IMPACT Annv Spl: Devendra Chawla’s push for private brands
Devendra Chawla, President – Food & FMCG, Future Group, shares the seven must-wins for building private brands.
Let me start by stating, “A label on the shelf is a brand in the trolley, after all it’s the consumer’s choice which gives a meaning to what’s his/her brand. All brands, including private brands, are choices for the consumer in the end and only on merit will they be picked up by the consumer.”
India has the dubious distinction of being the most under-branded and under-penetrated country, but on the other hand, we all recently learnt that we are also one of the most brand conscious countries too.
The second set of challenges faced by brands is that of flickering customer loyalty. Rural markets notwithstanding, urban consumers, who, we marketers think have crossed the initial steps and are evolving – still switch brands rampantly with new brands and categories emerging everyday.
At Future group, our constant endeavour is to decode the Indian consumer in terms of insights, communities, culture and festivals which is put to use to develop our brands as well as grow consumption. Owning the retail theatre allows ‘live creativity’ and unique brand building toolkits, including a multi-sensorial engagement, in-store brand campaigns, sampling drive and visual merchandising. Our “mind to market”, the time taken for new launches, is 3-6 months. Most decisions by consumers are taken at the final consumer touch-point, the store, where given new information, brands may ‘Interrupt’ the decision-making process and enter the consideration set. The Indian consumer is ‘culturally rooted’ and modern doesn’t always mean Western, as we discovered consumers taking to soup, but preferring it in mugs over bowls at home.
So how can the so-called ‘labels’ transform into ‘brands’ by crossing the distance between the shelf and the trolley? Here are some pointers, though not in any particular order:
The big challenge is to engage the consumer: The landscape for brands is undergoing a transformation. While the media is proliferating, brands need to shout louder to get consumers’ attention. Yet, the bigger challenge for marketers is to engage with this consumer.
Retail, on the other hand, is converging in the sense that a brand can reach and interact with more consumers under the same roof. Though in its nascent stage, modern trade is contributing in a major way towards the growth of categories such as breakfast cereal, cheese, packaged rice, toilet-cleaners, liquid soaps, air-fresheners and hair conditioners, to name a few.
A retail store in that sense is the new media vehicle to create awareness about new brands/ products for a large number of consumers. Marketers are continuously looking to identify need gaps in the consumption pattern. In the process, big monies are spent on research, but not every great consumer insight has come from complex surveys.
At Future Group, while designing go-to-market strategies for its various new product launches, conversations with the consumers shopping in its stores have thrown up out-of-the-box ideas of launching a soup and pouch ketchup, which are a leading brand in our stores. For example, kids’ engagement with products is much higher in a supermarket environment, where products are displayed at their eye level. For example, in the ketchup category, we learnt how kids are dependent on “grown-ups” for usage, thanks to the heavy and breakable glass bottle. Consumers were indirectly asking for innovative solutions here as the bottle is consumer-unfriendly for the primary consumer, the child.
We pioneered easy-to-use standee pouches with a spout for our ketchup brand, Tasty Treat. Mothers loved it since it made them anxiety-free and their kids self-sufficient. It also reduced packaging cost by 30 per cent and supply chain cost by 40 per cent due to lighter weight.
The store as a retail theatre: A modern trade store offers guaranteed eyeballs. Any brand worth its salt simply does not stand to lose this as an opportunity to talk to its TG. Test-tasting or taste-testing – the private brands’ outreach programme must quickly grab this as an opportunity to run the last mile. At Future Group, our private brands have led this multi-sensorial engagement with consumers. The importance of touch, feel, smell and taste far outweigh any other form of engagement. We used this toolkit while launching our in-store campaign ‘Ab soup ka mazaa mug mein’. The moment of truth for the brand is when the consumer places the potato chip on her tongue. Private brands should be made to flirt unpretentiously with the consumer – the chances that the consumer would give in to the seduction and come back for more are high. Each method of communication adopted by the private brand marketers must be unique.
Understand community: The share of palate and plate of an average Indian is now crowded with regional cuisines too, apart from the traditional foods. Why, in the last one week, I had appam at a Marwari home, dosa at a Gujarati home and paratha at a Maharashtrian home. We are experimenting as much with pizza or burgers as with foods from other parts of India. Private brands from retailers operating on a national scale can actually work towards strengthening the regional cross-connects. With job and business opportunities uprooting people from their native place and making them settle in diagonally opposite geographies, the need to provide for community requirements have gone up. From a retailer’s point of view, developing and nurturing a community brand, which is available exclusively in its outlets, would definitely work. Future Group stores connect with customers across the country. With its innate ability to understand the communities that its stores serve, a wide range of products are being launched under the umbrella of the community private brand – Ektaa. So from a Bengali’s favourite ‘Kasundi’ to the ‘Khakra’ of Gujarat to the ‘Ambe Mohar’ rice of a Maharashtrian or ‘Red Matta’ rice of a Malayalee – Ektaa brings into its fold every Indian under one roof.
