remarkable thing that happens during a journey doesn’t tend to be forgotten very soon

So you have everything in place in this touch point -to start with, we have exactly the kind of consumers we want to reach, interacting with our touch point, the setting is extremely relevant given the role that laundry plays here, it is a means with which a consumer is bound to interact with for long periods of time and it has the potential to create memorable interactions and experiences with the brand.

So how do we go about it? I would say that we have a very wide scope to harness this touch point. The following are some of the ideas that I could think of:

• As the most basic means, have your Ad on the wrapping of the bedding set. It is bound to be noticed – all the while they are used to tearing apart the brown paper wrapping to get their bedsheets out. Anything colorful and with a message is bound to attract attention
• In fact, have the bedsheets and the napkins treated with the fabric conditioner – and advertise the same as loudly as you can on the wrapping and pamphlets placed in the wrapping. That way your consumers can experience first hand, any the softness and the fragrance that your product can bring to fabrics with no risk or effort from their side. (Risks like Quality Assurance and Consistency are to be addressed for this. But this would be a very high impact means for reach)
• Have a pamphlet that clearly and attractively explains the benefits of using a fabric conditioner and obviously, say why you are the best. People are sometimes bored to death in journeys, they would almost get your message by heart (!)
• Don’t leave it at that. It’s not all. In fact this is just the starting point. Have a call-to-action mechanism in the form of a coupon or a free sample of a sachet of your conditioner. That is sure to drive trial to start with

Now compare the efficacy of this touch point with the conventional ones that we use to reach our target group for fabric conditioners. Instead of investing on expensive TVCs aired on National Channels with pan Indian reach with no certainty of appealing to the right group at the right time and right place and not to forget the costs of preview tests and the post view research for each of these Ads, doesn’t it make sense to invest in such a touch point?

As the first leg, how about starting with just the Rajadhanis? They connect the capital city Delhi with important destinations – most of them are metros, 1 tier or at least 2 tier cities. Let this be done say, for just a month. We presently have 18 pairs of Rajadhanis – running from 2 times a week to daily. Now count the number of unique journeys, the number of trains, the number of compartments, the number of seats. You get an idea of its incredible reach. And we are talking just one month!

Long Live Indian Railways.

Disclaimer: As I said in my previous post, I do not have any business interests in the marketing of fabric conditioners and these are just for my ideation purposes. This is free advice – use it or leave it. But as I always say – please feel free to criticize it 🙂

I shall fulfill my promise to continue the Fabric Conditioner story tomorrow. In fact even started writing my take on that. But accidentally I stumbled upon this very interesting piece. So, couldn’t resist to write on this for today. This is literally ‘flash.. flash’ for me.

I just realized that Domino’s has used a very bold strategy to create new news. And I should say – some very well planned and timely ‘news’ at that.

Ok, for those among you for whom this is news too, let me summarize it in the briefest way possible:

• Domino’s has acknowledged that there are consumers who feel that a piece of its Pizza is as crappy ‘as a cardboard’ (yes they did!)
• It has accepted the fact – went back to the kitchen (quite literally) and came up with a new Pizza
• And it has done all this through a video – starring real people at Domino’s and real customers

As a teaser check this out.

Before you read any further, see the complete video of 4:21 mins that shows how and why Domino’s has gone about what it calls as ‘The Pizza Turnaround’ here.

So what is all this fuss all about?

Every once in a while a brand needs to re-invent itself. It needs to create some news and excite its customers. So it tweaks one or more of it’s P’s in its marketing mix and does what is called a Brand Relaunch. Some of the recent examples of major brand relaunches are:

• Pepsi’s redesign of its logo and other design elements (interestingly there are more rants over this than raves. Read one such review here how this is branding lunacy to its max)
• The iconic Liril soap in India has been relaunched as ‘Liril 2000’ (read the story here)

So you have here – a very smart and well crafted ‘Ad’ (in fact what you see here is just a part of a bigger plan) that communicates a brand relaunch of Domino’s. Yes all these words are well chosen. And I shall explain each of that here.

