The Hindu Business Line : Marketers need to connect with products first

HOW do you connect with the consumer or how do you get to know what the consumer expects from a particular product? Mr R. Balakrishnan, Executive Director, Lowe, says the best way a marketer can connect with the consumer is by first trying to connect with himself. "Does the particular feature in the product tickle you, can you use it yourself, do you fancy it?"

Speaking on consumer insights and consumer connect at the CII Brand Summit on Friday, Mr Balakrishnan quoted instances from some of Lowe's ad campaigns. One was the recent Vim Bar campaign - `Chikanai hatao, jhoothe ka naamo nishan hata do' - "The campaign says that if you are not cleaning your plate properly, you may be eating off a dirty plate. And given the Indian concept of jhootha, it connects beautifully with us Indians and has therefore made the campaign a great success."

Mr Balakrishnan also spoke about the `Balbir Pasha ko AIDS hoga kya?' campaign. "Nobody likes to listen to gory stories or be preached to. People love to listen to stories about others, which is the tactic this campaign used. This again is simple consumer connect."

In an aside, he quipped that advertising in the country had a great future because it was more interesting than the TV programmes on offer.

In his presentation on `Last mile branding - from consumer to shopper', Mr Pankaj Mehra, National Sales Director, L'Oreal India, said that there was something called an extended mile that counted for a lot. While the last mile suggests the finality of the transaction, the extended mile is the zone with the potential for establishing "interminable relationships" with the consumer.

"It is a zone where the consumer experiences the brand and gets educated about the brand. It is all about creating an excitement about the brand to accelerate the purchase process."

He added that it facilitates reduction in post-purchase dissonance.

Mr Mehra said, "As the consumer evolves, the marketer has to walk the extended mile along with the consumer."

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