Solutions rather than only products: Every usage occasion in the life of a consumer involves an interplay of many product categories – tea time involves tea, biscuits, sugar, snacks and crockery. This multi-category consumption lens comes naturally to us as a retailer while for product brands; this is not an easy leap to make. Thus, in consumer interaction for brand-building, retailers have a unique plus over brand distribution companies. We have used it fully by promoting brushing kits, home-cleaning kits, tea kits, soup and mugs, etc., for connecting our brands with the consumer. Our ‘Solution’ language stands out well against the TVC-led single product language of regular brands. It’s the retail theatre where imagination and buying experience can be fired up. Our gift of mugs during the campaign ‘Ab soup ka mazaa mug mein’ saw a category expansion of 25 per cent. Traditionally, the category expansion role was played by the advertised brands. Future Group has re-written some of those rules. So, why can’t selling be tuned to consumption occasions and not to products only? Retailers can leverage the multiple categories that they operate in and look at creating a consumption prism rather than a brand prism.
Use ‘conversation’ medium: Generic consumer research throws up clinical analysis of consumer needs and wants, culled out of prepared questionnaires. A lot of statistics go into deciphering what the consumer has been saying. While these are standard practices, a heart to heart chat with the customer always acts as icing on the cake. In all probability, an informal talk in the aisles of a store would reveal more insights on preferences, wants, shopping behaviour, etc. This approach has helped design the go-to-market strategies for most new product launches in the Future Group private brands. Retailers have thousands of associates speaking to thousands of consumers everyday, use it to advantage and collect trends, shifts in consumption patterns and need gaps in current categories.
Understand the Indian-ness of the Indian consumer: The last 5-8 years have seen a proliferation of products and categories – all trying to woo the consumer by getting down to previously un-thought of levels. From car models to toothpaste, to biscuits to detergents, there are hundreds of examples.
We are inherent value seekers, it does not really matter whether the consumer earns an eight-figure salary or pushes a vegetable cart. India’s leading auto-maker drove this point rather straight – a prospective customer of a multi-million dollar yacht asking the dapper salesman ‘Kitna deta hai?’ So, even this HNI, who’s in for a very high value purchase, still looks for the best mileage, the value proposition in the product and will not mind shifting loyalty if the same is not fulfilled by the brand. Recent news of luxury cars going for CNG kits and diesel cars being in demand is a reminder. Owing to a simpler ‘direct route to market’ supply chain from the manufacturer to the retailer, private brands stand to gain immensely from de-layered distribution. With lower cost of experimentation, private brands can offer very highly differentiated pack sizes, products, etc., in a limited geography with little cost of failure. Coupled with the trait of sampling out in the stores for any new introductions, conversion and upgrade of consumers to larger packs is quicker.
Challenge the given: Often, the biggest challenge is the marketer’s own mindset that retailer-grown brands won’t succeed in so-called high involvement categories. Our experience has shown this is more a myth than consumer-side reality. Another big challenge is with designers and brand managers to deliver complete marketing communication on pack and in-store, which makes up for conventional mass advertising. We Indians are unique and unconventional. Speaking to consumers regarding the ideal soup serving size brought to light the fact that 70 per cent of them preferred drinking soups in mugs, in the comfort of their homes and not in public places! We legitimised the ‘soup mug’ as I said earlier, and the category has been growing fast. There will be TV-built brands and there will be shelf-built brands. Both will co-exist. As media proliferates, brands will find newer ways to reach out to the consumer. That the consumer is closer to the retailer is a fact of life, and thus modern trade will continue to discover new consumer insight, receive cues on consumption and need–gaps.
(Devendra Chawla is President – Food & FMCG, Future Group.)
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Social Beat wins SEO mandate of Tata CLiQ tag rss
The account was won after a multi-agency pitch
e4m e4m Social Beat has won the SEO mandate for Tata CLiQ, one of the fastest-growing omnichannel marketplace in India. Social Beat has been entrusted with optimizing existing content, as well as launching new, optimized category pages systematically on Tata CLiQ’s platform to scale monthly organic traffic by 2x over the next year. The account was won after a multi-agency pitch and will be serviced by Social Beat’s offices in Mumbai.
