Who created Father's Day ?

Today is 21st June or Father's Day. I think it is the right time to discuss the content of this post. How do you think Father's Day came into being and who created it?

Well, this day and many such days have been created by none other than brilliant marketers who tapped the emotions of masses to generate revenue for their organization. Marketers very well understand that needs, like decisionmaking process, may be rational or emotional. Consumers may want a product to serve functional or emotional needs. There may not be any product in the market to satisfy many of such needs, and marketers call this a latent need. Consumers had a hidden emotional need to nurture their relations with the expression of warmth and here comes the role of marketers to fulfill this latent need.

The biggest challenge for marketers is to create an offering that would satisfy hidden needs of the consumers. The marketers of greeting cards well realized the emotional need of consumers and successfully created the eternal tradition of days for every relation in the human community. Hats off to these great marketers.

Greeting for Father's Day.

Latent or Real ?

I came across this print ad today. Well, I guess it's a brilliant ad as the ad is attractive enough to attract the eyeballs of consumers, who are consumers of all age groups. These consumers are sons and daughters who may not be very caring towards their parents, but who make sure that they thank their parents at least once a year for their life time service.

Well, marketers say that the success mantra for any organisation is to give consumers what they want, but if you see products like greeting cards, do you think that customers have ever required such a thing? Well, a naive response to this issue may lie in tapping of latent needs which are the hidden needs. Latent needs are the needs which consumers aren't aware of.

Well, I really don't think that greeting cards serve your latent needs. All of us express ourselves some or the other way. Speaking about myself, I express myself in writing. I may write a letter or a small note to extend my feelings. Now, these cards serve the function of facilitating this expression of feelings in a convenient way. If I want to express gratitude to my parents, rather than writing a letter, I would prefer giving a greeting card which is actually convenient for me.

As such, greeting cards do not cater to your latent needs. Rather, greeting cards facilitate your need to expression, which is a real or a felt need.

What is that consumer buys?

Yesterday I was talking to one of my friends who was pretty disappointed by the ruthless behavior of one of her friends. I said to her not to worry about such people in life because the existence of these people in life is transient. Such people would come and go but the only person who would be with you is your own self. I may sound like a narcissist, but this the fact of life. Human beings love themselves the most, more than their most valuable possessions.

Lets apply the principle of self love in consumer marketing. What do you think a customer buys every time he purchase your offerings? If you say that a customer buys your product or service, then you need to get into the depth of the consumer psyche. Superficially it seems that they buy your offerings but actually, they buy the benefits you offer to them.

Consumers generally ask a question to the marketers "Whats in it for me?" If you are able to answer this through your offerings, you are successful in meeting the objective of your business. Here lies the concept of augmented product. Your offering is termed as the core product and the benefits offered by the product make the augmented product. Marketers generally get caught with just the core product, which is referred to as marketing myopia.

Anyways, enough of fundas, the crux of the post lies in the fact that customers don't care what your product is. They care only about the benefits it offer and that is what can be used to as a Point of Difference (POD) to attain Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA).

Relavance of Product Extensions

Wipro has come up with its EGO range of netbooks. All leading PC manufacturers like HP, Acer and Lenovo have launched their netbooks and as such, Wipro doesn't lag behind. They too have launched their netbooks under the brand name, EGO.

Well, how relevant do you think is this line extension. Wipro has already been in to maufacturing and sales of laptops, which are nowhere in the market. Wipo couldn't attract customers to buy the product. I don't know the exact causes of the product failure, but possible reasons could be inadequate market communication. Also, Indians do have a stigma when it comes to India based technology products.

Well, whatever be the reasons for Wipro's failure in laptops category, I personally think that extending the product line is not a great idea. Why so?

It may sound stereotypic to you, but thats what it is. Wipro as a brand is not in the Evoked set or Consideration set of consumers. As such, even POP branding is not gonna convince the customers to turn your consumers. I think Wipro must try to build its brand before launching new product lines, as these new products won't sell. Consumers aren't aware of it and as such, don't want it.

Let's see how the new product fares in the market.

Indian KNOT

Today I came across a web site, very popular in the West. It is called THE KNOT. It is a site that helps you plan your wedding, choose your wedding gowns and accessories from a wide assortment and in a nutshell, you get advice on what we call the institution of marriage. The Knot has its sister concerns named The Nest and The Bump. So, what do you think of this web site and the business concept? Well, I don't think I need to speak on the Knot as a business concept as its success says it all. The knot is a brialliant example of experiential branding which keeps the customers engaged and gives them a life time time experience.

Well, quite fascinated by this web service, I was just wondering whether such a concept would work for Indian consumers. How about Indian version of The Knot, say Bandhan.com? Well, this concept is too stingy for Indians. Here, the couples do not have the luxury of planning their own wedding. In India, the influence of socio coultural environment, particularly family is so high that they make all decisions on wedding related issues. As such, couples have no say in the matter. As such, Indian version of Knot may not work as then, the target audience, that is the couples, do not have much role in deciding on wedding related matters.

