The Hindu Business Line : Consumer insights play key role in our brand building strategies: O&M

IF a discussion on emotional appeal turns out to be a topic of great erudition, then the congregation is sure to be a brand summit. The O&M brand forum, however, played it light by confabulating about the great Indian mindset as against great Indian brands.

"Indians have a way with brands. In the case of consumer durables, we first check the price and resale value before we purchase one. So is the case with reusing shopping bags as garbage bags," said Mr Piyush Pandey, National Creative Director and Group Chairman, Ogilvy & Mather Advertising.

Most of the agency's creative works have hovered around these insights. Like the ongoing Sumo Victa advertisement, which dwells on pride of ownership or the recent Kotak ad, which is straight pull out from the Hindi idiom `agar paisey ped pe ugthey' (if money grew on trees).

"Though we imbibe what we see across the world, but we are very rooted people. In the case of the Sumo Victa ad, the insight borrowed was that of pride of ownership," Mr Pandey told Business Line.

Even in the case of the Kotak ad, the big idea was inspired from the Hindi idiom used in most households. Such insights and linguistic feel help enrich the brand in the Indian context, Mr Pandey pointed out.

The agency claims to have an in-house facility in place that registers these consumer insights. "We regularly send our people to enlist these consumer insights, and these ideas play a crucial role in our brand building strategies," he added.

Besides discussing the brands, the forum also pointed out that corporates need to synchronise their product innovations with the brand building initiatives to leverage the power of branding.

"World is profoundly changing giant leaps in technology. Putting product innovation in context of the brand makes the whole thing powerful," said Ms Shelly Lazarus, Chairman & CEO - Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide.

Continuous product innovation and creating a unique property such as e-business, IBM engaged itself with great brand building initiatives. This lead to emergence IBM Linux TV commercials with the blonde haired boy from IBM's Web site, Ms Lazarus pointed out, while adding that these initiatives resulted IBM's brand rankings soaring from 283 to number 3 on the Interbrand list.

The `We-are-like-this-only' attitude is quite a challenge for brand custodians, and identifying key consumer insights will be the most crucial aspect of branding. A case in point was the deductions of the O&M brand forum.

The other speakers in this forum included Dr Xavier Dreze, Professor of Indian School of Business, and Mr Peter Mukerjea, CEO, Star India.

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