As I saw the election results unfold, many marketing parallels struck me.
A brand struggles when it loses rural share. Rural consumers are far more evolved in their preferences. They think a lot more about security and not vanity when it comes to brands. Rural consumers take to a brand slowly but they also give up a brand slowly. This is a good indicator of a brand preference shift. In times of stress, consumers downtrade within the brand to a smaller pack size but in elections they move to a new brand. Measuring rural is a good indicator of which way the wind is blowing. Politics does not have a portfolio cushion.
Market research can get it quite wrong in some cases and the exit pollsters and TV anchors must be ruing what they said a few days ago. Opinion polls are refined market research. Researchers are researchers, they should never become marketing managers. Nothing could have been off the mark this time, much like market research saying Xerox will fail or New Coke will succeed. There were certain inherent biases in the approach. For instance, not having enough women in the sample size or getting carried away by one variable.
A giant slaying brand can itself be slayed back after a few years as has happened with a few ministers who were big slayers. Brands like Micromax and Lava which ruled for a few years were later slayed by similar offerings. Beware of the crown of the challenger! Never get too big and take the consumer for granted.
Partnerships are important to succeed in any business. Lack of partnerships with the e-commerce platforms has hurt FMCG companies. So, be wise in your partnerships, choose strong local partners; for example if you are in the consumer durables business, you must tie up with the Sharptronics chain in Salem if you want to win. Any other alliance will not get you market share. The same is true with Pai and Co in Karnataka, Great Eastern retail in Kolkata.
Brands that have lost steam can be resurrected. This has come true in these elections when many individual brands (Chandrababu Naidu) were resurrected after being in the wilderness for a few years. Royal Enfield resurrected itself after being written off. The trick is to stay authentic, swallow your pride and work harder at the basic product appeal. So, keep the faith!
Negative messaging tends to win at the start but backfires after some time. I have heard so many consumers react negatively to a brand pulling down another brand via competitive advertising. The urban audiences seem to like this approach, but the heartland of India has always said, “you talk good about yourself, why are you speaking ill of the other brand?” I think all parties can learn from this. We have seen abuse of a high order in these elections, and I hope that settles down now.
Do consumers always reveal their true preference? My sense is no. There are times the consumer hedges sensibly. Interestingly, every product research I have seen on ayurvedic offerings and soya offerings show high off the charts scores, because it’s the correct thing or the nice thing or the convenient thing to say at that point. No pure ayurvedic brand or pure soya brand has become big despite high product research scores.
The best marketing is about micromarketing, state by state, even district by district. That’s exactly what this election has taught all of us – local issues matter the most. You will be surprised that Amitabh Bachchan and SRK don’t connect in the same way with south Indian audiences when used in brand testimonials.
Promotions don’t work all the time with consumers, the consumer will take the promotion and still vote the way they want. Every candidate has offered promotions/freebies galore. So, brand loyalty cannot be built through deep discounts as many digital brands are recognising to their dismay.
When I was in the tea business, we used to say our winning strategy was “National brands with regional blends” . All the tea brands in India like Sapat, AVT, Tata Tea have done this for more than 60 years. This was first done by Campbell Soup in the US where they had different soup blends by state. So, the elections have been about a nation with regional blends.
(Shiv Shivakumar is operating partner, Advent International and former chairman PepsiCo India, and former Managing Director Nokia India)