Shishir Kataria, Director - Marketing, Tata CLiQ, “Shoppers, e-commerce or otherwise, continue to heavily rely on search and discovery throughout their shopping journey, be it engaging with the latest fashion trends or hunting for the best buys. No wonder a platform's ability to be a part of this journey organically drives significant consideration for it amongst potential shoppers. We, at Tata Cliq, are confident that Social Beat will help us develop and optimise content that is highly discoverable to grow our engagement and revenue. Our goal continues to be to drive more and more shoppers to our platform with optimised and curated products and relevant content.”
Vikas Chawla, Co-Founder, Social Beat said, “We are thrilled to partner with Tata CLiQ in their growth journey. We aim to scale traffic to the Tata CLiQ platform manyfold over the next year. Our team of specialised SEO and Content strategists will be working closely to achieve this”
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ShareWill OOH dazzle this festive season?
As the celebrations begin, experts tell us the trends and challenges for the OOH sector this season
Be it the flower-clad taxis in Mumbai for Made in Heaven Season 2 promotion or Zomato’s ‘kheer mangoge kheer denge’ billboards, India's OOH advertising sector has undergone substantial transformation and expansion in the recent years. Even though the medium was severely hit during the pandemic years, it has now managed to rebuild its status. Now, with the onset of the festive season, elections and the cricket world cup, OOH is expected to see more and more advertisers come on board.
Amarjeet Hudda, Chief Operating Officer, Laqshya Media Group, believes most of the clients spend a lot of money during the festive season, especially for Durga Puja, Dussehra and Diwali, targeting their customers in a festive mood. The categories that spend heavily during these months are Auto, Consumer Durables, Real Estate, Organised retail, and E-commerce.
According to Dipankar Sanyal of Platinum Outdoor, there was a huge surge in the festive season last year, and he expects the same this year too. “Last four to five years have turbulent for outdoor. It was picking up in 2019, but then Covid came and everything went flat for two years,” he mentioned.
According to EY-FICCI’s M&E Report 2023, OOH media grew 86 percent in 2022 to Rs 37 billion. The value includes traditional, transit and digital media, but excludes untracked unorganised OOH media such as wall paintings, billboards, ambient media, storefronts, proxy advertising.
Sharing the brand’s perspective, Shivam Ranjan, Head of Marketing, Motorola-APAC, said, “We are going into this festive season with a strong mix of media, including OOH. Within OOH, we are focusing on digital OOH, due to its capability of programmatic serving, measurability, and near real-time insights that allow us to be agile with the communication and optimisation of our campaigns.”
With urbanisation, improved infrastructure, rising consumerism and an increased spending power, clients' expectations from OOH advertising too have evolved. “The clients expect better ROI on every investment, best in class innovations, tech-led planning and execution. Today, technology plays an important role starting from planning the campaign, to measuring metrics to ROI,” Singh explained.
Another trend that Sanyal has observed is that traditionally advertisers looked at spending on OOH nearly two weeks prior to the festivities, but now, most advertisers have now started advertising a week earlier so that they can get maximum eyeballs. Additionally, the digital OOH advertising (DOOH) has also emerged big. The digital OOH screens increased to around 100,000 and contributed eight percent of total segment revenues.
“Now with digital, there is more space for advertisers to come in one frame. Because of this, you can see it is getting more attractive. The innovations too are coming in at a much lower cost and creating a greater impact,” shared Sanyal.
The only challenge with the medium, according to Ranjan, is OOH being a fragmented industry with lack of measurability and agility. This becomes a serious issue for ROI-centric brands. However, the growth of DOOH, which is dynamic, agile and measurable, is giving marketers the confidence to invest in the medium backed by relevant data and outcomes.
Adding to this, Hudda highlighted that availability of good media spots is the biggest challenge in this season as media assets are limited and demand is very high. Due to the gap in the festive season, many clients are not able to fully optimise their campaigns. Rather sometimes, clients are even compelled to divert their budget which adversely impacts the industry, he shared.
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Banking on positive consumer sentiment: BFSI optimistic on doubling festive AdEx : Cache
Some categories within the sector, however, may spend more in the quarter that follows the festive season
The BFSI sector is expecting a surge in demand for loan during the festive season and is looking at increasing its ad spends to cash in on the celebration spirit. Industry leaders say they are hopeful of witnessing a good growth in the number of applications for auto loan, home loan, credit card and health insurance during October, November and December due to positive consumer sentiment this year. However, though most of the BFSI players are planning to double their advertising budget this time compared to the previous year, there are some who are not investing too heavily on marketing during the festivals as they plan to save the money for the fourth quarter.
