The ever burgeoning middle income community of India is the biggest diaspora which is attacked by almost every product, every service and every brand. Forget about the brand, (as there are too many), think about the product or services which doesn’t come in front of your eyes in your daily life. Soap, car, bike, television, beauty parlor, health clinic, shampoo, salt, credit card, insurance plan, burger, pizzas, a house, office space, holiday package, a website, networking portal, anti virus software and many more things. Can you name which of the above product is such which either you have never used or whose's promotion you have not seen in some way or the other?
You must have realized now that almost every product or service mentioned above has surely passed by your eyes in some form or the other even if you have not used it. Be it an email lying in your junk folder unattended, billboard on road, shop interiors, television ad, radio spot, bus stop, railway station, Metro Station, Tubes, inside train compartments, SMS, IVR, Carry Bags, inside cricket stadium and many more such locations.
Everything is targeted towards US (The bulk of middle income INDIAN).
With media playing the biggest role, every Indian is getting exposed to the western culture, what they wear, how they wear, and over all, how do they live? Unfortunately, though every westerner has accepted the grandness, culture, rich heritage of the country and sound economic growth and high quality of Indians in the professional field; which is proven in the form of Vikrat Pandit, Indira Nooyi, Lakshmi Mittal, to name a few who have created niche for themselves on global inc. or our home grown Tatas, Ambani brothers, Birla or Modi groups, but still majority of Indians still feel and try to close on their heels and walk like a Firang.
This puts a greater challenge to a marketer to devise a strategy which not only converts a consumer into customer of his brand as well as sticks to it. Hence even to attract a house wife and influence her to buy a pack of washing powder, he needs to make the promo full of jazz and flashy layout to create some space and recall value for his brand in the mind of the housewife (TG).
India being one of the youngest nations with more than 50% population around 25 years of age makes it easy and yet challenging to identify a segment and create a pull for the brand.
With some extra digital effects, loud background sound, an almost firang looking women in the AD, are some of the ingredients which are used by almost every marketer today to create a message that stands out and develops a recall value in the mind of this ME-TOO. But will this communication guarantee the marketer that it will influence the TG and turn his purchase decision in favor of the brand?
As on date I have not come across any proven theory or a formula which gives us a guarantee and delivers the expected result.
The consumer has umpteen options, variants, and choices in terms of brands as well as products to satisfy his different needs. This leads the marketers to explore more n more unconventional and different mediums to reach out and communicate to his TG in a unique manner.
And thus while exploring for such options to reach out to their audience, at one point they land up hanging a hoarding on a shopping mall facade, because that’s where consumer goes to shop and also sending a mailer to his inbox, because that’s where he connects to the world.
I term this community which is extremely volatile, brand conscious, trends conscious, not ready to compromise with next best option, as GENERATION - Y(where Y stands for YOUNG)... is surely going to raise the bar of Indian advertising as well as marketing fraternity. It will keep throwing the newer and tougher challenges to the Indian marketer and test his creativity as well as patience to reach him in the most effective manner.
With downward trend of global economy not likely to return to growth trajectory, and increasing number of job losses, salary cuts, reducing incentives, are further leading to restrict the purchasing power of the middle income household. At the same time CEOs are getting more demanding and stricter towards allocation and spends of marketing budgets against the delivered results.
As a marketer myself, I see fewer options for my other counterparts in the industry. Firstly, make a more concentrated effort and clearer objectives as well as deliverables from your marketing plan.
Secondly, have more and more interaction and combined brainstorm sessions with the sales team, to understand their objective and understand there strategy to reach out to their clients and business partners.
Based upon the thorough study of the organizational objective and sales team objective, identify the need gaps and put the same in front of the advertising agency, PR agency and whom so ever is required to be part of your marketing plan.
Before identifying the tools, media vehicles, campaigns, go back to the sales team and give them a ball park idea of how the mar-com team has planned to fill those gaps which were identified earlier.
Lot of negatives and NOs will be heard, but end of the day, one will come up with a conclusion to either revisit the whole strategy or start cutting and trimming the current flow of strategy.
But in doing all these, one should never forget the timelines. One needs to strictly adhere to the set deadlines or else the crux of this whole exercise will be lost.
“A perfect marketing strategy implemented at wrong time, is a total failure”
The bottom line for effective usage of marketing budget in today’s times to reach out to your GENERATION Y is to have a more concerted approach at the grass root level of exploring a strategy devised in conjunction with sales force and other stakeholders.
Based upon this feedback, there is a possibility to device a strategy which can give near expected results, but still…………………………………Not a Guarantee J
-Shad Zaman
Is a marketer, brand consultant, reader, sports freak, music lover, photographer, consumer, and a common man. He can be reached at shadzaman@gmail.com.
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