Growing up in the late 80s and early 90s in India meant that pizzas were mouth-watering frisbee-like things that you either saw in Jughead’s hands or were the occasional treat that your hip aunt who was into exotic and international cuisine, made.
When Domino’s and Pizza Hut entered India in the late 90s,the urban youth starved of Western products took to pizzas like fish to water even though price was quite a deterrent.At the time,pizzas were exotic and instantly became the high priest of Western fast food culture.Over the years,pizza marketers in an effort to increase penetration by reducing its exoticness Indianized the Italian icon.So you had Tandoori chicken Pizza and Kadhai Paneer Pizza staking their claim on the menu.Sure enough,the consumption base widened and pizza joints became the Indian family’s favorite hangout, more so with younger families.Today it is very much a part of the dietary mainstream, at least in urban,middle-class India.It is special but no more exotic.It is no more a symbol of your hip aunt’s culinary skills and evolved palate.
However even culinary habits are a zero-sum game.Something has to take the ‘exotic’ place that has been vacated by pizza.And today pasta is poised to occupy that space.Various events in society point towards the fact,looking at both changing consumer tastes as well as marketer’s initiatives.After Chinese and Indian,Italian cuisine seems to be everybody’s favorite and people are realizing that there is more to it than just pizza.Indians are beginning to know their penne from their fusilli and take smug pride in it too! Ritu Dalmia’s cookery book/show on NDTV Good Times brilliantly called Italian Khana of all things, will also do its bit to cement Italian cuisine’s place in Indian stomachs.
Marketers have also sensed this new-found fascination with pasta and have responded presciently.Pizza joints like Domino’s and Pizza Hut have included pasta in their menus for the first time. Brands like Sunfeast have had pasta in their stable for a while now which they have promoted on mass media fairly aggressively using Shah Rukh Khan.Even Maggi,an iconic and deeply penetrated brand in India has recently launched Maggi Nutri-licious Pazzta.
At the rate of change that India is experiencing though,I wonder what’s going to be the next pasta.However,till then i’m gonna ask my hip aunt to make me some Spaghetti Aglio Olio.
Shashi Tharoor’s talk at TED India on why a nation’s true influence is to be judged by it’s ’soft power’ reminded me of an extremely interesting theory I heard about from a colleague,Dave McCaughan.
The theory is that a nation’s soft power is key to it’s export effectiveness when it comes to consumer goods.Consumers overseas lap up a nation’s products when it’s soft power(culture) has reached foreign shores and occupies much mind space.
Dave is an Aussie and he often tells us of his life as a youngster in the 70s in Australia when his dad drove a Chevy or a Ford and like all Aussies thought highly of all things American.The 1970’s was also the time when the biggest cultural imports in the lives of Aussie kids like Dave were karate and a cult Japanese TV show called Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot.And sure enough when Dave grows up he buys a Honda or a Toyota because to him Japan and all things Japanese seem credible especially when it comes to technology.In the late 90’s and early 2000’s,South Korean soft power began to make it’s presence felt abroad and movies like Old Boy,singers like Rain had gained popularity in the West.Before you knew it Korean chaebols like LG,Samsung & Hyundai gained impressive acceptance first in the U.S and then across the rest of the world.
I could not help but go back to my own childhood and teenage years to recollect cultural influences that made me think the world of all products Western…Enid Blyton and her various characters, Archies & Superman comics, Hollywood, sitcoms like Friends, international sporting events like Wimbledon and French Open and later on European soccer leagues.
While Tharoor in his talk at TED India didn’t make any reference to the commercial success that soft power could precipitate, his examples of Indian properties that could strengthen it’s soft power-Bollywood,Ayurveda,Yoga, Indian cuisine not only underline his intuitive understanding of what could gain acceptance abroad but are also a pointer to the Goverment of India as to what they should protect and promote.What is also heartening is that these very elements are beginning to occupy cultural mindspace in the Western world.A.R Rehman and Jai Ho garnered huge public attention around the Oscars last year, Bikram Yoga – a yoga style developed by Bikram Choudhary is well known for his Hollywood clientèle as is Deepak Chopra.Ayurveda also has many takers abroad with it being an added attraction for tourists to Kerala.Basmati rice and chicken tikka masala in the UK are also doing their bit to enhance image of India abroad and hopefully in a few years to come – that of Indian products.
While these phenomena often evolve on their own,the need of the hour is for the Govt. of India to promote these potential icons of Indian culture abroad, and to accelerate the change in India’s image from a land of fakirs and cows to one which produces high-quality entertainment,soothing spirituality and delicious dishes.Ironically the man who has pointed out the pervasive aspect of soft power in his TED Talk also happens to be the Minister of State for External Affairs. Coincidence?
Below is a summary of a study I did to find a refreshing role for brands in the lives of young Indian female consumers by understanding their unstated motivations in today’s context.
In an innovative pilot initiative in Bangalore that has got the marketing community buzzing,Levi’s India is offering its jeans with a three-month EMI option and zero interest rate. The offer is available on all jeans, and other Levi’s branded products, subject to a minimum purchase of Rs 1,500. The scheme is in a tie-up with ICICI credit cards. So if you have this card, you could purchase Levi’s jeans worth, say Rs 1,500 and ICICI will collect Rs 500 in each of your next three monthly credit card bills. The bank will be paid a service charge by Levi’s for each transaction. Fantastic isn’t it?But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
I think the biggest winner in this will be ICICI.Getting to sign up new customers,many of whom will undoubtedly be very young and thereafter reap the benefits of their customer lifetime value.
Below are institutions which are flourishing in India even today thanks to the patronage of millions of customers who flock to these banks for reasons not too subtle.