According to Shailendra Singh, MD & CEO, BOB Financial, they witness incremental growth every year during the October-December quarter, and they anticipate an increase in consumer spending as well as new enrolments for cards this year too. “There remains a surge in customer demand for credit during the festive season,” said Singh.
Singh shared that the company is fully geared up for the launch of #FestiveShoppingRewards on all Bank of Baroda credit card variants under the theme ‘Reimagine Festivities’. They would kickstart festive offerings with the start of Navratri.
The festive season does not just see the demand for credit go up, but there is an increase in applications for health and motor insurance too during this time of the year.
Aabhinna Suresh Khare, Chief Digital & Marketing Officer, BajajCapital Ltd, shared that among insurance products, health insurance and motor insurance reign supreme during festivals. According to Khare, the demand for mutual funds and SIPs too sees a hike.
“Overall, the festive season presents an opportune moment to secure insurance coverage. A plethora of attractive products and services are on offer, with financial institutions extending special discounts and promotions to entice new customers,” said Khare.
The company launched #BlessMeGanesha campaign during Ganesh Chaturthi. “Our goal for this festive season is not only to provide financial solutions but also to create memorable experiences and deepen the connection with our customers,” said Khare.
Though all major sectors spend heavily on advertising during the festive season, within the BFSI sector, some categories spend more in the quarter that follows the festive season.
Explaining the trend, Samir Sethi, Head of Brand Marketing, Policybazaar.com, said that the festive season has varying impacts on the BFSI sector. In the banking sector, for instance, the demand for loans surges as many individuals purchase items and undertake home renovations. Conversely, in the insurance category, the festive season doesn't result in significant changes. Instead, the insurance industry experiences its peak season after the festive period, particularly during the fourth quarter of the financial year.
“As the festive season approaches, there is a noticeable increase in car sales though, leading to a surge in the demand for motor insurance. Consequently, we see a significant uptick in the requests for motor insurance policies. During the festive period, there is an upswing in demand for various categories, such as electronics. However, in the insurance sector, this period doesn't significantly affect us, so we don't run specific campaigns targeting festivals. Nevertheless, we do roll out multiple campaigns throughout the year, and some of them may coincide with the festive season,” said Sethi.
According to the TAM AdEx report on BFSI sector across media for H1, the advertising volume of the sector grew on TV, radio and digital, but declined in the print medium. The report indicated that ad impressions on digital saw 91% rise during Jan-Jun '23 over Jan-Jun’22. The increase was 32% for radio and 4% for TV. The ad space of the BFSI sector decreased by 7% in print.
Speaking on media mix, Singh shared that BOB Financial has a good mix of customer segments belonging to Tier I, II and III. So, understanding their needs and preferred form of media channels, the company will reach out to them through relevant media promotions. “For the easy discovery of our offers, we shall have a dedicated offers page with regular promotion of top offers on our social media and other digital channels,” said Singh. Without disclosing the figure, Singh shared that the company’s promotion budget has surely increased from last year and it will be visible through their multi-channel promotional activities.
According to the TAM report, in the BFSI sector, life insurance is the leading category on TV and radio whereas mutual funds is the top category on digital.
Khare highlighted that in recent times, Bajaj Capital has observed a significant growth in audiences on online platforms and the changing preferences of their clientele. “This observation led us to recalibrate our marketing approach, placing a heightened emphasis on digital avenues,” said Khare.
He further added, “Our promotional efforts are primarily digital-focused, accentuating areas like social media engagement, search engine outreach, content-driven marketing, and targeted online advertising. As we approach the festive season, we've fine-tuned our online approach. By harnessing the insights from data analytics, we aim to grasp our clients' needs and inclinations better, ensuring our content is both tailored and pertinent.”
Khare also mentioned that Baja Capital has doubled its advertising budget compared to the previous year.
“This increase in our ad spend signifies our confidence in the opportunities this festive season presents. This impressive surge in our budget allocation underscores our dedication to maximizing the potential of this festive season and driving significant expansion within our business. We firmly believe that this increased investment in advertising will not only elevate our brand presence but also lead to an exceptional uptick in customer engagement and sales.”
For Policybazaar.com, the media strategy primarily involves a blend of television and digital platforms, an approach that has remained consistent in recent years and is expected to continue in the foreseeable future.
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OMD appoints Dileep Raj Singh as Head of Digital for APAC
Singh will report to Charlotte Lee, CEO of OMD APAC
OMD has added a Head of Digital (HOD) to its Asia Pacific (APAC) regional leadership team with the hiring of Dileep Raj Singh.
Singh is a digital native and brings with him a wealth of experience across product, media agency and client side in APAC, North America and the United Kingdom. His last 10 years have been spent building diverse digital marketing teams covering areas like performance marketing, digital media planning, ad/martech, product marketing, branding and measurement.
