“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” - George Orwell

The evolution of consumers in the last decade surpasses anything that’s happened earlier, perhaps in an entire century. And it’s been an evolution that’s multidirectional and all encompassing. The consumer today seems to relish the opportunities and freedom they have to express her opinion on just about everything. The fact whether one is in the target group or not is just not a consideration while expressing one’s viewpoint. And these opinions could also be expressed without responsibility or introspection. Gone are the days when consumer reactions were scarce, personal, one-on-one and expressed only by bona fide users alone. Today the mantra seems to be: “Have opinion, will express.”

The perplexing, unpredictable and quirky nature of the modern day consumer is making the task of mapping consumer behaviour extremely challenging. Add to this, the hardening of political opinions, enhanced nationalist fervour and religious polarisation; and we are looking at a society that is an intertwined mix of fickleness, impulsiveness and, at times, devoid of logic. The ease with which people carry contradictory beliefs makes the template of marketing communication highly complex.

Social media mobs

One thing that marketers and brand communication experts did not anticipate was the power and reach of social media to allow communities to get networked and connect. This also led to what I refer to as ‘social media mobs’. These social media mobs have no barriers of geography and they can garner massive support too. They are right there in chat rooms, groups, spaces, etc., interacting and influencing the narrative. They propagate opinions, practices, ideas political and social discourse.

The euphoria of the first decade of this millennium among the marketing fraternity on the power to be able to surround and influence consumers with branded content seems to have faded away. It may have even been replaced by anxiety, though not many will confess to this. The recent controversy involving Hyundai Motor is just one case in point. A Hyundai dealer from across the border put up a tweet and all hell broke loose in India. There were calls to boycott the brand with the second largest car sales in the country. People were urged to cancel their bookings. The government got into the melee too and summoned the South Korean envoy to express its displeasure. Hyundai Motor ‘deeply regretted’ the incident and ensured that the tweet and the Facebook posts were withdrawn. This was not an isolated incident of withdrawal or of a company’s retreat from a communication due to pressure exerted by various groups on social media and otherwise. We have had Tanishq, Fab India, Dabur, Manforce and many more brands who had to step back and ‘correct their oversight’ in the past. 

Matters get too hot when the controversy involves either Pakistan or China. And therein lies a paradox. We are happy buying Chinese handsets, auto components, pharmaceutical ingredients and even oxygen concentrators, but we will whip any brand that is seen taking a pro-China stance. The fact is that we love to do China and Pakistan bashing on social media. With the Doklam controversy earlier on and the Galwan stand-off now — emotions, and tempers, run high. But then a lot of it is just posturing. How else does one justify imports from China that accounted for $97.5 billion in 2021? Look at handsets that are ‘personal devices’ and often perceived as ‘an extension of one’s identity’. Chinese brands corner about 70 per cent of the handset market. Look at cricket. The eye-balls grabbing, world’s most popular cricket league — the IPL was till recently sponsored by a Chinese brand!

The government also fuels such emotions with knee-jerk actions such as banning of mobile apps. But while one cannot post videos on TikTok anymore, no one minds buying a Chinese smartphone. These contradictions are difficult to comprehend by even the most discerning of all customers.

The question that now arises is what must a brand do? What kind of stances must it take to navigate a universe of fickle-minded consumers who are all set to shoot from the hip? Brands will get drawn in to controversies that, at times, will not be of their own doing. Who would have imagined that a post put up by a Hyundai dealer in Pakistan would impact the car brand in India? Yet it must respond, and respond responsibly, treading the difficult path cautiously. A brand can’t appease one constituency of its customers and unsettle the other. There are no easy solutions here, but to deploy robust listening tools and drown adverse noise by whatever means that a brand can afford. And rely on the fact that public memory is short. The waiting list and bookings for Hyundai’s Creta after all stays unchanged.

(Giraj Sharma is founder Behind the Moon, a brand consultancy)

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