There is an alternative to this. The target audience can be the members of socio cultural environment of the couples. As such, family and friends of couples must be targeted. There must also be some alterations in the product offerings like there can be provision of advice on wedding arrangements, suggestion on gifts for the couple, etc. This strategy may work as a lucrative business proposition. Wat say?

Why Brands ?

Today I went out with my friends to shop for my other friends. My favorite shopping destination to buy gifts and greeting cards is Archies gallery. Archies has a very wide assortment of products in each product line, whether it is cards or accessories. Though expensive, yet the brand equity of Archies has leveraged it a supreme position in market.

Archies generally provides you the option of getting the gifts wrapped and it then hands over the stuffs to the customers in an Archies poly bag. Today, I got an ordinary plain poly bag and not the usual Archies bag. I felt that recession has also hit this giant in its category that led to deterioration in quality. When I asked the store manager, the excuse he gave was lack of stock of Archies poly bag.

Now, why do you think is a polybag with its brand name important to consumers? Well, I really don't think brands give you something more than any unbranded stuff in terms of tangible functionality. But there is other side of functionality that is based on perception and is more of psychological in nature. That is, the customers want to show to their peers that they have shopped in a branded outlet, which in turn enhances the self esteem of the shoppers.

This can be attributed to the fact that brands help you become what you want to become. Everyone wants to be rich, affluent and exclusive. To project this exclusivity, they buy the brands that have this exclusivity element in them. It gives consumers a sense of self conceit and a feeling of being different in crowd. As such, even branded poly bags do matter to consumers.

But the question to ponder is does Archies really need to pay heed to this? Archies is the category leader and has a monopoly in the market. So, do you think if it doesn't give customers the requisite brand sensation, customers are gonna stop coming to Archies. My answer is a straight No, at least till the time a competitor builds this kind of brand equity.

KFC to BFC

What is it that comes to your mind when you think of KFC? Well, I guess it is the great taste of chicken created by Colonel Harland Sanders and the red signature color of the brand. In India, KFC has very high brand equity among chicken lovers and another feature the has led to the success of these multinational chain of restaurants is the experience they provide to the customer in terms of taste, varieties, ambiance, etc.

As KFC is one of the highly recognized brands for chicken, people associate and connect to it. KFC's red signature color that is seen on its signage and instore arrangements, people tend to generalize the red color of a food outlet as KFC, which is assurance of great quality chicken.

Well, this results in what is called stimulus generalization, wherein customers tend to generalize the offerings of various organizations on the basis of brand equity built by the strongest player in the category. I came across a food outlet here in Bangalore called BFC with red signage and red interiors. I guess BFC stands for Bangalore Fried Chicken. They have used the red color so that customers generalize the stimulus provided by their offerings as equivalent to KFC.

Stimulus generalization is used by marketers to extend their brands in the same category to leverage the high brand equity of a brand to its various brand extensions. Also, it is used by people to create duplicate products by copying the graphic labels. BFC is one such case of duplication using what marketers refer to as stimulus generalization.

Theory in Practice

Yesterday, I wrote about Parle's sugar free bonbons, Lite. I gave you an overview of the TVC and a critical analysis. Now, let me relate the ad to a basic theory of consumer behavior.

In this ad, the theory of classical conditioning has been applied. As you can see from the diagram above, There is something called an unconditioned stimuli and response. Marketers do not have any control over these domains of conditioning as these are a consequence of vicarious learning over the years.

Now, the unconditional response can be linked to a conditioned stimulus which is your product so as to get the conditioned response which in most cases is purchase.

In this ad of Parle Lite, the unconditioned stimulus is Belle dance and the unconditioned response is association of Belle with flexibility and lightness. This unconditioned response of feeling being light and weightless is linked to the consitioned stimulus which is the product, Parle Lie and the conditioned response would be purchase.

It is really fabulous when you see the linkage of various theories to practicality of vast and diverse world of marketing, this is one such instance.

Is it Light or Heavy ???

Well, what do you think of social networking sites, particularly facebook? I am quite fond of it, not only because its a forum where I meet my friends, but also where I learn.

I have joined the afaqs community on facebook that updates me on new arrivals on the site. Today I came across a lovely ad of Parle's sugar free bonbons, Lite.

The ad is sweet and attractive enough to gauge attention. It shows Sumo wrestlers being taught Belle. In this form of dance, you are supposed to put your entite body weight on toes. These bonbons make those bulky and heavy wrestlers feel light and fly.

The ad is very sweet and is a delightful watch, but I am not convinced with the approach. They used attractiveness in ad which is quite fine, but as the product is a new food category in confectionery foods in India, people are unaware of Bonbons. As such, is it justified to focus more on accompaniments of the ad, rather than product? As the product is new, people have to be educated about the product. The focus should have been on bonbons and its attributes.

Now, this product is absolutely a want or desire based product, not a need based. Also, it is a low involvemnet purchase. As such, the purchase would be absolutely emotional with not even a hint of rationale. As such, product attributes aren't important. But as a matter of fact, this product is new and as such, people need to be educated and hence, focus on product attributes is crucial.

Well, lets see how the product fares in terms of sales. I hope Point of Purchase advertisments are informative enough to convince the customer to buy the product.