well i know maybe a very ghisa pita topic but had to write this one.. this came in my mind when i saw the fiama di wills shampoo bottles in one of the shops next to my house today.. triggered off the thought that there is no end to competition in the market today... was thinking that a nike did what it did years ago because it started a revolution and discovery in its own right but in todays day and age when there is no end to brands how does a marketeer differentiate and build a brand... i have seen many dying and many coming alive.. seems like every brand has a full circle and then down and out..
Therefore the need for constant innovation, constant tapping of people's desires and want and trying to fullfill them in their own way in each category..
constantly innovate in terms of products..innovate in terms of design (something as simple as re packaging every few years).. from the experience that i have .. i do not hang on to one brand for long for sure.. there isnt a brand i have been loyal to over the years.. infact i like experimenting..that is more interesting and exciting than going on using the same product, be it any category i guess marketeers would have to deal with the fact that consumers today have become more experimentative and therefore the array of products that one provides has to be huge that a consumer takes time to experiment with them and by the time he or she does you should be back with a completely new product again.. thats probably the only way to keep the consumer in loop..
While working closely with HUL did realise them as a company are struggling desperately to keep up the with the pace of the PnG's of the world and specially the new players like ITC (an indian company which i feel is very maverick and is doing everything possibly right) in the market.. One upon a time HUL used to be the king of the market but in today's age with the way they are going they might soon lose out.. because they are stuck more with their global politics rather than concentrating on making their once upon a time dynamic company even more out there.. Global leaders dump their decisions on indian marketing managers and try and sell the concept of the world in india without realising that the indian market is infact a lot different from any european or american markets..
One such incident i remember is that of Sunsilk.. i remember my colleague in office making an AV one day on oil and how culturally ingrained the concept of hair oils are in india and for centuries. When i asked her why, then she said that the marketing manager on sunsilk was going to use this against her global boss.. why? because the firang boss thinks that the next big strategy in terms of hair in india that sunsilk should take was HAIR OIL TO BE REPLACED BY HAIR SERUMS..we all had a hearty laugh in the agency i remember and the AV was definitely too good and slap on that guys face.. such are the inane strategies being applied in the already mad market.. where is the time to experiment? even sunsilk turned out to be a failure in the indian market and not having an option the global team is doing a complete make over of sunsilk as a brand globally more so required for the indian market..
So well i guess more observation and general intuition and hardcore monies need to be invested by marketeers for a long lasting brand existence because gone are those days when a NIKE can be built.. only intelligent thinking and genuine understanding of the market need is going to make one acheive in due time..and this one stands for every category in the market.. Who knew we would see a Nano today? are we going back to the days for 10rs a book and 10000rs a car.. who knows we soon may reach there.. he he
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