For starters it is the 50th year of the brand Domino’s. Many brands normally make use of such occasions to create some news to gain some share of voice in the minds of it’s consumers. Some make a sexy ad campaign to announce their celebration and create some sound bytes in the noisy ad mad world out there. Some give away freebies. Some adopt the path of promotions. Some bring in some add-ons to the brand. If not anything some at least say a big ‘Thank You’ for all its customers and propagate some ‘United – we – stand’ kind of message. All these have become common place. Almost every lever and string of every ‘P’ of the marketing mix has been pulled for this. And such tactics no longer count (forget even being called as a strategy).

So Domino’s had to do something to announce their 50th year in a big way. It had to be strategic. And at the same time as good marketers they had to ensure the following:

• Drive relevance of their product
• Show that they have come even closer to their customers
• Prove that they are genuinely listening to even their strongest critics
• Speak how passionate they are about their product
• Show how seriously they take their Product that they sell to their customers and thereby build an interesting story around their Product

Now see the video again. You got it! This is a perfectly crafted Ad campaign that makes sure that they are bang on w.r.t each of the obvious objectives for a major Brand Relaunch. In fact the video that you have just seen is a campaign by the agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Now you can see that every word and gesture in the video has been very carefully scripted and shot with some drama and emotion packed in so as to create some excitement – something sensational and gain as much traction as possible with the target customers.

And wait, that’s not all. If you see the site carefully, you see icons that encourage you to mail, tweet and share this on face book. I would strongly recommend you to to click on these icons and see for yourself how they have built in a 360 degree kind of approach to Social Media Marketing to this Relaunch.

Now you can see all pieces falling into place – a major product over haul that has been sought to be communicated by a seemingly viral video with some drama and emotion, flanked by the instant social interactive means of e-mail, facebook and twitter. And not to forget blogs like this. [Disclaimer: I don’t have any business interests with Domino’s 🙂 ]

Now, lets see what is the worst that could happen as a result of this Brand Relaunch communicated in this way in each of the 3 scenarios:

• You were a fan of Domino’s: You would only like the brand more and chances are that you would actively propagate this ‘news’ to your friends
• You were indifferent to Domino’s: Chances are that the eternal sceptic in you sees its curiosity piqued. If you have to buy the story, you would first feel yourself pulled to the Domino’s Pizza the next time you have a Pizza so that you can evaluate their story first hand
• You  hate Domino’s: Chances are that you are unwilling to believe this story and you want to disprove everything. But for that you know you need to buy the pizza and then write the story off!

As a result of this, at least the short term goal of a pretty good spurt in sales is guaranteed. For a long term loyalty from its customers: obviously the product has to speak for itself.

What if the product is still bad? Then it would be a dud and would in fact backfire. Else, this shall be one very interesting way to relaunch your brand. A damn ballsy way to celebrate your 50th anniversary!

They say that Fabric Conditioners as a market is yet to take off in India. They say that the penetration for this category is very minuscule. Though I do not know the exact numbers for this, I know that this could be for real. The problem is trial – how do we drive greater levels of trial among consumers so that they can sample, test and see its utility over some period of time.

Now let’s not speak about the bottom of the pyramid in India. I understand that for them, having the means to wash clothes properly with even the most basic detergent is a luxury.  For them having a basic level of cleanliness in the clothes is in fact aspirational. With Fabric Conditioners we are looking at a segment which is far different and which is relatively very small in proportion. Even this segment of the consumers – most of whom own a washing machine, are happy with a clean load of clothes after a wash. And that’s about it. So what could be a good driver for trial?

Just to give you an intuitive idea, we are talking about the upper middle class and the uper class in India. Let’s say SEC A1,A2 and B1 (Socio Economic Class).  Washing clothes is naturally an unavoidable chore for them – mostly a low involvement, automated, time bound job unless the clothes are meant for a very special occassion or unless they are very expensive and delicate.

• In some cases, they are not even directly involved in the laundry process. Hence chances are that they really don’t care as long as their clothes come to their wardrobe clean and pressed. Hence they are almost deaf to ads or promotions about Fabric Conditioners or even Detergents.
• In the other cases, basic cleanliness is again what most of this class of consumers look for and that’s about it. So attributes like having the clothes fragrant and soft are not extremely relevant for them.

Now that means we really have a genuine problem. How do we increase the trial rate and possibly thereby the penetration for this category of products in a market like India? By cool Ads with cute kids and glamorous Moms? By offers and price reductions? Unlikely. I would say that it could be achieved by reaching out to the target group in a very relevant and an interesting way.

