A Branding Joke ... played on the Disparate Indian Consumer.

Brands in Disparate India.

The marketer always tries to push the envelope always by adding a dimension to its scope of work. Invariably, doing it either by increasing the scope by volume or by upping its qualitative deliverables.

One of the biggest failures for him has always been in the area of brand building, specifically loyal customers. This happens in the Indian market, not because of the non-accessibility of the product but the range of disparate consumer,which it has to cater to.

The need for the Indian Marketer to be a visionary is not the need for the time, but the need of the evolution and sustainibility.The Indian Marketer has always failed to look beyond the Short term Vision, because of the pressure of deliverables in the Indian Market.His escape lines are something like this,” At the end of the day, I have to report numbers”.

Lets accept this fact.
We are a number driven country, intent only on performance and immediate ones. We don’t leave scope for Experimenters and the ‘also-rans’. We are an impatient lot because of the sheer competition and peer pressure of people waiting for one chance to perform. In India, do not leave scope for mistakes and thus are nipping creativity and growth in its bud, in the fear of conformity and certainty.

Oh !! Come on.If you are shaking that head in disagreement, Let me prove it.

Lets start with the best example you can imagine of.
The best consumer build up, reach, brand retention and brand building ad exercises have been made by the Telecom Industry. You name it and you would be in unison with me.

AIRTEL..Express yourself.. Building Relationships.. the list for these guys is endless..

VODAFONE.. the pug and then the zoo zoo .. they took the world by storm.

IDEA .. what an idea, sirjee!! ranging from a range of common social issues and giving smart ideas to solve them..

Amazing isn’t it . Success . The Telecom Sector wouldn't trade it for anything else to Redefine it better. Best distribution networks... Keeping all variable of marketing challenges in peak.

Ok , hold it right here. Now lets go back to basics.

BRAND
Brand is seen as a implied promise,the level of quality which people(consumers) have come to expect from a brand which will continue with repeated future purchases of the same product. Xerox.. Nirma in the 90's.. Parle G Glucose Biscuits.. Lifebuoy.. Given the options and competition, the consumer always goes for the product. This is the criteria for a LOYAL CUSTOMER BASE . It sums up the crux of our whole branding exercises in the Management corridors.

Is the Telecom Industry conforming with this pattern of product positioning with its portfolio.

I would say ,"This is not the case with telecom."

Though they have been excellent in selling and catering to customer base as wide as selling Blackberries to Rs. 5 Recharge Vouchers, but the they have failed miserably in creating a repeated purchaser.

The amount of churning happening in the telecom industry, doesn’t subscribe to the basics being right here. This flaw is making the telecom companies not allow the clause of number portability enter in India. Brand Confidence for this industry is so less and that these companies are still following a poach and acquisition customer strategy.

Indians with their inherent nature will never pay for what they haven’t still used , but still a statistics which goes to do so much contrary to the basic mindset of the folk. Just imagine, we still are in the phrase of such an evolution and growth, but we still see subscriptions in Postpaid area to be mere 20% and the Prepaid sector still a staggering 80%.
WHAT KIND OF BRAND ACCEPTANCE IS THIS ?

A sector which has been adding 20 million customers on a monthly basis, give or take plus or minus 1%, Imagine them adding this base with suppose 2% churning and yet we can only boast of a tele-density of 58% and the base of 650 million subscribers. Improbability can’t be more believed.

Now would you still say Telecom is the best branded sector.. .. The story has more dimensions to be revealed … for more insights look for my Telecom Sectoral Report.

One credit which I don’t want to take away from the Telecom Sector is the way it has branded itself.. Lets save the next story for the next update.