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.

Its All about Strategy

Rasna has gone international without significant market share in India. I really don't that its a great idea to go for market development when you don't have a stable market in your domestic.

Well, if we look at the competitors that took the market share away from Rasna are packaged juices and carbonated drinks. Kids no more want to buy Rasna, as it is tedious to prepare it and they may even not be satisfied with the taste. There can be other factors too.

Well, if we see through BCG matrix concept, the brand is a dog with low market share and low potential. As such, the only way is to diversify.

Rasna can enter into other categories  like juices, etc and invest on all P's of marketing mix. It need to innovate the product, manage the distribution channel to enable accessibilty of the product, price competitively and promote. It may take up a different brand name altogether as Rasna as a brand doesn't have great equity to leverage it to the diversified product. Conversely, if the company uses Rasna as the brand name for diversified product, it may require less efforts to lead the brand to evoked set of customers as the brand is known to customers and recall is quite high. 

Ponder for a While...

Marketers know how to tap in each and every emotion of consumers. One such powerful emotion is that of parents' inability to say no kids' wishes which marketers refer to as pester power. 

Parents are well aware of harmful effects of burgers loaded with  fats or chocolates loaded with calories, but still they fall helpless before young kids. They finally give them whatever they want. Marketers do understand the force of kids in buying certain products and they have well capitalized on it. All they did is allured these young kids and thereby used pester power to sell their products.

Let me come to the crux of this post. I was thinking of a strategy to reposition Rasna which has almost enervated in terms of its image and also sales. You must be thinking why Rasna. Actually Rasna came to my college a few days back for placements. The profile was that of sales. Sales can be enhanced by sales promotion, otherwise there is no differentiation in the product. Kids do not want it anymore. So I was just thinking what can be done to enhance sales.

Well, here the primary target are kids and secondary target are mothers. The product is meant for kids and as such they are the primary target. Mothers are the buyers of the product but may not be consumers of it, hence they are the secondary target.

Now how do you think pester power would work for Rasna? The major point is there is no Point Of Difference (POD) for the product. As such, product must be differentiated to lure kids and then use pester power.

Can you suggest some ways to differentiate the product to gain Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA)? Your comments are awaited and would be much appreciated.    

Emotions can be Better Expressed by Letters

I came across a brilliant print ad today, the one you can see in this post. Can you guess the name of organization that uses this ad?

This is an advertisment by Australian post that says, "If you really want to touch someone, send a letter". This is one of the most impressive ad campaigns I have ever come across. It is a concept and execution of Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising company. 

The ad is meant for the current technology driven generation which believes in saving time and effort in every possible manner. With the advent of e-mail technology, postal services have suffered a big setback. E-mail provides convenience of time, location, cost, etc. As such, people do prefer to send e-mails than postal letters.

This campaign tries to maneuver with consumers' emotions. It emphasizes the importance of words jotted on paper which express feelings better than technology driven processes like e-mails. Letters would make you feel that the concerned person is very close to you as you could express yourself better with a hand written letter.

The ad has an important character called likeability and visibility. This ad is truly a parable of "Beauty in Simplicity". 

 

A Marketing Mantra

"For a business not to advertise is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but no one else does" by Stuart H. Britt, US advertising consultant.