Brand Building in the Age of Diversified yet Connected Consumers
Having completed her PG Diploma from IIM Lucknow, Deepali, in her 15-year long career, has worked with Castrol, Hindustan Unilever, Ruchi Soya, and Johnson & Johnson, prior to joining Danone in 2019.Meet Rashi – a smart Mumbai woman who is always trying to balance the needs of her family, her work and her own desires. Rashi wants to give her family the very best, but within the budget she has. So, even for a simple household item like a cooking oil, she wants a high quality low cholesterol oil in a pack which won’t lead to wastage, is easy to store, and at the cheapest possible price. While Rashi is the archetype of a common Indian smart consumer, Meenakshi from Coimbatore, who is similar to Rashi in many ways, is still unique in her preferences & aspirations.
That’s the new age Indian consumer – always trying to strike a balance between aspiration, economic pressure and increasing competitive options. As a result, marketers are faced with a unique challenge and a brilliant opportunity. The challenge is to continuously understand these evolving consumers who are diversified by their needs & regional fragmentation, yet united by the way they think, choose and make decisions. The opportunity is to tell a compelling brand story in an always-on, customized and integrated way.
About a decade or so ago, brand jobs were centred around building awareness and consideration through compelling television advertising based on an insight and singular benefit statement. Consumers had high believability on legacy brands and the sources of information & validation were limited. As media choices of consumers expanded, the brand advertising touchpoints also expanded and started to include an important touchpoint – online marketing. However, most brands continued with uniform brand to consumer messaging harmoniously replicated across all media touchpoints.
The intention was to create multiple occasions for the consumer to see the same brand message, leading to building memory structures and thereby consideration for the brand.
In today’s times, consumers are no longer just receivers of information. They are curators & influencers who have multiple avenues to learn about new brands, validate the information, share their experiences and influence the choices of the next set of consumers. Over 50 percent urban consumers, check for opinions/reviews/advice from others before making a purchase decision. This may vary dramatically based on the category. For high value categories like electronics & cars, it is a lot more pervasive vs. everyday categories like washing powder & toothpaste.
However, even in fast moving consumer goods industry, new brands have dislodged established players riding on the new wave of integrated influencer marketing.
This has led to two fundamental shifts in brand marketing approaches:
1. From Uniform Brand Message to Customized, Always on, Integrated Brand Stories:
With the power of data, marketers have the opportunity to understand every unique consumer cohort and their behaviour patterns. This enables them to tell brand stories customized to make it relevant to these individual cohorts. The stories need to be relevant to the moment & the mind space of the consumer cohorts. Consumers no longer listen about brands occasionally. In fact, given the always-on nature of the new age media, brand conversations also need to be alive all the time.
2. From Brand to Consumer Messaging Alone to Consumer to Consumer Experiences:
It is no longer enough for brands to say their own stories. Brands have to actively invest in building evangelists & influencers whose voice is to surround brand messages with positive experience, review and validation. And in order to develop a strong ecosystem of credible influencers, brands need to be knowledgeable, transparent, authentic and provide the right quality of experience to consumers. In recent times, mega brands have taken credible influencer voices and gone as far as to co-create new product ranges with the consumers.
More and more brand stories are a blend of customized brand messages, expert voices and consumer experiences. However, it is important that these stories are presented in an integrated way such that one builds on top of the other and the collective impact is much higher likeability, credibility and persuasion for the brand.
In today’s times, consumers are no longer just receivers of information. They are curators & influencers who have multiple avenues to learn about new brands, validate the information, share their experiences and influence the choices of the next set of consumers. Over 50 percent urban consumers, check for opinions/reviews/advice from others before making a purchase decision. This may vary dramatically based on the category. For high value categories like electronics & cars, it is a lot more pervasive vs. everyday categories like washing powder & toothpaste.
However, even in fast moving consumer goods industry, new brands have dislodged established players riding on the new wave of integrated influencer marketing.
This has led to two fundamental shifts in brand marketing approaches:
1. From Uniform Brand Message to Customized, Always on, Integrated Brand Stories:
With the power of data, marketers have the opportunity to understand every unique consumer cohort and their behaviour patterns. This enables them to tell brand stories customized to make it relevant to these individual cohorts. The stories need to be relevant to the moment & the mind space of the consumer cohorts. Consumers no longer listen about brands occasionally. In fact, given the always-on nature of the new age media, brand conversations also need to be alive all the time.
2. From Brand to Consumer Messaging Alone to Consumer to Consumer Experiences:
It is no longer enough for brands to say their own stories. Brands have to actively invest in building evangelists & influencers whose voice is to surround brand messages with positive experience, review and validation. And in order to develop a strong ecosystem of credible influencers, brands need to be knowledgeable, transparent, authentic and provide the right quality of experience to consumers. In recent times, mega brands have taken credible influencer voices and gone as far as to co-create new product ranges with the consumers.
Given the always-on nature of the new age media, brand conversations also need to be alive all the time
More and more brand stories are a blend of customized brand messages, expert voices and consumer experiences. However, it is important that these stories are presented in an integrated way such that one builds on top of the other and the collective impact is much higher likeability, credibility and persuasion for the brand.
