Packaging: Faced with the threat of insurgent brands, how can established brands adapt?
Guest Column: Rashi Goel, VP Consumer Communications & e-commerce, Nestlé India and Dominic Twyford, Business Director, FITCH explain how It’s time to redefine packaging
Packaging: Faced with the threat of insurgent brands, how can established conformists adapt?
By Dominic Twyford, Business Director, FITCH
In India, for too long packaging has been the most overlooked and underutilized marketing tool, a perverse statement when you consider its vital importance.
The pack is the best-owned media that a brand could wish for, delivered directly into a customer’s hands when they are in a buying mind-state. There is no intermediary or third-party involvement, it is purely a connection between brand and consumer. An effective pack is next in importance only to the product itself. Yet, for most, it’s a mere container, with its true value and effectiveness ignored. It’s time to redefine packaging, for starters let’s call it a marketing channel, not tool.
Enter ‘Insurgent’ brands.
With typically less budget to spend on brand building, these are new brands that are willing to challenge and fight traditional ‘conformists’, or more established brands and are choosing to do it through packaging.
Insurgents look and act differently
While bigger brands might initially attract shoppers to the aisle via multi-crore marketing campaigns, insurgents are backing themselves to come into consideration at the actual point of purchase - the ultimate moment of truth for a brand.
This thinking is liberating. Gone is the obsession with category conventions and what the competition is doing, instead, the new focus is single-minded and wonderfully selfish. The end results are clearly targeted propositions and genuinely disruptive designs.
Bira 91 is proof that thinking like an insurgent brand can create significant value. Bira has single-handedly established the craft beer category in India by creating a brand that resonates with India’s young, aspirational urbanites.
The brand identity and packaging doesn’t obsess with cueing provenance or traditional brewing techniques, instead, it concentrates on promoting fun and proving its accessibility by using a very funky monkey as its identity. Not only has the brand created a new category, but it has also raised millions of dollars of investment and according to press reports intends to enter five new international markets.
From a global perspective, take for example Van Leeuwen, artisanal ice cream in the US. Faced with increased competition the brand took the bold decision to de-clutter their packaging, removing all superfluous graphics. What remained was a statement in total confidence, a perfectly crafted identity and a sumptuous colour palette that dials up taste and communicates the purity of the product.
Proof of their success
A new metric, that identifies great packaging? Instagram posts. Whether by accident or design, when worthy, consumers are now taking pictures of their packaging and posting them on social media. Given the fact that consumers are now directors, editors, and publishers in their own right, and that the content they generate is a reflection of themselves, their status, beliefs, and values it stands to reason that brands become part of their personal narrative. Forget functional packaging, or even an emotional response to packaging, their packaging transcends both to become self-promotional.
It isn’t only about social media likes, research numbers support the success of insurgents. A recent Nielsen study discovered that from 2011 onwards, the biggest food and beverage companies have driven just 3% of the total growth in the industry. The largest contributors, by far, have been the small insurgents, adding to 50% of the growth.
How are traditional conformists reacting?
Scale, larger marketing budgets and more developed supply chains used to protect big brands from smaller challengers, but these advantages are being eroded. Social media and digital channels provide the means to create buzz and establish reach cheaply, and online shopping provides a sales platform irrespective of a physical retail footprint.
Some big brands understand the threat and are reinventing themselves or rethinking how they operate. Casting a view across the globe, Unilever are choosing to acquire new brands by prolifically spending on disruptive brands like Dollar Shave Club, The Vegetarian Butcher and the T2 gourmet tea brand.
Other big brands are choosing to masquerade as smaller, more artisanal brands. Fever Tree have turned the mixer market upside down by placing as much focus on the mixer as the premium alcohol that it accompanies. In response, Coca-Cola-owned Schweppes has created the 1783 range of mixers inspired by the “alchemy” of founder Jacob Schweppe. Diageo owned Guinness is confronting the popularity of new craft beers by launching new experimental beers that use low key branding to promote traditional brewing credentials.
But, a long term solution?
Takeovers and pretense seem to be working for now, but are these sustainable solutions? Brands need to start looking beyond the current horizon and focusing on ‘inside out’ solutions. This is something that Nestlé India has understood very well. They are finding ways to become proactive rather than being merely reactive like other conformists.