Vodafone in India has a very distinct visual and sonic identity.Clean and uncluttered,use of soft and fresh colors and hues,shot to look like it’s been shot in neo-quaint international locales. Minimal often no use of dialogue. Simple tunes with few instruments.They all combine to speak one language. So well that you know a Vodafone commercial when you see one,yes even without the pug.
Airtel on the other hand is the antithesis to Vodafone in many ways.Starting with its business strategy of getting as many subscribers whereas Vodafone’s strategy has been based on getting more money out of it’s subscribers i.e. a VAS based strategy. Airtel as a result is the far more inclusive brand which needs to be liked by the masses. It has stayed away from the premium,international look & feel that is so Vodafone and has concentrated on being likeably Indian and very real, like in thisbeautiful ad about the little boy and his toy phone.
However,the latest Airtel campaign which communicates its new scheme called‘Special 5 ‘ lies in danger of being recalled as a Vodafone ad.Here is one of the TVC’s in the campaign :
In tonality,it looks like a Vodafone film.Minimalistic,soft and fresh colors,looks like it has been shot in a neo-quaint international school with a school teacher who could pass off as a foreigner and a simple one-instrument track which is a Vodafone signature.
I can bet my money on this campaign being misattributed to Vodafone purely because of the tonality.A thing that most big brands should keep in mind – own a tonality that is opposite to their equally big competitor.A Lifebouy should never be as scientific and direct as Dettol and likewise Dettol with it’s usually serious tonality should never be about the irrepressible vitality of kids bouncing around having fun.
The movie ”The Two Jakes” is a 1990 sequel to the 1974 classic “Chinatown” starring Jack Nicholson as the private investigator embroiled in the intricate web of deceit spun by the cream of LA society. It has a soliloquy by Nicholson on how he stumbled upon clues and it struck me that somewhere in all of that monologue it was pretty much true for insights as well.Here it is…
"Memories are like that -
as unpredictable as nitro,
and you never know
what's gonna set one off.
The clues that keep you on track
are never where you look for them.
They fall out of the pocket
of somebody else's suit
you pick up at the cleaners.
In the tune you can't stop humming,
that you never heard in your life.
They're at the wrong number you dial
in the middle of the night.
The signs are in
those old familiar places
you only think
you've never been before.
But you get used to seeing them
out of the corner of your eye,
and you end up tripping over the ones
that are right in front of you."
This one really came about thanks to my wife’s astute observation and analysis while we are shopping for furniture.Since we are in between shifting cities,we have been looking for furniture in both Bangalore and Delhi.She noticed an interesting difference in both the furniture markets albeit not very surprising in hindsight.
In the Delhi furniture shops we struggled to find a bookshelf whereas in Bangalore it is very rare that you come across bar cabinets! Obviously the Bobbys and the Rockys of Dalli are more interested in showing off their booze than their books and the Murthys of Bangalore,vice-versa.
The latest campaign from Cadbury’s in continuing it’s efforts at reducing the ’special occasion-ness’ of chocolate in India and encouraging its consumption without any specific reason amongst the masses.
Amongst the bulk of Indian society who admittedly aren’t struggling to make ends meet but aren’t wallowing in cash either,the use of pay-day as an innocuous trigger is an incisive observation of real life.The lower-middle class Indian father or husband is fairly reticent with his wallet except perhaps on pay-day when he feels suitably rich and sheds his reticence by making small purchases for the house,the wife or the kids.
What’s also laudable is the mass look and feel of the film without appearing to be condescending.An easy trap that most “lets-target-the-masses” campaigns walk into is the aspirational value of the film.They begin to look like it is “made for them only” which is not just insensitive but fairly stupid from a marketing point of view.Cadbury and their agency have circumvented that trap quite beautifully – great art and music direction.
This really seems to be a well-thought through campaign as in evident in their media plans as well.On the 1st of July,I noticed that MTV(am guessing on other channels too) was swarmed with the campaign.
Simple strategy,sharp insight,entertaining creative,catchy song,creative media plan.This one’s a winner for sure.
The above question was instigated by my friend Abhishek’s observation on an interesting blog post at Techcrunch on how Apple & RIM have garnered a disproportionate share of the mobile phone industry’s operating profits despite a small share of handset units and revenues.Abhishek credits it to product innovation and rightly so.I however want to take his observation a step further and dwell on the relationship between innovation,advertising and operating profit.
When Apple innovates and introduces the i-Phone,there is massive curiosity because it’s a product that has never been seen before.People started talking about it in wonderment,throw in a couple of blog mentions,e-mail forwards and before you know it word-of-mouth kicks in across the globe.All it takes to put the final nail in the ‘demand coffin’ is a much awaited,much hyped launch press conference by Mr Jobs to have consumers queuing up overnight for the i-Phone.On the other hand,to the best of my knowledge,in the last 2-3 years,the Nokia’s of the world haven’t had a blockbuster product.Good phones but no real innovation.So how do they create demand? MBA textbooks teach you that advertising creates or stimulates demand.So Mr.MBA-grad-turned-marketing-head-of-Nokia spends millions of dollars on advertising and in all fairness to him,sells millions of phones.But at a cost – millions of dollars spent in advertising.
So Mr Jobs truly innovates,spends less on advertising and laughs all the way to the bank while Mr Kallasvuo,the Nokia CEO attempts to innovate,spends a lot on advertising,hears the cash register ring but doesn’t laugh as loud as Mr Jobs on his way to the bank. So the more amazing and relevant the innovation,the less your advertising costs and the more disproportionately large your operating profit.
This phenomenon really makes the point that today innovation & design is the real differentiator between companies.And that Steve Jobs is a bloody good marketeer!