As HOD, he will accelerate OMD’s digital leadership agenda, rooted in helping clients address their business challenges and digital ambitions. He will be supporting OMD’s local teams in APAC on operational excellence, and digital transformation frameworks and roadmaps; and the development and implementation of our digital leadership agenda. He will also be working hand in hand with both our regional and global networks to initiate complementary workstreams for our clients in APAC.
“We will continue to invest and win in digital as part of our wider goal to be our clients’ most trusted business transformation partner,” said Charlotte Lee, CEO of OMD APAC.
“It is our global ambition to continue our leadership position in digital, data and technology. In line with this ambition, we are excited to have Singh come on board the OMD APAC leadership team. His background of agency, in-house and start-up experience position him perfectly to understand and address our clients’ business needs,” added Lee.
“Digital media and access to our audience, as we know it, is changing quite rapidly around us. This puts most of us in a delicate but remarkable position, a position from which we can shape and contribute to conversations about the next evolution of digital media. As we embark on this journey, I want to leverage the strength of the OMD network – people, technology, data, tools and platforms – to help our clients pivot and navigate through all the new and evolved possibilities in digital media. With this, I aim to position OMD as an unrivaled partner for our current and future clients; to dominate and succeed in this incredibly competitive and multifarious digital realm,” said Singh.
Singh will report to Lee, and work closely with the team including Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), David McCallen, and Chief Client Officer (CCO), Sadhan Mishra, to drive and support APAC local markets as well as regional clients on digital, data and technology needs.
Mishra was promoted to CCO of OMD APAC recently in June 2023. He will continue to be CEO of OMD Singapore, a position he was promoted into last August. Mishra has been with OMD for over 13 years and in his concurrent new role as CCO, he will focus on key client relationships, understanding their business needs and ensuring we remain a critical partner on their transformation journeys.
McCallen was elevated to the role of CSO of OMD APAC in April 2022, and was previously the CSO of OMD New Zealand for five years where he helped the agency to attain the top place in the market for new business, overall billings and award wins. Since starting in the APAC role, his focus has been on connecting and elevating strategic best practices across the region, building capabilities across a range of strategic outputs, and supporting new business growth both regionally and locally.
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Chandrayaan 3: Brands over the Moon
Some of the best moment marketing posts on India's crucial lunar mission
The nation is in a celebratory mood with its moon mission Chandrayaan 3 making its smooth landing on the lunar surface on the evening of August 23, 2023. The Pragyan rover is in pursuit of discovering water on the moon and is a vital feat for India's ambitious space research.
To celebrate this momentous episode in Indian space research history, netizens have taken to the internet to express their excitement, hopes and fears for the nation's lunar mission. Joining them are brands who have crafted creatives to mark the historic occasion and capture the emotions of the nation who have their eyes set on the moon. Here is our pick of some of the best Chandrayaan 3-moment marketing posts.
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BCCI rakes in Rs 4670 cr in Women's Premier League team auction: Jay Shah 26 Jan
WPL has broken the inaugural auction record of Men's IPL in 2008, tweeted Shah
As expected, Wednesday turned out to be another historic day in Indian women's cricket with BCCI having a windfall gain of Rs 4,600 crores by auctioning five team franchises for the first season, a higher sum compared to what men’s IPL franchises offered to the cricket body during the launch in 2008.
Adani, IndiaWin Sports, Royal Challengers, GSW- GMR cricket and Capri Global have won the bid, BCCI secretary Jay Shah tweeted.
Shah shared in a series of tweets, “Today is a historic day in cricket as the bidding for teams of inaugural #WPL broke the records of the inaugural Men's IPL in 2008! Congratulations to the winners as we garnered Rs.4669.99 Cr in total bid.”
“This marks the beginning of a revolution in women's cricket and paves the way for a transformative journey ahead not only for our women cricketers but for the entire sports fraternity. The #WPL would bring necessary reforms in women's cricket and would ensure an all-encompassing ecosystem that benefits each and every stakeholder.”
“The @BCCI has named the league - Women's Premier League (WPL). Let the journey begin…”
The country's top corporates had bid aggressively for the league. Over 16 groups including IPL franchise owners, Adani group, Torrent and Haldiram were believed to be in the fray.
Given the popularity of IPL in India, the event is touted to be a big draw for all stakeholders involved.
The BCCI was reportedly expecting ₹4,000 crore gain through team auction.
It’s noteworthy that Viacom18 has won the Women's IPL media rights for Rs 951 crore for the next five years creating euphoria around the league whose first season will be held in March.
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