For the last three years, they have partnered with FITCH and together, we have created the first of its kind, ‘Nestlé Design Lab’. The Design Lab consists of a FITCH team working within Nestlé India’s HQ on brand, packaging and POS briefs from across all of their business units.
This arrangement is developing a culture of creativity at the heart of the business by providing an inspirational place where brand and marketing managers can collaborate on a daily basis with design industry experts.
Why this works
The result is a flatter structure and a narrowing of the gap between business strategy and design. New opportunities can be quickly identified, tested, prototyped and launched into the market. The relationship between client and agency is no longer based on a brief, and design is no longer a linear process, instead, briefs are co-created, ideas freely shared and brand teams are now equipped to be more responsive.
The end result is a multinational benefitting from the power of established global and domestic brands (with huge brand equity and valuable histories) employing more nimble practices, more at home in a startup culture.
Just remember
When assessed individually, insurgents remain small in size, but as a whole, they now pose a problem far greater than the sum of their parts. Their approach is redefining the design process and challenging conventional wisdom about category rules and behavior.
Like Nestlé, rather than shy away from the challenge, big brands need to fundamentally rethink how they operate and redefine their rules of engagement.
The first priority should be to build an environment and culture where new and agile thinking can flourish, enabling brands to move quickly and decisively. The second priority involves loosening the shackles of the big brand playbook where restrictive processes and conventional thinking can easily kill fresh ideas. Instead, this needs to be replaced with an entrepreneurial zest that focuses on bold but considered decision making.
Conformists can’t become insurgents overnight and nor should that be their goal, however, rather than fear insurgents, there is plenty that can be learned from them.
Domestic and international brands are benefiting
A good example of such a project would be the recent Munch emoji “Crunch Macha” campaign. The Munch team wanted to find new ways to capture the attention of India’s youth. Quickly, with the Design Lab we were able to rapidly prototype a wide range of themes and ideas that would connect with young India, ideas that we didn’t believe in were just as swiftly cast aside.
The campaign was brought to life on-pack through a limited edition run, the solution that was born from packaging design then went on to influence our social and digital brand communications.
The work is a perfect example of how an initial idea can be turned in to a tangible piece of on-brand work that quickly gets to market. In this case, we were able to showcase Munch’s understanding of how India’s youth communicate with each other and prove the relevance of Munch to this audience by Indianising the global phenomena of emojis.
The effectiveness of the Design Lab has also been felt on Maggi. Unlike Munch, Maggi is a global brand with guidelines that come from Europe. A global shift has seen Nestlé reposition Maggi, moving it from a snacking brand to a cooking brand. Our on-site design facility and expertise meant that we had the ability to redesign the Maggi portfolio while looking at it through the lens of India’s consumer. The end result is a range revamp with a single point of view that balances global requirements with local nuances.
The advantages of creating a common vision between business and agency partner.
By Rashi Goel, VP Consumer Communications and e-commerce, Nestlé India
The creation of the Design Lab within Nestlé’s office has provided our organisation with a number of benefits. Being under one roof has a number of practical advantages including improved turnaround times, greater access to designers and simplified operations. While these are helpful, removing the physical divide with our agency partner is of deeper significance to the wider Nestlé business and our design outcomes.
Consolidating and formalising our relationship with FITCH means that we have created a partnership in the truest sense. The FITCH team that work on our brands are fully invested and over time have built up a considerable understanding of our brands, our business priorities, and Nestle’s culture. Crucially, their presence in the same office means that marketing and brand teams have greater access to the creative process and strategic design and this infuses more creativity into the brand building culture for Nestlé.
Standardised briefing processes have improved the clarity of our thinking and greater participation in collaborative brainstorms and creative discussions have led to a growing number of breakthrough projects.
Design, whether it be for packaging or POS has traditionally been viewed as a bolt on to the marketing function. Finding a home for design within our organization has elevated its importance, the Design Lab is now part of the fabric of Nestlé and how we operate. While we’ve narrowed the gap between our business and design, more importantly, by focusing on how our brands appear in the hands of our consumers we have narrowed the gap between ourselves and our customer.
(The authors, Dominic Twyford, is Business Director, FITCH and Rashi Goel is VP Consumer Communications and e-commerce, Nestlé India)
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not in any way represent the views of exchange4media.com
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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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