Clue: Think about some of the best touch points for a consumer with clean laundry – touch points where the consumer is assured to spend quite some time and with the greatest probability that she would even have the willingness to interact with your effort to reach her. Touch points that are extremely relevant and meaningful.

I have an idea and I shall post it tomorrow. Should you have any, feel free to post your ideas. And yeah needless to say, do mercilessly dissect and criticize my post tomorrow. See you soon!

In the meanwhile check out this interesting Print Ad for a South Korean brand of Fabric Conditioner called as Pigeon (Courtesy: Ads of the world)

Disclaimer: I don’t have any business interests whatsoever in the marketing of fabric conditioners. These are just my own views for my own ideation.

Airtel – 3 Idiots: The Co-branding Potential

We know that Airtel has done some in-movie branding stuff in 3 idiots. Now as I was seeing this movie for the 2nd time, a crazy thought occurred to me. Somehow I felt that Airtel has a very interesting potential to harness. Let me explain it.

Every movie reviewer and even the most seasoned disciples of bollywood melodrama have unanimously agreed that the baby delivery scene was a little too Over The Top. But if you stop to look at it, there is something very Indian that happens in the sequence – the Power Cut. And all hell breaks lose.

Now how can Airtel (Airtel because it has already tied in with the movie) use this? Simple use this very Bollywood melodrama to hammer a very powerful and a moving message in a very relevant way and that too enabled by something that is pan Indian in its impact and influence – Bollywood.

Now let us rewind. The delivery scene – everyone ready – but alas, a power cut! Then something very simple happens. Kareena calls up. She realises that there is power cut and just remember the Rancho’s heroic struggles to improvise everything from power, to a vacuum device for enabling a delivery. Now, bring in Airtel 3G (when we have 3G in India of course).

Now, cut to the question

“How would 3 idiots be different with Airtel 3G?”

Simple.  The communication part between Aamir and Kareena can now be almost seamless and simple – both audio and visual. They would not require an unwieldy contraption of a PC and a webcam. Now you can both see and talk through the phone – even an ‘aam admi’ (the common man) can understand and appreciate what 3G can do for them now.

We have AR Rehman’s iconic Airtel tune playing in the background as we quickly see how 3G re-creates a scene of 3 idiots in its own magical way. You just need to re-shoot a quick montage of sequences with Airtel 3G now in the scene and the baby delivered.

Message conveyed: C’mon why not? Its the Bollywood cocktail, with some pinch of drama and stirred with a shot of star powered tequila

Functional Credentials Driven: There could not be a more readily available plot, actors and script that are all aligned to drive a very powerful message of the functional credentials of 3G and the potential therein for a redefined India ‘powered by Airtel’.

Reach Maximized:3 idiots is very clearly targeted at the ‘Millennials’ – those born between 1977 and 1998. They are now the new Gen Yuppies in corporate India, the aspiring students who want to make it big, the passionate dreamers, the definitive achievers etc. So a re-mashed version of this 3 idiots is sure to catch the relevant segment’s eye balls. Note that I have deliberately segmented only on age demographics. This would clearly have a Pan India appeal.

Entertainment Ensured: The TV Commercial or the Youtube video whatever it is would have a very high entertainment value, ensuring many repeat views and ofcourse many more smiles.

Very high recall guaranteed: After all the canvas on which the message is being painted is a very popular movie – 3 idiots and the star cast is big!

Brand Equity Improved: I can only guess that across the entire pyramid, equities related to Awareness, Relevance, Advantage and Conviction can certainly be influenced positively in the consumers’ minds with such an execution.

Anything else that I missed? But yes, this also could mean that it could be an expensive execution. But wouldn’t it be entirely worth it?

But just think of it, everything is almost there. The branding collaboration is already there in place. They just need to work out some more legalities and any applicable royalties (I guess so). The star cast, background, plot and the message can never be as relevant, functional, emotional, entertaining with a Pan Indian appeal for the very same target consumer. Should we really give it a miss?

But yes, in a way such plots have slowly got to be owned by ‘Idea’. But why not try to seize the power of this idea? “An idea can change your life”. Airtel..What say?

Disclaimer: This is some free advice. Take it or leave it. But feel free to criticize it 🙂